For severe depression, electro-shock therapy is nowadays the last hope. However, it can impair memory for weeks after therapy. A less aggressive alternative seems to be provided by what is known as "transcranial magnetic stimulation". This is the conclusion arrived at by doctors and psychologists of the Bonn University Clinic in an article which has just appeared in the British Journal of Psychiatry (vol. 186 [2005], pp. 410-416). Nowadays depression is seen as amenable to treatment: with psychotherapy or medication most patients affected can be assisted out of their depressive phase. About five per cent of all patients, however, fall into such profound depression that they do not respond to these methods. Because depression is one of the most frequent psychological diseases – every sixth person suffers from it at least once in their lives – this affects a large number of people. In these cases electro-shock therapy is one option. This involves the patient being anaesthetised. Then the doctors pass electrical impulses through the patient's head via two electrodes, thereby triggering an epileptic spasm. This changes the cerebral chemistry in the area of the forehead, a region which, among other things, regulates the emotions and steers the psycho-motor reflexes. One in two patients who previously did not respond to other therapies improve after a series of therapy to the extent that therapy can be continued by using medication or psychotherapy. 'In the severest cases of depression electro-shock therapy is nowadays still an important therapeutic option,' the head of the Bonn Psychiatric Clinic, Professor Wolfgang Maier, emphasises.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 7633 - Posted: 06.24.2010

MADISON-Boosting levels of two critical proteins that normally shut down during Huntington's disease, researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cured fruit flies of the genetic, neurodegenerative condition. Forms of the same proteins-known in short form as CREB and HSP-70--exist in all cells, including those of humans. The study results, published online today by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were a "logical finding" because of a growing body of work in the area, says senior author Jerry Yin, a UW-Madison molecular geneticist. Scientists previously knew, for example, that hiking the activity of either CREB or HSP-70 lessened symptoms in mice or flies with Huntington's disease. Completely reversing a disease by targeting a combination of proteins or genetic pathways, however, reflects the growing need to embrace a broader treatment paradigm in the realm of genetic disorders, says Yin. In working with a disorder such as Fragile X Syndrome, for example, conventional therapies might focus all their efforts on repairing the genetic pathways that cause neurons to go awry. Meanwhile, "the defective gene is not just in one type of tissue," says Yin. "And we are not yet sensitive to detecting the defects in those other tissues."

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 7632 - Posted: 07.12.2005

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Those who believe that taking cholesterol-lowering drugs will reduce their risk for Alzheimer's disease may want to reconsider. A large study published yesterday in Archives of Neurology found no proof that the drugs affected the risk of developing dementia from any cause - Alzheimer's, vascular dementia or the two combined. There is broad agreement that cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce the risk for heart disease by inhibiting the production of cholesterol or through their anti-inflammatory effects, and researchers have theorized that such mechanisms may help prevent dementia as well. But this does not appear to be the case. "Earlier studies found some hope that statins might be protective," said Dr. Thomas D. Rea, the lead author on the study and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Washington. "But we evaluated the drugs in another population with a different study design and didn't find any evidence for a protective effect." The study, sponsored by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, used a database of almost 2,800 people 65 and older, all tested and found free of dementia at the start of the study. The researchers tracked the progress of those who took cholesterol-lowering drugs (both statins and others) and those who did not. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 7631 - Posted: 07.12.2005

By CARL ZIMMER Seven years ago Reginald King was lying in a hospital bed recovering from bypass surgery when he first heard the music. It began with a pop tune, and others followed. Mr. King heard everything from cabaret songs to Christmas carols. "I asked the nurses if they could hear the music, and they said no," said Mr. King, a retired sales manager in Cardiff, Wales. "I got so frustrated," he said. "They didn't know what I was talking about and said it must be something wrong with my head. And it's been like that ever since." Each day, the music returns. "They're all songs I've heard during my lifetime," said Mr. King, 83. "One would come on, and then it would run into another one, and that's how it goes on in my head. It's driving me bonkers, to be quite honest." Last year, Mr. King was referred to Dr. Victor Aziz, a psychiatrist at St. Cadoc's Hospital in Wales. Dr. Aziz explained to him that there was a name for his experience: musical hallucinations. Dr. Aziz belongs to a small circle of psychiatrists and neurologists who are investigating this condition. They suspect that the hallucinations experienced by Mr. King and others are a result of malfunctioning brain networks that normally allow us to perceive music. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 7630 - Posted: 07.12.2005

ST. Paul, Minn. – Contrary to what you might think, most people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are not depressed. They are also not more likely to get depressed as the end of life approaches, and they are not more likely to be depressed if they want to die or hasten their own death. Two new studies, published in the July 12 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology, provide the evidence to contradict these assumptions. The two studies involved the same group of 80 people with advanced ALS. To enter the study, participants had to have breathing difficulties with a forced vital capacity, or breathing power, of less than 50 percent of normal, which is related to a high likelihood of hospice admission and death or the need for mechanical ventilation within six months. The participants were assessed every month until death; 53 of the participants died during the study period. The first study found that 57 percent of the participants were never depressed during the study period, and only eight percent were depressed at all visits. The researchers also found that people were not more likely to become depressed as death approached. "It's remarkable that a majority of ALS patients have a more positive attitude toward life even as the inevitability of death is imminent," Catherine Lomen-Hoerth, MD, PhD, wrote with her colleague and mentor Richard K. Olney, MD, in an accompanying editorial. Olney was founder and director of the ALS Treatment and Research Center at the University of California-San Francisco before he was diagnosed with ALS in 2004 and turned over the reins to Lomen-Hoerth, his former student.

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease ; Depression
Link ID: 7629 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHICAGO – Eleven patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) developed pathological gambling behavior following dopamine agonist therapy, a drug therapy to control movement problems caused by Parkinson's disease, according to a study posted online today which will appear in the September print issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Parkinson's disease, a degenerative disorder marked by the death of the neurons of an area of the brain called the substantia nigra, is primarily treated by drugs that restore or improve brain chemical signaling system dependent on dopamine, according to background information in the article. Brain dopamine, a chemical that helps regulate movement, balance and walking, also plays a central role in the behavioral reward system, reinforcing a myriad of behaviors. It has been implicated in the reward of gambling behavior. M. Leann Dodd, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., and colleagues, present reports of eleven patients seen and evaluated between 2002 and 2004 in the Mayo movement disorders clinic with Parkinson's disease who had recently developed pathological gambling and review similar cases from the medical literature. Pathological gambling is defined as a failure to resist gambling impulses despite severe personal, family or vocational consequences

Keyword: Parkinsons; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 7628 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The size of a particular structure in the brain may be associated with the ability to recover emotionally from traumatic events. A new study by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) finds that an area called the ventromedial prefrontal cortex is thicker in volunteers who appear better able to modify their anxious response to memories of discomfort. The report will appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and has received early online release on the PNAS website. "We've always wondered why some people who are exposed to traumatic experiences go on to develop anxiety disorders like post-traumatic stress disorder and others do not," says Mohammed Milad, PhD, a research fellow in the MGH Department of Psychiatry, the study's lead author. "We think this study provides some potential answers." In the classical model of conditioned fear, individuals respond with physical and emotional distress to situations that bring back memories of traumatic events. Such responses are normal and usually diminish over time, as those situations are repeated without unpleasant occurrences. But some people continue to respond with what can be overwhelming fear and may develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For example, it would not be unusual for a soldier who experienced a traumatic battlefield situation to become distressed when hearing noises that bring back those memories, such as the sound of a helicopter.

Keyword: Emotions; Stress
Link ID: 7627 - Posted: 07.12.2005

Imagine raising a child who stops breathing when falling asleep – and has to be reminded to visit the bathroom after drinking a Big Gulp. That's the dilemma faced by parents of children born with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS). Afflicting about 250 children in the United States, the genetic disease wreaks havoc in areas of the brain that control involuntary actions such as breathing, fluid regulation and heart function. Now an MRI study by UCLA scientists reveals that these children's brains display stroke-like damage in regions that regulate the cardiovascular system, body temperature and urination. Published July 11 in the Journal of Comparative Neurology, the research holds important clues for unraveling the mysteries of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), sleep apnea and numerous other conditions. "For a breathing researcher, this syndrome represents a rare opportunity from Mother Nature," explained Ronald Harper, Ph.D., principal investigator and professor of neurobiology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "By using CCHS as a model to study how the brain controls breathing, we hope not only to help children born with the disease, but also provide insights into SIDS and sleep apnea. "These children's brains don't respond to the same cues as the rest of us, which prevents a host of involuntary mechanisms from kicking in," he added. "Younger children have to be reminded to breathe and to go to the bathroom. They will plop down to relax in front of the TV or a video game, start turning blue and not realize they are passing out."

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 7626 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Humans invented the names Big Bird and Tweety Bird, but new evidence suggests at least one species of parrot creates its own names for friends and family members. Since vocal labeling indicates that the namer must first be able to imagine the individual or object in its mind, the discovery likely means bird thoughts and communication are far more complex and closer to human levels than previously realized. The namers in this case are spectacled parrotlets, Forpus conspicillatus, which are small bright green or blue South American parrots. "We have shown that they use specific calls that only refer to the individual in question," said Ralf Wanker, lead author of the study. "To my knowledge it is the first time that labeling or naming is described for animals in this way." He added that other studies suggest bottlenose dolphins and another bird, budgerigars, match their calls to others, similar to how humans often copy the tone or volume of the person they are speaking with, as for baby talk. Wanker and his team housed two groups of the birds in a simulated natural environment. The researchers noted social ranks within identified bird families. Copyright © 2005 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 7625 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Andreas von Bubnoff A strange kind of humming fish has evolved a clever way to avoid deafening itself with its own noise, researchers have found. They say the same mechanism could be at work in other animals, including humans, helping to tone down the senses and avoid overpowering them with self-generated signals. Andrew Bass, a neuroscientist with a name amply suited to studying both fish and acoustics, looked at the male plainfin midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus) to study this effect. These 25-centimetre-long fish live off the west coast of the United States from California to Alaska. During summer nights, they hum to attract females and encourage them to lay their eggs. The hum, described by some as similar to the chanting of monks, is so loud that houseboat owners near San Francisco have sometimes complained of their homes vibrating at night. Bass and his fellow authors have shown that the brains of these fish regulate their hearing so that they are not deafened and can hear predators or incoming females even while humming. The fish control both sound and hearing through nerve impulses from the same part of the brain. Some impulses signal to muscles around the swim bladder, which is the fish's buoyancy organ, making it generate sound by vibrating. The same area of the brain sends signals to inhibit the sensitivity of the ear's hair cells, which translate sound into electrical signals that the brain can understand. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hearing
Link ID: 7624 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi Can a controversial medicine called Lorenzo's oil really reduce the risk of developing a rare brain disease? After years of hope and provisional evidence, experts are publishing scans from children who started this therapy more than a decade ago. They say the positive results will quiet sceptics and prove the oil's worth. In 1984, Augusto and Michaela Odone learned that their son, Lorenzo, suffered from a genetic disorder known as adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD. The prognosis was frightening: children diagnosed with ALD experience neurological deterioration and typically die from the illness within a few years. Faced with a lack of treatment options for their son, the Odones began pouring over books in the library for more information. They learned that ALD is related to an abnormal accumulation of very-long-chain fatty acids, particularly in the nervous system of the body. Although they tried to cut these fatty acids from their son's diet, his body continued producing them. The literature convinced them that giving their son a different fatty acid, an oily liquid known as oleic acid, would inhibit the synthesis of long chains of saturated fats. It works simply by keeping enzymes busy making chains of unsaturated fats instead. The Odones later improved their formula by using a modified form of rapeseed oil, which seems to keep the enzymes even busier. Their medicine, which improved the health of their ailing son and inspired a Hollywood movie in the early 1990s, became known as 'Lorenzo's oil'. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Glia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7623 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Possessive cockerels use fake sex to keep their hens faithful. By merely mounting females - without bothering to waste precious sperm - cocks ensure their partners will not go looking for male competitors to fertilise them, a new study suggests. The finding may explain why males of many species - from insects to mammals - engage in seemingly meaningless sperm-free sex. “Copulations that appear to be successful, but with no semen transferred, are almost ubiquitous,” says Tommaso Pizzari at the University of Oxford, UK, co-author of the study. “It suggests that this behaviour may be rather more than an accident or a by-product of males running out of sperm.” While sperm was always thought of as a cheaper investment than eggs, in the past few years, researchers have begun to realise that sperm also carries a hefty biological price tag. In 2003, Pizzari and his colleagues showed that male chickens allocated their precious seed according to the likelihood of fathering children. Unfamiliar females always received a fulsome dose, while hens with which the cock had already mated several times ended up receiving little more than ruffled feathers. The research team decided to test the consequences of sperm-free mountings on a female’s propensity for promiscuity. Using cleverly designed harnesses, which prevent cocks from depositing semen into a females’ reproductive tract, the team was able to create two distinct groups - hens that had been mounted, but received no sperm, and hens who had successful, sperm-transferring copulations. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 7622 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have uncovered clues about what happens in the brain to make some people "over-friendly". US National Institute of Mental Health experts looked at differences in the brains of people with an abnormality which makes them highly sociable. Researchers used scans to identify areas which failed to work properly when they saw frightening faces. In Nature Neuroscience, they say this could give clues for understanding social disorders in others. People with the genetic condition Williams Syndrome lack around 21 genes on chromosome seven. Their lack of fear means they will impulsively engage in social situations, even with strangers. But they often have heightened anxiety about non-human fears, such as spiders or heights. The condition affects around one in 25,000 people. The US team focused on the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure deep in the brain which has been thought to help regulate social behaviour. fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scans was used to study the brains of 13 healthy volunteers and 13 with Williams Syndrome. All were shown pictures of angry or scary faces. In healthy brains, seeing such images would provoke a strong response in the amygdala. However the fMRI scans showed far less activity in those of people with Williams Syndrome. Study participants were then shown pictures of threatening scenes, such as plane crashes, which did not have any people or faces in them. The amygdala response was seen to be abnormally increased in participants with Williams Syndrome. (C)BBC

Keyword: Language; Emotions
Link ID: 7621 - Posted: 07.11.2005

Training the Brain Cognitive therapy as an alternative to ADHD drugs By Gunjan Sinha To medicate or not? Millions of parents must decide when their child is diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)--a decision made tougher by controversy. Studies increasingly show that while medication may calm a child's behavior, it does not improve grades, peer relationships or defiant behavior over the long term. Consequently, researchers have focused attention on the disorder's neurobiology. Recent studies support the notion that many children with ADHD have cognitive deficits, specifically in working memory--the ability to hold in mind information that guides behavior. The cognitive problem manifests behaviorally as inattention and contributes to poor academic performance. Such research not only questions the value of medicating ADHD children, it also is redefining the disorder and leading to more meaningful treatment that includes cognitive training. "This is really a shift in our understanding of this disorder from behavioral to biological," states Rosemary Tannock, professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. Tannock has shown that although stimulant medication improves working memory, the effect is small, she says, "suggesting that medication isn't going to be sufficient." So she and others, such as Susan Gathercole of the University of Durham in England, now work with schools to introduce teaching methods that train working memory. In fact, working-memory deficits may underlie several disabilities, not just ADHD, highlighting the heterogeneity of the disorder. "Working memory is a bottleneck for everyday functioning independent of what category you fit into," comments Torkel Klingberg, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. Based on Klingberg's research, Karolinska founded Cogmed--a biotech company that has developed a software program to train working memory. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 7620 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JR Minkel Philosopher of science David Buller has a bone to pick with evolutionary psychology, the idea that some important human behaviors are best explained as evolutionary adaptations to the struggles we faced tens to hundreds of thousands of years ago as hunter-gatherers. In his new book, Adapting Minds, the Northern Illinois University professor considers--and finds lacking--the evidence for some of the most publicized conclusions of evolutionary psychologists: Men innately prefer to mate with young, nubile women, while women have evolved to seek high status men; men are wired to have a strong jealous reaction to sexual infidelity, while women react to emotional infidelity; and parents are more likely to abuse stepchildren than their genetically related children. Buller doesn't reject evolutionary studies of the mind per se. Rather, he contends that "Evolutionary Psychology," a set of assumptions about the nature and evolution of the human mind, has largely crowded out the possibility of a more pluralistic "evolutionary psychology." Writer JR Minkel recently spoke to Buller to get a bead on his argument. An abridged and edited transcript of their conversation follows. JR Minkel: What was your initial reaction to the conclusions of Evolutionary Psychology, and when did you first start having doubts about them? David Buller: When I first started reading it, it just all seemed intuitively right to me. But as I followed the citation trail and actually started looking at the primary studies that were cited in support of those conclusions--and thinking seriously about the methods that had been employed in the studies, the presuppositions behind them, and whether there were alternative evolutionary hypotheses for the things studied that were not in fact being ruled out by the experiments--I began to find that it wasn't all that convincing. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 7619 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Dean Keith Simonton, Ph.D. The idea that creativity and psychopathology are somehow linked goes way back to antiquity--to the time of Aristotle. Centuries later, this belief was developed and expanded by various psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and psychologists. For instance, Cesare Lombroso, M.D., argued toward the end of the 19th century that genius and madness were closely connected manifestations of an underlying degenerative neurological disorder. To be sure, this idea has not gone without challenge. On the contrary, humanistic psychologists were inclined to associate creativity with mental health. Nevertheless, the prevailing view appears to be that psychopathology and creativity are positively associated. But what is the scientific evidence supporting this hypothesized association? And what does this evidence suggest is the basis for the relationship? Scientific data addressing this issue come from three main sources: historiometric, psychiatric and psychometric. Although each source has distinct methodological problems, the findings all converge on the same general conclusions. Historiometric research. In this approach, historical data are subjected to objective and quantitative analyses. In particular, the biographies of eminent creators are systematically analyzed to discern the presence of symptoms associated with various psychopathological syndromes. Such historiometric inquiries lead to four conclusions. © 2005 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Intelligence
Link ID: 7618 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Nasal surgery might help alleviate severe migraine headaches for some patients, research suggests. It seems some migraines are triggered - or exacerbated - by surfaces within the sinuses or nasal cavities pressing against each other. The brain is confused into interpreting the stimulation as a headache. New Jersey researchers found endoscopic nasal surgery on 21 migraine sufferers halved the number of days they had headaches and they were less severe. The study, by Christ Hospital in Jersey City, New Jersey, is published in the journal Cephalagia. It is thought that when surfaces in the nasal tissues touch they stimulate one of the main nerves in the face called the trigeminal nerve. This may confuse the brain into interpreting the stimulation as a headache - a phenomenon known as referred pain. The researchers evaluated 21 patients who had severe migraines that had not responded to conventional treatment. Brain scans revealed that all the patients had intranasal contact points. When these contact points were treated with an anaesthetic lotion, all the patients experienced a temporary improvement in their symptoms. They then underwent endoscopic surgery to correct the contact areas. In the months after the surgery, the average number of days with headache experienced by the group fell from 18 to eight days per month. The average headache severity, measured on a 10-point scale, dropped from 7.8 to 5.6. (C)BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 7617 - Posted: 07.09.2005

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A trail of feathers led a team of Purdue University scientists to confirm that eagles from central Asia are quite possibly the most faithful of birds. By performing DNA analysis on the feathers left behind at nesting sites, the researchers were able to identify individual Eastern imperial eagles in a nature reserve in Kazakhstan. Their analysis showed that not one adult strayed from its mate - a degree of fidelity highly unusual among birds, the vast majority of which mate with and raise offspring from multiple partners. Not only is this study the first to confirm monogamy in eagles, more importantly, it also is the first to rely on feathers collected "noninvasively," or without trapping and handling, to provide a source of DNA to determine relationships among individuals and determine various population parameters. "That we were able to use feathers we collected noninvasively as a source of DNA is the number one thing scientists will be interested in," said Andrew DeWoody, associate professor of genetics and senior author of the study, which was published online Friday (July 1) in the journal Molecular Ecology.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 7616 - Posted: 07.09.2005

What if you and your baby were hiding with a group of your peers from war-time enemies and the baby's crying threatened to give you all away? Would you be willing to do anything, including smothering your child in order to save the rest of the group? Philosophers have been contemplating questions like that for decades. No doubt, a moral case can be made for either choice. Now, researchers are looking not at our souls, but at our brains to see what happens neurologically as we wrestle with moral dilemmas. "There doesn't seem to be any single moral faculty or moral center in the brain," says Joshua Greene, a neuroscientist at Princeton University, "rather, we have different responses and sometimes they all work together and sometimes they compete with each other and that's what makes a moral decision difficult, when there are different kinds of processes in the brain that are sort of duking it out." To put himself ringside, Greene took MRI brain images from 41 volunteers as they responded to 60 questions, a mix raising no moral choice, like what to cook for dinner, and questions specifically designed to force them to make agonizing choices, like whether to smother their baby to save more lives. "Sometimes, I wanted a dilemma where everyone would say it was wrong, and other cases where everyone would say that it was right," he explains of the study design. "Sometimes, I wanted a case…where some people would say that it is right and some people would say that it was wrong. I think those are really the most interesting cases because by comparing the data from people who go one way with people who go another way we can start to see what competing moral values look like in the brain." © ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 7615 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Christen Brownlee Although identical twins have identical DNA, they often harbor clear-cut differences: slight variations in appearance or stark distinctions in disease susceptibility, for example. Scientists have suggested that the interplay between nature and nurture could explain such differences, but the mechanism has been poorly understood. A new study suggests that as identical twins go through life, environmental influences differently affect which genes are turned on and which are switched off. Called epigenetic modification, such gene activation or silencing typically stems from two types of chemical groups that latch on to chromosomes as charms attach to a bracelet, says Manel Esteller of the Spanish National Cancer Centre in Madrid. Methyl groups that clip on to DNA tend to turn genes off. On the other hand, acetyl groups attaching to histones, the chemical core of chromosomes, usually turn genes on. Suspecting that such epigenetic differences might account for variations between identical twins, Esteller and his team focused on the two chemical changes. The scientists recruited 80 pairs of identical twins, ranging in age from 3 to 74, from Spain, Denmark, and the United Kingdom. Copyright ©2005 Science Service.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7614 - Posted: 06.24.2010