By Jonathan Amos, BBC News Online science staff The number of primates used in medical research in the UK is set to rise significantly in the coming years. The pharmaceutical industry has acknowledged as much - and the animal rights lobby is convinced of it. As science seeks to tackle the neurological diseases afflicting a "greying population", it will need a steady supply of monkeys on which to test the safety and effectiveness of its next-generation pills. Experts say the extremely specific way these novel pharma products will work means primates - because their brain architecture is very similar to our own - will be the only animals suitable for experimentation. This whole area of research is, of course, a very contentious one. We - humans - are also primates. It is fair to argue there are ethical dilemmas related to primate studies that one does not have to grapple with in, say, mice or rats, which far outnumber monkeys in the lab. (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 4055 - Posted: 07.17.2003

Why your brain routinely breaks its own rules By Eric Haseltine Ask a lawyer for advice on any problem and you'll usually get an equivocating answer like, "It depends." I used to think such vacillation must be taught in law school, but recently I've come to the conclusion that lawyers' brains are like everyone else's—they can't help being ambiguous because that's what each of us is wired to be. The brain's "law" of simultaneous contrast states that the appearance of an object surrounded by a different shade or hue will change in a manner that reflects the opposite of its surroundings. For instance, the small gray diamond in the images above looks lighter when surrounded by black but darker when surrounded by a lighter gray. The same gray diamond looks slightly magenta when surrounded by green, the complement of magenta. Complementary colors are those that produce white when mixed together. This law of contrast holds in all cases—except when it doesn't. Consider the stars in the center of the figures at right. The gray star on the left (with a black inner border) looks darker than its neighbor, which has a light border. Such violations of the law of contrast are called assimilation: Under special conditions, an object will assimilate qualities of its surroundings. © Copyright 2003 The Walt Disney Company.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 4054 - Posted: 06.24.2010

-- A UCSF-led team has demonstrated that the cerebral cortex, the site of higher cognitive functions, not only perceives pain, but plays a role in regulating pain, and that it does so in part through the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, suggesting a possible target for therapy. The finding, published in the July 17 issue of Nature, provides some of the first neuroanatomical evidence that the cerebral cortex not only receives pain signals from nerve cells in lower regions of the brain, but modulates pain signals. "Our finding suggests that the cerebral cortex is not just the end-point of pain processing. The activity of the cortex can change the set-point of the pain threshold in a top-down manner, completely modifying the experience of pain," says lead author Luc Jasmin, MD, PhD, FRCS, UCSF assistant professor of neurological surgery. Copyright © 1992-2003 Bio Online, Inc.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4053 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Birds may pitch songs to win mates despite urban din. MICHAEL HOPKIN City birds sing higher-pitched songs than their country cousins. The trick could make their mating calls audible over the low roar of traffic, researchers suggest1. Hans Slabbekoorn and Margriet Peet of Leiden University in the Netherlands surveyed 32 male great tits (Parus major) around Leiden, recording songs and measuring the level of background noise. "Some were next to a really busy road - others were in quiet residential neighbourhoods," Slabbekoorn explains. Town tits hit the high notes, the pair found, whereas rural ones favour their lower registers. Urban birds may stand a better chance of being heard over the loud, low-frequency rumbling of engines if they use mainly high notes. Especially since they don't seem to wait for a quiet moment before performing. "They continue to sing regardless of whether cars are going past," says Slabbekoorn. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Animal Communication; Hearing
Link ID: 4052 - Posted: 06.24.2010

DALLAS – – Abnormally high calcium levels spurred on by a mutated gene may lead to the death of neurons associated with Huntington's disease, an inherited genetic disorder, characterized by mental and physical deterioration, for which there is no known cure. This discovery by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, published in the current issue of Neuron, sheds new light on the process that causes the selective death of neurons in the region of the brain called the striatum. Neurons in this area control emotions, body movements and several other neurological processes, including addiction. Since the discovery of the huntingtin gene (Htt) in 1993, researchers have been searching for what actually causes certain neurons to die in the striatum, leading to the disease.

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 4051 - Posted: 06.24.2010

STANFORD, Calif. - While a trip to the mall may mean a cute sweater or new CD for most of us, it has ominous implications for the thousands of Americans who suffer from compulsive shopping disorder, a condition marked by binge shopping and subsequent financial hardship. Now Stanford University Medical Center researchers have found that a drug commonly prescribed as an antidepressant may be able to curb the uncontrollable shopping urges. In a study appearing in the July issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, patients taking citalopram, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor that is approved for use as an antidepressant, scored lower on a scale that measures compulsive shopping tendencies than those on a placebo. The majority of patients using the medication rated themselves "very much improved" or "much improved" and reported a loss of interest in shopping. "I'm very excited about the dramatic response from people who had been suffering for decades," said Lorrin Koran, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and lead author of the study. "My hope is that people with this disorder will become aware that it's treatable and they don't have to suffer."

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 4050 - Posted: 07.17.2003

With rare exceptions, the brain has a deep affinity for music Brad Evenson, National Post One evening in 1995, a Montreal real estate agent and his wife went out for a romantic dinner. It was their wedding anniversary. They felt fortunate. The husband had suffered a minor stroke a few years earlier and had recovered. In neurological test after test, his reading, speech, memory and motor functions seemed to be normal. He had even returned to work and made some lucrative deals. During dinner, his wife noticed a violinist playing for restaurant patrons. "Let's get him to play our song," she suggested. When the song ended, the agent's wife noticed a strange expression on her husband's face. The playing, he complained, had been awful. "The tune was so distorted I couldn't even recognize it," he said. "No, it was beautiful," she countered. After an argument, he realized that all music now sounded strange. The stroke had wiped out his capacity to comprehend the patterns of tone and tempo, pitch and rhythm we call music. © Copyright 2003 National Post

Keyword: Hearing; Stroke
Link ID: 4049 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Linda Chaudron, M.D., M.S. Psychiatric Times In this article, we will review the clinical assessment and differential diagnosis of the range of postpartum psychiatric disorders. We will focus on postpartum psychosis and will develop this clinical vignette to highlight the clinical, familial and epidemiological links that exist between postpartum psychosis and bipolar disorder (BD). Finally, we will discuss prevention and treatment recommendations for postpartum psychosis, including a review of pharmacological treatment during breastfeeding. The DSM-IV-TR does not classify postpartum psychiatric disorders as diagnostic categories but allows the specifier "with postpartum onset" to be applied to major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder (type I or II) and brief psychotic disorder if the onset of symptoms occurs within the four weeks following childbirth. The DSM-IV-TR does not allow the specifier to be applied to other psychiatric disorders. Despite the DSM-IV-TR definition, clinicians and patients often use the term postpartum depression to describe several psychiatric disorders that occur or are exacerbated after delivery. Researchers also use inconsistent terminology, defining postpartum as anywhere from two weeks to 12 months after childbirth. Regardless of the inconsistencies and the phenomenological debates, there seems to be consensus on the existence of three clinical states: postpartum blues, postpartum depression and postpartum psychosis (Table 1). © 2003 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved

Keyword: Depression; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4048 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Kenneth J. Bender, Pharm.D., M.A. Psychiatric Times Acute aggression in child and adolescent psychiatric patients should be addressed with psychosocial crisis management before resorting to medication, according to an expert consensus panel convened by the Center for the Advancement of Children's Mental Health at Columbia University and the New York State Office of Mental Health. Their two-part report in the February Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reviewed the safety and efficacy of treatments for aggression in young patients (Schur et al., 2003) and offered treatment recommendations and rationale (Pappadopulos et al., 2003). The Treatment Recommendations for the Use of Antipsychotics for Aggressive Youth (TRAAY) were formulated from expert consensus and assessment of available evidence. The recommendations address severe impulsive aggression, including verbal threats of violence toward oneself or others. The recommendations do not extend to predatory aggression or what has been described as planned and self-controlled aggressive behavior (Vitiello et al., 1990). © 2003 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Aggression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4047 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By REUTERS CHICAGO, — Infants whose heads suddenly begin to grow rapidly appear to be at risk of autism, perhaps indicating that autism, an increasingly common disorder, may be traced to missed connections in fast-expanding brains, researchers said today. The researchers suggested that the apparent relationship might help in making earlier diagnoses of the disorder. The report also appeared to offer further proof that childhood vaccinations do not cause autism as some have suggested. In a study involving 48 autistic people, 59 percent had accelerated skull growth, and presumably brain expansion, beginning around the age of 2 months and ending between 4 months and a year. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 4046 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SUSAN GILBERT With findings that are bound to rekindle the debate over its effects on children, two studies being published today build on evidence that those who spend long hours in child care may experience more stress and are at increased risk of becoming overly aggressive and developing other behavior problems. One of the studies found that the more time children spent in child care, the more likely they were to be disobedient and have trouble getting along with others, though it suggested that factors like a mother's sensitivity to the child's needs could moderate that outcome. This report is from the Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, the largest long-term study of child care in the United States, which was undertaken by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, a branch of the National Institutes of Health. The findings elaborate on preliminary research that created a storm of debate when presented by the study's investigators at a child development meeting two years ago. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stress; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4045 - Posted: 07.16.2003

First gene discovered that is switched on only in fat cells of obese mice A gene that gets switched on only in the fat cells of obese mice may be a key to preventing obesity in humans, according to new research at The Rockefeller University in New York City and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. The finding, reported in the August 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, marks the first time a gene has been identified that is induced, or activated, in the fat cells of obese animals. According to Rockefeller University professor Markus Stoffel, M.D., Ph.D., lead investigator of the study, the gene, called Foxa-2, inhibits young body cells from becoming mature fat-producing cells called adipocytes. In addition, when this gene is switched on in mature adipocytes, it functions as a brake to slow down further fat production and storage. "We know a lot about the various molecular pathways that stimulate or promote fat production, and the focus has been on trying to block these pathways to fight obesity," says Stoffel. "This pathway is one of only a few that we know of that naturally work to counteract obesity.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 4044 - Posted: 07.16.2003

Moving ahead on diagnosis and possible treatment By Carey Goldberg, Globe Staff, Scientists may slowly be closing in on the psychopath. New research tools, from brain scans to psychological tests, are yielding more sophisticated insights into what makes psychopaths such cold-blooded predators, raising the prospect of improved tests to identify them and possibly even treatment. ''We can treat most other emotional disorders pretty successfully, and we will be able to treat this one soon,'' said Dr. James Blair, a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health. Psychologists estimate that one in every 100 people is unfeeling enough to qualify as a psychopath, with an especially heavy concentration among criminals. The ranks include serial killers such as Ted Bundy, who charmed and killed dozens of young women in the 1970s, and cannibal-murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, who fatally seduced 17 men and boys before he was caught in 1991, as well as a great many other people who never commit a crime punishable by law, but go through life heartlessly using and manipulating others without remorse. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 4043 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A drug has been found to significantly slow the progression of Parkinson's disease. Scientists compared the effect of the drug, ropinirole, with the widely used treatment levodopa. They found that ropinirole was more effective at slowing down the loss of nerve function associated with the early stages of Parkinson's. It was also less likely to cause side effects. However, it was not as effective as levodopa at controlling the symptoms of the disease, such as shaking, lack of coordination and frozen expression. Parkinson's is caused by lack of a crucial brain chemical called dopamine. Levodopa is converted in the brain into dopamine - thus helping to replenish stocks. (C) BBC

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 4042 - Posted: 07.15.2003

NewScientist.com news service Women are more likely than men to lie about their sex lives, reveals a new study. Women's coyness about their sexual behaviour was unveiled by a US study involving a fake lie detector test. In surveys since the 1960s, men typically report having more sexual partners and than do women - a statistically impossible feat. For example, British men boast an average of 13 partners over a lifetime compared with an average of nine partners for women. Scientists previously explained this anomaly by suggesting men were exaggerating their tally, while women were understating their total. But now Terri Fisher at Ohio State University and Michele Alexander at the University of Maine suggest that men are in fact more truthful in such surveys. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4041 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SANDEEP JAUHAR, M.D. The patient couldn't tell me what was wrong, and neither could his 80-year-old mother. He had been lying on the sofa for weeks, she said, and he wouldn't get up. Sloth was a sin, but was it a reason to be admitted to the hospital? They lived in a house in East St. Louis, Ill. He was 56 and single, working odd jobs until recently, when he parked himself on the couch, watching television. He was sleepy most of the time, forgetting appointments and leaving chores unfinished. When confronted, he became irritable and withdrawn. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4040 - Posted: 07.15.2003

By ERIC NAGOURNEY It is not just that some people don't know their own strength. It may be that nobody does. Researchers have found that people routinely believe they are exerting less force than they really are. The findings, which appear in the current issue of the journal Science, lend insight into the nature of human movement. They may also help explain something less esoteric, the schoolyard fight, said the researchers, from University College London. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4039 - Posted: 07.15.2003

By NICHOLAS WADE As you write yet another check to cover your children's ruinous college bills, there is definitely a bright side to consider: if you weren't doing this, you'd long since be dead. This cheerful insight comes courtesy of the evolutionary theory of aging. The theory holds that animals generally die shortly after reproducing because extra life would not lead to more surviving offspring, the only criteria for success in evolution's playbook. Species that provide parental care, however, can escape the usual curtain call for a time because in them natural selection has a basis to favor genes that promote post-reproductive longevity — the so-called grandmother effect. This theory, developed by William Hamilton and others, has become the classic explanation of the way evolution tunes the genes that shape the life cycle of each species. But there are various features of the human life cycle it does not explain well: why juvenile mortality is bunched into the first years of life and then declines, for one. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 4038 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS WADE Bower birds are artists, leaf-cutting ants practice agriculture, crows use tools, chimpanzees form coalitions against rivals. The only major talent unique to humans is language, the ability to transmit encoded thoughts from the mind of one individual to another. Because of language's central role in human nature and sociality, its evolutionary origins have long been of interest to almost everyone, with the curious exception of linguists. As far back as 1866, the Linguistic Society of Paris famously declared that it wanted no more speculative articles about the origin of language. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 4037 - Posted: 07.15.2003

Getting over jet lag may be as simple as changing the temperature --your brain temperature, that is. That's a theory proposed by Erik Herzog, Ph.D. assistant professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Herzog has found that the biological clocks of rats and mice respond directly to temperature changes. Biological clocks, which drive circadian rhythms, are found in almost every living organism. In mammals, including humans, these clocks are responsible for 24-hour cycles in alertness and hormone levels, for instance. The control panel for these daily rhythms is the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), otherwise known as "the brain's Timex." The SCN, located above the roof of the mouth in the hypothalamus, is normally synchronized to local time by light signals carried down the optic nerves. Herzog worked directly with mice SCN cells located in vitro, grown in a dish.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 4036 - Posted: 07.15.2003