A chemical compound in wine reduces levels of a harmful molecule linked to Alzheimer's disease. In a recent study, resveratrol--one of several antioxidants found in wine--helped human cells break down the molecule, which contributes to the lesions found in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Fortunately for teetotalers, the compound is also found elsewhere. "Resveratrol is a natural polyphenol occurring in abundance in several plants, including grapes, berries and peanuts," says author Philippe Marambaud of the Litwin-Zucker Research Center for the Study of Alzheimer's Disease and Memory Disorders in Manhasset, New York. "The polyphenol is found in high concentrations in red wines." The scientists found that 40 micromoles (a measure of the amount of resveratrol in a liter of solution) cut levels of the molecules--amyloid-beta peptides--by more than half. Treatment with proteasome-inhibitors nullified the benefit. The team therefore thinks the substance works by boosting the ability of the proteasome--a multi-protein complex that breaks down other proteins inside a cell. These findings will be published in the November 11 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8123 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON -- Two studies in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience show that when animals are stressed, deprived and exposed to tempting food, they overeat, with different degrees of interaction. The powerful interplay between internal and external factors helps explain why dieters rebound and even one cookie can trigger a binge if someone's predisposed to binge. The findings also implicate the brain's opioid, or reward, system in regulating overeating, especially when the food is extra-tempting – and not only in under-fed animals. This knowledge may help even non-stressed people to avoid overeating, keep their weight down and improve their health. Behavioral Neuroscience is published by the American Psychological Association (APA). A study by M. Flavia Barbano, PhD, and Martine Cador, PhD, at the University of Bordeaux 2 in France, separated the distinct roles in consumption played by food deprivation and the "yum" factor, establishing that the interplay between internal and external factors regulates food intake, at least in mammals. Although much has been learned about human overeating, it is easier to untangle and verify the different variables involved in controlled animal studies. Working with laboratory rats, the researchers tested three aspects of eating behavior: motivation (how bad did they want it), anticipation (how excited were they in advance), and intake (how much did they eat), all relative to homeostasis (satiety or deprivation) and food type (ordinary lab chow or "highly palatable" chocolate breakfast cereal, as verified by a pre-test of different foods).

Keyword: Obesity; Stress
Link ID: 8122 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Perceiving a simple touch may depend as much on memory, attention, and expectation as on the stimulus itself, according to new research from Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar Ranulfo Romo and his colleague Victor de Lafuente. The scientists found that monkeys' perceptions of touch match brain activity in the frontal lobe, an area that assimilates many types of neural information. Romo and de Lafuente, both of the Institute of Cellular Physiology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, report their results in the December 2005 issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, published early online on November 6, 2005. One of neuroscience's most difficult questions concerns how the brain converts simple sensory inputs to complete perceptual experiences. Many neuroscientists assume that perceptions arise in the sensory cortices, which are the first areas of the brain to process information coming in from sense organs, Romo said. Some recent research, however, has hinted that activity in other parts of the brain may also contribute to sensory perception. When it comes to the sense of touch, a stimulus at the skin triggers an impulse that travels first to an area at the top of the brain called the primary somatosensory cortex (S1). The information then moves to other parts of the brain, where it can contribute to memory, decision-making, and motor outputs. © 2005 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 8121 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A substance made by immune cells may play a key role in the development of multiple sclerosis, research suggests. A team at Ohio State University found the molecule blocked progression of a similar disease in mice. The findings suggest blocking the molecule - macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) - might be an effective way to treat MS. The Journal of Immunology study also suggests testing for MIF may help predict flare-ups of illness. The Ohio State team worked on mice bred to develop a disease which closely resembles MS. They found animals with MIF developed the initial, acute phase of the disease, but then showed no signs of further progression. Lead researcher Professor Caroline Whitacre said: "Our results suggest that MIF may be less important for initiating MS, but that it may be necessary for MS progression. These findings indicate that in the future we can perhaps use MIF levels to predict the onset of a relapse. But more importantly, perhaps this study will lead to drugs that can halt the course of MS by blocking the action of MIF." MS is an autoimmune disease caused by the immune system turning in on itself and attacking the body's own tissues. In MS, immune cells destroy the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord and enables them to transmit impulses. (C)BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 8120 - Posted: 11.05.2005

By NED MARTEL The PBS series "Nature" enlivens the screen with colorful, robust animal behavior, but its undertones are also mournful, longing for lost links between society and ecology. In the Sunday premiere of its 24th season, cooperation between man and beast is recalled through the story of how an Australian whale killer and a killer whale together harvested enormous humpbacks. The bloody teamwork took place in a far-off idyllic cove off the southeast coast of Australia in the early part of the 20th century. George Davidson led wooden rowboats into rough waters, churning with the chaos of sleek orcas corralling longer, less nimble humpback whales. The valiant Mr. Davidson harpooned the bigger beasts by hand, and the reward for the cooperative killer whales was a chance to attack the carcasses and pull out their tongues, which to them are some sort of delicacy. To each his own, apparently, in this mammalian collaboration, and Mr. Davidson and his orca partner, named Old Tom by the cove's residents, have become legendary. "He'd work them 'round like the way a hound dog would round up the sheep," says Bill Blaxter, 92, who saw the beast through a boy's eyes. The end of the productive alliance between Mr. Davidson and Old Tom was not so happy and not really their fault. Faster, more mechanized whaling procedures in the deeper waters reduced the humpback population in short order. Then, less respectful landlubbers took action that made the killer whales doubt that they could trust the two-legged types, after all. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 8119 - Posted: 11.05.2005

Researchers have reduced Alzheimer's symptoms in mice by deleting a single gene in the brain. The findings may allow the development of therapies that are safer and more selective for preventing and treating the disease. Alzheimer's disease is associated with inflammation and plaque build-up in the brain. Research suggests that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen and naproxen can help prevent symptoms in people by inhibiting the cyclooxygenase pathway, which promotes inflammation. The drugs work by blocking two of the pathway's enzymes, COX-1 and COX-2. Unfortunately, the COX enzymes also help maintain stomach lining, and blocking COX-1 throughout the body can lead to gastric ulcers and intestinal bleeding, while blocking COX-2 may cause stroke. So Katrin Andreasson, a neurologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues started looking for a part of the cyclooxygenase pathway that acts specifically on the brain. Earlier work had shown that one component of the pathway called PGE2 binds to a brain receptor known as EP2. © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8118 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ben Harder Male mice may serenade prospective mates at pitches about two octaves higher than the shrillest sounds audible to people. This "mouse song" is comparable in complexity to the sequences of tones that songbirds and some whales make, say Timothy E. Holy and Zhongsheng Guo of Washington University in St. Louis. Other researchers remain guarded about labeling mouse vocalizations as song. Nevertheless, says neurophysiologist Xiaoqin Wang of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, the discovery that mice emit richly patterned ultrasonic noises could have important implications for the study of communication. Scientists have known that mice produce ultrasound. When pups become isolated from their mothers, for example, they utter high-pitched cries that launch a maternal search-and-rescue operation. Adult males also vocalize when they detect female odors. To investigate whether the adults make distinct syllables expressed in specific sequences, Holy and Guo recorded vocalizations by 45 male mice. The researchers placed the mice, one at a time, in a microphone-equipped chamber and inserted a urine-soaked cotton swab through a hole in one wall. Copyright ©2005 Science Service

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hearing
Link ID: 8117 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The brain structure of people with autism is an "exaggeration" of the normal male brain, researchers suggest. It has long been suggested that autistic behaviour is an exaggeration of male habits such as making lists. But Cambridge Autism Research Centre researchers say the actual development of the autistic brain also exaggerates what happens in male brains. Writing in Science, they say investigating this theory further will aid understanding of autism. The team, led by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, looked at research carried out into this "extreme male brain" explanation for autism. They point to evidence that males generally have greater early growth of certain brain regions, and less hemispheric connectivity than females. Boys' brains grow more quickly than girls'. In the brains of people with autism, this growth appears to occur to an even more extreme degree. There are also specific differences seen in certain areas of the brain. The amygdala, which plays a key role in emotional responses, is abnormally large in toddlers with autism; again an exaggeration of the typical development of the male brain. The researchers say evidence points to exposure to male hormones, such as testosterone, before birth affecting these brain development patterns. Male foetuses produce these hormones from their testes, and female foetuses from their adrenal glands. (C)BBC

Keyword: Autism; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8116 - Posted: 11.04.2005

By Marc Kaufman In an escalating dispute over how the government regulates powerful painkilling drugs, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking to prevent renewal of a provision that last year gave the Drug Enforcement Administration final say over allowing new narcotic medications on the market. The FDA's deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, Scott Gottlieb, said yesterday that the agency opposed the legislation, which for the second year in a row was added by the House to the yearly appropriations bill for several major departments. "Specific language attached to the appropriations bill would ultimately delay access by physicians and their patients to important, safe and effective pain management and palliative care medicines," Gottlieb said. He said giving DEA authority over traditional FDA territory could upset "a delicate balance for managing both safety and access." Although the dispute is ostensibly over a limited change in how controlled drugs are approved and labeled, it has become something of a stand-in for a larger battle over whether DEA's actions are intruding into the practice of medicine and denying pain sufferers relief they need. © 2005 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 8115 - Posted: 06.24.2010

- Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered that a protein associated with causing neurodegenerative conditions may, when appearing in normal amounts, actually protect against neurodegeneration. The findings, appearing in today's issue of the journal Cell, have surprised the researchers, because an excess of the same specific protein - alpha-synuclein - causes Parkinson's disease. "It's the first time that anyone has shown that synuclein has any positive function at all in the body, and this is important because it's been known to be involved in neurodegeneration," said Dr. Thomas Südhof, senior author of the study and director of the Center for Basic Neuroscience. Dr. Südhof also is an investigator in the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The key to their findings was determining the interaction between alpha-synuclein and another protein - cysteine-string-protein-alpha, or CSP-alpha. The researchers' investigation involved several strains of mutant mice, which produced differing amounts of CSP-alpha or alpha-synuclein. Copyright 2005. The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 8114 - Posted: 11.04.2005

If you show someone a mouse and a cat and ask which is smaller, they'll quickly reply, "the mouse." Ask which is bigger, and it takes most people slightly longer to respond. Conversely, if the two animals are large, such as a cow and an elephant, the typical person will be quicker at saying the elephant is larger than saying the cow is smaller. This rule, known to scientists from actual tests on people, is known as "semantic congruity," and it also holds true for comparing numbers and distances. Until now, scientists thought the rule was rooted in our language abilities. But in a recent study by researchers at Duke University, a group of monkeys have shown a similar ability to tell the difference between large and small groups of dots. Researchers showed macaque monkeys two arrays of randomized numbers of dots on a computer touch screen. Instead of asking the monkeys to choose the larger or smaller array of dots, the researchers gave cues by changing the color of the background behind the dots. © 2005 MSNBC.com

Keyword: Intelligence; Evolution
Link ID: 8113 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Making creatures do what we want at the flick of a switch sounds more like Frankenstein than real science, but scientists have discovered that using a laser, they can make headless fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) jump, flap their wings and fly on command. But Yale University neurologist Gero Miesenboeck and his team weren't out just to create remote-controlled insects. They hoped to study nerve-cell activity and connections, and learn how nerve cell circuits process information related to specific behaviors — from simple movements to more complex behaviors like learning, aggression and even abstract thoughts, like how they understand notions of punishment and reward. "The nervous system is simple enough to raise hopes that we can actually some day understand how it works and yet it's complex enough to produce really, really interesting behaviors," Miesenboeck says. "Now it is possible to control specific groups of nerve cells." He says controlling specific nerve cells (neurons) may reveal what's behind behaviors that some of us want to stop. — matching specific cells to behaviors, scientists may one day be able to use optics like this to create drugs that target undesirable behavior, such as overeating. © ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 8112 - Posted: 06.24.2010

About five million Germans have serious learning difficulties when it comes to reading and writing. It is frequently the case that several members of the same family are affected. So hereditary disposition seems to play an important role in the occurrence of dyslexia. Scientists at the universities of Marburg, Würzburg and Bonn have been working on this question together with Swedish colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. In examinations of German children with serious reading and writing difficulties they have now succeeded in demonstrating for the first time the contribution of a specific gene. Precisely how it contributes to the disorder remains unclear. It is thought that the genes may affect the migration of nerve cells in the brain as it evolves. The results will be published in the January edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics, but have already been made available online (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG). For several years child and youth psychologists at the universities of Marburg and Würzburg searched for families in which at least one child was considered dyslexic. "We then analysed blood samples taken from the families to identify candidate genes – and in the end we found the right one," explains the scientist who headed this part of the study from Marburg, Privatdozent Dr. Gerd Schulte-Körne.

Keyword: Dyslexia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8111 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Bird wealth is measured in food, not money, and researchers have discovered that berry-rich bluebird young with edible inheritances prefer to stay in the nest. Since humans and many other animals also often stay close to home when the pickings are good, the discovery supports the theory that wealth can promote family stability and togetherness. The study, which will be published later this year in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B, focused on Western bluebirds, Sialia mexicana, which live in California. While bluebird daughters usually flew away from home at the expected time in August, bluebird sons stayed with their parents all the way through winter when desired mistletoe berries were plentiful. When the sons finally decide to leave home to breed, they often do not go far and still may reap familial benefits, including meeting females that their parents might know. © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8110 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News — Elephants pay homage to the bones of their dead, gently touching the skulls and tusks with their trunks and feet, according to the first systematic study of elephant empathy for the dead. The finding provides the first hard evidence to support stories of elephant mourning, in which the pachyderms are said to congregate at elephant cemeteries, drawn by the bones of their kin. It also shows that these animals display a trait once thought to be unique to humans, said Karen McComb, an expert on animal communication and cognition at the University of Sussex in Brighton, England. "Most mammals show only passing interest in the dead remains of their own or other species," McComb and colleagues wrote in the current issue of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. Lions are typical in this respect: they briefly sniff or lick a dead of their own species before starting to devour the body. Chimpanzees show more prolonged and complex interactions with dead social partners, but leave them once the carcass starts decomposing. © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Intelligence; Evolution
Link ID: 8109 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Andreas von Bubnoff The inflamed mammary glands of sheep have been found to contain protein particles that cause scrapie, a sickness similar to mad cow disease. This suggests that the suspect proteins, called prions, may also be present in the milk of infected animals. If prions exist in the milk of cows infected with both an inflammatory illness and mad cow disease, formally known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), this raises concerns for human health. Consumption of prion-contaminated meat from cows with BSE is believed to cause the fatal variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) in people; so might contaminated milk. Adriano Aguzzi, the lead researcher on the study, has not detected prions in milk itself, because it is difficult to analyse for the abnormal proteins. But he says he expects to find them. "It is unlikely that the prions are not in the milk," says Aguzzi, a pathologist at the University of Zurich Hospital, Switzerland. "And the prospect is not a pleasant one." ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 8108 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new pathway for treating multiple sclerosis may have been found, if “exciting” results in mice can be replicated in humans. MS is an incurable degenerative disease caused by the body’s immune system attacking the protective myelin sheath encasing the nerves that make up the central nervous system. The nerve fibres become increasingly damaged by scar tissue, known as sclerosis, which leads to paralysis and loss of speech and vision. But researchers trying a novel therapy on a mouse version of MS report that the mice showed “almost no inflammation of the myelin sheath and no nerve damage”. Furthermore, MS is characterised by periods of remission and relapse, but the mice recovered with fewer and far less severe relapses. The therapy targets immune system cells called T-cells. These malfunction in MS patients, producing inflammatory molecules that destroy the myelin sheath. The new treatment, which uses a class of molecules called kynurenines, works by inhibiting the T-cells’ production of inflammatory molecules and prompting them to produce agents that “mop up” the molecules. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 8107 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have deciphered a key part of the regulatory code that governs how motor neurons in the spinal cord connect to specific target muscles in the limbs. The researchers said that understanding this code may help guide progress in restoring motor neuron function in people whose spinal cords have been damaged by trauma or disease. The studies suggest that the code — which involves members of the family of transcription factors encoded by the Hox genes — could also govern the establishment of other spinal cord circuits. This circuitry includes interneurons that control motor neuron firing patterns and sensory neurons that transmit feedback information on muscle action. The research team, which was led by HHMI investigator Thomas M. Jessell, published its findings in the November 4, 2005, issue of the journal Cell. Jessell collaborated on the studies with HHMI research associate Jeremy S. Dasen, Bonnie C. Tice and Susan Brenner-Morton, all of whom are at Columbia University. The work was also funded by grants from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and Project ALS. According to Jessell, members of the Hox gene family had been known to regulate aspects of brain development, but “few people had paid attention to the fact that these genes are also expressed in the spinal cord.” Earlier work performed by Dasen and Jessell, in collaboration with Jeh-Ping Liu, who is now at the University of Virginia, established that certain Hox proteins control the differentiation of motor neurons into columns in the spinal cord. These columns, which are arrayed along the anterior-posterior length of the spinal cord, form in the initial phases of motor neuron organization. That organization determines whether motor neurons grow to the limbs or to other targets. © 2005 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 8106 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Women with high levels of the sex hormone oestrogen have prettier faces, research suggests. The findings make evolutionary sense - men are attracted to the most fertile women, the University of St Andrews team told a Royal Society journal. Oestrogen levels during puberty can impact on appearance by affecting bone growth and skin texture, they said. But make-up masks this effect, allowing less attractive women to compensate for their lack of natural mating cues. The team of psychologists at the University's Perception Lab photographed 59 young women's faces aged between 18 and 25 and analysed their sex hormone levels. They then asked 30 volunteers - 15 male and 15 female - to rate the faces according to attractiveness. Both male and female volunteers rated the faces of the women with the highest hormone levels as the most attractive. These faces tended to have classically feminine features, such as larger eyes and lips and smaller noses and jaws. However, when the women in the photographs were wearing make-up, no relationship between attractiveness and oestrogen was found. The researchers believe that, while make-up improves facial appearance, it may be masking cues normally seen in the face. Head of the study, Miriam Law Smith, said: "Women are effectively advertising their general fertility with their faces. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 8105 - Posted: 11.03.2005

Scientists have found that the tongue has taste receptors for fat, which might explain why we like fried foods. Conventionally, experts have thought that the tongue detects five tastes - sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami taste for protein rich foods. But tests on rodents showed a receptor on the tongue tastes fat - it is not known if it is the same for humans. The work by French researchers from the University of Burgundy appears in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Investigator Philippe Besnard and his team believe the CD36 receptors that they found were important for evolutionary reasons - to ensure animals ate a high energy diet when foods were scarce. But in the current Western climate, where food is in abundance and about 40% of the energy we consume comes from fat, this may be a disadvantage for the waistline if the same receptor is present in humans. The CD36 receptor is already known to exist in many tissues involved in fat storage. To see whether the receptor might be the tongue's fat detector, the researchers studied rats and mice that were normal or had the gene for CD36 "knocked out" so that the receptor no longer worked. The normal rodents showed a preference for fatty foods when offered them, yet the knock out mice did not. Also, when the researchers put a fatty liquid onto the tongues of the normal rats, this triggered a release of fat-processing substances from the digestive organs. This reaction did not happen in the knock out mice. (C)BBC

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Obesity
Link ID: 8104 - Posted: 11.03.2005