The times of our lives Why do we grow old and die rather than stay young and gorgeous forever, asks Henry Gee? 2 October 2000 HENRY GEE Why do we grow old and die? Why can't we stay young and gorgeous forever? These are questions that interest everybody, as attested by the plump profits of beauty-products companies. Evolution has several explanations for our mortality. At root is a division between our 'germ line' -- sperm and egg cells kept healthy and pristine; and the 'soma' -- the body that houses the germ cells.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 35 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Memory echoes in brain's sensory terrain Bruce Bower Psychologists have long noted that any of the sights, sounds, and other inputs that make up an experience can, if encountered again, ignite a memory of the event. In two independent studies, neuroscientists have taken steps to untangle the brain processes that link sensations to memories. When people recall information composed of sights and sounds, neural activity surges in some visual and acoustic areas of their brains just as it does when they first formed the memory, the two teams report in the Sept. 26 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. From Science News, Vol. 158, No. 14, Sept. 30, 2000, p. 213. Copyright © 2000 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 34 - Posted: 10.20.2001

LA JOLLA, CALIF. - Salk scientists have obtained the first snapshot of how gene behavior varies among mammalian brains. The study employed "gene chip" technology to simultaneously compare the activities of approximately 13,000 genes in two inbred strains of mice. Because the strains differ in their susceptibilities to seizures - and their genetic responses to seizures were found to differ as well - the approach may have implications for treating human epilepsy.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 33 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Neuronal Stem Cells Are Transplanted Into Diseased Eye, Extend Into Optic Nerve Research paves way for retinal transplants to restore vision BOSTON - Neural progenitor cells transplanted to the diseased retina of rats have integrated into the eye, taken on some of the characteristics of retinal cells and extended into the optic nerve, a necessary prerequisite to re-establishing connections to the brain, researchers reported today (Sept. 27, 2000).

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 32 - Posted: 10.20.2001

How the Retina Does the Math Researchers studying how neurons compute--such as tallying the myriad of incoming signals and concluding whether or not to fire--have long focused on the retina. By studying cells known to fire only in response to objects moving in one direction only, they hoped to learn more general lessons about how brain neurons compute. But the studies were handicapped by the fact that no one knew which retinal neurons exactly do the math. Now, an Australian team reports evidence that the computations take place in retinal neurons called ganglion cells (Science, 29 September, p. 2347).

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 31 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Researchers Explore How Brain Updates Memories Over Time Experiment with rats indicates human recall can be manipulated Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times Wednesday, September 27, 2000 New York -- Scientists may have found a biological reason to explain why two people who witness the same event will, years later, often have different memories of what happened. It seems that every time an old memory is pulled into consciousness, the brain takes it apart, updates it and then makes new proteins in the process of putting the memory back into long-term storage. The fact that new proteins are made means the memory has been transformed permanently to reflect each person's life experiences -- not the memory itself.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 30 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Human Pheromone Link May Have Been Found By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Scientists have identified the first human gene that may be linked to pheromones, the odorless molecules that in other animals trigger primal urges including sex, defense and kinship. Experts described the discovery as possibly opening a new door into the role of pheromones in human development.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 29 - Posted: 10.20.2001

See hear People born deaf are more aware of objects in their peripheral vision, Helen Gavaghan reports. 26 September 2000 HELEN GAVAGHAN People who are born deaf are more aware of what is happening in their peripheral vision than are people who can hear, new research shows. Eventually, this finding may help deaf people to read, a task that is difficult for them. Although reaction times to peripheral movement have previously hinted that people born deaf develop improved peripheral vision, neuroscientists have had little idea of how the brain does this until now.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 28 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Saving the Heart Can Sometimes Mean Losing the Memory By SANDEEP JAUHAR James Haneman believes his surgeons sacrificed his mind in saving his heart. In 1989, Mr. Haneman had a law practice in New Orleans, earned a six-figure salary and sat on several important state and federal law committees. Then he had a heart attack and surgery to bypass blockages in his coronary arteries.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 25 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Monkeys May Tune In to Basic Melodies Bruce Bower Some tunes stick in one's memory, sometimes with remarkable persistence. Think of "Happy Birthday," "Old MacDonald," and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat." In laboratory experiments, even infants exhibit a keen memory for such songs. A dozen of these childhood classics prove as memorable to rhesus monkeys as they do to people, a new study finds. This represents the first well-controlled demonstration that any nonhuman animal perceives simple melodies, say psychologist Anthony A. Wright of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and his colleagues. Their report appears in the September Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 24 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Movement Disorders: Less of a Black Box Barcelona conference highlights new research findings By Jean McCann Shake the family tree of a patient with a movement disorder, and more and more genes are apt to tumble out. Parkinson's disease and many less well-known movement disorders are now considered to be more familial than scientists had previously thought. "When it comes to Parkinson's disease, the important role of genetics as a decisive factor in the appearance and evolution of the disease is gaining more and more ground," says Eduard Tolosa, chairman of the department of neurology at the University of Barcelona and chairman of the recent Sixth International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders, held in Barcelona, Spain. Recessive parkin genes have now been implicated in early-onset Parkinson's disease (PD), and mutations in genes coding for alpha synuclein and ubiquitin carboxy terminal hydrolase in families with the autosomal dominant type of PD, according to speaker Mihael Polymeropoulos of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 23 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Science panel backs EPA stand on threat posed to fetuses
Marla Cone, Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, July 12, 2000 - An estimated 60,000 babies born each year in the United States face a serious threat of learning disabilities or other neurological damage because their mothers ate fish contaminated with mercury during their pregnancies, a panel of scientists reported yesterday.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 22 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By Julia Campbell N E W Y O R K, July 10, 2000 - Ricky Burrows, a young California-based musician who once had an obsession with the grunge band Nirvana, got hooked on heroin at 17. “Heroin has a fascination about it before you do it,’’ says Burrows, now 21. "I watched my friend do it, and the next thing I know, I'm the one with a needle in my arm."

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 21 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS WADE
There are few things more creepy than alien possession, the notion of one creature taking over another's body and bending it to different purposes. Though this may happen every day on other planets, an egregious example has come to light on earth too, and as close to home as the forests of Costa Rica. Here lives an orb-weaving spider, so called because of the perfect roundness of the web it industriously rebuilds every day. A serious hazard of the spider's busy life is that it is hunted by an ichneumon, or parasitic wasp.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 20 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Anorexia Can Strike Boys, Too By HOWARD MARKEL, M.D. An emaciated boy named Michael sits in a hospital bed, intently playing a video game. Only 15, he looks like a wizened old man: the color of his skin gray, his hair falling out and the his arm and leg muscles all but melted away. He was referred for a possible diagnosis of anorexia nervosa.

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 19 - Posted: 10.20.2001

UF Researcher: Gene Therapy Effective In Animal Studies Of Parkinson's Disease GAINESVILLE, Fla.---An international team of scientists has reversed some of the effects of Parkinson's disease in rats with a drug-induced form of the progressive movement disorder. By inserting corrective genes into the brain, researchers were able to trigger the regeneration of a critical bundle of nerve fibers. The new growth was linked to significant - but not complete - recovery of the animals' ability to use their paws spontaneously, said Ronald J. Mandel, a University of Florida scientist who was part of the team and a co-author of a recent Journal of Neuroscience article describing the research.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 18 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Narcolepsy The incurable sleep disorder, narcolepsy, has long mystified scientists. But recently, several discoveries culled from animal research indicate that molecular brain malfunctions may participate in the development of the ailment. The new insights are focusing the search for targeted human treatments for narcolepsy as well as other types of sleeping problems. Dramatically drowsy during calculus class? Maybe it's the monotone teacher, an overdose of David Letterman or, perhaps, narcolepsy. This brain disorder, which afflicts an estimated 200,000 Americans, is marked by an uncontrollable, overwhelming desire to sleep during the day. The attacks can occur at any time, even in the middle of a conversation about yesterday's homework.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 17 - Posted: 11.06.2001

Study of stimulant therapy raises concerns B. Bower The first long-term effort to track stimulant therapy in a large population of children has generated disturbing results. In particular, the North Carolina-based study finds that most 9-to-16-year-olds receiving Ritalin or other stimulants don't exhibit attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the only condition for which such drugs are approved. More encouraging, about 3 of 4 kids who were diagnosed with ADHD on the basis of parents' behavioral reports received stimulants, says a team led by psychiatric epidemiologist Adrian Angold of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. Youngsters with ADHD often benefit from these medications, especially if also given behavioral training (SN: 12/18&25/99, p. 388). Still, more than half of all stimulant users in the study fell short of even a relaxed definition of ADHD.

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 15 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Mayo Clinic Researchers Produce Mice With an Important Hallmark of Alzheimer's Disease JACKSONVILLE, Fla., July 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla., have successfully bred mice whose brains develop neurofibrillary tangles, one of the major pathological characteristics of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in humans. Producing a mouse model that replicates the human process of neurofibrillary tangle formation is an important step forward for researchers hoping to find ways to prevent or cure AD and other forms of dementia.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 14 - Posted: 10.20.2001

12-Hour Pill for Hyperactivity Is Approved By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 -- The Food and Drug Administration today approved a 12-hour tablet to treat attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The makers of the drug, Concerta, a form of Ritalin, the most common drug used in treating the condition, said the pill could be taken in the morning, enabling children to avoid trips to the school nurse for medication and to play uninterrupted after classes.

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 13 - Posted: 10.20.2001