Reading is something most of us take for granted. But many people struggle everyday of their lives to read and understand simple words and phrases. "I avoided reading because I would have to read a sentence over and over and still not understand what I read," explains Dee Register from Kernersville, North Carolina, who wasn't diagnosed with dyslexia until she was in her early 40's. If left untreated, childhood dyslexia becomes an adult problem. "It's not something that's outgrown," says neurophysiologist Lynn Flowers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. "Ten percent of the child – and therefore the adult – population is affected by dyslexia to some degree," she says. "It isn't an all or nothing kind of disorder, it comes in shades as well." Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that tends to run in families. "People without dyslexia process information in certain ways, in certain brain systems and certain neural pathways, and dyslexics do it differently and less efficiently," explains Judith Birsh, President of the New York branch of the International Dyslexia Association. People who suffer from dyslexia find it difficult to sort out the sounds within words, which make reading, writing and spelling very difficult. "If you’re stuck at the word-reading level and you’re laboring intensively over decoding [sounds], then you have nothing much left to work on comprehension and certainly you’re not going to speed along because you’re struggling along decoding the individual words," says Birsh. It can also have an affect on other aspects of a person's life such as short-term memory, mathematics and concentration. © ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Dyslexia
Link ID: 7063 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The young brain is adept at making fine distinctions, between language sounds for instance, that elude adults. With a little exposure to a foreign language, they can keep this ability longer. Now a study shows the same thing is true for recognizing faces. Babies quickly advance from promiscuous babbling to articulate gabbing, but along the way they lose the ability to distinguish between some spoken sounds, like "r" and "l" in English, which trouble some speakers of East Asian languages. A little exposure to a nonnative language allows infants to retain their verbal flexibility longer, so a team led by infant researchers Olivier Pascalis of the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom and Charles Nelson at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis wondered if the same applied to face recognition. The researchers had mothers show photos of Barbary macaque faces to their 6-month-olds for about 10 minutes per week over the course of 3 months. Before and after training, the team tested the babies using pairs of monkey mug shots, some they had seen before and some new. When the babies looked more at one photo, the researchers assumed it was of an individual unfamiliar to the infant, as infants are drawn to novelty.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Language
Link ID: 7062 - Posted: 03.22.2005

Why do some males smell better than others? Scientists at Cardiff University, in collaboration with colleagues at Max-Plank Society, Germany – and the help of stickleback fish - have identified the chemical responsible. The researchers found in a study of sticklebacks, that males with body odour that is particularly attractive to females produce small protein fragments (known as "peptides"). To prove this, the researchers produced a synthetic "perfume" containing a mixture of protein fragments. By manipulating the combination of fragments in the perfume, the sexual attractiveness of males could be increased. In the experiment none of the females being tested could see the males. Even males previously rejected by females were rendered irresistible after the synthetic perfume had been applied. Smell is important when choosing a partner, not only for humans but also fish. To fight disease, the body's Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) molecules identify a disease as a foreign invader. Different MHC molecules fight different diseases, so it's important to have a mix of MHC types. Females use smell to identify partners with suitable MHC molecules: choosing only males with the correct mix of immune genes critical for the survival of future offspring.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 7061 - Posted: 06.24.2010

(Boston) -- What's bad for your ticker may be good for your bean, according to a research from a team of scientists at Boston University. The team looked at 18 years of data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study and found an association between naturally high levels of blood cholesterol and better mental functioning. The results were recently published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. The research team, led by BU Department of Mathematics and Statistics Research Assistant Professor Penelope Elias (now at University of Maine at Orono) and including Merrill Elias, research professor of epidemiology in BU's Mathematics and Statistics Department, found a link between naturally occurring high cholesterol and modestly better mental function in areas such as visual organization, memory, attention, and concentration. Unlike previous studies, the current research isolated blood cholesterol from other well-known risk factors. Along with high blood pressure, diabetes, and hypertension, high cholesterol has long been known as a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. However, the results of the new study showed that the higher the natural level of cholesterol, the better participants did on tests of mental ability. High cholesterol was defined as > 240 mg/dL as measured in blood samples.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 7060 - Posted: 03.22.2005

Depression appears to be a major cause of insomnia in people with HIV, according to a new systematic review of 29 studies on the topic. Steven Reid, Ph.D., of Imperial College in London, lead author of the review, says that "given the prevalence of anxiety and depression reported in HIV infection, it is not surprising that psychiatric disorders should be associated with sleep disturbance in this group." Patients in the last stages of HIV infection with full-blown AIDS and those who have suffered some kind of brain impairment as a result of the disease are also more likely to suffer from insomnia, the reviewers conclude in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. "The studies reviewed here illustrate that although insomnia is a frequent complaint in people living with HIV, there is considerable uncertainty about its cause and significance," Reid says. Earlier studies suggested that patients with HIV had changes in periods of REM (rapid eye movement) and non-REM sleep, along with other sleep rhythm changes, that may have led to insomnia. When Reid and colleague reviewed those studies, however, they found that very small numbers of participants and inconsistent findings.

Keyword: Depression; Sleep
Link ID: 7059 - Posted: 03.22.2005

By STEPHANIE SAUL Tony Soprano's psychiatrist is talking about her own case of depression. Lorraine Bracco, who plays Dr. Jennifer Melfi on HBO's "The Sopranos," has previously mentioned her depression, but she is now disclosing details about her history with the illness. And, like many other celebrities, she is doing so under a contract with a drug company. Last week, Pfizer, which makes the antidepressant Zoloft, introduced a Web site featuring Ms. Bracco, who has also discussed her illness in a series of media interviews with People magazine and the Associated Press, among others. Television commercials will soon feature Ms. Bracco, who has said she was treated with Zoloft during her illness. Pfizer declined to disclose how much the company is paying for her endorsement. Ms. Bracco joins a chorus of actors, singers and athletes with such deals. In the last year alone, folk singer Shawn Colvin has talked about mental illness in a national education campaign sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, the manufacturer of the antidepressants Wellbutrin and Paxil. A former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, Terry Bradshaw, has ventured across the country on "The Terry Bradshaw Depression Tour," also sponsored by Glaxo. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 7058 - Posted: 03.22.2005

By ANDREW POLLACK When Amylin Pharmaceuticals won federal approval on Wednesday for its first drug, executives celebrated by jumping into the reflecting pond at the company's office complex in San Diego. Some also called to thank a little-known software entrepreneur back east in Washington who had helped make it all possible. The entrepreneur, Allen Andersson, invested in Amylin in early 1999, when the company was facing collapse because the drug, a diabetes treatment called Symlin, failed to demonstrate statistically meaningful effects in two clinical trials. "We had an actual shutdown plan already mapped out," Joseph C. Cook Jr., the chairman of Amylin, recalled in an interview. "If Allen hadn't brought the money forward, there would have been no other choice." While Wall Street had written off Symlin, Mr. Andersson thought the drug would help his daughter Rachel, who has diabetes. "I loved the medicine and the market hated it," he said. His action ended up being good not only for Amylin and diabetics, but also for him. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 7057 - Posted: 03.20.2005

Some children who are very thin are being misdiagnosed as anorexic when they have the gut disorder Crohn's disease, a leading expert has warned. Child health specialist Professor Ian Booth told a conference that treatment can be delayed for months as a result. He said teenagers with Crohn's - an inflammation of the digestive tract - could present with growth failure but no digestive symptoms. Professor Booth said doctors should be aware Crohn's was a possible diagnosis. The diagnosis problems arise when children and teenagers are extremely thin and failing to thrive, he told a British Society of Gastroenterology meeting in Birmingham. Doctors may assume the patients have anorexia when they are actually having problems eating and digesting food because of Crohn's disease. Crohn's usually affects the small intestine. People with the condition may develop obstructions in their bowel, making digesting food painful. Professor Booth told the BBC News website: "This is an issue which is numerically very small, but individually very important. "Growth failure in the absence of intestinal symptoms can be an important presentation of Crohn's in adolescents. "The other important presentation is in wasting - as in malnutrition - so much so that presenting this way in adolescence, it is sometimes confused with anorexia nervosa." (C)BBC

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 7056 - Posted: 03.20.2005

By Julianna Kettlewell, BBC News science reporter Farm animals have feelings which should be respected and catered for, academics at a London, UK, meeting have said. They believe animals should not be dismissed as simple automatons - cows take pleasure in solving problems and sheep can form deep friendships. Delegates from around the globe were speaking at the Compassion in World Farming Trust (CIWF Trust) conference. They shared ways of exploring the minds of animals, as well as monitoring their suffering and alleviating their pain. "The study of animal sentience is one of the most exciting and important in the whole of biology," said Professor Marian Dawkins, of Oxford University. "My plea is that, when we make decisions and regulations about animals and campaign for them, the animals' voices should be heard and heard strongly." For whatever reasons, we humans tend to draw a charmed ring around ourselves - we suppose we are the only ones that think thoughts and feel feelings. We are happy to ascribe emotions to a tiny flailing inarticulate baby, while denying them in a sheep or even a chimpanzee. Talk of animal sentience is often brushed off as fluffy and sentimental - not the stuff of science or the real world. But perhaps we have been too hasty in our dismissal - perhaps consciousness does not peer through our eyes alone. "They are not unfeeling objects," said Professor Marc Bekoff, of the University of Colorado, US. "And what animals feel matters very much as they try to negotiate their lives in a human-dominated and often abusive world, in which they are mere pawns in our incessant and obsessive attempts to control their lives for our and not their benefit. (C)BBC

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 7055 - Posted: 03.20.2005

By KATE ZERNIKE AT the Congressional hearings last week investigating steroids and baseball, players were scolded not just for taking substances that are unsafe, but for doing something immoral. Those who use performance enhancing substances were called cheaters, cowards, bad examples for the nation's children. But if baseball players are cheating, is everyone else, too? After all, Americans are relying more and more on a growing array of performance enhancing drugs. Lawyers take the anti-sleep drug Provigil to finish that all-night brief, in hopes of concentrating better. Classical musicians take beta blockers, which banish jitters, before a big recital.Is the student who swallows a Ritalin before taking the SAT unethical if the pill gives her an unfair advantage over other students? If a golfer pops a beta blocker before a tournament, is he eliminating a crucial part of competition - battling nerves and a chance of choking? Beyond baseball and steroids, where do you draw the line on the use of performance-enhancing drugs? President Bush said in his 2004 State of the Union speech that steroid use in baseball "sends the wrong message: that there are shortcuts to accomplishment, and that performance is more important than character." Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse; ADHD
Link ID: 7054 - Posted: 03.20.2005

By Robert Roy Britt, LiveScience Senior Writer New research into how the brain controls movement reveals a location of thoughts that determine what you will do. Don't worry, the scientists can't read your most fantastic or lurid imaginings. What the Caltech researchers can do is spot the flicker of activity that occurs while you contemplate moving your hand. The research is expected to improve efforts to build neural prostheses, devices that link a paralyzed person's mind to an external device with the help of brain electrodes and a computer. Several research programs are making progress on similar aspects of mind control over movement. Patients have shown the ability to move a cursor on a screen with nothing but brainpower, for example. And a monkey has been trained to feed itself with a robotic arm. But the new study, announced this week, predicted where a patient would move his hand based on brain activity the instant prior. It promises a more effective way to convert desire into movement for paralyzed patients. © 1999-2005 Imaginova Corp.

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 7053 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Early treatment with a drug can delay the onset and progression of heart failure in children with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, research suggests. DMD is an incurable genetic disease causing muscle wastage, which often leads to fatal cardiac problems. The study shows the drug, perindopril, can slow heart muscle degeneration - and thus ward off heart failure. The research by Paris's Cochin Hospital involved 57 children, says the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Lead researcher Professor Denis Duboc said: "For the first time, we have shown that it is possible to slow progression in this rare degenerative disease. "In DMD, the heart muscles are affected and cardiac problems are fatal in around 40% of children." The five-year study focused on the effect on perindopril, a drug from a class known as ACE inhibitors, widely used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure. Some 57 children with DMD received either perindopril, or a dummy drug. Eight in the dummy group went on to develop signs of heart failure, and three died from the condition. In contrast, just one of the perindopril group showed signs of heart failure, and none died from the condition during the study. Professor Duboc said the results suggested early treatment with perindopril might also benefit other people genetically predisposed to heart failure. DMD, one of the most common forms of muscular dystrophy, is caused by a lack of a protein called dystrophin which helps keep the muscles intact. It strikes children at a young age, and affects almost exclusively boys who rarely survive beyond their early 30s. (C)BBC

Keyword: Muscles
Link ID: 7052 - Posted: 03.20.2005

Young adults who take virginity pledges as adolescents are as likely to be infected with sexually transmitted diseases as those who do not take virginity pledges, Yale and Columbia University researchers report in the March 18 issue of Journal of Adolescent Health. The virginity pledges may even encourage higher risk sexual behavior among young adults, say study authors Hannah Brückner, assistant professor of sociology at Yale University and Peter Bearman, professor of sociology at Columbia University. "We were surprised by the findings," said Brückner. "Pledgers have fewer sex partners than non-pledgers, they start having sex later, and they marry earlier, so they should have lower STD rates, but they don't." One reason is that sexually active pledgers were less likely to use condoms at first sex than non-pledgers. Because most pledgers are sexually active (88 percent of the pledgers), lower rates of condom use increases STD risk. Brüeckner and Bearman also note that pledgers were less likely to seek and obtain STD-related health care, possibly because of increased stigmatization or misperception of infection risk among pledgers. Because pledgers are less likely to be diagnosed and treated for STD infections, they may be more likely to have those infections for longer periods than non-pledgers.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 7051 - Posted: 03.20.2005

Rats might not seem like picky eaters, but if their diets lack key amino acids, they'll search for the right food. Now researchers believe they have discovered the molecular process that guides this finicky, but critical, behavior. The findings may help researchers figure out why people eat what they do. Proteins are made from various combinations of 22 amino acids. Humans and rats produce most of these in their cells but have to get eight of them--known as essential amino acids--from their diets. Rats eating a diet devoid of an essential amino acid will stop eating after 20 minutes and look for other food. The clues to this behavior originate in yeast. Experiments had shown that yeast detect nutritional deficiencies with the help of a gene called GCN2, which sends up a red flag when molecules that transport amino acids, called tRNAs, are empty-handed. Fast forward to 2003, when biochemist Tracy Anthony of Indiana University School of Medicine, Evansville, fed an amino acid-lite diet to rats whose GCN2 had been knocked out. The rats didn't notice the dietary deficiency, suggesting that, like yeast, they might rely on tRNAs to plan their menus. Anthony teamed up with neurophysiologist Dorothy Gietzen of the University of California, Davis, and colleagues to test the idea. Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 7050 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The harm caused by alcohol consumption among college students may exceed previous estimates of the problem. Researchers report that unintentional fatal injuries related to alcohol increased from about 1,500 in 1998 to more than 1,700 in 2001 among U.S. college students aged 18-24. Over the same period national surveys indicate the number of students who drove under the influence of alcohol increased by 500,000, from 2.3 million to 2.8 million. The new findings appear in the 2005 issue of the Annual Review of Public Health, now online at http://arjournals.annualreviews.org/loi/publhealth. "This paper underscores what we had learned from another recent study — that excessive alcohol use by college-aged individuals in the U.S. is a significant source of harm," said Ting-Kai Li, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). "The magnitude of problems posed by excessive drinking among college students should stimulate both improved measurement of these problems and efforts to reduce them," added the report's lead author Ralph W. Hingson, Sc.D, Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and Center to Prevent Alcohol Problems Among Young People.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 7049 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jessica Ebert For the first time in recent history, researchers are predicting that the life expectancy of Americans may begin a sustained decline. The forecast is based on the sharp rise in obesity in today's youth. By the middle of this century, the increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer that they will face could lessen the average life expectancy by two to five years, some say. In general, longevity predictions are determined by studying historical trends in death rates. Various agencies, such as the US Social Security Administration (SSA), have used this method to predict that the life expectancy of Americans will continue to rise over the next century. But Jay Olshansky, a biodemographer at the University of Illinois at Chicago, argues that they ignore the effect of obesity on future generations. Instead of making predictions by studying what has happened in the past, Olshansky and a team of statisticians and demographers, "looked into the future by looking at today's younger generations," he explains. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 7048 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Thomas H. Maugh II Times Staff Writer Texas researchers have found a possible link between autism and mercury in the air and water. Studying individual school districts in Texas, the epidemiologists found that those districts with the highest levels of mercury in the environment also had the highest rates of special education students and autism diagnoses. The study does not prove that mercury causes autism, cautioned the lead author, Raymond F. Palmer of the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, but it provides a "provocative" clue that should be further investigated. "Mercury is a known neurotoxin," said Dr. Isaac Pessah of UC Davis' MIND Institute, who was not involved in the study. "It's rather intriguing that the correlation is so positive," meaning that there was a strong, direct relationship between mercury and autism levels. "It makes one worry." California has the highest environmental burden of mercury of any state in the country, and it also has what appears to be the highest rate of autism as well — although some critics attribute this perceived high rate to enhanced surveillance associated with the state's special education program. Autism is a severe developmental disorder in which children seem isolated from the world around them. There is a broad spectrum of symptoms, but the disorder is marked by poor language skills and an inability to handle social relations. Copyright © 2005 Los Angeles Times

Keyword: Autism; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 7047 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New York University biologists have uncovered how the innate immune system in mice's brains fights viral infection of neurons. The findings, published as the cover study in the latest issue of Virology, show that proteins in neurons fight the virus at multiple stages--by preventing the formation of viral RNA and proteins, and blocking the virus' release, which could infect other cells in the brain. "There is no magic bullet in fighting viral infections in neurons," said NYU Biology Professor Carol Shoshkes Reiss, the study's senior author. "However, these findings show the redundancy of the immune system--when one response fails to fight infection, others step in." The study was also conducted at NYU, by a post-doctoral fellow, Mark Trottier, Jr., PhD, now at Michigan State, and Beth Palian, currently a doctoral student at the University of Southern California. Recently, the West Nile virus has been responsible for a viral encephalitis outbreak in the northeast. The NYU researchers set out to determine how the body can fight viral encephalitis. Specifically, they examined how type I interferons--proteins made by the body that are released in response to stimuli, notably infection--work in neurons and to determine if nerve cells' response to interferons is similar to that of other cells.

Keyword: Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 7046 - Posted: 03.17.2005

CHAPEL HILL -- Images of brain activity may hold clues to the onset of schizophrenia in people at high risk for the disease, according to a study headed by psychiatry researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. The new findings appear in the March issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, a journal of the American Medical Association. A decline in function in the prefrontal cortex, the "executive" or front part of the brain, is present in high-risk individuals experiencing early symptoms of schizophrenia and may reflect biological changes that precede the onset of diagnosable illness, the study indicates. Identifying such changes prior to disease onset also may prove useful in determining vulnerability to schizophrenia onset, particularly in those at high risk for the disease, the researchers said. "We know that individuals who experience symptoms that occur before the disease becomes full-blown demonstrate impaired performance in tasks requiring executive function, attention and working memory, but the neurobiological bases of this remains unclear," said Dr. Aysenil Belger, the study's senior author.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Brain imaging
Link ID: 7045 - Posted: 03.17.2005

Genes may help determine how religious a person is, suggests a new study of US twins. And the effects of a religious upbringing may fade with time. Until about 25 years ago, scientists assumed that religious behaviour was simply the product of a person's socialisation - or "nurture". But more recent studies, including those on adult twins who were raised apart, suggest genes contribute about 40% of the variability in a person's religiousness. But it is not clear how that contribution changes with age. A few studies on children and teenagers - with biological or adoptive parents - show the children tend to mirror the religious beliefs and behaviours of the parents with whom they live. That suggests genes play a small role in religiousness at that age. Now, researchers led by Laura Koenig, a psychology graduate student at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, US, have tried to tease apart how the effects of nature and nurture vary with time. Their study suggests that as adolescents grow into adults, genetic factors become more important in determining how religious a person is, while environmental factors wane. The team gave questionnaires to 169 pairs of identical twins - 100% genetically identical - and 104 pairs of fraternal twins - 50% genetically identical - born in Minnesota. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7044 - Posted: 06.24.2010