The proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease interact to enhance each other's distinct degenerative effects, indicating that therapies blocking the production or accumulation of either protein may have broader benefits than previously thought, researchers report in the September 25 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, published electronically. Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease are distinct neurological disorders, but up to one-third of Alzheimer's patient develop Parkinson's, and some Parkinson's patient develop signs of Alzheimer's.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Parkinsons
Link ID: 674 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE A runaway trolley is hurtling toward five people. They will all be killed - unless you throw a switch that will steer the trolley onto a spur, where it will kill just one person instead of five. Should you throw the switch? A vast majority of people say yes, according to moral philosophers and psychologists who have posed the question over many years. It is morally acceptable to throw the switch to save five innocent lives at the expense of one. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 670 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The AIDS virus can cause a version of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, that can be treated effectively with antiretroviral drugs, according to two studies reported in the 25 September issue of Neurology. The results bolster the case for a viral cause of ALS and show that at least some rare cases of motor neuron disease can be reversed. As ALS patients get sicker, their motor neurons degenerate, causing muscles throughout the body to atrophy. Despite decades of research, it's still not clear what kills the neurons. Researchers have long suspected a virus, perhaps one related to poliovirus or HIV, but evidence was circumstantial. To see whether HIV was associated with motor neuron disease, neurologist Antoine Moulignier of Rothschild Hospital in Paris, France, and his colleagues examined records from 1700 patients with either HIV or neurological symptoms who had been treated at the hospital between 1987 and 2000. Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 669 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Experimental treatment stimulates the vagus nerve By Mark Moran WEBMD Imagine a device - permanently implanted in your bodylike a pacemaker - that controls anxiety by stimulating a nerve in your neck that leads to your brain. Can this approach - called vagus nerve stimulation - be a permanent solution for people who have gone from drug to drug and therapy to therapy without success? GRAY SCOTT, of Florence, S.C., has been treated for anxiety for nine years, from the time she was diagnosed with an eating disorder at age 15. Since then, she has tried a variety of medications and psychotherapy, with variable results. “When the symptoms are alleviated, it becomes tolerable,” she tells WebMD. “At their worst, I have felt very desperate.” Scott is not alone. Anxiety disorders - including phobias, panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder - affect more than 23 million Americans. • MSNBC Terms, Conditions and Privacy © 2001

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 668 - Posted: 06.24.2010

‘Chilling' tunes belong in the same league as sex and food ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON, - In a study that may explain why some people have a powerful emotional response to music, researchers have found that melodies can stimulate the same parts of the brain as food and sex. "PEOPLE NOW ARE using music to help them deal with sadness and fear," said Dr. Anne Blood, a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown, Mass. "We are showing in our study that music is triggering systems in the brain that makes them feel happy." Blood and her co-author, Robert Zatorre of McGill University in Montreal, used positron emission tomography, or PET scans, to find areas of the brain that are stimulated by music found so moving by the test subjects that it "sent shivers down the spine." © 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 667 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Study Provides Clues as to What Causes Schizophrenia By Jenette Restivo - Schizophrenia, one of the most debilitating of mental illnesses, is also one of the most mysterious. Though treatment can control the illness in more than half of patients, little is known about what actually causes the disorder - which affects about one in every 100 persons worldwide &3151; and how it affects the mind. UCLA researchers may have just unraveled part of the mystery. Using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, and a new analysis technique, they have created the first images showing the toll the disease takes on the brain. The results are reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 666 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Ian Sample If you want successful offspring, have sex with a stranger - and the stranger the better, according to scientists at Cambridge University. They have shown that the more genetically distinct an animal's parents are, the more offspring they will have. The number of grandchildren is a common measure of reproductive success. "We've got sayings like 'opposites attract', and the ideal male partner is supposed to be a tall, dark stranger," says zoologist Bill Amos. "The stranger here really seems to make sense." © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 665 - Posted: 10.20.2001

ERICA KLARREICH Spells and incantations step aside: scientists have found a genetic elixir of love. It makes males more faithful to females and more friendly to fellow males. It could also shed light on bonding disorders such as autism. Larry Young of Emory University in Georgia and colleagues used a virus to deliver a gene straight to the part of voles' brains responsible for rewards and addiction, the ventral pallidum. The gene made the animals' brains more receptive to the hormone vasopressin1. 1.Pitkow, L. et al. Facilitation of affiliation and pair-bond formation by vasopressin receptor gene transfer into the ventral forebrain of a monogamous vole. Journal of Neuroscience, 21(18), 7392 - 7396, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 664 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Robin McKie Science Editor The Observer Tiny specks of dirt have been pinpointed as causes of Parkinson's disease. Scientists have found that soil contains strains of bacteria linked to the incurable neurological illness. Their research raises the prospect of creating vaccines to protect individuals from Parkinson's, which affects more than 120,000 Britons and whose sufferers include the Pope and the American film star Michael J. Fox. 'We are not saying every case of Parkinson's disease is caused by soil bacteria but our evidence suggests a fairly substantial number are triggered by them,' said microbiologist Professor Blaine Beaman of the University of California. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 663 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bruce Bower The proportion of teenagers and young adults who smoke cigarettes daily has declined in the United States over the past 20 years, thanks in no small part to a public health campaign to discourage tobacco use. At the same time, however, nicotine addiction has widened its grip among those young people who do smoke, a new study finds. Daily cigarette smokers aren't necessarily hooked on nicotine. But for people ages 24 and younger, the rate of addiction among regular cigarette smokers has increased even as the overall popularity of smoking has dropped, reports a team led by psychologist Naomi Breslau of Henry Ford Health System in Detroit. Breslau, N., et al. 2001. Nicotine dependence in the United States. Archives of General Psychiatry 58(September):810. From Science News, Vol. 160, No. 12, Sept. 22, 2001, p. 183. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 659 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Sustained weight maintenance after significant weight loss is usually difficult to achieve. One potential pharmacological approach to the treatment of obesity involves leptin, a circulating hormone that is released by the body's fat cells. Leptin provides a signal to the central nervous system to regulate appetite, food intake, and other aspects relevant to weight management. In a study of middle-aged obese men published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Westerterp-Plantenga et al. investigated the effects of leptin on appetite and energy expenditure during a moderate weight loss diet. The treatment group that received weekly injections of the leptin protein experienced subjective changes in appetite. However, reductions in calorie intake and body composition were similar to the untreated group.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 658 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Opinion is split about the benefits and risks of ECT Measuring the levels of a hormone could help doctors decide whether it is safe to give a patient electro-convulsive therapy (ECT). ECT is a controversial treatment used to relieve the symptoms of severe depression. There is evidence that it is effective at relieving these symptoms in many cases. But some of those who have undergone the treatment claim they have suffered long-lasting cognitive side effects including memory loss, mood swings and recurrent head-aches. Now, a team of scientists, led by Thomas Neylan, from the University of California in San Francisco, has found that levels of the stress hormone cortisol might indicate which patients will suffer most from these side-effects. (C) BBC

Keyword: Depression; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 656 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Researchers suggest further interdisciplinary research between voice specialists, psychiatrists and psychologists is needed. Denver, CO -- Psychological factors including personality traits and psychiatric illness may be causally related to voice disorders or may be a consequence of vocal dysfunction. Failure to recognize coexistent psychopathology may result not only in errors in voice diagnosis, but may delay treatment and impair long-term cure rates. Previous research on this subject area has investigated personality variables that may predispose individuals to the development of voice pathology. Findings revealed that personality variables and their behavioral consequences could contribute to voice disorders. A model of predispositional personality types for functional dysphonia and vocal nodules has been established; evaluations of individuals with psychogenic dysphonia found that they share certain neurotic personality traits and social anxiety. © 1995-2001 Newswise

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 655 - Posted: 10.20.2001

For some people, music makes as much sense as a foreign language Do people cover their ears when you step up to the karaoke mike? Can't tap your foot in time to a melody? Can't even recognise a simple tune like Happy Birthday? If the answer is yes, you're not just tone-deaf, you're "tune-deaf". "For these patients, listening to music is like listening to a foreign language," says Isabelle Peretz of Montreal University in Canada, who identified congenital amusia four years ago. Tune-deaf people are perfectly normal in other ways, she explains. They are intelligent, have no history of mental illness and were exposed to music as children. They just cannot comprehend the basic components of melody such as meter, rhythm and pitch and consequently do not feel any emotion when listening. The disorder seems to affect men and women equally. Peretz's research-including one study on 11 people-has shown that tune-deaf people cannot distinguish intervals of about two semitones or less. A semitone is the smallest interval in Western scales and most people can detect an interval of half that. Tune-deaf people also have difficulty recognising "wrong" notes in popular tunes and spotting musical dissonance. © AlphaGalileo March 2000

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 654 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Deaf children who have had electrodes implanted in their ears will learn how to use the devices properly at a medical centre in Nottingham. The Cochlear Implant Centre at Queens Medical Centre is unique in offering support to children who have had cochlear implants. The implants have been carried out at Queens Medical Centre (QMC) since 1989 and involve placing an electrode into the inner ear so the brain can understand sounds. (C) BBC

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 650 - Posted: 10.20.2001

- Using a technique to eliminate the function of one enzyme in a restricted memory-related region in the brains of mice, researchers have shown that the enzyme is important in consolidating long-term memories. According to the researchers, their experiments - which showed that defects in a key biochemical signaling pathway were responsible for the animals' inability to improve their long-term memory in a series of maze tests - constitute a powerful approach to understanding molecules involved in learning and memory. ©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 649 - Posted: 10.20.2001

A gene implicated in the human nerve disorder neurofibromatosis type 1 has been shown to play an important role in a biochemical pathway that communicates crucial information about the circadian clock to various parts of the body. Circadian rhythms, the patterns of activity that occur on a 24-hour cycle, are important biological regulators in virtually every living creature. In humans and other animals, the brain's internal circadian clock regulates sleep and wake cycles, as well as body temperature, blood pressure, and the release of various endocrine hormones. ©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 647 - Posted: 11.06.2001

Seeds of Psychosis New research shows that the biological clock ticks for men too By Josie Glausiusz Eileen Malaspina dreamed of becoming a physician. But in 1971, during her senior year in high school, her grades began to deteriorate. She became increasingly withdrawn and complained that the neighbors were talking about her. After graduation she entered not the college to which she had won a scholarship but a hospital. Diagnosed with schizo-affective disorder, a devastating mix of mania, depression, and psychosis, she never made it to medical school. But her only sister, Dolores, did. Now a psychiatrist at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, Dolores Malaspina applied to study medicine with one aim: to understand the illness that afflicts her younger sister. © Copyright 2001 The Walt Disney Company.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 645 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Oh great- now we'll have rat psychologists Illustrations and Case Histories by Bruce McCall Several months ago, Matthew Wilson, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced that he had figured out what the rats in his lab dream about. Wilson and his graduate assistant Kenway Louie had implanted tiny electrodes directly into the rats' hippocampi, the region responsible for memory and learning. Then they trained the rats to scurry around a circular track and stop periodically for food rewards. As the rats ran, the electrodes monitored the firing of a dozen or so neurons in each rat's brain. Wilson found that the neurons fired in a distinctive pattern that varied from rat to rat but remained the same for each individual animal. Later, when the rats experienced rapid eye movement sleep, those neurons began to fire again. "The patterns are not exactly the same," Wilson says, "but we can definitely say that they are derived from those generated during the rats' awake experience on the track." © Copyright 2001 The Walt Disney Company.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 644 - Posted: 11.06.2001

by Maia Szalavitz Transcranial magnetic stimulation has come of age and is being used to study everything from free will to mental illness. Will it move out of the lab and into the clinic? Over the centuries, countless claims have been made for the healing power of magnets. Even now, an Internet search will yield thousands of sites touting their benefits, despite little scientific evidence. There is one medical use of magnets, however, that is currently generating great interest amongst neuroscientists - a technology called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), first introduced in 1985, that is being used to study everything from free will to movement disorders and mental illness. © Elsevier Science Limited 2000

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 641 - Posted: 10.20.2001