Summer sunlight helps to trigger a seasonal rise in suicides, claim UK researchers. The Priory Group says more people take their lives in May than in any other month, which could be down to the climate. The extra sunshine, which helps combat depression, may also provide the people the energy they need to act on their suicidal feelings, they believe. There is one suicide every 84 minutes in UK and Ireland. Around 6,300 people take their lives each year, the Priory Group said. Professor Chris Thompson, the group's director of healthcare services, said research showed there was a direct link between the amount of sunshine and the national suicide rate. It is a harsh irony that the partial remission which most depression sufferers experience in the spring often provides the boost of energy required for executing a suicide plan In Scandinavia and Canada, studies have shown that those who commit suicide have low levels of a "happy" brain chemical called serotonin. Others have shown that serotonin levels often rise with the amount of sunlight a person is exposed to. Professor Thompson said: "It is a harsh irony that the partial remission which most depression sufferers experience in the spring often provides the boost of energy required for executing a suicide plan. "People coming out of depression have a higher suicide rate than those who are severely depressed and this is exacerbated by the season. (C)BBC

Keyword: Depression; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 7317 - Posted: 05.09.2005

A brain scan study suggests that a suspect gene may increase susceptibility to anxiety and depression* by weakening a circuit for processing negative emotion. People with the depression-linked gene variant showed less gray matter and weaker connections in the mood-regulating circuit. How well the circuit was connected accounted for nearly 30 percent of their anxious temperament, researchers at the National Institute of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found. Dr. Daniel Weinberger and colleagues report on their brain imaging genetics study in the May 8, 2005 online edition of Nature Neuroscience. "We discovered the mood-regulating circuit by using the gene to interrogate the imaging data," explained Weinberger. "The brain handles information much like an orchestra. So we asked questions akin to 'Are the violin and the clarinet playing the same tune and to what extent might this gene account for it?'" In this case, it turned out that the amygdala, a fear processing hub deep in the brain and the cingulate, an emotion-dampening center located near the front of the brain, were playing a duet under the baton of the depression-linked gene. The gene codes for the serotonin transporter, the protein in brain cells that recycles the chemical messenger after it's been secreted into the synapse, the gulf between cells. Since the most widely prescribed class of antidepressants act by blocking this protein, researchers have focused on possible functional consequences of a slight variation in its DNA sequence across individuals.

Keyword: Depression; Emotions
Link ID: 7316 - Posted: 05.09.2005

Negative feelings about black people may be subconsciously learned by both white and black Americans, suggests a brain imaging study. The research is among the first to test the brain physiology of racial biases in both black and white subjects. The new study showed that both white and black people had increased activity in an area of the brain called the amygdala - which responds to fearful or threatening situations - when completing a matching task with images of black faces. “I think the results are very specific to being raised in this society where the portrayal of African Americans is not very positive, on average,” says Matthew Lieberman at the University of California, Los Angeles, US, who led the study. “It suggests that those cultural messages are not harmless.” But the amygdala also responds to novelty. The spike in activity upon viewing black faces shown in previous studies with solely white participants could just be the unconscious reaction to seeing an unfamiliar, or “outgroup”, face. So to tease apart the novelty factor, Lieberman and his colleagues conducted a similar experiment - using a functional MRI scanner - with 11 white and eight black Americans. Each participant completed three matching tasks; a visual task where they had to match the race of a target photo to one of two comparison photos; a verbal task where they had to match a target photo to either the words “African American” or “Caucasian American” and a control test where they matched geometrical shapes. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Brain imaging; Emotions
Link ID: 7315 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JIM HOLT The human brain is mysterious -- and, in a way, that is a good thing. The less that is known about how the brain works, the more secure the zone of privacy that surrounds the self. But that zone seems to be shrinking. A couple of weeks ago, two scientists revealed that they had found a way to peer directly into your brain and tell what you are looking at, even when you yourself are not yet aware of what you have seen. So much for the comforting notion that each of us has privileged access to his own mind. Opportunities for observing the human mental circuitry in action have, until recent times, been almost nonexistent, mainly because of a lack of live volunteers willing to sacrifice their brains to science. To get clues on how the brain works, scientists had to wait for people to suffer sometimes gruesome accidents and then see how the ensuing brain damage affected their abilities and behavior. The results could be puzzling. Damage to the right frontal lobe, for example, sometimes led to a heightened interest in high cuisine, a condition dubbed gourmand syndrome. (One European political journalist, upon recovering from a stroke affecting this part of the brain, profited from the misfortune by becoming a food columnist.) Today scientists are able to get some idea of what's going on in the mind by using brain scanners. Brain-scanning is cruder than it sounds. A technology called functional magnetic resonance imaging can reveal which part of your brain is most active when you're solving a mathematical puzzle, say, or memorizing a list of words. The scanner doesn't actually pick up the pattern of electrical activity in the brain; it just shows where the blood is flowing. (Active neurons demand more oxygen and hence more blood.) Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 7314 - Posted: 05.09.2005

Young blood could help revive tired ageing muscles, researchers suggest. Old people's muscles are known not to heal in the same way young people's do, but a Stanford University team suggests it is old blood that is to blame. The study found special stem cells come to the rescue of damaged young muscles, but are not triggered in older ones. Writing in Nature, the team say tests on mice suggest something in young blood spurs the stem cells into action to repair the muscle damage. It had been recognised that old muscles had the capacity to repair themselves, but that - for some reason - they failed to do so. The Stanford researchers focussed on muscle stem cells, called satellite cells, that are spread throughout muscle tissue. In young mice and humans, the cells come to life if they are needed to repair damaged muscle. But the team found that they fail to come to the rescue of older muscle - even though they are still present. In their tests, the team surgically connected the circulatory systems of an old mouse with that of a young one, or to another old mouse. They then damaged muscle in the older mice. If old mice were connected to young ones, and therefore had 'young blood' flowing through their bodies, healed normally. However, when old mice were connected to other old mice, and were sharing old blood, they healed slowly. (C)BBC

Keyword: Muscles; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 7313 - Posted: 05.07.2005

When experiencing a severe, throbbing headache, a person often places his hands on both sides of his head and claims, "It feels like my brain is pushing to get out, so it feels better to hold it in." This sensation gives a false impression that the brain itself is enlarging and causing the pain sensation. Interestingly, brain tissue does not feel pain in the same way skin or other organs do. Because the brain is encased in a hard, protective covering, it has not developed to respond to touch or pressure sensations like other, more exposed parts of our bodies have. Indeed, a brain surgeon can actually cut brain tissue in an awake patient without the patient feeling the knife. Head pain instead occurs because of activation or irritation of structures that do sense pain: skin, bone or neck joints, sinuses, blood vessels or muscles. When a person has a brain tumor, pain is usually a late symptom to develop--brain tumors generally only cause pain when they have grown large enough to damage bone or stretch blood vessels or nerves. Neck problems may also result in head pain, with pain from the neck and back of the head often radiating over the top of the head to an eye. Sinus infection or inflammation (usually occurring as part of an allergy reaction), however, is an uncommon cause of recurring headaches. Interestingly, Roger Cady and Curtis Schneider of the Headache Care Center in Springfield, Mo., have shown that 25 to 30 percent of migraine sufferers report nasal symptoms during their typical migraine episodes, and nearly 98 percent of people who believed they had sinus headaches were actually experiencing a migraine. The most common types of chronic headaches are the migraine and tension-type varieties. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 7312 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Six-year-old Nathan Neisinger suffered serious burns when he accidentally pulled a pot of boiling water onto himself. "He had third degree burns and they were over 31 percent of his body," says his mother, Heidi. "His whole entire chest, his back, his legs, part of his foot, had third degree burns all over them. They had to do skin grafting; they had to take skin off of his behind, off of the back of his legs." Besides skin grafts, Nathan has endured months of wound care and more pain than safe doses of narcotics can alleviate. "The care is very often more painful than the injury itself," says David Patterson, a psychologist and pain expert at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where Nathan spent 51 days after being airlifted there for his injuries. "Typical care involves removing bandages and then scrubbing the wound, and for some patients, you do that once or twice a day, for days, weeks, and even months." And then there was the physical therapy to stretch his scarred skin. "The actual process of going through that physical therapy is often very extensive," says Patterson. "You can hear some ripping and cracking. It can be anxiety-producing to anyone, much less a six-year-old." (C) ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 7311 - Posted: 05.07.2005

Scientists in the US say they are getting closer to developing a blood test for autism. The disorder is generally diagnosed through a series of behavioural characteristics, when a child reaches two-years-old at the earliest. But the UC Davis MIND Institute in California has identified key proteins and cells within blood which could be used to diagnose newborns. However, it could be another 10 years before the test would be available. More than 500,000 people in the UK are thought to be affected by autism spectrum disorders, which limit their ability to develop friendships and make it hard to understand other people's emotional feelings. The incidence of the condition appears to have risen sharply over the last 30 years. Nobody knows why this is and it is possible that more cases are simply being diagnosed than in the past. Lead researcher David Amaral said the US test would represent a real breakthrough, allowing people with autism to receive treatment and support much earlier. "Finding a sensitive and accurate biological marker for autism that can be revealed by a simple blood test would have enormous implications for diagnosing, treating and understanding more about the underlying causes of autism. "Not being able to detect autism until a child is close to three-years-old eliminates a valuable window of treatment opportunity during the first few years of life when the brain is undergoing tremendous development." (C)BBC

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 7310 - Posted: 05.06.2005

BOSTON – A leading scientist trying to understand and treat autism suspects that a failure to engage in such normal social activities as looking at a parent's face or listening to speech sounds early in life may help explain the profound impairments in social and language development shown by most children with the disorder. Geraldine Dawson, director of the Autism Center at the University of Washington, will deliver the keynote address today at the 4th International Meeting for Autism Research being held at the Marriott Boston Copley Place. The meeting will attract leading scientists from around the world, who will discuss research on genetic factors, brain research, new treatments and potential environmental factors involved in the development of autism. Dawson, also a UW psychology professor, said her team has begun testing a new intervention program for toddlers with autism that not only has a dual focus on language and cognitive development but also promotes the emotional relationship between a child and other people. "We are examining whether this very early intervention that focuses on social engagement alters the course of development," she said. "As part of our outcomes, we will be examining the child's brain responses to social stimuli. We hope to find that our intervention not only affects behavior but also alters the trajectory of early brain development toward a more normal one."

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 7309 - Posted: 06.24.2010

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A new University at Buffalo study of treatments for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has found that combining behavior modification therapy with medication is the most effective way to improve the behavior of many ADHD children. In fact, when the two are combined, the study showed, the amount of medication required to achieve the same results as use of medication alone can be reduced by two-thirds. "One of the major findings of the study is that when using behavior modification, you can get away with tiny, tiny doses of medication, much lower than previously thought," said ADHD researcher William E. Pelham, Jr., University at Buffalo Distinguished Professor in the Department of Psychology, UB College of Arts and Sciences and UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. The study is the first to test the effectiveness of a new drug treatment, a methylphenidate (MPH) patch. Methylphenidate is the stimulant used in pill form by ADHD drugs Concerta and Ritalin. The study is published in the May issue of Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology. It was funded by a grant from Noven Pharmaceuticals. Shire Pharmaceuticals Group, which purchased the rights to the MPH patch from Noven, will seek FDA approval for the MPH patch in 2006.

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 7308 - Posted: 05.06.2005

A new class of drug may increase alertness without any of the jitteriness of over-stimulation, suggest the results of a small clinical trial released this week. A compound dubbed CX717, a member of the new class called ampakines, significantly improved performance on tests of memory, attention, alertness, reaction time and problem solving in healthy men deprived of sleep. The study was carried out by Julia Boyle at the Sleep Research Centre at the University of Surrey, UK, and her colleagues on behalf of Cortex Pharmaceuticals Inc., based in Irvine, California, US. During the trial, 16 healthy young males were randomly assigned to take either 100 milligrams, 300 mg or 1000 mg of the drug, or given a placebo. By the end of the experiment, each volunteer had been assigned to all of the experimental groups, thus producing his own control scores. The volunteers were hooked up to EEGs to measure brain wave activity and were put through a battery of tests. The first round of each session was after a good night’s sleep. Thereafter, they were tested every few hours throughout a sleepless night and into the next morning, during a total of 27 hours without rest. The researchers found that the drug significantly improved performance on tests. And taking more of the drug improved performance for longer. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: ADHD; Narcolepsy
Link ID: 7307 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In their extraordinary annual migration from North America to Mexico, monarch butterflies are known to use the angle of polarized sunlight as a celestial guide to help them keep to a straight and true path southward. But details of their navigational machinery have remained a mystery. Now, researchers, led by Steven Reppert of University of Massachusetts Medical School, Ivo Sauman of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Adriana Briscoe of the University of California at Irvine, have explored the infinitesimal butterfly brain to uncover new insights into that machinery. Their findings show that the same ultraviolet light that has become an anathema to cancer-wary humans is critical for butterfly navigation. Also, the researchers were surprised to discover a key wiring connection between the light-detecting navigation sensors in the butterfly's eye and the creature's circadian clock--a critical link if the butterflies are to compensate for the time of day in using their "sun compass." The researchers' techniques include molecular analysis of butterfly brain proteins, as well as flight tests in which the scientists manipulated the light reaching their insect subjects and measured the navigational response. In their studies, the researchers discovered that ultraviolet photoreceptors dominated in the region of the butterfly visual system known to specialize in polarized light detection.

Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 7306 - Posted: 05.05.2005

Two infant boys whose bodies were overloaded with excess fluid have led UCSF pediatricians to the discovery of a new genetic disease. In the process, they have discovered a rare type of mutation where different substitutions in a single amino acid cause two different, opposite genetic disorders. The new disorder, called Nephrogenic Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuresis (NSIAD), is described in the May 5 issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. "This discovery gives better insights into treating these patients and potentially many others," said Stephen Gitelman, MD, principal author of the study and professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. "It sheds new light on the mechanisms that the body uses to maintain fluid homeostasis -- the correct balance of fluids needed for health and life." Gitelman and a team of fellow pediatrician scientists at UCSF took their findings about the two patients to the laboratory, working with colleagues to isolate the genetic mutations responsible for their disruption in water balance. They found that each infant has a different mutation in a specific gene, AVPR2, that encodes the V2 receptor (V2R) for vasopressin, a hormone that instructs the kidneys to retain water. Neither patient was producing measurable levels of vasopressin, yet the V2 receptor on cells in the collecting duct of the kidneys remained activated as if it was binding to the hormone.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 7305 - Posted: 05.05.2005

By ANDREW POLLACK After the failures of numerous drug candidates over two decades, an experimental treatment has been shown to protect the brain from some of the damage caused by strokes, drug industry executives and doctors said yesterday. The drug, called Cerovive, reduced disability from stroke in a late-stage clinical trial involving 1,700 people, according to the product's developers, AstraZeneca and Renovis. The companies are conducting a second late-stage, or Phase 3, trial. They say if the results, due the first half of next year, are positive, they will apply late next year for federal approval. Shares of Renovis, a biotechnology company in South San Francisco, Calif., soared 94 percent, or $6.38, to close at $13.17. Shares of AstraZeneca, rose 44 cents, to $45.06. The trial results were not all positive. Those who received the drug did better by a statistically significant amount on the trial's main measure - a scale of disability - than those who got a placebo. But on a separate scale of neurological and cognitive function, the results were not statistically significant. Still Cerovive appears to be the first neuroprotectant - a drug aimed at protecting brain cells from damage and death - to achieve its primary goal in a large Phase 3 trial. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 7304 - Posted: 05.05.2005

The symptoms of Huntington's disease (HD)--severe loss of muscle control, emotional disturbance, and cognitive decline--are not just due to the toxic effects on brain cells of the mutant protein that causes the disorder, researchers, led by X. William Yang at Neuropsychiatric Institute of David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, have found. Their studies with genetically altered mice have revealed evidence for a new effect of the protein--triggering pathological interactions among brain cells. The researchers said their findings could not only shed new light on the underlying causes of HD pathologies, but also those of other similar "polyglutamine repeat" (polyQ) diseases, in which mutant genes produce proteins with abnormally long strings of the amino acid glutamine. They said their findings also suggest that abnormal cell-cell interactions could also play a role in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. In their studies, the researchers genetically engineered mice in which they could selectively trigger production of the mutant, toxic HD protein either throughout the brain or just in one restricted set of neurons. If only the toxic protein were required to produce the disease pathology, the "restricted-production" mice should show significant HD-type pathologies, reasoned the researchers. However, if abnormal interactions among cells throughout the brain were required for HD, these mice should show few or no pathologies compared to the engineered mice in which the mutant protein was produced in multiple neuron types throughout the brain.

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 7303 - Posted: 05.05.2005

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Depression often causes a duet of anguish among people already suffering from chronic pain. But the two conditions retain their independence from one another, and this may explain why medications used to treat patients' depression might not help them manage their pain, a new study says. Researchers at the University of Michigan Health System and the University of Cologne, Germany, have used functional imaging of the brain to determine that in patients with the chronic pain syndrome fibromyalgia, their level of depression has little influence on the intensity of pain they experience. This could be one of the reasons that treating a patient's depression by prescribing an antidepressant that has no analgesic (pain-killing) properties may have little or no impact on their pain. The study, in the May issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, notes that doctors often lump together the two conditions when they treat patients experiencing both of them. Some 30 to 54 percent of people with chronic pain also have a major depressive disorder. "There is an incorrect impression among many doctors that if you treat a patient's depression, it will make their pain better. Not so," says Daniel J. Clauw, M.D., one of the authors of the paper. Clauw is director of the U-M Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center and professor of rheumatology at the U-M Medical School. "If someone has pain and depression, you have to treat both."

Keyword: Depression; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 7302 - Posted: 05.05.2005

An 11-year-old Scottish boy with Asperger's Syndrome is set to take part in Junior Mastermind. Andrew Cowan, from Glasgow, has won a seat on the BBC One quiz programme with his specialist subject of Star Wars. The schoolboy suffers from the same form of autism as was featured in the best-selling book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Andrew is one of 20 hopefuls aged between 10 and 11 who will appear on the programme, which begins on 16 May. Asperger's Syndrome is a form of autism which affects the way a person communicates with and relates to others. People with the condition usually have fewer problems with language than those with autism and many lead highly productive lives in specialised fields, such as academia. It was only identified as a separate condition in 1944 and became clinically recognised in the mid-90s. Andrew's symptoms manifest themselves with his problems with social interaction and the fact that he cannot cope with high noise levels. He also finds it difficult to cope with stressful situations. However, he has shown a remarkable knowledge of the Star Wars film saga since his early childhood. At the age of four he correctly answered 95% of the questions in a Star Wars newspaper quiz and has said he likes the films because they are "a classic story between good and evil". Despite his problems, Andrew was determined to sit in the famous big black chair and show the public that people with the syndrome lead normal lives. (C)BBC

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 7301 - Posted: 05.04.2005

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR When Donald Herbert broke 10 years of virtual silence on Saturday and announced that he wanted to speak to his wife, his family and doctors were astonished and bewildered. Mr. Herbert, 44, a Buffalo firefighter who suffered severe brain damage after being struck by debris in a burning building in 1995, had mustered only "yes" and "no" answers sporadically throughout the years, passing his days in front of a television that he could barely see because his vision was so badly blurred. Neurologists said yesterday that such remarkable recoveries for people with severe brain damage are rare - but perhaps not as rare as the medical literature suggests. "This is a phenomenon that is being frequently reported," said Dr. Joseph Fins, chief of the medical ethics division at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell hospital and an expert on the subject. "It may be just the tip of the iceberg, and the question is how deep is it, what is the extent, and what are the predictors of this kind of reclaiming of consciousness." Mr. Herbert, a member of a fire rescue squad in Buffalo, was buried under debris after rushing into a burning building on Dec. 29, 1995. He was knocked unconscious and slipped into a coma, but two and a half months later entered a state of faint consciousness that left him mostly unresponsive, according to family members. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 7300 - Posted: 05.04.2005

By Joseph Rosenbloom Many video games, television shows, and other forms of popular entertainment may reek of sex and violence, but what about their benefits in developing American brains? The brain-developing benefits of pop culture? That the very question seems preposterous is the backdrop of Steven Johnson's iconoclastic and captivating ''Everything Bad Is Good for You." In fact, he says, it's the public's overly righteous preoccupation with sexual and violent content that is diverting attention from pop culture's important contribution to Americans' cognitive development. During the past 30 years, as Johnson abundantly documents, video games and TV shows have become mind-dazzlingly more complex. Hence, ''Pac-Man" has yielded to ''SimCity" (the urban-management simulator that is the most popular video game of all time) and ''Grand Theft Auto" (a limitless excursion through a vast city environment). ''Starsky and Hutch" has given way to ''The West Wing" and ''24." Although example rigging could skew his argument wrongly, Johnson builds a convincing case that popular games and shows have generally grown more cognitively taxing. To be sure, plenty of schlock still appears on TV. But today's schlock is better than yesterday's, Johnson suggests. In one comparison he pits ''Battle of the Network Stars" vs. ''Joe Millionaire." If the former promoted only mind-numbing passivity, ''Joe Millionaire," for all its silliness, at least compels next-day ''water-cooler conversations" about the competitors' decisions and strategy, Johnson notes, seemingly drawing only on his seat-of-the-pants impressions. © 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Intelligence
Link ID: 7299 - Posted: 06.24.2010

When it comes to treating headaches, acupuncturists might as well stick their needles in at random, according to a new study, which finds that traditional acupuncture is no better than its sham counterpart at reducing migraines. Even so, either sort of needling was significantly more effective than no treatment at all. Each year, millions of people suffer excruciating headaches associated with migraines. Drugs can reduce the pain but usually bring only modest relief. Instead, many turn to acupuncture, an ancient Chinese practice that involves inserting needles at strategic points along the body. Practitioners argue that correctly placed needles cure disorders by unblocking the flow of a person's vital energy. But although many hail acupuncture as an effective treatment, others want more evidence. So Klaus Linde, a clinical epidemiologist at Technische University in Munich, Germany, decided to test acupuncture's value in treating migraines. Linde and colleagues selected 302 migraine patients aged 18 to 65 and divided them into groups that received Chinese acupuncture treatment, a sham acupuncture treatment that did not follow the Chinese rules, and no treatment. Each patient maintained a headache diary and completed standardized pain questionnaires before and after the therapy. After 9 to 12 weeks of treatment, 15% of patients in the nontherapy group reported a 50% or greater drop in the number of days they had migraines. In the acupuncture and sham groups, the percentage experiencing a similar reduction was 51% and 53% respectively. "This means acupuncture is quite effective–-for at least German migraine patients--and needling the correct points does not seem to be very important," says Linde, whose team publishes its findings on 4 May in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 7298 - Posted: 06.24.2010