Researchers at Emory University have identified a specific mutation in a sodium channel gene (SCN1A) that is associated with epilepsy syndrome in a family. The findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 27th . The finding adds to a growing body of information about links between genetic mutations and epilepsy; more than two dozen genes implicated in the disease have been discovered to date, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. "The premise of this study was to enroll families with neurological diseases in which the genetic cause is unknown," says Salina Waddy, MD, associate and post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine. "Identifying this novel mutation in a sodium channel gene (SCN1A) on Chromosome 2, which is associated with epilepsy will, in the end, help us learn how to better treat patients and their families who have a type of familial epilepsy called generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+)." Six Caucasian family members who all had GEFS+ were enrolled in the Emory study. GEFS+ is described as a condition where unusual bursts of energy discharge across the entire brain simultaneously, resulting in a seizure that is sometimes associated with high fevers. In most people who have febrile seizures, the seizures go away before the age of 6. In these patients, their febrile seizures occasionally persist beyond age 6, hence the "plus" in the GEFS+ name.

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 5369 - Posted: 04.28.2004

Women tend to choose husbands who look like their fathers - even if they are adopted, reveals a new study. The research shows that women use their dads as a template for picking a mate by a process called "sexual imprinting", says Tamas Bereczkei at the University of Pécs in Hungary and colleagues. Husbands and wives have long been suggested to look alike and this is known to occur in many animal species. Couples that look like each other are also more likely to share common genes, and having a degree of similarity is believed to beneficial. This might explain the study's findings, suggests Glenn Weisfeld, one of the research team and a human ethologist at Wayne State University, Detroit, US "There seems to be an advantage for animals to select a mate somewhat similar to themselves genetically," he told New Scientist. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5368 - Posted: 06.24.2010

SAN FRANCISCO – Do you ever wonder how the brain determines its response to emotional stimuli? Researchers have now shown a correlation between secretin, a hormone found in gut and brain tissue, and how the brain responds to affective stimuli. Details and implications of this study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 56th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., April 24 – May 1, 2004. Studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods have found that individuals with a range of behavioral disorders including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar illness and autism have abnormal amygdala activation in response to facial emotions and other social stimuli. The amygdala, a part of the limbic brain, has emerged as one of the most critical areas influencing how we respond emotionally. It has also been shown to play an important role in emotional learning and in the attribution of emotional significance to stimuli. These MRI findings point to amygdala dysfunction as a potential neurobiological factor in the development of these disorders. Recent evidence suggests that secretin may modulate the functional response of the amygdala. "We wanted to test the hypothesis that administration of secretin alters amygdala responsiveness to affective stimuli in healthy adult males," notes study author Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, PhD, of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Mass.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 5367 - Posted: 06.24.2010

SAN FRANCISCO – Along with left- or right-handedness, the hemisphere of the brain where language capacity resides is likely predetermined. Researchers have now shown that with age, language capacity in the brain becomes more evenly distributed between hemispheres. These study outcomes may offer promising therapeutic implications for adults who have experienced an injury, illness or other trauma to the brain. Details of this study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 56th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., April 24 – May 1, 2004. From childhood until about age 25, language capacity in right-handers grows stronger in the left hemisphere of the brain. This phenomenon is usually converse to a person's "handedness", where a right-handed person holds language in the left hemisphere, and vice versa. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) researchers have now shown that after about age 25, language capacity "evens out" somewhat, with older adults using more of both hemispheres relative to language skills. "We are most interested in why this occurs, and the age at which the hemispheric language dominance begins to decrease," notes study author Jerzy P. Szaflarski, MD, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Ohio.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 5366 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Navy biologist detects first call from the abyss. MARK PEPLOW Sounds made by a deep-water fish have been encountered for the very first time. Although the identity of this voluble creature remains a mystery, scientists believe it uses its call to find mates in the dark ocean depths. Shallow-water fish such as croakers and toad-fish are known to make a limited range of sounds, but deep-water fish, which are those that live far from continental shelves at depths greater than about 500 m, have not been heard before. "These guys have the first good data on noise from an abyssal critter," says Adam Summers, a comparative physiologist at the University of California, Irvine, who was also scientific adviser for the fishy film Finding Nemo. The sounds were recorded by four underwater microphones (hydrophones) at the bottom of the ocean between the Bahamas and the coast of Florida. The listening posts are owned by the US Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, which normally listens for approaching submarines. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Hearing; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5365 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Neural transplants may rein in mental decline. HELEN R. PILCHER Transplanting genetically modified skin cells into the brain might slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, a preliminary clinical trial suggests. A small study of eight patients suggests that the innovative technique is safe to use and may reduce mental decline, researchers told the American Academy of Neurology meeting in San Francisco this week. Mark Tuszynski from the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues removed samples of skin cells from Alzheimer's patients and genetically modified them in cultures to produce Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), a naturally occurring protein that prevents cell death in the brain. The team then injected up to 10 million NGF-producing cells into 10 different brain sites. They hoped that the transplanted cells would prevent vulnerable neurons from dying, and thus slow the dementia's progression. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Alzheimers; Trophic Factors
Link ID: 5364 - Posted: 06.24.2010

PORTLAND, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have identified a set of genes that appear to be involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease. They hope this information will help scientists create of methods for early detection of the disease and for the development of therapeutic strategies to delay or even stop its progression. P. Hemachandra Reddy, Ph.D., of the OHSU Neurological Sciences Institute is the first and corresponding author of the paper, which will be published online on April 27, prior to its appearance in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. "Through studying a mouse model of Alzheimer's, the research team found that a series of genes related to mitochondrial metabolism in brain cells were more active than in normal mice," Reddy said. "Mitochondria are structures located in the cytoplasm of cells that produce energy for the cell. Prior research has linked Alzheimer's to mitochondrial function. However this is the first time genes that are responsible for early cellular change in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis have been identified."

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5363 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Dr. Murray Feingold / Correspondent I have a general rule based on a nonscientific impression that states "foods that taste good usually contain a lot of fat." Some people can retrain their taste buds so nonfat foods, such as asparagus, taste just as good to them as do fatty foods such as steak and french fries. I have never been able to make such a transition. Now comes an article in the Journal of Neuroscience that explains my love affair with illicit fatty foods. By using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRIs, researchers determined that fatty foods stimulate the taste cortex of the brain much more than nonfat foods, thus making them taste better. These findings provide a scientific reason for my affinity with fatty foods. If this finding is correct, then perhaps scientists can ultimately invent some type of chemical, such as an enzyme, that when added to foods such as broccoli will make it taste like fat, although it really isn't. © Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems, Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5362 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. What could be more useful than a nice set of horns? They seem perfect for driving off predators, handy for clobbering rivals and fine for signaling subtly to potential mates. Ideally, everyone should have a pair, instead of Pan, Lucifer and Hellboy having all the fun. But come to think of it, if they're so great, why are they so rare? Although humans who visit zoos or farms might assume that horns are the norm, they are in fact largely confined to a small and modern slice of mammals, hoofed ungulates, and some unusual reptiles and insects. Cattle, oxen, sheep, goats, yaks and buffalo have them, as do African antelopes, from the prongs of the tiny duiker to the elegant spirals of the kudu. Morphologically extremely different, but also usefully sharp, are the antlers that annually adorn the foreheads of deer, moose, elk and reindeer. Rhinoceroses have horns of compressed hair that ride like gun sights between their notoriously weak eyes. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5361 - Posted: 04.27.2004

For many people, increasing forgetfulness is an unwelcome side effect of growing old. Just how the human brain reacts to aging, independent of specific diseases such as Alzheimer’s, has proved difficult to discern. Now a report published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identifies a specific section of the brain that is most vulnerable during the twilight years. Using human subjects to study age-related changes in the brain is problematic because it is hard to exclude patients who may be suffering from early-stage Alzheimer’s but have not yet been diagnosed. Scott A. Small of Columbia University and his colleagues thus turned to rhesus monkeys and rats--animals that experience brain changes as they age but are free of Alzheimer’s-type diseases--instead. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the team measured blood flow to the brain and found that older monkeys displayed a significant decline in blood volume in a section of the hippocampus known as the dentate gyrus. © 1996-2004 Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5360 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Misbehaving dogs are soothed by a chemical scent that evokes their puppyhood, according to new research. The chemicals could help relax dogs living in stressful environments such as animal shelters or working for the military. Researchers in Scotland conducted the largest-ever study on the effects of "dog-appeasing pheromone" (DAP) on dogs in an animal shelter. DAP is a synthetic chemical that appears to mimic those secreted by lactating bitches three days after birth to create a comforting setting for puppies. Plug-in diffusers continuously released the airborne molecules to 37 dogs, while a control group of 17 dogs received none. A graduate student, unaware of which dogs were exposed, then studied the dogs' behaviour for a week. The DAP dogs barked less frequently and more quietly than the control dogs, and showed more interest in strangers who approached their cages. Sound meters registered an overall peak barking level of 80 decibels for the dogs inhaling pheromones compared to highs of 100 decibels in the control dogs. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5359 - Posted: 06.24.2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Women are better than men at remembering the appearance of others, a new study shows. The gender difference in appearance memory was not great, but it shows another area where women are superior to men in interpersonal sensitivity, said Terrence Horgan, lead author of the study and research fellow in psychology at Ohio State University. “Women have an advantage when it comes to remembering things like the physical features, clothing and postures of other people,” Horgan said. “This advantage might be due to women being slightly more people-oriented than men are.” The study also found that both men and women did better at remembering the appearance of women than they did remembering how men looked. Horgan conducted the study with Marianne Schmid Mast and Judith Hall of Northeastern University, and Jason Carter of the State University of New York at New Paltz. Their results were published in a recent issue of the journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5358 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Issues from fertility to contraception can be challenging SAN FRANCISCO-- Anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) are powerful medications that help women with epilepsy control their seizures; however, when these same women have to deal with reproductive issues and their epilepsy drugs, a myriad of problems can crop up, according to Mark Yerby, M.D., MPH, a leading expert in women's issues and epilepsy. About 1 million of the estimated 2.5 million Americans with epilepsy are women. Dr. Yerby is associate clinical professor of neurology, public health and preventive medicine, and obstetrics and gynecology at the Oregon Health Science University and director of the Epilepsy Program at Providence St. Vincent's Medical Center, both in Portland, Ore. He spoke today at an American Medical Association media briefing in partnership with the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and the American Epilepsy Society at the AAN's annual meeting in San Francisco. Hormonal changes may be responsible for some of the specific difficulties encountered by women with epilepsy. Many women find that their seizures change in severity or occur more frequently during puberty, pregnancy, when they are menstruating or during menopause.

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 5357 - Posted: 04.27.2004

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Why is it so annoying to watch someone else make a mistake? Maybe because it affects the same areas of the brain as when a person makes his or her own mistake, Dutch researchers say. Experiments in which volunteers tried a computer task and then watched each other do the same thing showed the brain reacted in a similar way whether the observer made the mistake, or watched someone else make it. Writing in the May issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience, the team at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands said on Monday their findings help shed light on how human beings learn by watching one another. For their experiment Hein van Schie and colleagues hooked up 16 men and women to electrodes to measure brain activity and then sat them in front of a display screen with a joystick. The task was simple -- to move the joystick in the same direction as certain arrows appearing on the screen. Copyright © 2004 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 5356 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Gregory M. Lamb | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor It's the holy grail of translation, a goal one researcher has called "more complex than building an atomic bomb." Smooth, immediate translations between people speaking different languages would be a remarkable achievement of enormous economic and cultural benefit. Some suggest that it won't happen until computers can express true artificial intelligence - something like C-3PO of "Star Wars" fame, whose knowledge extends far beyond mere vocabulary to an understanding of customs and cultures. Still, researchers are chipping away at the problem. Universal translation is one of 10 emerging technologies that will affect our lives and work "in revolutionary ways" within a decade, Technology Review says. In one promising approach, researchers are concentrating on phrases rather than individual words, which can have various shades of meaning and result in awkward translations (just try one of the computerized text translators on the Internet). Phrases pose fewer problems. Copyright © 2004 The Christian Science Monitor.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 5355 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The Guardian In January 2003, as America prepared to go to war with Iraq, the US surgeon general, Richard Carmona, warned the nation that it faced a far more dangerous threat than Saddam Hussein's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Rather than focusing on the danger posed by nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Carmona told his audience, "Let's look at a threat that is very real, and already here: obesity." Carmona is merely the latest in a series of surgeon generals who have treated America's expanding waistline as the nation's leading public health problem. In doing so, they have merely reflected the language of much of the medical establishment, which for decades has treated "overweight" and "obesity" as major health risks. Fat is on trial, but until now the defence has been mostly absent from the court of public opinion. At bottom, the case against fat rests on the claim that the thinner you are, the longer you will live. Fat Kills, and the prescription is clear: Get Thin. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 5354 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Discovery shows how single genetic mutation can cause complex disorders Bardet-Biedl syndrome (BBS), characterized by obesity, learning disabilities and eye and kidney problems, is caused by genetic mutations in the BBS family of genes. Now, researchers who've long studied the condition have discovered that genetic mutations in one of those genes, called BBS4, lead to cell death by disrupting the cells' internal "highway" system. In experiments with human and mouse cell lines in the lab, the researchers found that the BBS4 protein normally transports molecules that help guide the cell's internal highway system -- a network of so-called microtubules along which tiny motors push and pull proteins, cellular packages and even chromosomes. When the BBS4 gene doesn't work correctly, the highway system falls apart, cell division halts and the cell dies. "But our experiments also revealed something really interesting about pleiotropy -- genetic diseases that severely impact only a smattering of tissues," says Nicholas Katsanis, Ph.D., head of the team's contingent from the McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine at Johns Hopkins. "Once we knew faulty BBS4 prevented correct microtubule construction and led to cell death, the big question was how do people survive when every cell contains these mutations?"

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 5353 - Posted: 04.26.2004

Do you want to block traumatic memories from scarring your mind? Perhaps you do, but would you be happy if someone else did it for you? Or how about receiving marketing messages beamed directly at you in hypersonic waves? Mind control is getting smarter by the minute, says Richard Glen Boire, co-founder of the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics in California. And, as he told Liz Else, we ain't seen nothing yet... Should I be worried? Freedom of thought is the basis of a lot of our existing constitutional rights in the US, as in many countries. With the burgeoning of neurosciences and the neurotechnologies they give rise to, we can see great opportunities but also great perils, because the law on freedom of thought is so underdeveloped. It is the most important of all legal freedoms, but the least articulated. Here at the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE) in Davis, California, we try to provide legal theory and principles to guide courts, policy makers and civil liberty experts. What kind of neurotechnologies are there? On the near horizon are a slew of new pharmaceuticals we call memory management drugs. Some of these aim to improve memory safely. Others are designed to help dim or to erase the memories that haunt people suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 5352 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON — Among healthy people over the age of 75 who have the genotype associated with higher risk for Alzheimer’s, low levels of vitamin B12 are associated with significantly worse performance on memory tests. This finding is published in the April issue of Neuropsychology, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA). David Bunce, PhD, a psychologist at Goldsmith’s College, University of London, Miia Kivipelto, PhD, MD, of the Aging Research Center at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and the Stockholm Gerontology Research Center, and Ĺke Wahlin, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Stockholm, conducted the study as part of a long-term multidisciplinary project that follows older people living in Stockholm’s Kungsholmen parish. Scientists already knew of a genetic predisposition for Alzheimer’s disease, and that low levels of two B vitamins— B12 and folate—were also linked to problems. However, few had examined nutrition and genotype together relative to cognition, to reflect what real people carry into old age – a mix of inborn traits and environmental factors such as nutrition, including undiagnosed vitamin B deficiencies. © 2004 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Alzheimers; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 5351 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By LISA SANDERS, M.D. The radio crackled to life with a burst of static. It was a Saturday night, and the emergency department was packed. An E.M.T.'s voice silenced the harsh electronic noise: ''We've got a 35-year-old Caucasian man with an altered state of consciousness. His friends think he might have been slipped some drugs.'' Minutes later, a young blond man was rolled into the E.R., screaming and shouting obscenities as he struggled against the straps that held him in place on the stretcher. ''I want to go,'' he yelled. ''I want to go.'' The physician, a man in his 50's with gentle brown eyes and a neatly trimmed beard, approached the three men standing at the patient's bedside. ''I'm Dr. Shavelson. Can you tell me what happened?'' All three began speaking at once, then stopped. A young man began again: ''He was fine this morning. I had lunch with him. Then he went to the sauna. He called me a few hours later and said he felt like he'd been drugged.'' He told the friend that he was hot, nauseated and lightheaded; he was having a little trouble walking. By the time he got home, he felt worse, not better. So he called friends who lived nearby. He was having trouble seeing, he said, as if he were in a very narrow tunnel. His arms and hands felt strange and tingly. By the time his friends arrived, the young man was confused and disoriented. ''He looked at me, and I could tell he didn't know who I was,'' another of the young men reported. They all nodded. ''He's not like this,'' one of the friends said to the E.R. doctor. ''He's never like this.'' Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5350 - Posted: 04.25.2004