Take a moment and look at a picture near you. What did you see? How long did it take you to understand what was in the image, meaning how long did it take you to realize the green blob was a tree? Or that the orange circle was a piece of fruit? Most likely you assume that it took you no time at all, you just knew. Psychologists who study how we perceive images used to think that, before the process of object recognition and categorization could begin, the brain must first separate the figure in the image—such as a tree, or a piece of fruit—from its background. However, new research shows we actually categorize objects before we identify them. It means that, by the time your brain even realizes you are looking at something, you already know what that thing is. The new research was conducted by Kalanit Grill-Spector of Stanford University and Nancy Kanwisher of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Their article, "Visual Recognition: As Soon as You Know It’s There, You Know What It Is," will appear in the February 2005 issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the American Psychological Society.

Keyword: Attention; Vision
Link ID: 6863 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Sometimes the mere act of eating can make us happy, but new research suggests that consuming the right foods is enough to relieve depression. Two nutrients found in foods such as fish, walnuts, and beets worked as well as prescription antidepressants in preventing depression in rats. The findings may shed new light what causes the disorder and may lead to new therapies for depression. Despite decades of research, scientists are still puzzled about what exactly happens in the brain during bouts of depression. Some cultures suffer less from the disorder, and many researchers believe diet plays a role. But teasing out the culinary panacea has been slow going. Research has linked omega-3 oil, available as an over-the-counter nutritional supplement, to cardiovascular health, and it also appears to improve mood and cognitive function. Other studies suggest that the nutrient uridine also affects brain function. A team of researchers led by neurobiologist William Carlezon at Harvard's McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, studied how omega-3 fatty acids and uridine affect the behavior of rats using a standard depression test. Rats forced to swim in chilled water with no way to escape will normally become hopeless and float motionlessly. But when treated with prescription antidepressants, rats remain active longer, searching for an escape. The team found that rats whose diets were supplemented with high levels of omega-3 oil for at least 30 days stayed active and focused on escape. Similarly, rats injected with high levels of uridine were equally tenacious. These results were not seen in untreated rats, the team reports in the 15 February issue of Biological Psychiatry. Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6862 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Hamilton, ON - A meticulous diary kept by a mother of twins has revealed indicators of autistic behaviour in children as young as six months of age. The findings are published today in Neurocase. Mel Rutherford, assistant professor of psychology at McMaster University, says the diary provides a rare and unprecedented opportunity to observe the early development of autism. She says the mother of fraternal twins recorded her observations almost daily for about five years, beginning before the twins’ birth. She charted the children’s development in speech, social interactions, growth, and sleep disturbances, unaware that one twin was autistic until a diagnosis was made at three years of age. “It appears that children with autism develop normally for six months, and then begin developing atypically,” says Rutherford. “As typical children begin to accelerate in social development, the child with autism makes only minor gains.” During the first six months, both twins smiled, engaged in socially responsive vocalization, and showed a preference for family members over other people. By the age of one, however, the male twin showed less eye contact, less verbal communication, and less affection toward others than did his sister. His sleep patterns were also noticeably different from his sister’s. By the age of two, the boy had developed a fixation on particular patterns and puzzles; at age three, a child psychologist noted the boy “did not offer comfort if others are in distress and will not come for comfort is he is hurt.” The mother’s diary tells of her son’s facial expressions that ranged from limited to “spaced-out'.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 6861 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Treatments for mood and anxiety disorders are thought to work, in part, by helping patients control the stresses in their lives. A new study in rats by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grantees provides insight into the brain mechanisms likely involved. When it deems a stressor controllable, an executive hub in the front of the brain quells an alarm center deep in the brainstem, preventing the adverse behavioral and physiological effects of uncontrollable stress. "It's as if the prefrontal cortex says: 'Cool it, brainstem! We have control over this and there is no need to get so excited'," quipped Steven Maier, Ph.D., University of Colorado, whose study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Maier and colleagues posted their findings online in Nature Neuroscience, February 6, 2005. Lack of control over stressful life experiences has been implicated in mood and anxiety disorders. Rats exposed to uncontrollable stress develop learned helplessness, a syndrome similar to depression and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They lose the ability to learn how to escape stressors. Activation of a brainstem area (dorsal raphe nucleus) has been implicated in such reactions. But this area is too small and lacks the proper sensory inputs to judge whether a stressor is controllable. Many of its inputs come conspicuously from the mid-prefrontal cortex area (medial prefrontal cortex), seat of higher order functions, such as problem-solving and learning from experience. These signals are sent via the chemical messenger serotonin, which is involved in mood regulation and in mediating the effects of the most widely prescribed antidepressants. The medial prefrontal cortex has also been implicated as the source of an "all clear" signal that quells fear in rats.

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 6860 - Posted: 02.12.2005

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A behavioral neuroscientist at the University at Buffalo holds that the ingestion of afterbirth by a mother, a feature of pregnancy in nearly all non-human mammals, not only relieves postpartum pain, but optimizes the onset of maternal behavior by mediating the activity of specific opioid activity circuits in the brain. Mark Kristal, Ph.D., professor of psychology at UB and director the graduate program in behavioral neuroscience, has received a two-year $200,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, to test his hypothesis. In 1986 Kristal discovered an opioid-enhancing molecule he called the Placental Opioid-Enhancing Factor or POEF. His discovery led to a series of studies that shed light on the way in which POEF modulates how opioids inhibit nociceptive processing in the nervous system -- processing in specific areas of the brain that recognize certain kinds of pain. Kristal says this research may lead to novel ways of treating addiction in humans by manipulating the effectiveness of the opiates we produce in our own bodies. It also may enable physicians to obtain current levels of pain relief, he says, "by administering much, much, much smaller amounts of opioid analgesics."

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6859 - Posted: 02.12.2005

Nathan Seppa Terrible sadness, a sudden fright, or other emotional stress can bring on heart attack symptoms in people not actually experiencing a heart attack, according to two new reports. The researchers examined people who showed up at hospitals with chest pain and an impaired capacity to pump blood but no heart-tissue damage or clogged coronary arteries. Rather, the patients turned out to be experiencing physical effects after stressful events, such as the death of a loved one. Cardiologist Hunter C. Champion of Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore and his colleagues treated 18 women and 1 man with severe symptoms. After initial tests had ruled out a heart attack, bedside talks revealed that all the patients had recently had a stressful experience. These included the death of spouse, a car accident, an armed robbery, a family dispute, a court appearance, and a surprise party. The patients had blood concentrations of catecholamine hormones that were more than seven times normal and two to three times as great as those in five patients having heart attacks triggered by coronary artery blockages. Catecholamines, which include adrenaline and dopamine, are powerful hormones that regulate heart rate, blood pressure, and other body processes. The researchers report their findings in the Feb. 10 New England Journal of Medicine. Copyright ©2005 Science Service.

Keyword: Stress; Emotions
Link ID: 6858 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A German study has added weight to the argument that a herbal remedy is an effective treatment for depression. Researchers compared the effectiveness of St John's wort to anti-depressant drug paroxetine in treating moderate and severe depression. The team found half of those with the condition improved when given the herb, compared with a third using the drug, the British Medical Journal reported. UK experts said the study of 244 people should be treated with caution. The study also found patients on paroxetine - also known as Seroxat - suffered more side effects. In both cases the most common side effect was stomach upsets, the study by Karlsruhe-based Dr Willmar Schwabe Pharmaceuticals and the Institute for Medical Research Management and Biometrics in Nurnberg found. Report co-author Dr Meinhard Kieser said: "Our results support the use of St John's wort as an alternative to standard anti-depressants in moderate to severe depression, especially as it is well tolerated." The herb is not recommended for use by the UK's National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) because of uncertainty about what constitutes an appropriate dose, and its potential side effects when mixed with other drugs. However its guidelines do acknowledge there is some evidence to suggest St John's wort could benefit people with mild or moderate depression. Previous studies have produced mixed results about whether it is effective in treating more serious forms of depression. The herb, which is extracted from bright yellow star-shaped flowers, has been used for centuries as a folk medicine for anxiety and stress. (C)BBC

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6857 - Posted: 02.11.2005

By GARDINER HARRIS and BENEDICT CAREY ASHINGTON, - A day after Canadian officials suspended the use of a hyperactivity drug amid reports of deaths associated with its use, Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa contended that United States health officials had asked the Canadian regulators not to do so. Senator Grassley, a Republican, said on Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration had made the request of Canadian health officials because the F.D.A. could not handle another "drug safety crisis." Mr. Grassley said he was basing his contentions on reports from whistle-blowers within the agency. Dr. Robert Peterson, director general of the therapeutic products directorate at Health Canada, said through a spokeswoman that reports that F.D.A. had asked Health Canada to refrain from suspending the drug "are untrue." Brad Stone, a spokesman for the F.D.A., declined to respond directly to Mr. Grassley's contention but said of Dr. Peterson's rejection that, "We believe the Canadian response is the correct one."Canadian health officials, citing 20 deaths among patients taking the British-made drug Adderall XR, said on Wednesday night that they were suspending sales of the hyperactivity drug indefinitely. The F.D.A. is allowing the drug to continue to be sold in the United States, saying there is little evidence that Adderall XR caused the deaths. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 6856 - Posted: 02.11.2005

Psychologists from McMaster University have discovered that the aging process improves certain abilities -- the ability to grasp the 'big picture'. The study, published in the journal Neuron dispels the myth that older people perform slower and worse than younger people. "Going into the study, we knew that ageing changes the way people see the world," says Allison Sekuler, one senior author of the study. "But these results are an unusual twist on the standard 'ageing makes you worse' story, and they provide clear insight into what is changing in the ageing brain." The researcers measured how long it took for study participants to indicate which direction a set of bars moved across a computer screen. Younger participants were faster when the bars were small or low in contrast. When the bars were large and high in contrast, however, the older people were faster. "The results are exciting not only because they show an odd case in which older people have better vision than younger people, but also because it may tell us something about how ageing affects the way signals are processed in the brain" says Patrick Bennett, the other senior author. Copyright © 2005 Plebius Presstm

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 6855 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Carved out in our collective imagination is a carpenter's workshop in the Italian story "Pinocchio," where a wooden puppet with an ever-growing nose informs millions of children what might happen if they lie. In real life, who hasn't wished the liars in their world were as transparent? The good news is that researchers are finding clues in the body that—with the right training—might tell you how to spot when someone's trying to pull a fast one. Psychologist Paul Ekman, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco is working with the Department of Defense on software that analyzes facial muscles to help detect liars. "There are movements of the face that can show an emotion that doesn't fit with what the person's saying," Ekman explains. "We call that a 'hot spot,' which means that you are not getting a full account." To first prove that people's faces differ when they lie, Ekman videotaped 11 men truthfully discussing a topic they felt strongly about and nine men lying about their stance. Volunteers watched the tapes and tried to spot liars. Ekman reported that 90 percent of the liars' faces showed fear and disgust whereas only 30 percent of truth tellers displayed these emotions. He calls these concealed emotions 'microexpressions.' "They look just like ordinary expressions except that they are on the face for about a 25th of a second," explains Ekman. © ScienCentral, 2000- 2005.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 6854 - Posted: 06.24.2010

How do you make babies, give them a decent start in life, and send them off to perpetuate the species from a lightless, toxic environment in the bowels of the ocean? Scientists studying deep-sea tubeworms have unmasked one secret to their success: Females fertilize their eggs internally and release the resulting embryos at an early developmental stage, optimizing their chances for survival and long-distance dispersal. Ever since the discovery of gutless vestimentiferan worms in 1977, researchers have puzzled over how the worms colonize highly ephemeral, unstable hydrothermal vent habitats spaced hundreds of kilometers apart. The prevailing theory holds that, like other marine invertebrates, tubeworms release masses of eggs and sperm in a hit-or-miss manner, called broadcast spawning, into the surrounding waters. But the new study indicates that this isn't the case. Biology graduate student Ana Hilário of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom, and her colleagues used a deep-sea submersible to collect tubeworms of five species from Pacific vents and cold seeps in the Gulf of Mexico. In thin slices of the females' reproductive tracts, Hilário found a hook-shaped region, called the spermatheca, where sperm are stashed and eggs undergo fertilization before spawning. At the study sites, fertilized eggs released naturally and collected over a period of days proved to be in very early stages of development, indicating that fertilization occurs internally rather than outside the worms. Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6853 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Communication in the brain travels from one nerve cell to another through critical connections called synapses. These neuron-to-neuron junctions form early in brain development, and their construction was thought to be guided by the nerve cells themselves. Now, investigators supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, have discovered that cells called glia, known to provide support for neurons in the mature brain, also play a crucial role in formation of synapses during the surge of development following birth. This key insight into the process of normal synapse development may lead to improved treatment of conditions such as drug addiction and epilepsy, which are characterized in part by too many synapses. The research, led by Dr. Ben Barres of Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, California, is reported in the February 11, 2005 issue of the journal Cell. “Synapses are the key connections between cells in the brain. We know that drugs alter these connections, and that the developing brain is vulnerable to addictive drugs’ disruption of normal communication,” says NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. “Compounds that direct synapse formation may offer a therapeutic option for people fighting drug addiction or other neurologic conditions.” Glia account for 90 percent of the cells in a mammalian brain, but until recently scientists focused mainly on the supportive role that glial cells play in helping mature neurons survive. Dr. Barres, along with Stanford postdoctoral fellows Dr. Karen Christopherson and Dr. Erik Ullian, developed a method for growing neurons in a laboratory without glial cells.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6852 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ATLANTA – When it comes to aging, women may have another reason to be thankful. Research conducted in nonhuman primates at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University shows male nonhuman primates are more susceptible to age-related cognitive decline. The February issue of Behavioral Neuroscience reports this finding, which the researchers say has implications for developing sex-specific therapies to help humans guard against age-related memory loss. By observing that older male nonhuman primates' spatial memory, which is responsible for recording environmental and spatial-orientation information, declines at a greater rate than that of females, researchers led by Agnčs Lacreuse, PhD, assistant research professor, and James Herndon, PhD, associate research professor, both in Yerkes' Division of Neuroscience, concluded a species' sex may influence age-related cognitive decline. "Given that spatial memory is sensitive to sex differences in humans and in nonhuman primates, we decided to focus our study on determining how cognitive aging differs between the sexes," said Lacreuse. According to Lacreuse, such sex differences have not been studied frequently in humans, and when they have, the data has been inconsistent.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6851 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi Listen up: mammals seem to have evolved the delicate bone structure of the middle ear at least twice. The surprising discovery comes from a fossil, found off the southern coast of Australia, that belongs to an ancestor of the platypus. Modern mammals are unique among vertebrates for possessing three tiny bones in the middle ear. The malleus, incus and stapes (commonly known as the hammer, anvil and stirrup) work as part of a chain that transmits sound towards the skull. Birds and reptiles have only one bone to perform this function. Because the mammalian arrangement is so complex, scientists believed that the set-up had evolved on just a single occasion, in an ancestor that gave rise to placental animals (including humans), marsupials and monotremes (such as the duck-billed platypus). All this changed when James Hopson, a vertebrate palaeontologist at University of Chicago, Illinois, took a trip to Australia. There he met a team of researchers including Thomas Rich of Museum Victoria in Melbourne. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Evolution; Hearing
Link ID: 6850 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A spray that helps increase women's enjoyment of sex has undergone successful trials. The spray, developed by Australian company Acrux, contains the male sex hormone testosterone. It was initially designed with post-menopausal women in mind, but has also been shown to work for young women with a low libido. Acrux plans to carry out larger trials, and does not expect the spray to come to market for several years. The spray was tested over four months in three doses on 261 women with a low sex drive and low testosterone levels. Researchers found a statistically significant rise in the number of satisfying experiences at the end of the fourth month for women taking the second highest dose of the spray. The only apparent side effect was a small increase in body hair among some of the participants. This prompted two women taking the highest dose of the spray to drop out of the study. The spray delivers testosterone and a substance to ensure the hormone is held in the skin and absorbed over 24 hours - similar to the way sunscreen remains on the skin. Lead researcher Professor Susan Davis, of Monash University, Principal investigator, said previous research had focused on postmenopausal women known to have low testosterone levels. "But many younger women also report having low sexual interest and enjoyment and traditionally," she said. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6849 - Posted: 02.10.2005

San Diego, CA, -- Researchers in California, Israel, and Germany have compared three distantly related species – baker’s yeast, a worm, and the fruit fly – and reported that protein “wiring” connections in one species are often conserved in all three. This first-of-its-kind analysis of three higher level organisms published in the February 8 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences supports both the concept of a basic wiring diagram for all eukaryotic cells, and the idea that more selective pharmaceuticals could be designed to tweak the wiring plan of human cells to more effectively treat diseases while also generating fewer side-effects. These wiring diagrams show the patterns of protein interactions in the cells of yeast, worm, and fly that are involved in an essential garbage-disposal function. The horizontal dotted lines indicate protein similarities between species, and the thick and thinner solid lines indicate direct and indirect, respectively, protein interactions within a species. Click here for high-res version. "We're basically now able to open the hood of yeast, worm, and fly cells and look at the protein interactions inside,” said Trey Ideker, a bioengineering professor at the University of California, San Diego and one of the nine co-authors of the paper. “Ultimately, this type of wiring analysis will help us more fully explain how the diversity of life developed on the planet, and more practically, how a pathogen differs from its human host, or a diseased cell differs from it healthy counterpart at the most informative level of detail.”

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 6848 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The adult male zebra finch knows only one scratchy tune learned in its youth, which it performs repeatedly and intensely when females are listening. But occasionally, the finch might improvise, experimenting with a slower, more sultry variation or emphasizing different notes. Neurobiologists studying the finch now say the improvisation arises from a component of a crucial learning circuit in a section of the forebrain that seems to generate the trial and error necessary to master sophisticated motor skills, such as singing in birds or speech and sports in humans. "It means this part of the brain is important for instructing or allowing changes in the song," said Mimi Kao, first author of a paper in the February 10, 2005, issue of the journal Nature that demonstrates how the region modulates bird song in real time. Kao, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) predoctoral fellow, is in the final months of her doctoral training in the laboratory of co-author Allison Doupe at the University of California, San Francisco's Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience. A similar brain pathway in humans may explain how children learn to talk by listening to themselves and others, and how adults learn and hone new motor skills, such as tennis. The process relies on feedback about what works and what doesn't, also called experience-dependent or performance-based learning.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 6847 - Posted: 02.10.2005

All is fair in love and war—especially when the two are intertwined. Just ask the male Australian cuttlefish. "The male cuttlefish has quite a challenge on his hands when it comes to the end of their yearly life cycle," explains Roger Hanlon, senior scientist at the Marine Biological Laboratory. "There are four, five even ten males for every female on the spawning grounds, so the challenge they face is, 'How do I get my genes into the next generation?' There's enormous competition among the males for the relatively few females that are on the spawning ground." Hanlon and his team spent five spawning seasons observing cuttlefish underwater in a remote coastal area of Australia. As one might expect, the largest males used their size advantage to find a female partner and guard her from other males. Hanlon observed that smaller males were able to get to the female while the guard male was fighting other males away, or by meeting the female in a "secret rendezvous" under a rock, for instance. But he found that the small males with the biggest success rate employ the same camouflage trick that allows them to escape predators: these so-called "sneaker" males change their skin pattern and body shape to disguise themselves as females, and swim right past a large guard male, who thinks he's getting another girlfriend. © ScienCentral, 2000- 2005.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6846 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The red Mozambique spitting cobra stiffens, fixing its gaze on the victim's face, which is moving backwards and forwards in front of it. For several seconds it remains erect like this; then its head flashes forwards. For an instant the fangs in front of its pale pink throat are visible in its wide-open mouth, as they squirt the venom at high pressure towards the victim. On the plastic visor two red spiral patterns appear. The eyes behind it look surprisingly unperturbed. "I sprayed the visor beforehand with rhodamine," Katja Tzschätzsch calmly explains, "It's a pigment which dyes liquids red. This makes the traces of venom easier to see." In her undergraduate dissertation the trainee teacher investigated what spitting cobras aim at when spitting. "In the literature it often says: they aim at the eyes," her supervisor Dr. Guido Westhoff, junior lecturer in Professor Horst Bleckmann's team, explains. "However, up to now nobody has investigated it." The cocktail of toxins partly consists of nerve poisons, but also contains components which are harmful to tissue. Through a narrow channel in their fangs the snakes can spray the liquid at high pressure – similar to a bullet in the barrel of a gun. If they manage to hit an eye, the sensitive cornea reacts with severe stinging pain. In the worst case these burns can ultimately lead to blindness.

Keyword: Neurotoxins
Link ID: 6845 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Although most parents, educators, and researchers believe that children can't learn specific words until well into their second year, children younger than 1 year can, in fact, learn certain words for things that are not a regular part of their daily lives, according to new research being published in the January/February 2005 issue of the journal, Child Development. The findings, based on research by Graham Schafer, D.Phil., of the University of Reading in Reading in the United Kingdom, suggest that what is considered a "formal" learning of a word may be underway long before children say much. "It appears that young children may understand word use more flexibly than scientists and parents have previously thought," says Dr. Schafer. The findings call into question earlier beliefs that before their second year most children only learn words for things they are interested in, or when those words are linked to certain routines, such as "bath," "car," or "cat." To investigate this issue, Dr. Schafer asked parents of 52 nine-month-olds to use 12 board books and a set of 48 picture cards depicting common objects like keys, apples, fish, and chairs in simple games with their children four times a week for up to 10 minutes a session. The games were designed to build on the kind of routines parents already used in the home: Naming and pointing, sorting, finding the odd one out. No reading was required for either parents or children.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 6844 - Posted: 02.10.2005