by Joe Palca All Things Considered, · Scientists in California have been studying a group of people with a remarkable musical talent. It's called absolute pitch, also known as perfect pitch. People with absolute pitch can instantly identify any musical note. The California researchers have been identifying people with this skill in order to understand its genetic basis. Most people can identify a note on a piano, but there will be some people who hear a note, and without even thinking about it, they will know that it was A above middle C — at least if the piano is properly tuned. Dennis Drayna is a geneticist at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. He says people with absolute pitch can identify notes on a piano the same way most of us can identify colors. "And we can always identify red and it's obvious what's pink, and we usually don't confuse the two," Drayna says. "People with absolute pitch have an analogous ability for their ear." To find people with this talent, geneticist Jane Gitschier turned to the Internet. She and her colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco created a Web page where people could test their pitch abilities. Copyright 2007 NPR

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 10661 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Matt Kaplan Women who have had their ovaries removed and not received extra estrogen have an elevated risk of cognitive impairment or dementia later in life. The finding contrasts with an earlier study of about 7500 older women, which found an increased risk of dementia in women over 65 who took hormone supplements--suggesting that estrogen has a different effect on the brain at different ages. Estrogen's effect on health and brain function has been hotly debated in recent years. In 2004, researchers with the Women's Health Initiative (WHI), who studied hormone replacement therapy after menopause, reported that women age 65 to 79 had an increased risk of dementia if they were taking hormone supplements containing estrogen (ScienceNOW, 27 May 2003). But the study, along with others from WHI that reported harm from hormone therapy, was criticized for its focus on older women. Many scientists wondered whether estrogen supplements would have the same hazardous effects in premenopausal women. A team lead by neurologist Walter Rocca of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota, focused on women who had one or both ovaries removed. They used medical records to identify all those who fit this description in Olmsted County, Minnesota, who had had one or both ovaries removed between 1950 and 1987, because of a medical condition or to protect against cancer. They interviewed 1489 women who fit this description, and 10%, they found, had developed dementia. In a control group of 1472 women who had intact ovaries, the number was 6.6%. The findings suggest that it’s harmful to have too little estrogen before menopause, and make a strong case for estrogen treatment if ovaries are removed before age 50, say the researchers. The study is published in the 29 August online issue of Neurology. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 10660 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Heidi Ledford Gene expression changes brought on by heavy smoking may persist long after the smoker has kicked the habit, researchers have found. The results could provide a molecular explanation for the continued increased risk of lung cancer and other pulmonary ailments among former smokers. When smokers quit, their bodies gradually begin to undo the damage cigarettes have wrought. But contrary to popular belief, not all of the body's systems make a full recovery. Although the risk of heart disease, for example, eventually returns to that of a nonsmoker, the risk of getting lung cancer and emphysema — a progressive lung condition that leaves sufferers struggling for breath — remains elevated even if the patient hasn't smoked a cigarette in decades. "You are reducing the risk of disease by quitting," says Raj Chari, a cancer biologist at the British Columbia Cancer Research Centre in Vancouver, Canada, "but it isn't going back to zero." Chari and his co-workers assayed gene expression levels in tissue scraped from the airways of four nonsmokers (who had never smoked), eight current smokers, and twelve former smokers who had gone without a cigarette for at least 1 year, and up to 32 years. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 10659 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON - Loosen the belt buckle another notch: Obesity rates continued to climb in 31 states last year, and no state showed a decline. Mississippi became the first state to crack the 30 percent barrier for adults considered to be obese. West Virginia and Alabama were just behind, according to the Trust for America’s Health, a research group that focuses on disease prevention. Colorado continued its reign as the leanest state in the nation with an obesity rate projected at 17.6 percent. This year’s report, for the first time, looked at rates of overweight children ages 10 to 17. The District of Columbia had the highest percentage — 22.8 percent. Utah had the lowest — 8.5 percent. Health officials say the latest state rankings provide evidence that the nation has a public health crisis on its hands. Unfortunately, we’re treating it like a mere inconvenience instead of the emergency that it is,” said Dr. James Marks, senior vice president at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a philanthropy devoted to improving health care. Officials at the Trust for America’s Health want the government to play a larger role in preventing obesity. People who are overweight are at an increased risk for diabetes, heart problems and other chronic diseases that contribute to greater health care costs. © 2007 MSNBC.com © 2007 Microsoft

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 10658 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Maia Szalavitz Many people think they know what addiction is, but despite non-experts' willingness to opine on its treatment and whether Britney or Lindsay's rehab was tough enough, the term is still a battleground. Is addiction a disease? A moral weakness? A disorder caused by drug or alcohol use, or a compulsive behavior that can also occur in relation to sex, food and maybe even video games? As a former cocaine and heroin addict, these questions have long fascinated me. I want to know why, in three years, I went from being an Ivy League student to a daily IV drug user who weighed 80 pounds. I want to know why I got hooked, when many of my fellow drug users did not. A bill was introduced in Congress this spring to change the name of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to the National Institute on Diseases of Addiction, and the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) to the National Institute on Alcohol Disorders and Health. In a press release introducing the legislation, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) said, "By changing the way we talk about addiction, we change the way people think about addiction, both of which are critical steps in getting past the social stigma too often associated with the disease." But opinion polls find weak support for the concept of addiction as a disease, despite years of advocacy by such agencies as NIDA and NIAAA and by recovery groups. A 2002 Hart poll found that most people thought alcoholism was about half disease, half weakness; just 9 percent viewed it wholly as a disease. © 2007 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 10657 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The days of sexist science teachers and Barbies chirping that "math class is tough!" are over, according to pop culture, but a government program aimed at bringing more women and girls into science, technology, engineering and math fields suggests otherwise. Below are five myths about girls and science that still endure, according to the National Science Foundation's Research on Gender in Science and Engineering program: Myth 1: From the time they start school, most girls are less interested in science than boys are. Reality: In elementary school about as many girls as boys have positive attitudes toward science. A recent study of fourth graders showed that 66 percent of girls and 68 percent of boys reported liking science. But something else starts happening in elementary school. By second grade, when students (both boys and girls) are asked to draw a scientist, most portray a white male in a lab coat. Any woman scientist they draw looks severe and not very happy. The persistence of the stereotypes start to turn girls off, and by eighth grade, boys are twice as interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) careers as girls are. The female attrition continues throughout high school, college and even the work force. Women with STEM higher education degrees are twice as likely to leave a scientific or engineering job as men with comparable STEM degrees. Myth 2: Classroom interventions that work to increase girls' interest in STEM run the risk of turning off the boys. © 2007 LiveScience.com.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 10656 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS Two years ago, when Malcolm Gladwell published his best-selling “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” readers throughout the world were introduced to the ideas of Gerd Gigerenzer, a German social psychologist. Dr. Gigerenzer, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, is known in social science circles for his breakthrough studies on the nature of intuitive thinking. Before his research, this was a topic often dismissed as crazed superstition. Dr. Gigerenzer, 59, was able to show how aspects of intuition work and how ordinary people successfully use it in modern life. And now he has written his own book, “Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious,” which he hopes will sell as well as “Blink.” “I liked Gladwell’s book,” Dr. Gigerenzer said during a visit to New York City last month. “He’s popularized the issue, including my research.” Q: O.K., let’s start with basics: what is a gut feeling? A: It’s a judgment that is fast. It comes quickly into a person’s consciousness. The person doesn’t know why they have this feeling. Yet, this is strong enough to make an individual act on it. What a gut instinct is not is a calculation. You do not fully know where it comes from. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions; Attention
Link ID: 10655 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JOHN TIERNEY ATLANTA — The chimpanzees, after spotting the humans at the corner of their compound, came over to us with their arms outstretched and their palms turned upward. This was the chimps’ way of asking for a banana — and a lot more, as researchers here at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center have discovered. That simple gesture, the upturned palm, is one of the oldest and most widely understood signals in the world. It’s activated by neural circuits inherited from ancient reptiles that abased themselves before larger animals. Chimps and other apes, notably humans, adapted it to ask not just for food, but also for more abstract forms of help, creating a new kind of signal that some researchers believe was the origin of human language. If that’s true, if human eloquence can be traced from a primal message signifying “Gimme,” I’m not sure what conclusion to draw about our species. Maybe that we are inherently social creatures who survived and prevailed against mightier animals by learning to enlist the cooperation of others. Or maybe just that, in our heart of hearts, we are all slackers. The meaning of the gesture is clear whether it’s with one upturned palm, the “Brother, can you spare a dime” stance of beggars around the world, or with the two-palm version favored by preachers who reach out to beseech divine assistance. Or by exasperated Hollywood directors who rise from their chairs with upturned palms to implore their actors, “Work with me, people!” Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 10654 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR It may be that when adults talk to babies, they use a language that is universally understood. Researchers made recordings of English-speaking mothers talking to babies and to adults, then played them to residents of a Shuar village in Morona Santiago Province in southeastern Ecuador. The Shuar are an indigenous group of hunter-horticulturalists who had been taught Spanish but have their own language, and the scientists wanted to see if they could understand the meaning, even without understanding any of the words, when adults talked to babies in English. The researchers recorded four utterances from each of eight English-speaking mothers, ages 21 to 51. The mothers viewed pictures of babies to provoke speech suggesting one of four categories of meaning: prohibition, approval, comfort or paying attention. They were given no script, but were asked to speak as if they were talking to their own baby, using the same phrasing and intonation. Then the women were recorded conveying the same meanings as if speaking to an adult. The 26 Shuar young adults were successful about three-quarters of the time in determining whether an adult or a child was being addressed. With adult speech, they identified the correct meaning category 64 percent of the time, with only moderate success in identifying attention and comfort, and very little in understanding prohibition and approval. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 10653 - Posted: 08.28.2007

If your child is born in the winter or fall, it will have better long-range eyesight throughout its lifetime and less chance of requiring thick corrective glasses, predicts a Tel Aviv University investigation led by Dr. Yossi Mandel, a senior ophthalmologist in the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps. Forming a large multi-center Israeli team, the scientists took data on Israeli youth aged 16-23 and retroactively correlated the incidence of myopia (short-sightedness) with their month of birth. The results were astonishing. Babies born in June and July had a 24% greater chance of becoming severely myopic than those born in December and January – the group with the least number of severely myopic individuals. The investigators say that this evidence is likely applicable to babies born anywhere in the world. The results of the study were published this month in the clinical eye journal Ophthalmology. The team interpolated data from a sample size of almost 300,000 young adults, making it one of the largest epidemiological surveys carried out in the world on any subject. Is this great disparity in eyesight related to one’s luck or astrological sign? “Nonsense,” balks study co-author Prof. Michael Belkin of Tel Aviv University’s Goldschleger Eye Research Institute, the most prominent eye research organization in Israel and the region. Belkin is also Incumbent to the Fox Chair of Ophthalmology and one of the founders and first director of the Goldschleger Institute, established more than 25 years ago at the Sheba Medical Center. In November Prof. Belkin will attend the annual American Academy of Ophthalmology conference in New Orleans, La. © PhysOrg.com 2003-2007

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Vision
Link ID: 10652 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rob Stein Many people maintain rich, active sex lives well into their 80s, according to the first detailed examination of sexuality among older Americans. The nationally representative survey of more than 3,000 U.S. adults ages 57 to 85 found that more than half to three-quarters of those questioned remain sexually active, with a significant proportion engaging in frequent and varied sexual behavior. Sexual problems do increase with age, and the rate of sexual activity fades somewhat, the survey found. But interest in sex remains high and the frequency remains surprisingly stable among the physically able who are lucky enough to still have partners. "There's a popular perception that older people aren't as interested in sex as younger people," said Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago, who led the study, being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Our study shows that's simply not true. Older people value sexuality as an important part of life." "This study paints a portrait of this aspect of older Americans' lives that suggests a previously uncharacterized vitality and interest in sexuality," agreed Georgeanne E. Patmios of the National Institute on Aging, the primary funder of the study. "This has not perhaps been fully appreciated." © 2007 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 10651 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CBC News A non-invasive test that measures magnetic fields associated with brain activity may soon be available to diagnose brain diseases. Magnetoencephalography — a process by which a sensitive device picks up brain waves — examines the tiny magnetic fields produced by neuron activity in the brain, activity that can potentially act as a biomarker for brain disease. Using magnetoencephalography, researchers tested patients' neural activity to determine which biomarkers identify specific diseases. The research findings, authored by investigators from the University of Minnesota medical school in Minneapolis, are to be published next week in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Researchers used magnetoencephalography to examine 142 volunteers, testing them 45 to 60 seconds at a time. First, a group of 52 volunteers, some suffering from multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, Sjogren's syndrome (an autoimmune disorder) and chronic alcoholism were studied and their patterns of neural activity charted to characterize the different illnesses. Next, 46 patients were tested to see whether the patterns identified in the first group could reveal brain disease within the second group. © CBC 2007

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 10650 - Posted: 06.24.2010

LONDON - Scientists using a computer game have discovered how the brain's response to fear changes as a threat gets nearer in a development that could help people suffering from panic attacks. Two key areas of the brain are involved in fear, with the more impulsive region taking over as a threat looms closer. A malfunctioning in the balance between the two could explain some anxiety disorders, researchers believe. To find out exactly where our fear resides, British scientists scared volunteers with a Pac Man-like computer game, in which subjects were chased through a maze by an artificial predator. If caught, they received a mild electric shock. Simultaneous brain scans measuring blood flow showed that when the predator was distant, lower parts of the prefrontal cortex area of the brain behind the eyebrows were active. This region is associated with complex decision-making, such as planning an escape. But when the predator moved closer, activity shifted to the periaqueductal grey area, responsible for quick-response survival mechanisms such as fighting, flight or freezing. The findings by Dean Mobbs and colleagues at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London were reported in the journal Science on Thursday. © 2007 MSNBC.com

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 10649 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Plenty of adolescent behaviors are annoying, but others can be dangerous or even potentially deadly-- like substance abuse and unprotected sex. Brain researcher Monique Ernst points out that teenagers' propensity for thrill-seeking doesn't just come from having more independence, exposure to risky behaviors, or peer pressure. "This behavior doesn't come from the environment only," she says. "It is actually very much governed by changes that happen in the brain as the adolescents grow." Ernst, a researcher and clinician in the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program Branch, says in spite of teens generally being at their peak of health, they have a disproportionately high rate of injury and death. "Their speed of reaction time is really high, their cognitive function, or their thinking, is pretty good, their athletic ability is great," Ernst says. "So they're really healthy, and at the same time, their rate of being sick or impaired and their rate of [injury and death] is really high. To understand why teens tend to make risky choices, Ernst and her colleagues have imaged the brains of teens and adults who were asked to play a gambling game that the researchers have dubbed "the wheel of fortune." Volunteers chose whether to bet in a situation with low odds of winning a larger amount of money, and another situation with good odds of winning a small amount of money. The scientists took functional MRI brain scans during the task, and also questioned the volunteers about their emotional reactions to betting, winning and losing. © ScienCentral, 2000-2007.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 10648 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Whether it's people or animals, we all get itchy, and scratching doesn't necessarily help. Molecular biologist Zhou-Feng Chen and colleagues at Washington University's Pain Center may have found a remedy while looking for a treatment for chronic pain. They tested mice that lacked the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor "GRPR" gene, which normally helps transmit messages in the spinal cord. But when they injected a chemical that acts like GRPR into the mice, the animals began to scratch. Chen says the more they injected, the more the mice scratched. "Those mice would begin to scratch a lot, scratch their body very vigorously," he says. "That's the first sign and the first clue we had well, this gene may be involved in itchy sensation." The relationship may not seem obvious as first, but pain and itch sensations are transmitted through the same region of the spinal cord. And when we have an itch, we can temporarily eliminate it by scratching, which causes pain. So, pain and itch seem to be related sensations, though the exact connection is just beginning to be understood. While everyone can appreciate research to alleviate pain, less attention has been paid to itchiness."This has been really neglected and there's really not much huge effort in this area," Chen says. © ScienCentral, 2000-2007.

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10647 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Mary Muers The elephantnose fish, which finds its way at night using an electrical version of sonar, has sharp enough senses to assess the shape and size of objects in its tank in the dark, researchers have found. The fish can even identify shapes when they are present as simple wire frames rather than solid objects. The sensing organ of Gnathonemus petersii (which looks, as the name suggests, like an elephant's nose) is actually an elongated chin packed with electrical sensors that detect distortions in the fish's own electric field. As it hunts for food in the pitch darkness of a tropical central African night, the elephantnose fish sweeps its snout over the ground like a person using a metal detector, to navigate around obstacles and locate the larvae it feeds on. During daylight hours, most fish can use their eyes to form a sophisticated picture of the size and shape of objects around them. But no one knew whether elephantnose fish could do the same using their electrolocation. To find out, Gerhard von der Emde and his colleagues at the University of Bonn, Germany, put a cube and a pyramid in the tank and studied the fishes' navigation in complete darkness, while watching with an infrared camera. Each time a fish swam to the pyramid it received a worm as a reward. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 10646 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Brian Vastag Twenty-five years ago, researchers discovered that certain viruses can cause obesity in some animals. A decade ago, they extended the finding to people. Now, a team reports that one such virus works by transforming adult stem cells into fat-storing cells. The finding supports the notion that some cases of obesity may be infectious. Magdalena Pasarica of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who led the new work, stresses that obesity has many causes, including genetic factors, overeating, and a sedentary lifestyle. In some people, however, adenovirus-36 may be the culprit, she says. Adenoviruses cause colds, but adenovirus-36, apparently, does more. In a 2005 study of 502 obese and normal-weight people, researchers reported that 30 percent of the obese group showed signs of previous adenovirus-36 infection, while only 11 percent of the lean group did. In earlier laboratory tests, the virus made chickens, rodents, and monkeys fat, says Richard Atkinson, now president of Obetech in Richmond, Va., who led some of that work. But how the virus might be raising obesity risk remained a mystery. To solve it, Pasarica and her colleagues collected adult stem cells from fat removed from patients during liposuction. These cells sometimes grow into adipocytes, or fat-storing cells, but can also transform into bone and cartilage. ©2007 Science Service

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 10645 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Maria Cheng, Associated Press — Having trouble persuading your child to eat broccoli or spinach? You may have only yourself to blame. According to a study of twins, neophobia — or the fear of new foods — is mostly in the genes. "Children could actually blame their mothers for this," said Jane Wardle, director of the Health Behavior Unit at University College London, one of the authors of the study in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Wardle and colleagues asked the parents of 5,390 pairs of identical and non-identical twins to complete a questionnaire on their children's' willingness to try new foods. Identical twins, who share all genes, were much more likely to respond the same way to new foods than non-identical twins, who like other siblings only share about half their genes. Researchers concluded that genetics played a greater role in determining eating preferences than environment, since the twins lived in the same household. Wardle said food preferences appear to be "as inheritable a physical characteristic as height." Unlike nearly every other phobia, neophobia is a normal stage of human development. © 2007 Discovery Communications

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10644 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Using genetic engineering, researchers have created an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) — like set of behaviors in mice and reversed them with antidepressants and genetic targeting of a key brain circuit. The study, by National Institutes of Health (NIH) — funded researchers, suggests new strategies for treating the disorder. Researchers bred mice without a specific gene, and found defects in a brain circuit previously implicated in OCD. Much like people with a form of OCD, the mice engaged in compulsive grooming, which led to bald patches with open sores on their heads. They also exhibited anxiety-like behaviors. When the missing gene was reinserted into the circuit, both the behaviors and the defects were largely prevented. The gene, SAPAP3, makes a protein that helps brain cells communicate via the glutamate chemical messenger system. “Since this is the first study to directly link OCD-like behaviors to abnormalities in the glutamate system in a specific brain circuit, it may lead to new targets for drug development,” explained Guoping Feng, Ph.D., Duke University, whose study was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). “An imbalance in SAPAP3 gene-related circuitry could help explain OCD.”

Keyword: OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10643 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Gisela Telis There may be more to baby talk than cooing over cuteness. A new study suggests that female rhesus monkeys engage in a kind of baby talk, casting doubt on the long-held belief that the behavior is exclusively human. And another study--in humans--shows that the tones mothers use to address their children may be universal. Although female rhesus monkeys don't baby talk to their own young, they make pantlike grunts and high-pitched, melodic nasal sounds called girneys when near other baby monkeys. Scientists assumed the females were "talking" to other mothers, not the infants, as a way of showing they had no ill intent toward the youngsters. Jessica Whitham, who is now an animal behaviorist at Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, Illinois, wasn't so sure the mothers were the intended audience. So she and University of Chicago behavioral biologist Dario Maestripieri spent 2 years observing wild monkeys on the Puerto Rican island of Cayo Santiago. They watched 19 female rhesus monkeys both before and after their birth season. They found that whereas grunts and girneys were rare before the birth season, they "just exploded" once the first infants appeared. When infants briefly wandered away from their mothers, the other females kept a close eye on them and grunted or girneyed, and the infants frequently looked back at them, which led Whitham and Maestripieri to conclude that the sounds are meant to attract the infants, not the mothers. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Language; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 10642 - Posted: 06.24.2010