Kerri Smith A computer model has been developed that can predict what word you are thinking of. The model may help to resolve questions about how the brain processes words and language, and might even lead to techniques for decoding people’s thoughts. Researchers led by Tom Mitchell of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 'trained' a computer model to recognize the patterns of brain activity associated with 60 images, each of which represented a different noun, such as 'celery' or 'aeroplane'. The team started with the assumption that the brain processes words in terms of how they relate to movement and sensory information. Words such as 'hammer', for example, are known to cause movement-related areas of the brain to light up; on the other hand, the word 'castle' triggers activity in regions that process spatial information. Mitchell and his colleagues also knew that different nouns are associated more often with some verbs than with others – the verb 'eat', for example, is more likely to be found in conjunction with 'celery' than with 'aeroplane'. © 2008 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Language; Brain imaging
Link ID: 11678 - Posted: 06.24.2010

People with schizophrenia (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/schizophrenia/index.shtml) from families with no history of the illness were found to harbor eight times more spontaneous mutations — most in pathways affecting brain development — than healthy controls, in a study supported in part the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). By contrast, no spontaneous mutations were found in people with schizophrenia who had family histories of the illness. "Our findings strongly suggest that rare, spontaneous mutations likely contribute to vulnerability in cases of schizophrenia from previously unaffected families," said Maria Karayiorgou, M.D., of Columbia University, who led the research team. "This may also shed light on why the illness has frustrated efforts to implicate gene variants with major effects, and seems to defy natural selection by persisting in the population even though relatively few of those affected have children." Karayiorgou and her colleagues report on their whole genome study online in Nature Genetics, May 30, 2008. "Such abnormal deletions or duplications of genetic material are increasingly being implicated in schizophrenia and autism (http://www.nimh.nih.gov/science-news/2008/autism-gene-scans-converge-on-two-suspect-sites-two-types-of-genetic-risk.shtml)," explained NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 11677 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JoNel Aleccia The next time the world starts spinning, Larry Janisch will know exactly how to make it stop. But two months ago, when the 50-year-old Phoenix man woke up one Saturday reeling from vertigo, he had no idea what to do. “I felt like I was drunk,” he said. “I couldn’t stand up. I kept falling over.” Fortunately for Janisch, he works at a hospital where a vestibular therapist, a specialist in inner ear disorders, is almost always available. Within 10 minutes of walking into the lab at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, Janisch was better, thanks to a simple technique that neurology experts have verified as the best way to treat benign paroxysmal positional vertigo — BPPV — a common cause of severe dizziness. A series of gentle head and neck movements known as the canalith repositioning procedure is the fastest, easiest way to cure BPPV, according to a new guideline developed by the American Academy of Neurology. About 3 million new patients a year in the United States are diagnosed with the problem characterized by dizziness, lightheadedness, imbalance and nausea that can last for days — or even months. Traditional treatments have ranged widely, from drastic measures such as sedatives to nerve surgery to nothing at all. © 2008 MSNBC Interactive

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 11676 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Eli Kintisch The winners of the Kavli prizes for neuroscience, nanoscience, and astrophysics were announced today in Oslo, Norway, marking the first time that the three $1 million prizes have been awarded. Norwegian-born philanthropist Fred Kavli said at a press conference that he set up the prizes to promote science in three fields that he feels would benefit from more public attention. The neuroscience prize will be shared by Sten Grillner of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, Pasko Rakic of Yale University School of Medicine, and Thomas Jessell of Columbia University. Grillner spelled out how patterns of neuronal circuitry affect locomotion; Rakic and Jessell explained how neurons develop in the embryonic brain and spinal cord, respectively. "The work of Rakic and Jessell has provided, for the first time, a general framework for understanding the assembly of neural circuits within the mammalian brain," the Kavli foundation said in its commendation. © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 11675 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have identified a mechanism in the brain that helps to explain why craving for cocaine, and the risk of relapse, seems to increase in the weeks and months after drug use is stopped. The research was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study, published in the May 25 issue of the journal Nature, "reveals a novel mechanism for why cocaine craving intensifies over time and suggests a new target for the development of medications to decrease the risk of relapse in abstinent cocaine abusers," says NIDA Director Dr. Nora Volkow. Exposure to environmental cues (e.g., people, places, things) previously associated with drug use can trigger drug craving, often leading to relapse. Previous research in rats has shown that the sensitivity to these environmental cues follows a defined time course progressively increasing (or incubating) during a 60-day withdrawal period. In the current study, also in rats, researchers demonstrate that after prolonged withdrawal from cocaine use, there is an increase in the number of proteins called AMPA glutamate receptors in a brain region known as the nucleus accumbens (an area involved in motivation and reward). These new AMPA receptors are atypical — they are missing a particular subunit resulting in greater responsiveness of nucleus accumbens neurons to input from other brain regions — and they appear to be responsible for the "incubation" of cocaine craving.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 11674 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ewen Callaway Look Mum, no hands! Two monkeys have managed to use brain power to control a robotic arm to feed themselves. The feat marks the first time a brain-controlled prosthetic limb has been wielded to perform a practical task. Previous demonstrations in monkeys and humans have tapped into the brain to control computer cursors and virtual worlds, and even to clench a robot hand. But complicated physical activities like eating are "a completely different ball game", says Andrew Schwarz, a neurological engineer at the University of Pittsburgh, who led the new research. Tests with humans are being prepared in numerous labs, but experts caution that brain-controlled robotic limbs are far from freeing paraplegics from their wheelchairs or giving amputees their limbs back. Wired for actionMost people who become paralysed or lose limbs retain the mental dexterity to perform physical actions. And by tapping into a region of the brain responsible for movement – the motor cortex – researchers can decode a person's intentions and translate them into action with a prosthetic. This had been done mostly with monkeys and in virtual worlds or with simple movements, such as reaching out a hand. But two years ago, an American team hacked into the brain of a patient with no control over his arms to direct a computer cursor and a simple robotic arm. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 11673 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Heidi Ledford A drug used to treat epilepsy could also ease cravings in alcoholics, say researchers who have investigated the effect in rats. The drug, called gabapentin, is approved for the treatment of epileptic seizures and for some conditions that cause chronic pain. And now, researchers led by Marisa Roberto, of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, have shown that alcohol-dependent rats given gabapentin drink less alcohol and are less anxious than those not given the drug1. Preliminary small clinical trials have suggested that gabapentin could also be useful in the treatment of drug addiction, and trials are now under way to determine whether the drug can ease alcoholism in people. The current results are promising, says Robert Swift, a researcher at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University in Rhode Island. “This paper really suggests that gabapentin may be efficacious in reducing drinking [in alcoholics],” he says. Gabapentin is structurally similar to a neurotransmitter called ă-aminobutyric acid, or GABA, which can slow communication between neurons in the brain. Although the drug does not function in precisely the same way as GABA, it can prevent the chaotic electrical activity in the brain that triggers a seizure. © 2008 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Epilepsy; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 11672 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do 22 fewer days of work per year than people who do not have the condition, a study says. The research, which looked at 7,000 workers in 10 countries, found an average of 3.5% had ADHD. Writing in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, the Dutch team said workplace screening should be used to pick up people with the problem. A UK expert backed the idea, but warned they should not be stigmatised. People who have ADHD find it difficult to concentrate because they may be hyperactive, easily distracted, forgetful or impulsive. It is commonly thought of as a childhood disorder, often picked up because of problems at school. However, there are estimates that around two thirds of those affected in childhood are still experiencing symptoms in adulthood. In the study, employed and self-employed workers aged 18 - 44 years were screened for ADHD as part of the World Health Organisation World Mental Health Survey Initiative in Belgium, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain and the USA. They were also asked about their performance at work in the last month. Those results were extrapolated out to give annual figures. Workers with ADHD were found to take an average of eight days off sick each year. They also had, on average, 21 days where they did less work than they should have and 13 days where their work was of poorer quality - each of which was deemed to equate to half a day of lost performance. ADHD was more prevalent in men and workers in developed rather than developing countries. (C)BBC

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 11671 - Posted: 05.27.2008

It's a new frontier for psychiatric illness: Brain pacemakers that promise to act as antidepressants by changing how patients' nerve circuitry fires. Scientists already know the power of these devices to block the tremors of Parkinson's disease and related illnesses; more than 40,000 patients worldwide have the implants. But psychiatric illnesses are much more complex and the new experiments with so-called deep brain stimulation, or DBS, are in their infancy. Only a few dozen patients with severe depression or obsessive-compulsive disorder so far have been treated in closely monitored studies. Still, the early results are promising. Dramatic video shows one patient visibly brightening as doctors turn on her brain pacemaker and she says in surprise: "I'm starting to smile." And new reports this month show that some worst-case patients — whose depression wasn't relieved by medication, psychotherapy, even controversial shock treatment — are finding lasting relief. Six of 17 severely depressed patients were in remission a year after undergoing DBS and four more markedly improved, and more than half of 26 obsessive-compulsive patients showed substantial improvement over three years, say studies from a team at the Cleveland Clinic, Brown University, and Belgium's University of Leuven. © The Canadian Press, 2008

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 11670 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Daniel Carlat "So here's your brain," the doctor says, as the center of my mental life pirouettes before me, rendered in electric blues and reds. Daniel Amen, MD, manipulates the screen image with a few taps on his keyboard. "It looks good, pretty symmetrical. Red means more activity, blue means less." We're peering at a Spect scan taken a half hour ago. He takes a closer look. Spect scans are a type of brain-imaging technology that measures neural activity by looking at blood flow. "The only question I'd ask you is whether you've ever had a brain injury, because there is low activity in your occipital cortex and your parietal lobe, all on the left side." I admit to the occasional fall while snowboarding, but I've always worn a helmet. Amen shakes his head. "Your brain is 80 percent water and the consistency of tofu, and your skull is hard, so your brain was not meant to snowboard, even with a helmet. I recommend tennis or Ping-Pong." He calls up a different view, this one from below, as though looking up from the spinal cord. I see a spot on one side that is conspicuously ... empty. "What's that?" I ask. "That's a left temporal lobe ding. It's in a fairly innocuous area, but I'd still ask your wife how your temper is." © 2008 CondéNet, Inc.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 11669 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Nora Schultz Male bees with an urge to add to the gene pool are exploited by orchids that pose as irresistibly scented exotic females, new research suggests. Sexually deceptive orchids rely for their own reproduction on male insects' drive to copulate. If a male mistakes the flowers for a female insects, his fruitless mating attempts will pollinate the orchid. Some orchid flowers are so exciting to males that they even ejaculate on the flower, but although the visual deception is often superb, what really drives the males wild is the female sex pheromone cocktail that the orchid imitates. Now Nicolas Vereecken and Florian Schiestl at the University of Zürich in Switzerland have discovered a new trick in the orchids' repertoire of sexual lures. When they studied geographic variation in pheromone mixes between 15 different populations of the bee Colletes cunicularius and the orchid that mimics it, Ophrys exaltata, they were surprised to find that the flowers consistently smelled slightly different than the female bees in any given population. "This was not at all what we expected. If the orchids thrive on imitating female bees, the match should be as perfect as possible", says Schiestl. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 11668 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Linda Geddes They say you are only as old as the woman (or man) you feel – now we might be closer to understanding why. It has been suggested that humans and other vertebrates live longer if they have more social interactions, and now this has been verified – in fruit flies. Chun-Fang Wu and Hongyu Ruan at the University of Iowa in Iowa City studied fruit flies with a genetic mutation that reduces their lifespan by interfering with an enzyme that mops up dangerous free radicals. The same enzyme is implicated in age-related diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in humans. Mutant flies that shared a home with younger flies, or non-mutants, lived longer and were more mobile than those sharing a home with similar-aged flies. They were also more resistant to the effects of extreme physical exertion, heat and oxidative stress. Impairing the movement or activity of younger flies reduced this effect, suggesting that social interaction with the younger flies through courtship, aggression, or grooming, plays a key role in increasing the lifespan of the older flies. "Social activity is the key," says Wu. Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0711127105) © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 11667 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN You don’t have to search very hard to find the excruciating online videos known as thinspiration, or thinspo. Photomontages of skeletal women, including some celebrities and models, play all over the Internet, uploaded from the United States, Germany, Holland and elsewhere. These videos are designed to “inspire” viewers — to fortify their ambitions. But exactly which ambitions? To lose weight, presumably. To stop losing weight, possibly. Thinspo videos profess a range of ideologies, often pressing morbid images into double service, as both goads and deterrents to anorexia. Thinspiration videos are a cryptic art with rigid rules, as much a formula as a form. As listless, pounding or archly chipper music plays, still photos of one wraith after another surface and fade. The women are generally solitary and sullen, or entirely faceless. Bony self-portraits, created in bathroom mirrors by anonymous photographers, have faces that have been obscured or cropped out. Many figures in the videos are supine, as in the pervasive hipbone self-portrait, which seems to be shot by a photographer on her back aiming a camera at her abdomen and the waistband of her jeans. A bird’s-eye shot of the thighless legs of a seated figure is also common. The soundtracks to thinspiration videos, some of which feature songs explicitly about starvation, are not subtle. Skeleton, you are my friend. I will sacrifice all I have in life. Bones are beautiful. Hey, baby, can you bleed like me? Filmmakers are reticent with commentary. If they explain their images in any way, it’s with oddly peppy title cards (“Enjoy!” “Thanks for watching!”) or a series of unsigned quotations, compiled as if for a commonplace book. A thinspiration auteur makes her voice heard almost exclusively through these cards, and she sometimes uses them to plead with her audience to go easy on her work or to stay tuned for further thinspo. I’ve never seen a thinspo video with a voice-over or even moving images. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 11666 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Ariel David ROME - No one can read our thoughts, for now, but some scientists believe they can at least figure out in what language we do our thinking. Before we utter a single word, experts can gauge our mother tongue and the level of proficiency in other languages by analyzing our brain activity while we read, scientists working with Italy's National Research Council say. For more than a year, a team of scientists experimented on 15 interpreters, revealing what they say were surprising differences in brain activity when the subjects were shown words in their native language and in other languages they spoke. The findings show how differently the brain absorbs and recalls languages learned in early childhood and later in life, said Alice Mado Proverbio, a professor of cognitive electrophysiology at the Milano-Bicocca University in Milan. Proverbio, who led the study, said such research could help doctors communicate with patients suffering from amnesia or diseases that impair speech. It could also be of use one day in questioning refugee applicants or terror suspects to determine their origin, she said. The interpreters who took part in the study were all Italians working for the European Union and translating in English and Italian. © 2008 The Associated Press.

Keyword: Language; Brain imaging
Link ID: 11665 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MICHAEL TOMASELLO Human beings do not like to think of themselves as animals. It is thus with decidedly mixed feelings that we regard the frequent reports that activities once thought to be uniquely human are also performed by other species: chimpanzees who make and use tools, parrots who use language, ants who teach. Is there anything left? You might think that human beings at least enjoy the advantage of being more generally intelligent. To test this idea, my colleagues and I recently administered an array of cognitive tests — the equivalent of nonverbal I.Q. tests — to adult chimpanzees and orangutans (two of our closest primate relatives) and to 2-year-old human children. As it turned out, the children were not more skillful overall. They performed about the same as the apes on the tests that measured how well they understood the physical world of space, quantities and causality. The children performed better only on tests that measured social skills: social learning, communicating and reading the intentions of others. But such social gifts make all the difference. Imagine a child born alone on a desert island and somehow magically kept alive. What would this child’s cognitive skills look like as an adult — with no one to teach her, no one to imitate, no pre-existing tools, no spoken or written language? She would certainly possess basic skills for dealing with the physical world, but they would not be particularly impressive. She would not invent for herself English, or Arabic numerals, or metal knives, or money. These are the products of collective cognition; they were created by human beings, in effect, putting their heads together. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 11664 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rob Stein Facebook, MySpace and other Web sites have unleashed a potent new phenomenon of social networking in cyberspace. But at the same time, a growing body of evidence is suggesting that traditional social networks play a surprisingly powerful and underrecognized role in influencing how people behave. The latest research comes from Nicholas A. Christakis, a medical sociologist at the Harvard Medical School, and James H. Fowler, a political scientist at the University of California at San Diego. The pair reported last summer that obesity appeared to spread from one person to another through social networks, almost like a virus or a fad. In a follow-up to that provocative research, the team has produced similar findings about another major health issue: smoking. In a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, the team found that a person's decision to kick the habit is strongly affected by whether other people in their social network quit -- even people they do not know. And, surprisingly, entire networks of smokers appear to quit virtually simultaneously. Taken together, these studies and others are fueling a growing recognition that many behaviors are swayed by social networks in ways that have not been fully understood. And it may be possible, the researchers say, to harness the power of these networks for many purposes, such as encouraging safe sex, getting more people to exercise or even fighting crime. © 2008 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 11663 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NEW drugs may help to enhance people's mental powers (see article). But a study carried out by Pamela Smith, of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and her colleagues suggests a less pharmacological approach can be taken, too. Their work, just published in Psychological Science, argues that simply putting someone into a weak social position impairs his cognitive function. Conversely, “empowering” him, in the dread jargon of sociology, sharpens up his mind. Dr Smith focused on those cognitive processes that help people maintain and pursue their goals in difficult and distracting situations. She suspected that a lack of social power may reduce someone's ability to keep track of information and make plans to achieve his goals. To explore this theory, she carried out three tests. In the first, participants were divided at random into groups of superiors and subordinates. They were told that the superiors would direct and evaluate the subordinates and that this evaluation would determine the subordinates' payment for the experiment. Superiors were paid a fixed amount. The subordinates were then divided into two further groups: powerless and empowered. A sense of powerlessness was instilled, the researchers hoped, by having participants write for several minutes about a time when they were powerless or by asking them to unscramble sets of words including “obey”, “subordinate” and so on to form sentences. The empowered, by contrast, were asked to write about when they had been on top, or to form sentences including “authority”, “dominate” and similar words. © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2008.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 11662 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DANIEL BERGNER “You want to wear this or this for therapy tomorrow?” Sgt. Shurvon Phillip’s mother asked, holding two shirts in front of him. On one wall of his bedroom hung a poster of a marine staring fiercely, assault rifle in hand and black paint beneath his narrow eyes. Shurvon’s eyes, meanwhile, are wide and soft brown. He sat upright, supported by the tilt of a hospital bed. He cannot speak and can barely emit sound or move any part of his body, and sometimes it’s as if the striking size of his eyes is a desperate attempt to let others understand who he is, to let them see inside his mind, because his brain can carry out so little in the way of communication. Keeping Hope Alive Shurvon’s mother has been his greatest advocate and believer. He gazed at the two shirts and, with excruciating effort and several seconds’ delay, managed to jab his gnarled right hand a few inches toward his choice, a black pullover with writing on the front. White letters declared the man, and a white arrow pointed upward to his head; red letters proclaimed the legend, and a red arrow pointed downward to his groin. Gail Ulerie, Shurvon’s mother, had already received his O.K. — a painstaking raising of his eyebrows — on a pair of jeans. Mostly, Shurvon can answer only yes-or-no questions. The slightly lifted brows, a gesture that stretches his eyes yet wider, signify yes. A slow lowering of his lids indicates no. Now, with tomorrow’s clothes decided, Gail, a Trinidadian-American, reclined Shurvon’s bed for the night. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 11661 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By KYLA DUNN Behind all the good-natured joking about “senior moments” lies real frustration and fear. How empowering, then, that we can do something to ward off normal, age-related memory loss: exercise. No, it’s not as easy as popping a pill. But as Sue Halpern reports in “Can’t Remember What I Forgot,” even a few brisk walks per week can have a measurable effect. Exercise promotes the birth of new neurons in the very part of the hippocampus (a brain structure crucial to forming new memories) that begins to malfunction with age. Exercise also counters age-related shrinking of the prefrontal cortex, an area involved in concentration and working memory (as in remembering a phone number long enough to dial). Of course, if you’re unwilling to exercise for your health, or even to look good in a bathing suit, perhaps you’re still hoping for an easier solution. The problem, Halpern explains, is that solid, peer-reviewed science has not yet proved that anything else works: not herbal supplements, fish oil, vitamin E, almonds, $400 interactive computer software or even crossword puzzles. (After reading her section on blueberries, however, you’ll want to buy them by the bucketful.) To cut through the hype and confusion, Halpern, whose father had dementia, set out to discover what scientists really know, and how close they are to a drug or therapy that works — either for the pathological memory loss caused by Alzheimer’s, or the “normal” kind that happens inexorably as we age. Her most interesting passages highlight the distinctions between the two. Both ravage the hippocampus; yet a different part of the hippocampus is “broken” in each condition, and different molecules have stopped doing their jobs. “To understand something to the point of being able to fix it you have to get down to the molecular level,” Scott Small, a neurologist at Columbia, tells Halpern. “And that’s where we’re at.” Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 11660 - Posted: 06.24.2010

FOR thousands of years, people have sought substances that they hoped would boost their mental powers and their stamina. Leaves, roots and fruit have been chewed, brewed and smoked in a quest to expand the mind. That search continues today, with the difference only that the shamans work in pharmaceutical laboratories rather than forests. If asked why, the shamans reply that they are looking for drugs to treat the effects of Alzheimer's disease, attention-deficit disorder, strokes, and the dementias associated with Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia—and that is the truth. But by creating compounds that benefit the sick, they are offering a mental boost to the healthy, too. Such drugs are known as cognition enhancers. They work on the neural processes that underlie such mental activities as attention, perception, learning, memory, language, planning and decision-making, usually by altering the balance of the chemical neurotransmitters involved in these processes. This week a report* from the Academy of Medical Sciences, a British learned society, says that a large number of such brain-affecting drugs are likely to emerge over the next few decades. Sir Gabriel Horn, a researcher at Cambridge University who chaired the group that produced the report, reckons that scientists are working on more than 600 drugs for neurological disorders. History suggests that most of these will fall by the regulatory wayside, but given their numbers, a fair few are likely to be approved. And although none of the companies working on cognition-enhancing drugs designed to treat illness intends to license them for wider use, that is what is likely to happen—at least going by the growing “off-label” use of existing drugs such as Ritalin (methylphenidate) and Provigil (modafinil) by people who want to pep themselves up. © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2008.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 11659 - Posted: 06.24.2010