By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News — The huge, ferocious North American Tyrannosaurus rex was a rigid and stiff beast with razor-sharp sensory skills, according to new research presented Friday at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in St. Louis. CT scans allowed Lawrence Witmer, from Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine, to explore the inside of a four-foot-long T. rex skull and look for regions that were unusually developed. Several 3-D visualizations of the brain cavity, nerve and vascular trunks, and the labyrinth of the inner ear, revealed that the beast had surprisingly well-developed smell, hearing and balance, normally features typical of smaller and more agile animals. Large olfactory lobes in the brain indicated that T. rex had a keen sense of smell, while the inner ear structures linked to hearing showed that the creature was good at discriminating different kinds of sound. The organ used for balance indicated that the ferocious killer had excellent equilibrium. "The inner-ear structure is consistent with a dynamic lifestyle involving rapid tracking movements of the eyes and head," Witmer concluded. © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 8556 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jim Giles Do the faint traces of anaesthetics that waft around operating rooms somehow prime physicians to become drug addicts? It's not as unlikely a proposal as it sounds. US researchers who have promoted the theory have released their latest findings, and the results strengthen fears that exposure to aerosolized drugs puts anaesthetists and surgeons at risk. The new data comes from a trawl of records on health problems among medics working in Florida. Trainee surgeon Priscilla McAuliffe and colleagues at the University of Florida in Gainesville found that although anaesthetists make up less than 5% of the state's licensed physicians, they accounted for 12% of the 150 physicians who began treatment for substance abuse in 20021. Surgeons also made up a good chunk of the physicians being treated for addiction. And these surgeons disproportionately took the opiates used in anaesthetics as their drug of choice, the team has found. Whereas around 25% of all physicians treated for addiction were abusing opiates, among surgeons this figure was 40%. The data is particularly striking for a very common anaesthetic called fentanyl. Reporting their results in June last year at a meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Orlanda, Florida, McAuliffe's colleagues have found that 94% of physicians reporting addiction to fentanyl were anaesthetists or surgeons. ©2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8555 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi, St Louis Growing up in an orphanage can substantially stunt early cognitive and physical development – but being placed in foster care may reverse this to some degree, a study of abandoned Romanian children suggests. However, the researchers observing the youngsters found that boys do not show the same initial improvements as girls when placed in foster care: "The girls placed in foster care do much better in terms of their IQ scores compared with boys," says Nathan Fox of the University of Maryland, US, one of the team. The study involved comprehensive assessments of 136 children placed in institutional care as part of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Sixty-nine of the originally institutionalised children were selected at random and placed in foster care, while the remaining 67 youngsters stayed in the orphanage. There are not enough resources in Bucharest to place all of the children in foster care, the researchers say. At about 4.5 years of age, girls in foster care scored an average of 82 on the IQ test given to them, while those who remained in institutional care scored an average of 70. But the mean score of boys in both groups was in the 60s. Even with foster care intervention, most of the children still scored in the low IQ range. Average IQ scores are around 100. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8554 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GARDINER HARRIS WASHINGTON, — A top federal medical official overruled the unanimous opinion of his scientific staff when he decided last year to approve a pacemaker-like device to treat persistent depression, a Senate committee reported Thursday. The device, the surgically implanted vagus nerve stimulator, had not proved effective against depression in its only clinical trial for treatment of that illness. As a result, scientists at the Food and Drug Administration repeatedly and unanimously recommended rejecting the application of its maker, Cyberonics Inc., to sell it as such a treatment, said the report, written by the staff of the Senate Finance Committee. But Dr. Daniel G. Schultz, director of the Center for Devices and Radiological Health at the agency, kept moving the application along and eventually decided to approve it, the report said. That approval did follow the backing of a divided F.D.A. advisory committee. Still, the Senate committee, which for two years has been investigating the decision-making processes at the F.D.A., could find no previous instance in which the director of the center had approved a device in the face of unanimous opposition from staff scientists and administrators beneath him, the report said. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 8553 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that a key receptor protein is a critical component of the internal molecular clock in mammals. What's more, this molecule –called Rev-erb– is sensitive to lithium and may help shed light on circadian rhythm disorders, including bipolar disorder. The findings, which also provide insight into clock-controlled aspects of metabolism, are reported in this week's issue of Science. "We're interested in the internal control of metabolism because feeding behavior is on a daily cycle, and hormonal activities that regulate this are circadian," says senior author Mitch Lazar, MD, PhD, Director of the Institute for Diabetes, Obesity, and Metabolism at Penn. "Many studies, including those here at Penn, suggest a relationship between the human circadian clock and metabolism. Proteins are the gears of the clock, and not much is known about what regulates protein levels within the cell." Rev-erb was known to be a key component of the clock that exists in most cells of the body. Rev-erb inhibits clock genes called bmal and clock, but within a normal 24-hour circadian cycle the Rev-erb protein is destroyed within the cell, allowing bmal and other clock proteins to increase. Among other actions, these clock genes cause Rev-erb to increase, which again inhibits bmal and clock. "The time it takes for that to happen determines the length of the cycle–roughly 24 hours–and keeps the clock going," explains Lazar.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 8552 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By John Bohannon One thing that seems to set humans apart from all other animals is our ability to reason. When the barometer falls, for example, we expect bad weather, but we don't think the barometer causes the weather. Scientists have assumed that such an understanding is beyond other animals. But a study of the reasoning abilities of rats now shows that we may not be so unique after all. Even young children have a deep understanding of cause and effect--they are not surprised when a toy train derails at a break in the tracks--but the rest of the animal world seems to be limited to learning by association. In a classic experiment by the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, dogs learned to associate dinner with the sound of a bell. The dogs would salivate whenever a bell rang even if no dinner was around, indicating a simple association between events that happen closely in time. The new experiment started out much the same way. First, the researchers trained rats to associate a tone with the appearance of sugar snack inside a small niche in the wall. Then, instead of just observing events, the rats were given an opportunity to cause them. A lever was introduced which, when pressed, sounded the tone. The question was: Would the rats expect food to follow the tone even though they had caused it? If they had learned by association, the rats should expect a treat. © 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8551 - Posted: 06.24.2010

When sexual species reproduce asexually, they accumulate bad mutations at an increased rate, report two Indiana University Bloomington evolutionary biologists in this week's Science. The researchers used the model species Daphnia pulex, or water flea, for their studies. The finding supports a hypothesis that sex is an evolutionary housekeeper that adeptly reorders genes and efficiently removes deleterious gene mutations. The study also suggests sexual reproduction maintains its own existence by punishing, in a sense, individuals of a species that meander into asexuality. "It is known that sex is common in plants and animals, and that asexual species are typically short-lived, but why this should hold throughout evolutionary time is a great mystery," said Susanne Paland, who led the study. "Our results show that asexual deviants are burdened by an ever-increasing number of genetic changes that negatively affect the function of their proteins. It appears sex is important because it rids genomes of harmful mutations." Coauthor Michael Lynch added, "Although there has been solid theory on the matter for quite some time, these results provide the first definitive proof at the molecular level that sexual reproduction magnifies the efficiency of natural selection in eliminating deleterious mutations from populations."

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8550 - Posted: 02.17.2006

Gaia Vince Complex decisions are best left to your unconscious mind to work out, according to a new study, and over-thinking a problem could lead to expensive mistakes. The research suggests the conscious mind should be trusted only with simple decisions, such as selecting a brand of oven glove. Sleeping on a big decision, such as buying a car or house, is more likely to produce a result people remain happy with than consciously weighing up the pros and cons of the problem, the researchers say. Thinking hard about a complex decision that rests on multiple factors appears to bamboozle the conscious mind so that people only consider a subset of information, which they weight inappropriately, resulting in an unsatisfactory choice. In contrast, the unconscious mind appears able to ponder over all the information and produce a decision that most people remain satisfied with Ap Dijksterhuis at the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and colleagues recruited 80 people for a series of lab-based and “real-world” tests. The participants were provided with information and asked to make decisions about simple and complex purchases, ranging from shampoos to furniture to cars. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sleep; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8549 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ANDREW POLLACK The Food and Drug Administration said yesterday that it would allow some patients in a clinical trial to resume treatment with Tysabri, a multiple sclerosis drug that was abruptly withdrawn from the market a year ago because of safety risks. The decision appears to strengthen the probability that Tysabri, developed by Biogen Idec and Elan, will be allowed to return to the market. The F.D.A. is scheduled to decide on that question by the end of March. "You can certainly deduce that we've concluded that there are at least some people for whom the risk is worth it," Dr. Robert Temple, director of medical policy for the drug division of F.D.A., said in an interview. Still, he said, the decision yesterday was to allow the drug to be used only under the controlled conditions of a clinical trial and only by patients who had previously benefited from it in a clinical trial. "That's not at all the same as making it available for marketing," he said. Shares of Biogen gained $1.34 on the news, closing at $45.72, an increase of 3 percent. Shares of Elan rose 44 cents, or 3.1 percent, to close at $14.54. Tysabri, considered a big advance in treatment, was approved in November 2004 and withdrawn from the market by its manufacturers three months later after two patients developed a rare brain disease and one of them died. A third case of the disease, also fatal, was later discovered to have occurred in a patient who had taken the drug in a clinical trial for Crohn's disease. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 8548 - Posted: 02.16.2006

By SETH MYDANS PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Mao Irang is an evangelist for the new magic in Cambodia, a treatment that can cure everything from headaches to blackouts to nightmares to bursts of violence. A Khmer Rouge fighter guarding Cambodians forced into farm labor. In 1975-79, during the Khmer Rouge's reign, 1.7 million died through execution, starvation or overwork, and the psychological trauma persists today. "I ask my friends, 'What is your problem?' " she said. " 'Does your food get stuck in your throat? Do you have pain here, and here, and here? Do you have problems with your sleep?' I say, 'O.K., try this doctor.' " Her doctor is Ka Sunbunaut, one of only 26 psychiatrists in this nation of 12 million traumatized people, the survivors and the children of survivors of one of the past century's most horrifying episodes of mass killing. After therapy with him, said Ms. Mao Irang, 35, a social worker tormented by her memories, "I felt like I was another person; I was not a prisoner anymore." She was liberated through a combination of talk therapy and psychiatric drugs — treatments that are largely alien to Cambodians, who often turn to faith healers and herbalists. But the word is spreading now among a relatively small circle of educated people: your ailments have a cause, and there are treatments that can help you. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 8547 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Patricia Yollin, Chronicle Staff Writer It was time for the annual Valentine's Day sex tour at the San Francisco Zoo, but none of the permanent residents got the memo. As human voyeurs learned about the torrid world of amorous beasts, most of the animals barely glanced at each other. "The wind seems to unnerve them," said Jane Tollini, inventor of the tour that has been copied by zoos throughout North America. "And they had a busy weekend." They did indeed. Tollini, former penguin keeper at the zoo, led excursions Saturday and Sunday and will do the same this weekend. She came up with the idea 17 years ago. "I like to watch," Tollini said. Even though there wasn't much to see on Tuesday, there was plenty to hear about. "This is the most tacky, tasteless, smutty, down-in-the-gutter tour ever created," Tollini told the 80 or so adults who piled onto two trams and devoted three hours to tales of fornicating felines and hermaphrodite ostriches. "Animals do everything we do, but they do it a little differently," said Tollini, draped in a pink boa with pink hearts. "The only thing I couldn't find was cross-dressing."

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8546 - Posted: 02.16.2006

RESTON, Va.—Using both brain function (PET) and anatomical structure (MR) imaging studies, Italian researchers—within the context of an Italian-British collaboration—discovered that degenerative and dysfunctional events occur in individuals many years before the onset of Huntington’s disease—particularly in the brain’s white matter—an area not previously considered primarily involved with the disease. In fact, the brain’s white matter “progressively reduced” as individuals approached the first disease symptoms, according to a study published in February’s Journal of Nuclear Medicine. “Our observations—made by analyzing the results of the largest group of subjects studied to date—may suggest new methodologies and drug trials for therapy,” said Ferdinando Squitieri, M.D., Ph.D., who works in the Neurogenetics Unit and Centre for Rare Diseases of IRCCS Neuromed in Pozzilli, Isernia, Italy. “It is possible to approach the disease at the presymptomatic stage by monitoring the brain tissue volumes and the basal ganglia and cortex dysfunction. If so, we may be able to prevent Huntington’s disease before onset symptoms by using proper drugs,” added the co-author of “Brain White-Matter Volume Loss and Glucose Hypometabolism Precede the Clinical Symptoms of Huntington’s Disease.” Copyright © 2006 SNM

Keyword: Huntingtons; Glia
Link ID: 8545 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A molecule in the brain essential for wakefulness and appetite has been found to play a central role in strengthening the neuron connections that lead to addiction. The discovery of how the neuropeptide orexin works at the molecular level makes it a strong new target for potential drugs to treat addiction, the researchers say. The discovery by neuroscientists at UCSF's Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center is being reported February 16 in the journal Neuron. The research focused on orexin's role in strengthening communication between neurons that release dopamine, a brain chemical central to learning and memory. The strengthened communication is known to play a key role in the experience of a drug high and subsequent drug craving. Orexin is produced in the brain's lateral hypothalmus (LH) region. The scientists demonstrated in studies of rats that orexin acutely enhances the ability of receptors at dopamine neuron synapses – known as NMDA receptors – to promote the release of dopamine. They showed that orexin creates a long-lasting potential for strengthened transmission between neurons of the LH region and dopamine-releasing neurons in a brain region known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA). This fundamental change in the neurons, called synaptic plasticity, is known to be critical for new learning and memory formation essential to addiction.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sleep
Link ID: 8544 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The medication tetrabenazine cut down involuntary movement in patients with Huntington’s disease on average by about 25 percent, with many patients experiencing a greater improvement, according to a study in the February 14 issue of the journal Neurology. Overall, patients who received the medication were six times as likely to be considered by their doctors to have improved considerably, compared to participants who received a placebo. Dr. Kathleen M. Shannon, neurologist and Huntington’s disease specialist at the Huntington’s Disease Society of America Center of Excellence at Rush University Medical Center, led the Rush study. Rush was one of 16 sites to participate in the randomized, controlled study which involved 84 patients. Tetrabenazin is available in Europe and Canada – but not the United States, but is currently being reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. If approved, the medication would be the first authorized by the agency expressly for the treatment of Huntington’s disease, which affects about 30,000 people in the United States. “Huntington’s disease is an inherited brain disorder that causes patients to experience uncontrollable jerky movements (chorea), as well as changes in personality, behavior, thinking and memory. There are no FDA-approved treatments for the chorea. Anti-psychotic drugs like haloperidol (Haldol) are commonly used to suppress chorea, but they cause many different side effects. This study shows that tetrabenazine can decrease chorea, and the drug is well-tolerated by most research subjects,” said Shannon. ©2004 Rush University Medical Center,

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 8543 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Appreciation for sweet tastes is hard wired into the brains of most insects and animals, including humans, according to a recent study. Since the study also determined that our brains have a built-in aversion to bitter substances, chocolate would appear to be a neutral food, but its sweetness usually wins people over, even when the chocolate is dark and slightly bitter. "There is a fine balance between bitter and sweet," said Kristin Scott, who led the study, which was published in a recent issue of Neuron. "Even fruitflies will eat bitter substances if the ratio of sugar is high. Coffee drinking is definitely an acquired taste." For the study, Scott and her colleagues monitored the taste responses of the fruit fly Drosophila. Walter Fischler, who assisted in the research, explained to Discovery News that "sometimes nature finds the same solution for the same problem in many different species. Humans have cells that are specialized for certain tastes on the tongue, and these cells could be somewhat mirrored in the brain, similar to how they are in flies." The researchers found that sweet substances activated certain brain neurons called Gr5a. Bitter substances activated different neurons, called Gr66a. Repeatedly, the flies preferred substances that activated the Gr5a neurons, but they avoided consumables that activated Gr66a neurons. © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Obesity
Link ID: 8542 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Helen Pearson Loud noise appears to fuel the effects of the club-drug ecstasy in the brain. The results add to the debate about the risks of long-term brain damage from the drug. Ecstasy is the common name for 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). The drug, popular at raves and nightclubs, triggers a flood of the feel-good chemical serotonin in the brain, causing feelings of euphoria, energy and well-being. Michelangelo Iannone at the Institute of Neurological Science in Catanzaro, Italy, and his colleagues tested whether loud noise intensified ecstasy's effects in rat brains. After injecting the animals with either a low or high dose of MDMA, they played them a buzz of white noise at the maximum volume allowed in Italian nightclubs. They measured the rats' brain activity using electrodes inserted into the animals' skulls. The deafening noise can transform a seemingly innocuous dose of the drug into a potent one, they found. The low dose of MDMA had little effect on the animals' brains - but when paired with the noise, it boosted the activity of certain brain cells. "This may make the difference between the drug being toxic and not," says Jenny Morton at the University of Cambridge, UK, who has studied the effects of music on drugs. ©2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Hearing
Link ID: 8541 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Alison Motluk A new weight loss drug that works by blocking a cannabinoid receptor in the brain has had “modest” success at helping people both lose weight and keep it off, researchers say. It also seemed to improve other risk factors for cardiovascular disease beyond what would be expected from weight loss alone. But critics say the study’s methodology may have been flawed, given that almost half of its participants dropped out. Although 3045 people entered the study, the main results were based only on the 1602 who followed through to the end of the first year. “That may erroneously create a larger effect,” says Denise Simons-Morton, at the US National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, who co-wrote an accompanying editorial about the paper. She and her co-authors suggest the researchers should have made a greater effort to measure final outcomes in all their participants, even those who left early. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, of St Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital in New York, and his colleagues randomised their obese participants to take daily doses of either 5 milligrams or 20 mg of the drug, called rimonabant, or a placebo. The volunteers were also encouraged to stay on a weight-loss diet and given instruction on how to exercise more. Over the course of a year, various measures were taken, including weight, waist circumference, triglycerides (blood lipids), good cholesterol and blood pressure. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Obesity; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8540 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have devised a probe which can warn if a baby is being deprived of oxygen during birth. It checks for high levels of a chemical called hypoxanthine. The University of Warwick researchers hope it could reduce Caesareans, as doctors currently opt for the operation if there is any doubt at all. Experts said such a test could have huge benefits - but warned much more work was needed before the Warwick probe could be used in hospitals. Current tests for foetal hypoxia - oxygen deprivation - are unreliable and many experts feel they are not specific enough. Not only does this mean that any baby thought to be at any risk is delivered by Caesarean - potentially unecessarily - but they are also given head cooling treatment, which has been shown to minimise the risk of damage from oxygen deprivation. Experts are looking for better ways of targeting the treatment. Professor Nick Dale, the neuroscientist who has led the Warwick research, looked at levels of a chemical in the blood called hypoxanthine. It has been known for some time that high levels indicate a high risk of a child being starved of oxygen - with a measure of more than five micromoles of the chemical per litre of blood indicating a severe risk. But the challenge is to develop a quick and easy test which can be used on the ward. (C)BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8539 - Posted: 02.16.2006

Researchers at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) have found that intravenous morphine used alone or with a topical anaesthetic (tetracaine) effectively reduced levels of pain in newborn infants undergoing insertion of central venous catheters (central lines). This research is reported in the February 15, 2006 issue of the journal JAMA. About 10 to 15 per cent of newborns require prolonged hospitalization for conditions such as preterm birth, congenital defects and sepsis (a blood stream infection). As part of their medical care, these infants are often exposed to multiple invasive procedures that may be painful. "It was not so long ago that infants routinely underwent painful procedures without the benefits of analgesia. Our previous studies showed that infants do feel extreme pain, that they remember this pain and that it affects their future pain responses," said Dr. Anna Taddio, the study's lead author and principal investigator, a SickKids scientist and pharmacist, and an assistant professor of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. "Within the last decade, the pendulum started to swing in the other direction, and pain relievers began to be used more liberally in infants. However, more information was needed about the benefits and risks of the different treatment options. We undertook this study to determine the most effective way to manage pain in infants undergoing central line placements and to delineate the side effects associated with their use," said Dr. Taddio.

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8538 - Posted: 02.16.2006

Gay "marriage" could boost the mental and physical health of homosexuals, doctors believe. Rates of depression, drug abuse and cancer are higher in the gay community than among heterosexual people. The report said civil partnerships, which were introduced in England and Wales in December, were likely to reduce prejudice and social exclusion. The Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health article was based on previous studies in other countries. Denmark was the first country to introduce civil partnerships for same sex couples in 1989, since when several European Union countries, some US states, Australia and Canada have followed suit. Professor Michael King, of University College London, who co-wrote the article, said: "Civil partnerships are likely to break down some of the prejudice and promote greater understanding, including among staff working in the health service. "Legal civil partnerships could increase the stability of same sex relationships and minimise the social exclusion to which gay and lesbian people are often subjected." Research has shown that lesbians have higher risk of breast cancer, heart disease and obesity, while gay men have a higher risk of HIV, the article said. Gay people are also more likely to suffer from depression, drug abuse and suicidal urges than heterosexual people. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Depression
Link ID: 8537 - Posted: 02.14.2006