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 When confronted, he became irritable and withdrawn.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

Depression is the second-leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting nearly 10% of the population. According to George S. Zubenko, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and adjunct professor of biology at Carnegie Mellon University, women are twice as likely as men to develop depression, and genetic differences appear to account for some of that disparity. These latest results build on research published by Dr. Zubenko and his team in October of 2002 that identified a small region of chromosome 2 – equal to 0.01 percent of the human genome – as the potential hiding place for a susceptibility gene for depression in women. "These findings confirm our earlier research suggesting the existence of susceptibility genes that have sex-limited effects on the vulnerability of women to developing severe depression," said Dr. Zubenko. "Over 80% of women in our study who inherited a particular variant of CREB1 developed depressive disorders, while a second version of this gene appeared to have protective effects." CREB1 is a gene that encodes a regulatory protein called CREB that orchestrates the expression of large numbers of other genes that play important roles in the brain and the rest of the body as well. The widespread importance of CREB as a genetic regulator throughout the body suggests that the newly identified CREB1 variants may influence the development of additional psychiatric disorders related to depression, such as alcohol and other substance use disorders, as well as medical conditions that are associated with depression.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 4035 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Some people may be more vulnerable to the effects of stress because an area of their brain is smaller than average. Scientists have found an area of the brain called the anterior cingulate cortex is more likely to be small in people who have developed symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The anterior cingulate cortex is known to play a role in regulating emotion. PTSD is a disturbing psychological condition where people who have lived through a stressful experience relive painful memories against their will. This can lead to feelings of isolation and a sense of losing control - patients sometimes turn to alcohol or other drugs as they attempt to get rid of the flashbacks. Previous studies linked PTSD to structural abnormalities in the brain - in particular in the hippocampus, an area involved in long-term memory. (C) BBC

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 4034 - Posted: 07.15.2003

By Karen Heyman Scaling what climbers call "big wall," Yosemite's Half Dome appears impossible at the start: A rock face nearly 500 times taller than a person offers only shard-like holds and fingernail-thin cracks for support. But with talent, experience, and enormous focus and discipline, the big wall becomes a series of small, concentrated moves. The climber keeps focused, while the gawkers below admire his courage and question his sanity. California Institute of Technology professor Christof Koch, researcher into the neurobiology of consciousness is an accomplished rock climber. Koch has ascended the wall of neurobiology for more than a decade. In 1990, he and Nobel laureate Francis Crick challenged biologists' skepticism about studying consciousness. In their 1990 Seminars in Neuroscience paper,1 Crick and Koch swept away centuries of philosophical speculation about the so-called mind/body problem in one stroke of scientific pragmatism: Forget trying to define consciousness, just go out and discover it. As Crick wrote in the preface to The Astonishing Hypothesis, the 1994 book that presented their ideas to the lay public: "You do not win battles by debating exactly what is meant by the word battle." But the battle continued: "I would spend the first twenty minutes of ... [a] one-hour talk justifying why I'm not crazy, [that] I'm not with the 'crystal crowd,'" Koch relates. In his latest book, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach, due out in January 2004, Koch states that he and Crick have revised their earlier proposition that synchronous neuronal oscillations might be at the heart of consciousness. They originally believed that this theory might be the solution to the so-called binding problem: How do differently processed aspects of an object bind together into one percept--red + round + shiny = apple, for example. "Unfortunately, the evidence is slim for a direct relationship," Koch says. "What's much more plausible now is that synchronized firing activity in the 40-Hz range may be necessary to resolve competition.... There's quite a bit of evidence that oscillations might be involved in biasing the selection, but once I'm fully conscious of [the percept], it's unclear whether [the oscillations are really needed.]" ©2003, The Scientist Inc.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4033 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Paul, MN – As the nation gears up for another season of West Nile virus, a new study extends the understanding of the clinical spectrum of West Nile symptoms, and points to extreme muscle weakness or paralysis as a significant cause of complications in affected patients. The study appears in the July 8 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Detailed examination of 23 patients at the Cleveland Clinic revealed that among the earliest symptoms in 26 percent was a rash, which helped distinguish the disease from another rapid-onset paralytic disorder, Guillain-Barre syndrome. Misdiagnosis is still very common for West Nile virus, according to lead study author Lara Jeha, MD. Other early symptoms include low back pain, limb pain, and gastrointestinal complaints, typical of many viral illnesses. All patients developed fever at some point in their illness. Half the patients developed muscle weakness, which developed rapidly, over the course of three to eight days. For many patients, this progressed to involve all four limbs. In one patient, weakness remained the primary symptom even in advanced disease. Nine patients required mechanical ventilation due to weakness of the breathing muscles. Previous studies had described flaccid paralysis with West Nile virus infection, but details about the various aspects of this weakness were very limited.

Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 4032 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Nathan Seppa Scientists' best efforts have failed to vanquish amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). There was no cure for the nerve-degenerating disease when it struck down baseball star Lou Gehrig 64 years ago, and there is none today. In fact, scientists have yet to pinpoint a cause of the disease except in individuals with certain rare genetic mutations. In the August Nature Genetics , researchers report on other, more common genetic variations that crop up in ALS patients more often than they do in healthy people. Experiments show that similar genetic variations leave mice vulnerable to the sort of nerve degeneration seen in ALS patients, says Peter Carmeliet of Leuven University in Belgium. He and his colleagues compared genetic profiles of 750 ALS patients with those of 1,219 healthy people of similar age in Belgium, Sweden, and Great Britain. The people with ALS were nearly twice as likely to have one of two variant forms of a gene for the protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). Copyright ©2003 Science Service.

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 4031 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Human brains are wired to underestimate the amount of force exerted on other people, a study of "tit-for-tat" experiments has revealed. As well as qualifying the teary "she hit me harder" playground argument and explaining why we can't tickle ourselves, the discovery may provide insight into some self-delusional symptoms of schizophrenia. To test the notion that the brain downplays sensations generated by body movements because it can predict what will happen, Daniel Wolpert and colleagues at University College London in the UK engaged six pairs of adult volunteers in "tit-for-tat" experiments. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Muscles
Link ID: 4030 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Some animals will go to extraordinary lengths to scale the social ladder, remaining small until an opportunity arises and then changing size and sex to move up a rung, reveal US scientists. A study of clownfish, an anemone-dwelling marine fish known for its bright orange and white patterning, has found that hierarchical boundaries are so entrenched in their "culture" that subordinates control their size and growth rate to the millimetre. When the position at the top of a group becomes vacant, social climbers will go as far as changing sex. Clownfish reside in discrete groups dominated by the top- ranking female breeder. Her lower-status male partner is next, followed by up to four progressively smaller and lower- ranking, non-breeding subordinates. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4029 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Opiates are powerful painkillers, but they come with some baggage: a troubling tendency to depress breathing. By giving an experimental drug along with a narcotic, a team of researchers has eliminated the opiate's potentially lethal side effect while preserving its ability to blunt pain. The result could have far-reaching clinical implications for anesthesia and the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Like morphine and other narcotics, a painkiller called fentanyl disrupts nerve cells deep in the brain that register pain as well as other cells that govern breathing rhythm. Well-controlled doses of the drug can work wonders, but overexposure can be disastrous: In October 2002, 129 people died in a Moscow theater when authorities subdued hostage-takers there by pumping what many believe was fentanyl into the building. Even before the hostage crisis, physiologist Diethelm Richter and his colleagues at the University of Göttingen, Germany, were wondering whether fentanyl's effects on breathing and pain could be separated. The group examined a small chunk of rodent brainstem called the pre-Bötzinger complex (PBC), which regulates breathing. Many cells in the PBC contain a receptor called 5-HT4(a). All these receptor-bearing cells in the PBC, the scientists found, also sport the [name] -opioid receptors that react to the drugs. That makes sense, given that opiates can depress breathing. The finding also raised the prospect of controlling pain without disturbing breathing. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4028 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Study hints that men strive to win women and then sit back. HELEN R. PILCHER Male scientists are like criminals, a new study concludes1. Their productivity peaks at 30 and then goes rapidly downhill. Psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Political Science examined the lives of 280 eminent scientists, including Pierre Curie and Albert Einstein. He found that 65% had published their best paper by the age of 35. What's more, unmarried scientists peaked later in life than those who had tied the knot. Crime, similarly, is a bachelor's game. Picking locks and publishing papers are ways of catching the female eye, argues Kanazawa. As men find partners, get married and have children, he suggests, they no longer need to compete with each other. Indeed, testosterone levels, thought to boost action and conflict, fall after a man becomes a father. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4027 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A study on mice suggests that a type of stem cells found in blood vessels may someday be able to regenerate wasting muscle in muscular dystrophy (MD) patients. The authors caution that more research must be done before researchers consider applying these findings to humans. Nonetheless, their results provide a possible new direction for efforts that have met largely with frustration thus far. The study appears in the journal Science, published by AAAS, the science society. The research team, led by Giulio Cossu of the Stem Cell Research Institute, in Milan, and the University of Rome and the Institute of Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, in Rome, has found that these stem cells can cross from the bloodstream, into muscle tissue. There, they seem to take on a new identity, helping to generate new muscle fibers in mice with MD-like symptoms. MD is a collection of disorders caused by genetic defects that lead to increasing muscle weakness over time. These disorders currently have no cure.

Keyword: Muscles
Link ID: 4026 - Posted: 07.11.2003

Tampa, FL -- Higher education or a larger brain may protect against dementia, according to new findings by researchers from the University of South Florida and the University of Kentucky. The study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, provides important new evidence that either more years of formal education or better early brain development may help delay dementia in later life. The findings were drawn from the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease. The study's first author James Mortimer, PhD, director of the USF Institute on Aging, reported that Catholic sisters who completed 16 or more years of formal education or whose head circumference was in the upper two-thirds were four times less likely to be demented than those with both smaller head circumferences and lower education. Head circumference has been shown in previous studies to be a good indicator of the volume or size of the brain.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Intelligence
Link ID: 4025 - Posted: 07.11.2003

The most potent psychedelic is the semi-synthetic ergot derivative lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which has detectable effects at microscopic doses. This drug was discovered by the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in 1943. While handling vials containing the chemical, he accidentally absorbed some of it through his skin, and later experienced a strange state of consciousness. Suspecting that LSD was the cause, Hoffman decided to test the drug on himself, starting with what he thought would be a small and probably ineffective dose - only ¼ of a milligram. However, for LSD this is a rather large dose. Hoffman’s ensuing “trip” was overwhelmingly intense and he assumed he was either dying or going insane (Hoffman, 1981). Hoffman recovered and a period of scientific research on LSD began. Researchers first thought LSD induced a “model psychosis” that might shed light on the nature of schizophrenia.However, as the psychedelic experience or “trip” does not resemble endogenous psychoses, this interpretation was later discarded. In the 1950s the therapeutic potential of LSD was investigated under the assumption that LSD was a key that could unlock the secrets of the unconscious mind. Thousands of people in the U.S., including the actor Cary Grant, underwent “psycholytic” (“mind-loosening”) therapy under LSD during the 1950s and early 1960s (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1979). Other work investigated the religious aspect of high-dose psychedelic experiences. In a 1961 experiment known as the “Miracle of March Chapel,” Boston Divinity Students were given psilocybin or placebo in a double-blind design; most subjects in the psilocybin group (and none in the placebo group) reported profound religious experiences with lasting beneficial consequences (Doblin, 1991). Scientific and clinical work with psychedelics was interrupted when the drugs were outlawed in the U.S. in 1965 as a response to their growing non-medical use, but in recent years, renewed scientific interest in consciousness has led to a small revival of psychedelic drug research. Copyright © 2003, M. Lyvers

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4024 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Two cheap blood tests could help multiple sclerosis patients work out if they are at risk of having a relapse within months. The information could help doctors prescribe the right drugs to stop this happening. Many multiple sclerosis patients, particularly in the early stages of the disease, do not suffer constant symptoms. Attacks of the disease, called "relapses", can bring nerve-related symptoms such as fatigue, poor coordination and paralysis. However most patients find that, at first, these symptoms can disappear, with a gap of months or even years before they come back. This presents problems for doctors, who are trying to give the patient a firm diagnosis, and an idea of what to expect. (C) BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 4023 - Posted: 07.10.2003

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS TORONTO, — The Canadian government announced an interim plan today that will provide marijuana on a regular basis to several hundred people who are authorized to use the drug for medical reasons. Coming six weeks after the federal government introduced a bill decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and only days after it approved a trial "safe injection site" in Vancouver for intravenous drug users, the marijuana plan was one more sign that Ottawa is moving in a very different direction on drug policy from the Bush administration. Thousands of Canadians already visit so-called "compassion clubs" in Vancouver and a few other cities, which distribute marijuana to those who come with a note from a doctor saying that the drug can help their condition. The police have occasionally entered some of the clinics and seized marijuana, but for the most part they function in the open. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4022 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Two studies from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) address the challenges of diagnosing and treating individuals with both attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BPD). Published in the July, 2003, issue of Biological Psychiatry, one report clearly identifies symptoms of both disorders in study participants, supporting the theory that some individuals truly suffer from both disorders. The second study in the same issue finds that the antidepressant bupropion may be helpful in treating those with both ADHD and BPD. "The question of whether ADHD and BPD can exist together has been controversial, with some believing that such diagnoses reflected particularly bad ADHD or that the manic symptoms of bipolarity were simple hyperactivity," says Timothy Wilens, MD, of the MGH Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit, lead author of both papers. "The first study tells us these are distinct disorders that can occur and be identified in adults. "Treating adults with ADHD and BPD has been difficult because the stimulants and many other medications used for ADHD may exacerbate manic symptoms," he continues. "However, not addressing both disorders in these individuals can make their lives more difficult."

Keyword: ADHD; Depression
Link ID: 4021 - Posted: 07.10.2003