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

When scientists developed an efficient device for emitting light, they hadn't realised butterflies have been using the same method for 30 million years. Flourescent patches on the wings of African swallowtail butterflies work in a very similar way to high emission light emitting diodes (LEDs). These high emission LEDs are an efficient variation on the diodes used in computer displays and TV screens. The University of Exeter, UK, research appears in the journal Science. In 2001, Alexei Erchak and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrated a method for building a more efficient LED. Most light emitted from standard LEDs cannot escape, resulting in what scientists call a low extraction efficiency of light. The LED developed at MIT used a two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal - a triangular lattice of holes etched into the LED's upper cladding layer - to enhance the extraction of light. And layered structures called Bragg reflectors were used to control the emission direction. These high emission devices potentially offer a huge step up in performance over standard types. Pete Vukusic and Ian Hooper at Exeter have now shown that swallowtail butterflies evolved an identical method for signalling to each other in the wild. (C)BBC

Keyword: Evolution; Vision
Link ID: 8195 - Posted: 11.18.2005

By BENEDICT CAREY Scientists working with mice have found that by removing a single gene they can turn normally cautious animals into daring ones, mice that are more willing to explore unknown territory and less intimidated by sights and sounds that they have learned can be dangerous. The surprising discovery, being reported today in the journal Cell, opens a new window on how fear works in the brain, experts said. Gene therapy to create daredevil warriors is likely to remain the province of screenwriters, but the new findings may help researchers design novel drugs to treat a wide array of conditions, from disabling anxiety in social settings to the sudden flights of poisoned memory that can persist in the wake of a disaster, an attack or the horror of combat. The discovery may well prove applicable to humans, the experts said, because the brain system that registers fear is similar in all mammals. Moreover, the genetic change did not appear to affect the animals' development in other ways. "Potential clinical applications could be quite important" for people with "fear-related mental disorders," said Dr. Gleb Shumyatsky, an assistant professor of genetics at Rutgers, who led a team that included investigators from Columbia, Harvard, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8194 - Posted: 11.18.2005

By Susan Brown WASHINGTON, D.C.--Some parents play Mozart for their infants, hoping to instill genius, or at least give them a leg up when they start school. While the strategy has been discounted as a path toward early achievement, musicians may have an edge over nonmusicians when distinguishing between speech sounds. The results may help explain how music therapy sometimes aids children struggling with language and reading. Listening to people speak is more complicated than it might seem. The brain must make out the individual sounds--called phonemes--that make up words. The critical contrasts can be slight: The acoustic difference between the syllables "ba" and "da," for instance, lasts only 40 milliseconds. Trouble with these distinctions may make reading difficult for dyslexic children. But studies have shown that singing and rhythm games improve dyslexic children's spelling and phonological skills. That led Nadine Gaab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge to wonder whether music somehow enhances a student's ability to discriminate rapid changes within sound. She and colleagues looked for the answer by rounding up 14 adult musicians who had learned to play an instrument before they were 7 years old and who continued to play at least a few hours each week. They then pitted the speech discrimination abilities of these performers against 14 nonmusicians matched in age, gender, and general language ability. © 2005 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hearing; Language
Link ID: 8193 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A Scots-led medical research team has identified a new gene linked to major mental illness that links back to a previously discovered gene known to increase the risk of schizophrenia and depression. Scientists from the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, together with scientists from the pharmaceutical company Merck, Sharp & Dohme Limited, report the discovery of the second gene, phosphodiesterase 4B (PDE4B) in the prestigious journal Science today (17 November). Their discoveries could lead to the eventual development of new drugs to treat mental health problems. In 2000, researchers at the University of Edinburgh identified a gene they called Disrupted in Schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), which was found to increase the chances of people developing schizophrenia, bipolar disorder (manic depression) and major clinical depression. Now, new research by the two Universities and by scientists from the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharpe and Dohme reveals that damage to the gene PDE4B is also seen to increase the risk of developing mental illness. PDE4B was already known to play an important role in how the brain thinks and builds memories, but had not previously been linked to mental disorder. In addition, researchers have discovered that DISC1 acts as a regulator for PDE4B, creating a 'pathway' between the two genes.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8192 - Posted: 11.18.2005

Jim Giles reports back from the annual brain science jamboree, from 12-16 November in Washington DC. Day 3: Space anxieties Rats exposed to cosmic rays are more reluctant to enter open areas, such as parts of a maze without shelter. This implies that they're more anxious, just like their older counterparts. If astronauts ever go on trip to other planets, they will be exposed to cosmic rays. So NASA should be careful, as the astronauts could act old and anxious too. This seemed like a logical step too far to me, so I put my scepticism to the researchers from University of Maryland, Baltimore County on whose poster these results appeared. It turns out not to be so unreasonable. The work is the latest in a line of studies in which rats have been exposed to simulated cosmic rays from a particle accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The fact that these studies managed to justify the $10,000 an hour that it costs to run the accelerator indicates just how badly NASA wants them done. In each study the rats have been given behavioural tasks designed assess things like their desire for novelty. And in each case the cosmic rays have caused younger rats to perform more like older animals. In the maze study, old rats tend to be anxious and therefore wary of entering exposed areas. The rays seem to turn wild young rats into stay-at-home oldies. Day 2: Model of mind - in a rat? Day 2: Rejected by Science Day 1: Popularity contest Day 1: Not so ecstatic ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 8191 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Deactivating a specific gene transforms meek mice into daredevils, researchers have found. The team believe the research might one day enable people suffering from fear – in the form of phobias or anxiety disorders, for example – to be clinically treated. The research found that mice lacking an active gene for the protein stathmin are not only more courageous, but are also slower to learn fear responses to pain-associated stimuli, says geneticist Gleb Shumyatsky, at Rutgers University in New Jersey, US. In the experiments, the stathmin-lacking mice wandered out into the centre of an open box, in defiance of the normal mouse instinct to hide along the box’s walls to avoid potential predators. And to test learned fear, the mice were exposed to a loud sound followed by a brief electric shock from the floor below them. A day later, normal mice froze when the sound was played again. Stathmin-lacking mice barely reacted to the sound at all. In both mice and humans, the amygdala area of the brain serves as the control centre of basic fear impulses. Stathmin is found almost exclusively in this and related brain areas. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Emotions; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8190 - Posted: 06.24.2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio– An experience as simple as watching graphically violent or emotional scenes in a movie can induce enough stress to interfere with problem-solving abilities, new research at Ohio State University Medical Center suggests. A related study suggests a beta-blocker medication could promote the ability to think flexibly under stressful conditions, neurology researchers say. The research, presented Wednesday (11/16) at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting in Washington, D.C., represents the first time scientists have asked participants to combine movie viewing with problem-solving tasks to assess the effects of stress on cognitive flexibility, said David Beversdorf, a neurologist at OSU Medical Center and senior author of the studies. The researchers juxtaposed two very different movies – "Saving Private Ryan" and "Shrek" – to induce stress or set up a control condition before testing participants for verbal mental flexibility. "Performance on the tests was significantly impaired after the 'Saving Private Ryan' clip as compared to after the 'Shrek' clip," Beversdorf said. "Therefore, 'real-world' types of stressors can significantly impair the ability to think flexibly." The research has implications for understanding the range of effects of stress on thinking and could have broader clinical implications for patients with anxiety disorders or substance abuse problems, Beversdorf said.

Keyword: Stress; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 8189 - Posted: 06.24.2010

It sounds like science fiction: simply swallowing a pill, or eating a specific food supplement, could permanently change your behaviour for the better, or reverse diseases such as schizophrenia, Huntingtons or cancer. Yet such treatments are looking increasingly plausible. In the latest development, normal rats have been made to behave differently just by injecting them with a specific amino acid. The change to their behaviour was permanent. The amino acid altered the way the rat's genes were expressed, raising the idea that drugs or dietary supplements might permanently halt the genetic effects that predispose people to mental or physical illness. It is not yet clear whether such interventions could work in humans. But there is good reason to believe they could, as evidence mounts that a range of simple nutrients might have such effects. Two years ago, researchers led by Randy Jirtle of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, showed that the activity of a mouse's genes can be influenced by food supplements eaten by its mother just prior to, or during, very early pregnancy (New Scientist, 9 August 2003, p 14). Then last year, Moshe Szyf, Michael Meaney and colleagues at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, showed that mothers could influence the way a rat's genes are expressed after it has been born. If a rat is not licked, groomed and nursed enough by its mother, chemical tags known as methyl groups are added to the DNA of a particular gene.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 8188 - Posted: 11.17.2005

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Researchers with the University of Florida and the California Institute of Technology have developed a new strain of genetically modified mice that allow scientists to examine the potential usefulness of new therapies for Alzheimer's disease. The development, reported Nov. 15 in the international open-access medical journal PloS Medicine, has helped scientists evaluate the brain's ability to repair one of Alzheimer's hallmark lesions, senile plaque. These plaques occur when enzymes - proteins that cause or speed up chemical reactions - create peptide fragments called beta amyloid, also known as Abeta. The fragments clump together to form senile plaques, clogging the spaces between cells and damaging parts of the brain used for memory and decision-making. The mice were genetically engineered by scientists to respond to a type of therapy designed to lower production of Abeta by inhibiting the enzymes responsible for peptide release. "We can stop the disease from getting worse in these mice, but we can't reverse it," said David Borchelt, Ph.D., a professor of neuroscience at the McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida. "Although it is possible that human brains repair damage better than mouse brains, the study suggests that it may be difficult to repair lesions once they've formed."

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8187 - Posted: 11.17.2005

Excessive computer gaming has the hallmarks of addiction, suggests new experiments on "drug memory". The researchers argue it should be classified as such, enabling “addicts” to start seeking help. “We have the patients and we have the parents and family members calling us for help,” says Sabine Grüsser of the Charité University Medicine Berlin, in Germany. Learning is recognised as an important underlying mechanism of addiction. In becoming addicted, people start to associate cues that are normally neutral with the object of their craving. To a crack addict, for instance, a building in which they have used the drug is more than just a place they have been – it becomes a trigger for craving and can, on its own, reignite a need to use the drug again after months of abstinence. Grüsser and her colleague Ralf Thalemann wanted to see if computer game cues could also trigger similar “drug memories” in excessive computer gamers. They compared 15 men in their 20s who admitted that gaming had chased other activities – such as work and socialising – out of their lives, and 15 game-playing but otherwise healthy controls. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8186 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ATHENS, Ohio – There’s hope for the less-than-perfect male – if you’re a swordtail fish, that is. As the size and age of female swordtail fish increase, so does the preference for males with asymmetrical markings, according to a new Ohio University study. Molly Morris, associate professor of biological sciences, and colleagues found that older female swordtails spent more time with asymmetrically striped males than symmetrical males when offered a choice. These findings are the first to contradict previous studies showing that females tend to prefer males with symmetrical markings, which in this case are black bars on each side of the body. Scientists have suggested that symmetrical markings are a sign of genetic fitness. The new study provides evidence that visual cues are not the only thing driving mate selection, however. The findings also suggest that “females may not have the same mating preferences throughout their lives,” Morris said. Funded by the National Science Foundation and the Research Challenge Program at Ohio University, the paper has been published online in Biology Letters and will appear in next month’s print edition. © 2005 Ohio University

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8185 - Posted: 06.24.2010