A menacing body posture can be as threatening as a frightening facial expression, according to new research. In the past, scientists have said that human emotions are communicated mainly by facial expressions. But a new study suggests that body posture may be as important as the face in communicating emotions such as fear. The discovery suggests that the immediate response to other people's fear may be more automatic than previously thought. The study shows that images of fear affect the emotional part of the brain. Since the link between the emotional brain and action is stronger than the link between the visual brain and action, viewing fearful body expressions may automatically prepare the observer to respond to fear. "When we talk about how humans communicate, we always talk about things like language," said Beatrice de Gelder, the neuroscientist who led the study. "But just like in the animal world, we also communicate through our bodies without our conscious minds being much aware of it." De Gelder is a professor at both Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, and Tilburg University in the Netherlands. The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this week. © 2004 National Geographic Society.

Keyword: Emotions; Language
Link ID: 6445 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Holds hope for sufferers of macular degeneration Boston, MA – For the first time researchers have shown that transplanted stem cells can preserve and improve vision in eyes damaged by retinal disease. In the cover article in the November 2004 Investigative Ophthalmology and Visual Science, scientists from Harvard's Schepens Eye Research Institute describe results of a mouse study in which transplanted stem cells develop into retinal cells, prevent the death of "at risk" retina cells in the recipient mice and improve the vision of treated mice. "These findings hold great promise for potential treatments for people suffering from macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy and other retinal diseases," says Michael Young, PhD, an assistant scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute and the lead author of the study. The retina is a tissue-thin membrane at the back of the eye responsible for sending light and images from the outside world through the optic nerve to the brain, which interprets them. The retina contains light sensitive cells, known as rods, which make it possible for us to see in black and white and in low light, and cones, which are responsible for color and high-acuity vision. In diseases such as macular degeneration, it is these cells that are being destroyed.

Keyword: Vision; Stem Cells
Link ID: 6444 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Using ultrasound in combination with the drug t-PA can improve response to an ischemic stroke, according to a study involving 126 patients. This first-of-its-kind human trial compared the safety and efficacy of ultrasound and t-PA versus use of t-PA alone. The trial was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The finding appears in the November 18, 2004, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Since 1996, the clot-busting drug t-PA (tissue plasminogen activator) has been the only FDA-approved therapy for acute ischemic stroke. Previous studies have shown that t-PA, when administered within 3 hours of onset of ischemic stroke, can greatly improve a patient's chance for a full recovery. t-PA cannot be used to treat the less common hemorrhagic stroke. Researchers wanted to test the effectiveness of using transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) in combination with t-PA, and to ensure that ultrasound did not cause bleeding into the brain. Utrasound is a safe, non-invasive, FDA-approved diagnostic test that uses sound waves to measure blood flow velocity in large arteries. An international team led by Andrei Alexandrov, M.D., associate professor of neurology at the University of Texas-Houston School of Medicine, examined 126 patients who suffered an ischemic stroke. All patients received intravenous t-PA within 3 hours of stroke onset. The 63 patients in the control group received t-PA alone, while the other 63 patients received t-PA in combination with continuous TCD monitoring that started shortly before the patients received the drug. A small device attached to a head frame was used to deliver the ultrasound.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 6443 - Posted: 11.19.2004

Maltreated children who are genetically pre-disposed to depression can be spared lifelong emotional problems if the necessary social supports are made available to them, according to a Yale study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. There are nearly one million substantiated reports of child maltreatment each year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Joan Kaufman, associate professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and author of the study, said many, but not all abused children develop chronic difficulties, particularly depression. Previous studies have shown that a malfunction in the serotonin transporter gene is associated with the development of depression, but only in adults with histories of childhood maltreatment or recent stressful life events. After the release of serotonin from a cell into the synapse, this transporter takes the extra serotonin back into the cell so it is not degraded. In genetic pre-disposition to depression, fewer and less efficient transporter molecules are made. Kaufman said the altered serotonin transporter gene was found in both maltreated children and those who were not maltreated, but was only associated with depression in children who had no positive supports. Social support was defined as someone a child could talk to about personal things, count on to buy the things they need, share good news with, get together with to have fun, and go to if they need advice.

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6442 - Posted: 11.19.2004

Michael Hopkin Fossil hunters in Spain have unearthed what seems to be the most recent common ancestor of gorillas, chimpanzees, orang utans and humans. The ape lived almost 13 million years ago, about the time that our different lineages are thought to have diverged. The species has been christened Pierolapithecus catalaunicus, in reference to the Catalan village of Els Hostalets de Pierola, where the fossil was found. The specimen consists of 83 bones from an adult male, including parts of the skull, teeth, ribs and fingers. The creature would have weighed about 55 kilograms, making it about the size of a female chimpanzee, says Salvador Moyá-Solá of the Miquel Crusafont Institute of Palaeontology in Barcelona, whose team reports the discovery in this week's Science1. But it would have looked more like a primitive gorilla, he adds. The scarcity of the fossil record makes it difficult to say whether P. catalaunicus is actually the most recent common ancestor of all great apes living today, Moyá-Solá says. But it is likely to resemble it closely: analyses of the rates at which differences arise between our DNA and that of other apes show that our family must have begun diverging at about the time when P. catalaunicus was alive. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 6441 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers have shown in animal studies how receptors on nerve cells can become altered to produce chronic pain triggered by inflammation. They say that their findings could aid in developing new drugs to treat such chronic pain, which is distinct from the relatively short-lived pain from injury, which fades as the injury heals. In their experiments, Bettina Hartmann and her colleagues studied receptors called AMPA receptors, which are triggered by the neurotransmitter glutamate. Such receptors are protein switches that nestle in the membranes of nerve cells and, when triggered, induce either short-term or long-term changes in the nerve cells. A short-term change might be the triggering of a single nerve impulse; but AMPA receptors have been implicated in long-lasting changes such as adjusting the strength of nerve cell connections, or synapses, in learning and memory. AMPA receptors regulate nerve cell response by opening to enhance calcium flow into the cell, heightening the cells' sensitivity to producing nerve impulses when triggered. According to Hartmann and her colleagues, studies of spinal cord tissue showed that AMPA receptors are found in spinal cord regions known to be responsible for pain sensing, or nociception. However, they said, there had been no studies that explored what role the receptors played in whole animals.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 6440 - Posted: 11.18.2004

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A group of chemicals in apples could protect the brain from the type of damage that triggers such neurodegenerative diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinsonism, according to two new studies from Cornell University food scientists. The studies show that the chemical quercetin, a so-called phytonutrient, appears to be largely responsible for protecting rat brain cells when assaulted by oxidative stress in laboratory tests. Phytonutrients, such as phenolic acids and flavanoids, protect the apple against bacteria, viruses and fungi and provide the fruit's anti-oxidant and anti-cancer benefits. Quercetin is a major flavanoid in apples. Antioxidants help prevent cancer by mopping up cell-damaging free radicals and inhibiting the production of reactive substances that could damage normal cells. "The studies show that additional apple consumption not only may help reduce the risk of cancer, as previous studies have shown, but also that an apple a day may supply major bioactive compounds, which may play an important role in reducing the risk of neurodegenerative disorders," says Chang Y. "Cy" Lee, Cornell professor of food science at the university's New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, N.Y.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Parkinsons
Link ID: 6439 - Posted: 11.18.2004

The UK has seen the fastest rise in the prescribing of antidepressants and other mind-altering drugs to children, a study of nine countries shows. University of London researchers compared prescribing rates between 2000 and 2002 in countries in Europe, South America and North America. During that period, the UK saw a 68% rise in children being prescribed drugs to stimulate or calm the brain. The research is published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Some common antidepressants were withdrawn from UK paediatric use last year, but the researchers say doctors are likely to move to others. The team, from the School of Pharmacy at the University of London looked at prescribing of antidepressants, stimulants, antipsychotics, tranquilisers and medications to treat anxiety. They examined prescription data for children up to 17 in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and the US. The information came from an international database (IMS MIDAS), which draws on data from a representative sample of medical practitioners in each country. It was found children are generally being prescribed more antidepressants and other drugs designed to calm or stimulate the brain. The highest increase of 68% was recorded in the UK. Many of the prescriptions were for medications used in the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. Significant rises in the number of prescriptions for these drugs were evident in all countries, except Canada and Germany where the increase in prescriptions over the period was just 13%. (C)BBC

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6438 - Posted: 11.18.2004

A team led by researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has used advanced imaging techniques to identify an unexpected structural difference in the brains of cocaine addicts. The report in the Nov. 18 issue of Neuron describes how a key structure called the amygdala, which previous research has linked to the brain's reward-processing system, is smaller in cocaine addicts than in healthy volunteers. While the current study cannot determine whether this difference is a cause of addiction or results from an early event in the course of drug use, the findings suggest a need to reformulate current strategies for treating cocaine addiction. "Work here and at other centers has identified the amygdala's fundamental role in addiction. It is important for producing drug craving, which has a powerful effect in maintaining drug abuse," says Hans Breiter, MD, co-director of the Motivation and Emotion Neuroscience Collaboration in the MGH Departments of Radiology and Psychiatry, and the senior author of the current study. "No one anticipated such a specific pattern of volume reduction in the amygdalas of cocaine addicts – pointing to potential problems in a small number of sub-regions of this brain structure." Earlier studies by Breiter's group and others used advanced imaging techniques to show how cocaine use affects the activity of key structures deep within the brain. Among those findings was reduced activity in the amygdala, particularly during times when addicts reported feelings of craving. In the few previous studies that examined brain structure in cocaine addicts, abnormalities were found only in regions connected to the amygdala.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Emotions
Link ID: 6437 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Michael Hopkin Long-distance running was crucial in creating our current upright body form, according to a new theory. Researchers have suggested that our early ancestors were good endurance runners, and that their habit has left its evolutionary mark on our bodies, from our leg joints right up to our heads. Early humans may have taken up running around 2 million years ago, after our ancestors began standing upright on the African savannah, suggest Dennis Bramble of the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, and Daniel Lieberman of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As a result, evolution would have favoured certain body characteristics, such as wide, sturdy knee-joints. The theory may explain why, thousands of years later, so many people are able to cover the full 42 kilometres of a marathon, the researchers add. And it may provide an answer to the question of why other primates do not share this ability. Our poor sprinting prowess has given rise to the idea that our bodies are adapted for walking, not running, says Lieberman. Even the fastest sprinters reach speeds of only about 10 metres per second, compared with the 30 metres per second of a cheetah. But over longer distances our performance is much more respectable: horses galloping long distances average about 6 metres per second, which is slower than a top-class human runner. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 6436 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New research, funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, shows that chronic cocaine abuse is directly related to dysfunction in areas of the brain involved in higher thought and decision-making. The scientists who performed the study suggest that the resulting cognitive deficits may help explain why abusers persist in using the drug or return to it after a period of abstinence. The study, published in the November 17, 2004 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, was conducted by Dr. Robert Hester of Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and Dr. Hugh Garavan of Trinity College and the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. "Addictive substances such as cocaine can damage the dopamine system in the brain, and there is a high concentration of dopamine receptors in brain regions involved in higher-order decision-making processes," says NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. "By employing functional neuroimaging to examine the neural changes that often result from chronic cocaine abuse, these scientists have identified another aspect of cocaine's effect on the brain that may help explain why individuals persist in these behaviors despite the negative consequences." In the study, the scientists enlisted 15 active cocaine abusers and 15 healthy individuals who have never used the drug. Each participant completed a task in which they viewed memory lists of letters for 6 seconds and "rehearsed" each list for 8 seconds. The participant then pressed a button when they were presented with a letter that was not part of the preceding "memorized" list. During the task, the participants' brains were analyzed via functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a noninvasive imaging technique that illustrates nerve cell activity during the performance of a specific task.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 6435 - Posted: 11.18.2004

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS CHICAGO - For much of her career, Dr. Martha McClintock, the experimental psychologist, has been stunning the scientific world with research on how social interactions affect biology in humans and animals. The director of the University of Chicago's Institute for Mind and Biology, Dr. McClintock tends to investigate matters that are at once important and obvious. In 1971 she published her first scientific paper - a study showing that women living together in a Wellesley College dormitory tended to menstruate at the same time. The idea grew out of her own undergraduate observations. Dr. McClintock, 57, has demonstrated chemical communication between humans in laboratory experiments, again in influencing menstrual cycles. Whether pheromones play a role in human life outside the lab remains unknown. In animals pheromones affect the whole panoply of behavior - mating, aggression and fear. In other work with colleagues, she has proved that rats that fear change have shorter lives than their more flexible counterparts, and that social isolation can also affect the longevity of rodents. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6434 - Posted: 11.17.2004

By JEREMY PEARCE Dr. Sidney Goldring, a neurosurgeon and educator who was an early advocate for a brain operation that he helped to develop for patients with severe epilepsy, died on Nov. 3 at a nursing home in Chesterfield, Mo. He was 81. The cause was complications of Alzheimer's disease, which was diagnosed seven years ago, said his wife, Lois. In the 1960's and 70's, Dr. Goldring worked to develop a procedure using general anesthesia for brain surgery on patients with epilepsy, a disorder set off by abnormal discharges of the brain's nerve cells. Those discharges can cause seizures and loss of memory and control of the body. Previously, surgeons experimented with operations under local anesthesia and obtained inconsistent results. At a time when patients were being treated mostly with drugs, Dr. Goldring believed that electrodes could be placed on the brain to determine precise areas involved in setting off seizures. Once that was done, the patient was put under general anesthesia and the tissue could be cut out without damaging the surrounding brain. The procedure remains in use today. "Sidney Goldring focused national attention on the benefits of surgery at a time when people were worried about any surgical intervention in the brain," said Dr. Gerald D. Fischbach, dean of the faculty of medicine at Columbia University and a former colleague of Dr. Goldring's at Washington University in St. Louis. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 6433 - Posted: 11.17.2004

Body language may be as important as facial expressions in communicating emotions such as fear, a new study shows. Much imaging research has been done on how the human brain responds to facial expressions, including fearful ones. But few studies have looked at how people respond to bodily expressions of emotion, which are more applicable when subjects are viewed from a distance. Psychologist Beatrice de Gelder and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston selected 24 photographs of actors in poses that were fearful, happy, or emotionally neutral. They then blurred out the faces so subjects would only react to bodies. The pictures were randomly presented to seven subjects while their brains were being scanned. Looking at brain activation in emotional, visual, and motor areas, the researchers found that whereas happy bodily expressions (such as spreading the arms in a welcoming fashion) spurred more activity in the visual cortex, fearful ones (such as a cowering position) revved up activity in emotional centers such as the amygdala, and in areas involved in movement and in perceiving movement. This network of brain activity may help explain how fear spreads quickly through a crowd and helps get the body ready to flee, the authors note in a 15 November paper appearing online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. De Gelder says studies on the relation of emotion and movement could offer insights into movement disorders such as Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases, which also are characterized by emotional disturbances. Copyright © 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 6432 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Barry Yeoman Some 20 years ago, in front of a frenzied and antagonistic crowd, Harry Carson hurled his entire bulk—240 pounds—into an equally massive human body racing toward him across the field at Washington’s RFK Stadium. A middle linebacker with the New York Giants, Carson was a celebrated defensive football player, smart and agile, selected for the Pro Bowl even during years his team couldn’t eke out a winning season. Above all, he was known for aggression. Once, walking off the field after a game, Carson felt a tug on his jersey, turned around, and found himself eye to eye with O. J. Simpson. “Man, I’ve been hit by some of the best,” the running back told him. “But I’ve never been hit as hard as you hit me today.” That day at RFK Stadium, Carson’s quarry was John Riggins, a Washington Redskins fullback with a similar reputation. Helmet against helmet, shoulder against shoulder, the players crashed with a concussion-producing impact that Carson would remember for decades. “It was like two trains colliding,” he would later say. Dazed, Carson dusted himself off and walked back into the Giants’ huddle—and as he stood holding his teammates’ hands, everything went black. He didn’t faint. He didn’t stop playing. For a few minutes, though, he found himself unable to interpret his coach’s signals from the sidelines. He couldn’t call the next play, as the middle linebacker is expected to do. He just remained in the game, doing the best he could until he regained his wits. © 2004 The Walt Disney Company

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 6431 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Haven, Conn.--The same receptors in the brain that are activated when a person smokes cigarettes also play a critical role in the effectiveness of antidepressants, according to a study by Yale researchers in the November issue of Biological Psychiatry. What this means, particularly for patients who are suicidal, is that finding a way to activate these receptors will make anti-depressants work more quickly. Most anti-depressants now take up to three weeks to bring emotional relief. "Just the ability to block the reuptake of serotonin isn't enough, otherwise it wouldn't take two to three weeks to be effective, " said Marina Picciotto, associate professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and neurobiology at Yale School of Medicine and senior author of the study. "This finding has implications for those patients who are depressed to the point of being suicidal, and for the 30 percent of people who are not responsive to anti-depressants that are now available." The primary pharmacologic treatment for depression over the past several decades has been drugs that inhibit synaptic reuptake of monoamine neurotransmitters. Recent evidence indicates other neurotransmitter systems might play a role in the mechanism of action of antidepressants, Picciotto said.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Depression
Link ID: 6430 - Posted: 11.17.2004

Worker ‘burnout’ is triggered by a drastic re-setting of sleep patterns, rather than high levels of stress per se, according to a study of patients in Sweden. A new treatment based partly on these findings is among the first to show clear success, researchers say. Burnout is not recognised in the classic manuals of mental health disorders. But the main symptoms are taken to be long-term, excessive fatigue and cognitive impairment. “It usually affects people who are very committed to work. One day they wake up and they just can’t get out of bed. Then they take a few weeks’ sick leave, but they don’t improve,” says Torbjörn Ĺkerstedt at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who led the new work. While stress is clearly involved, the precise causes of the symptoms have been unclear. A high level of the stress hormone cortisol has been blamed, for instance. But based on his team’s recent work, Ĺkerstedt says: “We think that people can function quite well on high levels of stress - it’s only when their sleep is disrupted that you get burnout.” The team took regular sleep EEG readings of 35 patients who had been off work for a minimum of three months. The tests consistently showed extreme sleep fragmentation and disruption. These patients were living on as little as four or five hours of sleep each night, with a 40% reduction in slow-wave sleep compared with healthy people. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 6429 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By HARRIET BROWN We were at the county fair the night I realized my 8-year-old was having panic attacks. She and her 13-year-old sister had gone on a ride, the kind where a round room spins, the floor drops away and centrifugal force holds the riders to the walls. I stood outside and watched the ride start to spin and then, puzzlingly, slow down. The door opened and my 8-year-old stumbled out, in the midst of what I thought was yet another temper tantrum. She had been having them since the previous winter, when she'd been hospitalized for several days and then convalescent for months with a rare and potentially lethal disease. Thankfully, she had recovered. But she'd been, well, cranky ever since, subject to unpredictable bouts of rage far worse than any she'd had as a 2-year-old. That night at the fair, something clicked as I watched her body stiffen and her brows sweep together. "Are you scared?" I asked. "No!" she said through gritted teeth. "I feel like I'm going to throw up or pass out!" I got her to breathe deeply, and the tantrum eased. At home that night, I thought back over the last eight months. There had been more and more of these tantrums, and they had affected her life, I now saw, on just about every level. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6428 - Posted: 11.16.2004

Heavy computer use could be linked to glaucoma, especially among those who are short-sighted, fear researchers. Glaucoma is caused by increased fluid pressure within the eye compressing the nerves at the back, which can lead to blindness if not treated. The findings, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, are based on 10,000 Japanese workers. The authors and experts recommend more research, particularly because being short-sighted is a known glaucoma risk. Dr Masayuki Tatemichi, from Toho University School of Medicine, and his colleagues tested the sight of workers in four different Japanese companies, employing over 5,000 people each. The employees were asked to complete questionnaires about their computer use, both at home and at work, and any history of eye disease. The researchers then divided the employees according to how much they used a computer, labelling them light, medium or heavy users. Computer use was categorised in four blocks of five years, ranging from less than five years to more than 20 years, as well as four blocks of the average amount of time spent at the screen per session, ranging from less than one hour to more than eight hours at a time. Those classified as heavy users tended to be men and younger. Overall, 522 (5.1%) of the employees were found to have visual field abnormalities. Workers who were classified as heavy computer users were more likely to be long-sighted (hypermetropia) or short-sighted (myopia). Around a third (165) of these workers had suspected glaucoma. (C) BBC

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 6427 - Posted: 11.16.2004

Christopher Reeve's death saddened many, but those who work in the field of spinal cord injury felt it on another level. "I think that he is probably the most courageous person I have ever met in my life," says Margaret "Jo" Velardo, a neuroscientist at the Evelyn F. & William L. McKnight Brain Institute of the University of Florida. "I think there was sort of a generalized denial on the part of everybody that somehow he really was going to live longer and he was going to make good his pledge of walking again. So the death was unexpected and also it made us sad because he was an icon of hope and now, he's gone." Velardo's research into the genes that could heal spinal cord injuries was published in the Journal of Neuroscience the week Reeve died. She was in the process of putting together a package of materials to send him when she heard of his death. "I really admit that I cried all day on Sunday when he died," she recounts. "I had made a pledge to him about this work that we were doing...so it added to my sadness because I felt that I would have liked him to have seen the work before he died." Studying the spinal cords of rats, her research group used computer chips containing genetic material, called microarrays, to see what genes are turned on or off in the injured tissues from hours to months after injury. The microarrays let the researchers see 8,000 genes simultaneously. © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 6426 - Posted: 06.24.2010