John Naish When Don Curran first saw the portrait that Adam Hahn had painted of him, with part of his face a dark blur of confusion, he was delighted. Ten years ago, Curran was working as an airline executive when he was found to have the progressively blinding eye disease, age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Now, thanks to the portrait, the world can understand just how he sees. In AMD the light-sensing cells in the macula, the central area of vision, stop working and eventually die. The disease is thought to be caused by a combination of genes, environmental factors and age. It might seem an incongruous inspiration for visual art, but Hahn was inspired by his late grandmother's experience to paint a series of 17 portraits of AMD sufferers the way they would see themselves. “Grandma had macular degeneration. It was my way of trying to understand how she saw the world and how it affected her,” says Hahn, 29, who studied at Glasgow School of Art. The painting project, now on exhibition in Kent,offered a way to comprehend the mystery of her condition. “While she was alive she never talked about her sight or how it affected her,” he says. “People with macular degeneration don't tend to talk about what they see. I think it's because it's a very personal experience and they don't want other people to know because it might upset them. “The condition is very disabling at the beginning, but people do accept it and get on. With macular degeneration you will always have some degree of vision; you rely on using the peripheral vision that you have left.” Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 11841 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jonathan Amos The number of animals used in UK labs for scientific experiments is now more than three million - a level not seen since 1991. Home Office figures show that in 2007, all procedures in England, Wales and Scotland used 3.1 million animals. The year-on-year increase of 6% continues the recent upward trend driven mainly by the use of rodents in genetics experiments. Mice and rats constitute more than 80% of all animals used in laboratories. The remainder involve primarily fish, birds, and reptiles/amphibians. Dogs, cats, horses and non-human primates receive special protection under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. These were used in less than half of 1% of the procedures. Most procedures are for research and drug development; safety testing accounts for much of the rest. The number of animals used in lab experiments peaked in the 1970s with more than five million procedures carried out annually. The statistics then fell rapidly during the 90s and 80s before picking up again at the start of the century. Just over 3.2 million scientific procedures were started in 2007, a rise of about 189,500 (6%) on 2006. The latest rise is the sixth in succession and largely reflects the increasing role of genetically modified animals in research. The use of GM animals – mainly mice - has more than quadrupled since 1995. By adding or knocking out genes in mice, scientists believe they can gain an insight into the molecular flaws in humans that lead to illness. Animal welfare groups have long argued that the numbers – although smaller than they used to be – are still too high. They say that many experiments often give misleading or wholly useless information; and that scientists ought to make better use of alternatives. (C)BBC

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 11840 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Liz Szabo Are premature babies born to be shy? New research suggests that children born prematurely are more timid and less likely to get married and have children. Researchers say they're just starting to understand how being born prematurely affects personality. Until 20 to 30 years ago, few premature babies survived. Even today, very small or premature newborns are much more likely to have serious health problems, such as cerebral palsy. But now that doctors can save most preemies — and some of the earliest survivors are reaching adulthood — researchers are accumulating evidence that even those without medical disabilities have more problems socializing or taking risks. Among the findings: • The earlier babies are born, the less likely they are to marry, become parents or earn a high salary, suggests a study of nearly 1 million Norwegians, now ages 20 to 36, in today's New England Journal of Medicine. • In two studies of people in their early 20s in this month's Pediatrics, researchers found that former preemies were less likely to leave home, live with a romantic partner or be sexually active. They were also more inhibited and more apt to obey social conventions. • And three new studies — including the Norwegian paper — find that former preemies are more likely to have symptoms of autism, a condition that affects interpersonal skills. Copyright 2008 USA TODAY,

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Emotions
Link ID: 11839 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Fleur Britten Is your memory so perforated that you fear early-onset Alzheimer’s? Your attention so centrifugal that you’ve self-diagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? Perhaps you don’t have time to sleep, or maybe you would just like to function as a super-you. The sci-fi solution we have all been waiting for is already here, and it’s circulating in student unions and school. These days, the kids are all on “smart drugs”. A group of pharmaceuticals designed for sufferers of narcolepsy, Alzheimer’s and ADHD, smart drugs are increasingly being used “off label” (unsupervised, as a lifestyle choice) by healthy people, who procure them from online pharmacies, friendly physicians and illicit prescription sales. “This stuff is being passed around all the time,” says one male A-level student with something of a smart-drug habit — “this stuff” largely being Ritalin, usually prescribed for children with ADHD, and Modafinil, which is used to treat narcolepsy. Students are rejoicing and cramming for exams with smart-drug- fuelled all-nighters. One told me that he buys his from a mate who sells on his larger-than-necessary prescription; another offered to put me in touch with her “very kind doctor”. The government, meanwhile, is sweating. It recently commissioned a report on brain science that concluded more work is needed. What students and the government both know is that in Ritalin improves attention, memory and cognitive flexibility in healthy subjects; Modafinil improves attention, memory, planning and decision- making and leaves you in a state of wakefulness without the wired bit, liability of addiction or “obvious toxic effects”. So what’s not to like? Copyright 2008 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Keyword: ADHD; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 11838 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A drug once used to treat hayfever "significantly improves" symptoms in patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, research suggests. Dimebon was once licensed in Russia as an antihistamine but was taken off the market when better drugs came along. Now US researchers have found it can improve memory, behaviour and ability to conduct simple activities like eating in patients with dementia. Experts were cautiously optimistic about The Lancet study findings. In the trial of 183 people who all had untreated mild to moderate dementia, which was carried out in Russia, half were given 20 mg of dimebon 20 three times a day while the rest were given a dummy pill. After six months, all were given tests such as memorising a list of words and performing simple tasks. Those taking the drug scored four points lower on a scale designed to measure severity of Alzheimer's disease - meaning they were less badly affected. Patients taking the drug scored better than they did at the start of the study but patients taking the placebo got worse over the six-month period. In a smaller group of patients who continued with the trial for a further six months there was an even greater seven-point gap between those on dimebon and those on placebo. It is not clear exactly how the drug works but it has been shown in animals to have a protective effect on nerve cells in the brain. Study leader Dr Rachelle Doody, from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, said the ongoing improvement seen in the study was particularly important. "At present no approved therapies for mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease have shown increasing improvement over 12 months." (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 11837 - Posted: 07.19.2008

The amount of sleep postmenopausal women get — either too little or too much — could affect their risk of having a stroke, suggests new research. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of North Carolina, found that sleeping longer — nine hours to be exact — increased the risk of stroke in post-menopausal women by 60 to 70 per cent over those who slept seven hours. "After accounting for all common clinical conditions predictive of stroke, we found this increase was statistically significant: sleeping nine hours or more is strongly associated with increased risk of ischemic stroke," said lead author Jiu-Chiuan Chen, assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina's School of Public Health in Chapel Hill, in a release. Sleeping less than six hours meant the women were 14 per cent more at risk of stroke than those sleeping seven hours. The 93,676 women in the study — who were between 50 and 79 years old and enrolled at 40 U.S. clinical centres — were asked how many hours they slept at night. The researchers said because women usually get less, rather than more, sleep, the risk of stroke stemming from sleep deprivation is likely of more concern than the one caused by oversleeping. © CBC 2008

Keyword: Stroke; Sleep
Link ID: 11836 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Steve Mitchell The repetitive behavior of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), such as excessive hand-washing or turning the lights on and off multiple times before leaving a room, sounds like the product of a mind in overdrive. But it may actually be the result of an underactive brain, according to a new study. If scientists had to single out a part of the brain responsible for OCD, they'd point to the orbitofrontal cortex. The region, located behind the eyes, helps us make decisions and keeps compulsive behaviors, such as gambling and excessive drinking, in check. Some studies have found abnormalities in this region in people with OCD, but its role in the disorder is unclear. Samuel Chamberlain, a psychiatrist at the University of Cambridge in the U.K., hoped brain scans would help. He and colleagues monitored 14 OCD patients, 12 unaffected relatives, and 15 people without a family history of the disorder as they engaged in a task intended to stimulate the orbitofrontal cortex. As a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine measured blood flow to various parts of their brains, the participants viewed two superimposed images--a face over a house, for example--on a screen and had to figure out through trial and error which images were "correct" and which ones were "incorrect," as determined by the researchers. Once the subjects caught on to which image was the right choice, the researchers switched it up and made the other image the correct choice. That forced the participants to change their newly acquired habit, something previously shown to activate the orbitofrontal cortex. But although normal subjects exhibited the expected activity in this region, those with OCD and their relatives showed reduced activity, even though their performance on the task was normal, the researchers report in tomorrow's issue of Science. © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 11835 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Bruce Bower A burst of happiness may impair children’s attention to detailA new study of how mood affects thinking styles presented children with problems such as the one shown above. Participants searched for a houselike shape, left, in the larger drawing of a vehicle, right.Schnall Happy children learn especially well, unless they have to focus on details rather than the big picture. That’s the implication of a new study in which school-age youngsters induced to feel happy lagged behind their sad- or neutral-feeling peers in finding shapes embedded within larger images. This two-part investigation shows for the first time that an experimentally induced good mood undermines children’s ability to perform detail-oriented tasks, report psychologist Simone Schnall of the University of Plymouth in England and her colleagues online and in an upcoming Developmental Science. Earlier studies had indicated that a surge of happiness draws adults’ attention away from the details of a problem but increases both adults’ and children’s creativity and mental flexibility. Schnall hypothesized that positive and negative feelings evolved, in part, to trigger contrasting thinking styles. Happiness signals a sense of personal safety that encourages a relaxed, broad focus on one’s immediate situation. Sadness reflects awareness of a difficult problem or situation, prompting caution and a detailed surveillance of one’s surroundings. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2008

Keyword: ADHD; Emotions
Link ID: 11834 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ewen Callaway At the base of our brain, where the back of our neck meets our head, may lurk the voice of a 400 million-year-old fish. Chirps, croaks, growls – even the dulcet tones of the human voice – might have a common origin in an ancient brain metronome that coordinates the other-worldly grunts of several modern species of fish. Gulf toadfish and closely related midshipman fish emit low frequency groans to woo females and warn off rivals (see video, top right). Now an evolutionary kinship between these sounds and those produced by other animals has been suggested by researchers. "In these animals their entire social life revolves around making sound and hearing sound," says neurobiologist Andrew Bass, of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. "Sound is their world." Vertebrates make sounds using precisely timed and coordinated muscle movements and scientists have studied the brain regions that control these movements in animals as diverse as songbirds, frogs, mice and monkeys. But few have examined fish calls, or the relevant brain regions of these animals, Bass says. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 11833 - Posted: 06.24.2010

After a sleepless night, anyone - even a fruit fly - can feel a little groggy, and a lot of mystery surrounds what keeps us up at night. Now, thanks to a set of fruit flies that seem to get by with far less dozing than most, a team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers has found a gene absolutely necessary for snoozing. The discovery of the slumber gene, dubbed SLEEPLESS, is reported in the July 18, 2008 issue of the journal Science. The finding, which was made by a group led by HHMI investigator Amita Sehgal and her colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, could one day help scientists puzzle out some of the root causes of chronic sleep problems. “Sleep serves an essential function, although we don't know what that is,” explained Sehgal. The discovery of SLEEPLESS “allows us to start to get a handle on the mechanisms underlying sleep.” Sleep is a universal requirement, occurring in animals from flies to humans. It is controlled by the body's circadian clock — a roughly 24-hour cycle in the biochemical, physiological and behavioral processes of animals — as well as by an organism's internal equilibrium. A fruit fly can sleep up to 12 hours a day. Without sleep, animals will die. The SLEEPLESS mutants in Sehgal's study live only half as long as a typical fly. “Even the SLEEPLESS animals need sleep — that's probably why they are so short lived,” she said. © 2008 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Sleep; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 11832 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Michael C. Purdy A group of steroids found in female mouse urine goes straight to the male mouse's head, according to School of Medicine researchers. They found the compounds activate nerve cells in the male mouse's nose with unprecedented effectiveness. Timothy Holy "These particular steroids, known as glucocorticoids (GCCs), are involved in energy metabolism, stress and immune function," said senior author Timothy E. Holy, Ph.D., assistant professor of anatomy and neurobiology. "They control many important aspects of the mouse's physiology and theoretically could give any mouse that sniffs them a detailed insider's view of the health of the animal they came from." Holy plans further research to see if activating the nerves in the male mouse's nose leads to particular behavioral responses. He probes the male mouse's reaction to chemical signals from female mice to advance understanding of pattern recognition and learning in the much more complex human brain. In 2005, he found that female mice or their odors cause male mice to sing. Science has long recognized that urine, sweat and other bodily fluids contain chemical communication signals called pheromones that can influence the biology or behavior of others. Most mammals use the information in these signals for social purposes, such as establishing territory or dominance or in courtship and mating. In many cases, though, the specific chemical identities of the signals are unknown.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 11831 - Posted: 07.19.2008

LONDON - Scientists have identified the brain circuits that play a key role in helping us pay attention, a finding that may help explain why things go wrong in diseases such as Alzheimer’s and attention deficit disorders. The finding published in the journal Nature could provide a new target for potential drugs to treat some neurodegenerative conditions and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, the researchers said. “What we have identified is the way this works in one particular area of the brain,” said Alex Thiele, a neuroscientist at Newcastle University, who led the study. “If we ever want to have a smart drug for diseases like Alzheimer’s, we need to understand this level of detail.” Alzheimer’s is a degenerative condition for which there is no cure. An estimated 24 million people worldwide suffer from the memory loss and problems with orientation that signal Alzheimer’s and other, less common forms of dementia. Existing drugs such as Aricept from Pfizer and Eisai, Exelon by Novartis and Razadyne or Reminyl from Johnson & Johnson and Shire can ease symptoms but do not stop the disease. Copyright 2008 Reuters

Keyword: ADHD; Attention
Link ID: 11830 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rachel Ehrenberg Researchers look to the good version of the protein implicated in mad cow disease for insight into the protein’s bad side. When the nefarious Mr. Hyde takes his own life, the good Dr. Jekyll is also killed. Scientists are adopting the reverse approach for halting the protein behind prion diseases such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob and mad cow. By targeting the harmless version of the brain protein whose evil alter ego brings on disease, researchers have prevented the bad version of the protein from continuing its rampage in the brains of infected mice. The results are reported online July 14 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The approach of killing Jekyll to get Hyde is very promising, comments biochemist Sina Ghaemmaghami of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco. The sinister version of the protein comes in several slightly different forms, making it hard to develop a single attack strategy, Ghaemmaghami says. Led by neuroscientist Giovanna Mallucci of University College London, researchers delivered bits of attack RNA to interfere with production of the normal version of the prion protein. In animals who have prion disease, this protein somehow gets converted into a dangerous form, which then travels through the brain, coaxing other good versions of the protein to go bad. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2008

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 11829 - Posted: 06.24.2010

To say that kids are growing up faster than ever these days may be more than just cliché. Recent studies have shown that children are reaching puberty at younger and younger ages, and researchers are starting to see links between this trend and other societal ills such as ubiquitous pollution and sedentary lifestyles. In a 2007 report for the Breast Cancer Fund entitled “The Falling Age of Puberty in U.S. Girls: What We Know, What We Need to Know,” ecologist Sandra Steingraber argues that unfettered access to computers and TVs over the last 30 years has led to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle among kids in the U.S. and beyond. Active kids produce more melatonin, a natural hormone that serves as the body’s internal clock and calendar. This could explain why sedentary kids are likely to go through puberty sooner: Their bodies think their decreased melatonin production is a trigger to move into puberty. “[Melatonin is] an inhibitory signal for puberty,” says Steingraber. “The more melatonin you have, the later you go into puberty.” Of course, sedentary lifestyles are also linked to childhood obesity, a condition that often continues—along with the many health problems that can accompany it—into adulthood. A recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) found that, between 2001 and 2004, 17.5 percent of children ages six to 11 were overweight—an effective doubling of obesity rates three decades ago. A study by the non-profit Obesity Society came up with a slightly higher figure—20 percent—with the percentages higher for Hispanic, African-American and Native American children. © 1996-2008 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 11828 - Posted: 06.24.2010

When she's dancing the samba, Pat Prescott is all smiles. But her frustration shows when she talks about her daily battle with type 2 diabetes. A typical day for the academic research librarian is filled with one challenge after another revolving around her disease. Here's her description of what she calls, "a good day for me." "I should have already, the day before, the night before, done grocery shopping. And obviously gone to the pharmacy whenever necessary. I should get up in the morning and cook vegetables and the proper protein and have the proper food available for that day, and plan out the whole day. When I leave the house in the morning, I'm gone for 14 to16 hours, so that means that all my medicines for the entire day have to be with me, and they have to be refrigerated or they have to be kept cold. That goes for things like needles and my glucometer and the test strips. And then I should be trying to figure out how to get at least 30 minutes of vigorous exercise in that day." "But that's a good day," she says. "That's a day when I haven't broken down and eaten like a one-by-one-inch sliver of cake at somebody's birthday party, or I haven't eaten a mango or some kind of fruit that really messes up my sugar. But if you can imagine doing that every single day and having that regimen every single day, it's very tiring. You get used to it, but people around you don't get used to it, and if you travel, or if you're invited to someone's house, it's a major undertaking. Traveling is terrible. You just have to prepare for so many eventualities." © ScienCentral, 2000-2008.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 11827 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Linda Geddes It's not just autistic children who view the world differently from the rest of us – it seems their parents may do so as well. Some parents of autistic children evaluate facial expressions in a strikingly similar way to people with the disorder, even though they would not be classified as autistic themselves. The finding strengthens the link between genetics and autism, and may help pinpoint the genes responsible for some of the behavioural traits associated it. Ralph Adolphs of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his colleagues performed psychological tests on 42 parents of autistic children. Based on these tests, they categorised 15 of the parents as being "socially aloof", meaning that they tend not to enjoy small talk for the sake of it, and have very few close friendships involving sharing and mutual support. Both these groups of parents and the parents of 20 non-autistic "neurotypical" children were then asked to look at a series of faces and judge whether they looked happy or fearful. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 11826 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Greg Miller Hawks are famous for their sharp vision, and owls are renowned for their keen hearing, but birds rarely get much credit for their sense of smell. That may change thanks to the first analysis of olfactory genes in a wide range of avian species. Birds, it turns out, may be better smellers than we thought. Researchers interested in bird behavior have tended to focus on their flashy mating displays, melodious songs, and other talents, leaving the avian sense of smell largely unexplored. A handful of studies have hinted that smell does play a role in bird behavior (ScienceNOW, 29 October 2004), but very little is known about the underlying biology. In the new study, a team led by molecular ecologist Silke Steiger and her graduate adviser Bart Kempenaers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Starnberg, Germany, searched for smell-related genes in nine species representing seven major branches of the avian family tree. They looked for genes that encode olfactory receptors, which detect odors. Researchers generally assume that animals with a greater variety of receptors have a better sense of smell. Mice, for example, have close to 1000 working olfactory receptor genes, and humans have roughly 400. By this logic, the most acute sense of smell in Steiger's menagerie belongs to the kakapo, a rare nocturnal parrot indigenous to New Zealand. The team estimates that the kakapo has 667 functional olfactory receptor genes. © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Evolution
Link ID: 11825 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Exercise may slow the atrophy of the brain brought on by Alzheimer's, suggests a new study. Researchers at the University of Kansas School of Medicine found that study participants who had mild Alzheimer's and who worked out regularly had larger brains that those who did not exercise regularly. They studied 121 people 60 and over, exposing them to fitness tests while measuring their white and grey brain matter and overall brain volume using MRI. Fifty-seven of the participants had early-stage Alzheimer's while the rest of the participants did not have dementia. "People with early Alzheimer's disease who were less physically fit had four times more brain shrinkage when compared to normal older adults than those who were more physically fit, suggesting less brain shrinkage related to the Alzheimer's disease process in those with higher fitness levels," said study author Jeffrey Burns, of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Kansas City, in a release. A decreasing brain volume has been linked in previous research to poorer cognitive performance. Conversely, exercise has the opposite effect. "Higher fitness through increased physical activity has been associated with enhanced neuronal survival to brain insults, increased vascularization, and elevations of growth factors in areas important for memory," reads the study. © CBC 2008

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 11824 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Adam Hadhazy A brain chemical linked to pleasure and depression may also trigger fear, according to a new study. Researchers say this may explain why the neurotransmitter dopamine, known to cause addictive behavior, may also play a role in anxiety disorders. "Showing that dopamine can enhance both approach and avoidance behaviors is an important finding," says Howard Fields, a neurobiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Approach behavior describes what someone attracted to an object does to obtain it. Fields says the finding reveals a new potential target for treating puzzling neurological disorders such as schizophrenia. Scientists have long suspected that dopamine was linked to dread as well as delight. To confirm their suspicions, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor researchers studied what happens to rats when the neurotransmitter is blocked from reaching the rear portion of the nucleus accumbens, a brain region where dopamine is produced and reward-seeking activities (such as eating and other urges) as well as emotions including fear are processed. Their findings, published in the Journal of Neurology: the animals remained calm even when scientists also removed a fear-controlling brain chemical (glutamate), which ordinarily would have sent them into a tizzy. This suggests that too much dopamine in the rear of the nucleus accumbens (linked to dread) may at least be partly responsible for the paranoia that many schizophrenia patients experience, study co-author Kent Berridge says. © 1996-2008 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Emotions
Link ID: 11823 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Mauricio Delgado The development of trust is an essential social tool, allowing people to form productive and meaningful relationships, both at a professional and personal level. Bonds of trust are also extremely fragile, however and a single act of betrayal—such as a marital affair—can instantly erase years of trustworthy behavior. The consequences of such breaches in confidence can be disastrous, and not only for a relationship. People who have been betrayed in the past will sometimes start avoiding future social interactions, which is a potential precursor to social phobia. In light of these connections, recent research has attempted to elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying trust behavior. This is the goal of an exciting new study by neuroscientist Thomas Baumgartner and colleagues at the University of Zurich in Germany that combines different disciplines (economics and neuroscience) and methodologies (neuroimaging and neuropharmacology) to investigate how the brain adapts to breaches of trust. To study social interactions, economists, and more recently neuroscientists, take advantage of a simple game played between two people called the “trust game.” (For more on greed and altruism, see this.) In a typical trust game, an investor (Player 1) is faced with a decision to keep a sum of money (say, $10) or share it with a trustee (Player 2). If shared, the investment is tripled ($30) and the trustee now faces the decision to repay the trust by sending back a larger amount of the initial investment (for example, $15 for each participant) or to defect and violate trust by keeping the money. In this game, the investor is therefore left with an important social dilemma: to trust or not to trust. Although it is more profitable to trust, doing so leaves the investor at risk of betrayal. © 1996-2008 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 11822 - Posted: 06.24.2010