By Joan Raymond Jean Snyder says she isn't afraid of spiders, snakes or even dentists. But she is scared of one little thing: a GPS breakdown. "When it comes to finding my way, I've become a GPS zombie," says Snyder, a 47-year-old office manager in Highland Heights, Ohio."I'm sure I'm not doing my brain any favors." Snyder might be on to something. Three studies by McGill University researchers presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience on Sunday show that the way we navigate the world today may indeed affect just how well our brains function as we age — particularly the hippocampus, which is linked to memory. Generally, to find our way, we rely on one of two strategies: The first is a so-called spatial navigation strategy, in which we build cognitive maps using things like landmarks as visual cues that not only help us determine where we are at a given point in space, but also help us plan where we need to go. Or, we navigate by using a stimulus-response strategy, a kind of auto-pilot mode in which we turn left and right because, after some repetition, that's the most efficient way to get from A to B. If you have GPS, that uber-strategy of stimulus-response may seem quite familiar. © 2010 msnbc.com.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 14669 - Posted: 11.15.2010

By Steve Connor, Science Editor The mystery of why some people stay thin without effort while others have continually to fight off the fat has come significantly closer to being solved with a study showing that a single gene can affect appetite. Scientists have found convincing evidence to support the idea that the "fat gene" affects how hungry someone feels, which has a direct effect on how much food is eaten and how much fat is accumulated in the body. The study was carried out on genetically modified mice with several copies of the fat gene added to their DNA. The scientists said the findings support the idea that the gene in humans plays a direct role in determining whether someone is likely to become obese. In Britain, about one in five people are classed as clinically obese. Women are affected more than men, with a third of women and half of men classified as overweight, which carries an increased risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Three years ago, scientists found that variants of the FTO gene are linked with a 70 per cent increased risk of developing obesity, with people carrying two copies of one gene variant being on average 3kg (6.6lb) heavier than people carrying alternative variants of the gene. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14668 - Posted: 11.15.2010

Michael Posner Has the Western world succumbed to the disease of scientism – a misguided belief in the infallibility of science? So says philosopher Peter Hacker, emeritus research fellow at Oxford's St. John's College. In a recent interview with TPM Online, the website of The Philosophers' Magazine, Mr. Hacker – a leading authority on Ludwig Wittgenstein – says scientism “pervades our mentality and our culture. We are prone to think that, if there's a serious problem, science will find the answer. If science cannot find the answer, then it cannot be a serious problem at all.” This prevailing scientism, he continues “is manifest in the infatuation of the mass media with cognitive neuroscience … people nattering on what their brains make them do and tell them to do. I think this is pretty pernicious – anything but trivial.” Mr. Hacker's remarks form part of a larger critique of how neuroscience is grappling with human consciousness, the great divide for philosophers and scientists. Consciousness, of course, is one of the great, unsolved conundrums of modern science. Where, if anywhere, does awareness reside? How, if at all, can it be explained? Is the mind separate from its body? Or does everything, ultimately, reduce to biochemistry and quantum physics, including our private, inner-most experiences of the world? © Copyright 2010 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 14667 - Posted: 11.15.2010

By Tina Hesman Saey Many of the mutations that cause brain disorders are not inherited, new research on the genetics of mental retardation suggests, but are rare DNA variants that pop up for the first time in affected people. A study published online November 14 in Nature Genetics highlights the importance of rare genetic variants in causing disease, and shows that disrupting even one copy of certain genes can have profound consequences for brain development and mental abilities, says James Lupski, a clinical geneticist at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. In the new study, researchers led by Joris Veltman, a human geneticist at Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands, searched the genomes of 10 people with mental retardation looking for the cause of the disorder. Scientists have recently shown that during sperm production, big chunks of DNA can get lost or duplicated, leading to diseases or disorders in a man’s offspring. The problem gets worse as men age. About 15 percent of mental retardation cases are associated with these missing or repeated chunks of DNA, Veltman says. But the people in the study didn’t have any of these problems. The researchers wondered if the patients might have new mutations that change single DNA letters instead of disrupting big chunks of genetic material. To find out, the team searched the protein-producing parts of the genomes of the 10 patients and their parents. On average, the researchers found 21,755 different genetic variants in each person, with about 100 new mutations per generation, Veltman says. Then a variety of techniques helped to whittle the catalog down to just those mutations that were present in patients but not their parents, and that were likely to have functional significance. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14666 - Posted: 11.15.2010

By Laura Sanders SAN DIEGO — Presented with a choice between cocaine and food, female rats choose the drug while male rats go for the grub, a new study finds. The result may help clarify differences in addiction between men and women, scientists reported November 14 at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting. Kerry Kerstetter of the University of California, Santa Barbara and colleagues trained rats to press one lever to receive food or a separate lever to receive cocaine. Later, the rats were presented with the food lever and the cocaine lever at the same time. At the time of the choice, all of the rats were hungry, so they should have been motivated to choose the food. Male rats clearly preferred the food. But female rats chose the cocaine over the food about half of the time. “Females and males seem to be very different when it comes to the incentive value of cocaine,” Kerstetter said. When the researchers more than doubled the dose of cocaine delivered with each lever push, male rats grew more likely to choose the cocaine. But females still edged them out for cocaine craving, choosing cocaine about 75 to 80 percent of the time compared with less than 50 percent of the time for the males. “I think these comparisons with the sex differences are particularly interesting,” says neuroscientist Ralph DiLeone of the Yale University School of Medicine. “People have noticed these differences with drug addiction, and it starts to make sense to incorporate the food intake, because these drug systems evolved for feeding.” © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Obesity
Link ID: 14665 - Posted: 11.15.2010

Helen Thomson, biomedical news editor, San Diego When told I was being sent to the world's biggest neuroscience conference, I knew I would meet a lot of interesting people, but a five-time Oscar nominee wasn't what I was expecting. Yet here I am in San Diego at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting listening to Glenn Close - famous for her roles as scheming aristocrat in Dangerous Liaisons and psychotic stalker in Fatal Attraction - call for science and society to work together to change the stigmas attached to mental illness. Close is well-known for having had a successful acting career. "I'm still pissed off that I had to chuck Robert Redford out of my apartment," she tells us. Yet today she defines herself not as an actress but as a series of numbers. It is her genome sequence that takes pride of place on the big screen this morning - a picture she says clearly shows she is "fabulous, sexy, and divinely complex". The real reason Close is opening this year's conference is down to her family ties to mental disease. Her sister and nephew suffer from biopolar and schizoaffective disorder respectively, which encouraged Close to launch BringChange2Mind, a not-for-profit organisation which helps to provide information about mental illness. A highlight of her speech was an interlude by nephew Calen Pick who spoke of trying to "get into the real world" while struggling with his disorder. "At my lowest point I knew I was Jesus and the psychological examinations I was taking were just a test to see if I was God or the devil," he says. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 14664 - Posted: 11.15.2010

By Laura Sanders PEEK-A-BOOA new retinal prosthetic creates an image (middle) that more accurately reconstructs a baby's face (left) than the standard approach (right).S. Nirenberg SAN DIEGO — A new type of prosthetic eye may someday allow blind people to seamlessly see the broad sweep of an ocean or the dimples in a baby’s face. The approach, presented November 13 at the Society for Neuroscience’s annual meeting, may benefit the estimated 25 million people worldwide who have lost sight due to retinal diseases. “This is a spectacular example of what we all hoped to be able to do,” said Jonathan Victor, a computational systems neuroscientist who was not involved in the new work. “It’s a solution to an abstract problem” that could be useful in many kinds of systems. Sheila Nirenberg and Chethan Pandarinath, both of Weill Medical College of Cornell University in New York City, tested their new retinal prosthetic in blind mice and found that it allowed the mice to see a baby’s face. Current prosthetics are limited to reproducing simple features, such as bright spots or edges, but miss much of a scene. Many scientists are intent on boosting the retinal prosthetics’ power, so that the message from the artificial eye to the brain is stronger. But Nirenberg’s work suggests that a second, underappreciated area is also important: the pattern of cell activity in the retina, something she called “a big problem lurking in the background.” © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Vision; Robotics
Link ID: 14663 - Posted: 11.15.2010

Melissa Dahl Terrible jokes? Or a sign of a brain disorder? Actually, sometimes it's hard to tell. Witzelsucht (the Germans just have the best words for everything, don't they?) is a brain dysfunction that causes all sorts of compulsive silliness: bad jokes, corny puns, wacky behavior. It's also sometimes called the "joking disease," and as Taiwanese researchers phrased it in a 2005 report, it's a "tendency to tell inappropriate and poor jokes." We've covered all sorts of strange disorders of the mind in earlier Body Odd posts: one disorder makes you believe your loved ones are strangers, another convinces you that your hand has taken on a life of its own. Now, we give you a brain disorder that actually causes a poor sense of humor. It's a symptom of an injury to the right frontal lobe, which could be caused by brain trauma or a stroke, tumor, infection or a degenerative disease. "Patients who have disease of the left frontal lobe often are sad, anxious and depressed," explains Dr. Kenneth Heilman, a neurologist at the University of Florida College of Medicine in Gainesville, Fla. "In contrast ... patients with right-hemisphere disease often (appear) indifferent or euphoric and have inappropriate jocularity." Heilman says he sees several cases of Witzelsucht each year. "One of the most dramatic cases (that I've seen) appeared to be attracted to my reflex hammer," Heilman says. "After I checked his deep tendon reflexes and put my hammer down, he picked up the hammer and started to check my reflexes, while giggling." © 2010 msnbc.com

Keyword: Emotions; Stroke
Link ID: 14662 - Posted: 11.13.2010

By Katherine Harmon Misapprehension of statistics and scientific process has been even more apparent in the misunderstandings surrounding vaccines and the onset of autism. Given the age at which children receive immunizations and that at which many cases of regressional autism manifest themselves (in which a seemingly normally developing child suddenly loses much of the ability to communicate as well as other acquired functions), "by chance alone" there will be a lot of children who regress at some point after getting their scheduled vaccines, Daniel Salmon, a vaccine safety specialist at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), said here on Tuesday. As he pointed out, however, "temporality is insufficient to show causality." But underlying—and perhaps highlighted by—this "logical fallacy," he explained, is a frequent hang-up of science communication: the devil is in the details, and the details can be complicated (and not too catchy) to explain. When former Jenny McCarthy, an advocate of the vaccine-autism link, goes on CNN's Larry King Live and says, "'Vaccines cause autism,' that's a very clear, simple message," Salmon noted. Most respected scientific bodies, however, are not prone to such blanket statements. In a 2004 report essentially dismissing the assertion that vaccines cause autism, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) was notably more measured than McCarthy, concluding that "based on this body of evidence, the committee concludes that the evidence favors a rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism…" © 2010 Scientific American

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 14661 - Posted: 11.13.2010

By Bruce Bower A wandering mind often stumbles downhill emotionally. People spend nearly half their waking lives thinking about stuff other than what they’re actually doing, and these imaginary rambles frequently feel bad, according to a new study that surveyed volunteers at random times via their iPhones. People’s minds wander at least 30 percent of the time during all activities except sex, say graduate student Matthew Killingsworth and psychologist Daniel Gilbert, both of Harvard University. Individuals feel considerably worse when their minds wander to unpleasant or neutral topics, as opposed to focusing on current pursuits, Killingsworth and Gilbert report in the Nov. 12 Science. These new findings jibe with philosophical and religious teachings that assert happiness is found by living in the moment and learning to resist mind wandering, Killingsworth says. Mind wandering serves useful purposes, he acknowledges, such as providing a way to reflect on past actions, plan for the future and imagine possible consequences of important decisions. “We may tend to reflect on things that went poorly or are a cause for worry,” Killingsworth proposes. “That’s not a recipe for happiness, even if it’s necessary.” In his new study, people’s minds actually wandered more often to pleasant topics than to unpleasant or neutral topics. But those reveries offered no measurable mood boost over thinking about tasks at hand, the researchers found. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Attention; Emotions
Link ID: 14660 - Posted: 11.13.2010

by Greg Miller Written language poses a puzzle for neuroscientists. Unlocking the meaning in a string of symbols requires complex neural circuitry. Yet humans have been reading and writing for only about 5000 years—too short for major evolutionary changes. Instead, reading likely depends on circuits that originally evolved for other purposes. But which ones? To investigate, cognitive neuroscientist Stanislas Dehaene of the Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale in Gif-sur-Yvette, France, teamed up with colleagues in France, Belgium, Portugal, and Brazil to scan the brains of 63 volunteers, including 31 who learned to read in childhood, 22 who learned as adults, and 10 who were illiterate. Those who could read, regardless of when they learned, exhibited more vigorous responses to written words in several areas of the brain that process what we see, the group reports online today in Science. Based on previous work, Dehaene has argued that one of these areas, at the junction of the left occipital and temporal lobes of the brain, is especially important for reading. In literate, but not illiterate, people, written words also triggered brain activity in parts of the left temporal lobe that respond to spoken language. That suggests that reading utilizes brain circuits that evolved to support spoken language, a much older innovation in human communication, Dehaene says. It makes sense that reading would rely on brain regions that originally evolved to process vision and spoken language, says Dehaene. But this repurposing may have involved a tradeoff. The researchers found that in people who learned to read early in life, a smaller region of the left occipital-temporal cortex responded to images of faces than in the illiterate volunteers. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 14659 - Posted: 11.13.2010

by Jocelyn Kaiser Many of us are zombies without 8 hours of sleep, while envied others seem to get by just fine on much less. Now geneticists have homed in on the first gene in the general population that seems to influence how much sleep we need. Sleep interests biologists in part because it varies with other factors, such as weight, that make people more prone to diabetes or heart disease. (The larger a person's body mass index, the less they generally sleep.) In search of sleep genes, a group of European researchers studied populations in seven countries, from Estonia to Italy, for a total of 4260 subjects. Each one filled out a simple questionnaire asking about his or her sleep habits and donated a DNA sample. The researchers then scanned the participants' DNA for thousands of genetic markers, looking for ones that were more common in people who slept more than those who slept less. Sleep duration correlated strongly with a single genetic marker in a gene called ABCC9. When allowed to sleep as long as they want, those who have two copies of one version of this marker sleep on average 6% less than those carrying two copies of the other version, or about 7.5 hours versus 8 hours, says postdoc Karla Allebrandt, who is leading the study at the Centre for Chronobiology headed by Till Roenneberg at the University of Munich in Germany. Allebrandt presented the work last week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Washington, D.C. The ABCC9 gene codes for a protein called SUR2 that is part of a potassium channel, a structure that funnels potassium ions into and out of cells. When the researchers knocked down the corresponding gene in two species of fruit flies, the flies slept significantly less at night compared with controls, Allebrandt reported. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sleep; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14658 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Andy Coghlan Elderly people who did 10 sessions of brain training had half as many crashes on the road as untrained counterparts – even though the training didn't directly relate to driving itself. "There are no other cognitive training programs, or 'brain games', that have been demonstrated by published, peer-reviewed studies to enhance driving performance," says Jerri Edwards of the University of South Florida in Tampa, a co-leader of the study. The results contradict a study of 11,000 people earlier this year, carried out by Adrian Owen at the University of Cambridge and colleagues, which found that brain training didn't help improve cognitive skills outside the game itself. "Overall, people need to know that not all brain training is equal," says Edwards. "Some programs work and some don't." With an average age of 73, the 908 participants in the latest study were assigned to one of three different computer training programs or to no training at all. One program focused on improving reaction speed, another on reasoning skills and the third on memory. Each course lasted for 10 sessions, and then the participants were tracked for six years to see how many times they had road crashes for which they were personally responsible. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 14657 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Jennifer Carpenter As surprising at it may seem, wasps, bees, and even ants have relatively large and complex brains. That allows these "social insects" to keep track of the intricate relationships between the thousands of individuals in their colony—or so researchers thought. A new study indicates that these insects didn't grow big brains to cope with social living; they evolved them millions of years earlier when they were solitary parasites. The link between brain size and social living was first noted in 1850, when scientists identified mushroom bodies in the insect brain. Aptly named because they're shaped like mushrooms, the structures contain thousands of neurons responsible for processing and remembering smells and sights. Social insects tend to have larger mushroom bodies than solitary ones, leading researchers to believe that the transition from solitary to social living increased the size of these brain regions. But Sarah Farris has found a different explanation. Instead of comparing social insects with solitary ones, Farris, a neurobiologist at West Virginia University in Morgantown, looked into the past. To get a sense of how the wasp brain evolved over time, she and taxonomist Susanne Schulmeister of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City compared the mushroom bodies of parasitic wasps with those of nonparasitic wasps, which represent the very oldest form of wasp. The parasitic wasps had consistently larger and more elaborate mushroom bodies than the nonparasites, the duo reports online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In particular, the caps, called calyces, of the parasitic mushroom bodies were twice the size of nonparasites. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 14656 - Posted: 11.11.2010

By Larry Greenemeier Party beverages that go by "blackout in a can" and other monikers may soon be banned from store shelves in some U.S. states, thanks to a number of incidents that have left drinkers unconscious and with dangerously high blood alcohol levels. The Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) last week effectively prohibited the sale of all alcoholic energy drinks after considering several studies regarding such beverages as well as concerns voiced by substance abuse prevention and parental groups, the general public, and an ongoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation. The Commission called the packaging of these products "misleading," and an attempt to appeal to younger customers "encouraging excessive consumption while mixing alcohol with various other chemical and herbal stimulants." The ban takes effect in early December. The MLCC pointed out that a typical alcoholic energy drink is 24 ounces (0.7 liters) and has a 12 percent alcohol content—compared with a 12-ounce (0.35-liter) can of beer, which normally has 4 to 5 percent—plus the caffeine equivalent of five cups of coffee. Some of the beverage lines singled out for their 12 percent alcohol content were Associated Brewing's Axis, United Brands's Max and Phusion Projects's Four Loko offerings. The commission concluded that a person need only consume one can of such a beverage to become intoxicated—and that because these drinks typically cost $2 to $5 per can they are "easily accessible and affordable." Such beverages were in the news last month when nine Central Washington University students were hospitalized following a party. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 14655 - Posted: 11.11.2010

By Dave Lee BBC World Service Young offenders are more likely to have suffered a brain injury compared with the rest of society, a study suggests. A survey of 197 young male offenders found about half reported having had a childhood brain injury - three times higher than in non-offenders. Multiple head injuries were linked with carrying out more violent crimes, says the University of Exeter team. Better assessment of injuries could help prevent re-offending, they add. The researchers asked 197 offenders aged 11 to 19 years about their past medical history, convicted crimes, mental health and drug use. They considered the effects of traumatic brain injury alongside other factors such as deprivation and lack of life opportunities to determine if a childhood brain injury contributed to future acts of criminal behaviour. The study, published in the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, found that while a brain injury alone is unlikely to increase a child's chances of criminal activity, it could play a factor in those already susceptible to crime, and may increase the chance of repeat offences. "The associations between brain injuries and crime are very problematic," explained Huw Williams, associate professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Exeter, on Radio 4's All in the Mind. "It may not be causal in the sense of increasing the chances of crime, but it may well be a factor in terms of re-offending." BBC © MMX

Keyword: Aggression; Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 14654 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Andy Coghlan Women who take mild painkillers such as aspirin and paracetamol during pregnancy are slightly more likely to have boys with undescended testicles, a study from Denmark has reported. The risk of having a son with the condition remains low, with or without painkillers, but the finding may explain why it has become more common in recent decades. However, a similar investigation in Finland found no links at all. The risk rose significantly for women in the Danish group who took more painkillers, particularly between 8 and 14 weeks: it increased 21-fold if women took more than one type of painkiller daily for more than a fortnight during this period. "The most important message is that if you take the occasional paracetamol, it's not going to do your baby any harm," says Richard Sharpe of the University of Edinburgh, UK, who was not involved in the study but who investigates the causes and origins of fetal sexual development in boys. "It's prolonged usage that might be a problem." In the study itself, Henrik Leffers of the University Hospital of Copenhagen led a team that followed women through their pregnancies, 834 of which resulted in boys. The researchers identified which women took paracetamol, aspirin or ibuprofen for pain relief during pregnancy, and investigated whether this raised the likelihood that their sons would have undescended testicles at birth, a condition called cryptorchidism. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 14653 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Catherine de Lange Calcium activity in the brain plays an important role in the onset of Parkinson's disease, according to a study in mice. The finding helps explain why common calcium-blocking drugs, such as those used to control blood pressure, appear to protect against the disease. Damage to dopamine-releasing cells in a brain area called the substantia nigra (SN) is known to be involved in the onset of Parkinson's disease. "Pacemaking" cells in this area release pulses of dopamine, a hormone crucial for movement and balance. So damage to these cells leads to the symptoms of Parkinson's – such as tremors and stiffness. A key question is why cells of the SN are so much more susceptible to damage than those in surrounding areas. Now it seems that calcium, which enters these cells to regulate their activity, is the culprit. Jaime Guzman from Northwestern University in Chicago and colleagues compared the effect of calcium activity in two brain areas in mice – the pacemaking SN and a neighbouring area where there was no pacemaking activity. They found that the calcium influx in the SN caused much higher levels of oxidative stress – pressure on cells to counteract the effects of molecules such as free radicals, that can damage proteins and DNA. Oxidative stress is thought to be the source of the cell damage that leads to Parkinson's disease. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Apoptosis
Link ID: 14652 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Douglas Fox Steven and David Elmore were born identical twins, but their first days in this world could not have been more different. David came home from the hospital after a week. Steven, born four minutes later, stayed behind in the ICU. For a month he hovered near death in an incubator, wracked with fever from what doctors called a dangerous viral infection. Even after Steven recovered, he lagged behind his twin. He lay awake but rarely cried. When his mother smiled at him, he stared back with blank eyes rather than mirroring her smiles as David did. And for several years after the boys began walking, it was Steven who often lost his balance, falling against tables or smashing his lip. Those early differences might have faded into distant memory, but they gained new significance in light of the twins’ subsequent lives. By the time Steven entered grade school, it appeared that he had hit his stride. The twins seemed to have equalized into the genetic carbon copies that they were: They wore the same shoulder-length, sandy-blond hair. They were both B+ students. They played basketball with the same friends. Steven Elmore had seemingly overcome his rough start. But then, at the age of 17, he began hearing voices. The voices called from passing cars as Steven drove to work. They ridiculed his failure to find a girlfriend. Rolling up the car windows and blasting the radio did nothing to silence them. Other voices pursued Steven at home. Three voices called through the windows of his house: two angry men and one woman who begged the men to stop arguing. Another voice thrummed out of the stereo speakers, giving a running commentary on the songs of Steely Dan or Led Zeppelin, which Steven played at night after work. His nerves frayed and he broke down. Within weeks his outbursts landed him in a psychiatric hospital, where doctors determined he had schizophrenia. © 2010, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 14651 - Posted: 11.11.2010

Some people hear voices that are the products only of processes in their brains. These hallucinations can lead to persistent delusions that someone is plotting against them or urging them to harm others. When a person acts on those delusions, headline-grabbing tragedy can ensue, usually involving someone close to the protagonist. Violence is not a symptom of schizophrenia — only a tiny proportion of sufferers with the condition are homicidal. Yet these incidents dominate the media coverage of the disease. The reality of schizophrenia is much more complex. Hallucinations are one of several symptoms, others of which — cognitive dysfunction, loss of motivation and of social engagement — are much less amenable to medication, and are often more damaging to the ability of those with schizophrenia to function. In recent years it has been increasingly appreciated that this collection of symptoms, which typically first fully manifest in early adulthood, represents a late stage of the illness, and that the illness itself may perhaps turn out to be a collection of syndromes, rather than a single condition. Motivated by the undue stigma and by the recent advances reported in our own pages and elsewhere, Nature this week examines the state of our understanding of schizophrenia, and how researchers can hope to make progress in an entangled landscape of innate and environmental influences. The image on this issue's cover and in the logo that links the associated content is a piece of art by a schizophrenia sufferers. It is one of many compiled by NARSAD, a US charity based in New York that spends significant public donations on psychiatric health research. The image reflects a world of confusion and distorted reality — but not a 'split personality', which is a mythical symptom of the condition, and leads to a misleading metaphorical use of the word 'schizophrenic' that those involved with the condition perpetually seek to eradicate. © 2010 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 14650 - Posted: 11.11.2010