INDIANAPOLIS- Does the time of year in which a child is conceived influence future academic achievement? Yes, according to research by neonatologist Paul Winchester, M.D., Indiana University School of Medicine professor of clinical pediatrics. Dr. Winchester, who studied 1,667,391 Indiana students, presents his finding on May 7 at the Pediatric Academic Societies' annual meeting. Dr. Winchester and colleagues linked the scores of the students in grades 3 through 10 who took the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP) examination with the month in which each student had been conceived. The researchers found that ISTEP scores for math and language were distinctly seasonal with the lowest scores received by children who had been conceived in June through August. Why might children conceived in June through August have the lowest ISTEP scores? "The fetal brain begins developing soon after conception. The pesticides we use to control pests in fields and our homes and the nitrates we use to fertilize crops and even our lawns are at their highest level in the summer," said Dr. Winchester, who also directs Newborn Intensive Care Services at St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis. "Exposure to pesticides and nitrates can alter the hormonal milieu of the pregnant mother and the developing fetal brain," said Dr. Winchester.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 10271 - Posted: 05.07.2007

By LISA SANDERS, M.D. It was the tuna salad sandwich that did it, the patient told me many days later. He was eating the sandwich when an excruciating pain tore through his throat, his jaw, his ear. He dropped to the floor and grabbed his face. He rubbed, he massaged, he flexed his jaw. Nothing he did relieved the knife-stroke of pain that consumed the entire right side of his face. After what seemed an eternity but was probably only a few minutes, the pain began to ebb. After another 10 to 15 minutes, it receded to the persistent ache that had been his constant companion for the past two weeks. It all started out as a sore throat. He thought maybe he was coming down with a virus. A couple of days later, his teeth began to hurt. Not all of them. Just the last two molars in the back, on the right. Eating or drinking anything — hot or cold — would set off a pain like the one caused by eating ice cream too fast, only much, much worse. It was by far the most severe pain he’d had since he passed a kidney stone — an event he could still vividly recall after more than 20 years. The gnawing ache sent him to the mirror to look for a possible source. He poked and prodded his teeth. Nothing. He’d gone to the dentist for his annual checkup just a couple of weeks earlier and received a clean bill of health. Then why did his teeth hurt so much? Over the next several days, the pain spread to the entire right half of his face. It was as if he had a sore throat, a toothache and an earache all at the same time. Constantly. Every now and then, especially when he ate or drank, paroxysms of pain would shoot from throat to ear. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 10270 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By EMILY BAZELON If you had to choose, would you rather be fat or blind? When a researcher asked that question of a group of formerly obese people, 89 percent said they would prefer to lose their sight than their hard-won slimness. “When you’re blind, people want to help you. No one wants to help you when you’re fat,” one explained. Ninety-one percent of the group also chose having a leg amputated over a return to obesity. This is shocking. But it seems less so by the end of “Rethinking Thin,” a new book about obesity by Gina Kolata, a science reporter for The New York Times. Kolata argues that being fat is not something people have much control over. Most people who are overweight struggle to change their shape throughout their lives, but remain stuck within a relatively narrow weight range set by their genes. For those determined to foil biology, strict dieting is a life sentence. “I am a fat man in a thin man’s body,” an M.I.T. obesity researcher who shed his unwanted pounds years ago tells Kolata. He’s one of the lucky and single-minded few. Study after study, Kolata notes, has shown that for most fat people the long-term rewards of dieting are modest at best. Yet as obesity rates have skyrocketed, exhortations to eat right, exercise and shed pounds have gone from loud to shrill. Kolata’s understandable sympathy for those caught between the ever intensifying pressure to be thin and the stubborn size of their bodies, however, leads her to flirt with an unlikely conclusion: Maybe the outcry over obesity is itself supersized, and being fat isn’t really unhealthy after all. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 10269 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Will Boggs, MD NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In individuals older than 65 with severe Parkinson's disease, deep brain stimulation reduces motor complications but does not improve quality of life, a new study finds. But patients with severe Parkinson's disease who are younger than age 65 are apt to see both a lessening of motor disturbances and improvement in quality of life with the treatment. Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurological disorder that causes tremor, muscle rigidity and movement problems. It is usually treated with medication. When that fails, deep brain stimulation may be an option. The technique involves electrodes implanted in the brain and electrically stimulated to ease movement problems. "Lack of quality-of-life improvement ... raises the question of whether deep brain stimulation is appropriate for the parkinsonian population over 65 years old," Dr. Philippe-Pierre Derost from Hopital Gabriel Montpied, Clermont-Ferrand, France told Reuters Health. Derost and associates investigated the effects, safety, and quality of life after deep brain stimulation in 87 patients with Parkinson's disease. Fifty-three of them were younger than 65 years of age, and 34 were 65 or older. © 1996-2007 Scientific American, Inc

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 10268 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Virginia Morell Winning an Academy Award almost guarantees an actor more fame, money, and scripts. Now a new study adds another perk: evolutionary fitness. Actors who get the award tend to have more children than the national average, according to the analysis. One idea is that the coveted golden statue, like a male peacock's elaborate feathers, announces to all prospective mates the superiority of its owner. Although the work suffers from some shortcomings, it does offer a lesson: The reproductive lives of the rich and famous are just as constrained by basic biology as those of many other animals. "This is a clever study and a fun dataset," says Michael Ryan, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Texas in Austin. Academy Awards are already known to correlate with life span. For example, actors who win live longer than those who go home empty-handed (ScienceNOW, 18 May 2001). So it was natural to ask whether snagging an Oscar also confers reproductive fitness, says Mark Hauber, a behavioral ecologist at New Zealand's University of Auckland, and an avid watcher of the telecast. Rolling up his sleeves, Hauber dug into the demographics on 59 actresses and 37 actors, including their ages, number of legal spouses and biological children, and Academy Awards (in the lead and/or supporting role) between 1929 and 2001. He found that male Academy winners have an average of almost four children, with Marlon Brando holding the record of 11 children. In comparison, ordinary Joes in the U.S. have just 1.2 kids on average. "It was surprising to me," Hauber says. Why might male actors do so much better? Hauber speculates that the award might be an "honest signal" of quality to potential mates. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 10267 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Will Knight Robotic and uncrewed submersibles could operate more effectively by mimicking the way some fish probe their surroundings with electric fields, say researchers. Many marine and freshwater fish can sense electric fields, but some also generate their own weak fields over short ranges to help navigate, identify objects, and even communicate with other fish. Malcolm MacIver and colleagues at Northwestern University in Chicago, US, studying the biomechanics of these "weakly electric fish", have now come up with an artificial electric-field sensing system. They say it could ultimately give robot submersibles the same additional sensory capabilities. "Currently, no vehicle is manoeuvrable enough to do work in tight quarters, such as coral reef monitoring, underwater structural inspection, or searching a submerged vessel," MacIver told New Scientist. "To do so requires not only a high amount of agility, but also being able to sense in all directions, so that you do not collide with nearby obstacles. Electro-location is perfect for this." Field disturbancesThe researcher's electro-location system consists of two field-emitting electrodes and two voltage-sensing electrodes. These electrode pairs are arranged at opposite corners of a diamond, and were submerged in shallow water for testing purposes. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Animal Communication
Link ID: 10266 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Patrick L. Barry Chimpanzees and bonobos can communicate with greater flexibility using hand gestures than they can with facial expressions or vocalizations, new research shows. Their use of hand motions to convey different meanings in different circumstances suggests that gestures may have played an important part in the evolution of language. Researchers speculate about how prehuman species developed the capacity for complex language. One theory suggests that humans' apelike ancestors first communicated through gestures. Once the neural circuits for gesture-based language had evolved, those same brain areas could have switched over to verbal communication. Indeed, research has shown that modern apes use the same area of the brain to interpret hand signals as humans use to process spoken language. Working at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta, Frans B.M. de Waal and Amy S. Pollick observed communications among 34 captive chimpanzees and among 13 captive bonobos, also known as pygmy chimpanzees. The researchers logged every hand gesture, facial expression, and vocal cry that one animal directed at another. They also noted the social context—playing, grooming, fighting, having sex, eating, and so on—in which each signal occurred. ©2007 Science Service.

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 10265 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The baby brothers and sisters of autistic children do not seek emotional cues from adults, or respond to them, as often as other toddlers do, suggests new research from the University of California, San Diego. The study is the first to investigate "social referencing" behavior in children from families at high risk for autism and also points to profound differences in related measurements of brain activity, said lead researcher Leslie Carver. Carver, an assistant professor of psychology and director of the Developmental Cognitive and Social Neuroscience Lab at UC San Diego, is presenting the findings at the 2007 International Meeting for Autism Research in Seattle, Wash. "Our results," Carver said, "support two important ideas about autism: That those behaviors that are diagnostic of the disorder fall on one end of a broad behavioral spectrum and also that there is a strong genetic component to autism, evidenced by the behavioral resemblances in close family members." The heritability of autism has been estimated as high as 90 percent, Carver noted, and siblings are at increased risk of receiving the diagnosis themselves: About 8 percent will go on to develop the disorder, as compared to about .5 percent of the general population. Social referencing involves checking in with the emotional displays of others (especially those we expect to be knowledgeable about a novel situation) and regulating our own emotions and behavior in response.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 10264 - Posted: 05.05.2007

Roxanne Khamsi Culture can shape your view of the world, the saying goes. And it might be more than just a saying: a new study suggests that culture may shape the way our brains process visual information. Researchers found that the brains of older East Asian people respond less strongly to changes in the foreground of images than those of their Western counterparts. They suggest this difference is due to an increased emphasis on the background, or context, of images in some Asian cultures. Denise Park of the University of Illinois in Urbana, US, and her colleagues recruited 37 young and elderly volunteers within their community, as well as people from similar age groups in Singapore. The younger participants in the study had an average age of 22 years, while the older participants averaged 67 years. The subjects each viewed a series of 200 pictures while their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The researchers varied either the foreground or background of the images (see right) to see if responses varied between the groups. The researchers found expected differences between the age groups. There was a lower response by the hippocampus – a brain region which seems to help the mind connect a particular object to its background – among older subjects in both groups compared with their younger counterparts. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 10263 - Posted: 06.24.2010

This link will open a short video showing an octopus that has learned to open a bottle for a treat.

Keyword: Intelligence; Evolution
Link ID: 10262 - Posted: 05.04.2007

By BENEDICT CAREY Doctors reported yesterday that expectant mothers with epilepsy who took a commonly prescribed drug to control seizures were at increased risk of having a child with mental deficits. Toddlers who had been exposed in the womb to the drug Depakote, from Abbott Laboratories, scored seven to eight points lower on I.Q. tests at age 2 than those whose mothers had been taking other epilepsy drugs while pregnant, the study found. They were twice as likely to score in the range associated with mental retardation, according to the authors, who presented the findings at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in Boston. Other researchers said the findings should be considered preliminary because I.Q. measures were less reliable in 2-year-olds than in older children; the study will continue, tracking children through age 6. The report is consistent with several recent studies finding that Depakote is more likely than other so-called anticonvulsant drugs to increase the risk of mental deficits and other birth defects, like neural tube problems. An estimated 24 million American women have taken these drugs — which include Tegretol from Novartis, Lamictal from GlaxoSmithKline and Dilantin from Parke Davis — for an array of problems, including epilepsy, bipolar disorder and migraine headaches, according to an analysis by the Epilepsy Foundation. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Epilepsy; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 10261 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sarah C. P. Williams Researchers have developed a way to vaccinate mice against deadly prion diseases, which include scrapie, kuru, mad cow disease, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The findings, presented today at the annual American Academy of Neurology meeting in Boston, suggest that these degenerative brain diseases can be stopped if caught early enough. Prion proteins, expressed in neurons, are found in one form in healthy individuals. But when even one protein becomes misfolded--or a misfolded protein enters the body through food, such as infected beef--it changes the conformation of all the prions around it (ScienceNOW, 21 April 2005). The misfolded proteins clump and destroy neurons, creating tiny holes in the brain. Prion diseases have no known cure. Previous attempts at vaccines have delayed the onset of prion diseases, but never prevented them. Searching for a more effective vaccine, a team led by neuropathologist Thomas Wisniewski of the New York University School of Medicine in New York City took a new approach. They genetically modified a strain of Salmonella bacteria to express prion proteins. When researchers fed these bacteria to mice, the bugs multiplied in the rodents' guts, and the animals developed antibodies against the prions. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 10260 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jeff Donn, Associated Press — New research suggests that hormone therapy taken soon after menopause may help protect against the mental decline of dementia, even though it raises that risk in elderly women. The study adds yet another frustrating twist to the back-and-forth findings about whether hormone-replacement therapy protects against diseases of aging. Though the accepted answer has been "no" in recent years, the latest evidence suggests that timing of treatments may be key, at least for heart attacks and now for dementia. "When you give it may be very important," said Dr. Sam Gandy, an Alzheimer's disease expert at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. The new findings were released Wednesday in Boston at a meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. Experts cautioned that they are preliminary. Lead researcher Dr. Victor Henderson, of Stanford University, agreed that it's too soon to consider putting younger women back on hormones to forestall dementia. For decades, women routinely took hormones to treat the hot flashes of menopause and to ward off ailments of aging. Then, in 2002, a milestone study showed higher risks of heart attack, stroke, and breast cancer with estrogen-progestin treatments. Estrogen-only pills were later also linked to stroke. © 2007 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 10259 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ANDREW BRIDGES WASHINGTON -- Young adults face an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior when they first begin taking antidepressants and should be warned about the danger, federal health officials said Wednesday. The Food and Drug Administration asked makers of the drugs to expand its warning labels to include adults age 18-24. The labels already include similar warnings for children and adolescents. Eli Lilly and Co., the maker of Prozac, Zoloft manufacturer Pfizer Inc. and other pharmaceutical companies said they would comply with the FDA's request. "We believe this step will help ensure that the millions of people with depression who are young adults age 24 and under and their families can make informed treatment decisions while minimizing the fear and stigma associated with depression," Eli Lilly said in a statement. Pfizer spokeswoman Shreya Prudlo said the company would update its label, which she said already calls for close monitoring of patients when they begin taking Zoloft. She added, however, "There is no established causal link between Zoloft and suicide in adults, young adults or children." © 2007 The Associated Press

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 10258 - Posted: 06.24.2010

At a small room on the University of Washington campus, a human looking robot walks a bit unsteadily toward its goal. Its slow and slightly shuffling gait, along with its size-- it's about knee-high-- is reminiscent of a child taking its first steps. The fact that the robot is playing with blocks only reinforces that impression. Nearby, like an inattentive parent, a young researcher wears what looks like a swim cap with wires and stares at what might be a computer video game. But, it's the researchers who are taking the first steps, learning how to command the robot simply by thinking. The researcher is watching the computer screen, waiting to answer the robot's questions and give it commands. While the robot gets everyone's attention, it's the brain interface that is the focus of this research. Tuning in to the brain and getting a robot to respond adequately to the commands, is the goal of Rajesh Rao. "We're interested in understanding how the brain works," says Rao," and then using that knowledge … to build, for example, prosthetic devices or helper robots." © ScienCentral, 2000-2007.

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 10257 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A good night's sleep may be as simple as flipping a switch, say scientists. By sending magnetic pulses through the skulls of sleeping volunteers, US researchers were able to stimulate the slow brain waves seen in deep sleep. Such a machine-generated "power nap" could one day be an insomnia treatment, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences study suggests. However, it is unclear whether electronically assisted sleep confers the same benefits as natural sleep. The deepest stage of sleep is characterised by brain patterns known as slow wave activity - electrical waves which wash across the brain, roughly once a second, 1,000 times a night. Slow wave activity is believed to be critical to the restoration of mood and the ability to learn, think and remember. Professor Giulio Tononi and colleagues used a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) - a harmless magnetic signal which activates electrical impulses in the brain - to initiate slow waves in sleeping volunteers. They then recorded brain electrical activity. In response to each magnetic pulse, the participants' brains immediately produced the slow waves typical of deep sleep. The researchers managed to position the TMS device to cause slow waves to travel throughout the brain. Professor Tononi, from the University of Wisconsin said slow waves may be important in sleep's "restorative powers". (C)BBC

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 10256 - Posted: 05.02.2007

By Rebecca Morelle The discovery that apes can "talk" using hand gestures may shed more light on language development. But these are not the only animals with communication skills - in the animal kingdom, it is all about getting your message out there. And in a bid to understand how one of the most complex communication systems of all - human language - came about, scientists are also studying animals that, like us, use sound to communicate. Surprisingly, they have discovered our closest relatives, despite their signing prowess, do not have much of a vocal repertoire. Dr Klaus Zuberbuhler, an expert in primate communication from the University of St Andrews, UK, says: "Most of the non-human primate species only have a fairly limited number of sounds that they can generate." But while primate "vocabulary" is restricted, scientists have found many species can attach meanings to some sounds to convey information. Vervet monkeys, for example, have three distinct alarm calls that trigger three distinct response calls. And some species, says Dr Zuberbuhler, can do even more: they possess the ability to use and understand simple grammar. Putty-nosed monkeys, he explains, can combine their calls to create a sequence that carries a more complex meaning. (C)BBC

Keyword: Animal Communication; Language
Link ID: 10255 - Posted: 05.02.2007

Andy Coghlan Some female ducks and geese have evolved complex genitalia to thwart unwelcome mating attempts, according to a new study. Males of some species, such as mallard, have a notorious habit of "raping" females. They and other wildfowl are among the 3% of bird species whose males have phalluses big enough to insert into the vaginas of females, whether or not the female consents. Now, in the most detailed analysis yet of duck and goose vaginas, researchers have established that females of these species have evolved vaginal features to thwart unwelcome males. Tim Birkhead at the University of Sheffield in the UK and colleagues examined vaginas and the corresponding phalluses from 16 wildfowl species. They discovered that the longer and more elaborate the male member, the longer and more elaborate its female recipient was. Some vaginas had spiral channels that would impede sex by twisting in the opposite direction to that of the male phallus. Others had as many as eight cul-de-sac pouches en route, that could prevent fertilisation by capturing unwelcome sperm. Moreover, these features were only found in species renowned for forced sex. All other species had simple male and female genitalia. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 10254 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Zoe Smeaton The first clinical trial using gene therapy to treat a vision disorder has begun, involving 12 patients with an inherited condition that causes childhood blindness. The treatment, which is taking place in London, UK, hopes to restore vision in patients who have a genetic defect that causes degeneration of the retina. Robin Ali at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London and colleagues are treating adults and children with Leber’s congenital amaurosis (LCA), caused by an abnormality in the RPE65 gene. This gene is important in recycling retinol, a molecule that helps the retina detect light. People with LCA usually lose vision from infancy. Ali's team are inserting healthy copies of RPE65 into cells in the retina, using a viral vector. Previously, dogs with LCA have had their vision restored in this way, allowing them to walk through a maze for the first time without difficulty. Leonard Seymour, who leads the Gene Delivery Group at the University of Oxford in the UK, and is not involved in the current trial, says the retina is a good place for gene therapy because it can be accessed by injection to overcome the problem of delivery. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10253 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Heidi Ledford Regions of the brain important for thinking and memory may have shrunk in some veterans of the first Gulf War, according to a new study. The decline is at its worst in veterans who report more symptoms of what is commonly called 'Gulf War syndrome', the mysterious condition that has afflicted as many as one in seven veterans from the 1990-1991 war. The finding, reported today in a poster at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, results from a study of 36 veterans. The veterans were asked whether they had symptoms ranging from joint pain to memory loss. Neuropsychologist Roberta White of the School of Public Health at Boston University and her colleagues divided the respondents into two categories: those with more than five symptoms and those with five or less. Magnetic resonance imaging of the two groups revealed that two regions of the brain — the overall cortex and the rostral anterior cingulated gyrus, areas known to be involved in thinking and learning — were 5% and 6% smaller, respectively, in the group experiencing more symptoms. Those same veterans scored 12% to 15% lower in memory tests. White says the differences are not due to different levels of stress experienced by the veterans. But she can't tell whether the brain differences are from a pre-existing condition, or are the result of the veterans' time in the Persian Gulf. Nor can she tell from this study what, other than stress, might have caused this part of the brain to shrink. She next plans to look at brain shrinkage against levels of chemical exposure, to see whether the two are linked. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 10252 - Posted: 06.24.2010