By Carolyn Y. Johnson It’s fat as you’ve never thought of it before: A few ounces can burn off up to a fifth of a day’s calories. Recent discoveries are highlighting a good type of fat, called “brown fat,’’ that offers a potential new weapon to scientists looking for ways to fight obesity. Unlike better-known white fat, brown fat converts stored energy into heat. It was long known to exist in infants but had been thought to disappear with age. Then this spring, three research groups reported that brown fat exists in at least some adults. And two groups of Boston researchers have reported finding cellular switches that can be flipped on to make brown fat cells out of ordinary skin cells and other types of cells. “This is definitely a very big change in our thinking, because it really does mean now there is an opportunity to really work with this as a way to burn off energy,’’ said Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, head of obesity and hormone action research at the Joslin Diabetes Center who is involved in both lines of research. The discoveries raise the possibility that in the future, obesity could be treated by spurring the growth of brown fat cells in patients, transplanting such cells, or increasing the activity level of patients’ existing brown fat, Kahn said. © 2009 NY Times Co.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 13159 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Ann Gibbons At a recent lunch with scientists who study the evolution of diet, a geneticist casually passed around a vial filled with strips of paper to lick, as though she were handing out toothpicks. Some people tasted nothing, whereas others puckered at the bitter flavor to varying degrees. That's because humans vary genetically in their ability to taste a bitter chemical known as phenylthiocarbamide, which elicits the same response as bitter flavors in Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and broccoli. A new study finds that if our close relatives, the Neandertals, were at that lunch, they too would have had varied tastes for bitter food, suggesting that differences in the ability to detect bitterness stretches back at least half a million years. The vast majority of living humans--at least 75% of people in the world--can detect bitter flavors. They have inherited either one or two copies of the "major taster" variant of the TAS2R38 gene, which mediates how protein receptors on the surface of the tongue detect bitterness. But about 25% of humans are insensitive to these bitter flavors. This has prompted researchers to wonder when and why this feature evolved in human evolution. In the new study, a team of Spanish researchers examined the DNA from a Neandertal from El Sidron cave in northern Spain. The team reports online today in Biology Letters that it sequenced the amino acids encoded by the TAS2R38 gene and found that 55% of the DNA included the taster version of the gene and 44% included the nontaster version. "This Neandertal was a taster although slightly less of a taster" than someone with two copies of the gene, says evolutionary biologist Carles Lalueza-Fox of the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona, Spain, who led the study. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Evolution
Link ID: 13158 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Adam Brimelow Fresh evidence has emerged of the stigma surrounding mental health problems. A poll by YouGov suggests that more than one in three of the public think people with schizophrenia are likely to be violent. Two short films that challenge this misconception have been released. They can be viewed online and will soon be screened in cinemas. The opening frames create a mood of menace and tension -- with shifting shadows, eyes twitching, a jarring soundtrack, and the flashing banner "Schizo". Bit by bit the camera edges closer to white creaky door..... And then, behind it, there is Stuart - pouring a cup of tea, and talking about his life with schizophrenia. "Hi there. I'm sorry to disappoint you if you were expecting a lunatic with a knife and some sort of rampage," he says. He explains he was diagnosed with the condition 12 years ago. He says many people with mental illness face prejudice, but that he had family and friends to help him lead a full life. The film's director, Jonathan Pearson, says he wants to make people confront their own attitudes about mental illness and violence. "It challenges it by using the typical conventions of a horror movie, and then half way through the film we change," he said. "All the lights change from a horror section to a very inviting comfortable environment. (C)BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 13157 - Posted: 08.11.2009

Brain radiotherapy affects mind Brain tumour Radiotherapy is a common treatment for brain tumours Radiotherapy used to treat brain tumours may lead to a decline in mental function many years down the line, say Dutch researchers. A study of 65 patients, 12 years after they were treated, found those who had radiotherapy were more likely to have problems with memory and attention. Writing in The Lancet Neurology, the researchers said doctors should hold off using radiotherapy where possible. One UK expert said doctors were cautious about using radiotherapy. The patients in the study all had a form of brain tumour called a low-grade glioma - one of the most common types of brain tumour. In these cases radiotherapy is commonly given after initial surgery to remove the tumour, but there is some debate about whether this should be done immediately or used only if the cancer returns. It always depends on the patient, but if it is possible to defer radiotherapy, maybe people should Dr Linda Douw, study leader It is known that radiation treatment in the brain causes some damage to normal tissue and the study's researchers suspected it could lead to decline in mental function. A previous study in the same patients done six years after treatment found no difference in aspects like memory, attention and the speed at which people could process information, in those who had received radiotherapy. But the latest research, carried out more than a decade after original treatment, did find significant variation in the results of several mental tests between those who had had radiotherapy and those who had not. In all, 53% of patients who had radiotherapy showed decline in brain function compared with 27% of patients who only had surgery. The most profound differences were in tests to measure attention. Radiotherapy used to treat brain tumours may lead to a decline in mental function many years down the line, say Dutch researchers. A study of 65 patients, 12 years after they were treated, found those who had radiotherapy were more likely to have problems with memory and attention. Writing in The Lancet Neurology, the researchers said doctors should hold off using radiotherapy where possible. One UK expert said doctors were cautious about using radiotherapy. The patients in the study all had a form of brain tumour called a low-grade glioma - one of the most common types of brain tumour. In these cases radiotherapy is commonly given after initial surgery to remove the tumour, but there is some debate about whether this should be done immediately or used only if the cancer returns. It is known that radiation treatment in the brain causes some damage to normal tissue and the study's researchers suspected it could lead to decline in mental function. A previous study in the same patients done six years after treatment found no difference in aspects like memory, attention and the speed at which people could process information, in those who had received radiotherapy. But the latest research, carried out more than a decade after original treatment, did find significant variation in the results of several mental tests between those who had had radiotherapy and those who had not. In all, 53% of patients who had radiotherapy showed decline in brain function compared with 27% of patients who only had surgery. The most profound differences were in tests to measure attention. (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 13156 - Posted: 08.11.2009

By Steve Connor, Science Editor Men worried about keeping their marbles should take a long look at themselves in the shaving mirror. Scientists have found that the more symmetrical a man's face is, the less likely he is to suffer mental decline in very old age. Although the connection between a symmetrical face and cognitive ability may seem surprising, scientists believe that it could be explained by the idea that a good set of genes for facial symmetry may be linked with an equally good set of genes for brain preservation. The same study, however, failed to find any link between facial symmetry in women and mental decline in old age. Scientists said that they were surprised to find the link in men but not in women of the same age. The study is based on the Scottish Mental Survey undertaken in 1932 when hundreds of 11-year-olds were given an IQ test. A sample of the survivors of this study were tested again when they reached the age of 79, and then 216 of them were given a further IQ test when they reached the age of 83. Data from the health survey have enabled scientists to study the mental decline that occurs over a lifetime, and especially the more rapid decline that takes place in much later life in the years just prior to death. A research team led by Lars Penke of the University of Edinburgh analysed photographs of the 216 pensioners and compared their facial symmetries – how similar the left side is to the right – with the degree of mental decline they suffered between the ages of 79 and 83. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Alzheimers; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13155 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By AMANDA SCHAFFER You can do almost anything on the Internet these days. What about getting a good night’s sleep? It might be possible, some researchers say. Web-based programs to treat insomnia are proliferating, and two small but rigorous studies suggest that online applications based on cognitive behavioral therapy can be effective. “Fifteen years ago, people would have thought it was crazy to get therapy remotely,” said Bruce Wampold, a professor of counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin. “But as we do more and more things electronically, including have social relationships, more therapists have come to believe that this can be an effective way to deliver services to some people.” The first controlled study of an online program for insomnia was published in 2004. But the results were hard to interpret, because they showed similar benefits for those who used the program and those in the control group. The two new studies, from researchers in Virginia and in Canada, advance the evidence that such programs can work. In the Virginia study, called SHUTi, patients enter several weeks of sleep diaries, and the program calculates a window of time during which they are allowed to sleep. Patients limit the time they spend in bed to roughly the hours that they have actually been sleeping. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 13154 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Researchers have found experimental evidence that a touch can be worth a thousand words, that fleeting physical contact can express specific emotions — silently, subtly and unmistakably. Scientists led by Matthew J. Hertenstein, an associate professor of psychology at DePauw University, recruited 248 students, each to touch or be touched by a partner previously unknown to them to try to communicate a specific emotion: anger, fear, happiness, sadness, disgust, love, gratitude or sympathy. The person touched was blindfolded and ignorant of the sex of the toucher, who was instructed to try to convey one of the eight emotions, and both participants remained silent. Forty-four women and 31 men touched a female partner, while 25 men and 24 women touched a male partner. Afterward, each person touched was given the list of eight emotions and told to pick the one conveyed. There was also a ninth choice, “none of these terms are correct,” to eliminate the possibility of forcing a choice of emotion when none were truly felt. The touchers were instructed to touch any appropriate part of the body, and they chose variously to touch the head, face, arms, hands, shoulders, trunk and back. Accurate understanding ranged from 50 percent to 78 percent, much higher than the 11 percent expected by chance and comparable to rates seen in studies of verbal and facial emotion. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 13153 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY Q. If I eat a raw jalapeño pepper, my mouth is afire, my eyes water and my nose runs. How can some people eat pepper after pepper without pain? Have they destroyed the sensory receptors in their mouths and throats? A. No receptors are destroyed, said Harry T. Lawless, a professor of food science at Cornell and an expert in the taste, smell and sensory evaluation of food. Instead, “people who eat a lot of the stuff tend to develop a tolerance that we call desensitization,” he said. “There is nothing harmful in the capsaicin molecule, the active ingredient of hot peppers,” he said. “Capsaicin is kind of a harmless drug, and like any drug we develop a tolerance to it.” One theory is that a neurotransmitter gets depleted so that people respond less vigorously to capsaicin the more they are exposed to it, he said. The capsaicin molecule has both stimulating and anesthetic properties, Dr. Lawless said. In 1952, The Dublin Medical Press recommended it as a temporary cure for toothache, he said, and pharmacologists, particularly in Hungary, have studied this anesthetic property in related molecules. “The antidote to the mouth burning and the eyes watering is to eat more,” Dr. Lawless said, “either right away or later.” Chronic desensitization seems to be a matter of long-term dietary change, he said, but there is also the short-term numbing effect. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 13152 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Bruce Bower Chimpanzees don’t knuckle under like gorillas, and that may explain how people ended up walking on two legs, a new study suggests. Tracy Kivell of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthopology in Leipzig, Germany, and Daniel Schmitt of Duke University in Durham, N.C., find a new explanation for a set of wrist-bone traits traditionally thought to signal knuckle-walking on flat surfaces by modern apes and ancient hominids — members of the human evolutionary family. These wrist traits actually reflect two types of knuckle-walking that evolved independently in gorillas and chimps, the researchers say. Modern chimps and gorillas both walk on their knuckles, but in different ways. Chimps walk flexibly with bent wrists, giving them added stability on tree branches but putting substantial stress on angled wrist joints, the anthropologists report in a paper published online Aug. 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As a result, chimps’ wrist bones include tiny ridges and depressions that keep their wrists from bending too far. Gorillas stride with arms and wrists extended straight down and locked in an elephant-like stance, the scientists say. This puts minimal stress on gorillas’ forelimb bones, which are stacked one on top of another. Consequently, their wrist bones display no modifications for stabilization during movement, the scientists assert. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2009

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 13151 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Carolyn Y. Johnson To dog owners, their pet’s “arf, arf, arf’’ means “let’s play!’’ To neighbors, it can be annoying noise. But to scientists, barks are an evolutionary puzzle. Why, they wonder, do dogs bark, and bark, and bark, sometimes seemingly for no reason? Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Hampshire College have offered a new explanation for the bark: The rigors of modern canine life trigger a primordial behavior that once helped dogs’ ancestors fend off predators. Animals - including dogs, deer, monkeys, and birds - bark when they feel a conflict, the researchers believe. For example, should an animal run away or defend her young? In the wild, that bark draws the attention - and the barks - of other members of the group, which could scare away the predator. But in domesticated dogs - confined to crates, yards, and houses and beset by passing cars, unfamiliar dogs, and mailmen - such internal conflicts go into overdrive, and so does the barking. The research, published in the journal Behavioural Processes last month, is the latest volley in an ongoing scientific investigation of barking. One question researchers are trying to answer is whether dogs are actually saying something, and, if so, what. The reasons for barking might seem like a frivolous research topic. But to scientists, barking should not be overlooked, considering that it is one of the most conspicuous behaviors displayed by an animal that lives in 40 percent of US households and is often treated like a member of the family. © 2009 NY Times Co.

Keyword: Language; Animal Communication
Link ID: 13150 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Ingrid Wickelgren If your hands and arms quiver when you write and do other tasks, you may have a common neurological condition called essential tremor (ET). As many as 7 percent of adults older than 65 suffer from ET, which may also affect the head and voice. In severe cases, it can be disabling. The cause of such shaking has long been mysterious. But researchers are beginning to uncover a biological explanation for the problem: they have found a gene that may contribute to its development as well as a pathological signature of the disorder in the brain. Researchers knew that genetic factors underlie ET, as half or more of the cases run in families. But no one until now had succeeded in nabbing any of the responsible genes. To find such a gene, scientists at deCODE genetics in Iceland compared DNA blueprints from hundreds of tremor patients and thousands of unafflicted residents. In each person’s DNA, researchers looked at 305,624 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), sites where the identity of the chemical unit (the pair of molecules that makes up each building block of a strand of DNA) commonly varies among people. Out of that analysis emerged one SNP that consistently differed between the patients and the others. The same chemical unit also turned out to be tied to ET in populations of patients whom the researchers recruited from Germany, Austria and the U.S. The newly fingered SNP lies in a gene for a protein called LINGO1 that is present only in the brain and spinal cord—a distribution consistent with a role in neurological disorders, says neurologist Dietrich Haubenberger of the Medical University of Vienna in Austria, one of the study’s authors. The protein, which straddles the cell membrane, is thought to govern interactions among cells and to thereby influence neuronal integrity as well as function. LINGO1 also has been implicated in multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease, but its precise role in these disorders and in ET is unclear. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 13149 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By David Jay Brown As the source of the most powerful natural hallucinogen known, salvia is drawing scrutiny from U.S. authorities who want to restrict this Mexican herb, now used recreation­ally by some. But neuro­scientists worry that controlling it before studies have determined its safety profile is premature and could hamper research of the drug's medicinal value. Increasingly, evidence is piling up that it could lead to new and safer anti­depressants and pain relievers, as well as even help in improving treatments for such mental illnesses as schizophrenia and addiction. The plant, formally known as Salvia divinorum, has a long tradition of shamanic usage by the Mazatec people of central Mexico. Salvinorin A, the primary psychoactive component, is part of a class of naturally occurring organic chemicals called diterpenoids, and it affects neural receptors in the brain similar to those that respond to opiate painkillers such as morphine—but without euphoric and addictive properties. That is because salvinorin A binds mostly to only one type of receptor (the so-called kappa opioid receptor) and not significantly to receptors that could lead to addiction (such as the mu opioid receptor). As the popularity of salvia has risen over the past 16 years—its psychoactive properties were discovered in 1993 by Daniel Siebert, an independent ethnobotanist based in Malibu, Calif.—calls to treat the plant as an illegal drug have grown louder. Twelve states have recently placed S. divinorum in their most restrictive controlled substance category, and four others have laws restricting sales. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has listed salvia as “a drug of concern” and is looking into the drug to determine whether it should be declared a Schedule I controlled substance, on par with heroin and LSD. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 13148 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Greg Miller Decades after the 1918 influenza pandemic, epidemiologists noted an uptick in the number of people with diminished mobility and other neurological symptoms reminiscent of Parkinson's disease. But despite this and other hints, the idea that viruses can trigger neurodegenerative disease has remained controversial. Now researchers report new evidence for such a link: Mice infected with the H5N1 avian influenza virus lose the same dopamine-releasing neurons that are destroyed by Parkinson's disease. The new study was inspired in part by video footage of chickens, geese, and ducks collected in Laos by researchers working with the World Health Organization's surveillance program, says senior author Richard Smeyne, a developmental neurobiologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. "The birds looked like they had Parkinson's disease," Smeyne says. "They were tremoring, falling side to side, and having difficulty with movements." So far there have been no reports of Parkinson's disease in human survivors of the H5N1 flu, Smeyne says, but because only a few years have passed since the first cases were reported, it's too early to know whether those infected are at increased risk. To learn more about the virus's effect on the nervous system, Smeyne and colleagues sprayed a solution containing the virus into the noses of 225 mice. All of the mice developed tremors and movement difficulties. Using an antibody that binds and labels a specific viral protein, the researchers tracked the virus as it first infected nerves in the gut 2 or 3 days after the nasal spray and then successively appeared in the brain stem and midbrain and ultimately infected much of the rest of the brain within 10 days. By 21 days, mice had cleared the virus. But at the end of the 90-day study, the brain regions that had been infected still exhibited signs of inflammation and had elevated levels of phosphorylated alpha-synuclein, the main ingredient in the abnormal clumps of protein that are a hallmark of Parkinson's and certain other neurodegenerative diseases, the researchers report online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers also report that the number of dopamine-releasing neurons in the substantia nigra--the neurons that die off in Parkinson's disease--declined by 17% in the infected mice. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 13147 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Michael Balter If you're a female horse, it pays to have a few girlfriends. Mares who form stronger social bonds produce more and healthier offspring, according to a new study. The finding adds to the growing evidence that friendship is an adaptation with deep evolutionary roots. Numerous human studies, especially of women, have found that friendships lead to better health--and healthier babies. The effect seems to also hold for other animals: In 2003, a research team led by anthropologist Joan Silk of the University of California, Los Angeles, reported that female baboons with close social ties to unrelated females produce infants that survive longer. Similar effects have even been claimed for house mice, but it's been unclear how widespread the benefits of friendship are to nonprimates. The new study, led by zoologist Elissa Cameron of the University of Pretoria in South Africa, focused on 55 adult mares in the hills of New Zealand's North Island. The mares are part of a group that has run wild since the mid-1800s, and they all belong to the same "band"--a stable breeding group consisting of one to four stallions and many more unrelated mares and their offspring. Cameron and her co-workers observed the mares, which they could individually identify by facial markings and other signs. For nearly 3 years, they gathered evidence of social bonding such as mares grooming each other or coming into close contact (less than two body lengths away). The team also noted "harassment" of the mares by stallions apparently asserting their sexual dominance, which earlier work had suggested diminishes reproductive success. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Stress
Link ID: 13146 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Most people get happier as they grow older, studies on people aged up to their mid-90s suggest. Despite worries about ill health, income, changes in social status and bereavements, later life tends to be a golden age, according to psychologists. They found older adults generally make the best of the time they have left and have learned to avoid situations that make them feel sad or stressed. The young should do the same, they told the American Psychological Association. The UK is an ageing nation - in less than 25 years, one in four people in the UK will be over 65 and the number of over-85s will have doubled. And it is expected there will be 30,000 people aged over 100 by the year 2030. According to University of California psychologist Dr Susan Turk Charles, this should make the UK a happier society. By reviewing the available studies on emotions and ageing she found that mental wellbeing generally improved with age, except for people with dementia-related ill health. Work carried out by Dr Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University, suggested why this might be the case. Dr Carstensen asked volunteers ranging in age from 18 to mid-90s to take part in various experiments and keep diaries of their emotional state. She found the older people were far less likely than the younger to experience persistent negative moods and were more resilient to hearing personal criticism. They were also much better at controlling and balancing their emotions - a skill that appeared to improve the older they became. (C)BBC

Keyword: Emotions; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13145 - Posted: 08.08.2009

LONDON - Psychopaths who kill and rape have faulty connections between the part of the brain dealing with emotions and that which handles impulses and decision-making, scientists have found. In a study of psychopaths who had committed murder, manslaughter, multiple rape, strangulation and false imprisonment, the British scientists found that roads linking the two crucial brain areas had "potholes," while those of non-psychopaths were in good shape. The study opens up the possibility of developing treatments for dangerous psychopaths in the future, said Dr Michael Craig of the Institute of Psychiatry at London's King's College Hospital, and may have profound implications for doctors, researchers and the criminal justice system. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here "These were particular serious offenders with psychopathy and without any other mental illnesses," he told Reuters in an interview. "Essentially what we found is that the connections in the psychopaths were not as good as the connections in the non-psychopaths. I would describe them as roads between the two areas — and we found that in the psychopaths, the roads had potholes and weren't very well maintained." The scientists cautioned against suggestions the study could lead to screening of potential psychopathic criminals before they are able to commit crimes, saying their findings had not established how, when or why the brain links were damaged. Copyright 2009 Reuters.

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 13144 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Cassandra Willyard As winter turns to spring, the days grow imperceptibly longer. These subtle cues may be lost on us, but birds somehow keep tabs, monitoring the passing of the seasons so that they know when to mate. Now, after decades of searching, researchers report that they have finally identified the protein that enables birds to know when spring is here. In the bird world, timing is everything. Rooks, for example, must breed in February or March to ensure that the soil will be moist enough for them to easily dig out worms to feed their babies. Goldfinches, on the other hand, breed several months later, because they feed on seeds that aren't available early on. "It's the increasing day length in early spring that triggers all these reproductive responses," says Russell Foster, a neuroscientist at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and lead author of the new study. But how do birds sense these longer days? Experiments in the 1930s showed that the key lies not in a bird's eye, as one might expect, but in the hypothalamus, a region deep in the brain. To demonstrate this, a French scientist inserted thin glass rods into the hypothalamus of blinded ducks in order to artificially illuminate only that part of the brain. Exposing the ducks' brains to springlike day lengths prompted testicular growth. Winter day lengths had no effect. In many ways, it makes sense that a seasonal sensor would reside deep in the brain, Foster says. Bird's skulls are so thin and their brains are so small that light can penetrate to cells in the interior. Furthermore, the sensor is "close to all those bits in the hypothalamus that are regulating the reproductive system," he says. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Vision
Link ID: 13143 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Virginia Morell On the morning of 3 July 2004, more than 150 melon-headed whales rushed into Hanalei Bay off the Hawaiian island of Kauai, apparently bent on beaching themselves. The whales milled about for most of the day and night in an agitated manner, tail-slapping and vocalizing. A rescue team organized by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) herded the whales back to sea the next day, though a calf died. One study blamed the incident on U.S. Navy sonar, but another blamed the moon. Now, researchers believe they've finally gotten to the bottom of this attempted mass stranding. NOAA was the first to probe the incident. In 2006, the agency concluded that naval sonar was the most plausible cause, as U.S. and Japanese submarines had been conducting training exercises nearby that same morning. Robert Brownell, a cetacean biologist at NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in Pacific Grove, California, says that although scientists aren't sure how sub sonar harms whales, he suspects that the noise "forms an acoustic barrier, and they want to escape." Because the ships involved in these exercises are normally moving parallel to the coast, the whales cannot flee out to sea, and in desperation they end up stranding. The U.S. Navy argues that the risk to whales from sonar is not as great as many scientists and conservationists believe, and it has fought to continue training exercises. The Navy's case got a boost when researchers reported that another group of melon-headed whales (Peponocephala electra) had nearly stranded themselves on the same day as the Kauai incident but almost 6000 kilometers away on the island of Rota in the western Pacific Ocean. Some scientists concluded that the two events were related and fingered lunar cycles, particularly the full moon, as the culprit. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hearing; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 13142 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Problems processing visual information may stop those with autism interpreting body language, harming their ability to gauge others' emotions, a study says. Researchers say people with autism have problems recognising physical displays of emotion, but also general difficulty perceiving certain sorts of motion. They suggest in Neuropsychologia this may contribute to problems with social interaction, characteristic of autism. The National Autistic Society said the UK study was an interesting one. A team from the University of Durham studied 13 adults with autism and found the patients had difficulty identifying emotions such as anger or happiness when shown short animated video clips. The characters had no faces, nor did they speak, so the participants were asked to judge the emotion based on the body language of the figure alone. Along with 16 adults with no autism diagnosis, they were also shown a number of dots on a computer screen and asked which way they were moving. A proportion of dots moved noticeably to the left or right, while the others moved randomly. The performance of the autism group was significantly below that of the others in both tests, leading researchers to speculate that there may be serious differences between the ability to process visual information. They point to an area of the brain needed for the perception of motion called the superior temporal sulcus, and cite previous research which has found that this area responds differently in people with autism. "The way people move their bodies tells us a lot about their feelings or intentions, and we use this information on a daily basis to communicate with each other. We use others' body movements and postures, as well as people's faces and voices, to gauge their feelings," said Anthony Atkinson, who led the research. (C)BBC

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 13141 - Posted: 08.07.2009

By David Crary NEW YORK - The American Psychological Association declared yesterday that mental health professionals should not tell gay clients they can become straight through therapy or other treatments. Instead, the APA urged therapists to consider multiple options, which could range from celibacy to switching churches, for helping clients whose sexual orientation and religious faith conflict. In a resolution adopted on a 125-to-4 vote by the APA’s governing council, and in a comprehensive report based on two years of research, the 150,000-member association put itself firmly on record in opposition of so-called “reparative therapy,’’ which seeks to change sexual orientation. No solid evidence exists that such change is likely, says the report, and some research suggests that efforts to produce change could be harmful, inducing depression and suicidal tendencies. The APA had criticized reparative therapy in the past, but a six-member task force added weight to this position by examining 83 studies on sexual orientation change conducted since 1960. Its comprehensive report was endorsed by the APA’s governing council in Toronto, where the association’s annual meeting is being held this weekend. © Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 13140 - Posted: 06.24.2010