By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Parents would certainly deny it, but Canadian researchers have made a startling assertion: parents take better care of pretty children than they do ugly ones. Researchers at the University of Alberta carefully observed how parents treated their children during trips to the supermarket. They found that physical attractiveness made a big difference. The researchers noted if the parents belted their youngsters into the grocery cart seat, how often the parents' attention lapsed and the number of times the children were allowed to engage in potentially dangerous activities like standing up in the shopping cart. They also rated each child's physical attractiveness on a 10-point scale. The findings, not yet published, were presented at the Warren E. Kalbach Population Conference in Edmonton, Alberta. When it came to buckling up, pretty and ugly children were treated in starkly different ways, with seat belt use increasing in direct proportion to attractiveness. When a woman was in charge, 4 percent of the homeliest children were strapped in compared with 13.3 percent of the most attractive children. The difference was even more acute when fathers led the shopping expedition - in those cases, none of the least attractive children were secured with seat belts, while 12.5 percent of the prettiest children were. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 7289 - Posted: 05.03.2005

Posted by Carl Zimmer Evolutionary psychologists argue that we can understand the workings of the human mind by investigating how it evolved. Much of their research focuses on the past two million years of hominid evolution, during which our ancestors lived in small bands, eating meat they either scavenged or hunted as well as tubers and other plants they gathered. Living for so long in this arrangement, certain ways of thinking may have been favored by natural selection. Evolutionary psychologists believe that a lot of puzzling features of the human mind make sense if we keep our heritage in mind. The classic example of these puzzles is known as the Wason Selection Task. People tend to do well on this task if it is presented in one way, and terribly if it is presented another way. You can try it out for yourself. If you took these tests, chances are you bombed on version one and got version two right. Studies consistently show that in tests of the first sort, about 25% of people choose the right answer. But 65% of people get test number two right. © Copyright 2000-2005 Corante

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 7288 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By H. Allen Orr The human genome is made up of forty-six chromosomes, the rod-like structures that reside in the nucleus of every cell. These chromosomes carry all of our genes, which, in turn, are made of DNA. Two of these chromosomes, called the X and the Y, are different from the rest: they are "sex chromosomes." Men carry one X and one Y chromosome, while women carry two X chromosomes. All the obvious physical differences between the sexes ultimately spring from this humble difference in chromosomal constitution. During the last few years, real progress has been made in our understanding of the sex chromosomes and we now know much more about our X and Y than we did a mere decade ago. In 2003, for example, essentially the entire stretch of DNA carried on the human Y chromosome was decoded, revealing the number and, in many cases, identity of the genes that make up this seat of maleness. More important, owing to a breakthrough that occurred in the early Nineties, biologists now understand just how sex is decided in human beings—geneticists identified the master "switch gene" that determines whether an embryo will develop into a male or a female. These discoveries might seem surprisingly recent. In view of the confident pronouncements in the medical press about all things having to do with sex and gender (homosexuality, for example, was said to be genetically determined), you'd be forgiven for assuming that the biology of how a human being becomes a boy or a girl has long been understood. To be fair, though, there were good reasons for the slow progress. How sex is determined represents a rare problem in which the study of simpler organisms like fruit flies led biologists astray. Sex determination in human beings specifically and in mammals generally doesn't work the way it does in most of the species that geneticists like to study. Moreover, genetic studies in human beings are simply harder to perform than those in species like the fruit fly: a generation is more like two decades than two weeks, and we can't dictate who mates with whom, an ethical constraint that doesn't arise with flies. © 1963-2005 NYREV, Inc

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7287 - Posted: 06.24.2010

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (ARVO 2005 Annual Meeting) - Researchers from the University of Southern California and the Doheny Eye Institute's Doheny Retina Institute will be presenting data on the first six patients implanted with an intraocular retinal prosthesis-more popularly referred to as an artificial retina-developed and manufactured in partnership with Second Sight Medical Products, Inc., of Sylmar, Calif. According to Mark Humayun, professor of ophthalmology at the Keck School of Medicine and the lead investigator on the project, all six of the previously blind patients have been able to detect light, identify objects in their environment, and even perceive motion after implantation with the epiretinal device. Data collected as of November of 2004 showed that the six patients-who had been implanted with a single prosthesis in their "worse eye" for between 5 and 33 months-were able to "localize the position of, or count the number of, high contrast objects with 74 to 99 percent accuracy," Humayun says. In addition, they could discriminate simple shapes-i.e., figure out the spatial orientation of a bar or the capital letter L-with 61 to 80 percent accuracy. The researchers also noted that when there is no electricity running through the device, the subjects do not show any improvement in perceptual acuity, "suggesting that electrical stimulation did not improve the health or function of the retina."

Keyword: Vision; Robotics
Link ID: 7286 - Posted: 05.03.2005

There's no doubt an afternoon coffee break often gives new energy to the weary. But scientists have only recently figured out why we start to feel worn out in the first place. Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas identified a chemical change in the brains of rats that causes the transition between being awake and asleep. They say the chemistry is shared by all mammals, including people, and is triggered by prolonged neural (nerve) activity – being awake for a long period of time. The finding explains why coffee gives us a boost and may also provide more natural treatments for people fighting insomnia. The researchers focused on the "arousal centers" – the regions scattered through the brain that regulate the smooth transition from being asleep, to waking up, to falling back asleep. Without these regions, our sleep patterns might be completely erratic and we could fall asleep at any moment. The research team showed that under normal "awake" conditions these arousal centers release an excitatory chemical called glutamate. Glutamate is a neurotransmitter, a chemical that carries messages between brain cells. In the arousal centers it keeps the cells firing, so they interact and respond effectively to everyday stimuli. Through the course of the day however, these same neurons release a second neurotransmitter called adenosine. Adenosine is a natural sleep chemical that counteracts the effects glutamate and quiets the cells down, essentially making them, and us, sleepy. (C)ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 7285 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHICAGO – Switching from an antidepressant medication to psychotherapy or vice versa may improve symptoms in chronically depressed patients who prove unresponsive to their initial treatment, according to an article in the May issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "A substantial proportion of patients treated for depression do not respond to the initial trial of either an antidepressant medication or depression-targeted psychotherapy," according to background information in the article. For those resistant to treatment there are several options available, including switching medication, enhancing or combining medications, and switching to or enhancing treatment with psychotherapy. Alan F. Schatzberg, M.D., from Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, Calif., and colleagues studied chronically depressed patients who were treated with either nefazodone (an antidepressant medication) or cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) for 12 weeks. Participants in the nefazodone group received an initial does of 200 mg per day (100 mg twice daily), which increased to a maximum of 600 mg per day. Those in the CBASP group attended sessions twice weekly during the first four weeks and then once weekly until week 12. If unresponsive to either the nefazodone or CBASP, patients were switched to the other treatment.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 7284 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Although most people with depression have physical symptoms, few discuss them with their doctor, a survey shows. More than eight out of 10 will experience fatigue and nearly the same number will have difficulty sleeping, the Depression Alliance found. Yet only two-thirds will raise these issues with their doctor. Doctors urged any person who thought they might be depressed to seek help, and said treatments were available that were extremely effective. The survey of 644 people with depression revealed that patients appear to be particularly reluctant to discuss some symptoms with their doctor. For example, only 14% of those experiencing sexual dysfunction, which was nearly half of all patients, discussed this with their doctor. A large international study found that 43% of patients with depression experience general aches and pains, which is four times higher than in those who had not been diagnosed with depression. A previous survey by the Depression Alliance found even among the 33% of patients who actually discussed aches and pains with their doctor, almost half said that their doctor did not explain that they can be symptoms of depression. A spokeswoman from Depression Alliance said: "In the survey, 99% of the people we talked to listed one or more physical symptoms, and of them, 85% believed their quality of life would be remarkably improved if these symptoms could be managed. (C)BBC

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 7283 - Posted: 05.02.2005

NEW YORK, NY, – Age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the elderly, occurs when a common inherited gene variation is triggered, possibly by an infection, according to a new study led by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center and the University of Iowa, with an international research team. The gene, known as Factor H, encodes a protein that regulates immune defense against infection caused by bacteria and viruses. People who have an inherited variation in this gene are less able to control inflammation caused by these infections, which may spark age-related macular degeneration (AMD) later in life, the study finds. Published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the results suggest that targeting the molecules involved in immune system response may provide powerful new therapies for treating and preventing AMD. "We now understand the genetic variation that is behind age-related macular degeneration and are beginning to target the trigger that sets the process in motion," said Rando Allikmets, Ph.D., Acquavella Associate Professor in the department of ophthalmology and the department of pathology & cell biology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. "By targeting the molecules involved in inflammation and its regulation we believe we can begin to develop therapies and diagnostic tools that could help countless people keep their sight."

Keyword: Vision; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7282 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Andreas von Bubnoff Acupuncture has a measurable, if mysterious, effect on the brain, UK scientists have found. The study adds to evidence that patients benefit from acupuncture not simply because of their expectations. The research team used brain imaging to show that treatment with genuine needles activates brain areas beyond the ones that light up when trick needles are used. "This is the first brain-imaging study that has shown an effect beyond placebo," says George Lewith, an expert in complementary medicine at the University of Southampton who led the study. Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese treatment for illness, pain or even addiction, which uses fine needles in defined points of the body. The mechanism behind this is far from understood, and clinical trials into acupuncture have had mixed results. "It has worked in some trials, it hasn't worked in others, it's very complicated," says Ted Kaptchuk, an acupuncture researcher at Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. Many studies have suggested that the placebo effect accounts for most of the benefits seen. Part of this confusion may be thanks to the use of badly defined controls in acupuncture tests, experts say. Some studies use needles in non-acupuncture points, for example. But this may simply prove that needling is an effective treatment. ©2005 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 7281 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Low levels of social connectedness can adversely affect the body - lowering immune response and affecting heart health - highlight two new studies. One study demonstrates that first-year college students who mixed with fewer people or felt lonely had a lower immune response to influenza vaccination than their more gregarious or socially contented classmates. A second study suggests that men who are socially isolated have elevated levels of a blood marker for inflammation, which has a role in atherosclerosis. It was known that isolation has detrimental effects on heart health, but the study gives clues as to how this is mediated, says Sarah Pressman, a health psychologist a Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, US. Pressman and colleagues found small social networks and loneliness lowered the antibody response of students to the flu jab. But surprisingly, the effects were independent of one another. “Loneliness is the perception of being alone,” she explains, whereas social networks can be counted objectively as the number of people with whom a person has contact. “You can have very few friends but still not feel lonely. Alternatively, you can have many friends yet feel lonely,” says Pressman. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 7280 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Drinking alcohol boosts the growth of new nerve cells in the brain, research suggests. But while this might sound good in theory, the Swedish team believe these new cells could contribute to the development of alcohol dependence. Mice fed moderate quantities of alcohol grew extra brain cells, but also showed a preference for alcohol over water. The Karolinska Institute research appears in the International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology. Lead researcher Professor Stefan Brene said: "We believe that the increased production of new nerve cells during moderate alcohol consumption can be important for the development of alcohol addiction and other long-term effects of alcohol on the brain." Alternatively, the extra cells might help with learning and memory, he said. Another theory, according to the researchers, is that the tranquilising effect of alcohol triggers the growth. All of the new cells developed normally. A spokeswoman from the Campaign for Real Ale said: "It is well known that alcohol in moderation is good for your body so it's no surprise it's also good for your mind. (C)BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Neurogenesis
Link ID: 7279 - Posted: 04.30.2005

By Petula Dvorak, Washington Post Staff Writer District health officials prowled many of the stores in Adams Morgan yesterday that carry plantain chips, tamarindo candies and other Latino specialties in search of one particular treat that is dangerous to children. The thumb-size shakers of Lucas Limon -- a sweet-and-sour powder made in Mexico that kids love to "waterfall," or knock back whole -- were found in one store earlier this week by a congressional staff member studying dangerous food imports. The 39-cent candy -- meant to be a seasoning for fruit, ice cream or chips -- has been targeted in other cities across the United States after health officials found it contained six to seven times the maximum amount of lead a person can safely consume in one day. Gregg A. Pane, director of the D.C. Department of Health, said no packets of the treat were found yesterday by Health Department employees who visited about a dozen stores along Columbia Road NW. "Hopefully, this was an isolated find," Pane said. One mother who ran into the health workers was surprised by the news yesterday. "Lucas Limon? Yes, I buy that for my kids," said Maria Diaz, who was stopped by a health official while running her errands. © Copyright 1996-2005 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 7278 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bruce Bower Ethan refused to play with the children who attended his first-birthday party. He ignored the presents that they brought for him. When Ethan's father tried to hold him in his lap, the boy wriggled free and returned to his true passion—scanning printed material. On this special day, Ethan plopped on the floor by his father's chair and intensely perused a pile of magazines. Although Ethan couldn't read, print riveted his attention with a power that neither brand-new toys nor gooey birthday cake could approach. Ethan's romance with print blossomed with time. At age 1, he scrutinized each license plate in the supermarket parking lot. At 2 1/2, he placed letter-emblazoned blocks in alphabetic order and corrected his mother, by moving her hand, when she pointed to the wrong line of text while reading to him. However, the boy was 3 before he uttered his first spoken word. Now nearly 11 years old and attending fourth grade in a public school, Ethan reads words and spells as well as most high school seniors do, although his comprehension of written passages is only average for his age. He's also learning to read Hebrew. Ethan talks to other children awkwardly and has difficulty maintaining conversations. Scientists refer to Ethan's unusual condition, which afflicts roughly 1 in 5,000 people, as hyperlexia. Initially described in 1967, hyperlexia combines autismlike speech and social problems with a jump-start on reading. Copyright ©2005 Science Service.

Keyword: Autism; Language
Link ID: 7277 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Christen Brownlee Most people require about 8 hours of sleep a night, but some lucky oddballs function well on 4 hours or even less. A new study in fruit flies provides evidence that genetics plays a strong role in determining who can get by with little rest. A single mutation in a gene that's also found in people can reduce the insects' sleep needs by about two-thirds. Although researchers have been studying sleep for decades, they've made little progress in teasing out the genetic components that control this phenomenon. In 2000, a team discovered that the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster sleeps, much as mammals do. A sleeping fly simply sits motionless, usually for many hours a day. "We realized that if we really wanted to understand sleep, we'd have to take advantage of the powerful genetics of Drosophila," says Chiara Cirelli of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Searching for genes that affect sleep requirements, Cirelli and her colleagues rounded up more than 9,000 mutant lines of fruit flies. The researchers then observed several flies of each type to determine how long the insects sleep per day and how they behave after 24 hours of sleep deprivation. Cirelli's team eventually narrowed its focus onto one line that they named minisleep flies. Unlike normal Drosophila, which spend 9 to 15 hours sleeping each day, minisleep flies doze only 4 to 5 hours daily. Copyright ©2005 Science Service.

Keyword: Sleep; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 7276 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Nathan Seppa Putting extra copies of the gene for a cellular growth factor into the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease slows the degenerative condition, a new study suggests. Alzheimer's disease kills neurons, the brain cells that orchestrate message signaling throughout the nervous system. The gene added in this study encodes nerve growth factor (NGF), a protein that keeps these cells alive and so facilitates signaling among them. The vehicle for the human gene was the patients' own skin cells. Researchers took a bit of skin tissue from each of eight people diagnosed with early Alzheimer's disease and used a non-replicating virus to transfer genes for human NGF into the skin cells. The scientists then injected these genetically modified cells into each patient's brain. However, two of the patients were excluded from the study soon after that surgery because of bleeding in their brains. Over the next 2 years, positron-emission tomography scans of the other patients revealed increased metabolic activity in their brains, a sign of neuron rejuvenation. An autopsy on one of the excluded patients, who died of a heart attack during the study, revealed that the implanted cells were making NGF. Nearby neurons appeared healthy. Copyright ©2005 Science Service

Keyword: Alzheimers; Trophic Factors
Link ID: 7275 - Posted: 06.24.2010

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Children exposed to cocaine before birth show subtle but discernible differences in their ability to plan and problem-solve once they reach school age, University of Florida researchers report. Still, most fare far better in the first few years after birth than many experts once predicted, contradicting the notion that as a rule, cocaine-exposed infants would be born with devastating birth defects or miss major developmental milestones. "I think the early information we had was that these children might be irreversibly damaged - that they would potentially have lots of problems in school, that they might have lots of behavior problems, that they might have problems thinking and learning," said UF neonatologist Marylou Behnke, M.D. Instead, UF researchers write in the April online issue of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, prenatal cocaine exposure is linked to smaller head circumference at birth and to less optimal home environments, which in turn have direct yet mild effects on developmental outcome at 3 years of age. Those effects persist at ages 5 and 7, once more demands are placed on the children during the formal school years, according to related findings the researchers presented at the recent annual meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. © University of Florida,

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 7274 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Being overweight in middle age increases a person's risk of developing dementia, US scientists believe. Obese people in their 40s are 74% more likely to develop dementia compared to those of normal weight, a US National Institutes of Health team found. The lifetime dementia risk in those who were overweight was 35% higher, their study of more than 10,000 US men and women over three decades revealed. The findings are published online at bmj.com. The authors warned that the present epidemic of obesity might lead to a boom of dementia in the future. For the study, obesity was defined as a body mass index 30 or above and overweight as a BMI of between 25 and 29.9. A normal BMI lied anywhere between 18.6 and 24.9 and is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by the square of their height in metres. All of the participants underwent detailed health checks from 1964 to 1973 when they were aged 40 to 45 and were monitored until 1994 to see whether any had developed dementia. Overall, 713 (7%) of the participants developed dementia. BMI predicted dementia more strongly among women than men. For example, obese women were 200% more likely to have dementia than women of normal weight, while obese men had a 30% increase in risk. Both men and women with the highest skinfold measurements - another indicator of obesity - had a 60-70% greater risk of dementia compared to those with the lowest measurements. (C)BBC

Keyword: Obesity; Alzheimers
Link ID: 7273 - Posted: 04.29.2005

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers have discovered how the membrane protein that allows us to sense cold works and how this protein becomes desensitized so that one no longer feels the cold. The study, published this week as an advance online publication by Nature Neuroscience, focused on a specific region of the cold receptor which is found in many other receptors, including ones involved in taste, vision and fertilization. Therefore, the findings may have important implications across a wide range of areas. Diomedes Logothetis, PhD, Dean of the Mount Sinai Graduate School of Biological Sciences, post-doctoral fellow Tibor Rohacs and colleagues studied the receptor that is responsible for the sensation of cold. They found that a specific region of this receptor interacts with a signaling lipid in the cell membrane called PIP2. Cold or menthol stimulate this receptor and alter the electrical properties of the membrane, a process that leads to the sensation of cold. When the receptor is stimulated, calcium enters the cell and stimulates the breakdown of PIP2. When PIP2 is broken down, the receptor becomes inactive, thus ending the sensation or desensitizing the cell to the cold stimulus. "This finding provides critical information to help us understand how we sense heat and cold and from that to expand our understanding of temperature regulation," said Dr. Logothetis. "Additionally, because the region of this receptor that interacts with PIP2 is found in many similar membrane proteins, we now have a new lead in investigating regulation of the many functions in which these proteins are involved."

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 7272 - Posted: 04.29.2005

The cuckoo is a nasty bird, but you have to give it credit for cleverness. The cuckoo mother lays her egg in the nests of other bird species, and when it hatches, the baby cuckoo immediately pushes the other eggs out. From then on, the foreign newborn enjoys full-time feeding from its host parents--who are usually half its size. The European cuckoo makes begging noises many times louder than the parents' normal chicks, fooling mom and pop into thinking they've got a desperately hungry nest. And that's not the only trick. Now, two behavioral biologists at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, Japan, have found another diabolical cuckoo ploy. An Asian species, called the Horsfield's hawk-cuckoo, has bright orange patches on its wings. When the host parents arrive at the nest, the cuckoo chick opens its wings and wiggles these patches. Because the patches look like the gaping mouths of chicks, Keita Tanaka and Keisuke Ueda wondered if the parents might be fooled into thinking there are more mouths to feed. To test the idea, they kept track of how often cuckoos were fed in 24 nests, but they painted the wing patches of some of the chicks black. Having the orange patches indeed made a difference. Parents fed cuckoo chicks with black patches about 15% less often than they fed those with orange patches, the team reports 29 April in Science. The parents sometimes even tried to stuff food into the faux mouths. Copyright © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 7271 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New research shows that farmers who used agricultural insecticides experienced increased neurological symptoms, even when they were no longer using the products. Data from 18,782 North Carolina and Iowa farmers linked use of insecticides, including organophosphates and organochlorines, to reports of reoccurring headaches, fatigue, insomnia, dizziness, nausea, hand tremors, numbness and other neurological symptoms. Some of the insecticides addressed by the study are still on the market, but some, including DDT, have been banned or restricted. These findings will be available online in April, and published in the June issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. The research is part of the ongoing Agricultural Health Study funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the National Cancer Institute, two of the National Institutes of Health, and the Environmental Protection Agency. "This research is really important because it evaluated the health effects of agricultural chemicals as they were commonly used by farmers. It's different from previous studies that focused on pesticide poisoning or high dose exposures, for example when large amounts of a chemical were accidentally spilled on the skin," said Freya Kamel, Ph.D., a researcher for the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). The NIEHS researchers examined questionnaires completed by farmers on lifetime exposure to herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and fumigants, and their history of 23 neurological symptoms. Those who reported experiencing more than 10 symptoms during the year prior to completing a study questionnaire were classified as having high levels of symptoms.

Keyword: Neurotoxins
Link ID: 7270 - Posted: 04.29.2005