Helen Pearson Expecting the worst may not make you feel any better when faced with a disappointment, say psychology researchers who have tested the age-old advice. Most people believe that mentally preparing for the worst outcome in an examination or race will soften the disappointment if we flunk or flop - and heighten the joy if we succeed. But the idea has rarely been put on scientific trial. Margaret Marshall of Seattle Pacific University and Jonathon Brown of the University of Washington, Seattle, did just that. They first asked more than 80 college students to fill in questionnaires that measured their general emotional outlook on life - whether bright or gloomy. The students then practised a set of moderately difficult word-association puzzles on a computer. Based on this, they rated how well they expected to perform on a second set of such problems. The team then gave half the students problems that were slightly easier than the first set, while half were given more difficult puzzles. This ensured that the students' performances would either exceed, or fall short of, their expectations. Afterwards, the subjects filled in a questionnaire to measure their emotional reaction, such as how disappointed or ashamed they felt. Students who expected to do badly, the researchers found, actually felt worse when they messed up than those who predicted they would do well but similarly botched their test. © 2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 8489 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Women who feel that they become more forgetful as menopause approaches shouldn't just "fuhgetabout it": There may be something to their own widespread reports that they're more likely to forget things as menopause approaches, say scientists who reported results from a small study today at the annual meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society in Boston. The team from the University of Rochester Medical Center found that the issue is not really impaired memory. Instead, the team found a link between complaints of forgetfulness and the way middle-aged, stressed women learn or "encode" new information. "This is not what most people think of traditionally when they think of memory loss," said co-author Mark Mapstone, Ph.D., assistant professor of Neurology. "It feels like a memory problem, but the cause is different. It feels like you can't remember, but that's because you never really learned the information in the first place." The findings come from Mapstone and Miriam Weber, Ph.D., memory experts at the University's Memory Disorders Clinic who are seeing more and more middle-aged women who say they are having problems with forgetfulness. "We see a lot of women who are afraid they are losing their minds," said Weber, a senior instructor of Neurology, who presented the results. "A lot of women complain that their thinking or their memory isn't what it used to be. Their big fear is that it's early Alzheimer's disease."

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8488 - Posted: 02.04.2006

By Laurance Doyle The Native American tribe known as the Tlinket of southeast Alaska have many stories about how raven stole the Sun, how bear and ant argued about the constellations, and how the wolf and moon are related. But as far as I know, they don’t have any stories about the humpback whale. If they did, they might have told how the humpback gave voices to all the other animals, for this creature has all the voices of the animal kingdom. We have recorded humpbacks making sounds like the trumpeting of elephants, roars like lions, whistles like dolphins, clicks like the sperm whale, mooing like cows, chattering like monkeys, and several very human-like vocalizations—some even sounding like an unusual language, with exclamations like "whoops!" Although we are just beginning to document and classify all the diverse sounds of the humpback whales, we already expect its repertoire to exceed that of any other animal we have studied to date. The humpbacks of southeast Alaska are known to migrate thousands of miles to Hawaii to mate, where they sing long and complex songs. Several variations of these songs are started at the beginning of the season, then eventually all humpbacks are singing the same song for that year. They head to Alaska in the summer to feed, and here they have a different kind of vocalization based more on feeding needs. However a colleague, Chris Gabriele of Glacier Bay National Park System, has also found that humpback whales still sing even in this feeding season. © 1999-2006 Imaginova Corp.

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 8487 - Posted: 06.24.2010

(Philadelphia, PA) – In a mouse model, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine researchers discovered that olfactory sensory neurons expressing the same receptor responded to a specific odor with an array of speeds and sensitivities, a phenomenon previously not detected in the mammalian sense of smell. The group published their findings this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "We assumed that the sensory neurons that express the same receptor would respond to a specific odor in the same way," says senior author Minghong Ma, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience at Penn. "But in real biology, these olfactory neurons keep regenerating, and even though they all express the same receptor, they're probably at different states of maturation, displaying different qualities. By knowing that olfactory neurons can respond differently, we're adding another layer to understanding how the olfactory system receives outside information." Ma's group measured 53 different olfactory neurons that express the MOR23 odor receptor. As a group, the neurons reacted differently from one another in their response to lyral, an artificial odor used in fragrances and flavoring. After subjecting all cells to a short pulse (200-300 milliseconds) of lyral, the researchers measured the cells' sensitivity to the odor. Some cells responded to very low concentrations of lyral; others, to higher concentrations. Regarding the cells' reaction time, some neurons finished firing within 500 milliseconds, but for others, the response time was up to five seconds.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 8486 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Greg Miller Not all placebos are created equal, according to a new study. In a rare trial pitting two fake treatments against each other, researchers have found that a sham acupuncture technique provided more pain relief than a dummy pill. The two nontreatments also caused different "side effects." Placebo effects have been reported with pills, injections, and even surgery. Previous research hinted that some treatments might elicit stronger placebo effects than others, but the idea hadn't been rigorously tested, says Ted Kaptchuk, the researcher at Harvard Medical School in Boston who led the current study. Kaptchuk and colleagues recruited 270 people with repetitive strain injuries (such as the aching arm that results from pushing a computer mouse around a desktop day after day). Half the volunteers took a cornstarch pill once a day; the rest received a fake acupuncture treatment twice a week. Both groups were told they would receive either a placebo or real treatment during the trial and that they could receive real treatment afterwards free of charge. The needles used in the procedure looked identical to real acupuncture needles, but the point retracted into a hollow shaft instead of penetrating the skin. The vast majority of people can't feel the difference between the sham procedure and the real deal, Kaptchuk says. © 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 8485 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Humans who smell a pillow, shirt, shoe or other object that was in close contact with another person may be reminded of a certain someone. New research suggests squirrels have a similar ability to not only associate smells with particular squirrels, but to also create mental images of them. The study, published in this month's Animal Behavior, represents the first time the ability has been demonstrated in rodents. A second, not-yet-published study by other researchers indicates hamsters also have the skill. Like humans, squirrels must first be familiar with an individual before an odor can become associated with that other animal. A husband, for example, could smell his wife's perfume in an elevator and be reminded of her, but a perfume he has never smelled before could trigger no such memories. "Squirrels need to be familiar with others to be able to put all of an individual's odors into a representation of that individual, as if repeated interactions make that individual meaningful, and thus worthy of remembering at this level," explained Jill Mateo, who conducted the research. © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8484 - Posted: 06.24.2010

UCI researchers have found that a single brief memory is actually processed differently in separate areas of the brain – an idea that until now scientists have only suspected to be true. The finding will influence how researchers examine the brain and could have implications for the treatment of memory disorders caused by disease or injury. The results were published this week in the early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. In a study using rats, researchers Emily L. Malin and James L. McGaugh of UCI’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory demonstrate that while one part of the brain, the hippocampus, is involved in processing memory for context, the anterior cingulate cortex, a part of the cerebral cortex, is responsible for retaining memories involving unpleasant stimuli. A third area, the amygdala, located in the temporal lobe, consolidates memories more broadly and influences the storage of both contextual and unpleasant information. © Copyright 2002-2006 UC Regents

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8483 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Haven, Conn.--Increasing the level of a protein that plays a key role in traumatic spinal cord injuries and multiple sclerosis reduces the concentration of disease-causing plaque in Alzheimer's disease, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in the Journal of Neuroscience. "Our new findings indicate that pharmacological methods to increase the protein, NogoReceptor, may be a way to treat the deficits associated with Alzheimer's disease," said Stephen Strittmatter, M.D., senior author of the study and co-director of the new program in Cellular Neuroscience, Neurodegeneration and Repair at Yale. It is well known that the clinical dementia of Alzheimer's disease is associated with specific pathological changes in the brain. One such change is deposits of the peptide beta-amyloid in brain plaques, a hallmark of the disease. Nerve fibers also play a crucial role in the neurodegenerative process of Alzheimer's disease. "We asked whether those mechanisms that regulate nerve fiber growth might lessen the Alzheimer's disease process," said Strittmatter, professor in the Departments of Neurology and Neurobiology. In brain sections from Alzheimer's patients, the protein NogoReceptor is distributed in an unusual pattern in conjunction with beta-amyloid peptide, which is the primary component of plaque that forms in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, he said.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8482 - Posted: 02.03.2006

Roxanne Khamsi Just one sniff is all it takes for a rat to tell whether an odour comes from the left or the right, new research reveals, suggesting rats smell in stereo. The rodent impressed scientists in the lab by processing the location of a smell in a mere 50 milliseconds. Researchers have long sought to understand how human brains pick up on the source of a scent, but their experiments remain limited by the resolution of brain scanning technologies. Upinder Bhalla of the University of Agricultural Science in Bangalore, India, says that more precise tests can be conducted on rats, using specialised brain and nose probes. “In rats we can do the experiment definitively, monitoring exactly when they’re sniffing, “says Bhalla. Bhalla and his colleagues exposed rats to various odours and recorded information via probes in the animals’ olfactory bulb, the region of the brain called that first processes smells. They found that 90% of the cells in this brain region respond differently depending on whether a scent first enters the left or right nostril. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 8481 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An American study has suggested women with major depression risk a recurrence of their condition if they stop taking their drugs during pregnancy. It had been thought the hormone changes which occur during pregnancy gave a "protective" effect against depression. But the Journal of the American Medical Association study of 201 pregnant women found this was not true, and women who came off their medication relapsed. A UK expert agreed it was better for pregnant women to stay on their drugs. Dr Veronica O'Keane said the only exception was paroxetine, which a study last year suggested could be linked to birth defects. In this latest study, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston studied 201 pregnant women between 1999 and 2003, who were treated at centres which focussed on the care of psychiatric illness during pregnancy. All the participants had a history of major depression prior to pregnancy, were less than 16 weeks pregnant, and were either current or recent users of anti-depressants. Among women who maintained their medication throughout the pregnancy, 26% (21 out of 82) relapsed compared with 68% (44 out of 65) of those who discontinued their medication. (C)BBC

Keyword: Depression; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 8480 - Posted: 02.02.2006

By STEPHANIE COOPERMAN At 5-foot-10 and a mere 133 pounds, Mr. Johnson, 26, a laboratory research assistant in Columbus, Ohio, was mortified by his inability to gain weight. His friends scoffed: We wish we had your problem! Others were skeptical: Why don't you just eat more? Mr. Johnson had tried to bulk up before. Eight years earlier, when he was a student at the University of Mississippi, he was inspired to work out by his roommate, a 6-foot-2, 245-pound bodybuilder. "My arms were twigs," Mr. Johnson lamented. He collected books on weight lifting for guidance, reading many half a dozen times, and he lifted for two hours six days a week. In two years he added 15 pounds of muscle. But then his weight gain stalled. He was bigger, but not big enough. Finally last year Mr. Johnson went online and found what he couldn't get from any Arnold Schwarzenegger fitness manual: advice from people who also had trouble gaining and keeping muscle. He learned from discussion groups and blogs to take rest days between workouts to give his muscles time to recuperate and grow. He began carrying a kitchen timer so he would remember to eat six or seven times a day. Copyright 2006The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 8479 - Posted: 02.02.2006

Scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Brandeis University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology report in the February 2 issue of the journal Neuron that increasing levels of brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) alleviates symptoms in a mouse model of the childhood disorder Rett Syndrome. Rett Syndrome (RTT) is a severe neurological disorder diagnosed almost exclusively in girls. Children with RTT appear to develop normally until 6 to 18 months of age, when they enter a period of regression, losing speech and motor skills. Most develop repetitive hand movements, irregular breathing patterns, seizures and extreme motor control problems. RTT leaves its victims profoundly disabled, requiring maximum assistance with every aspect of daily living. There is no cure. In late 2003 Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute and Michael Greenberg of Children's Hospital Boston announced that the "Rett Syndrome gene", Mecp2, interacts with bdnf. Interestingly, BDNF is highly active in infants aged 6 to 18 months, the same age that RTT symptoms first appear. BDNF is essential for neural plasticity (ability of neural circuits to undergo changes in function or organization due to previous activity), learning and memory. BDNF is also implicated in other neurological disorders including Huntington's Disease, schizophrenia and depression.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Trophic Factors
Link ID: 8478 - Posted: 02.02.2006

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News — Neanderthals did not disappear because modern humans were better hunters and thus out-competed them for resources, according to U.S. and Israeli anthropologists. On the contrary, they were top predators who knew how to hunt the biggest and fastest of the animals. Neanderthals went extinct about 30,000 years ago, after having inhabited Europe and parts of Asia for roughly 200,000 years. The reason for their demise has been long debated and frequently attributed to modern humans' greater intelligence and consequently greater hunting skills. However, evidence from animal remains hunted by Neanderthals clearly indicates that these hominids were as good as any early modern humans at hunting, Daniel Adler, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and colleagues report in the February issue of the journal Current Anthropology. The researchers examined abundant faunal remains, in particular thousands of bones belonging to a mountain goat species called the Caucasian tur that still exists today. The trove was excavated at Ortvale Klde, a rock shelter in the southern Caucasus in the Republic of Georgia dated to 60,000-20,000 years ago. Copyright © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 8477 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Anyone who has recognized a person but then struggled with the particulars – "I know I know her, but how…?" – can also appreciate the distinction between "familiarity" and "recollection." Recollection, as defined by memory specialists, is the ability to call up specific details about an encounter, while familiarity is simply knowing that someone or something has been encountered before. Both are elements of recognition memory and both, new research suggests, are functions of the brain's hippocampus. Published in the Feb. 2 issue of the journal Neuron, the University of California, San Diego study contradicts a recent body of work which maintains that the hippocampus is involved only in recollection. Led by senior researchers John Wixted, chair of the UCSD psychology department, and Larry Squire, a professor of psychiatry and neurosciences at the UCSD School of Medicine and the San Diego Veterans Affairs Health System, the study addresses one of the central debates in the neuroanatomy of memory. A seahorse-shaped structure in the left and right medial temporal lobes of the brain, the hippocampus has long been known as a critical area for processing memory. Memory is impaired, often severely, in people whose hippocampi have been damaged by trauma or disease – by Alzheimer's, for example, or oxygen deprivation following a heart attack.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8476 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Cannabis use by children increases the risk of aggressive behaviour, but does not lead to them becoming withdrawn, a Dutch study says. Previous research on the drug has linked it to "internalised" problems such as depression. But the British Journal of Psychiatry study of 5,000 children said it was more likely to cause external problems such as delinquency and aggression. UK experts said the "jury was still out" about such an effect. The findings comes as figures show more UK children are being exposed to cannabis. Last year, a report by the Schools Health Education Unit, a government research team which has been tracking young people's experience of drugs since 1987, found over half of 14 and 15-year-olds had been offered cannabis, with one in four having taken it. The latest study, by a team at the Trimbos Institute, a mental health research centre in the Netherlands, analysed the results of questionnaires filled in by 5,551 young people aged 12 to 16. They found 17% had used the drug in the previous year. Researchers found the strength of the link increased with higher use of cannabis. However they found children who had used cannabis, but not in the previous year, were not at higher risk that those who had never used cannabis. They also found more heavy cannabis users - children who used the drug 40 times a year or more - reported poorer school grades than those who did not use the drug. (C)BBC

Keyword: Aggression; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8475 - Posted: 02.01.2006

If doctors could put people in hibernation and pull them out at will, scientists think they could minimize damage from strokes, help recipients' bodies accept transplanted organs, perhaps even enable astronauts to travel in suspended animation until reaching distant destinations. But up to now, researchers have not understood the molecular mechanism controlling hibernation-like states. An HHMI-supported undergraduate's research, published in the January 2006 Journal of Neuroscience, describes for the first time the specific mechanism mice use to enter torpor, a hibernation-like state that enables them to survive periods of fasting during cool weather. Ross Smith is a co-author of the paper from researchers at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and Emory University in Atlanta. Smith conducted the research as an undergraduate in Williams' biologist Steven J. Swoap's laboratory, as part of the college's HHMI-supported undergraduate science education program. A June 2005 graduate of Williams, Smith is now a technician in Gokhan Hotamisligil's laboratory at Harvard University. “We were trying to figure out what signaling pathway was involved in allowing mice to go in and out of torpor,” explained Smith. Working with Swoap, he helped show that torpor is controlled by the same system that controls fight-or-flight responses and further, that it involves the stimulation of receptors for epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine, called adrenergic receptors, most likely those found in fat stores. © 2006 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Sleep; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 8474 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The language we speak affects half of what we see, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Chicago. Scholars have long debated whether our native language affects how we perceive reality – and whether speakers of different languages might therefore see the world differently. The idea that language affects perception is controversial, and results have conflicted. A paper published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences supports the idea – but with a twist. The paper suggests that language affects perception in the right half of the visual field, but much less, if at all, in the left half. The paper, "Whorf Hypothesis is Supported in the Right Visual Field but not in the Left," by Aubrey Gilbert, Terry Regier, Paul Kay, and Richard Ivry – is the first to propose that language may shape just half of our visual world. Their finding is suggested by the organization of the brain, the researchers say. Language function is processed predominantly in the left hemisphere of the brain, which receives visual information directly from the right visual field. "So it would make sense for the language processes of the left hemisphere to influence perception more in the right half of the visual field than in the left half", said Terry Regier of the University of Chicago, who proposed the idea behind the study.

Keyword: Vision; Language
Link ID: 8473 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Helen Pearson Male monkeys gain weight during their partner's pregnancy, and this finding hints at a biological basis for expectant fathers' expanding waistlines. Men commonly mirror symptoms of pregnancy, such as weight gain, nausea and backache. But the phenomenon, sometimes called couvade syndrome, is often dismissed as psychosomatic, with no real physical explanation. Now, primate researcher Toni Ziegler at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her colleagues have shown that two types of male monkeys experience one aspect of sympathetic pregnancy too. They weighed 14 male common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and 11 cottontop tamarins (Saguinus oedipus) during their partners' pregnancies of five and six months, respectively. They chose these animals because the males are monogamous and take on as much or more of the childcare as the mothers - just like some human dads. The animals gained as much as 20% of their original body weight, the team reports in Biology Letters. Fattening themselves in this way may help the male monkeys get through the gruelling few weeks after the baby arrives, Ziegler says, and so help ensure that their offspring survive. "We think it's preparing them," she says. ©2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Obesity; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8472 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi The brains and spinal cords of male mice contain more of the protective, fatty substance called myelin, which insulates nerve cells, than their female counterparts, new research reveals. The finding could help to explain why some neurological diseases, including multiple sclerosis, strike one sex more than another. Robert Skoff of the Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, US, and colleagues found an unexpected difference when they compared the composition of white matter in the brains of male and female mice. White matter consists of nerve cells coated with insulating myelin, which helps the cells to relay signals efficiently. Skoff’s team determined the density of oligodendrocytes – cells which produce myelin – in the male and female mouse central nervous system by testing for their molecular signature. They found that these specialised cells are roughly one-third more dense within the brains and spinal cords of male rodents. They add that the differences are present in young and old mice, and independent of strain and species. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Glia; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8471 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sandra G. Boodman The manufacturer of Zicam Cold Remedy has agreed to pay $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits brought by consumers who claim the popular over-the-counter zinc nasal gel damaged or destroyed their sense of smell. The Phoenix-based manufacturer, Matrixx Initatives, says the agreement announced Jan. 19 is not an admission of liability, but rather an effort to end most of the litigation over the homeopathic remedy. "The company still stands by the product, but this made good business sense," said Matrixx spokesman Robert J. Murphy. The agreement was announced jointly by the company and Arizona lawyer Charles S. Zimmerman, on behalf of a consortium of lawyers representing plaintiffs around the country. Like other scientific entrepreneurs, Robert Steven Davidson thought zinc might be a promising treatment for the common cold. But unlike many inventors of drugs, Davidson and his colleague Charles B. Hensley, who hold patents on Zicam, have unusual backgrounds. © Copyright 1996-2006 The Washington

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 8470 - Posted: 06.24.2010