Until West Nile virus swept through in 2002 and killed it, a murder of crows had dominated the skies around my home in northwest Washington, D.C., for more than 15 years. Their preferred roost was the roof of a house kitty-corner across the alley from my backyard. Next door, a pair of mockingbirds invariably nested in a pear tree. And every summer, at least once or twice, I watched a crow sally into the pear tree, snatch an egg or nestling from the mockingbird nest, and carry it back to the roof, seemingly oblivious to the mockingbirds' frantic distress. The parents fearlessly mobbed the cradle robber, but to no avail. Some people might have found these scenes distasteful—mockingbirds, after all, are much cuter than crows—but I miss seeing such wild displays of nature red in tooth and claw in my tame urban habitat. While urbanization has dealt a death blow to many bird species, American crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) thrive on it. So do several of the other 45 species of birds in the widespread genus Corvus, which includes ravens, jackdaws, and the rook. (For simplicity, I'll refer to them all collectively as crows unless a distinction is in order.) At the same time, some other crow species have suffered mightily from human actions. Two species of crows that once lived in Hawaii were wiped out by the Polynesian settlers of these islands, while the third, of which a small number now exists only in captivity, was the victim of more recent habitat loss and introduced diseases. For better or worse, though, relationships between crows and people are ancient and intricate, so much so, the authors of In the Company of Crows and Ravens argue, that people influence the evolution and culture of crows and, most intriguingly, vice versa. Copyright 2005 Friends of the National Zoo.

Keyword: Intelligence; Evolution
Link ID: 8249 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A team of Spanish and American neuroscientists has discovered neurons in the mammalian brainstem that focus exclusively on new, novel sounds, helping humans and other animals ignore ongoing, predictable sounds. These "novelty detector neurons" quickly stop firing if a sound or sound pattern is repeated, but will briefly resume firing whenever some aspect of the sound changes, according to Ellen Covey, one of the authors of the study and a psychology professor at the University of Washington. The neurons can detect changes in the pitch, loudness or duration of a single sound and can even detect changes in the pattern of a complex series of sounds, she said. Covey and her colleagues, Dr. Manuel Malmierca of the University of Salamanca and doctoral student David Perez-Gonzalez, who is currently a visiting scientist in the UW psychology department, report their findings in the early December issue of the European Journal of Neuroscience. The neurons are located under the cortex in a part of the brain called the inferior colliculus. Covey said the research implies that these cells can "remember a frequently occurring pattern and perform relatively sophisticated cognitive tasks such as discriminating a novel pattern from a frequently occurring one."

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 8248 - Posted: 12.02.2005

The comedians are right. The science proves it. A man's brain and a woman's brain really do work differently. New research from the University of Alberta shows that men and women utilize different parts of their brains while they perform the same tasks. The results of the research are reported this month in the journal NeuroImage. The study involved volunteers who performed memory tasks, verbal tasks, visual spatial tasks and simple motor tasks while their brain activity was monitored with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technology. "The results jumped out at us," said Emily Bell, a U of A PhD student in psychiatry and lead author of the paper "Sometimes males and females would perform the same tasks and show different brain activation, and sometimes they would perform different tasks and show the same brain activation." "It is widely recognized that there are differences between males and females, but finding that different regions of the brain are activated in men and women in response to the same task has large potential implications for a variety of different clinical situations," said Dr. Peter Silverstone, a psychiatrist at the U of A and an author of the study.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8247 - Posted: 12.02.2005

Results of studies with laboratory model of PRODH deficiency demonstrate the role of COMT in compensating for overactive dopamine signaling, according to St. Jude Disruption of the normal interaction between the genes PRODH and COMT contributes directly to major symptoms of schizophrenia by upsetting the balance of the brain chemicals glutamate and dopamine, according to a group of investigators that includes a scientist now at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The investigators developed a model of schizophrenia that provides a way to study and understand how the loss of both PRODH and COMT gene activity contributes to the symptoms of schizophrenia. The insights they gained into the disease with this model are important because the loss of the PRODH gene causes the imbalance in the levels of both glutamate and dopamine; and this imbalance contributes directly to the symptoms of schizophrenia, according to Stanislav Zakharenko, MD, PhD, an assistant member of the Department of Developmental Neurobiology at St. Jude. The team investigated the roles of PRODH and COMT because these genes are located in the q11 region of human chromosome 22. Previous work by other scientists showed that a mutation in this region--the 22q11 microdeletion--is one of the major risk factors for developing schizophrenia.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8246 - Posted: 12.02.2005

NO WONDER America has a growing weight problem: its children are being condemned to a life of obesity while still in the womb. According to two new studies, overeating by expectant mothers is an important but overlooked factor in the inexorable expansion of the nation's waistlines. More alarming is the conclusion of one of the new studies, from a team at Harvard Medical School, that even women who follow official advice on how much weight they should gain during pregnancy may be priming their children to become obese. In the US 16 per cent of children are classed as obese - a threefold increase since 1980. Among adults, the obesity rate is 30 per cent. That's a major concern, because obese people suffer from health problems, including heart disease, diabetes and stroke. So far, public health strategists have fought childhood fat by promoting healthy eating and exercise among children themselves. But the Harvard team, led by Matthew Gillman, and another group led by Andrea Sharma of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia, decided to investigate the effect of weight gain during pregnancy. Last month in Toronto, Canada, they told the third International Congress on Developmental Origins of Health and Disease that the children of women who put on a lot of weight during pregnancy were particularly prone to obesity. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Obesity; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8245 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Almost half of patients treated for a cannabis related mental disorder go on to develop a schizophrenic illness, a study has suggested. The Danish study, in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found a third of them developed paranoid schizophrenia. Cannabis has been linked with the condition, but few studies have looked at people with drug-induced symptoms. The researchers said cannabis users showed signs of schizophrenic illness earlier than others with the condition. Researchers looked at the incidence of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, including schizophrenia, schizoptypal disorder and schizoaffective disorders. The team from Aarhus Psychiatric Hospital obtained information on 535 patients treated for cannabis-induced psychotic symptoms from the Danish Psychiatric Central Register, who were then followed for three years. They were then compared to 2,721 people treated for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders who had no history of cannabis-induced illness. It was found that 44.5% of those with cannabis-induced psychotic symptoms went on to be diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. (C)BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8244 - Posted: 12.01.2005

Oxford University has resumed building work on its controversial new laboratory complex on South Parks Road. Construction work on the biomedical facility had been halted in July 2004 after a sustained campaign of protest from animal rights groups. The building contractor, Walter Lilly & Co, said its staff had been subjected to threats and intimidation. The university has now engaged a new company and work on the £20m complex began early on Wednesday. Oxford said it was determined to finish the project, which is now well behind schedule. "The new biomedical research building will provide world-class facilities reflecting the university's commitment to animal welfare and to scientific progress," added David Holmes, the institution's Registrar. "Completing the project will be good for animal welfare, good for medial research and good for the treatment of life-threatening conditions all over the world." Mr Holmes confirmed that the government had been supportive and that assistance had been given by Thames Valley Police. He added that the £20m construction cost did not include security costs for the site. The facility was first conceived a decade ago; it has been in detailed planning for over five years and phase one of the project was originally to have been completed this Autumn. (C)BBC

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 8243 - Posted: 12.01.2005

by Elizabeth Svoboda For Rüdiger Gamm, the stakes were high. When the starting signal sounded, the second timed trial would begin, and he would have a final chance to better his score. For one minute, his only focus would be the fifty randomly chosen dates between the years 1600 and 2100 that appeared on the piece of paper in front of him. To figure out which day of the week each date fell on, he would have to work fast, but not too fast: If he got more than one answer wrong, he would be disqualified, no matter how many right answers came afterward. But if he could better Matthias Kesselschläger, Gamm would have what he had come to Annaberg-Buchholz seeking: the title of first-ever “Mental Calculation World Cup Winner for the category Calendar from Memory.” But that was not to be. The two Germans would finish first and second in the 2004 calendar calculations competition, but Kesselschläger would best Gamm’s twenty-two correct results with thirty-three of his own—a new world record. Still, Gamm, now thirty-four, is considered one of the best human calculators in the world, able to multiply eight-digit numbers in his head. He also can calculate ninth powers and fifth roots, and divide one integer by another to sixty decimal places. What may be even more remarkable is that up until the age of twenty, he had no interest—and no talent—in math. © 2002 Science & Spirit Magazine.

Keyword: Intelligence; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8242 - Posted: 06.24.2010

(AP) Your medicine really could work better if your doctor talks it up before handing over the prescription. Research is showing the power of expectations, that they have physical — not just psychological — effects on your health. Scientists can measure the resulting changes in the brain, from the release of natural painkilling chemicals to alterations in how neurons fire. Among the most provocative findings: New research suggests that once Alzheimer's disease robs someone of the ability to expect that a proven painkiller will help them, it doesn't work nearly as well. It's a new spin on the so-called placebo effect — and it begs the question of how to harness this power and thus enhance treatment benefits for patients. "Your expectations can have profound impacts on your brain and your health," says Columbia University neuroscientist Tor Wager. "There is not a single placebo effect, but many placebo effects," that differ by illness, adds Dr. Fabrizio Benedetti of Italy's University of Torino Medical School, who is studying those effects in patients with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and pain. ©MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 8241 - Posted: 06.24.2010

To take advantage of the information emerging from the mouse genome sequencing efforts, it has become necessary to systematically collect normative phenotypic information at all biological levels. Accordingly, an international collaboration, the Mouse Phenome Database (MPD) project, was created to establish a collection of baseline phenotypic data from commonly used inbred mice, such as the C57BL/6J, 129S1/SvlmJ, DBA/2J and BALB/cByJ strains. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) neuroimaging phenotyping informatics emphasis has similarly been directed toward designing comprehensive three dimensional (3D) digital brain atlases of commonly used mice strains including variability of brain structures across a given strain. As part of this world-wide effort, we have constructed an adult male C57BL/6J mouse brain atlas database derived directly from T2*-weighted 3D magnetic resonance microscopy images acquired on a 17.6-T magnet @ University of Florida. The 3D neuroanatomical information of twenty segmented structures including structure variability data, are integrated into a comprehensive database with the following framework:

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 8240 - Posted: 12.01.2005

UPTON, NY -- Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have just launched a web-based 3-D digital atlas browser and database of the brain of a popular laboratory mouse (see http://www.bnl.gov/CTN/mouse/). "Neuroscientists around the world can now download these extremely accurate anatomical templates and use them to map other data -- such as which parts of the brain are metabolically active and where particular genes are expressed -- and for making quantitative anatomical comparisons with other, genetically engineered mouse strains," said project leader Helene Benveniste, who is a researcher in Brookhaven's medical department and a professor of anesthesiology at Stony Brook University. The database was created using high-resolution magnetic resonance (MR) microscopy at the University of Florida in collaboration with researchers from Brookhaven Lab's Center for Translational Neuroimaging. The work was done in parallel with an international collaboration, the Mouse Phenome Database (MPD) project, which was created to establish a collection of baseline phenotypic data from commonly used inbred mice. The new brain atlas database consists of 3-D anatomical data from 10 adult male mice of the strain C57BL/6J, and contains data on 20 segmented structures, including variability of brain structures across the strain, and downloadable visualization tools.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 8239 - Posted: 12.01.2005

Toni Baker A bi-polar hormone that can contribute to strokes and minimize their damage is emerging as a therapeutic target in the battle against these brain attacks, researchers say. “It costs about $56 billion a year to look after stroke patients, never mind the quality-of-life issues for these patients,” says Dr. Anne M. Dorrance, Medical College of Georgia physiologist and senior author of a review article on the cover of the November issue of Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism. Despite better management of blood pressure – the number-one risk factor for strokes – stroke incidence is not declining and aging baby boomers likely will cause rates to spike, says Dr. Dorrance. She is among an increasing number of scientists who think the hormone, aldosterone, is part of the problem and blocking it may be part of the solution. Scientific momentum surrounding the hormone secreted by the adrenal gland prompted the journal to ask Dr. Dorrance to write the article, “Aldosterone: Good Guy or Bad Guy in Cerebrovascular Disease.” Copyright 2005 Medical College of Georgia

Keyword: Stroke; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 8238 - Posted: 06.24.2010

PORTLAND, Ore. – A report written by an OHSU physician with more than a half century of medical experience contradicts both public and professional bias against the use of morphine in the final stage of life for patients with breathing difficulties. Because large amounts of morphine slows breathing, doctors have avoided prescribing the drug to dying patients with breathing difficulties for fear it would shorten life. However, the author of this new case series suggests that some patients who receive an appropriate level of morphine live a little longer because their fear and struggle for breath are reduced. The research is published in the current issue of the Journal of Palliative Care. "Much has changed in health care since the initial concerns about morphine and breathing difficulties were documented in the 1950's," said Miles Edwards M.D., Professor of Medicine Emeritus in the OHSU School of Medicine and a clinical consultant the Center for Ethics in Health Care at OHSU. "For decades, physicians have been advised to avoid prescribing even small doses of morphine to dying patients with breathing difficulties based on the traditional belief that the drug made breathing more difficult and hastened death. However that line of thinking seems to be a medical urban legend. In fact, this age-old advice should likely be reversed for some patients. By slowing down breathing with morphine and controlling panic, patients become fatigued less quickly. They are breathing at a slower pace, but they also require less oxygen so the condition and the drug don't act in conflict with one another as one might think."

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8237 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists suggest they have found a reason why some shorter children perform less well at school. A Children of the 90s study by the University of Bristol found low growth hormone levels were linked to low IQ. The Pediatrics study suggests it would be possible to use diet to increase levels of the hormone. But other experts said, even if growth hormone levels did play a role, it would be a tiny part of the "jigsaw" of factors which affect development. It is already known that low birth weight babies develop more slowly, reaching development milestones later and having slightly lower IQs than normal weight babies. Short stature, linked to poor post-natal growth and nutrition, is also known to be related to poorer performance in intellectual development tests and in educational achievement. The Bristol team looked at what might happen in the body to explain these links, focusing on insulin growth factor (IGF-I) . Circulating levels of insulin-like growth factors are influenced by a variety of factors, including diet, and control the effects of growth hormone on tissues. IGFs play a key role in physical growth and organ development in childhood. It has been suggested that they could also affect the development of the brain. (C)BBC

Keyword: Intelligence; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 8236 - Posted: 11.30.2005

Boston = Researchers at The Forsyth Institute have discovered that the transport mechanisms for serotonin — the chemical substance involved in transmitting signals between neurons, and which has a role in anxiety and mood disorders — play a key role in determining where organs are positioned in the body during embryonic development. Transporters bring serotonin into cells. The research team, led by Dr. Michael Levin, found that when the transport of serotonin into cells was blocked, normal development was disrupted in frog and chick embryos. In particular, left-right asymmetry, the process through which cells “know” which side they are on as they form body organs such as the heart and liver, is controlled by serotonin transporters. Michael Levin, PhD., Associate Member of the Staff, conducted his research with substances commonly used to treat mood disorders in humans including the drug Prozac. These drugs address chemical imbalances in the brain by blocking serotonin’s removal from the space between neurons. “With this research, we’ve not only identified a novel role of the serotonin transporters, in contributing to left-right asymmetry, but have also confirmed that serotonin has a role in cells other than neurons,” Levin said. “This raises interesting questions related to embryonic development and also about the possible subtle side-effects of serotonin-related drugs like the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI antidepressants such as Prozac and Zoloft) or the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs).” Copyright 2004, Forsyth Institute

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8235 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News Normally cautious mice can be turned into daredevils by removing a gene in their brain that regulates fear, a new study has found. Scientists say stathmin, a gene that is normally present in high levels in a part of mammals' brains called the amygdala, controls both innate and learned fear. Switching off the gene makes a fearful mouse courageous. The discovery provides important information on how fear is experienced and processed. It could have important implications for the study of anxiety disorders in humans, and may aid in the development of gene-based therapies to treat such diseases. "Because stathmin controls both instinctive and learned fear, it provides genetic means to study how these two types of fear work and interact to govern our emotions," said Gleb Shumyatsky, a genetics professor at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Shumyatsky is the lead author on the study, which was reported in the November 18 issue of the science journal Cell. © 1996-2005 National Geographic Society.

Keyword: Emotions; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8234 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The first images ever made of retinas in living people reveal surprising variation from one person to the next. Yet somehow our perceptions don't vary as might be expected. As they took pictures of the thousands of cells responsible for detecting color in the deepest layer of the eye, scientists found that our eyes are wired differently. Yet we all — with the exception of the colorblind — identify colors similarly. The results suggest that the brain plays an even more significant role than thought in deciding what we see. The eye, responsible for receiving visual images, is wrapped in three layers of tissue. The innermost layer, the retina, is responsible for sensing color and sending information to the brain. The retina contains light receptors known as cones and rods. These receptors receive light, convert it to chemical energy, and activate the nerves that send messages to the brain. The rods are in charge of perceiving size, brightness and shape of images, whereas color vision and fine details are the responsibility of the cones. © 2005 MSNBC.com © 2005 Microsoft

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 8233 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The more creative a person is, the more sexual partners they are likely to have, according to a pioneering study which could explain the behaviour of notorious womanisers such as poets Lord Byron and Dylan Thomas. The research, by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and the Open University in the UK, found that professional artists and poets have around twice as many sexual partners as those who do not indulge in these creative activities. The authors also delved into the personalities of artists and poets and found they shared certain traits with mentally ill patients. These traits were linked with an increased sexual activity and are thought to have evolved because they contribute to the survival of the human species. Some 425 British men and women, including a sample of visual artists and poets and schizophrenic patients, were surveyed for the report, which is published today in the academic journal, The Proceedings of the Royal Society (B). Although creative types have long been associated with increased sexual activity, this the first time that this link has been proved by research. Study participants filled in questionnaires which asked about their degree of creative activity in poetry and visual art, their psychiatric history, and their history of sexual encounters since the age of 18. They were also required to answer questions on a 'schizotypy inventory', a breakdown of characteristics linked with schizophrenic patients.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8232 - Posted: 11.30.2005

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — The sexy sounds emitted by male pigeons send female pigeons into the bird version of rapture, and such vocalizations seem to affect the females more than when they watched a desirous male strut his stuff, a recent study determined. Since the males usually vocalize and strut at the same time, the findings suggest the strutting may be "redundant," meaning that it serves the same function as the sounds to hammer home a point, which in this case is that the male wants to mate. Humans communicate using comparable signals, such as when a person might raise his or her eyebrows while at the same time asking someone, "Care to dance?" The eyebrow move alone might be misunderstood or ignored, but together the facial expression and words suggest what the speaker is thinking. "The acoustic signals were very salient to the birds: when the females could hear but not see the males, they responded with some courtship behavior (circle walking and spreading their tails), but most importantly they began to coo," said lead author Sarah Partan, whose research was outlined in a recent issue of the journal Animal Behavior. © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Language
Link ID: 8231 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Michael Purdy — By peering into the minds of volunteers preparing to play a brief visual game, neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found they can predict whether the volunteers will succeed or fail at the game. "Before we present the task, we can use brain activity to predict with about 70 percent accuracy whether the subject will give a correct or an incorrect response," says lead author Ayelet Sapir, Ph.D., a postdoctoral research associate in neurology. Eleven seconds before volunteers played the game — discriminating the direction of a field of moving dots — scientists showed them a hint: an arrow pointing to where the moving dots were likely to appear. The dots were visible only for one-fifth of a second and therefore were easy to miss if a subject was not paying attention to the right area. After the hint and prior to the appearance of the moving dots, researchers scanned the volunteers with functional brain imaging, which reveals increases in blood flow to different brain areas indicative of increased activity in those regions. Based on brain activity patterns that reflected whether the subjects used the hint or not, scientists found they could frequently predict whether a volunteer's response would be right or wrong before the volunteers even had a chance to try to see the dots.

Keyword: Attention; Vision
Link ID: 8230 - Posted: 06.24.2010