Roxanne Khamsi Would Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance or Debussy's Clair de Lune have sounded the same if the composers had been born in different countries? Probably not, according to researchers who have found that the melodies composers write are influenced by the language they speak. The team's analysis shows that fluctuations in pitch in music written by classic French composers vary much less than in British music. The difference mirrors the patterns of pitch found in the corresponding languages. Musicologists and linguists have tried to connect cultures' speech with their music in the past but have only had luck with tonal languages, such as Chinese, which assign meaning to words based on their pitch. The new work is the first to connect melody with non-tonal speech. Aniruddh Patel of The Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California, and his colleagues used advanced computer software to analyse recordings of people saying different sentences in British English and in French. The software measures the pitch of each vowel, then works out the size of the jump in pitch between one syllable and the next. For example, in the word "finding", the second vowel typically registers about 4 semitones higher than the first. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Hearing; Language
Link ID: 6405 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Oxford University has won its bid for the renewal of an injunction against animal rights activists protesting next to its new animal testing centre. It asked the High Court to extend a 45m "no harassment" zone around its research laboratory, claiming work was stopped because of intimidation. The university had also requested an injunction against 10 named defendants. University chiefs had offered to provide a demonstration area opposite the South Parks Road site. Oxford University Vice-Chancellor, Dr John Hood, said on Wednesday: "As an academic institution, freedom of speech within the law is highly valued. By obtaining this injunction, the University of Oxford is not seeking to stifle the views of those groups and individuals with whom we disagree. "Indeed, we are satisfied that this order strikes a fair balance between the legitimate right to protest and the right of individuals to conduct their lawful business without fear of intimidation or violence." Work on the construction of the laboratory was forced to stop on 13 July after contractors complained they had been harassed and intimidated by some animal rights activists. (C)BBC

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 6404 - Posted: 11.11.2004

By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News — Dolphins and humans share a similar brain size, according to the first map of cetacean brain evolution over the past 47 million years. Experts have long known that toothed whales boast exceptionally large brains. Some species, including the famously bright dolphins, have capabilities previously only ascribed to humans and, to some extent, other great apes. For instance, dolphins can recognize themselves in mirrors and understand symbol-based communication systems and abstract concepts. Such intelligence is probably due their big brains, but the evolution of such brains has remained a mystery. To investigate this question, Lori Marino, from Emory University in Atlanta, and colleagues carried out the largest fossil study ever done on animals, searching museum collections for four years. The team, whose research will be appear in the December issue of The Anatomical Record, tracked down 66 fossilized cetacean skulls. Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 6403 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A device that automatically moves electrodes through the brain to seek out the strongest signals is taking the idea of neural implants to a new level. Scary as this sounds, its developers at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena say devices like this will be essential if brain implants are ever going to work. Implants could one day help people who are paralysed or unable to communicate because of spinal injury or conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrig’s disease). Electrodes implanted in the brain could, in principle, pick up neural signals and convey them to a prosthetic arm or a computer cursor. But there is a problem. Implanted electrodes are usually unable to sense consistent neuronal signals for more than a few months, according to Igor Fineman, a neurosurgeon at the Huntington Hospital, also in Pasadena. This loss of sensitivity has a number of causes: the electrodes may shift following a slight knock or because of small changes in blood pressure; tissue building up on the electrodes may mask the signal; or the neurons emitting the signals can die. To get around these problems, Joel Burdick and Richard Andersen at Caltech have developed a device in which the electrodes sense where the strongest signal is coming from, and move towards it. Their prototype, which is mounted on the skull, uses piezoelectric motors to move four electrodes independently of each other in 1-micrometre increments. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Robotics; ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 6402 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In what could be termed a truly seminal discovery, researchers have shown that when females are more promiscuous, males have to work harder — at the genetic level, that is. More specifically, they determined that a protein controlling semen viscosity evolves more rapidly in primate species with promiscuous females than in monogamous species. The finding demonstrates that sexual competition among males is evident at the molecular level, as well as at behavioral and physiological levels. The researchers, led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Bruce Lahn at the University of Chicago, published their findings in the November 7, 2004, issue of Nature Genetics. Lahn's group studied semenogelin, a major protein in the seminal fluid that controls the viscosity of semen immediately following ejaculation. In some species of primates, it allows semen to remain quite liquid after ejaculation, but in others, semenogelin molecules chemically crosslink with one another, increasing the viscosity of semen. In some extreme cases, semenogelin's effects on viscosity are so strong that the semen becomes a solid plug in the vagina. According to Lahn, such plugs might serve as a sort of molecular “chastity belt” to prevent fertilization by the sperm of subsequent suitors, though they might also prevent semen backflow to increase the likelihood of fertilization. © 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 6401 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Staff Writer Federal regulators said Tuesday they were cracking down on weight- loss companies making allegedly false claims in their advertising, part of a national campaign against deceptive marketing to people desperate to drop pounds. The Federal Trade Commission said it had sued six companies selling an array of bogus fat cures, including a topical gel touted as a rub-on fat burner and a skin patch made of seaweed. Publications including The Chronicle ran the ads, and the commission said it was sending letters to the newspaper and eight other media companies urging them to tighten their standards to protect consumers from fraudulent or inflated claims. The latest enforcement effort is part of a campaign the commission labeled "Big Fat Lie." Officials said they hoped media companies would voluntarily enlist in the effort. "Sure, you are making a buck off the advertising dollars, but you are basically supporting companies that are ripping off your customers," said Barbara Chun, a staff attorney with the commission in Los Angeles. "It definitely affects your credibility." ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 6400 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Study finds 'apple shaped' seniors more likely to suffer mental loss Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer People with substantial waistlines may run an elevated risk of cognitive decline as they age, scientists reported Tuesday in one of the most ambitious attempts yet to link obesity and mental health. A study led by Dr. Kristine Yaffe, an associate professor at UCSF and chief of geriatric psychiatry at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, is the first to suggest cognitive effects from what is known as metabolic syndrome. Wide girth about the middle is the syndrome's most obvious trait, accompanied by high blood pressure and unhealthy levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and glucose in the blood. The syndrome is a well-known risk factor for cardiovascular disease that is seen in about 1 in 4 adults in the United States, and 40 percent of those older than age 40. The new study, which appears in the latest Journal of the American Medical Association, shows the aging brain also may be affected if one is an "apple-shaped person," Yaffe said in an interview. "Now we know that metabolic syndrome is not just bad for your heart. It's also bad for your brain," Yaffe said. ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 6399 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ALEXANDRA WITZE, The Dallas Morning News SAN DIEGO -- Motherhood doesn't just change your life. It changes your brain. New research, reported last month at a neuroscience meeting in San Diego, suggests having babies permanently alters brain function. If you're a rat, it makes you better at finding and killing dinner quickly. If you're a human, it helps you distinguish between your baby's cry and that of other children. In either case, only mothers undergo these changes. "Clearly these experiences are changing the female brain but in a way that's natural," said Craig Kinsley, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond in Virginia. In earlier research, he showed that mother rats are much better at remembering where things are than rats that have never had babies. That makes sense, he said, because mothers have to be able to run away from the nest, forage for dinner quickly and return with food for their babies. Copyright © 1994-2004 South Bend Tribune

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6398 - Posted: 06.24.2010

La Jolla, CA. A team of researchers led by The Burnham Institute's Gen-Sheng Feng, Ph.D. has discovered that a protein called Shp2 plays a critical role in obesity. Published on November 9th in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, these results show that Shp2 has potential of becoming a novel pharmaceutical target for treatment of individuals suffering obesity and leptin resistance. In 2003, the World Health Organization identified obesity as a growing global threat affecting more than 300 million people worldwide. Although it is commonly believed that obese individuals can overcome their condition by simply eating less and exercising more, compelling scientific data suggest that the heritability of obesity is greater than breast cancer, heart disease, or schizophrenia. Morbid obesity is considered as the disease of the twenty-first century, with the affected individuals at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer, collectively known as metabolic syndrome. Shp2, a Src homology 2-containing tyrosine phosphatase, was discovered by Dr. Feng and others over a decade ago. It is present in each cell type in the body and is implicated in a variety of growth factor or cytokine pathways present in these cells. The physiological function of Shp2 is largely unknown. Whether it is active in multiple pathways or focused on a single pathway remains to be seen. In recent years, in vitro experiments suggest that Shp2 plays a role in regulating the protein leptin. Leptin, produced in fat cells, is a hormone that regulates body weight, metabolism, and reproduction. The primary action site for leptin is within the hypothalamus, located in the forebrain.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 6397 - Posted: 11.10.2004

There has been much debate over “gay genes”. Now an intriguing study raises another possibility: in some cases, variations in the genetic program we inherit from our parents, rather than in the genes themselves, might determine sexual preference. Our genome is “programmed” by the addition of chemical markers called methyl groups to the DNA, which shut down genes. One of the most dramatic examples of methylation is the shutdown of one of the two X chromosomes (one from each parent) in every woman’s cells, a process called X-inactivation (New Scientist print edition, 10 May 2003). Normally, this process is random; either of the X chromosomes can be inactivated. But when Sven Bocklandt of the University of California, Los Angeles, compared blood and saliva samples from 97 mothers of gay men with samples from 103 mothers without gay children he found this process was extremely skewed in the mothers with gay sons, with one X chromosome being far more likely to be inactivated than the other. Only 4% of the mothers without gay sons showed this skewing, compared with 14% of mothers with at least one gay son. Among mothers with two or more gay sons, the figure was 23%. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 6396 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new study by a New York University professor suggests perceptual maturity in infants develops in the early months after birth as a result of piecing together fragments of the visual scene. The findings, published in the latest issue of Psychological Science, shed new light on our fundamental knowledge of how objects behave, giving weight to the scientific camp that argues such development is a "constructed" rather than an "innate" phenomenon. Advocates of innate perception have based their conclusions on previous research, which typically measured perceptual abilities of four-month-olds and older infants. However, Scott Johnson, a professor of psychology and neural science who conducted the study, compared these abilities in both two- and four-month-olds, finding distinctions in the perceptual skills of the two groups. "These results are only a part of the larger literature on perception, but this study does provide a very important piece of the puzzle," said Johnson. "It is now clear that theories of innate knowledge do not hold up under scrutiny. Instead, the developing visual system seems to build object representations from smaller, visible components, such as the visible portions of a partly occluded object. Isolating how and why this occurs should be the focal point of subsequent scholarship."

Keyword: Vision; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6395 - Posted: 11.10.2004

Paula Gould Damaged spinal cords in mice have been encouraged to grow back by blocking a scar-causing molecule. The result suggests a fresh approach to treatments for sufferers of spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injuries have long been considered incurable because the affected nerve cells do not grow back. Depending on the site and severity of damage, patients can be left paralysed and unable to control important bodily functions. But in recent years, scientists seeking to reverse spinal cord damage have been pursuing a number of different approaches. These include transplanting cells to stimulate growth, removing factors that inhibit repair and using biocompatible materials to 'bridge' gaps between damaged nerve ends. One major barrier to nerve regrowth is scar tissue. Now researchers from the University of Melbourne seem to have found a way to prevent this scarring, which they publish in this week's Journal of Neuroscience1. The team found that mice bred without a molecule called EphA4 produce very little scar tissue around damaged spinal nerves. The researchers believe this is because EphA4 plays an important role in activating cells known as astrocytes, which are responsible for scar-tissue formation. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 6394 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Nature is fighting back in response to female promiscuity by producing a biological 'sperm' chastity belt, say US scientists. Semen becomes more sticky to act as a plug, thereby preventing sperm from competitors impregnating females who sleep around, they found. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute team, along with colleagues from Chicago and Kansas City, studied humans, monkeys and gorillas. The findings appear in Nature Genetics. The researchers examined the semen of 12 different species of primates. In species where the females were most promiscuous, the males had developed several strategies to ensure they would be the male most likely to father any offspring and pass on their genes. As well as having larger testicles and producing more sperm, the semen was more sticky. Chimpanzees, for example, which are a promiscuous species, had more advanced evolution of a gene controlling the stickiness of semen than gorillas, which tend to be monogamous and stay faithful to their partner for life. Humans were midway between, suggesting that while women are nothing like as promiscuous as chimps, neither are they as faithful as gorillas. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 6393 - Posted: 11.09.2004

By BENEDICT CAREY In a scene from the movie "Kinsey," opening in theaters on Friday, government agents seize a box of study materials being shipped by Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey, the pioneering sex researcher, and impound the contents as obscene. The scene portrays a time in American history, the 1940's and 1950's, when marital relations were rarely discussed and frank reporting about sex was greeted with a collective anxiety verging on horror. In 1948, when Dr. Kinsey published "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," he was called a pervert, a menace and even a Communist. Much has changed in the years since then. But scientists say one thing has remained constant: Americans' ambivalence about the scientific study of sexuality. Decades after the sexual revolution, sex researchers in the United States still operate in a kind of scientific underground, fearing suppression or public censure. In a culture awash in sex talk and advice in magazines and movies and on daytime TV, the researchers present their findings in coded language, knowing that at any time they, like Dr. Kinsey, could be held up as a public threat. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6392 - Posted: 11.09.2004

SALT LAKE CITY - NASA (news - web sites) scientists are studying autistic savant Kim Peek, hoping that technology used to study the effects of space travel on the brain will help explain his mental capabilities. Last week, researchers had Peek — who was the basis for Dustin Hoffman's character in the 1988 film "Rain Man" — undergo a series of tests including computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, the results of which will be melded to create a three-dimensional look at his brain structure. The researchers want to compare a series of MRI images taken in 1988 by Dr. Dan Christensen, Peek's neuropsychiatrist at the University of Utah, to see what has since changed within his brain. Not only are Peek's brain and his abilities unique, noted Richard D. Boyle, director of the California center performing the scans, but that he seems to be getting smarter in his specialty areas as he ages is unexpected. The 53-year-old Peek is called a "mega-savant" because he is a genius in about 15 different subjects, from history and literature and geography to numbers, sports, music and dates. But he also is severely limited in other ways, like not being able to find the silverware drawer at home or dressing himself. Copyright © 2004 Yahoo! Inc

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 6391 - Posted: 06.24.2010

BOSTON - Scientists for the first time have identified a fault in the brain waves of schizophrenics that may explain their hallucinations and disturbed thinking. The study, by a team at the Veterans Affairs (VA) Boston Healthcare System and Harvard Medical School, appears in the Nov. 8 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers studied the brain waves of normal and schizophrenic patients as they responded to images. Those with the disorder showed no electrical activity in a certain frequency-the "gamma" range, from 30 to 100 brain waves per second-that healthy brain cells use to exchange information about the environment and form mental impressions. "The schizophrenics did not show this gamma-band response at all. There was a pretty dramatic difference," said senior author Robert W. McCarley, MD, deputy chief of staff for mental health services at the VA Boston Healthcare System and chair of the Harvard psychiatry department. The brain contains hundreds of billions of neurons, or nerve cells. Researchers believe our thoughts are created when large groupings of these neurons "fire"-send messages to each other, through bursts of electrical activity-at the same frequency. Different frequencies, measured in hertz, or cycles per second, indicate different levels and types of activities. Delta waves, below 4 hertz, occur during sleep. Alpha waves, 8 to 13 hertz, occur at relaxed, quiet times. Beta waves are the next fastest, occurring when we are actively thinking.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 6390 - Posted: 11.09.2004

By analyzing the effects of altered neuronal function in mice, researchers have gained new understanding of how changes in a particular neuronal characteristic, neuronal excitability, may negatively impact learning and memory as we age. The work is reported by Geoffrey Murphy and Alcino Silva and their colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles. Learning and memory impairments that arise independent of overt pathology are considered to be a normal component of aging. It is estimated that about 40% of people over the age of 65 years suffer from some sort of age-related cognitive decline. The exact cause of these age-related deficits in learning and memory is not currently known, but there have been numerous studies in the past that have implicated age-related changes in two neuronal attributes: a decrease in neuronal excitability, or the ability of neurons to be stimulated to fire, and age-related deficits in synaptic plasticity, or the ability of neurons to change some types of connections to other neurons. In the new study, funded by the National Institutes of Aging, researchers have established the link among neuronal excitability, synaptic plasticity, and aging. Studying mice that had been genetically engineered to lack a particular ion channel auxiliary subunit, the researchers showed that the mice maintained enhanced neuronal excitability into old age, and, most importantly, that these mice exhibit a reduction in the threshold for the induction of specific forms of synaptic plasticity – in other words, these mice appear to change some kinds of inter-neuronal connections more readily than do normal mice of the same age.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 6389 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The world's most popular drug is something you could very well have in a cup in front of you next to your computer right now—caffeine. "Caffeine is the world's most widely used mood-altering drug," says Roland Griffiths, professor of behavioral biology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "Some 80 percent of the population use caffeine on a daily basis. Caffeine is so available in our culture and society that many people consume coffee and soft drinks without the realization that they're actually involved in a drug self-administration behavior." According to Griffiths, physicians haven't recognized withdrawal from caffeine as a disorder that can affect our performance—or even make us sick. "Most people are aware that caffeine is a mild stimulant drug and they're aware of those stimulant effects when they take caffeine," he says. "Fewer people really appreciate the extent to which caffeine produces withdrawal when they try and stop their caffeine use." He points out that the symptoms of caffeine withdrawal haven't been systematized as a disorder in the DSM-IV, or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered the bible of mental disorders. So Griffiths analyzed medical studies of caffeine withdrawal dating back 170 years. "Sixty-six different studies had been done over time, most of which actually had been done in the last 10 years," he says. © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 6388 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Birds are pretty far away from humans on the evolutionary ladder. But scientists have found that songbirds have a gene that is important in human language learning. "There is a connection between human language and bird vocal imitation at the genetic level," says Erich Jarvis, a neurobiologist at Duke University. "What we discovered is that songbirds and other birds that have the ability to imitate sounds contain a gene called FoxP2 that is known to be involved in human language. It's the first time we have a gene that we can study now in songbirds that we know is linked to language in humans." The FoxP2 gene was found to be involved in human language several years ago. Its mutation produces an inherited language deficit called an oral apraxia. People with this deficit have an inability to pronounce words correctly, form them into sentences that are grammatically correct, and understand complex language. "We decided to look for this gene in other species of animals who can actually imitate sounds like humans can do," explains Jarvis. "And this is a very rare trait. Only hummingbirds, parrots, and songbirds, as well as bats and dolphins, have this ability. So we studied birds, and what we found is that birds also have this same gene." © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Keyword: Language; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 6387 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Research Shows Mandarin Speakers More Likely to Acquire Rare Musical Ability By Inga Kiderra Could it be that cellist Yo-Yo Ma owes his perfect musical pitch to his Chinese parents? While we may never know the definitive answer, new research from the University of California, San Diego has found a strong link between speaking a tone language – such as Mandarin – and having perfect pitch, the ability once thought to be the rare province of super-talented musicians. The first large-scale, direct-test study to be conducted on perfect pitch, led by psychology professor Diana Deutsch of UC San Diego, has found that native tone language speakers are almost nine times more likely to have the ability. Results will be presented Nov. 17 at the meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in San Diego. Perfect, or absolute, pitch is the ability to name or produce a musical note of particular pitch without the benefit of a reference note. The visual equivalent is calling a red apple “red.” While most people do this effortlessly, without, for example, having to compare a red to a green apple, perfect pitch is extremely rare in the U.S. and Europe, with an estimated prevalence in the general population of less than one in 10,000. Copyright ©2001 Regents of the University of California.

Keyword: Hearing; Language
Link ID: 6386 - Posted: 06.24.2010