When a plane arrives late to an airport, it affects more than just the frustrated passengers on the tardy plane – the ripple effects could throw the entire day’s timetable off schedule. Similarly, in a new study, North Carolina State University geneticists have found that changes to genes regulating olfactory behavior in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, a popular insect model for genetics, have far greater implications than previously appreciated. The study is presented in a paper published in the Sept. 7 online edition of Nature Genetics. Dr. Robert Anholt, professor of zoology and genetics, director of NC State’s Keck Center for Behavioral Biology and the paper’s lead author, said that in the study of how genes affect behavior, the days of thinking about genes in a linear fashion are over.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 4235 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer The two pipe bomb explosions at an Emeryville biotechnology firm last week were part of a surge of extremism by animal rights and environmental militants that activists predict will increase as fringes of the movement grow more frustrated with peaceful protest. Though the threat may be nothing more than bravado, FBI agents are taking it seriously. "It is true that we've seen an increase in the intensity and level of damage," said Phil Celestini, a supervisory agent in the FBI's domestic terrorism unit in Washington. "And the Emeryville incident was certainly an escalation in their tactics." ©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 4234 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D. Not long ago, I received an exasperated call from a colleague who is a kind and skilled internist, begging me to see one of his patients. Despite her complaints, he could find nothing physically wrong with her, but she kept insisting on more medical tests. When I met his patient, she was emphatic that she didn't need a psychiatrist. "This is real, and this is not in my head," she said. "I can feel my heart beat constantly, and I'm afraid I'll have a heart attack." In my psychiatric consultation, I discovered that the woman, in her mid-40's, had troubling physical sensations — palpitations, headaches and muscle pain. Minor aliments, like colds, were invariably taken as signs of life-threatening illnesses. In short, she worried constantly about being sick. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 4233 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NANCY WARTIK Dr. Katharine A. Phillips thought she knew a lot about mental illness. As a psychiatric resident at Harvard from 1988 to 1991, she was well versed in ailments like depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But one day, when a distraught patient said his hair was the cause of all his misery, Dr. Phillips was stymied. Searching the psychiatric literature, she found references to an obscure diagnosis known as body dysmorphic disorder, or B.D.D. Its sufferers, she learned, are tormented by the notion that some part of their body — hair, nose, skin, hips — is ugly, abnormal or deformed, when it actually is not. Their obsessions with the imagined flaws may cause them to spend hours staring in mirrors, to shun other people, to seek unnecessary cosmetic surgery or even attempt suicide. "If you haven't known someone with B.D.D., it's easy to trivialize it," she said. "But if you see how devastating this disorder can be, you take it very seriously." Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia; OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Link ID: 4232 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bats inspire vibrating walking stick for visually impaired. JOANNE BAKER A bat-inspired sonar walking stick could help visually impaired people sense their surroundings. The lightweight device emits sound too high-pitched for the human ear to detect. It also picks up the reflections of these waves to map obstacles up to three metres away in three dimensions. Buttons on the cane's handle vibrate gently to warn a user to dodge low ceilings and sidestep objects blocking their path. So far the cane has been tested by 25 visually impaired people in Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia. Participants received 30 minutes of training. "Feedback was very positive," designer Dean Waters told this week's British Association Festival of Science in Salford. "Plus, people on the street were really interested in these modern gadgets." © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 4231 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Durham, N.C. -- People who begin smoking in their teens may be particularly vulnerable to long-term nicotine addiction, according to an animal study conducted by Duke University Medical Center pharmacologists. The study emphasizes that the age at which individuals begin using nicotine can have a major physiological impact to encourage later use of the drug. In their study, the researchers compared the amount of nicotine self-administered by adolescent rats to the amount used by animals first exposed during adulthood. Young rats showed nearly double the rate of nicotine use compared with those initially exposed as adults, the study found. The adolescents' heavier nicotine use persisted into adulthood, the team reports in the September 2003 issue of the journal Psychopharmacology.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4230 - Posted: 09.09.2003

By Beth Greenberg, Globe Correspondent, It's no great wonder that books such as Oliver Sacks's "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" become bestsellers. They are about us, or who we fear becoming if we are the unfortunate victims of undetected brain tumors, epilepsy, or car accidents that result in brain hemorrhages and brain changes. Sacks's books, and a new, captivating work by British neuropsychologist Paul Broks, draw the curtain back on what happens if, as a result of accident or fate, our brains -- or the brains of people we love -- are altered to the degree that the world, and the many things in it, become unfamiliar. Much like Sacks, Broks uses case studies to illustrate the many directions our brains can take us without our permission. But Sacks is a neurologist, and his domain is biology. Broks, in contrast, is a neuropsychologist, whose field focuses less on the physiology of the brain than on its emotional, behavioral, and cognitive manifestations. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4229 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Experts who gave a dramatic warning that ecstasy led to brain damage based their study on a huge blunder, reports health editor Jo Revill The Observer It was billed as the one of the most dramatic warnings the world has ever received over the dangers of ecstasy. A study from one of America's leading universities concluded that taking the drug for just one evening could leave clubbers with irreversible brain damage, and trigger the onset of Parkinson's disease. The study, published in the eminent journal Science last September, had an immediate impact. Doctors and anti-drug crusaders spoke of a 'neurological time bomb' facing the young. Others suggested that taking one of the tablets was the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with the brain, and demanded tighter 'anti-rave' laws to deal with it. But today, scientists are facing up to the humiliation of admitting that the stark results they reported in the study were not a breakthrough but a terrible, humiliating blunder. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4228 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An international research team led by Drs. Berge Minassian and Stephen Scherer of The Hospital for Sick Children (HSC) and the University of Toronto (U of T) has identified a gene responsible for the most severe form of teenage-onset epilepsy, known as Lafora disease (LD). The discovery is reported in the September issue of the scientific journal Nature Genetics. "Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders affecting over 40 million people worldwide," said Dr. Berge Minassian, one of the study's senior authors, an HSC neurologist and scientist, and an assistant professor in the Department of Paediatrics at U of T. "Lafora disease is one form of epilepsy that occurs during early adolescence and is characterized by seizures and progressive neurological degeneration. Death usually occurs within a decade of the first symptoms." Fifty years of investigation led doctors to suspect that Lafora disease was caused by problems with carbohydrate metabolism in the brain. Beyond this, however, the fundamental defect triggering the malfunction was unknown. In 1998, the HSC team identified the first gene implicated in Lafora disease, called EPM2A.

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 4227 - Posted: 09.08.2003

CPAP therapy can improve couple’s mental and physical health (NORTHBROOK, IL) – Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) not only improves patients' lives, it can improve the lives of their bed partners, says a study published in the September issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP). The study found that when patients with OSA were treated with CPAP, the mental and physical health, and overall quality of life (QOL) of patients and their bed partners significantly improved. OSA is a common disorder that is characterized by repetitive episodes of upper airway closures during sleep that result in arousal from sleep and can often lead to daytime sleepiness. CPAP prevents upper airway closure, improving sleep quality and, subsequently, reducing daytime sleepiness. "Snoring and sleep apnea interfere with the quality of sleep of both the patient and the bed partner. Many bed partners choose to sleep in separate rooms rather than endure continuous sleepless nights caused by sleep apnea," said lead author James M. Parish, MD, FCCP, Chair, Division of Pulmonary Medicine and Director, Sleep Disorders Center, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona. "With CPAP therapy, patients and their partners can experience restful nights which can ultimately benefit them physically and mentally."

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 4226 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Pouring your emotions out on paper could help wounds heal quicker, researchers say. It is thought that writing about troubling experiences helps people deal with them. This could then help the immune system work more effectively, researchers told the British Psychological Society conference in Stoke-on-Trent. They say their findings offer a cheap and easy to administer way of helping patients heal faster. In the study, which involved 36 people, half were asked to write about the most upsetting experience they had had, spelling out how they had felt. The rest of the study participants wrote about trivial things, such as how they spent their free time. (C) BBC

Keyword: Neuroimmunology; Stress
Link ID: 4225 - Posted: 09.07.2003

Susan Milius For the first time, scientists have found a poisonous frog that takes up a toxin from its prey and then tweaks the chemical to make it a more deadly weapon. At least three species of the 4-to-5-centimeter-long Dendrobates frogs of the New World tropics modify an alkaloid to create one that's about five times as poisonous, according to a team led by John W. Daly of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) in Bethesda, Md. The souped-up poison, one of a class called pumiliotoxins, ends up as a protective agent in the frogs' skin, the researchers report in an upcoming Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "It's an important thing, showing how chemistry connects the life of one organism to another," comments chemical ecologist Jerrold Meinwald of Cornell University. Although scientists have found that some creatures other than frogs customize a basic toxin for various purposes, "I don't know of any other examples of improving a defensive weapon," Meinwald says. Copyright ©2003 Science Service.

Keyword: Neurotoxins
Link ID: 4224 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SHERRY ARRIA as told to LIZ WELCH For the past two years, I've been telling my 10-year-old daughter, Briana, that she's not fat -- a little overweight, yes, athletic, strong, even chunky -- but not fat. Then in June, I received a letter from Cambridge's Public Health Department. It was a ''health report card'' and part of a plan to help parents in our city identify and help their overweight or underweight children. I knew that Briana was the biggest girl in the fourth grade. She is five feet tall and weighs 128 pounds. What I didn't realize until I opened the letter and saw it staring me in the face was that she is also in the 97th percentile based on her height and weight among girls her age. That number was like a kick in my stomach. Before that moment, I kept telling myself that it was a phase she would grow out of. I even found myself comparing her to other overweight kids I'd see and thinking to myself, Briana is not that big. I'd been living in total denial. In retrospect, it's odd. I discovered that I had diabetes when I was Briana's age. My mother thought I was going through a lethargic stage. I was taking naps in the afternoon while all my friends were outside playing. She was clueless. A diabetic neighbor noticed that I was thirsty all the time and suggested that my mother have me tested for the disease, but my mother never followed through. I guess she didn't want to even think I might have been in trouble. No mother wants to admit that. Thankfully, our neighbor was persistent. My mom finally took me to a diabetes center. Within minutes, nurses were whipping the soda and Doritos out of my hands and hooking me up to insulin. I was so sick that the doctor said if I had gone another day I would have fallen into a coma. My mother burst into tears. Now I understand how she must have felt. Briana has been a great eater since birth, but because I don't give her junk food or any sugar, I never considered it a problem. Looking back now, there were so many clues that it was and is. I even have a video of her at Thanksgiving when she was 5. She ate two full plates of food and went back for more mashed potatoes. Then, we all thought it was hilarious. My friends were even slightly jealous -- their kids would no sooner eat a carrot than turkey and all the fixings. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 4223 - Posted: 09.07.2003

By JON GERTNER If Daniel Gilbert is right, then you are wrong. That is to say, if Daniel Gilbert is right, then you are wrong to believe that a new car will make you as happy as you imagine. You are wrong to believe that a new kitchen will make you happy for as long as you imagine. You are wrong to think that you will be more unhappy with a big single setback (a broken wrist, a broken heart) than with a lesser chronic one (a trick knee, a tense marriage). You are wrong to assume that job failure will be crushing. You are wrong to expect that a death in the family will leave you bereft for year upon year, forever and ever. You are even wrong to reckon that a cheeseburger you order in a restaurant -- this week, next week, a year from now, it doesn't really matter when -- will definitely hit the spot. That's because when it comes to predicting exactly how you will feel in the future, you are most likely wrong. A professor in Harvard's department of psychology, Gilbert likes to tell people that he studies happiness. But it would be more precise to say that Gilbert -- along with the psychologist Tim Wilson of the University of Virginia, the economist George Loewenstein of Carnegie-Mellon and the psychologist (and Nobel laureate in economics) Daniel Kahneman of Princeton -- has taken the lead in studying a specific type of emotional and behavioral prediction. In the past few years, these four men have begun to question the decision-making process that shapes our sense of well-being: how do we predict what will make us happy or unhappy -- and then how do we feel after the actual experience? For example, how do we suppose we'll feel if our favorite college football team wins or loses, and then how do we really feel a few days after the game? How do we predict we'll feel about purchasing jewelry, having children, buying a big house or being rich? And then how do we regard the outcomes? According to this small corps of academics, almost all actions -- the decision to buy jewelry, have kids, buy the big house or work exhaustively for a fatter paycheck -- are based on our predictions of the emotional consequences of these events. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 4222 - Posted: 09.07.2003

Even though many well-respected people have a history of stuttering, including actress Marilyn Monroe, actor Bruce Willis and singer Carly Simon, the speech condition has had a bad rap. Many people have long blamed emotional or personality factors as the cause and believed that it could be easily overcome with a change in attitude. But now accumulating research indicates that stuttering actually erupts from disturbances in brain function. The new work, based on studies that image the brain, finds that brain anatomy and brain activity is awry in stutterers. Methods that counter these biological disturbances might mend the underlying deficits and treat a large number of people. “On Aaaaaaaapril 30, 1789, George Washington was in-in-inaugurated first pres-pres-pres-pres . . . ,” the student reads aloud. “My gosh, just spit it out,” interrupts another pupil. Many people have assumed that nerves or some flaw in disposition causes stuttering speech, characterized by awkward pauses, dragging out parts of words and repeating certain sounds. Their solution? Snap out of it. Copyright © 2003 Society for Neuroscience

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 4221 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. A leading scientific journal yesterday retracted a paper it published last year saying that one night's typical dose of the drug Ecstasy might cause permanent brain damage. The monkeys and baboons in the study were not injected with Ecstasy but with a powerful amphetamine, said the journal, Science magazine. The retraction was submitted by the team at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine that did the study. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4220 - Posted: 09.06.2003

Faulty cells, not chemistry, may underpin brain disorder. HELEN PEARSON Faulty brain cells may cause schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, according to a UK study. The report is helping to rewrite scientists' view of the diseases. The world's 24 million schizophrenia sufferers experience disrupted thoughts and behaviour and sometimes psychotic episodes such as delusions. For years doctors suspected that abnormal levels of certain brain chemicals underlie the disorder because antipsychotic drugs to treat the condition alter activity of these molecules. The latest report backs the idea that a class of brain cells called oligodendrocytes, which help nerves to transmit electrical pulses, are to blame instead. A team led by Sabine Bahn of the Babraham Institute in Cambridge, UK, found that at least 11 oligodendrocyte genes are suppressed in post-mortem brains of 15 schizophrenic patients1. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Glia
Link ID: 4219 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In 2002, an estimated 22 million Americans suffered from substance dependence or abuse due to drugs, alcohol or both, according to the newest results of the Household Survey released today by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). There were 19.5 million Americans, 8.3 percent of the population ages 12 or older, who currently used illicit drugs, 54 million who participated in binge drinking in the previous 30 days, and 15.9 million who were heavy drinkers. The report highlights that 7.7 million people, 3.3 percent of the total population ages 12 and older, needed treatment for a diagnosable drug problem and 18.6 million, 7.9 per cent of the population, needed treatment for a serious alcohol problem. Only 1.4 million received specialized substance abuse treatment for an illicit drug problem and 1.5 million received treatment for alcohol problems. Over 94 percent of people with substance use disorders who did not receive treatment did not believe they needed treatment. There were 362,000 people who recognized they needed treatment for drug abuse. Of them, there were 88,000 who tried but were unable to obtain treatment for drug abuse in 2002. There were 266,000 who tried, but could not obtain treatment for alcohol abuse.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4218 - Posted: 09.06.2003

Option Can Increase Number of Patients Seeking Treatment The recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of buprenorphine and of a combination product containing buprenorphine and naloxone, developed through more than a decade of research supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, has opened the door to mainstream medical treatment for people addicted to opiates, such as heroin and morphine. Now, results of a 2-part, multicenter, clinical trial published in the September 4 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, provides additional insight into the utility of this treatment outside the traditional addiction treatment clinic setting. "Buprenorphine represents a major step forward in the treatment of opiate addiction," says Dr. Nora D. Volkow, NIDA Director. "It allows physicians to treat patients for this disease in the same manner that other people are treated for such other chronic illnesses as diabetes or high blood pressure. Office-based buprenorphine increases the availability of therapy by offering patients greater flexibility in treatment scheduling and integration with the mainstream public for their health services." "Other agonist therapy for opiate addiction is given in a highly regulated setting, which may dissuade many addicted people from seeking help," say lead authors Dr. Paul J. Fudala and T. Peter Bridge.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4217 - Posted: 09.06.2003

Schizophrenia and manic depression could have similar genetic causes, researchers suggest. The flaw appears to lie in genes which affect how the central nervous system develops. Researchers from the University of Cambridge say the findings are surprising because the conditions are so different. Schizophrenia and manic depression, or bipolar disorder, affect around 2% of the population. The researchers looked at the brains of 15 people who had had schizophrenia, 15 who had had bipolar disorder, and 15 who had been healthy. They looked at genes associated with the formation of the myelin sheath which covers and protects nerves and enables the efficient conduction of electrical impulses through the nervous system. (C) BBC

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4216 - Posted: 09.05.2003