We all know motherhood changes the body. But research in animals shows it also changes the brain. As this ScienCentral News video explains, parenting seems to enhance learning and memory in both moms and dads. Coping day or night with the demands of a new born baby and worrying over every cough and sniffle are just in a day's work for parents, but it's something that people without kids often find hard to imagine being able to do… until they have kids of their own that is. So where do that cool head, that parenting instinct and those coping skills just materialize from? Sleep-deprived new mothers might find it hard to believe, but having kids may actually make you sharper. Brain researcher Kelly Lambert says that, at least in rodents, pregnancy and parenting change the brain and behavior in ways that go beyond nursing and nurturing. "From what we've seen, having a whole different being to take care of requires a whole new set of skills and a lot more awareness, cognitive awareness and multi-tasking," explains Lambert, professor and Chair of the psychology department at Randolph-Macon College. © ScienCentral, 2000-2006.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8436 - Posted: 06.24.2010

When activated, a specific protein in the brain enhances long-term storage of fearful memories and strengthens previously established fearful memories, Yale School of Medicine researchers report this week in Nature Neuroscience. "This report is the first to demonstrate evidence of enhancements in memory reconsolidation in the brain," said the senior author, Jane Taylor, associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry. "Understanding these molecular mechanisms may provide critical insights into psychiatric disorders." She said recent data suggest that memories can continue to be changed or eliminated long after they have been formed, or consolidated. Based on findings that suggest memories are susceptible to loss after retrieval, a mechanism that is required to maintain and place back memories into long-term storage has been proposed, Taylor said. "This 'reconsolidation' process is supported by studies suggesting that disruption of cellular functions known to be required for memory storage after retrieval of a memory can cause a specific loss of that memory," she said. Taylor and her colleagues found that within the amygdala, a brain region known to be critically involved in the creation and storage of fearful memories, selective activation of protein kinase A (PKA) is sufficient to enhance memory reconsolidation and strengthen a previously established fearful memory. Conversely, inhibiting PKA in the amygdala disrupted memory reconsolidation.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Emotions
Link ID: 8435 - Posted: 01.24.2006

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News In a female elephant gang, few animals bother the oldest and biggest of the group because they know she will not put up with any nonsense, according to a new study that found age and size determine wild female elephant hierarchies. The study, published in the current issue of Animal Behavior, presents some of the first data on dominance and the social lives of adult, wild female elephants, Loxodonta africana. Females of this species hang out together in family groups for most of their lives. Humans may shrink as they get older, but not elephants. "Female elephants never stop growing, so age and size are almost always linked," said Elizabeth Archie, who led the research. "Female elephants have two formidable weapons: their tusks and their huge body size. Tusks, horns and teeth are common in many species, but when these weapons are driven by a powerful animal that weighs thousands of pounds, the results can be fatal," she said. Archie, a Smithsonian Doctoral Fellow in the Genetics Department at the National Zoological Park in Washington, D.C., explained to Discovery News that although female elephants can seriously hurt, or even kill, each other, they hardly ever do so because younger, smaller elephants quickly learn to defer to the group's dominant female. Copyright © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Aggression; Evolution
Link ID: 8434 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Helen Pearson If love is blind, then maybe humour is the attention-grabber. That's the conclusion of two recent studies that confirm a long-standing stereotype of flirting: that women like joky men, while men like women who laugh at their jokes. The idea that funny people are attractive may seem obvious. But there have been very few scientific studies to examine whether or not this is true. Eric Bressler of Westfield State College, Massachusetts, and colleague Sigal Balshine of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, did this by asking more than 200 male and female college students to examine photos of members of the opposite sex. Some had funny quotes pinned beneath them, such as: "My high school was so rough we had our own coroner." Others had bland ones: "I'd rather walk to school than take the bus." Women ranked the humorous men as better potential partners, the researchers found - and as more friendly, fun and popular. Men's view of a woman, on the other hand, appeared to be uninfluenced by her wit1. Bressler suspected that men and women do, in fact, both value a sense of humour in a mate, but that they might be looking for slightly different things: women valuing an ability to be funny and men valuing an ability to see the joke. ©2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8433 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Philip E. Ross New findings in neurology always seem to come with the caveat that there are subtleties that need to be explained. It is therefore refreshing to consider a big, fat unsubtlety: the size of our brains. At first glance, a big brain's function seems simple: to think big thoughts. And indeed, brain size does loosely correlate with intelligence, between species and, as recent MRI studies confirm, within our own. Yet some people who are missing brain parts remain just fine with what little they've got. The cases have multiplied since brain scans became routine. Take the 50-something lawyer who, fearing Alzheimer's, came in for an MRI and got good news and bad news. He was fine, but his brain lacked a corpus callosum, the wrist-thick stalk that normally connects the brain's hemispheres. Still, he enjoyed a successful practice and had a verbal IQ of around 130 and a nonverbal IQ above 90. The patient exhibited subtle signs of abnormal behavior, says Warren S. Brown, a neuropsychologist who studies mind-body questions at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.: "He just seemed odd--not remarkable, but he missed the point of social interaction." Brown adds that patients without a corpus callosum often do not get the point of jokes or understand pictures. Of course, most brain abnormalities are found because neurologists had reason to look for them. To get around such bias, Elliott Sherr, a neurologist at the University of San Francisco, decided to study all the MRIs his university's hospital had taken. One in several thousand turned out to lack the corpus callosum. © 1996-2006 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Laterality; Intelligence
Link ID: 8432 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School have discovered the gene responsible for a type of ataxia, spinocerebellar ataxia type 5 (SCA5), an incurable degenerative brain disease affecting movement and coordination. This is the first neurodegenerative disease shown to be caused by mutations in the protein â-III spectrin which plays an important role in the maintaining the health of nerve cells. The scientific discovery has historical implications as well--the gene was identified in an 11-generation family descended from the grandparents of President Abraham Lincoln, with the President having a 25 percent risk of inheriting the mutation. "We are excited about this discovery because it provides a genetic test that will lead to improved patient diagnoses and gives us new insight into the causes of ataxia and other neurodegenerative diseases, an important step towards developing an effective treatment," said Laura Ranum, Ph.D., senior investigator of the study and professor of Genetics, Cell Biology and Development at the University of Minnesota. Understanding the effects of this abnormal protein, which provides internal structure to cells, will clarify how nerve cells die and may provide insight into other diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's disease) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The research will be published in the February print issue of Nature Genetics, and posted online Jan. 22, 2006.

Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 8431 - Posted: 01.23.2006

Acupuncture works by deactivating the area of the brain governing pain, a TV show will claim. Tuesday's programme - the first of three on complementary medicine - will show researchers carrying out brain scans on people having acupuncture. The BBC Two show will also feature heart surgery done using acupuncture instead of a general anaesthetic. The patient is conscious during the operation in China, but she was given sedatives and a local anaesthetic. In Alternative Medicine: The Evidence, volunteers are subjected to deep needling, which involves needles being inserted 1cm into the back of the hand at well-known acupuncture points. A control group undergoes superficial needling with needles placed only 1mm in. The needles are then twiddled until the participants feel a dull, achy or tingling sensation. For those in the deep needling group this stimulates the nervous system. During these two procedures, the volunteers underwent brain scans to see what, if any, effect there was in the brain. The team, including leading scientists from University College London, Southampton University and the University of York, found the superficial needling resulted in activation of the motor areas of the cortex, a normal reaction to pain. (C)BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 8430 - Posted: 01.22.2006

If Ariel Sharon wakes up from his coma, he could still face a long and hard recovery from his stroke. With the help of extensive therapy, stroke sufferers can sometimes regain lost speech and movement. But research led by neurologist Wendy Kartje could spur stroke recovery by blocking a natural inhibitor of nerve cell re-growth. When a stroke occurs, blood flow to part of the brain is interrupted when a blood vessel becomes damaged or blocked. The blood normally brings oxygen and nutrients that the brain cells in the immediate area need to survive. Without the blood the brain cells begin to die and stroke victims lose the functions that were controlled by those brain cells. About 80 percent of all strokes are ischemic, caused by a blood clot that blocks a blood vessel or artery in the brain. The other 20 percent are caused by a weakened blood vessel that breaks and bleeds into the brain. This is known as hemorrhagic stroke, and is often fatal. Around 600,000 new strokes, or "brain attacks" are reported each year. © ScienCentral, 2000-2006.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 8429 - Posted: 06.24.2010

— It's been said that laughter is the best medicine, but no one has yet to prove it. Now a Japanese scientist is unlocking the secrets of the funny bone, which he believes can cheer up people's genes. Geneticist Kazuo Murakami has teamed up on the study with an unlikely research partner: stand-up comedians, who he hopes can turn their one-liners into efficient, low-cost medical treatment. Genes are usually regarded as immutable, but in reality more than 90 percent of them are dormant or less active in producing protein, so some types of stimulation can wake them up. Murakami's tentative theory is that laughter is one such stimulant, which can trigger energy inside a person's DNA potentially helping cure disease. "If we prove people can switch genes on and off by an emotion like laughter, it may be the finding of the century which should be worth the Nobel Prize or even go beyond that," said Murakami, 70, director of Japan's Foundation for Advancement of International Science. Copyright © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Emotions; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 8428 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ben Harder Exposure to small amounts of an ingredient in polycarbonate plastic may increase a person's risk of diabetes, according to a new study in mice. The synthetic chemical called bisphenol-A is used to make dental sealants, sturdy microwavable plastics, linings for metal food-and-beverage containers, baby bottles, and numerous other products. When consumed, the chemical can mimic the effects of estrogen. Previous tests had found that bisphenol-A can leach into food and water and that it's widely prevalent in human blood. The newfound contribution of the chemical to insulin resistance, a precursor to diabetes, might partially explain the global epidemic of that disease, says Angel Nadal of Miguel Hernández University of Elche in Spain, who led the new study. The finding is a "wake-up call" for public health researchers who are concerned by the prevalence of diabetes, comments developmental biologist Frederick vom Saal of the University of Missouri–Columbia. Earlier test-tube studies had suggested that bisphenol-A makes pancreatic cells secrete the glucose-regulating hormone insulin. To investigate this effect in live animals, Nadal and his colleagues injected adult male mice with pure corn oil or with oil containing either bisphenol-A or an equal amount of the natural female sex hormone estradiol. Animals received as many as eight shots over 4 days. Copyright ©2006 Science Service.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Obesity
Link ID: 8427 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Coffee could help boost a woman's sex drive, a US study says. Scientists from Southwestern University found it increased the female libido in experiments on rats. The Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behaviour journal study said the effect was caused by coffee stimulating the part of the brain regulating arousal. But researchers said a similar effect was only likely to be repeated in humans who do not drink coffee regularly. Previous research has looked into both the health benefits and consequences of coffee consumption. The hot drink is linked to improving memory and reducing the risk of cancer, but studies have also suggested it increases the risk of heart disease. In the latest research, scientists gave 108 female rats a moderate dose of caffeine before a mating test to determine if the caffeine had any effect on female behaviour. They found that administration of caffeine shortened the amount of time it took the females to return to the males after sex for another mating session. The study said the effects appeared to go beyond a simple boost of energy for socialising, but researchers said the effect may not be repeated in all humans. Lead researcher Dr Fay Guarraci said: "These rats had never had caffeine before. In humans, it might enhance the sexual experience only among people who are not habitual users." But she added the study should help improve understanding about the relationship between the brain and behaviour. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8426 - Posted: 01.20.2006

Take a sprinkling of scientists and mix with a frisson of philosophers. Do lots of stirring; add train guards, artists, accountants and school teachers... and what do you get? A soggy mess of lay people confused by brain-science jargon, such as neurotransmission and voxel-based morphometry? This was the recipe for the Meeting of Minds, a project thought to be the biggest-ever science consultation with the public. The organiser, the King Baudouin Foundation of Brussels, randomly plucked people from across Europe (including 12 from Britain, managed by the Science Museum's Dana Centre) and immersed them in brain science. The 126 chosen people have risen to the challenge. They have been on a 12-month roller-coaster, immersed in ideas and discoveries about the brain. They have challenged the experts and quizzed the pressure groups. With the help of 48 interpreters, they have kept their discussions flowing in nine languages, while a high-tech infrastructure has followed them around and processed their ideas. © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2006

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 8425 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Drug discovery researchers at Northwestern University have developed a novel orally administered compound specifically targeted to suppress brain cell inflammation and neuron loss associated with Alzheimer's disease. The compound is also rapidly absorbed by the brain and is non-toxic – important considerations for a central nervous system drug that might need to be taken for extended periods. As described in the Jan. 11 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, the compound, called MW01-5-188WH, selectively inhibits production of pro-inflammatory proteins called cytokines by glia, important cells of the central nervous system that normally help the body mount a response, but are overactivated in certain neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke and traumatic brain injury. The compound was designed and synthesized in the laboratory of D. Martin Watterson at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, using a synthetic chemistry platform developed in his lab by researchers at the Northwestern University Center for Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology (CDDCB) for the rapid discovery of new potential therapeutic compounds.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8424 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Sybil A trawl through the journal Addiction this week comes up with this startling find: a hangover makes you feel out of sorts, and affects your cognitive performance. Well, quite. I might be fairly wet behind the ears as a columnist, but I know the effect that getting sloshed the night before can have. Did someone really need to prove this? According to lead researcher Frances Finnigan of Glasgow Caledonian University, UK, we apparently lacked hard scientific facts to back up this subjective experience. "Ok, it's common sense," she tells me on the phone, "but there have not been studies, only anecdotal evidence." Let's be clear. People have tried to quantify the effects of hangovers in the lab, and work out what properties of a night out are most likely to create nasty feelings in the morning. People have tested hangover cures. And alcohol itself has been studied ad nauseam. Literally. But Finnigan says there is a dearth of studies done with 'real' hangovers. ©2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8423 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The largest study so far has found no evidence of a link between cellphone use and brain tumours. UK researchers interviewed 966 people from across Britain diagnosed with brain tumours, as well as 1716 apparently healthy controls between December 2000 and February 2004. The epidemiological survey found no evidence that using a cellphone increased the risk of developing a tumour or that prolonged usage increased risk either. The study did find an association between the location of a tumour and side of the head that patients said they most often used to make calls. But when the team considered handedness – which correlates to the side of the head to which cellphones are most commonly held – there was no link. In light of the overall study results the researchers believe the association was an anomaly – they suggest these patients most probably misremembered their cellphone usage, in an effort to explain the tumour. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 8422 - Posted: 06.24.2010

PHILADELPHIA -- We might not be able to resist a pretty face after all, according to a report from the University of Pennsylvania. Experiments in which subjects were given a fraction of a second to judge "attractiveness" offered further evidence that our preference for beauty might be hard-wired. People who participated in the studies were also more likely to associate pretty faces with positive traits. "We're able to judge attractiveness with surprising speed and on the basis of very little information," said Ingrid Olson, a professor in Penn's Department of Psychology and researcher at Penn's Center for Cognitive Neurosciece. "It seems that pretty faces 'prime' our minds to make us more likely to associate the pretty face with a positive emotion." Olson, along with co-author Christy Marshuetz, of Yale University recently published their findings in the journal Emotion, a publication of the American Psychological Association. The researchers set out to study cognitive processes behind a very real phenomenon: physically attractive people have advantages that unattractive people do not. Copyright © 2005, University of Pennsylvania

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 8421 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Sights and sounds fill the world, presenting a panoply of possible foci for the brain. Yet most animals can hone in on whatever sight most demands interest. Then the sounds associated with that sight--be it a loved one talking or a tasty meal skittering through the undergrowth--become all the clearer. This is attention and new research shows how an owl's brain establishes the state. It also provides tantalizing evidence that brains from across the animal kingdom work the same way. Neurologists Daniel Winkowski and Eric Knudsen of Stanford University wired 12 owls with electrodes in the areas of their brains that process either visual or auditory input. Each region literally maps the world of sound or sight, determining whether it comes from up or down, left or right. Sending a small electrical charge into the owl's visual brain region--the so-called arcopallial gaze fields--caused it to move its head and eyes in a particular direction. When a simultaneous audio stimulus matched that direction, the owl's brain responded more strongly to that noise. It also blocked out competing noises from other directions. Owls are already extremely gifted at tuning in a particular sound, the authors note in their paper published in the current issue of Nature, but pairing a sound with a sight enhanced that ability even further. "The ability to hear and the direction of gaze aren't necessarily linked," Winkowski says. But "the circuits in the brain that control gaze direction affect how the brain processes auditory information." © 1996-2006 Scientific American, Inc

Keyword: ADHD; Hearing
Link ID: 8420 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Maybe you wanted to quit smoking. Or you vowed to get off the couch and cut back on your fast food intake. Whatever your New Year's resolution was, you're not alone if it's already broken. Take Paige Barr. The New York City actress says she carries her list of resolutions around with her "so I can know exactly how bad I'm doing." But maybe you shouldn't be too hard on yourself: Neuroscientists say you can pin part of the blame on your brain. Massachusetts Institute of Technology neuroscientist Ann Graybiel's research is beginning to explain why many of us fall back into bad habits, even after years of being good. "We all hear stories of smokers who try so hard to quit smoking cigarettes and they finally quit," she says. " They haven't smoked in years, and then one day, they're in that very situation where they used to smoke, and a flood of who knows what, memory or something, triggers off the pattern and all of a sudden the habit is back." Learning to perform a task to the point that it becomes second nature can take time, but "We all know intuitively that once we do things repetitively and get a habit, we can reel them off without thinking about it," says Graybiel. "If we learn something by chance or trial and error… that starts what scientists call the 'exploit' phase of things. You start doing the same thing again and again because it pays off." © ScienCentral, 2000-2006.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8419 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Elizabeth Pennisi Whether a heart, a toe, or a nose, evolutionary biologists are keen to know where our body parts came from. Now they're getting a better idea of how our ears formed thanks to a 370-million-year-old fish, whose jawbone was beginning to resemble a bone found in our middle ear. Before we used the middle ear to amplify and transmit sound, fish used its components to breathe. Over time, a tube called a spiracle, which connects the gills to the water outside, evolved into a chamber behind the eardrum. And a bony strut that connects a fish's jaw hinge to the brain case became one of three tiny bones in this chamber. The early stages of this transition have now been studied by Martin Brazeau, a graduate student in evolutionary biology at Uppsala University, Sweden, and his advisor, paleontologist Per Ahlberg. The researchers analyzed a skull of Panderichthys--an ancient fish that evolved at about the same time as tetrapods (early four-legged land-dwellers) from a common ancestor. The team compared the fish's bones and head structure to fossils of a more primitive fish and an early tetrapod. © 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hearing; Evolution
Link ID: 8418 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new study in mice suggests that Alzheimer's disease (AD) may be triggered when adult neurons try to divide. The finding helps researchers understand what goes wrong in the disease and may lead to new ways of treating it. The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health, and appears in the January 18, 2006 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.[1] For unknown reasons, nerve cells (neurons) affected by AD and many other neurodegenerative diseases often start to divide before they die. The new study shows that, in animal models of AD, this abnormal cell division starts long before amyloid plaques or other other markers of the disease appear. Cell division occurs through a process called the cell cycle. “If you could stop cell cycling, you might be able to stop neurons from dying prematurely. This could be a fresh approach to therapy for Alzheimer's and other diseases, including stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [also known as Lou Gehrig's disease], and HIV dementia,” says Karl Herrup, Ph.D., of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who led the study. The researchers compared the brains of three different mouse models of AD to brains from normal mice, looking specifically for markers of cell cycling. They found that, in the AD mouse models, cell cycle-related proteins appeared in neurons 6 months before the first amyloid plaques or disease-related immune reactions developed in the brain. Many of the neurons also had increased numbers of chromosomes, which is typical of cells that have begun to divide. These changes were not seen in normal mice.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8417 - Posted: 06.24.2010