ANN ARBOR---For recovering alcoholics and ex-smokers, as well as former users of illicit drugs, the mundane trappings of their addictions-ice cubes, ashtrays, straws, needles-exert a strong, long-lasting power to trigger relapse. A new University of Michigan study, published in the current (October 2001) issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, provides experimental evidence supporting a neurological explanation for why cues as innocent as the sound of ice cubes tinkling in a glass can cause "recovered" addicts to experience dangerous drug cravings. "Drug use is known to 'sensitize' certain neural systems within the brain, causing changes that are relatively permanent," says U-M psychologist Kent C. Berridge, co-author of the study with U-M psychologist Cindy L. Wyvell. "This study shows that the brain is vulnerable to cues that trigger irrational 'wanting,' even after a long period of remaining drug-free, once sensitized by prior drug use or exposure."

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 711 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Patients don't always get the support they need. By Stephanie Stapleton, AMNews staff. Because traumatic brain injury is a sweeping category that includes both severe and mild traumas, it has been a persistent challenge for public health surveillance and treatment. The most basic questions are: How many people sustain traumatic brain injury each year? What happens to survivors? Are brain injuries that are less severe being missed? October is Brain Injury Awareness Month -- a time when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other organizations, focus attention on efforts to find these answers.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 710 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Lack of Leptin a cause of 'plateau' all too familiar to dieters New York, NY- Dieters know the phenomenon all too well: They cut calories, exercise, and lose some weight but at some point they can't seem to get rid of any more of the excess poundage. Now researchers from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, and the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, in a study of rats, may have some new clues why the plateau effect occurs and what could be done to overcome it. The findings have led to clinical tests in people. The investigators theorized that rats--and humans--may not be able to lose weight after a certain amount of dieting, even with drugs or surgery, such as gastric bypass, because the loss of fat decreases the amount of the hormone leptin in the body.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 708 - Posted: 10.20.2001

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A protein targeted by drug treatments in some patients with Alzheimer's disease also appears to play an important role in honeybees (Apis melifera), researchers say. U.S. and Israeli scientists – led by Gene E. Robinson of the University of Illinois – report that forager bees, which work outside the hive collecting nectar and pollen, have lower activity levels of the acetylcholingesterase (AChE) protein in their brains than do younger nurse bees. AChE is an enzyme that breaks down a primary neurotransmitter known as acetylcholine (ACh). Neurons use ACh to communicate with one another. In the human body, ACh signals muscle movement, and, in the brain, it is linked to learning and memory. In many Alzheimer's patients, researchers have noted a loss of neurons that secrete ACh. One treatment is the use of an AChE inhibitor. The scientists, reporting in a recent issue of the Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, showed that the reduction of AChE protein activity is the result of the down regulation of the AChE gene.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Animal Communication
Link ID: 707 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Andrew Osborn The Observer European Union scientists have secretly given their blessing to controversial experiments in which live monkeys will be infected with mad cow disease. In a move that has outraged animal rights campaigners, the EU's most powerful scientific committee has concluded that 'important and valuable information' can be gained from such experiments. They believe the information will help scientists better understand how BSE is caught, particularly by humans. The monkeys will be fed brain matter from British and French meat infected with BSE. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 706 - Posted: 10.20.2001

A unique way to save your brain during a heart attack By Charles Platt If your heart stops beating, standard medical procedure is to shock it back into action with a defibrillator. This has to be done fast, so that your blood will resume supplying oxygen and glucose to the brain. But if you experience cardiac arrest when you're not in a hospital, paramedics are unlikely to reach you soon enough to avert permanent damage. Unexpectedly, a technique that fills the lungs with a chilled, breathable liquid may revolutionize this dismal picture. Researchers claim that the liquid treatment can double the survival times without blood flow and enable perhaps one patient in three to survive cardiac arrest. The national average is around one in 20. The key discovery was made by Peter Safar, a doctor best known for introducing the techniques of cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the United States almost 50 years ago. © Copyright 2001 The Walt Disney Company.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 705 - Posted: 10.20.2001

UMass biologist looks at how these insects adhere to various surfaces AMHERST, Mass. – University of Massachusetts biologist Elizabeth Brainerd is part of a team that recently completed a study on how certain types of ants and bees are able to walk on vertical surfaces – or even upside-down. The study, conducted in conjunction with Walter Federle and Bert Höldobler of the University of Würzburg, Germany, and the late Thomas A. McMahon, of Harvard University, was published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The findings have implications not just in the field of biology, but also in the development of miniature robots used in medical procedures. The study, which included taking videotapes of insects scurrying along glass plates, focused specifically on honeybees and Asian weaver ants. The adhesive organs in these insects are quite different from those of animals such as geckos and most other insects, Brainerd notes. "Geckos have sticky pads on their feet, which peel off at the end of each step. It's a relatively static system," she said. "The adhesive organs in ants and bees are much more dynamic."

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 694 - Posted: 06.24.2010

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) scientists have shown that they can tell what kind of object a person is looking at -- a face, a house, a shoe, a chair -- by the pattern of brain activity it evokes. These landscapes of strong, intermediate and weak responses, in a visual processing area on the bottom surface of the brain, are different for each category of objects. The patterns may provide a key to deciphering the brain's code for recognizing objects and faces, say the researchers. James Haxby, Ph.D., NIMH Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, and colleagues, report on their functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study in the September 28, 2001 Science. "Brain imaging may be able to show how the brain encodes complex information, such as the appearance of objects, not just where the encoding occurs," said Haxby.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 693 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Water passes through the cap to cool the head Scientists investigating whether brain damage in new-born babies can be reduced by cooling their heads have been awarded new funding. A new "cooling cap" is being tried out at Bristol's Southmead and St Michael's hospitals. But it is not known if the treatment causes distress. The children's medical research charity, Sparks, has given £23,000 towards the trial to establish whether babies need to be sedated. (c) BBC

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 691 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The uplifting mood that comes from strenuous exercise may be due to a compound released into the blood called phenylacetic acid, doctors have suggested. Scientists from Nottingham Trent University in Britain asked 20 healthy young men to do four hours of moderate to hard exercise every week. Urine samples taken the day after each exercise session showed an average increase of 77 per cent in phenylacetic acid. © 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Keyword: Depression; Emotions
Link ID: 690 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Researchers have gotten a glimpse at how the brain "sees" when a person is gazing at someone's face, a pet or an inanimate object, according to a study to be published in the journal Science. Using magnetic resonance imaging, scientists were able to determine what study subjects were peering at by observing which areas of their brain were active. Subjects were shown images of faces, cats and five categories of man-made objects: houses, chairs, scissors, shoes and bottles. © 2000 Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 689 - Posted: 10.20.2001

In about half a second, the human brain (specifically the superior colliculus) will analyze its current environment, and then decide whether or not one thing or another is worth taking any notice of. Exactly how the brain does this is still somewhat a mystery, but we do know that the more sensory input provided, the more likely the brain will pay attention. (For example, in a crowd, if you wave at someone he may or may not notice…but, if you wave and shout, chances are better that he'll pay attention.) Researchers are now hard at work building computer programs that can function in the same way. Now there's a camera in the works that uses a computer simulation of this specific brain process, and is close to mimicking it. Funded by the Office of Naval Research, researchers at the University of Illinois have built a movable video camera that is aimed at targets detected by a stationary video camera that watches for motion, and a microphone pair that listens for sound.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 685 - Posted: 10.20.2001

New otic research avenues show slow but hopeful promise By Jennifer Fisher Wilson In a University of Maryland lab, psychologist Robert Dooling trains hundreds of small, colorful parakeets, zebra finches, and canaries to chirp on command. In about three weeks, the birds learn to mimic computer-produced sounds. Once the birds' vocalizations match the template, Dooling, who heads the university's comparative psychoacoustics laboratory, rewards them with seed. Dooling isn't interested in producing sweet songs, but rather in understanding what happens when these little creatures lose their hearing. The birds are then exposed to noise, which damages the thousands of hair cells, or sensory cells, located in the inner ear. When undamaged, these cells transmit sound through nerves to the brain. When injured, the birds become deaf and lose their ability to chirp precisely. The Scientist 15[19]:17, Oct. 1, 2001 © Copyright 2001, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Hearing; Regeneration
Link ID: 684 - Posted: 10.20.2001

For the first time, an NIH panel reviews a clinical protocol By Douglas Steinberg At first blush, gene therapy seems ill-suited to treating Parkinson's disease (PD). Scientists have linked few cases to missing or mutated genes and are generally clueless about the disease's cause. But the need for some relief from its debilitating symptoms is so great that gene therapy researchers have labored over the past decade to develop counter-strategies. These studies have had promising results. When the brains of rat and monkey PD models express certain transgenes, the animals show less of the disease's hallmark pathology, a deterioration of nerve fibers that secrete the neurotransmitter dopamine. The animals also exhibit fewer behavioral abnormalities than do controls. Armed with these findings, laboratory scientists and clinicians are now preparing to test gene therapy on humans with PD. Last spring, the National Institutes of Health Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) reviewed a PD gene therapy protocol for the first time, endorsing various recommendations by a 12-0 vote. The Scientist 15[19]:18, Oct. 1, 2001 © Copyright 2001, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 683 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Researchers gain new insights into this structure's emotional connections By Harvey Black The amygdala, an almond-sized and -shaped brain structure, has long been linked with a person's mental and emotional state. But thanks to scientific advances, researchers have recently grasped how important this 1-inch-long structure really is. Associated with a range of mental conditions from normalcy to depression to even autism, the amygdala has become the focal point of numerous research projects. Derived from the Greek for almond, the amygdala sits in the brain's medial temporal lobe, a few inches from either ear. Coursing through the amygdala are nerves connecting it to a number of important brain centers, including the neocortex and visual cortex. "More and more we're beginning to believe, and the evidence is pointing to the idea, that it's the circuits that are important, not just the structure per se," says Ned Kalin, professor of psychiatry, University of Wisconsin-Madison. "And in this particular case the circuitry between the frontal cortical regions of the brain may be critical in regulating emotion and in guiding emotion-related behaviors." The Scientist 15[19]:20, Oct. 1, 2001 © Copyright 2001, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 682 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Andy Coghlan A UK company is developing a drug to help overcome the sexual side effects of Prozac. At least a third of people taking such antidepressants have difficulty attaining orgasm or suffer a loss of libido. Although a drug like Viagra can increase blood flow, it doesn't change desire and arousal, says John Hutchison of Vernalis, a company in Reading, Berkshire, that is co-developing the new drug, codenamed VML 670, with Prozac's manufacturer, Eli Lilly. VML 670, by contrast, activates a receptor in the brain called 5-HT1A, which is known to be linked with sexual arousal. In tests on rodents, Vernalis showed that VML 670 increases the animals' sex drive. Males mounted receptive females sooner and ejaculated more quickly. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Depression; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 681 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Like animals, humans can transcend their capacity for violence Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Humans might be forgiven a little despair now as the warplanes gather and terrorists hide. But in the animal world, giving in completely to the dark side is out of the question. While it seems no species can match the human capacity for mass murder, our violent streak clearly is rooted in the well-documented killer habits of our primate cousins. Rhesus monkeys like to bite one another. Baboons mercilessly torture weaklings of the troop. Chimpanzees roam the edges of community territory, ganging up on stray neighbors with what seems murderous intent. ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 4

Keyword: Aggression; Evolution
Link ID: 680 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By Merritt McKinney NEW YORK, (Reuters Health) - Results of a new study provide evidence supporting a possible link between Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The potential connection suggests that experimental drugs designed to target Alzheimer-linked brain deposits might be effective against more types of neurological diseases than expected, one of the study's authors told Reuters Health. Both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's are progressive neurological diseases, but the illnesses cause distinct symptoms. Parkinson's disease causes tremor, muscle rigidity and movement problems. In contrast, Alzheimer's leads to a gradual decline in mental abilities. SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2001;10.1073. Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Alzheimers
Link ID: 677 - Posted: 10.20.2001

People who believe they have high blood pressure are more likely to suffer from depression, even if their hypertension doesn't show up on clinical tests, according to a new study in the September issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. Depression and hypertension share many common risk factors, such as stress, poverty and ethnicity. Researchers have sought to understand whether these shared factors were responsible for the association between depression and hypertension, or whether life-style factors associated with depression, such as obesity, alcohol abuse and smoking) might lead to hypertension. This study found none of the above to be true. However, there was an association between depression and self-reported hypertension, which applies to patients who said they had hypertension, even if they did not have high blood pressure as measured during the study, says Marian Reiff, Ph.D., of Columbia University

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 676 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By Sue Facter, Spotlight Health With medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D. Mr. Blackwell has an eye for fashion. But the man who originated Hollywood's Best and Worst Dressed lists couldn't believe what he saw in the mirror when Bell's Palsy (BP) struck without warning. "The left side of my face drooped," says Blackwell. "Saliva ran down it. It just happened." Luckily, the fashionista had dinner plans with his internist, Dr. Glen Hollinger of Good Samaritan Hospital, who immediately recognized the symptoms of BP. © Copyright 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 675 - Posted: 10.20.2001