By Abigail Baird In 2009, Miley Cyrus reportedly made an astonishing 25 million dollars. Most of that money came from album sales, which were reported to be slightly over 4 million during that year. Four million…Four million?! Have you heard Miley Cyrus sing? Are there really four million kids out there willing to spend their hard-earned babysitting money on a Miley Cyrus album because they deeply love listening to her sing? Well, according to the findings of a study recently published in Neuroimage, selling four million albums does not translate to having four million people like your music. The study reports that there is good reason to believe that a lot of those purchases were made out of fear -- a fear well known to adolescents all over America: terror of social rejection. The fear of social rejection is so strong in adolescents because their relationships are essential for passing on the lessons that will enable them to join adult society. In order to do this properly and efficiently, teenagers come equipped with the ability to learn fast and furiously from their peers, especially those who wield more social power -- who are older or more popular. Although this system developed because it helps the teen transition to adulthood, it has proven an excellent principle upon which to base economic decisions. The popular kids dictate teen culture, and if they endorse it (Twilight, anyone?) it will sell. Gregory S. Berns, the chair of Neuroeconomics at Emory University, and his colleagues set out to understand more about the neural and behavioral mechanics of social influence on decisions about purchasing music. The researchers’ basic question was: When people change their behavior based on social influence, is it their actual preferences that change, or simply their behavior? © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Emotions
Link ID: 13873 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SAM DOLNICK WHEN most people think of hunger in America, the images that leap to mind are of ragged toddlers in Appalachia or rail-thin children in dingy apartments reaching for empty bottles of milk. Once, maybe. But a recent survey found that the most severe hunger-related problems in the nation are in the South Bronx, long one of the country’s capitals of obesity. Experts say these are not parallel problems persisting in side-by-side neighborhoods, but plagues often seen in the same households, even the same person: the hungriest people in America today, statistically speaking, may well be not sickly skinny, but excessively fat. Call it the Bronx Paradox. “Hunger and obesity are often flip sides to the same malnutrition coin,” said Joel Berg, executive director of the New York City Coalition Against Hunger. “Hunger is certainly almost an exclusive symptom of poverty. And extra obesity is one of the symptoms of poverty.” The Bronx has the city’s highest rate of obesity, with residents facing an estimated 85 percent higher risk of being obese than people in Manhattan, according to Andrew G. Rundle, an epidemiologist at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. But the Bronx also faces stubborn hunger problems. According to a survey released in January by the Food Research and Action Center, an antihunger group, nearly 37 percent of residents in the 16th Congressional District, which encompasses the South Bronx, said they lacked money to buy food at some point in the past 12 months. That is more than any other Congressional district in the country and twice the national average, 18.5 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2009. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 13872 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Elizabeth Barrett Struggling to hear someone properly mid-conversation during a noisy party or gathering may be something most of us have experienced at one time or another. But a person's brain rather than their ear could be to blame for the inability to "zoom in" on an individual you want to hear - the so-called "cocktail party" problem, new research suggested today. The study being carried out by Deafness Research UK scientists at the University College London Ear Institute intimated the brain appears to play a greater role than was previously thought in the auditory process. It is hoped the research, looking at the brain's ability to focus its listening attention on a single speaker amid a mixture of background chatter, but at the same time immediately respond if someone calls our name, will benefit the deaf and hard of hearing. Particularly those with cochlear implants or "bionic ears" and hearing aids, which traditionally struggle in noisy environments. Vivienne Michael, chief executive of Deafness Research UK, said: "Scientists are particularly interested in how the central auditory system is able to cope with noisy environments; a major challenge for hearing research over the next decade will be to improve the performance of cochlear implant devices. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Hearing; Attention
Link ID: 13871 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Robert Epstein On Wednesday, March 10, I had the pleasure of making love with Scientific American ’s editor-in-chief, Mariette DiChristina—in front of a large audience, no less. Hey, calm down. We didn’t make love with each other. We did something even better. We showed about a hundred smart, skeptical New Yorkers that we could, fairly easily and on demand, increase the love that feel people toward each other—people who are already in love, people who are just friends, and even total strangers. The venue was the classy 92Y Tribeca, the fairly new home of art and intellect in lower Manhattan, and the excuse was Scientific American Mind ’s January/February cover story about how science can help you fall in love. Our presentation began, consistent with the occasion, with a prolonged hug that prompted laughter and applause. When, eventually, the embrace ended, I asked four volunteers to come up on stage, and I paired them off into couples that had never met before. I then asked them, on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 was low and 10 was high), a) how much they liked each other, b) how much they loved each other, c) how close they felt to each other, and d) how attracted they were to each other. Next, I asked the individuals in each couple simply to look deeply into each other’s eyes for two minutes in an exercise I call “Soul Gazing.” After the giggling stopped, they got down to business and started looking quite serious. Then I asked for those numbers again: liking, loving, closeness and attraction. To the delight and astonishment of the audience, the numbers went up for all four people—14 percent overall. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Emotions; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 13870 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Andy Coghlan What does a rattlesnake's night vision have in common with the taste of wasabi sauce? It turns out that when some snakes "thermally image" their prey, they employ receptors similar to those we use to sense pungency from wasabi. Unlike the human receptors, which respond to odour molecules, the snakes' thermal receptors respond directly to heat, triggering nerve impulses that their brain interprets as an image. "It's hard to know exactly what the snake 'sees', but one assumes that the thermal image in some way depicts the relative thermal intensity of an object or animal," says David Julius of the University of California, San Francisco, whose team has found the link. "It's probably not unlike a thermal camera." Julius's team compared gene activity in different types of nerve cell from diamondback rattlesnakes, which all have shallow pits on their faces that detect heat. They found that in nerves that feed the pits, a gene called TRPA1 was 400 times more active than elsewhere. The gene makes a protein that activates the cells when it detects heat from objects at more than 27 °C. Boas and pythons have similar molecules on their snouts. Journal reference: Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature08943 © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Evolution
Link ID: 13869 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Michael Torrice Whether it involves gambling away one's life savings or committing one murder after another, a psychopath inevitably leaves the rest of us wondering: What was going on in his head? Now researchers report that part of the answer may be hypersensitivity to rewards, which may create a pathological drive for money, sex, and status. All psychopaths share two characteristic traits: an inability to empathize with others' emotions, such as the fear in a person's face, and impulsive, anti-social behavior, such as reckless risk taking or excessive aggression. Neuroscientists have pinpointed neural mechanisms that may cause psychopaths' lack of empathy. But very little research has looked at what leads to impulsivity-which in some ways might be more important, because it can help predict a psychopath's tendency towards violent crime. Neuroscientist Joshua Buckholtz of Vanderbilt University in Nashville and his colleagues decided to focus on a system of interconnected brain regions called the mesolimbic system, which motivate us to hunt for rewards by releasing the neurotransmitter dopamine. Drugs like heroine-to which psychopaths are also more susceptible—can push circuits in this system into overdrive, leaving addicts compulsively seeking another hit. The researchers hypothesized that psychopaths might also overreact to other rewards. To test their hypothesis, the scientists studied how normal personality is affected by variations in the nucleus accumbens, a part of the mesolimbic system involved in motivation. They gave 30 volunteers a small dose of amphetamine, a stimulant, and used a PET scanner to measure how much dopamine their nucleus accumbens released. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Aggression; Emotions
Link ID: 13868 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A gene that causes a fatal childhood brain disorder can also cause adults to develop peripheral neuropathy, a condition resulting in weakness and decreased sensation in the hands and limbs, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health and other institutions. The study is the first to show that different mutations in the same gene cause the two seemingly unrelated disorders. Inherited peripheral neuropathies are a diverse group of disorders that cause loss of muscle tissue in the hands, feet, and lower legs of affected patients, usually starting in adulthood. Various genetic causes have been identified for Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) (http://www.nature.com/ejhg/journal/v17/n6/pdf/ejhg200931a.pdf.), the broad category of inherited peripheral neuropathy that affects approximately 125,000 people in the United States. The peripheral nervous system consists of nerves that reside or extend outside of the brain and spinal cord. In the current study, the researchers determined that persons with a CMT-like neuropathy have a mutation in the same gene that causes Menkes disease, a severe brain disorder that begins in infancy and is fatal if not treated. This gene, called ATP7A, codes for a protein needed to move the trace metal copper between different compartments within the body's cells, or out of cells altogether. "The findings provide insight into how peripheral nerves function and may ultimately lead to new treatments for some peripheral neuropathies," said Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., acting director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the NIH Institute that collaborated in the study.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13867 - Posted: 03.15.2010

By THE NEW YORK TIMES Dr. Robert A. King and Dr. James F. Leckman of the Yale School of Medicine recently joined the Consults blog to answer readers’ questions about Tourette’s syndrome. Here, Dr. Leckman and Dr. King respond to readers asking about living with the strange movements, tics and vocalizations of Tourette’s, which can be socially difficult and, in some cases, lifelong. Do You Tell a Teacher About Tourette’s? Jen from Brookline, Mass., asks: My daughter started exhibiting tics at age 2 and was diagnosed with Tourrette’s at age 3. Now she’s 5 and will start kindergarten in September. I wrestle with whether to tell her teachers about it right off the bat, or wait and see if it becomes an issue. Her symptoms, so far, have been mild and not always evident. I would hate for her to be “labeled” unnecessarily (with whatever negatives come with that), but on the other hand, I feel that not being forthright is dishonest, and could equally be a disservice to my daughter. Any advice from those who have recently BTDT? Dr. King and Dr. Leckman respond: Tics wax and wane. For some, the tics will subside early in life. For others, the worst-ever tics occur at around 10 years of age or later in life. Unlike your daughter, some children with Tourette’s who begin school have had bad periods during which the tics are severe. It is likely that such children will have bad periods in the future. If the tics are pronounced enough that a teacher or peers are likely to notice and comment, it is better to be proactive and to be prepared. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Tourettes; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13866 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON - Vaccines that contain a mercury-based preservative called thimerosal cannot cause autism on their own, a special U.S. court ruled on Friday, dealing one more blow to parents seeking to blame vaccines for their children's illness. The special U.S. Court of Federal Claims ruled that vaccines could not have caused the autism of an Oregon boy, William Mead, ending his family's quest for reimbursement. "The Meads believe that thimerosal-containing vaccines caused William's regressive autism. As explained below, the undersigned finds that the Meads have not presented a scientifically sound theory," Special Master George Hastings, a former tax claims expert at the Department of Justice, wrote in his ruling. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here The Meads had filed a civil lawsuit in Oregon state court against a number of pharmaceutical companies alleging that the thimerosal additive in many pediatric vaccines significantly contributed to the development of William's autism, Hastings wrote. While the state court determined the autism was vaccine-related, Hastings said overwhelming medical evidence showed otherwise. The theory presented by the Meads and experts who testified on their behalf "was biologically implausible and scientifically unsupported", Hasting wrote. Copyright 2010 Reuters.

Keyword: Autism; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 13865 - Posted: 03.13.2010

By Jesse Emspak A drug targeting dopamine receptors might be able to "kick-start" an injured brain, enabling certain kinds of vegetative and minimally conscious patients to recover faster. Esteban Fridman of the FLENI hospital in Buenos Aires thinks the crux of the problem for such patients lies in their neuron-connecting axons. They are so badly damaged that they have a difficult time carrying chemical signals, or neurotransmitters, from neuron to neuron. Axons get disrupted when they are subject to stresses such as cranial impact—as when a fighter gets hit in the head or a driver smacks into the steering wheel in a car accident. As a possible treatment for such damage, Fridman has focused on apomorphine, which binds to the brain's dopamine receptors. Dopamine, a neurotransmitter well known for its role in Parkinson's disease, is part of the mechanism controlling arousal and motivated behavior; it also plays a role in consciousness disorders. Fridman hypothesizes that apomorphine might work by acting in place of dopamine. Flooding the injured brain with the chemical might stimulate it enough to repair the connections, enabling the patients to reach full consciousness. He notes the drug wouldn't work in cases where the brain has been deprived of oxygen or blood, because the damage is more widespread. Terri Schiavo, a Florida woman whose care sparked a nationwide controversy that peaked in 2005, was in a vegetative state caused by that kind of injury. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 13864 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rachel Ehrenberg People deceive their taste buds every day — a dash of Sweet'N Low in the coffee, perhaps, a diet soda or a stick of sugarless gum. These little white lies seem to cover up harmless, even healthy choices. After all, fooling the mouth with artificial sweeteners provides a fix without the calories or the cavities. But these sweeteners aren’t just tricking the taste buds on the tongue. Taste, scientists are discovering, is a whole-body sensation. There are taste cells in the stomach, intestine and, evidence suggests, the pancreas, colon and esophagus. These sensory cells are part of an ancient battalion tasked with guiding food choices since long before nutrition labels, Rachael Ray or even agriculture existed. While taste cells in the mouth make snap judgments about what should be let inside, new work suggests that gut taste cells serve as specialized ground forces, charged with preparing the digestive system for the aftermath of the tongue’s decisions. Stimulating these gut cells triggers a complex series of events that can dial down, or amp up, the digestion and absorption of the body’s fuel. When hit by bitter — potentially toxic — substances, gut taste cells sound an alarm that may lead to slower absorption or spur vomiting. And when the gut’s taste sensors encounter something sweet, they send a “prepare for fuel” missive that results in cranked-up insulin levels in the blood. Though scientists don’t fully understand what follows, studies hint at a tantalizing, if convoluted, connection between gut taste cell activity and metabolism. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Obesity
Link ID: 13863 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Huw Williams Researchers say they've solved the mystery of why some chickens hatch out half-male and half-female. About one in every 10,000 chickens is gynandromorphous, to use the technical term. In medieval times, they might have been burned at the stake, as witches' familiars. But now these chickens are shedding important new light on how birds, and perhaps reptiles, develop. It used to be thought that hormones instructed cells to develop in male or female-specific ways. That's what happens in mammals, including humans, and it leads to secondary sexual characteristics like facial hair for men or breasts for women. But scientists at the Roslin Institute and the University of Edinburgh say they have discovered that bird cells don't need to be programmed by hormones. Instead they are inherently male or female, and remain so even if they end up mixed together in the same chicken. It means a half-and-half chicken will have totally different plumage, body shape, and muscle structure on the two halves of its body. It even affects the wattles on the bird's head, and the spurs on its legs. They will be larger on the cockerel half, and smaller on the hen half, of the same bird. Dr Michael Clinton of the Roslin Institute led the research, which has just been published in the scientific journal Nature. He said the findings were a surprise. Dr Clinton explained: "We looked at these birds initially expecting them not to be half-male and half-female. We thought there'd be a mutation on one side of the body. But we found that they were half-male and half-female and that's what actually showed us that the system was different in birds and mammals." (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 13862 - Posted: 03.12.2010

By JUDITH WARNER If you’re the parent of a child who’s having trouble learning or behaving in school, you quickly find yourself confronted with a series of difficult choices. You can do nothing — and watch your child flounder while teachers register their disapproval. Or you can get help, which generally means, first, an expensive and time-consuming evaluation, then more visits with more specialists, intensive tutoring, therapies, perhaps, or, as is often the case with attention issues, drugs. For many parents — particularly the sorts of parents who are skeptical of mainstream medicine and of the intentions of what one mother once described to me as “the learning-disability industrial complex” — this experience is an exercise in frustration and alienation. These parents often don’t trust the mental-health professionals who usually treat children with “issues,” as we euphemistically tend to refer to problems like learning disabilities, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism or other developmental difficulties. They find offensive the prospect of having a child “labeled” when his or her development doesn’t correspond to what seem like random, overly restrictive norms. They find the notion of putting children on psychotropic medication frightening and unacceptable. They want to find concrete causes for their children’s diffuse, often difficult-to-understand problems and, ideally, to find cures. They want their children to achieve, and they’re dissatisfied with what they feel are the palliative half-measures offered by pediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists and learning specialists. That’s why some of these parents end up seeking the services of people like Stanley A. Appelbaum. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: ADHD; Dyslexia
Link ID: 13861 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Shanta Barley Octopuses make for discerning TV viewers: it seems they prefer high-definition to traditional cathode ray images (CRT). What's more, the first study using video to trick octopuses, finds that they may be the Jekyll and Hydes of the oceans: aggressive one day, shrinking violets the next. "People have been trying for over a decade to get proper behavioural responses from octopuses and other cephalopods using videos," says Roger Hanlon, an octopus researcher at the Marine Resources Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, who was not involved in the study. "But this is the first time anyone has managed it." Gloomy octopuses (Octopus tetricus) reacted to films shown on liquid crystal high definition television (HDTV) as if they were seeing the real thing, according to a new study by Renata Pronk at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues. "They lunge forwards to attack crabs and back off from other octopuses, much as they do in the wild," says Hanlon. Surprisingly, an octopus that was bold, aggressive and exploratory on one day was just as likely to be shy, submissive and stationary the next. "This suggests that the gloomy octopus does not have personality," writes Pronk in the new study. No personality By "personality", researchers mean consistency in behaviour. You might expect an individual to respond to crabs, other octopuses, jars, for example, by being consistently bold, shy or aggressive. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Emotions; Evolution
Link ID: 13860 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Andy Coghlan OBESITY kills, everyone knows that. But is it possible that we've been looking at the problem in the wrong way? It seems getting fatter may be part of your body's defence against the worst effects of unhealthy eating, rather than their direct cause. This curious insight comes at the same time as several studies distancing obesity itself from a host of diseases it has long been blamed for, including heart disease and diabetes. Instead, these studies point the finger at excess fat in the bloodstream, either when the fat cells of obese people finally get overloaded or when lean people who can't store a lot of fat eat too much. This seems to have a destructive effect by provoking the body's immune response. None of this changes the fact that too much rich food and too little exercise is bad for you. But viewing obesity as a symptom of an unhealthy diet, rather than the direct cause of disease and death, plus a better appreciation of the immune system's reaction to fat, should radically change our understanding of what is shaping up to be one of modern society's biggest health scourges. The findings also point to new ways to treat diabetes, heart disease and other diet-linked conditions. In recent years, most rich countries, and some poorer ones, have seen a massive rise in so-called "metabolic syndrome", whose symptoms can include insulin resistance, high blood cholesterol and an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke. That the syndrome goes hand in hand with obesity is well known, but exactly how all these conditions are linked is unclear. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 13859 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Gisela Telis Your thoughts leave a trace—and it’s visible. Researchers have successfully identified the memory a person is recalling by analyzing their brain activity. The result offers new insights into how and where the brain records memories and may help scientists understand memory impairments caused by injuries, aging, and neurological conditions, such as a stroke. Cognitive neuroscientist Eleanor Maguire and her colleagues at University College London are no strangers to mind reading. Their recipe of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a specific computer algorithm has gleaned the secrets of the hippocampus, a brain region that tracks where a person is and also plays a role in memory and learning. The technological tag team works like this: fMRI measures the brain's blood flow—associated with neuron activity—on the scale of voxels, three-dimensional "pixels" that each include roughly 10,000 neurons. The algorithm then interprets the changes voxel by voxel to learn the brain's patterns of activity over time. Last year, Maguire used the method to pinpoint where a person was "standing" in a virtual-reality room. Now, Maguire's team has turned from spatial orientation to a more complex function of the hippocampus: so-called episodic memory of specific experiences, such as seeing the ocean for the first time. To test whether they could capture episodic memories, the researchers needed 10 volunteers to share the same ones. To do this, they showed them three 7-second movies and asked them to memorize what they saw. Each movie showed a different actress doing a simple task, such as rummaging in a handbag and then dropping an envelope in a mailbox. The volunteers were prompted to remember each movie while the fMRI scanned their brains so that the computer algorithm could match the pattern of activity to each memory. Then they were allowed to recall whichever movie they chose. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Brain imaging
Link ID: 13858 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jesse Bering Surprisingly little evolutionarily informed research has been done on our species’ strange love affair with sports. Why do we care so much about such arbitrary and ostensibly functionless displays of physical and mental prowess? Although data derived directly from evolutionary hypotheses are scant, theories abound. In a recent issue of Perspectives in Biology and Medicine , for example, Andreas de Block and Siegfried Dewitte from the University of Leuven in Belgium seek to explain why our obsession with competitive athletics is such a predictable expression of human nature. Before we get into de Block and Dewitte’s claims, though, a disclosure from yours truly—one that might well slant this story. In the wake of this Olympics season, this will undoubtedly render me abhorrent among a broad swath of Scientific American’s audience and beyond. But the truth is, I care very little for sports. It’s not that I actively dislike athletics; I’m just utterly indifferent. I can’t help it. The prospect of watching a sporting event, any sporting event, is about as appealing to me as is spending my free time reading the crawling news ticker at the bottom of C-SPAN. It’s been like this for as long as I can remember. In central Ohio where I spent much of my childhood, being a fan of the Ohio State Buckeyes was like being a member of a religious congregation; it’s perhaps little wonder that the same glossy, creepily cultish eyes of the average sports fan there tended to share a common head with the evangelical churchgoer. My father used to drag me along to OSU basketball games, where I’d spend hours spying on the other people in the stands with my binoculars—their private, subtle behaviors massively more interesting to me than anything happening on the court below. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Evolution; Aggression
Link ID: 13857 - Posted: 06.24.2010

THE possibility of operating a machine using thought control has long fascinated researchers. It would be the ultimate video-game controller, for one thing. On a more practical level, it would help disabled and paralysed people use computers, artificial limbs, motorised wheelchairs or robots. New developments in brain-to-machine interfaces show that such possibilities are getting closer. For many years it has been possible for people to manipulate relatively simple devices—such as a computer’s on-screen cursor—by thinking about moving them. One way is by implanting electrodes into the brain to measure the electrical activity associated with certain movements. Another uses electroencephalography (EEG), which detects the same activity using electrodes placed on the scalp. In both cases, a computer learns to associate particular brain signals with intended actions. The trouble is that non-invasive methods, which obviously have far broader appeal, are less precise than using implanted electrodes, which produce a clearer signal. Recent advances in sensors and signal processing, however, have helped close the gap, making the EEG-based approach more accurate and easier to learn how to use. In one of the latest studies, José Contreras-Vidal and his colleagues at the University of Maryland were able to obtain enough EEG data from volunteer button pushers to reconstruct the associated hand motions in three dimensions. For their study, reported in the Journal of Neuroscience, the researchers put something that looks like a swimming cap containing 34 EEG sensors on the heads of five people. The volunteers were asked to press eight buttons randomly as their brain’s electrical signals were recorded, along with their hand movements. When the volunteers were then asked to think about pressing one of the eight buttons, the resulting EEG data could be compared with the data produced during actual button-pushing, and the computer could determine which button they had in mind. © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2010.

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 13856 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID WASHINGTON - Nicotine builds up gradually in smokers' brains rather than spiking after each puff, according to a study that might help point to new ways to help people quit smoking. Dr. Jed E. Rose of Duke University reports in Monday's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that nicotine buildup in the brain was gradual over several minutes. Scientists have theorized that there is a spike of nicotine in the brain about seven seconds after each puff, but almost no measurements had been taken until now, Rose said in a telephone interview. "We were surprised to find that the rate of uptake was much different from what one commonly hears," said Rose, who directs the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research, a part of the university's School of Medicine. Rose used brain scans to measure the nicotine levels in 13 regular smokers and 10 people who smoke only occasionally, an indication they were not addicted to nicotine. Maximum brain levels of nicotine were reached in 3 to 5 minutes, and built up slower in addicted smokers than in casual ones, the researchers found. "This slower rate resulted from nicotine staying longer in the lungs of dependent smokers, which may be a result of the chronic effects of smoke on the lungs," Rose suggested. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 13855 - Posted: 03.09.2010

By RONI CARYN RABIN Older people are more likely to suffer a decline in their cognitive abilities after being hospitalized for an illness than they would otherwise, a new study reports. The study, published last month in The Journal of the American Medical Association, followed almost 3,000 people 65 and older for more than a decade. All of the participants lived in the Seattle area; none had dementia at the start of the study. Those who were hospitalized for a critical condition like severe infection or cardiac arrest experienced a statistically significant drop in scores on a cognitive performance test given later, when compared with people who had not been hospitalized. Those who had been hospitalized for a noncritical illness faced a statistically significant 40 percent increase in dementia after the hospitalization, when compared with those who had not been hospitalized. While some of the cognitive impairment could stem from the illness itself, the researchers said, side effects of hospitalization and treatment could also play a role. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 13854 - Posted: 03.09.2010