Chemotherapy makes only a marginal difference to the life expectancy of patients with hard-to-treat brain tumours. But scientists are hopeful that in future, new drugs or combinations of treatments will boost survival. Life expectancy was increased, on average, from ten to 12 months for adult patients who received chemotherapy, a study showed, compared to those receiving no extra treatment after surgery and radiotherapy. Two years after treatment, 15 out of every 100 patients assigned chemotherapy in addition to surgery and radiotherapy were still alive, compared to ten out of every 100 receiving only the surgery and radiotherapy. (C) BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 1748 - Posted: 03.23.2002

John Pickrell A newly found, million-year-old African skull is fueling an ongoing debate over whether Homo erectus was a single wide-ranging species or several localized ones. The skull appears similar to those found in Asia, suggesting that the populations were in fact one species. Fossils of H. erectus were discovered in Java in the 1800s. For many years, this species was recognized as the sole link between humans' earliest direct ancestor, Homo habilis, and modern Homo sapiens. H. erectus emerged 1.8 million years ago and may have survived to times as recent as 50,000 years ago. Beginning in the 1980s, with the advent of new methods of analysis, some anthropologists have argued for splitting up H. erectus (SN: 6/20/92, p. 408). Proponents of this argument hold that European and African specimens formerly considered H. erectus belong to another species that they call Homo ergaster. They say that H. ergaster evolved into modern man but the Asia-bound H. erectus came up against an evolutionary dead end. From Science News, Vol. 161, No. 12, March 23, 2002, p. 179. Copyright ©2002 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 1747 - Posted: 06.24.2010

TROY, NY - The cause of Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) has remained elusive since it brought down one of baseball's greatest players 60 years ago. According to Wilfredo "Freddie" Colón, ALS starts "when good proteins go bad." Understanding just why they go bad is a necessary first step toward developing medicines that will help ALS patients live with a manageable disease instead of a death sentence. The Rensselaer biochemist's vital research has recently earned a $1 million, four-year grant from the National Institutes of Health. Copyright © 1996–2001 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 1746 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DAVID AKIN ABritish cybernetics professor is the first human to have a computer chip directly connected to his central nervous system, a technology that eventually could help paralyzed people and allow soldiers to communicate silently in battle. It was announced yesterday that Kevin Warwick, a professor in the department of cybernetics at Reading University in England, underwent surgery over the weekend to have an computer chip inserted in his upper left arm. The chip, about five centimetres long and capable of Internet communication, has been wired to nerve endings. In experiments to take place later this year, Prof. Warwick expects that the chip will record sensations, such as movement and pain, and send them to an external computer. © 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Keyword: Robotics; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 1745 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Haven, Conn. -- A Yale researcher tracing a recombinant virus as it entered the brains of laboratory animals found it damaged selective areas and then vanished without a trace, raising questions about possible mental problems caused by undetected viruses. "The virus went to areas of the brain that play an important role in functions related to attention," said Anthony Van den Pol, professor of neurosurgery at Yale School of Medicine and lead author of the study published as the cover story in the February issue of the Journal of Virology . "After a few days the virus was eliminated by the immune system, leaving no trace of the virus in the brain, but nerve cells in very specific areas of the brain were lost. This is a potential model for viruses that can cause psychiatric and neurological dysfunction, yet leave no evidence of their presence at later times."

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 1744 - Posted: 03.22.2002

New Haven, Conn. -- A 29-year-old man with multiple sclerosis is the second patient to undergo transplantation surgery at Yale in an effort to repair myelin, the protective brain and spinal cord sheath that is destroyed by the disease, Yale researchers have reported. The surgery took place in two stages March 6-7 and the patient was discharged from Yale-New Haven Hospital March 10. The young man is the second of five patients who are scheduled to participate in the groundbreaking clinical trial. "The patient is doing fine," said Timothy Vollmer, M.D., associate professor of neurology at Yale School of Medicine. "He has a high level of disability because of the location of the lesions in the brain, but he is otherwise healthy."

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 1743 - Posted: 03.22.2002

Brain's negativity-detector might be an unreliable guide. JOHN WHITFIELD Losing money touches part of the brain's emotion circuit behind the forehead, researchers have discovered. The area seems to be a general negativity-detector: the amount lost doesn't matter, and winning leaves it cold. But the brain does take account of previous experience. A run of losses produces a stronger response - as if the loss-detector were smarting at the injustice - psychologists William Gehring and Adrian Willoughby of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, have found1. This reaction seems to mirror the gambler's mistaken belief that, just because the roulette wheel has come up red four times in a row, the next turn is more likely to be black. "The brain thinks it's due a win - it expects things to average out," Gehring suggests. * Gehring, W.J. & Willoughby, A.R. The medial frontal cortex and the rapid processing of monetary gains and losses. Science, 295, 2279 - 2282, (2002). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Attention; Emotions
Link ID: 1742 - Posted: 06.24.2010

HOUSTON - A newly identified gene, atrogin-1, is involved in muscle loss associated with cancer, diabetes, fasting and kidney disease as well as in the atrophy occurring with disuse, inactivity, and nerve or spinal injury. This discovery, funded by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI) and the Muscular Dystrophy Association, increases the understanding of how muscles atrophy and may lead to development of new treatments for muscle wasting on Earth and in space. "Through a study of rat muscles, we determined that atrogin-1 is found only in muscle," said Dr. Alfred Goldberg, professor of cell biology at Harvard Medical School and associate leader of NSBRI's team of scientists focusing on muscle loss in space. "In normal muscles, the amount is low; however, there is a dramatic increase in the production of the atrogin-1 protein in conditions where muscles lose size and strength." Copyright © 2000-2002 National Space Biomedical Research Institute

Keyword: Muscles; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 1741 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Louis, — Researchers have for the first time used a blood test to identify Alzheimer’s-type changes in living mice. The test, developed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and Eli Lilly and Company, predicts the amount of amyloid plaque in an animal’s brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. To date, the only way to definitively diagnose this disease in humans is by examining a person’s brain after death. “We don’t know if this finding in mice will apply to humans,” says David M. Holtzman, M.D., the Charlotte and Paul Hagemann Associate Professor of Neurology and associate professor of molecular biology and pharmacology at the School of Medicine. “If it does, it has the potential to provide a non-invasive means of detecting Alzheimer’s pathology even before clinical symptoms appear.”

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 1740 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Anatomy of a gamble: Our brains detect wins and losses in a third of a second, then trigger ANN ARBOR---Within about a quarter of a second after we see the outcome of a gamble, our brains have processed whether we've won or lost, according to a University of Michigan study published in the current (March 22) issue of Science. Moreover, choices about the next wager made a few seconds after losses are riskier than choices made after gains, the study found, providing an apparent neurological counterpart of the gambler's fallacy---the misguided belief that a win is bound to follow a string of losses. The study, conducted by U-M psychologists William J. Gehring and Adrian R. Willoughby, confirms the unsettling existence of neurological activity that quickly, automatically and unconsciously evaluates the significance of choices we have made, then guides our subsequent decision-making.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 1739 - Posted: 03.22.2002

Neurologists at Emory University are studying a possible new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease using a device called the COGNIShunt, designed to drain cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from the skull and into the abdominal cavity. By reducing the build-up of CSF around the brain, doctors hope this device will help to stabilize the disease. CSF is the fluid that fills the empty spaces around the brain and spinal cord. The body naturally produces, absorbs, drains and replenishes the fluid. But with age, the replenishing process slows. "Past research shows that toxic and inflammatory substances are found in the cerebrospinal fluid of Alzheimer’s patients, which in turn, may lead to brain cell damage," says Allan Levey, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neurology, Emory University School of Medicine and principal investigator of the Emory study. "We hope the COGNIShunt will help to drain off some of those toxins and allow the CSF to better replenish itself." Shunting has long been used as treatment for hydrocephalus, a condition in which an abnormal accumulation of CSF causes neurological problems, including dementia, problems walking and incontinence

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 1738 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Paul Eng [ABCNEWS.com] — Tired of monkeying around with a mouse in order to work with your computer? The good news: One day, you may be able to control your PC just by thinking. Researchers have pursued such futuristic man-to-machine connections for years in the hopes they could allow paralyzed people to more easily control computers or other complex devices such as artificial limbs. And scientists at Brown University in Providence, R.I., say the results of their latest research, to be published in this week's Nature journal, may help bring such possibilities closer to reality. Copyright © 2002 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures.

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 1737 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ELAINE PORTERFIELD SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER LAKEWOOD -- Charan Bird has lived two lives. Her first was a world of delusions and paranoia, psychiatric hospitalizations and homelessness. In her new life, she is independent, works productively, worships God at her church. It is a life that many never thought possible for schizophrenics such as Bird. ©1999-2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 1736 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Transcript: Loveline's Dr. Drew Pinsky on 'Club Drugs' Dr. Drew Pinsky As co-host of the nationally-syndicated radio show Loveline, Dr. Drew Pinsky — better known to listeners as "Dr. Drew" — offers teens and twenty-somethings advice on sex and relationships. He has also spent much of professional career getting the word out to young people about the dangers of drug abuse. There's a new crop of drugs available to kids in the nation's schools and college campuses that parents may not be aware of — the so-called "club drugs" like Ecstasy, GHB and "Special K." What are the long-term medical effects of Ecstasy and the other club drugs on the brain? Pinksy answered questions from Good Morning America viewers in live, online discussion. A transcript of our chat follows. Pinsky is a specialist in addiction treatment and medical director of the Department of Chemical Dependency Services at Las Encinas Hospital in Pasadena, Calif. Copyright © 2002 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 1735 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition A single glass of wine will impair your driving more than smoking a joint. And under certain test conditions, the complex way alcohol and cannabis combine to affect driving behaviour suggests that someone who has taken both may drive less recklessly than a person who is simply drunk. These are the findings of a major new study by British transport researchers. The unpublished research, seen exclusively by New Scientist , stops well short of condoning driving under the influence of even small amounts of cannabis. But in a week which has seen renewed debate in Britain surrounding the criminalisation of cannabis, it throws an uncomfortable spotlight on a problem confronting governments everywhere - how to deter the growing numbers of cannabis users from "dope driving". At present there is no accurate test that can reveal whether a driver has taken cannabis before driving, and developing one will not be easy. But even when this problem is cracked, another will remain - where to set the safety threshold for smoking cannabis. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 1733 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition A light tap on the side of your head could one day restore your eyesight, believe scientists. The tap would tighten a band of artificial muscle wrapped round your eyeballs, changing their shape and bringing blurry images into focus. While the idea has a high 'yuk' factor, the people behind it are confident it will be a safe and effective way to improve vision. Mohsen Shahinpoor and his team at the University of New Mexico call their artificial muscle a "smart eye band". It will be stitched to the sclera, the tough white outer part of the eyeball, and activated by an electromagnet in a hearing-aid-sized unit fitted behind one ear. Most of the eye's focusing is done by the cornea, the hard transparent surface that covers both the pupil and the iris; the lens is responsible only for fine-tuning. Light travels through the cornea and lens to focus on the retina at the back of the eyeball. The closer an object is, the farther back in the eye it will be focused. The lens compensates by adjusting its strength to bring the focus back onto the retina. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 1732 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition A therapy for tinnitus, the infuriating ringing in the ears that plagues millions of people, is finally on the cards. Simply learning to tell the difference between computer generated tones could help relieve the debilitating condition. A small pilot study of the technique by German researchers has proved so promising that a full-scale clinical trial has already been launched. Tinnitus sufferers hear buzzing or ringing sounds that cannot be blocked out. The condition affects most people at some point in their lives, but in five per cent of the population it becomes chronic and debilitating. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 1731 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By EDWARD WONG A 13-year-old girl who died on Monday night, two days after being hit in the forehead with a puck at an N.H.L. game in Columbus, Ohio, sustained a rare injury in which an artery leading to her brain ruptured when her head snapped back, a coroner said yesterday. The death raised issues about the safety measures in arenas, and Bernadette Mansur, a spokeswoman for the National Hockey League, said that officials were "taking a look at everything as we now do it." The girl, Brittanie Cecil, was hit by a puck after a Columbus Blue Jackets player took a slap shot in the second period of a game on Saturday night against the Calgary Flames. Brittanie was the first person to be killed after being hit by a flying puck at an N.H.L. game. "She died as a result of damage to the right vertebral artery," Bradley Lewis, the Franklin County coroner, said yesterday. "When she was hit with the puck, her head snapped back in a type of whiplash action and caused damage to her artery. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 1730 - Posted: 03.21.2002

Playing catch looks easy, but there's more to it than meets the eye. A ball-catching experiment in space has revealed that human brains have a built-in model of gravity. [NASA] Playing catch is easy. Kids and even their parents can do it. Keep your eyes on the ball and -- if you don't think too hard -- your hand will grab it in mid-air. It's simple, really. Or is it? In fact, playing catch is more complicated than it appears. Just before the ball arrives, your hand twists slightly. The muscles tense, so your hand isn't knocked away by the force of the blow. The timing is surprisingly exact: the muscles tighten exactly one-tenth of a second before the ball's impact.

Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 1729 - Posted: 03.21.2002

Ethiopian fossil suggests early humans were one big family. TOM CLARKE A one-million-year-old skull unearthed in Ethiopia hints that our long-extinct cousins Homo erectus were a varied and widespread bunch, much like today's humans. The find may undermine previous claims that H. erectus was in fact made up of two different species. Homo erectus , which means 'upright man', appeared about 1.8 million years ago. Because of its posture and large brain, it is regarded as the first fully human group. H. erectus left Africa and spread throughout Eurasia from eastern China, possibly reaching as far as southern England. Bony-browed and thick-jawed, H. erectus wielded primitive stone tools and may have been the first creature to make and use fire. * Asfaw, B. et al. Pleistocene hominids from Bouri Ethiopia integrate Homo erectus. Nature, 416, 317 - 320, (2002). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 1728 - Posted: 06.24.2010