Patients describe it as like being buried alive. The worse part is not the pain, they say, although that can be excruciating, but the horror of being paralysed, unable to talk and yet totally aware of what the surgeon is doing to you. Suffering like this could be greatly reduced. A large international trial has proved that a simple "awareness" device, called a BIS monitor, can cut the number of cases of awareness during surgery by 80 per cent. The device is already used to monitor the depth of anaesthesia in some hospitals in the US, but few anaesthetists in the UK or Australia use it. The trial was run by Paul Myles of the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, and Kate Leslie of the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Leslie says that the evidence is so compelling that BIS monitoring should always be used during the 5 per cent or so of operations where there is a high risk of awareness. Myles goes further, arguing that it should be used for the 50 per cent of operations where there is a chance of awareness occurring. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 5289 - Posted: 06.24.2010

How we perceive the brightness of light may reveal how the brain is wired to handle the wide ranges of light stimulation we encounter every minute. A Salk Institute study, published in the April 15 issue of Nature, shows that timing – as well as the intensity of a light and that background it is on-- determines how we judge a light's brightness. Professor Terrence Sejnowski and his colleagues found that the timing of short and long bright light flashes could create optical illusions: when the short light came on at the beginning of the long light it appeared to be dimmer, but when it came on at the end of the long light the short light was brighter. "This study reveals a new way in which the cerebral cortex handles light and suggests that the brain is processing light in the cortex through two parallel streams of nerve cells," Sejnowski says.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 5288 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Daughters pick up their mother's skills, while sons play rough and tumble. MICHAEL HOPKIN Young female chimpanzees are better students than males, at least when it comes to catching termites, according to a study of wild chimps in Tanzania's Gombe National Park. While daughters watch their mothers closely, the boys spend more time monkeying around. The discovery mirrors differences in the learning abilities of human children, says the research team behind the study. Girls tend to catch on faster than boys when learning skills such as writing and drawing, they say. These manual tasks are not dissimilar to the chimps' technique of using a stick to fish for termites, argues Elizabeth Lonsdorf, now at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. Successfully extracting termites from their nest requires a dextrous turn of hand, she says. Lonsdorf's team watched eight young males and six young females who accompanied their mothers to termite nests. Female youngsters enjoyed more success than males in catching termites. They also started younger: females picked up the skill at around 30 months of age, whereas males were usually twice as old as that, the team reports in this week's Nature1. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5287 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Single spot in brain determines size of visual scratch pad. TANGUY CHOUARD The number of things you can hold in your mind at once has been traced to one penny-sized part of the brain. The finding surprises researchers who assumed this aspect of our intelligence would be distributed over many parts of the brain. Instead, the area appears to form a bottleneck that might limit our cognitive abilities, researchers say. "This is a striking discovery," says John Duncan, an intelligence researcher at the Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge, UK. Most people can hold three or four things in their minds at once when given a quick glimpse of an image such as a collection of coloured dots, or lines in different orientations. If shown a similar image a second later, they will be able to recognise whether three or four of these spots and lines are identical to the first set or not. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Intelligence; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 5286 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The human ability to process information is divided into three stages: stimulus identification/perception, response selection/cognition, and response execution/motor processes. Tasks such as driving a car involve a complicated interaction of all three information-processing components. Researchers know from previous studies that alcohol slows information processing, but the specifics remain unclear. A study in the April issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research has found that alcohol impairs cognitive functioning even when motor functioning appears normal. "Given that most tasks require some information processing and that alcohol is one of the most commonly used recreational drugs, we felt that a more thorough examination of how alcohol disrupts the stream of information processing was warranted," said Tom A. Schweizer, currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Rotman Research Institute in Toronto and first author of the study. "What is not clear from earlier studies is whether this disruption is attributable to a specific slowing of one stage – that is, perceptual, cognitive or motor – or a slowing of all stages within the information-processing stream. Also, few studies have looked specifically at the differential effects of alcohol on cognitive functioning during rising and declining blood alcohol concentrations (BACs). One of the goals of this research was to address whether or not cognitive functioning behaves like motor functioning during rising and declining BACs."

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5285 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Findings could yield clearer view of mate selection, ideas for wildlife conservation ARLINGTON, Va.- When looking for sex partners, younger females prefer males who decorate their place with a little extra blue, be it plastic or feathers. They also prefer males who tone down the intensity of their courtship behavior. At least, that's how it looks for satin bowerbirds, according to research findings published this week in the journal Nature. The study - conducted in New South Wales, Australia, in 1999-2000 - found that not all females find the same traits attractive in mates. As they choose a mate, females make a series of complex decisions related to male courtship behavior and to the colored decorations males collect and place around the bower, a stick structure that protects females during courtship display. Older females focus more on the male's intense courtship display while younger females are attracted by the blue bower decorations. The research, funded by the National Science Foundation's Animal Behavior Program, was conducted by biologists Gerald Borgia, Seth Coleman and Gail Patricelli of the University of Maryland. NSF is an independent U.S. federal agency that supports fundamental research and education across all fields of science and engineering.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 5284 - Posted: 04.15.2004

People born in summer have a sunnier outlook than those born in colder months, the results of a survey show. More than 40,000 members of the public took part in the online survey. Those who were born in May were the most likely to consider themselves lucky while those born in October had the most negative view of their lives. Professor Richard Wiseman, who conducted the research, said people born in winter could improve their luck by being more optimistic. People who took part in the survey gave their birthdates and rated the degree to which they saw themselves as lucky or unlucky. The poll found there was a summer-winter divide between people born from March to August and those born from September to February. Professor Wiseman, a psychologist at the University of Hertfordshire, launched the research at the Edinburgh International Science Festival and presented the results at the end of the meeting. (C)BBC

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 5283 - Posted: 04.14.2004

Deborah Skinner Buzan for The Guardian By the time I had finished reading the Observer this week, I was shaking. There was a review of Lauren Slater's new book about my father, BF Skinner. According to Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century, my father, who was a psychologist based at Harvard from the 1950s to the 90s, "used his infant daughter, Deborah, to prove his theories by putting her for a few hours a day in a laboratory box . . . in which all her needs were controlled and shaped". But it's not true. My father did nothing of the sort. I have heard the lies before, but seeing them in black and white in a respected Sunday newspaper felt as if somebody had punched me hard in the stomach. Admittedly, the facts of my unusual upbringing sound dodgy: esteemed psychologist BF Skinner, who puts rats and pigeons in experimental boxes to study their behaviour, also puts his baby daughter in a box. This is good fodder for any newspaper. There was a prominent Harvard psychologist whose daughter was psychotic and had to be institutionalised; but it wasn't my father. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 5282 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Dutch researcher Niels Prins has discovered that elderly people with a lot of damage to the small blood vessels in the brain have a greater chance of developing dementia or depression. The damage is visible on MRI scans as white matter lesions and infarcts of the brain. Elderly people with serious white matter abnormalities and infarcts were found to deteriorate more quickly in their cognitive functioning than peers with fewer abnormalities. In particular, the processing of information was worse in the group with more white matter lesions and infarcts. This group also had an increased risk of developing dementia and depression. Over a period of three years, one-third of the elderly people investigated exhibited an increase in white matter lesions. These elderly people had an increased risk of developing a stroke and the cognitive functioning deteriorated more quickly. Furthermore, a serious increase in the number of abnormalities in the white matter increased the risk of dementia and depression.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5281 - Posted: 04.14.2004

Researchers from the University of Toronto and the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute have documented negative mood disturbances such as depression and confusion resulting from sports concussions for the first time. The study, which appears in the March issue of the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, used injured athletes to chart the course of emotional recovery after a concussion. The researchers found that concussed athletes were not emotionally different from their peers before injury, but were more depressed and confused than their uninjured teammates after sustaining a concussion. "Our results support a causal link between sports injury and subsequent emotional distress," says Lynda Mainwaring, a registered psychologist and associate professor in U of T's Faculty of Physical Education and Health. "Moreover, it highlights emotional changes that result from brain injury, which may help us determine when people are completely healed from a concussion." She notes that there has been little research into the emotional impact of concussions and subsequent recovery.

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion; Emotions
Link ID: 5280 - Posted: 04.14.2004

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- Does your dog know if you've had a bad day? Probably, but don't expect your cat to catch on. Do chimpanzees understand why those who can't see them don't offer them treats? Do vampire bats have the ability to show gratitude by returning a favor? The answers depend on what is meant by "think," according to University of Florida psychology Professor Clive Wynne, who writes about these creature features and others in a new 244-page book, "Do Animals Think?" being published this month by Princeton University Press. While animals can do many clever things and even reason, they don't have the ability to reflect on what they are doing, one important element of thinking, said Wynne, who has studied animal behavior for 20 years in a variety of species ranging from pigeons to marsupials. "Animals can learn, but whether learning always implies thinking is the question," he said. "Perhaps the take-home message is that each species thinks in its own way, a way that is adapted to the world it lives in."

Keyword: Animal Rights; Evolution
Link ID: 5279 - Posted: 04.14.2004

Rat results hint at possible alternative to Viagra. MICHAEL HOPKIN A new brain drug gives erections to lab rats - raising the possibility that it could some day rival existing human sexual dysfunction therapies such as Viagra. The new molecule, called ABT-724, is a variant of an anti-impotence drug called apomorphine, which is currently on offer to European men. Both work by activating receptors in the brain for a molecule called dopamine, triggering a rush of blood to the penis. But whereas apomorphine stimulates all dopamine receptors, ABT-724 targets only a subset of these, called D4 receptors, report researchers led by Jorge Brioni of Abbott Laboratories in Abbott Park, Illinois. This could potentially sidestep the side-effects, such as nausea and vomiting, suffered by some apomorphine users. "It separates out the dopamine receptors responsible for the main effect," explains Abbott Laboratories' James Sullivan, one of the researchers in the study. Rats injected with ABT-724 developed erections without getting sick, the team reports in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences1. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5278 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Harold Lee, DAILY BRUIN REPORTER Humans and finches may be birds of a feather when it comes to learning how to speak and sing. According to UCLA researchers, similarities between how humans learn to speak and songbirds learn to sing may be rooted in shared genes. The researchers reported in the March 31 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience that the zebra finch shares the genes FoxP1 and FoxP2 with humans. These genes play similar roles in the vocal learning of humans and of zebra finches. "Surprisingly, the expression (of FoxP1 and FoxP2) was very parallel, suggesting they're doing the same function in both species, or perhaps an overlapping function," said Dan Geschwind, director of the neurogenetics program and associate professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine. It is hypothesized that FoxP2 is involved in vocal learning – how songbirds learn songs from their environments or tutors, Geschwind said. In humans, FoxP2 seems to play a vital role in the development of the brain. Rare mutations of the FoxP2 gene have been found in a few individuals in an English family, who have trouble understanding and producing language. Those affected by the mutation have structural abnormalities in the brain. Copyright 2004 ASUCLA Student Media

Keyword: Language; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 5277 - Posted: 06.24.2010

LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer Only Michael Berman's small thumbs move inside the giant MRI machine, pushing buttons in a video game-like test as the scanner measures how the youngster's brain processes light and motion. At 6, he's one of the youngest children to undergo such advanced scanning as part of a new effort to discover what goes wrong inside brains affected by autism. It's work that might lead to much earlier diagnosis of the mysterious neurological disorder. It usually goes undetected until age 3 or later, when much of the damage to the developing brain is thought already to have been done. "The feeling is if you intervene early, it'll be more effective," explains Dr. Thomas Zeffiro of Georgetown University Medical Center, who is researching technology that he hopes will go a step further and one day scan preschoolers' or even infants' brains. ©2004 Associated Press AP

Keyword: Autism; Brain imaging
Link ID: 5276 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MARGARET WERTHEIM — Sitting at lunch on the patio of his home here one muggy day last June, Francis Crick was expounding on the mind-body problem and the thorny subject of the human "self." Where is the line between mind and matter? he asked. Aside from the neurons in our brains, the human body contains tens of millions of neurons in the enteric nervous system, which extends into the stomach and intestines. "When you digest your lunch is that you?" Dr. Crick asked. Body and mind are the twin problems around which Dr. Crick's life has spiraled, much like the double helix structure of DNA that he and Dr. James D. Watson are famous for discovering half a century ago. Though his research on "the molecule of life" is what he is best known for, in his 28 years at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, his work has focused on the mind, and in particular the question of consciousness. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 5275 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ANDREW POLLACK Can a machine read a person's mind? A medical device company is about to find out. The company, Cyberkinetics Inc., plans to implant a tiny chip in the brains of five paralyzed people in an effort to enable them to operate a computer by thought alone. The Food and Drug Administration has given approval for a clinical trial of the implants, according to the company. The implants, part of what Cyberkinetics calls its BrainGate system, could eventually help people with spinal cord injuries, strokes, Lou Gehrig's disease or other ailments to communicate better or even to operate lights and other devices through a kind of neural remote control. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 5274 - Posted: 04.13.2004

By MARGARET WERTHEIM — Sitting at lunch on the patio of his home here one muggy day last June, Francis Crick was expounding on the mind-body problem and the thorny subject of the human "self." Where is the line between mind and matter? he asked. Aside from the neurons in our brains, the human body contains tens of millions of neurons in the enteric nervous system, which extends into the stomach and intestines. "When you digest your lunch is that you?" Dr. Crick asked. Body and mind are the twin problems around which Dr. Crick's life has spiraled, much like the double helix structure of DNA that he and Dr. James D. Watson are famous for discovering half a century ago. Though his research on "the molecule of life" is what he is best known for, in his 28 years at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, his work has focused on the mind, and in particular the question of consciousness. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 5273 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GINA KOLATA Alzheimer's disease can seem unrelentingly grim. There is no cure, no known way to prevent the illness, and the benefits of current treatments are modest at best. But in laboratories around the country, scientists are uncovering clues that may eventually — perhaps even in the next two decades — allow them to prevent, slow or even reverse the ruthless progression of the illness. "Things are more hopeful than perhaps people think," Dr. Karen Duff of the Nathan Kline Institute of New York University said. "We are on the cusp of having something really useful." That hope comes on the heels of disappointment. Aricept and other drugs to slow the disease's progress have not lived up to the public's high expectations. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5272 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NATALIE ANGIER Sometimes it takes the great Dustbuster of fate to clear the room of bullies and bad habits. Freak cyclones helped destroy Kublai Khan's brutal Mongolian empire, for example, while the Black Death of the 14th century capsized the medieval theocracy and gave the Renaissance a chance to shine. Among a troop of savanna baboons in Kenya, a terrible outbreak of tuberculosis 20 years ago selectively killed off the biggest, nastiest and most despotic males, setting the stage for a social and behavioral transformation unlike any seen in this notoriously truculent primate. In a study appearing today in the journal PloS Biology (online at www.plosbiology.org), researchers describe the drastic temperamental and tonal shift that occurred in a troop of 62 baboons when its most belligerent members vanished from the scene. The victims were all dominant adult males that had been strong and snarly enough to fight with a neighboring baboon troop over the spoils at a tourist lodge garbage dump, and were exposed there to meat tainted with bovine tuberculosis, which soon killed them. Left behind in the troop, designated the Forest Troop, were the 50 percent of males that had been too subordinate to try dump brawling, as well as all the females and their young. With that change in demographics came a cultural swing toward pacifism, a relaxing of the usually parlous baboon hierarchy, and a willingness to use affection and mutual grooming rather than threats, swipes and bites to foster a patriotic spirit. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |

Keyword: Aggression; Evolution
Link ID: 5271 - Posted: 04.13.2004

Thirty-five million Americans, more than 16% of the population, suffer from depression severe enough to warrant treatment at some time in their lives. Poet Eve Stern has battled depression for years, taking different medications for her condition. "The usual direction the doctors will point you in is in the direction of medication," says Stern. "I got pushed there to the point where I had tried over 50 meds and one became poisonous to my brain and I nearly died." To prevent situations like this, scientists are trying to learn how the brain reacts to depression remedies. "We have no idea about the neurobiology of what starts depression," says Helen Mayberg, a neurologist at the Emory University School of Medicine. "We've got clues from these studies of different kinds of depressed people. We have clues knowing that not everybody gets better on whatever you treat them with first. But we've not got these clues that the brain may be actually giving us very important info so that we can treat optimally." © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 5270 - Posted: 06.24.2010