SOME relatives of people with autism also display behaviours and brain differences associated with the condition, even though they themselves do not have it. This could make it easier to spot families at risk of having an autistic child. It could also help in the quest to identify the genetic and environmental triggers for the condition, though it seems these triggers might vary from country to country. Eric Peterson of the University of Colorado in Denver had compared an MRI study of the brains of 40 parents with autistic children to that of 40 age-matched controls. And he told the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Washington DC that the parents who had an autistic child shared several differences in brain structure with their offspring. Looking at the group averages, the differences in parents of the autistic children included an unexpected increase in the size of the motor cortex and basal ganglia, areas important for movement planning and imitation. The somatosensory cortex, neighbouring the motor cortex, by contrast, was smaller than average. This region is important for understanding social information such as facial expressions - one key skill that autistic people often lack. These parents also had reductions in the cerebellum, important for coordinating movement, and in a frontal region thought to be responsible for understanding the intentions and feelings of others - the so-called theory of mind area. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Autism; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8215 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Even if you could get more RAM for your brain, the extra storage probably wouldn't make it easier for you to find where you left your car keys. What may help, according to a discovery published Nov. 24 in the journal Nature, is a better bouncer – as in the type of bouncer who manages crowd control for nightclubs. The study by Edward Vogel, an assistant professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of Oregon, is the first to demonstrate that awareness, or "visual working memory," depends on your ability to filter out irrelevant information. "Until now, it's been assumed that people with high capacity visual working memory had greater storage but actually, it's about the bouncer – a neural mechanism that controls what information gets into awareness," Vogel said. The findings turn upside down the popular concept that a person's memory capacity, which is strongly related to intelligence, is solely dependent upon the amount of information you can cram into your head at one time. These results have broad implications and may lead to developing more effective ways to optimize memory as well as improved diagnosis and treatment of cognitive deficits associated with attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Vision
Link ID: 8214 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Canadian scientists have developed some clever molecular trickery that is helping to reduce the drug cravings of addicted rats. One of the problems in addiction is that neurons in some parts of the brain lose glutamate receptors from the cell surface, and those receptors are important for communication between neurons. The researchers have sidestepped this problem by crafting a peptide that mimics a portion of the tail of the glutamate receptor and, once inside a neuron, serves as a decoy to prevent the loss of glutamate receptors. Yu Tian Wang and colleagues report their findings in the November 25, 2005, issue of the journal Science. In addicted rats, cell-to-cell communication is compromised as a result of certain long-term changes at the level of individual neurons. Their research has produced a targeted drug that tricks brain cells into preventing those changes. “We think this is a good candidate for a drug against addiction that has very few side effects,” said Wang, a neuroscientist . Although the initial studies are promising, Wang cautioned that the drug is in the early stages of development and is years away from testing in humans. During addiction to drugs, cells in the nucleus accumbens—a tiny ball of tissue deep in the brain involved in pleasure and motivation—miscommunicate. Normally, one neuron triggers activity in a neighbor by using neurotransmitters such as glutamate. “This is the 'go' signal,” said Wang. “The receiving cell uses glutamate receptors on its surface to listen to the signal. © 2005 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8213 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By comparing foxes selected for tameness with others that have not been selected in this way, researchers have found evidence that dramatic behavioral and physiological changes accompanying tameness may be associated with only limited changes in gene activity in the brain. The work is reported by Elena Jazin and colleagues at Uppsala University, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, and the Norwegian University of Life Science. The first step in the process of domestication in mammals is the selection for tame individuals that can adapt to life with humans and to frequent handling. To investigate the changes in gene activity that accompany tameness, in the present study the authors compared two groups of farm-raised silver foxes (Vulpes vulpes). One group derived from a long-standing domestication process in which farm-raised silver foxes have been selected for more than 40 generations for non-aggressive behavior toward men (see the related work of Brian Hare and colleagues, Current Biology 15:226–230). Another group of foxes was also farm raised but was not selected for tameness. The foxes selected for tameness were docile and friendly and showed developmental, morphological, and neurochemical changes similar to those observed in other domestic animals.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8212 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A total of 25% of schizophrenics say they have stopped taking their medication because of adverse side effects, research has found. The charity Sane said this was leading to an increase in relapse rates and hospital re-admissions. Its survey found that 62% of respondents had not been told about side effects, including weight gain, drowsiness and restlessness. The charity is calling for better communication by health workers. The survey found that three-quarters of patients suffer from side effects, which can put them at greater risk of serious conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Schizophrenia is the most common major psychiatric disorder and affects around one in 100 people in the UK. The condition is associated with a shorter life expectancy, although this is thought to be due to a number of factors, including reduced socio-economic status. The findings of the latest study echo previous research which found that one in 10 psychiatrists never proactively discussed long-term health risks associated with some treatments. Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of Sane, said: "It is appalling that so many patients are not being given information vital to understanding the impact of their treatment and in turn their ability to make decisions and help in their own recovery. (C)BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 8211 - Posted: 11.22.2005

(Philadelphia, PA) -- Using a novel application of an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) technique, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have, for the first time, visualized the effects of everyday psychological stress in a healthy human brain. Their work, performed at Penn's Center for Functional Neuroimaging, provides a neuro-imaging marker of psychological stress -- which will pave the way for the development of improved strategies for preventing or correcting the long-term health consequences of chronic stress. The researchers' study appears in the November 21 online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In the Penn study, researchers induced stress on healthy subjects by asking them to quickly tackle challenging mental exercises while being monitored for performance. During the fMRI scans, the researchers also recorded subjects' emotional responses -- such as stress, anxiety, and frustration -- and measured the corresponding changes in stress hormone and heart rate. Many subjects described themselves as being "flustered, distracted, rushed and upset" by the stress task. The results showed increased cerebral blood-flow during the "stress test" in the right anterior portion of the brain (prefrontal cortex) -- an area long associated with anxiety and depression. More interestingly, the increased cerebral blood-flow persisted even when the testing was complete. These results suggest a strong link between psychological stress and negative emotions. On the other hand, the prefrontal cortex is also associated with the ability to perform executive functions -- such as working memory and goal-oriented behavior -- that permit humans to adapt to environmental challenges and threats.

Keyword: Stress; Brain imaging
Link ID: 8210 - Posted: 11.22.2005

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. Gerard O'Donnell is a firefighter, so his snoring - which sounds like a chain saw fighting its way through 500 pounds of toffee - is a problem at work as well as at home. His girlfriend frequently gets up to sleep in her son's bed "just so she can get a few hours," he said. A New Treatment for Sleep Apnea At his Brooklyn firehouse, he stays up late, trying to be the last one into the bunkroom, "but they still bust my chops." His crew mates even added a box of nasal strips to one of their grocery runs. It didn't help. So last month, Mr. O'Donnell tried something new. Dr. Charles P. Kimmelman, a Manhattan otolaryngologist, injected three polyester braids into the back of his throat. The treatment, known as the pillar palatal implant system and patented by the Restore Medical Company of St. Paul, has been performed on about 9,000 Americans and 1,000 patients in Europe and Hong Kong. It has received publicity because it is faster, cheaper and far less painful than traditional snoring surgery. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 8209 - Posted: 11.22.2005

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE Hypnosis, with its long and checkered history in medicine and entertainment, is receiving some new respect from neuroscientists. Recent brain studies of people who are susceptible to suggestion indicate that when they act on the suggestions their brains show profound changes in how they process information. The suggestions, researchers report, literally change what people see, hear, feel and believe to be true. The new experiments, which used brain imaging, found that people who were hypnotized "saw" colors where there were none. Others lost the ability to make simple decisions. Some people looked at common English words and thought that they were gibberish. "The idea that perceptions can be manipulated by expectations" is fundamental to the study of cognition, said Michael I. Posner, an emeritus professor of neuroscience at the University of Oregon and expert on attention. "But now we're really getting at the mechanisms." Even with little understanding of how it works, hypnosis has been used in medicine since the 1950's to treat pain and, more recently, as a treatment for anxiety, depression, trauma, irritable bowel syndrome and eating disorders. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 8208 - Posted: 11.22.2005

Keay Davidson, Chronicle Science Writer Seriously folks, scientists want to know what tickles people's funny bones, and they're looking into the brain to find out. At Stanford University, Professor Allan L. Reiss and his colleagues are using a brain-scanning technique in combination with "Bizarro" and "Far Side" cartoons to see if activity in the gray matter between the ears reveals whether men and women react differently to visual humor. At Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, students are laughing at the TV sitcoms "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons" while being scanned by the same brain-scanning technique, known as functional magnetic resonance imaging or "fmri". Strange as such research might appear to laypeople, "humor is quite amenable to scientific study," says neuroscience Professor Gregory S. Berns of Emory University, who wasn't connected with either of the brain-scanning studies. Berns, who in a 2004 article for the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences, wrote about Reiss' earlier studies of humor, said such studies must be conducted in the tightly controlled circumstances of labs like Reiss' because, as he noted with a chuckle, "we can't study people in a comedy club audience with fmri." In their lab, Reiss and his four Stanford colleagues found that on the average, males and females seem to be amused -- or not amused -- by the same kinds of cartoons. ©2005 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Emotions; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8207 - Posted: 06.24.2010

KINGSTON, Ont. – Surprisingly, people with mild depression are actually more tuned into the feelings of others than those who aren’t depressed, a team of Queen’s psychologists has discovered. “This was quite unexpected because we tend to think that the opposite is true,” says lead researcher Kate Harkness. “For example, people with depression are more likely to have problems in a number of social areas.” The researchers were so taken aback by the findings, they decided to replicate the study with another group of participants. The second study produced the same results: People with mild symptoms of depression pay more attention to details of their social environment than those who are not depressed. Their report on what is known as “mental state decoding” – or identifying other people’s emotional states from social cues such as eye expressions – is published today in the international journal, Cognition and Emotion. Also on the research team from the Queen’s Psychology Department are Professors Mark Sabbagh and Jill Jacobson, and students Neeta Chowdrey and Tina Chen. Drs. Roumen Milev and Michela David at Providence Continuing Care Centre, Mental Health Services, collaborated on the study as well. ©Queen's University, 2005

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 8206 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Virginia Hughes Two new studies provide the strongest evidence yet that schizophrenia is a genetic disease and shed further light on how it progresses on a molecular level. The findings may lead to the design of better antipsychotic drugs, say the researchers. Many scientists have assumed that schizophrenia is caused by environmental influences, such as viral infections or psychological stress. But a genetic case for the disease was bolstered in 2000 when J. Kirsty Millar of the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, found that a number of Scottish schizophrenics shared a mutation in a gene called DISC1. Not all researchers were convinced of the gene's significance, however, because Millar's study was limited to a single family. Now two studies provide further evidence of DISC1's role in the development of schizophrenia. As reported online yesterday in Nature Cell Biology, Akira Sawa of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues disrupted DISC1 expression in the brains of mouse embryos using a technique called RNA interference. Compared to controls, the mice experienced a severe delay in the migration of neurons in their brains, leading to abnormal brain development. What's more, the neurons themselves were improperly oriented in a pattern that matched that seen in the brains of human schizophrenics. This is the first time DISC1 dysfunction has been linked to schizophreniclike abnormalities in living brain tissue, says Sawa. © 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8205 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Methylphenidate, a medication used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), may be effective in treating hyperactivity symptoms in children with autism and related pervasive developmental disorders, researchers report in the November Archives of General Psychiatry. The study was conducted by the Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP) Autism Network, a National Institute of Mental Health funded multi-site consortium dedicated to the development and testing of treatments for children with pervasive developmental disorders such as autism. The Yale team is directed by Lawrence Scahill, associate professor of nursing and child psychiatry at Yale. "This study shows that methylphenidate is an effective medication for children with pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) accompanied by increased hyperactivity," said Scahill. "However, the percentage of children showing a positive response and the magnitude of benefit is lower than what we have come to expect in ADHD uncomplicated by PDD." "Although the adverse effects that we observed in this study are similar to what we see in typically developing children with ADHD, these adverse effects occurred at a much higher frequency in our study subjects, " Scahill added.

Keyword: ADHD; Autism
Link ID: 8204 - Posted: 11.22.2005

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Many humans suffer from depression during the winter months, and now scientists have determined that hamsters also may experience anxiety and depression during the dark days of the year. The researchers also discovered that female hamsters and hamsters born during winter months tended to exhibit more seasonal mood swings later in life. Since the likely mechanisms behind these feelings also exist in humans, the findings may lead to better diagnosis and treatment for anxiety and depression. The study's results also suggest that many other species feel depressed, and get especially bummed out during the winter, because of reduced sunlight. In humans, the winter condition is named SAD, which stands for Seasonal Affective Disorder. "Based on the similarities between day length-induced depressive and anxiety-like behaviors in hamsters and Seasonal Affective Disorder in humans, it is possible that there are similar mechanisms or adaptive value in seasonal depression among many species," said authors Leah Pyter and Randy Nelson, researchers in the Departments of Neuroscience and Psychology and the Institute of Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University. © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Depression
Link ID: 8203 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi Children who were seriously neglected in infancy can carry a physiological burden for years, even after moving to a loving environment. A study of their hormonal responses shows that their brains are less equipped to trust and form social bonds than other children. Scientists stress that the longer-term effects of neglect on children and their hormones remain unclear. But the results after a few years are significant. "We don't want to reach the conclusion that this difference is permanent," says Seth Pollak, a developmental psychopathologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who led the study. But he adds that the take-home message is that "children really need to be in families". Pollak and his team measured the levels of two key hormones in 18 children adopted from Russian and Romanian orphanages. These resource-poor orphanages, where one adult may care for up to 40 infants, do not make it easy for newborns to form normal social attachments, says Pollak. The children left these orphanages about two or three years before the study, and have been living with adoptive parents in the United States. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 8202 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Laser light has been used to remotely control gene therapy in rats. This mechanism will help make gene therapy more effective by allowing the precise time and location at which new genes are activated to be controlled, meaning specific tissues can be targeted while healthy tissues are left alone. Lasers have been used in the past to perforate cells for gene therapy in cultured cells. But the new research – activating marker genes in the eyes of rats – is more sophisticated and the first time lasers have been used for gene therapy in live animals. Kazunori Kataoka, at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues developed a photosensitive molecular complex that could be activated in rats’ eyes by irradiating them with visible light from a low power laser. The synthetic complex is designed to deliver foreign DNA by carrying it past the cell membrane – a process known as transfection. The complex consists of three components: a photosensitive anionic dendrimer, which provides the triggering mechanism, and a cationic peptide which drives the third component, its DNA payload, towards the nucleus of a cell after it has been released. The complex enters the cell by a process known as endocytosis, where the cell's plasma membrane envelops the complex at its surface and draws it into the cell. The membrane around the complex then detaches from the cell's membrane to form a bubble containing the complex within the cell. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8201 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jane Elliott, BBC News Health reporter He withdrew into himself and stopped communicating with his wife, Jean. Jean said Bill lost his motivation, and his desire and ability to hold conversations, but all this changed when the couple started attending a local sing-song group, aimed especially for people with dementia. Jean said Singing for the Brain had unlocked Bill's communication block. "The first time we went to Singing for the Brain he did not join in. On the second session he was starting to join in and by the third he was thoroughly taking part. It was wonderful for us. The singing had started to change something. It really did make a tremendous difference. He started to come out of himself. "His personality started to change and he became much as he was before, and he was able to hold a conversation. He is 82 and likes all the old-time songs, but he also started singing some Beatles songs and songs from the Broadway shows and even some modern stuff as well. He seemed to be able to slowly learn things again. I would take the song sheets home after the sessions and we would sing them at home. It enlivened him and he really enjoyed doing it." (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers; Language
Link ID: 8200 - Posted: 11.21.2005

A Devon scientist is developing a test to diagnose and monitor brain disorders in children using eye movements. Professor Chris Harris, from the University of Plymouth, has been seeing youngsters with some of the country's rarest diseases. Damage in various parts of the brain often leads to eye movement disorders. He hopes to develop a standard test so that babies and the most seriously ill children - who are often the most uncooperative - can be diagnosed. The earlier some conditions are treated, especially those with diseases that are only going to get worse, the better the possible outcome for the children involved. A test would also mean new types of medication can be monitored for clinical trials. Prof Harris' research has been funded by a charity called Cerebra, for brain-injured children. He is particularly interested in diagnosing so-called neurometabolic diseases, which are very difficult to diagnose. They are a group of 1,500 often terminal diseases that can be caused by chemical imbalances in the body which ultimately cause brain cells to die. He uses a computer-controlled chair with electrodes attached to the patient's head to see how "flicks" of the eye are affected by various medical conditions. He said: "The way we control our eye movements depends on brain function. Damage in various parts of the brain often leads to eye movement disorders. So by looking at abnormal eye movements we can pick up on problems before they become too severe. (C)BBC

Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 8199 - Posted: 11.21.2005

By JOE QUEENAN APOCALYPTIC literature naturally gravitates toward the maudlin, lamenting that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, usually courtesy of someone like Eminem or Tom DeLay. This is what makes Greg Critser's "Generation Rx" such an unexpected delight. Although his message is unrelievedly depressing - drug companies, with the nation's physicians and the federal government already on the payroll, have transmogrified a self-reliant nation into a herd of functional drug addicts - there is something so congenial and non-self-righteous about the way he tells his story that few of the scoundrels singled out for public obloquy will take personal offense. Unlike the malignantly partisan Michael Moore or Ralph Nader, arguably the least bubbly reformer since Oliver Cromwell, Critser spreads his gospel of rack and ruin in an almost good-natured way, explaining who paid off whom and how many Americans died as a result of it, but without getting especially nasty. Indeed, what prevents "Generation Rx" from reading like a writ of indictment is the author's folksy turns of phrase, which sometimes go off in unintentionally hilarious directions. Thus, describing the evolution of Glaxo from a sleeping giant to a juggernaut, Critser says that "in the boggy pharma jungle," the company "swung on the vine of prior greatness while withering on stultifying British business practices." Marveling at the liver, he writes, "It is the only organ that can, with time, regenerate itself, a kind of Donald Trump of the human body." And he identifies Washington as "an unfathomable brothel to all but the Reverends Rove and Cheney." Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 8198 - Posted: 11.21.2005

Disease nosed its way into David Eger's life gradually. At first, he couldn't raise his elbow as high as usual. He brushed it off as a possible gym injury. But soon, his left fist would clench and go rigid. "My family began to notice it and observe it, so I decided I'd better go and have somebody look at it," says Eger, a 60-year old clinical psychologist. After testing, Eger's was diagnosed with Parksinson's disease, a brain disorder that whittles away the brain's ability to make a key chemical called dopamine that controls body movement. Now, researchers working on a study in mice have found that a popular dance club drug — the amphetamine, ecstasy — might help patients like Eger combat the physical decline that accompanies Parkinson's. "We went and tested as many as 70 drugs total, belonging to 20 different pharmacological groups," explains Raul Gainetdinov, a neuroscientist who was part of the Duke University team that studied the effects of amphetamines in lab mice that have Parkinson's-like symptoms. "To our surprise, not many things really worked. When we tried with ecstasy it was the first drug that we discovered working... It was amazingly effective," he says. "[The mice] went from a situation where they were completely frozen to ability to move quite a significant distance, and pretty much normally." © ScienCentral, 2000-2005

Keyword: Parkinsons; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8197 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Susan Milius For the first time, researchers say, they've found an electric fish sabotaging another fish's electric signals. The brown ghost knifefish (Apteronotus leptorhynchus) generates a weak electric field that it uses to detect obstacles and to communicate with other knifefish. When confronting a rival knifefish, both males and females can raise the frequency of their own electric signals close enough to the other fish's to distort its electric field, reports Sara Tallarovic of the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. In previous experiments, such jamming blinded fish-guidance systems. Tallarovic and Harold Zakon of the University of Texas at Austin recorded electric frequencies as one knifefish darted in an unfriendly way toward another fish or a dummy emitting an electric signal. The lunger often locked jaws with its opponent or snapped at its electric organ, as if trying to bite it off (view the video clips here). Decades of experiments had shown that knifefish tailor their electric field frequencies to make them differ from those of a field applied by experimenters, so the idea of intentional jamming has been a surprise, says Tallarovic. Copyright ©2005 Science Service. All

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8196 - Posted: 06.24.2010