By SHARON LaFRANIERE MENGXI VILLAGE, China — On a chilly evening early last month, a mob of more than 200 people gathered in this tiny eastern China village at the entrance to the Zhejiang Haijiu Battery Factory, a maker of lead-acid batteries for motorcycles and electric bikes. They shouldered through an outer brick wall, swept into the factory office and, in an outpouring of pure fury, smashed the cabinets, desks and computers inside. News had spread that workers and villagers had been poisoned by lead emissions from the factory, which had operated for six years despite flagrant environmental violations. But the truth was even worse: 233 adults and 99 children were ultimately found to have concentrations of lead in their blood, up to seven times the level deemed safe by the Chinese government. One of them was 3-year-old Han Tiantian, who lived just across the road from the plant. Her father, Han Zongyuan, a factory worker, said he learned in March that she had absorbed enough lead to irreversibly diminish her intellectual capacity and harm her nervous system. “At the moment I heard the doctor say that, my heart was shattered,” Mr. Han said in an interview last week. “We wanted this child to have everything. That’s why we worked this hard. That’s why we poisoned ourselves at this factory. Now it turns out the child is poisoned too. I have no words to describe how I feel.” Such scenes of heartbreak and anger have been repeated across China in recent months with the discovery of case after case of mass lead poisoning — together with instances in which local governments tried to cover them up. © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 15444 - Posted: 06.16.2011

By ABBY GOODNOUGH and KATIE ZEZIMA BROCKTON, Mass. — Michael Capece had been snorting OxyContin for five years when a new version of the drug, intended to deter such abuse, hit the market last summer. The reformulated pills are harder to crush, turning instead into a gummy substance that cannot be easily snorted, injected or chewed. Instructed by his dealer, Mr. Capece, 21, tried microwaving one of the new pills, then sniffing up the burnt remains. Other addicts have tried to defeat the new formula by freezing, baking or soaking the pills in solvents ranging from soda to acetone. Many are ending up frustrated. “It’s too much work,” said Mr. Capece who entered a rehab program here last month. “It wasn’t anything I enjoyed.” A powerful narcotic meant for cancer patients and others with searing pain, OxyContin is designed to slowly release its active ingredient, oxycodone, over 12 hours. But after it was introduced in 1996, drug abusers quickly discovered that chewing an OxyContin tablet — or crushing one and snorting the powder, or injecting it with a needle — produced an instant high as powerful as heroin. It has been blamed for waves of addiction that have ravaged certain regions of the country, and has been a factor in many overdose deaths. © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 15443 - Posted: 06.16.2011

Sandrine Ceurstemont, video producer How does an octopus locate a hidden meal? In this video, filmed by Michael Kuba and his team at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, food is placed in one compartment of a maze denoted with a visual cue. The octopus picks the right route and successfully retrieves the treat. It's the first time that an octopus has been shown to guide one of its arms to a location, based on sensory input, using a complex movement. In the wild, octopuses use their arms to search for food in small crevices. Previously, it's been thought that they feel their way to a food source by simply using sensors on their tentacles. Now this research is showing that they are capable of more complex processing, in this case by combining information from their tentacles with visual input to achieve a goal. Six out of the seven octopuses tested successfully learned the task and used the strategy more often once it was mastered. It's only one example of clever tricks used by cephalopods. Check out our full-length feature to find out more about these animals' astounding mental skills. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Intelligence; Evolution
Link ID: 15442 - Posted: 06.16.2011

by Mark Cohen My medical assistant put the chart on my desk. “your next patient is in room five, Dr. Cohen. Her name is Taylor and 
she’s a cutie!” “Thanks, Mary,” I said, pulling up Taylor’s medical record on my desktop computer. I glanced at the consultation request: Six-year-old girl with speech problem. As a developmental pediatrician, I am often called on to evaluate children’s speech and language. Those are among the most complex tasks the young brain has to master, so it’s no wonder many childhood disorders express themselves in those areas. Kids with developmental delay or autism commonly show up in the pediatrician’s office with a parent who simply says, “My child isn’t talking.” When I opened the door to the examining room, I saw a petite girl with long, blond hair sitting very still on the exam table. She wore a purple jumper over a short-sleeved white blouse, and her hair was tied at the back with a ribbon that matched her dress. She was deeply engrossed in reading a Dr. Seuss book. She looked up at me and smiled. “Hi,” I said. “I’m Dr. Cohen. What’s your name?” The girl continued to smile, but she didn’t say anything and quickly went back to her reading. Hmmm. Could just be a shy one, I thought. I turned to her mother. “I understand your daughter is having some problems with her speech. Can you tell me what your concerns are?” © 2011, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: Language; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 15441 - Posted: 06.16.2011

Meredith Wadman The unusual meeting was held in a conference room, but it might have been called a war room. Gathered inside a little-known research centre in southern Louisiana, the people who oversee chimpanzee research in the United States were preparing to battle for the survival of their enterprise. Although no other country besides Gabon carries out invasive experiments with chimpanzees, the United States continues such work at three major research facilities. Louisiana's New Iberia Research Center (NIRC) is the largest, with a population of 360 chimps, used by investigators from pharmaceutical companies and federal agencies to test new drugs and study diseases such as hepatitis. During the meeting, Thomas Rowell, director of the NIRC, stood up, surveyed the audience, and launched into a presentation about possible strategies to build public support for their work. Another slide went on to note that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spends about US$12 million a year caring for the chimpanzees it supports (currently totalling 734), versus the billions in health-care costs for the human diseases that can be studied through experiments on chimpanzees. One of them, hepatitis C, currently affects at least 170 million people globally. If researchers don't have access to the chimp model, said Rowell, people afflicted with hepatitis C will suffer. "Their lifespans are going to be shortened. They will not have a proper quality of life." He called them a "silent voice". © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 15440 - Posted: 06.16.2011

By Mark Schaller We are prejudiced against all kinds of other people, based on superficial physical features: We react negatively to facial disfigurement; we avoid sitting next to people who are obese, or old, or in a wheelchair; we favor familiar folks over folks that are foreign. If I asked you why these prejudices exist and what one can do to eliminate them, your answer probably wouldn't involve the words "infectious disease." Perhaps it should. What does infectious disease have to do with these prejudices? The answer lies in something that I've come to call the "behavioral immune system." The behavioral immune system is our brain's way of engaging in a kind of preventative medicine. It's a suite of psychological mechanisms designed to detect the presence of disease-causing parasites in our immediate environment, and to respond to those things in ways that help us to avoid contact with them. This has many important implications – for prejudice, for sexual attraction, for social interaction, and even for the origins of cultural differences. (And, yes, for health too.) It makes immediate sense that people would develop aversions against people who actually have infectious diseases. But why does it also lead to these aversions to perfectly healthy people? Because it's impossible to directly detect the presence of bacteria and viruses and other microscopic parasites; and so we're forced to use crude superficial cues. Consequently, we make mistakes. Some of those mistakes lead to the irrational avoidance of things (including people) that pose no infection risk at all. © 2011 Scientific American

Keyword: Emotions; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 15439 - Posted: 06.16.2011

Peter Dejong The hallucinogen found in "magic mushrooms" could help treat a variety of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety and even addiction, researchers say. A new study provides clues on how much of the substance patients could take to get the greatest benefit with the least risk, researchers say. However, use of the substance, called psilocybin, is not without risk. Its side effects include paranoia and delusions. Under the second-highest dose given in the study, patients said they had a "mystical" experience that they felt was significantly personal and spiritual, but few noted any side effects. Participants reported improvements in attitude, mood and behavior that were confirmed by their friends and family. The study was small and much more research is needed to determine exactly how it's working. And even if the drug becomes available for prescription, it should always be given under the supervision of properly trained personnel, the researchers said. "The model of it would never be, 'take two of these and call me in the morning,'" said study researcher Matthew Johnson, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins University. "Someone having an adverse reaction might be so scared they might run across a highway and be hit by a car," he said. "We wouldn't encourage anyone to do these things in a non-supervised context." © 2011 msnbc.com

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 15438 - Posted: 06.16.2011

There are potential risks to babies born to women who took antipsychotic drugs in pregnancy, Health Canada says. The department said it is updating safety information on the drug labels to highlight the potential risk of abnormal muscle movements and withdrawal symptoms in newborns whose mothers were treated with the drugs during the third trimester. Babies born to women treated with antipsychotic drugs during the third trimester run the risk of abnormal muscle movements and withdrawal symptoms, Health Canada says.Babies born to women treated with antipsychotic drugs during the third trimester run the risk of abnormal muscle movements and withdrawal symptoms, Health Canada says. Michaela Rehle/Reuters Antipsychotic drugs are used to treat symptoms of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Health Canada said it has notified Canadian manufacturers of typical and newer antipsychotic drugs to update safety labels. "Women taking an antipsychotic and who are pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant should talk to their doctor about their treatment," Health Canada advised in a statement Wednesday. "Patients should not stop taking their medication without first speaking to a healthcare practitioner, as abruptly stopping an antipsychotic drug can cause serious adverse events." © CBC 2011

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 15437 - Posted: 06.16.2011

by Shaoni Bhattacharya THERE is growing evidence that chronic use of the recreational drug ketamine is linked with severe bladder problems. The findings may also have implications for the drug's use as an antidepressant. Used safely as a medical anaesthetic and analgesic for decades, ketamine has also risen in popularity as a recreational drug. The first case of severe bladder problems linked with ketamine use was documented in 2007, but little is known about the extent or cause of the problem. Now a group of surgeons and scientists have raised the alarm in a review calling for more investigation (BJU International, DOI: 10.1111/j.1464-410X.2010.10031.x). They highlight effects such as incontinence and bladder shrinkage, as well as damage to the kidneys and ureter in people using ketamine frequently. "It has a major impact on users such that they can be incontinent or have enormous pain," says Dan Wood, a consultant urologist at University College London Hospitals, who led the review. He has seen 20 chronic ketamine users with urinary problems in the last three years and had to remove four patients' bladders. The review suggests that heavy users are more likely to suffer symptoms, and about 20 per cent of people who have taken high doses of ketamine several times a week over months to years have experienced urinary tract problems. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 15436 - Posted: 06.16.2011

By Laura Sanders The anesthetic ketamine works against depression by quickly boosting levels of a brain compound that has been linked to the condition, a new study in mice shows. The research may lead to highly effective and fast-acting antidepressants that provide relief within hours instead of weeks, scientists report online June 15 in Nature. Traditional antidepressants can be effective but often take weeks or months to improve symptoms. “You can control malignant hypertension within minutes; a bad increase in blood sugar, bad migraines, asthma attacks, within minutes,” says psychiatrist Carlos Zarate of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. “Yet why in psychiatry should we be satisfied with, ‘Just hang on for a few weeks or a few months, and you’re going to get better?’ That’s not acceptable in my mind.” The new study may point to faster alternatives, Zarate says: “Here is increasing evidence that you can go more directly at the target, and that’s maybe why you get more of a rapid antidepressant effect.” Mice receiving a single injection of ketamine showed fewer signs of depression just half an hour after the shot, and they continued to show multiple signs of reduced depression for a week, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas found. For example, after one dose of ketamine, mice struggled longer to stay afloat in a beaker of water instead of giving up and sinking. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Depression; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 15435 - Posted: 06.16.2011

Daniel Gilbert The London Association for the Prevention of Premature Burial was founded in 1896 to prevent “premature burial generally, and especially amongst the members”1. Because nineteenth-century physicians couldn't always distinguish the nearly dead from the really most sincerely dead, premature burial was a problem. But not a big problem. The odds of being buried alive in 1896 were, like the odds of being buried alive today, very close to zero. Nonetheless, the good citizens of England formed action committees, wrote editorials and promoted legislation that ultimately led to expensive safeguards against “the horrible doom of being buried alive”1. Most of those safeguards — such as the costly requirement that bodies spend time in 'attractive waiting mortuaries' before being buried — are still with us today. The frequency with which modern cadavers use this waiting period to demonstrate that they've been misdiagnosed is approximately never. Premature burial isn't a big problem, but the way we deal with big problems is. When an aeroplane's fuselage rips open mid-flight, or an offshore oil rig explodes, or a nuclear power plant is crippled by a tsunami, we immediately ask what could have been done differently, blame those who didn't do it, then allocate funds and pass legislation to make sure it gets done that way the next time. At first blush, this seems sensible. After all, no one is in favour of aviation accidents, reactor meltdowns or oil spills; so when these things happen, why not do everything we can to make sure they don't happen again? The answer is that because resources are finite, every sensible thing we do is another sensible thing we don't. Alas, research shows that when human beings make decisions, they tend to focus on what they are getting and forget about what we are forgoing. For example, people are more likely to buy an item when they are asked to choose between buying and not buying it than when they are asked to choose between buying the item and keeping their money “for other purchases”. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Attention; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 15434 - Posted: 06.16.2011

Erika Check Hayden Two years ago, 13-year-old Alexis Beery developed a cough and a breathing problem so severe that her parents placed a baby monitor in her room just to make sure she would survive the night. Alexis would often cough so hard and so long that she would throw up, and had to take daily injections of adrenaline just to keep breathing. Yet doctors weren't sure what was wrong. In a paper published today in Science Translational Medicine1, researchers led by Richard Gibbs, head of the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center in Houston, Texas, describe how they sequenced the genomes of Alexis and her twin brother, Noah, to diagnose the cause of her cough — a discovery that led to a treatment. Today, Alexis is playing soccer and running, and her breathing problem has gone, says Alexis's mother, Retta. "We honestly didn't know if Alexis was going to make it through this," Retta Beery says. "Sequencing has brought her life back." At age 5, the Beery twins had already been diagnosed with a genetic disorder called dopa-responsive dystonia, which causes abnormal movements, and had been taking a medication that was apparently successfully treating the condition. When Alexis developed a worsening cough and breathing problem, the twins' neurologists did not think it was related to her dystonia. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 15433 - Posted: 06.16.2011

Jeremy Laurance "Sexual orientation is not a matter of choice, it is primarily neurobiological at birth." So said Jerome Goldstein, director of the San Francisco Clinical Research Centre, addressing 3,000 neurologists from around the world at the 21st meeting of the European Neurological Society (ENS) in Lisbon last month. In doing so he was attempting to settle a debate that has raged for decades: are gays born or made? It is a puzzle because homosexuality poses a biological conundrum. There is no obvious evolutionary advantage to same-sex relationships. So why are some people attracted to others of the same sex? Sexual attraction provides the drive to reproduction – sex is a means to an end not, in Darwinian terms, an end in itself. From an evolutionary perspective, same-sex relationships should be selected out. Despite this, they are common in the animal kingdom. Birds do it, bees probably do it and fleas may do it, too. Among the many examples are penguins, who have been known to form lifelong same-sex bonds, dolphins and bonobos, which are fully bisexual apes. Various explanations have been advanced for the evolutionary advantage that such relationships might confer. For example, female Laysan albatrosses form same-sex pairs, which are more successful at rearing chicks than single females. Homosexuality may also help social bonding or ease conflict among males where there is a shortage of females. Gay couples will not preserve their own genes but they may help preserve those of the group to which they belong. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 15432 - Posted: 06.14.2011

by Caroline Williams Octopuses' astonishing mental skills might help us unearth the roots of intelligence – but first we need to understand what makes them so smart BETTY the octopus is curled up in her den, eyes half-closed and clutching a piece of red Lego like a child with a teddy bear. She is, says Kerry Perkins, cephalopod researcher at the Sea Life aquarium in Brighton, UK, much better behaved than some of the octopuses she has worked with. One used to short-circuit a light in its tank by squirting water at it, and would do so whenever the bulb was left on at night. Another made a bid for freedom via the aquarium drainage system, which it seemed to know headed straight out to sea. "Any octopus tank worth its salt has a way of stopping the octopus from escaping," Perkins says as she adds two weights to the lid of Betty's tank. "They love to explore." Aristotle once took this kind of curiosity as a sign that octopuses are stupid - after all, he pointed out, just waving your hands in their direction brings them close enough to catch. We now know that it is just one example of how smart they are. Between them, cephalopods, which also include squids, cuttlefish and nautiluses, can navigate a maze, use tools, mimic other species, learn from each other and solve complex problems. If the latest analyses are to be believed, these skills might show a rudimentary form of consciousness. Cephalopods are the only invertebrates that can boast anything like this kind of mental prowess, and some of their more impressive tricks are shared with only the cleverest vertebrates, such as chimps, dolphins and crows. Yet they evolved along a completely separate path, from snail-like ancestors, and their brains look completely alien to our own (see "A brain apart"). © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 15431 - Posted: 06.14.2011

By Tina Hesman Saey Bad news for fans of the X-Men: It may take longer to create a new class of mutant superhumans than previous estimates suggested. The first direct measurements of human mutation rates reveal that the speed at which successive generations accumulate single-letter genetic changes is much slower than previously thought. The study, published online June 12 in Nature Genetics, also shows that some individuals mutate faster than others. That means it may be fairly common for people to inherit a disproportionate share of mutations from one parent. Researchers from an international collaboration known as the 1000 Genomes Project deciphered the genetic blueprints of six people from two families — a mother, father and child from each — and counted up the mutations inherited by each child. From there, the team calculated the human mutation rate. “We all mutate,” says study coauthor Philip Awadalla, a population geneticist at the University of Montreal. “And the mutation rate can be extraordinarily variable from individual to individual.” Combined with the results of three similar recent studies, the rate indicates that, on average, about one DNA chemical letter in every 85 million gets mutated per generation through copying mistakes made during sperm and egg production. The new rate means each child inherits somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 to 50 new mutations. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Evolution; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 15430 - Posted: 06.14.2011

Daniel Cressey Many people affected by mental illness are facing a bleak future as drug companies abandon research into the area and other funding providers fail to take up the slack, according to a new report. Produced for the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP), the report warns that "research in new treatments for brain disorders is under threat". With current treatments inadequate for many patients, it says, "withdrawal of research resources is a withdrawal of hope for patients and their families"1. A number of formerly big players in neuroscience have all but abandoned the area recently as the pharmaceutical industry has undergone massive restructuring. AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline have both cut research funding and closed down entire teams dedicated to developing drugs for psychiatric disorders. Although some of the problems faced by the field also apply to other sections of the pharmaceutical industry, many are specific to researchers trying to hit targets in the brain. David Nutt and Guy Goodwin, who authored the report following a recent ECNP meeting on the topic, note that it can take much longer to develop medicines for psychiatric disorders than for better-understood conditions such as cancer, and that potential drugs for psychiatric conditions have higher failure rates. These failures sometimes become apparent only late in the development process, making neuroscience an expensive and risky prospect for industry. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Depression; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 15429 - Posted: 06.14.2011

By Jennifer Viegas If dad was a playboy, there's a good chance that his sons and daughters will also be promiscuous, suggests a new study that identified a genetic link to such behavior. Moral objections aside, promiscuity can benefit a species because it often results in more progeny with greater genetic diversity. There are clear risks, such as having a higher chance of acquiring a sexually transmitted disease, but the genetic predisposition to play the field appears to be locked into the DNA of socially monogamous species, including humans. "Other research has concluded that sons of promiscuous fathers are two times more likely to cheat than others," lead author Wolfgang Forstmeier told Discovery News, adding that daughters of such fathers and mothers would also be more likely to cheat. Forstmeier, a researcher in the Department of Behavioural Ecology and Evolutionary Genetics at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, and his colleagues wondered about the genetic connection after conducting studies, such as behavioral surveys, on humans. For this paper, published in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they decided to investigate the phenomenon among zebra finches, which are also socially monogamous. "That means a male and a female will hang out together as a couple; they will build nests together and share other forms of bonding," Forstmeier said. "They may also, however, engage in extra-pair mating behavior." © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 15428 - Posted: 06.14.2011

Analysis by Marianne English Could treating insomnia be as simple as putting on a cap to slow down the brain's metabolism during sleep? One experiment (see abstract 0534 of Nofzinger and Buysse study), presented at the Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, supports the idea, suggesting a special plastic cap might be the answer. Participants who received the treatment developed sleeping patterns more akin to individuals without insomnia. But the idea isn't new. In fact, the same team developed the technology three years ago with promising results. But new research determined which doses work best at specific times before and during sleep. The method, called frontal cerebral transfer therapy, was developed after researchers learned that people with insomnia have higher brain metabolism than their well-rested counterparts. In other words, the prefrontal cortex in people with insomnia is hyperactive and keeps them up when the rest of the body slows down before sleep and during non-REM sleep. Cooling the brain lowers metabolism in this area, thus reducing insomnia among most participants. In the latest experiment, the sleep researchers recruited 12 women to receive treatment with the caps. The participants had primary insomnia, meaning their disorders were not caused by mental or physical problems (unlike two-thirds of people with forms of the disorder). © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 15427 - Posted: 06.14.2011

By JANE E. BRODY Dr. Karen Jaffe, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Cleveland, was only 48 when she learned she had Parkinson’s disease. Four years later, she continues to maintain a full-time medical and surgical practice, even performing ritual circumcisions. “I’m doing everything I can to stay healthy,” she told me in an interview. “My medications and exercises control my tremor, so doing surgery is not a problem.” For patients with Parkinson’s disease, like Dr. Jaffe, there still is no cure. But researchers have begun to make progress in identifying causes of the disease, and a new study promises to help identify better treatments. Until then, many patients are getting by on grit and determination. In speaking recently with several of them, two common threads emerged: an initial unwillingness to believe or reveal the diagnosis, followed by acceptance and a determination to pursue whatever it takes to remain as healthy and functional as possible. In addition to taking medication designed to replace the brain chemical, dopamine, that is diminished in this neurological disease, each person I spoke with is dedicated to regular, often vigorous physical activity that can minimize the disabilities caused by Parkinson’s. One, David Wolf, 51, of Buffalo, has even taken up fencing, saying (in jest, I hope), “There’s nothing like running someone through with a sword to make your day.” Another, Rena Bulkin, 68, of Manhattan, goes to a gym several times a week to do aerobics, stretching and range-of-motion and balance exercises. “If I don’t work out, my symptoms are much worse,” she said. © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 15426 - Posted: 06.14.2011

By RONI CARYN RABIN Scientists have identified an unexpected factor that may play a significant role in the development of autism: prenatal vitamins. A new study reports that mothers of children with autism and autism spectrum disorders were significantly less likely than mothers of children without autism to have taken prenatal vitamins three months before conception and in the first month of pregnancy. The finding, published in the July issue of the journal Epidemiology, suggests that taking vitamins in this period may help prevent these disorders, reducing the risk by some 40 percent. Researchers recruited children through a California project, the Childhood Autism Risks From Genetics and Environment Study, or Charge, enrolling 288 children with autism and 144 with autism spectrum disorders, and compared them with 278 children who were developing normally. Blood was drawn for genomic analysis, and mothers were asked about their consumption of vitamins before and during pregnancy. In mothers and children with gene variants that affect folate metabolism, not taking prenatal vitamins before conception was associated with an up to sevenfold increase in the risk of autism, the researchers found. Prenatal vitamins are rich in folate. “Taking prenatal vitamin supplements even before conception is a concrete step concerned parents can take,” said Dr. Irva Hertz-Picciotto, the study’s senior author and principal investigator of the Charge study. © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 15425 - Posted: 06.14.2011