An anti-epilepsy drug first licensed in the UK in 1975 may cause long-term developmental problems in children born to pregnant women using it, suggest the results of a new study. Epilepsy experts already believe there is a strong link between using drugs containing sodium valproate during pregnancy and dysmorphic features - such as eyes set wider apart and a thinned upper lip - in children born subsequently. They have suspected that valproate use in pregnant mothers may also lead to longer term developmental problems in their children - but until now the evidence for this has been anecdotal. “The new research is saying something we’ve guessed for a long time,” says Tim Betts, a neuropsychiatrist at the University of Birmingham, UK. “Now they’ve measured it for the first time. It’s very important work.” The study, led by Naghme Adab from the Walton Centre for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Liverpool, UK, shows that children born to mothers who were on valproate when pregnant were eleven times more likely to have a verbal IQ score of 69 or below, compared with children born in the general population. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Epilepsy; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6245 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Certain genes are expressed differently in people with depression (SACRAMENTO, Calif.) -- Researchers have found altered gene activity in people who suffer from major depression, a discovery that may one day help doctors better diagnose and treat the condition. The research, conducted by a consortium of four universities, appears this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (PNAS). Scientists found that the fibroblast growth factor system, which is a family of proteins involved in the growth, development and maintenance of nerve cells, had an overall decrease in levels in patients who had major depressive disorder. Proteins are the products of gene expression. "This study is the first to implicate this particular family of gene products in major depression," said Edward G. Jones, professor of psychiatry and director of the Center for Neuroscience at UC Davis and a principal investigator of the study. "The fibroblast growth factor system is now important to consider when looking for causes of mood disorders." Growth factors bind to receptors on the surface of cells, setting in motion a variety of biological activities. The fibroblast growth factors are critical during brain development and also help maintain the central nervous system in adulthood.

Keyword: Depression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 6244 - Posted: 10.15.2004

By MARTICA HEANER When his clock-radio goes off at 7 a.m., David Epstein's latest wake-up strategy roars into high gear: he stumbles out of bed, walks across the room and pushes the snooze button. Then he climbs between the sheets. A few minutes later, his travel clock rings. He presses snooze and rolls over for more sleep - until the alarm on his BlackBerry goes off. Sitting up, he punches keys to reset it for 10 more minutes, then it's back to the pillow. The pattern repeats amid a cacophony of assorted rings until his real wake-up time, 8 a.m. In a nation that clocks around six to seven hours of sleep a night when an average of eight hours is recommended, it is a rare person who wakes up without an alarm. And because it is usually a struggle, pushing snooze to delay the day has become as much a part of the wake-up ritual as a cup of coffee. But is a bumpy arousal for 30, 60 or even 90 minutes a way to recoup much-needed sleep? Or is it a recipe for exhaustion? Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 6243 - Posted: 10.14.2004

By Jennifer KahnPage I am not cool. For starters, I don't listen to music. It disrupts my concentration and makes me cranky. I'm anxious at parties, always hoping that someone will turn down the stereo so that we can all break off into small groups and talk, preferably about science or books. My ideal evening ends early, around 10, freeing me to go home and read. At the party, everyone would wear something comfortable, possibly flannel. If coolness is formed early on - as it often seems to be - I never stood a chance. In eighth grade, when most of my classmates spent lunch clustered in small, gossipy cliques, I distinguished myself by cantering around the school grounds like a horse, neighing and occasionally leaping over a bench. Although I dressed carefully, I could never pull off the stylish look of my peers. In fifth grade, I struggled to roll my jeans so that they hung slightly flooded, as was the fashion. I never quite succeeded, and it didn't help that the rest of my wardrobe reflected an unusual taste for velour (I had three favorite, otherwise identical, velour sweaters in yellowish dun, turquoise, and red), as well as a lingering love of appliquéd unicorns. Fifth grade was also the year that I discovered, to my shame, that the seventh grader I had privately idolized was actually the class dork, a turtleneck-and-glasses-wearing nerd incarnate. © Copyright© 1993-2004 The Condé Nast Publications Inc.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 6242 - Posted: 06.24.2010

While neurobiologists have long suspected that certain regions of the brain are specifically involved in making decisions, the challenge has been to develop rigorous laboratory behavioral experiments that could pinpoint those areas. Now, Paul Glimcher and colleague Michael Dorris have used a game-playing approach to demonstrate that a region of the cortex called the lateral intraparietal (LIP) area is active when monkeys are making subjective internal decisions about the desirability of an action--in this case, moving their eyes to a target. According to the researchers, their findings represents a step toward understanding the machinery by which the brain processes decisions. In their studies, the researchers first tested the behavior of humans competing in a game in which a player was asked to click on a computer mouse to choose one of two buttons to receive either a certain monetary reward or a risky choice that could yield a larger reward. An opponent, meanwhile, was asked to select an option that would prevent the reward, and the researchers could vary the cost to the opponent of making that selection. The basic aim of the researchers was to create a situation in which there was no single correct choice, so that subjects adopted a mixed strategy, reflecting that the subjective desirability of the choices was equal.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 6241 - Posted: 10.14.2004

The preference for Coke versus Pepsi is not only a matter for the tongue to decide, Samuel McClure and his colleagues have found. Brain scans of people tasting the soft drinks reveal that knowing which drink they're tasting affects their preference and activates memory-related brain regions that recall cultural influences. Thus, say the researchers, they have shown neurologically how a culturally based brand image influences a behavioral choice. These choices are affected by perception, wrote the researchers, because "there are visual images and marketing messages that have insinuated themselves into the nervous systems of humans that consume the drinks." Even though scientists have long believed that such cultural messages affect taste perception, there had been no direct neural probes to test the effect, wrote the researchers. Findings about the effects of such cultural information on the brain have important medical implications, they wrote. "There is literally a growing crisis in obesity, type II diabetes, and all their sequelae that result directly from or are exacerbated by overconsumption of calories. It is now strongly suspected that one major culprit is sugared colas," they wrote. Besides the health implications of studying soft drink preference, the researchers decided to use Coke and Pepsi because-- even though the two drinks are nearly identical chemically and physically--people routinely strongly favor one over the other. Thus, the two soft drinks made excellent subjects for rigorous experimental studies.

Keyword: Obesity; Brain imaging
Link ID: 6240 - Posted: 10.14.2004

— Fossil hunters in China have found the remains of a new species of dinosaur caught in bird-like mid-slumber, curled up with its head tucked under a forelimb. In the study, published Thursday in the journal Nature, Xing Xu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History described the animal, dubbed Mei long, or "soundly sleeping dragon." The creature, just 53 centimeters (21 inches) long, lived between 128-139 million years ago. The earliest known example of a dinosaur found in a bird-like position, Mei long demonstrates that the classic bird-like sleeping posture probably first appeared in the dinosaur ancestors of modern birds. The researchers said it lends further support to the theory that birds emerged from dinosaur species which, under evolutionary pressure, became smaller, grew feathers and developed claws adapted to climbing and living in trees. Also, the animal's size adds to the theory that the smallness of birds' dinosaur ancestors was critical to their ultimately being able to fly. Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sleep; Evolution
Link ID: 6239 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Clumps of defective proteins, long implicated in killing off part of the brain in Huntington's disease, may actually be helping these neurons to survive. The discovery could redirect efforts to develop treatments for Huntington's disease (HD) - a disorder that slowly kills brain cells involved in movement and higher cognitive function. HD is triggered by mutations in a protein called huntingtin which cause the protein to aggregate and ultimately form large cellular blobs known as inclusion bodies. These insoluble blobs are visible under a microscope and may contain thousands of mutant proteins. Scientists had believed that inclusion bodies help destroy neurons, since animals sick with HD have these blobs in their brain cells while healthy animals do not. And, in general, the sicker animals become with the disease, the more inclusion bodies are found in the neurons of damaged brain areas. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 6238 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Roxanne Khamsi An pill-sized brain chip has allowed a quadriplegic man to check e-mail and play computer games using his thoughts. The device can tap into a hundred neurons at a time, and is the most sophisticated such implant tested in humans so far. Many paralysed people control computers with their eyes or tongue. But muscle function limits these techniques, and they require a lot of training. For over a decade researchers have been trying to find a way to tap directly into thoughts. In June 2004, surgeons implanted a device containing 100 electrodes into the motor cortex of a 24-year-old quadriplegic. The device, called the BrainGate, was developed by the company Cyberkinetics, based in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Each electrode taps into a neuron in the patient's brain. The BrainGate allowed the patient to control a computer or television using his mind, even when doing other things at the same time. Researchers report for example that he could control his television while talking and moving his head. The team now plans to implant devices into four more patients. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 6237 - Posted: 06.24.2010

(Akron, Ohio) – The journal, Obesity Research, today published an article on the results of a 24-month federally funded obesity study led by Summa Health System researchers in Akron, Ohio. The study is the first to document that patients who spend a longer time in the action and maintenance stages for portion control or planned exercise were more likely to lose weight. The reverse was also true. Patients who spend less time in the action and maintenance stages for portion control or planned exercise were more likely to gain weight. According to lead Summa researcher Everett E. Logue, Ph.D., the greatest weight loss in the study was related to portion control. "Although we saw similar patterns of weight loss related to reduced dietary fat consumption, increased fruit and vegetable consumption, increased physical activity and increased planned exercise, the target behavior that induced the greatest weight loss was portion control." While Logue points out portion control showed the greatest weight loss, the study also suggests planned exercise induced the least. This however, does not surprise Logue. "Portion control may be behaviorally easier to change than increasing planned exercise for many obese individuals," Logue said. "However, other research suggests that planned exercise is an important component of long-term weight management."

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 6236 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Using a specially designed robotic microscope to study cultured cells, researchers have found evidence that abnormal protein clumps called inclusion bodies in neurons from people with Huntington's disease (HD) prevent cell death. The finding helps to resolve a longstanding debate about the role of these inclusion bodies in HD and other disorders and may help investigators find effective treatments for these diseases. The study was funded primarily by the NIH's National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) and appears in the October 14, 2004, issue of Nature.1 Inclusion bodies are common to many neurodegenerative disorders, including HD, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The role of inclusion bodies in these diseases has long been controversial. Some studies suggest that they may be a critical part of the disease process, while others indicate that they may help protect the cells from toxic proteins or that they are merely bystanders in the disease process. One problem in identifying how inclusion bodies influence disease is that researchers have been unable to track changes in individual neurons over time. "It was like viewing pictures of a football game and trying to imagine the score," says Steven Finkbeiner, M.D., Ph.D., of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and the University of California, San Francisco. "Much was happening that we couldn't see."

Keyword: Huntingtons; ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 6235 - Posted: 10.14.2004

Two groups of researchers have independently discovered the long sought dual body clocks in the brain of fruit flies that separately govern bursts of morning and evening activity. Both research groups published their findings in the October 14, 2004, issue of the journal Nature. Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher Michael Rosbash at Brandeis University led one group; François Rouyer at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in France led the second group. Graduate students Dan Stoleru and Ying Peng of Brandeis were co-lead authors of the Rosbash group's article. In an accompanying News & Views article in the journal Nature, neurobiologist William J. Schwartz of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, writes, “A truly integrative circadian biology is close at hand, as researchers learn about an adaptable, layered system that has emergent properties at many levels of organization. Drosophila workers, who have been so effective at taking the clock apart, are now succeeding in putting it back together.” © 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 6234 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers have identified a molecule that can transform the mechanical stimulus of a sound wave into an electrical signal recognizable by the brain. The protein forms an ion channel that opens in response to sound, causing electrical impulses that communicate the pitch, volume, and duration of a sound to the brain. Scientists have long suspected that such a molecule must exist in the tiny cilia extending from receptor cells in the inner ear. Now, researchers led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator David P. Corey, who is at Harvard Medical School, have several lines of evidence that, in vertebrates, this mechanosensitive channel is formed by a protein known as TRPA1. Certain features of the protein suggest that it may serve double, or even triple, duty in the inner ear, not only acting as an ion channel, but also forming a spring that allows the transduction machinery to stretch, and even amplifying incoming auditory signals. The work is published October 13, 2004, in an advance online publication of the journal Nature. The cells that line the inner ear and convert mechanical sound vibrations into electrical impulses are known as hair cells - named for the tuft of 30-300 cilia, or microscopic hairs, on each cell's surface. Thin filaments called tip links connect the channels in adjacent hairs, so that when a vibration stirs the bundle of cilia, the tip links are tightened and pull on the channels. Within 5 to 10 microseconds of this motion, channels in the hair cell open and allow ions to enter - the first step in sending a sound signal to the brain. © 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 6233 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Paul, Minn. – Certain blood pressure drugs may slow the deterioration of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the October 12 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Called angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, or ACE inhibitors, the drugs are used to treat high blood pressure. Only ACE inhibitors that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier were shown to have the effect on Alzheimer’s. The blood-brain barrier is a natural protective mechanism that shields the brain from foreign substances. The study involved 162 people in Japan living in long-term care facilities with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and high blood pressure. The participants were divided into three groups. For one year, each group received either a brain-penetrating ACE inhibitor, a non-brain-penetrating ACE inhibitor, or another type of blood pressure drug, called a calcium channel blocker. Those in the brain-penetrating ACE inhibitor groups received one of two drugs – perindopril or captopril.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 6232 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Paul, Minn. – A recent analysis of tamoxifen studies completed since 1980 revealed an increased risk of stroke in women who were randomized to tamoxifen versus placebo or other therapies. Details of the analysis and the researchers’ conclusions are reported in the October 12 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. More than 250,000 U.S. women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Breast cancer accounts for nearly one in three cancers diagnosed in the U.S. and is the second leading cause of death for women. Fortunately, 90 percent of breast cancers are now diagnosed at localized and regional stages, for which five-year survival rates are 97 percent and 79 percent, respectively. Tamoxifen, a medication in pill form that interferes with the activity of estrogen, has been used for more than 20 years to treat patients with advanced breast cancer. It is used as adjuvant, or additional, therapy following primary treatment for early stage breast cancer. In women at high risk of developing breast cancer, tamoxifen reduces the chance of developing the disease. In addition to its effects on breast cancer, the benefits of tamoxifen include increased bone mineral density, reduced risk of hip fractures, and lower levels of cholesterol. While tamoxifen is known to increase the risk of blood clotting in women with cancer, its relationship to stroke risk has been unclear.

Keyword: Stroke; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6231 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Children born prematurely have smaller brains on average than full-term kids and preterm boys are most affected. This ScienCentral News video reports on the latest results from the oldest and largest study of preterm kids. Every day, 1,300 babies are born prematurely in the U.S. Although the survival rate is much better than it used to be thanks to medical advances, there are still problems with preterm babies—including the fact that while many preemies catch up to their peers in development, they have a higher rate of learning problems when they get to grade school. "Now in the U.S. children who weigh less than three pounds represent over two percent of all live births every year," says Laura Ment, pediatrics and neurology professor at Yale University School of Medicine. "The survival rate for this group of children is anywhere from 85 to 90 percent. So there are more preemies and there's more of them surviving, but if you consider the fact that half of them are in special education at age eight, in second or third grade, and one fifth of them have already repeated a grade in school, then preterm birth is really what we would consider a major pediatric public health problem." © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6230 - Posted: 06.24.2010

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. You might want to toss those iron-fortified vitamins, because absent a diagnosed deficiency too much of a good thing can be bad. Dietary iron imbalances either way spell trouble for healthy cells, triggering a chain of cellular events in the brain that increases the odds of developing Parkinson's disease, a degenerative condition affecting movement and balance in more than 1 million Americans each year. But excessive iron levels are worse -- much worse. The findings from a study by Florida State University scientist Cathy Levenson are described in "The Role of Dietary Iron Restrictions in a Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease" and will appear in an upcoming edition of Experimental Neurology. Levenson is an associate professor of nutrition, food and exercise sciences in FSU's College of Human Sciences and a faculty member in both the Program in Neuroscience and graduate program in molecular biophysics. "We define our work here at the cellular level," said Levenson from her laboratory at FSU's Biomedical Research Facility. "Our primary research objective is to better understand how trace metal imbalances, which are associated with neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, affect the molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression."

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 6229 - Posted: 10.13.2004

Michael Hopkin A survey of Italian men has provided evidence that homosexuality may be partly influenced by genetics. The same genes that are proposed to predispose to homosexuality may also boost reproduction in women, solving the apparent paradox of why these genes have not been removed by natural selection. By quizzing around 200 men of different sexual orientations, researchers at the University of Padua have discovered that maternal relatives of homosexual men tend to produce more offspring than those of heterosexuals. This suggests that the mothers and maternal aunts of homosexuals have a genetic advantage - but one that reduces reproduction when passed to male offspring. "For a long time it has been a paradox," says Andrea Camperio-Ciani, who led the study. "But we have found that there might be a set of genes that, in males, influences homosexuality but in females increases fecundity." ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 6228 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A recent study published in Epilepsia, the official journal of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), indicates that people who have uncontrolled seizures on the left side of their brains are more likely to have learning disabilities, in comparison to people who have seizures on the right side of their brains. Epilepsy, a neurological disorder associated with recurrent seizures, affects 0.5% to 1% of the population. In theU.S., about 2.5 million people have this disorder and about 9% of Americans will have at least one seizure during their lives. In the study conducted at the LSU Epilepsy Center of Excellence, adult patients of normal intelligence with either left temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) or right TLE were evaluated with reading comprehension, written language, and calculation tests. The Center researchers found that 75% of patients with left TLE had one or more learning disabilities. This was found in only 10% of those with right TLE. Additionally, those with left TLE reported higher rates of literacy and/or career development problems, such as a history of special education, repeating grades, or disrupted educational progress.

Keyword: Epilepsy; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 6227 - Posted: 10.13.2004

Flight simulators used to train pilots and astronauts can provide relief from chronic dizziness, a study shows. Researchers from Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and Imperial College London treated 40 patients with a history of balance problems. They found twice weekly visual stimulation sessions for two months helped reduce the frequency and intensity of dizziness by up to a half. A third of people experience dizziness or vertigo at some during their lives. For many it clears up quickly but some can experience episodes of dizziness for years. Vertigo, dizziness and feelings of nausea are related to the inner ear, known as the vestibular system. The inner ear is a complex arrangement of fluid-filled chambers that acts like a mercury tilt-switch, relaying information about balance to the brain. When disrupted by a disease such as flu or a head injury the signals become confused. The team put all the patients through a the standard treatment of physiotherapy with half also completing the stimulator therapy sessions. The sessions involved using a rotating disk, spinning chair and video-based exercises, all of which are used to train pilots and astronauts. The treatment is known to strengthen the visual input to the brain, improving balance and reducing dizziness - essential to reduce motion sickness for people who fly. (C)BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 6226 - Posted: 10.12.2004