Physical Mimicry of Others Jump-starts Key Brain Activity A child falls from his bicycle and his father winces. A bride says "I do" and the maid of honor grins from ear to ear. A mother frowns with displeasure and her infant son frowns back. UCLA neuroscientists using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are the first to demonstrate that empathetic action, such as mirroring facial expressions, triggers far greater activity in the emotion centers of the brain than mere observation. Reporting in the April 15 edition of the peer-reviewed Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the researchers also identified the brain's oval-shaped insula as a key to translating active imitation of others' feelings into meaningful emotion.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 3680 - Posted: 04.11.2003

Revised DNA sequence homes in on break points. HANNAH HOAG A revamp of chromosome 7's DNA sequence has brought to light genes associated with autism, several leukaemias and lymphomas1. Geneticist Stephen Scherer, of the University of Toronto, and his colleagues identified the site of more than 100 new mutations linked to genetic disorders after studying the genetic makeup of more than 300 new patients and reviewing 1,570 published studies. Doctors will be able to log onto a new dynamic database in which the sequence anomalies are held, and determine whether a patient's genetic make-up matches those of others. As information is added to the free-access database, more mutations may stand out. "It's a quick way to identify candidate genes for a disorder," Scherer says. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Autism; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3679 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Human flesh may have been a fairly regular menu item for our prehistoric ancestors, according to researchers. They say it's the most likely explanation for their discovery that genes protecting against prion diseases -- which can be spread by eating contaminated flesh -- have long been widespread throughout the world. The genes, which are mutant versions of the prion protein gene, show key signs of having spread through populations as the result of natural selection, the researchers report in the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Such mutations, or "polymorphisms," could have provided prehistoric humans a better chance of surviving epidemics of prion diseases, similar to modern day diseases such as Creutzfeld Jacob disease, or kuru. "What we're showing here is evidence that selection for these polymorphisms has been very widespread or happened very early in the evolution of modern humans, before human beings spread all over the planet," said study author John Collinge of University College London. "We can't say which of those it is; but the obvious implication is that prion disease has provided the selection pressure."

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 3678 - Posted: 04.11.2003

NewScientist.com news service Tiny magnetic iron crystals in the brain may be linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease, suggests preliminary research. If further work confirms the hypothesis, it could be possible to diagnose patients with early Alzheimer's disease by measuring the level of iron oxide crystals, called magnetite, in their brains. Jon Dobson at the University of Keele, UK, and his colleagues examined six brain samples and found that magnetite levels increased with Alzheimer's disease severity, the first time such a link has been shown. "If the data continues to go this way, the implications are quite profound," he told New Scientist. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 3677 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In the United States, one out of every 100 people over 65 years of age will develop Parkinson's disease, an incurable, degenerative brain disorder that destroys its victim's ability to control muscle movement. Now, thanks to a mix of anthropology and genetics, researchers have found a gene that influences the risk of developing the disease. Parkinson's disease has a perplexing pattern of incidence, affecting men at least twice as often as women, and Caucasians more than people of Asian or African descent. For decades, the disease has baffled doctors. In the last few years, however, studies have shown that people with Parkinson's have malfunctioning mitochondria, the power generators within cells. This suggested an interesting way to track Parkinson's susceptibility to neurogeneticist Jeffery Vance and molecular geneticist Joelle van der Walt of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. Anthropologists study mitochondrial DNA--which is passed from mother to child--as a roadmap of human migration and have developed a system of lineages that defines a person's ancestry. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3676 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Caring spinsters reckon on relatedness. MICHAEL HOPKIN Ornithologists have uncovered a neat trick that birds use to ensure they feed only family. The Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis) lives in cramped conditions on just three small islands in the Indian Ocean, making opportunities to fly the nest scarce. Many females stay behind to help feed the next brood. "If you can't breed yourself, it makes sense to help your parents," says Terry Burke of the University of Sheffield, UK, who led the study. In this way, barren birds still help those that share many of the same genes. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 3675 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The increases in muscle fiber cross sectional area produced by dairy protein supplementation correlate very highly with superior increases in muscle strength (San Diego, CA) – Elizabethan England preferred it to milk; Miss Muffett enjoyed it on her tuffet before the spider showed up; now professional, collegiate, amateur, and recreational athletes combine it with creatine to supplement resistance training, with the expectation of improving gains in strength and muscle mass. The “it,” of course, is whey. Whey is a naturally occurring dairy protein found in bovine milk. Whey isolate, the highest quality form of whey that is extracted and purified during the cheese making process is shown in research to possess some extraordinary nutritional properties. In 2001 creatine supplement consumption in the US alone exceeded more than 2.5 thousand metric tons Researchers at Victoria University in Australia have previously shown that supplementation with creatine or a 100% whey isolate formulation significantly (P<0.05) increased levels of muscle force and mitochondrial energy production in rats as well producing significantly better (P<0.05) improvements in strength and body composition in bodybuilders during resistance training. Copyright © 2003, The American Physiological Society

Keyword: Muscles
Link ID: 3674 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have long known that some drugs, such as heroin and morphine, can cause changes in the immune systems of drug abusers that make them more susceptible to infection. However, Dr. Donald Lysle and Stephanie Ijames from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have now found that in rats, the environmental cues associated with drug use also may induce alterations in immunity. Their study is the first to demonstrate that cues associated with heroin use cause a reduction in the enzyme, inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), which affects nitric oxide production by cells of the immune system. Nitric oxide plays a key role in the ability of immune cells to fight and kill microorganisms and tumor cells. The researchers conditioned male rats to associate heroin administration with placement in a new environment by administering the drug to the rats as soon as they were placed in that environment. On the test day, the rats were re-exposed to the environment in the absence of heroin and then given an injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which induces iNOS production by immune cells. Six hours later, the rats' spleens, lungs, and livers were analyzed for the expression of iNOS messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) and iNOS protein. Control groups were used to determine if any step in the conditioning process, such as the injection procedure, re-exposure to the conditioning environment, or a combination of injection of heroin and exposure to the environment, contributed to alterations in iNOS production. The researchers also used an unmanipulated control group to provide a general comparison for all the control groups, as well as the experimental group.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 3673 - Posted: 04.10.2003

Men's higher tolerance for pain is not just macho posturing but has a physiological underpinning, suggests a study in which subjects were given a monetary incentive to keep their hand submerged in ice water. Sex differences in pain perception have been noted in multiple studies, with women typically displaying lower pain tolerance than men, but it is unknown whether the mechanisms underlying these differences are hormonal, genetic or psychosocial in origin. For example, some researchers have suggested that men are more motivated to express a tolerance for pain because masculine stereotyping encourages it, while feminine stereotyping encourages pain expression and lower pain tolerance. "These findings suggest that motivation does not account for the sex difference in pain tolerance," says study author Roger B. Fillingim, Ph.D., of the Department of Operative Dentistry at the University of Florida and the Gainesville VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla.

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 3672 - Posted: 04.10.2003

RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press Writer Cocaine-addicted rats experience bursts of brain chemical activity just before seeking out their next fix, scientists report in a finding that could open a new avenue for treating human addicts. When the rats merely heard or saw cues associated with cocaine, their brains pumped out extra doses of the same reward-related chemical that helps produce the euphoria that human users feel. The rats' brain activity may explain the intense cravings human addicts experience when something reminds them of the drug. ©2003 Associated Press

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3671 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Sleep does more than banish dark under-eye circles. It also helps you learn, according to an increasing amount of research in animals and humans. Advances in neuroscience led scientists in recent years to produce a large body of converging evidence that shows that sleep helps secure memories and aids at least some types of learning. The findings indicate that sleep is much more important than commonly believed. It’s 3 a.m. and you’re still glued to The Osbournes marathon running on MTV. What’s a little less sleep when you can see Ozzy war with the neighbors? You’re not alone. Many Americans skimp on shut-eye. Almost one-third of respondents said they get less than seven hours of sleep per night during the week, according to a recent survey of approximately 1,000 people by the National Sleep Foundation. Copyright © 2003 Society for Neuroscience

Keyword: Sleep; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 3670 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Connie Costa, 68, used to work in accounting. But about four years ago she started having problems remembering things. She couldn’t remember what month or year it was and had problems writing even her name. Soon Connie was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a disease that affects about 4 million Americans, according to the Alzheimer’s Association, and about 10 percent of the population above 65 years of age. “Alzheimer’s is a terrible and terribly prevalent disease”, says Barry Reisburg, clinical director of the Silberstein Aging and Dementia Treatment and Research Center at New York University School of Medicine. Experts estimate that in the coming years, as we live longer and as baby boomers get older, there is going to be a steep rise in the number of Alzheimer’s patients. So far, there is no cure no known prevention for Alzheimer’s. Although there is some medication, Reisburg points out, “All currently approved medication has been shown to be effective only for mild and moderate Alzheimer’s.” But now Reisburg and his colleagues report in the New England Journal of Medicine that a German drug called Memantine could help patients in the more advanced stages of the disease. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 3669 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A scathing report has led to the sudden removal of a well-known British epilepsy researcher as the director of the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) in Singapore. Simon Shorvon, 54, was fired from the institute on 4 April after an investigation found he had compromised patients' safety and well-being during a clinical trial involving patients with Parkinson's disease. "This shows that people can't get away with shortcuts in Singapore," says Lim Pin, a member of the investigative panel and chair of Singapore's Bioethics Advisory Committee. "We're very protective and jealous about our reputation." Shorvon, while acknowledging he made mistakes, says the panel used some extraordinary tactics, such as locking him out of his office and going through years of e-mails, and that its overall conclusion was too harsh. The $5.6 million study was funded by the Singaporean government and aimed at elucidating the genetic basis of Parkinson's disease and two other disorders. When recruitment for the trial was lagging, the panel says, Shorvon and his colleague, Ramachandran Viswanathan, obtained lists of Parkinson's patients from two hospitals and started contacting patients directly. That was a breach of confidentiality, the panel concluded. Equally serious was Shorvon's failure to inform the ethical oversight committee and the patients themselves that participation would require them not only to donate blood but also to briefly halt their medication and undergo extensive tests. Neither step was mentioned in the consent forms signed by patients. Although the procedures weren't life-threatening, the panel says, the assessment caused severe discomfort in some patients and put them at risk of complications. The 127 patients involved "were treated like experimental subjects, without any rights," the panel concludes. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Epilepsy; Parkinsons
Link ID: 3668 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Implications for treatment, defense against chemical weapons CHAPEL HILL -- A study led by scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill offers the first molecular explanation of how the body metabolizes and detoxifies cocaine and heroin. "We show for the first time how humans initiate the breakdown and clearance of these dangerous narcotics," said Dr. Matthew R. Redinbo, assistant professor in the department of chemistry, and in the School of Medicine's department of biochemistry and biophysics. "This work also has two potential applications. First, our results can be used to generate an efficient treatment for cocaine overdose. Second, the same system we describe can be engineered to detoxify chemical weapons, including sarin, soman, tabun and VX gases." A report of the study, published online Monday (April 7) in Nature Structural Biology, presents the first crystal structure of the protein human carboxylesterase 1, or hCE1.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3667 - Posted: 04.09.2003

I first started smoking dope with a group of other pupils at school when I was 13. I then made a natural progression through mushrooms, LSD, speed and Es and by the time I was 19 or 20 I was on heroin. Due to my lifestyle - the travelling and free party scene - it took a long time for me to realise I had an addiction. This was because taking drugs was the norm. In the early 90s our scene seemed flooded by drugs, especially heroin, nearly everyone started to take it. I knew I was physically hooked quite early on but if I went abroad I would just stop and suffer for a while. Basically at this point it didn't get in the way of my life and stop me doing things. It wasn't until I moved to London that drugs became everything and I realised the severity of the problem. I lost interest in everything.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3666 - Posted: 04.08.2003

By NICHOLAS WADE A new approach to Parkinson's disease has shown promising results with a small group of patients in a preliminary trial. Though not yet confirmed, the development could relieve the gloom that recently settled on the field when the technique of implanting fetal brain cells in patients proved to do some harm and not much good. Parkinson's disease develops when some unknown agent kills neurons that produce a nerve-to-nerve messenger known as dopamine, which is important in the control of movement. As the neurons die, patients develop tremors, experience spells of rigidity and may lose their sense of smell. Most patients respond well to L-dopa, which supplements the dopamine in the brain, but its effectiveness diminishes with time. To replace the dying neurons, physicians have tried implanting dopamine-making cells taken from aborted fetuses. This drastic remedy seemed to work at first, but two larger trials produced disappointing results. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Parkinsons; Glia
Link ID: 3665 - Posted: 04.08.2003

St. Louis, -- What do wrinkles, hair growth and obesity have in common? All three may involve the same gene, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The team discovered that mice with a mutation in the gene that produces a protein already being investigated as a target for anti-obesity drugs fail to develop wrinkles or normal hair growth. The study is scheduled to appear the week of April 7 in the Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Jeffrey H. Miner, Ph.D, associate professor of medicine and of cell biology and physiology, led the study; Casey L. Moulson, Ph.D, research associate in medicine, is first author.

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3664 - Posted: 04.08.2003

Hunting and the Ebola virus killing chimpanzees and gorillas. JOHN WHITFIELD Chimpanzees and gorillas in West Africa are caught in a pincer movement between hunting and the Ebola virus, researchers have warned. The bushmeat trade is threatening their populations near towns, while Ebola is killing almost nearly every animal in some remote areas. In a paper published in this week's Nature, ecologist Peter Walsh of Princeton University, New Jersey, reports that populations of both species have plunged by about half over the past twenty years1. Walsh calls for the conservation status of each to be shifted from 'endangered' to 'critically endangered'. The finding that apes that live near people are in decline because of hunting confirms the long-standing suspicions of conservation workers. But the extent of Ebola's reach in the ape populations has taken experts by surprise. In one remote area where there is little or no hunting, it has cut the population by more than 90% since 1991. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 3663 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An expert on the health effects of cannabis says that there is growing evidence that the drug is responsible for mental health problems. Professor John Henry, a consultant in toxicology from St Mary's Hospital in London, told the BBC that studies from Sweden and elsewhere pointed to an increase in schizophrenia among regular cannabis smokers. The mental health effects of smoking cannabis are a controversial area, with any evidence of harm strongly disputed by some. However, Dr Henry is planning to tell a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine on Monday that it appears likely that some cases of schizophrenia are attributable to the consumption of cannabis, rather than the alternative explanation that patients prone to mental illness are more likely to be drawn to use the drug. (C)BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3662 - Posted: 04.07.2003

Nasal maze helps sniff out delicate aromas. HELEN PEARSON A new artificial nose looks - as well as smells - like a real one. The replica confirms researchers' suspicions about the anatomy of aroma sensing, and could boost the sniffing power of sensors, they say. Tucked into the dark cave beyond the nostrils, dogs and other mammals have a maze of tiny air-filled passages. These are thought to help them distinguish smells, by sifting out different whiffs in the air. To simulate this set-up, David Walt of Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, built a plastic enlargement of a dog's nasal cavity, based on computed-tomography scans. Smell sensors distributed through the muzzle-like machine were 10% better at recognizing the scents of rums and vodkas, compared with a single sensor. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 3661 - Posted: 06.24.2010