The body's circadian clock finally has received some hands. Scientists discovered a molecule in the brain's master clock that signals to the rest of the body that it's daytime. Injected into the brain, the molecule disrupts the natural daily rhythms of mice for several days. The findings may pave the way for new drugs to treat sleep disorders and jetlag. Like intertwining cogwheels in a mechanical watch, a pool of periodically expressed genes keeps time in a tiny region of the brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus. Light sensors in the retina normally keep the clock set to the daily cycle of the sun, but even in absolute darkness these genes define a rough 24-hour day-night cycle. Although scientists have learned a great deal about how light sets the clock and have identified many of its components, they haven't understood how the clock in the brain keeps the rest of the body in synch. Copyright © 2002 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 2136 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Enriched Egg Yolks Boost Vital Nutrition By Jennifer Warner -- Moms and dads of weaning infants may want to incorporate egg yolks into their babies' diet. This may be an easy and practical way to provide iron and other much-needed nutrients that may become depleted during this time. Both breastfed and formula-fed infants face several important nutritional challenges as they approach weaning age of 4 to 6 months. For example, since breast milk is a good source of iron, iron-rich weaning foods are needed to prevent iron deficiency. Formula-fed infants may experience a deficiency of a fatty acid known as DHA, which is vital to the growth and development of the brain. The FDA recently approved the addition of DHA to infant formulas in the U.S. to avoid this problem. Breastfeeding provides sufficient DHA. However, doctors still don't know if weaning foods high in fatty acids such as DHA are important for continued development. © 2002 WebMD Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2135 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ROCHESTER, Minn., (UPI) -- Scientists said on Friday they have discovered an enzyme that appears to cause the nerve impairment in the brain and spinal cord characteristic of multiple sclerosis. The finding, which appears in the journal Brain, could lead to new treatments for the degenerative condition. they said. "If we could inhibit the enzyme, maybe we could slow the progress of the disease or reverse it," Isobel Scarisbrick, Mayo Clinic neuroscientist and lead author of the study, told United Press International. Copyright © 2002 United Press International

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 2134 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research) Mentally fatigued trial subjects search less systematically for solutions than fit colleagues. Such fatigued persons switch to an automatic pilot approach even when this repeatedly leads to the same mistakes. Psychologists from the University of Amsterdam studied how purposefully mentally fatigued persons conducted themselves. Healthy persons and persons made mentally tired were subjected by the scientist to various tests. The tests revealed that fatigued persons had difficulty in translating objectives into the associated actions. The mentally fatigued person was less flexible, more persistent in his behaviour and had a lack of self-regulation. In one of the tests the trial subjects had to change the layout of a table in the computer programme Excel. The persons had never previously worked with Excel and were given an example of the end result on paper. The persons had to think aloud whilst carrying out the task. Their actions were registered by the computer and recorded on video. Prior to the test, half of the trial subjects were made mentally tired. They had to draw up schedules for two hours. The other half of the trial subjects was allowed to relax for two hours. © AlphaGalileo 2002

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 2133 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Mark K. Anderson According to fundamental laws of physics, time is just another coordinate -- hash marks along a line with scarcely a preferred direction or flow. Yet the mind perceives time as an irreversible stream, moving from past to future, experienced in the present. Manipulating time may make for good science fiction, but it's hardly conceivable to those unfortunates who don't have a Tardis or H.G. Wells' secret recipe. How can science bridge the gaping gulf between these two versions of time? © Copyright 2002, Lycos, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 2132 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Lonely people may be at a higher risk of developing heart disease, researchers suggest. A US study showed that lonely people's cardiovascular systems worked differently to people who were not lonely, in ways which put them at higher risk of heart disease. A second UK study suggests it may be wrong to link stress to heart disease. They suggest previous research which made the link could have been weighted too heavily on people's own reports of their stress levels and symptoms, rather than objective measures. (C) BBC

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 2131 - Posted: 05.24.2002

NewScientist.com news service Fears that the infectious prion proteins that cause BSE could be present in chicken fillets have been raised after bovine protein was found in breast fillets tested by the Irish Food Safety Authority (FSAI). The tests on the Dutch imports follow a report by the UK Food Standards Agency in December 2001 that undeclared pig proteins had been used to "bulk up" chicken from Holland and Belgium. The FSAI also found undeclared hydrolysed collagen in 26 per cent of the chicken fillets. Species-specific DNA tests on 30 chicken samples then revealed that 17 contained bovine DNA, porcine DNA or both. As yet, the authorities have been unable to trace the source of the undeclared bovine material. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 2130 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By THOM SHANKER with WILLIAM J. BROAD WASHINGTON, — The Defense Department sprayed live nerve and biological agents on ships and sailors in cold war-era experiments to test the Navy's vulnerability to toxic warfare, the Pentagon revealed today. The Pentagon documents made public today showed that six tests were carried out in the Pacific Ocean from 1964 to 1968. In the experiments, nerve or chemical agents were sprayed on a variety of ships and their crews to gauge how quickly the poisons could be detected and how rapidly they would disperse, as well as to test the effectiveness of protective gear and decontamination procedures in use at the time. Hundreds of sailors exposed to the poisons in tests conducted in the 1960's could be eligible for health care benefits, and the Department of Veterans Affairs has already begun contacting those who participated in some of the experiments, known as Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense, or SHAD. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Neurotoxins
Link ID: 2129 - Posted: 06.24.2010

From The Economist print edition Genetics may yet threaten privacy, kill autonomy, make society homogeneous and gut the concept of human nature. But neuroscience could do all of these things first IN THE genetically engineered world portrayed in “Gattaca”, a movie made in 1997, the hero and heroine attend a concert in which a pianist performs a concerto that can be played only by a person with six fingers on each hand. This is a society in which genetic perfectionists have had their way. The concert-goers have been altered before birth to be free of such ailments as baldness, obesity and diabetes, and to be tall, good-looking and intelligent. In that room, improbable as it may seem, only Ethan Hawke has lived a life free of genetic enhancement; he alone has had to take his chances with the genetic lottery of natural conception. Compare this scene to one in which the effects of neurotechnology (technology that makes it possible to manipulate the brain) are pervasive. The old man on the left of the aisle is being saved from Alzheimer's disease by an implant that bathes his brain cells in a healthy broth of chemicals. The little girl in the circle, vows her doctor, has a cortex that will one day win her a Nobel prize in physics—if she keeps up the correct regime of “cogniceuticals”, of course. As a condition of their employment, the security guards posted at the entrance had to undergo brain scans to demonstrate that they were free of propensities to uncontrollable rage. The musicians on stage are on drugs that speed their reflexes, heighten their hearing and assuage their performance anxiety. Not that different from “Gattaca”, is it? Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2002. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 2128 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Research on a tiny worm is yielding clues about dystonia, a disabling neurological disease of humans. University of California, Davis, researchers have found a gene in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans that matches a gene altered in one form of dystonia. By studying the worm gene, they hope to find out more about how the human dystonia gene works. People with dystonia have sudden muscle contractions that force the body into abnormal and painful postures. It is the second most common neurological movement disorder, after Parkinson's Disease, affecting about half a million people in the U.S. and Canada. Scientists think that defects in parts of the brain that control movement cause the disease, but the exact causes are not known. Some milder types of dystonia can be treated with botulinum toxin injections, but there is no cure. Lesilee Rose, an assistant professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Davis, discovered the gene, called OOC-5, while looking for genes that control cell division in Caenorhabditis embryos.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Muscles
Link ID: 2127 - Posted: 05.24.2002

Children’s brains process words differently than adults’s St. Louis,— It turns out children are not just miniature adults, at least not when it comes to processing words. Neuroscientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used a variety of innovative research methods to identify similarities and differences between adult and pediatric brains when performing certain language exercises. The research is published in the May 24 issue of the journal Science. “A fundamental objective of neuroscience research is to understand how the human brain develops,” explains lead investigator Bradley L. Schlaggar, M.D., Ph.D., instructor of neurology and pediatrics. “We need such knowledge to understand how normal brains develop and to learn what goes wrong in pediatric neurology-related disorders. Only then can we develop clinical interventions to treat these children.” Most studies of this kind are unable to distinguish whether variations between age groups reflect developmental differences or whether they simply reflect the fact that children don’t perform as well overall as their adult counterparts.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Language
Link ID: 2126 - Posted: 06.24.2010

PHILADELPHIA – A new study indicates that cognitive therapy is at least as effective as medication for long-term treatment of severe depression, and it is less expensive. The findings, by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University, undercut opinions now held by many in the psychiatric profession. Principal investigators Robert J. DeRubeis of Penn and Steven D. Hollon of Vanderbilt and their colleagues will present the work Thursday, May 23 at the annual conference of the American Psychiatric Association in Philadelphia. "This will be a surprising, controversial finding for many psychiatric professionals," said DeRubeis, professor and chair of psychology at Penn. "Most believe quite strongly in the efficacy of medication, and psychiatric treatment guidelines call unequivocally for medication in cases of severe depression."

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 2125 - Posted: 06.24.2010

MADISON - University of Wisconsin-Madison researcher Ruth Litovsky has developed a hearing test that simulates the noisy real world, and the results could improve our understanding not only of hearing but also of developmental and learning disabilities among children. Everyday and everywhere, a cacophony of sounds compete for children's attention. Because humans have binaural hearing - hearing with two ears - children usually can determine which sounds are more important: student chatter in the back of the classroom or the teacher's lesson on multiplication, for example. "Binaural hearing enables us to understand and engage in the world around us," says Litovsky, a UW-Madison communicative disorders professor and an investigator at the Waisman Center, a facility devoted to advancing the knowledge of human development. Copyright © 2002 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 2124 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online The Associated Press ATLANTA - Nearly half of all deaths from stroke happen before the victim can get to a hospital, the government said Thursday, urging Americans to brush up on warning signs. Stroke is the third-leading cause of death in the United States, behind only heart disease and cancer. About 500,000 Americans suffer their first stroke each year. Still, surveys show many Americans are unaware of the five most common warning signs of stroke - sudden numbness or weakness, dim vision, dizziness, severe headache and confusion or difficulty speaking. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 2123 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON - "Cuuutie piiiie, youuu are sooooo sweeeet." That may sound syrupy to the adult ear, but to babies it is an important lecture from the infant's most important teacher: Mommy. Australian researchers who analyzed the sounds mothers make when they talk with adults, with animals and with their babies found that the parents slipped automatically into a different speech pattern for each audience. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Language; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2122 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By PAUL RECER, AP Science Writer WASHINGTON - A band of chimpanzees in West Africa routinely swing crude stone hammers to crack open nuts, a sophisticated use of tools the apes have been teaching to each new generation for more than a century. Using carefully selected stones weighing up to 33 pounds, the chimps pound the tough shell of the panda nut to extract a high-energy kernel that is an important part of the animal's diet, researchers report Friday in the journal Science. "It is a very skillful behavior that takes up to seven years for them to learn," said Melissa Panger, a George Washington University researcher and co-author of the study. "It looks easy, but if you sit down and try it is a very difficult task." Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 2121 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Anti-depressants being used for a number of disorders THURSDAY, (HealthScoutNews) -- Women who suffer from a particularly severe form of PMS now have another prescription drug available to them -- the well-known anti-depressant Zoloft. Zoloft (sertraline hydrochloride) joins another popular prescription mood-elevator, Prozac (fluoxetine), as U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs to treat a number of conditions. These include depression, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is a condition that can be particularly damaging to some women. Zoloft and Prozac specifically have been approved to treat a more severe form of PMS known as premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Copyright © 2002 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Depression
Link ID: 2120 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An altered mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, developed to have high levels of insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), has shown increases in muscle mass of at least 40 percent and other changes that could herald a possible treatment for secondary symptoms of the disease in humans. The new mouse, developed with support from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association, has also resulted in reduced amounts of muscle-replacing fibrous tissue and enhanced biological pathways associated with muscle regeneration. Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a genetic muscle-wasting disease caused by mutations in the gene for the protein dystrophin, results in repeated cycles of muscle damage and insufficient muscle regeneration, leading to gradual replacement of muscle by fibrous tissue. Since IGF-I is known to help regenerate muscle and enhance biological pathways for making proteins, the University of Pennsylvania's H. Lee Sweeney, M.D., and his colleagues tested its effects by creating a new mouse model – a cross between a strain with muscular dystrophy symptoms and another with high levels of IGF-I. The hybrid mouse showed not only increases in muscle mass and muscle force generation, but also reduced muscle cell death, a combination that could have significant treatment implications.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Muscles
Link ID: 2119 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DENISE GRADY Scientists say they may have found out why people get hungry at mealtime, why dieters who lose weight often gain it back and why a certain type of stomach surgery helps severely obese people lose a great deal of weight. The reason may be a hormone called ghrelin, which makes people hungry, slows metabolism and decreases the body's ability to burn fat. Ghrelin levels in the blood spike before meals and drop afterward. People given ghrelin injections feel voraciously hungry, and, turned loose at a buffet, eat 30 percent more than they normally would, studies have shown. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 2118 - Posted: 05.23.2002

Women are likely to experience a dramatic loss of sexual function as a consequence of menopause, an Australian university study has concluded. Women approaching menopause, however, can relax as the study, one of the first to accurately document what happens to a woman's sexual functioning during menopause, also identified factors that help protect against this sexual dysfunction. The findings are part of the University of Melbourne's Women's Midlife Health Project being conducted by the University's Office for Gender and Health that has been following a large group of Melbourne women for over ten years.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 2117 - Posted: 05.23.2002