East African naked mole-rats, the only known cold-blooded mammal, have shown a rather heated response in lab tests that may have important implications for treating chronic pain in humans. The blind, furless creatures that live underground in colonies lack a body chemical called Substance P, a neurotransmitter normally in the skin that sends pain signals to the central nervous system. The rats feel no immediate pain when cut, scraped or subjected to heat stimuli. They only feel some aches. But when the rats get a shot of Substance P, pain signaling resumes working as in other mammals. "It was a complete surprise when we discovered that the skin of naked mole-rats is missing one of the most basic chemicals that's found in the skin of all other mammals," said Thomas Park, associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the principal investigator in the research project.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4535 - Posted: 11.15.2003

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations BERKELEY – The tropical mantis shrimp has the most sophisticated eyes of any creature on the planet, yet it often lives at murky depths where the only light is a filtered, dim blue. Why does it need such complex vision? Marine biologists and physiologists have now discovered at least one use for these eyes in the deep, blue ocean: to see the fluorescent markings mantis shrimp use to signal or threaten one another. The shrimps' characteristic spots are easy to see in shallow water but only dimly visible 40 meters (131 feet) down, so on the ocean floor the crustacean's spots fluoresce yellow-green to enhance their prominence in the dim blue light. Copyright UC Regents

Keyword: Animal Communication; Aggression
Link ID: 4534 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Reduction of agitation leads to less stress for caregiver; better care for patient San Antonio, Texas and Long Branch, N.J. – Results from a Phase II, multi-center study found dronabinol, a synthetic version of the active ingredient in marijuana, reduces agitation in patients with Alzheimer's disease. In addition, the research concluded that reduced agitation may contribute to the relief of caregiver burden associated with the condition. The findings were presented at the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists' 34th annual meeting. "Our results show dronabinol is an effective treatment for behavioral agitation in patients with Alzheimer's and may ultimately help reduce the stress often experienced by caregivers," said geriatrician Joel S. Ross, M.D. a member of the teaching faculty at Monmouth Medical Center and the lead investigator in the study. "While difficult for the patient, the effects of agitation can greatly impact the emotional and physical health of family members and caregivers. By reducing patients' agitation, caregivers are able to focus more time and energy on their patients' overall wellbeing." Dronabinol, marketed as Marinol, is synthetic delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC). Delta-9-THC also is a naturally occurring component of Cannabis sativa L (marijuana). Dronabinol has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of anorexia in patients with HIV/AIDS and for the treatment of nausea and vomiting associated with cancer chemotherapy. Recent clinical tests also have examined dronabinol's potential to relieve symptoms of multiple sclerosis.1

Keyword: Alzheimers; Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 4533 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Some of us would never go up and talk to strangers at a party, while others may prefer to work the room. As this ScienCentral News video reports, psychologists could see the signature of shyness imprinted in the brain, from toddlers to twenty-year-olds. The more things change, the more they stay the same? Psychologists at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital found that this old chestnut may be true when it comes to personality traits like shyness. It all started over twenty years ago, when psychologists studied two-year-olds that fell into two categories–inhibited and uninhibited. "Inhibited children were characterized by an aversion to novelty, an aversion to strangers, not liking things that were new, whereas uninhibited children were children who sort of plunged in freely," explains Carl Schwartz, director of the Developmental Psychopathology Research Group at Massachusetts General Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School . The researchers created a small mechanical robot and wheeled it into the room with the toddlers. "The child who they categorized as inhibited would cry or freeze or run to its mother, whereas a typical uninhibited child would toddle up to the robot and poke it in the eye," says Schwartz. "They were immediately curious and were not put off by the unfamiliarity of that." © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4532 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Sociable mums make much better mothers than less gregarious ones, suggests a new study of baboons. Baby baboons born to outgoing mums who enjoy hanging out with other females are considerably more likely to survive their crucial first year than infants born to less friendly mothers, reveals the behavioural study. Primates and monkeys are unique among animals in the intense social bonds they form. These bonds are thought to have been crucial in the evolution of primates, including humans. Behavioural ecologists have assumed that extrovert behaviour in primates boosts survival by generally making group life easier. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4531 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GINA KOLATA The government should sponsor small clinical trials on whether testosterone therapy can improve conditions like frailty, weakness, failing memories and loss of sexual function in aging men with low levels of the hormone, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences said yesterday. But large long-term studies to see if testosterone can prevent such conditions should be deferred until there is evidence that it works as a treatment, the committee added. The report, by the National Academies' Institute of Medicine, answers a question from the National Institutes of Health, which wanted to know what it should do to forestall a potential disaster as more and more men take testosterone without knowing whether it helps or harms. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4530 - Posted: 11.14.2003

NEW ORLEANS-- Birds aren't born knowing how to sing. Chicks must hear adult songs during a short critical period soon after birth, or they'll be reduced to the avian equivalent of stammering. Now a study presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting here on 10 November shows that chicks don't need to hear the whole rendition--given the pieces, they can put a song together themselves. Baby birds are all ears, and they remember what they hear. White-crowned sparrows that hatch in the late summer listen to the seasonal songs of nearby males. After a silent winter, in which the adults stop singing, the young sparrows start to perform the song they heard as chicks a year earlier. Neuroscientists have searched in vain for neurons that harbor a song "template"--cells that encode a complete version of the bird's song. Instead, they've found neurons that respond to a portion of the song, usually a few notes, or syllables, at a time. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 4529 - Posted: 06.24.2010

— Researchers have used ultraviolet light to “weld” a key regulatory protein to its RNA targets, creating a new tool that can be used to identify novel proteins involved in a variety of human diseases. Using this technique, the researchers have identified an array of RNA molecules regulated by the RNA-binding protein, Nova, which has been implicated in an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease. The researchers believe their technique may help in finding the RNA targets of other proteins involved in neurological diseases, including the most prevalent form of mental retardation, the Fragile X syndrome. Robert B. Darnell, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at The Rockefeller University, led the research team that reported its findings in the November 14, 2003, issue of the journal Science. ©2003 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4528 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Such abilities may have influenced human evolution PHILADELPHIA – We may take it for granted that humans can classify each other according to familial or social status, but how did those abilities evolve? In the Nov. 14 issue of the journal Science, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania report that, much like humans, baboons identify each other based on complex rules that determine relationships between families and status or "rank" within their particular family. "Humans organize their knowledge of social relationships into a hierarchical structure, and they also make use of hierarchical structures when deducing relationships between words in language," said Robert Seyfarth, a professor in Penn's Department of Psychology of the School of Arts and Sciences and one of the study's authors. "The existence of such complex social classifications in baboons, a species without language, suggests that the social pressures imposed by life in complex groups may have been one factor leading to the evolution of sophisticated cognition and language in our pre-human ancestors." For the last 12 years, Seyfarth, Dorothy Cheney, a professor in Penn's Department of Biology, and their colleagues have studied a troop of more than 80 baboons in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Their research explores the cognitive mechanisms that might be the basis of primate social relationships and how such relationships may have influenced the development of human social relationships, intelligence and language.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 4527 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Primping and passing time with peers may serve a serious purpose, suggests a new study by a UCLA-led team of primate researchers. The more time wild female baboons spend in the company of other adult baboons, particularly while occupied with grooming activities, the more likely their offspring are to live until their first birthday, the team reports in the Nov. 14 issue of Science. "Until now, social scientists assumed that because females invest a lot in social relationships, they must gain a lot from those relationships, but we've never been able to make a direct link to reproductive success," said Joan B. Silk, the study's lead author. "These findings provide the first evidence that there's a link between the amount of social involvement and having offspring who survive the critical first year of life."

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 4526 - Posted: 11.14.2003

Make advances in understanding why false memories are formed New studies of false memories show that what happens in the brain when memories are established can be as important to the development of false memories as what happens during memory retrieval. Other research shows that specific parts of the brain are more active when a true memory is being retrieved than when a false memory is being retrieved, potentially providing a neural label by which to understand the differences between true and false memories. Memories can be fragile and subject to distortion because we literally cannot record and store all of what we learn and experience. People often mistakenly claim to remember having seen a word or object that is similar to something they saw earlier, according to several studies. Such false memories can have an even greater impact when they manifest in such a way that entirely novel events are implanted into an individual's memory. Such an individual can willingly retrieve these completely false memories, such as being lost in a mall, with surprisingly vivid and specific details. Neuroimaging techniques can help determine if the neural processes driving this retrieval of inaccurate memories are different from those that drive the retrieval of accurate memories. Several research groups are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to address this question. The hope is that neuroimaging can help determine the various potential sources of false memories.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4525 - Posted: 11.14.2003

In new studies, scientists are discovering the neurobiological underpinnings of romantic love, trust, and even of self. New research also shows that a specific brain area - the amygdala - is involved in the process of understanding the intentions of others, in particular when lying is involved. Using brain imaging, researchers Helen Fisher, Arthur Aron, Lucy Brown and colleagues find that feelings of intense romantic love are associated with specific activity in dopamine-rich brain regions associated with reward and motivation. Those study participants who expressed more romantic passion on a questionnaire showed more brain activity in these regions. Those in longer relationships showed more activation in emotion-related areas as well. And men and women tended to show some different brain responses. The researchers conclude that romantic love may be best classified as a motivation system or drive associated with a range of emotions. Further studies of intense, early stage romantic love may help to define how the brain encodes reward and memory. In this experiment, 17 young men and women who had "just fallen madly in love" were tested with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify the brain circuitry of romantic love.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4524 - Posted: 11.14.2003

Gail Griffith, Parent, Author To medicate or not to medicate? If you have a depressed and potentially suicidal teen, that's the $64,000 question. But more than a decade after antidepressant drugs such as Prozac became available, the answers aren't clear. In fact, they're getting murkier all the time, writes Gail Griffith, the mother of a depressed teen, in this week's Outlook section: The Fear of No Right Answer. When the FDA recently issued a public health advisory on antidepressant use in teens, the media sent contradictory messages about its meaning -- one newspaper reported that the FDA was warning of an increased risk of suicide in teens who use antidepressants, while another said exactly the opposite, that the FDA saw no link between suicide risk and antidepressant use. The FDA advisory itself was ambiguous. Griffith's own experience has convinced her that medication is helpful, not harmful, to a teen with depression, but the lack of clarity and consensus in the media and the medical establishment leaves her -- and other parents of possibly suicidal teens -- frustrated and anxious. Falls Church, Va.: About one year ago, my girlfriend was put on the "pill" for birth control. She claims that she has had headaches and migraines from being put on it. Her doctor who prescribed her the pill prescribed her Prozac for her headaches. I was shocked because she told me her doctor said that Prozac was for headaches. After a month of being on it, her mood changed and I noticed some changes in her personality. She then went back to the doctor and complained of these problems and the doctor prescribed her Welbutrin. Why would anti-depressants be prescribed by a doctor (not a psychologist) for headaches and with no diagnosis, merely a guess and check method? Gail Griffith: I am not a clinician or a therapist, but I have to say, I regard it as "wrongheaded" to seek treatment for depression from anyone other than a psychiatrist. I agree with you, it seems odd that her doctor would have prescribed Prozac for headaches and then Wellbutrin for "changes in her personality." I wouldn't go to a Podiatrist for a Pap Smear. I always urge friends to seek out a psychiatrist anytime the possibility of antidepressant medication comes up. I hope this is helpful. © 2003 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4523 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Insurance, Drug Access May Hinge on Answer By Rob Stein, Washington Post Staff Writer The rising number of Americans who are seriously overweight has triggered intense debate among scientists, advocacy groups, federal agencies, insurance companies and drug makers about whether obesity should be declared a "disease," a move that could open up insurance coverage to millions who need treatment for weight problems and could speed the approval of new diet drugs. Proponents argue that new scientific understanding has clearly established that obesity is a discrete medical condition that independently affects health. Officially classifying obesity as a disease would have a profound impact by helping to destigmatize the condition, much as the classification of alcoholism as a disease made it easier for many alcoholics to get treatment, experts say. But equally important, the move would immediately remove key economic and regulatory hurdles to prevention and treatment, they say. Opponents contend that obesity is more akin to high cholesterol or cigarette smoking -- a risk factor that predisposes someone to illness but is not an ailment in itself, such as lung cancer or heart disease. Labeling it a bona fide disease would divert scarce resources, distract public health efforts from the most effective countermeasures and unnecessarily medicalize the condition, they say. (C) 2003 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 4522 - Posted: 11.14.2003

By DAVID BRISCOE HONOLULU -- Bats with a wingspan of up to four feet, boiled in coconut cream and eaten whole, are linked to the exceptionally high rate of a form of Parkinson's disease on Guam, a new scientific study confirms. Scientists have long suspected a link between Guamanians' consumption of the bats known as flying foxes and their high rate of a form of Parkinson's. The study being published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences confirms that the neurotoxic non-protein amino acid BMAA, found in Chamorros with Parkinson's, is contained in the cycad tree, whose seeds the winged mammals eat. Dr. Paul Cox, the director of the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai and the leader of the study, said analysis shows that the seeds must be eaten by the bats before the neurotoxin transfers to humans. Eating foods made from cycad seeds, including tortillas popular in Guam, would require massive amounts to be dangerous, Cox said. Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 4521 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID WASHINGTON -- A new method of slowing the most common inherited nerve disease may point the way for novel treatments for nerve disorders. Researchers working with rats retarded the progression of CMT, which gradually reduces the ability to use the arms and legs and affects about one in 2,500 Americans. The team found success using a chemical that blocks a protein associated with more than half of all cases of CMT. People with the most common form of CMT have a genetic defect that causes overproduction of that protein. Copyright © 2003, The Associated Press

Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 4520 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Brain implants could help severely disabled Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer New Orleans -- Less than a month after a widely heralded experiment showed how thought-reading implants can work in monkeys, scientists presented new findings Sunday suggesting such machines could work in people, too. Dr. Miguel A.L. Nicolelis of Duke University said previously unreported human experiments demonstrated success with one type of a so-called brain computer interface, or BCI. He and others discussed their latest findings Sunday at the annual meeting in New Orleans of the Society for Neuroscience, the world's largest gathering of brain researchers. About 28,000 people are attending the weeklong event. ©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4519 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NEW ORLEANS – A new study in rats has found that after severe spinal cord injury, molecules intended to help nerves communicate can attack the tissue surrounding the initial injury and cause further damage. Interestingly, this latent, or secondary, injury develops over days and even weeks after the initial injury. It also appears to cause larger, more debilitating lesions in the spinal cord, said Randy Christensen, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral researcher in neuroscience at Ohio State University. Receiving the initial brunt of the secondary trauma seem to be the neurons, or the cells in gray matter. As time passes, however, tissue in the white matter is also destroyed by secondary damage. Oligodendrocytes, the main cell type in white matter, begin to self-destruct during the secondary injury.

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 4518 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Gerry Everding — Advances in neurosurgery have opened the operating room door for an amazing array of highly invasive forms of brain surgery, but doctors and patients still face an incredibly important decision - whether to operate when life-saving surgery could irrevocably damage a patient's ability to speak, read or even comprehend a simple conversation. Improved techniques for the mapping of the brain's language areas using functional magnetic resonance imaging may replace much more invasive pre-surgery mapping techniques, such as electrocortical stimulation (bottom), which requires a patient to be awake and conversant while surgeons probe exposed brain areas in an effort to locate and map language-related functions. Now, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are developing a painless, non-invasive imaging technique that surgeons here already are using to better evaluate brain surgery risks and to more precisely guide operations so that damage to sensitive language areas is avoided.

Keyword: Epilepsy; Brain imaging
Link ID: 4517 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bruce Bower Emotionally charged events often seem particularly memorable. But this vivid recall may come at a cost. A new study in England suggests that the same biological process that aids recall of emotional experiences also blocks memories of what happened just before those arousing occurrences took place. These memory effects appear to depend on a common neurobiological mechanism, says neuroscientist Bryan A. Strange of University College London. Women suffer larger emotionally instigated memory losses than men do, Strange and his coworkers also have found. Emotion-induced memory gains and losses reflect the activity of stress hormones from the adrenal glands on the amygdala, an inner-brain structure, the scientists assert in an upcoming Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright ©2003 Science Service.

Keyword: Emotions; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4516 - Posted: 06.24.2010