Written by Laszlo Dosa, Voiced by Faith Lapidus Orlando, Florida Scientists already know how to make injured or severed nerve cells, neurons, regenerate and resume carrying messages from the brain to other parts of the body. But, as Johns Hopkins researcher Ronald Schnaar explains, not all nerve cells respond to such treatment. "Many people have heard of people who have had, say, a finger severed and sewn back on. They regain feeling and movement of that finger. That finger is served by motor neurons that actually start in the central nervous system and reach all the way down to your finger," he explained. "So that the end of the neuron can regenerate just fine over several centimeters in your finger. But if you were to cut that same nerve in the central nervous system, it would not regrow at all." Professor Schnarr who led the research on new nerve regeneration techniques said we can best understand the nervous system if we think of the electrical wiring of a house. Insulated copper wires carry electricity to a light bulb or a radio, for example. If the wire is cut, the light goes out and the radio stops playing.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 1967 - Posted: 04.29.2002

Researchers unravel the private life of this weird, wonderful carnivore John Pickrell In the movie The Lion King, hyenas are the villains. They're portrayed as slobbering, mangy, stupid scavengers always ready to do someone else's dirty work. It's entertaining, but the caricature perpetuates wrong ideas about these social carnivores, bemoans zoologist Kay Holekamp. She should know. For the past 14 years, she has followed the soap opera played out by a clan of around 70 spotted hyenas in the Talek area of Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve, and she's out to set the record straight. The truth of the matter, Holekamp exclaims, is that the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta ) is highly intelligent, with mental abilities and social skills to match many a primate. These hyenas are also superb predators, feeding mostly on fresh meat. Their hunting skill equals that of lions or cheetahs. Moreover, Holekamp continues, "once you've seen a female delicately carrying babies in those great bone-crushing jaws, you realize what wonderful mothers they are." Holekamp and her colleagues at Michigan State University in East Lansing have a deep affection for hyenas. They've given the animals names of U.S. presidents, ancient gods and goddesses and goodies, such as Hot Dog, Moon Pie, and Jujubee. The zoologists have been monitoring the Talek clan from dawn until dusk since 1988. At any one time, several members of Holekamp's team are stationed in Kenya. From Science News, Vol. 161, No. 17, April 27, 2002, p. 267. Copyright ©2002 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Aggression; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 1966 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The findings of a study from a Brazil suggest a new cooperation between physicians and educators to ensure that cognitive stimulus be offered to offset the side-effects of these necessary medicines. New Orleans -- Epilepsy and its treatment have proven to impair cognitive and behavioral functions. The impact on the former by epilepsy associated seizures, brain damage, and use of anticonvulsant drugs can result in memory deficits, attention problems, and reading and writing difficulties. About two million Americans have epilepsy; of the 125,000 new cases that develop each year, up to 50 percent are in children and adolescents, the time when learning capabilities are developed. Developmental disabilities may result from complex interaction of genetic, toxicological or pharmacological (chemical), and social factors. Among these various causes, pharmacological exposure to drugs deserves special scrutiny, because they are readily preventable. This research demonstrates the consequences of anticonvulsant therapy that may contribute to transient cognitive disabilities (impairments of attention, memory, learning and/or social behavior). Previous studies have found that anticonvulsant drugs may themselves cause changes in mental functions. They may be often mixed with neurocognitive behavior, depending on the drug used. There may be also temporary cognitive deterioration. The researchers in a new study assert that clinical experience must be used to identify the subgroup of children who remain at risk for significant and clinically relevant cognitive and behavioral adverse effects of antiepileptic drugs. In testing the effects of drugs on the cognitive functions of the epileptic child, they relied on three established postulates: Copyright © 2002, The American Physiological Society

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 1965 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By THERESA AGOVINO, AP Business Writer NEW YORK - A lifetime of attempted diets didn't stop Andy Schlesinger from ballooning to 705 pounds. At 13, he was a chronic overeater who weighed 200 pounds. His desperate parents tried everything from padlocking the refrigerator to electric shock treatments to keep him from adding more weight. At 32, the 5-foot-11 exporter reached his maximum weight and was practically homebound. "I'd take five steps and be out of breath," he recalled. Sheer size kept him out of many places. He didn't fit in movie theater seats or public toilets. He broke bar stools. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 1964 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Twin's death forces woman to confront aneurysm From Debra Goldschmidt CNN Medical Unit ANN ARBOR, Michigan (CNN) -- Ardith Eastlund was 66 and felt great. She was enjoying life, spending time with her family and traveling with her husband, Dale. They were the best of times. Then last year, while on a cruise, she received news that threatened to topple her happy existence: Her sister had suffered an aneurysm and was in a coma. Her twin sister. The aneurysm, a blister on a blood vessel on the brain, proved fatal for Ardith Eastlund's sister. Like 40 percent of people who suffer an aneurysm, her sister never awoke; she lingered for a week. © 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

Keyword: Stroke; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 1962 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Find helps scientists date evolution of womb-placenta system David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Scientists digging amid a trove of Chinese dinosaur fossils have unearthed a tiny shrewlike creature that is the earliest known ancestor of mammals -- including humans -- that carry their young in the womb and nourish them through the placenta. Dubbed Eomaia, or "Dawn Mother," the primitive little beast was no bigger than a large mouse, but its remains shed new light on the evolution of mammals during an era when dinosaurs ruled the earth, the international team of fossil hunters said. One of the great unknowns is how and when the so-called placental mammals became separated from the marsupials, which include kangaroos and possums, and the much rarer monotreme mammals, whose only living members are the egg-laying duck-billed platypus and echidna, or "spiny anteaters." ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 1961 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Tampa, FL — University of South Florida neuroscientist Tanja Zigova, PhD, has been awarded a $1.3-million federal grant to study whether stem cells from human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) can rescue the brain from age-related decline. Using an animal model, the 5-year, National Institute on Aging study will address critical questions about HUCB cells' true potential to successfully treat the normal mental declines of aging as well as neurodegenerative diseases. Studies at USF and elsewhere have suggested that HUCB may be a noncontroversial and more readily available source of therapeutic cells for treating neurological diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease and brain injuries such as stroke.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Alzheimers
Link ID: 1960 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online The Associated Press WASHINGTON - The Galapagos Island finches once studied by Charles Darwin respond quickly to changes in food supply by evolving new beaks and body sizes, according to researchers who studied the birds for almost 30 years. Starting in 1973, husband-and-wife researchers Peter and Rosemary Grant of Princeton University have followed the evolutionary changes in two types of birds, the ground finch and the cactus finch, on Daphne Major, one of the Galapagos Islands. In a study appearing Friday in the journal Science, the Grants report that climate and weather have a dramatic effect on the evolutionary path the finches follow. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 1959 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By LAURA MECKLER, Associated Press WASHINGTON - The White House is in serious discussions over legislation long opposed by many Republicans to guarantee that insurance for mental health disorders is as comprehensive as that offered for other illnesses, a White House official said Thursday. President Bush may endorse the idea of "mental health parity" at an event Monday in New Mexico, home of Republican Sen. Pete Domenici, who has championed the cause for many years. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, cautioned that no deal has been reached yet on the legislation, which is sharply opposed by business groups, which fear that it will significantly increase the cost of health insurance. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Depression; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 1958 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Charles Darwin had a difficult time explaining how evolution could create something as complex as a human eye. Now a University of Connecticut researcher hopes that by harnessing the power of evolution, he might one day help the blind to see. By picking out favorable mutations within an ancient saltwater microbe that can convert light into energy, Dr. Robert Birge believes he can create a protein capable of replacing electrical signals lost when cells in the retina are destroyed by diseases of the eye, such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. (C) Copyright 2000 Digital Korea Herald. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 1957 - Posted: 04.26.2002

NewScientist.com news service A system that allows doctors to compare a patient's brain scans with a "personalised" atlas created from scans of similar people could reveal subtle and previously hidden abnormalities, say UK doctors. The prototype Dynamic Brain Atlas was created by a team from King's College London, Imperial College London and Oxford University and uses a database of Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans from 200 people. Doctors can select scans from people in the database that most closely match their own patient, in terms of age and sex, for example, to create an averaged "brain atlas" for comparison. Currently, doctors visually compare a patient's scans with one or two others. But the comparison could, for example, highlight "abnormalities" that are simply the result of age differences. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 1956 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Twins are at risk of developing the condition autism, according to researchers. Previous studies have suggested that genes play a key role in determining who is at risk of developing the potentially socially debilitating illness. But two studies carried out in the UK and the US suggest that environmental factors such as experiences in the womb, may also be involved. However, the National Autistic Society has warned that more research is needed. In the first study, David Greenberg, a geneticist at Columbia University in New York, examined a database of families in which at least two siblings had autism. He began to have doubts about the genetic basis of autism when he identified a significant number of both identical and fraternal twins in the database. (C) BBC

Keyword: Autism; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 1955 - Posted: 04.25.2002

By ANASTASIA TOUFEXIS Psychiatric expert witnesses are fixtures of the criminal justice system these days, and nowhere more so than in trials involving pleas of insanity to explain and excuse a crime. One of the most prominent and provocative experts is Dr. Park Dietz, 53, a forensic psychiatrist in Newport Beach, Calif. Dr. Dietz has studied more than 1,000 people whose lawyers are considering insanity pleas, and he has testified in the trials of high-profile defendants like John W. Hinckley Jr., Jeffrey Dahmer and Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who was convicted of murder after drowning her children. Dr. Dietz, who was the star prosecution witness in the Yates trial, found it an especially troubling case, professionally and personally. "It would have been the easier course of action to distort the law a little, ignore the evidence a little, and pretend that she didn't know what she did was wrong," Dr. Dietz said. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Depression
Link ID: 1954 - Posted: 04.25.2002

Implanting olfactory ensheathing glial cells into the spinal cords of paralyzed adult rats recently has been shown to promote neuronal cell repair and restore function. After transplantation, the rats were able to walk, even climb over complex terrain, and respond to touch and proprioception (stimuli originating in muscles and tendons) in their hind-limbs. These results are the most dramatic functional and histological repair yet achieved after complete spinal cord transection in adult mammals, and they open new avenues in the search for treatment of spinal cord injuries in other mammals, including humans. The leader of the group of scientists who achieved this, Dr. Almudena Ramon-Cueto, Institute of Biomedicine, Spanish Council for Scientific Research in Valencia, is one of a panel of experts speaking in New Orleans April 22 at an Experimental Biology 2002 American Association of Anatomists symposium on Olfactory Ensheathing Cells: Therapeutic Potential in Spinal Cord Injury. Chaired by Dr. Kathryn J. Jones, Loyola University in Chicago, the panel discusses the location and structure olfactory ensheathing cells, how they work, and why the best hope for restoring function in human spinal cord injury patients might well lie in their own noses.

Keyword: Glia; Regeneration
Link ID: 1953 - Posted: 04.25.2002

Endangered vulture eats excrement to attract mates. MEERA LOUIS Eating cow, goat and sheep excrement gives the Egyptian vulture the edge in the mating game. Ungulate droppings contain pigments called carotenoids, which birds cannot produce for themselves. Carotenoids are nutritious, but more importantly, they keep the area around the vultures' eyes bright yellow. A yellow face makes the fluffy white birds more attractive to mates, J. J. Negro of the Estacion Biologica de Donana in Seville, Spain, and his colleagues have found1. "The yellower the better," says Negro. * Negro, J. J. et al. An unusual source of essential carotenoids. Nature, 416, 807 - 808, (2002). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002 =

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 1952 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Being around women who breastfeed has an unexpected effect HOW you smell really can change the way people around you behave-and it has nothing to do with bad BO. Breastfeeding women and newborns give off odours that boost the sexual desire of other women. The finding adds to the growing body of evidence suggesting that our natural smell influences other people on an unconscious level, and strengthens the argument that human pheromones exist and still exert a subtle influence over us. In the study, smells associated with breastfeeding increased feelings of sexual intimacy in childless women volunteers. Why this should be so is a mystery, but the researchers suggest it may be a way that women signal to each other that the environment is a good one in which to reproduce.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 1951 - Posted: 04.25.2002

Boston - Physicians have long recognized that early and severe osteoporosis is a serious consequence of anorexia nervosa. With this in mind, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston developed a study to determine if having a bone measurement to screen for low bone density changes the attitude and behavior of young women with anorexia nervosa. While examining normal and low bone density results, researchers found the results to be interpreted both positively and negatively by participants depending on what stage of illness, from diagnosis to recovery, they were in. Those closer to recovery reported bone density results further motivated their recovery. An abstract detailing these findings will be presented at the 2002 International Conference on Eating Disorders, April 25-28, in Boston, by Nava Stoffman, M.D., clinical fellow in the Department of Adolescent Medicine, and colleagues at Children's Hospital Boston.

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 1950 - Posted: 04.25.2002

By Faye Flam Inquirer Staff Writer Do dogs know who they are? Do nest-robbing jays follow a plan? Do any animals have a sense of self? Scientists are pondering these and other questions about how animals think, hoping to understand just how animal consciousness and self-awareness differ from our own. Eventually, the researchers hope to gain insight into how consciousness emerges from the human brain. It might seem evident that many mammals are conscious - that they have feelings and thought, in their own animal ways. But over the course of history, philosophers and scientists have argued otherwise, declaring them as mindless and predictable as robots.

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 1949 - Posted: 04.25.2002

In research employing fruit flies, scientists at the University of Arizona have provided new insights into how molecules may control addiction, memory formation, and brain plasticity. Their research has provided the first evidence that the molecule AP1, which helps to regulate changes in the manufacture of certain proteins in brain cells, also is required for long-term changes in the function of synapses (the connections between brain cells). The study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), is published in the April 25, 2002 issue of Nature. NIDA Acting Director Dr. Glen R. Hanson says that "understanding addiction at the molecular level will help in the search for new pharmacologic agents to treat or interrupt the biological processes that result in addiction."

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 1948 - Posted: 04.25.2002

For years, researchers have known that the symptoms of Parkinson's disease (PD) result from damage to a specific region of the brain. A new study shows that the disease also causes widespread damage to the sympathetic nervous system, which controls blood pressure, pulse rate, perspiration, and many other automatic responses to stress. The findings help explain the blood pressure regulation problems commonly found in PD and may lead to new treatments for the disease. Physicians have long known that patients with PD often have incontinence and other symptoms of autonomic nervous system function, and previous studies have found evidence of sympathetic nerve damage in PD patients' hearts. The sympathetic nervous system is one component of the autonomic nervous system. However, this study is the first to show that the disease affects sympathetic nerve endings in the thyroid gland and the kidney, says David S. Goldstein, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, who led the study. It also shows that this damage is unrelated to treatment with the most commonly used Parkinson's drug, levodopa. The study appears in the April 23, 2002, issue of Neurology.* Many people with PD develop a problem called orthostatic hypotension (OH), in which blood pressure falls suddenly when a person stands up. This condition can lead to dizziness, lightheadedness, and fainting. OH increases the risk of falls and other types of accidents, which can be disabling or even life-threatening. Patients with PD frequently have other symptoms of sympathetic nervous system failure, including intolerance to heat or cold and sexual dysfunction. However, the underlying cause of these problems has been unclear. Goldstein DS, Holmes CS, Dendi R, Bruce SR, Li S-T. "Orthostatic Hypotension from Sympathetic Denervation in Parkinson's Disease." Neurology, April 23, 2002, Vol. 58, No. 8., pp. 1247-1255.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 1947 - Posted: 04.24.2002