TALLAHASSEE, Fla. You might want to toss those iron-fortified vitamins, because absent a diagnosed deficiency too much of a good thing can be bad. Dietary iron imbalances either way spell trouble for healthy cells, triggering a chain of cellular events in the brain that increases the odds of developing Parkinson's disease, a degenerative condition affecting movement and balance in more than 1 million Americans each year. But excessive iron levels are worse -- much worse. The findings from a study by Florida State University scientist Cathy Levenson are described in "The Role of Dietary Iron Restrictions in a Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease" and will appear in an upcoming edition of Experimental Neurology. Levenson is an associate professor of nutrition, food and exercise sciences in FSU's College of Human Sciences and a faculty member in both the Program in Neuroscience and graduate program in molecular biophysics. "We define our work here at the cellular level," said Levenson from her laboratory at FSU's Biomedical Research Facility. "Our primary research objective is to better understand how trace metal imbalances, which are associated with neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative diseases, affect the molecular mechanisms that regulate gene expression."

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 6229 - Posted: 10.13.2004

Michael Hopkin A survey of Italian men has provided evidence that homosexuality may be partly influenced by genetics. The same genes that are proposed to predispose to homosexuality may also boost reproduction in women, solving the apparent paradox of why these genes have not been removed by natural selection. By quizzing around 200 men of different sexual orientations, researchers at the University of Padua have discovered that maternal relatives of homosexual men tend to produce more offspring than those of heterosexuals. This suggests that the mothers and maternal aunts of homosexuals have a genetic advantage - but one that reduces reproduction when passed to male offspring. "For a long time it has been a paradox," says Andrea Camperio-Ciani, who led the study. "But we have found that there might be a set of genes that, in males, influences homosexuality but in females increases fecundity." ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 6228 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A recent study published in Epilepsia, the official journal of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE), indicates that people who have uncontrolled seizures on the left side of their brains are more likely to have learning disabilities, in comparison to people who have seizures on the right side of their brains. Epilepsy, a neurological disorder associated with recurrent seizures, affects 0.5% to 1% of the population. In theU.S., about 2.5 million people have this disorder and about 9% of Americans will have at least one seizure during their lives. In the study conducted at the LSU Epilepsy Center of Excellence, adult patients of normal intelligence with either left temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) or right TLE were evaluated with reading comprehension, written language, and calculation tests. The Center researchers found that 75% of patients with left TLE had one or more learning disabilities. This was found in only 10% of those with right TLE. Additionally, those with left TLE reported higher rates of literacy and/or career development problems, such as a history of special education, repeating grades, or disrupted educational progress.

Keyword: Epilepsy; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 6227 - Posted: 10.13.2004

Flight simulators used to train pilots and astronauts can provide relief from chronic dizziness, a study shows. Researchers from Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust and Imperial College London treated 40 patients with a history of balance problems. They found twice weekly visual stimulation sessions for two months helped reduce the frequency and intensity of dizziness by up to a half. A third of people experience dizziness or vertigo at some during their lives. For many it clears up quickly but some can experience episodes of dizziness for years. Vertigo, dizziness and feelings of nausea are related to the inner ear, known as the vestibular system. The inner ear is a complex arrangement of fluid-filled chambers that acts like a mercury tilt-switch, relaying information about balance to the brain. When disrupted by a disease such as flu or a head injury the signals become confused. The team put all the patients through a the standard treatment of physiotherapy with half also completing the stimulator therapy sessions. The sessions involved using a rotating disk, spinning chair and video-based exercises, all of which are used to train pilots and astronauts. The treatment is known to strengthen the visual input to the brain, improving balance and reducing dizziness - essential to reduce motion sickness for people who fly. (C)BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 6226 - Posted: 10.12.2004

By JOHN SCHWARTZ The death of Christopher Reeve illustrated something that those who live with paralysis know all too well: the challenges go far beyond the inability to walk. "Walking is the least of it," said Donna Messinger, who is 43 and has been paralyzed since an automobile accident in her senior year of college. Mr. Reeve died of cardiac arrest on Sunday. He had previously been treated for a severe systemic infection that was, in turn, caused by a pressure wound, the medical term for a bedsore, a common complication for people who are paralyzed. Mr. Reeve was, in fact, one of the lucky ones. Though his injuries were among the most severe possible, he also had the resources to get the best treatment. "He had extraordinarily good state-of-the-art care, which is not necessarily something available to everyone who suffers a spinal cord injury," said Susan Howley, the executive vice president and director for research the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation in Springfield, N.J. Infection is perhaps the biggest enemy for people with such injuries. According to the Infectious Diseases Society of America, some form of infection is the No. 1 cause of death among patients who are paralyzed from the waist down. Mr. Reeve's own problems with pressure sores show how difficult they can be. Patients who cannot move for themselves must be shifted and turned regularly during the day and often must have 24-hour nursing care. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 6225 - Posted: 10.12.2004

By MICHAEL ERARD Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin," the three little pigs taunted the big bad wolf. When Anna Van Valin was 4 years old, she pronounced the phrase "not by the chair of my hinny hin hin" and unwittingly advanced the study of children's language when she did. Anna's talk was often observed. Her mother, Dr. Jeri Jaeger, is a linguist at the State University of New York at Buffalo who collects the speech slips that children make in order to understand how they learn language. For two decades Dr. Jaeger has collected data wherever she found available children (and willing parents): preschools, the supermarket checkout line and at home from her three children, Anna, Alice and Bobby (now 22, 20 and 18). A photo of Anna as a 6-year-old appears on the cover of Dr. Jaeger's new book, "Kids' Slips," to be published this month.. Anna's first error occurred when she was 16 months old. She rattled out the phrase, "one, two, three," but accidentally pushed "two" and "three" together, which came out something like "twee." In such an instance, Dr. Jaeger said: "Many parents get freaked out and think their child is making mistakes. But these slips of the tongue are entirely normal. In fact, they show that a child is acquiring language as they should be." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6224 - Posted: 10.12.2004

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Soap bubbles delight children and the young at heart, but they also have been objects of scientific study for centuries. Operating under the laws of physics, bubbles always try to minimize their surface area, even when many bubbles are aggregated together. Now two Northwestern University scientists have demonstrated that the tendency to minimize surface area is not limited to soap bubbles but extends to living things as well. In a paper published Oct. 7 in the journal Nature, they show that cells within the retina take on shapes and pack together like soap bubbles, ultimately forming a pattern that is repeated again and again across the eye. Gaining insight into these patterns can help researchers understand the interplay between genetics and physics in cell formation. "The cells we studied, those found in the retina of the fruit fly, adopt mathematically predictable shapes and configurations," said Richard W. Carthew, professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology and a co-author on the paper. "Like bubbles, life has co-opted a physical tendency for surfaces to be minimized and has harnessed it to design intricate cellular patterns within complex structures such as the eye." Similar to the colored dots in a Georges Seurat painting, though on a three-dimensional scale, the cell is the indivisible unit that gives shape to something larger and recognizable -- a butterfly, a maple tree, a human being. How is this amazing diversity of species created?

Keyword: Vision; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6223 - Posted: 10.12.2004

By Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News — British researchers have created an electronic tongue that could someday help keep people safe from spoiled or contaminated food, water and drugs. Designed at the University of Warwick, England, the high-tech taster is capable of detecting the four basic tastes: sour, sweet, salt and bitter. The new tongue is reported in the Sept. 29 issue of the journal Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical. "Electronic tongues are likely to find use in food and clinical labs especially for testing of bitter or obnoxious substances such as urine," said electric sensor researcher Anil Deisingh of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad & Tobago. So far, however, they are being tested on slightly less repulsive substances. "We have used it to test freshness of milk," said Marina Cole, one of the electric tongue's developers. Unlike other electronic tongues being developed, the new tongue has no taste buds. Instead of having chemical membranes to detect sweet, sour, salty or bitter chemicals, like human tastebuds, the new tongue doesn't taste at all — it hollers and listens. Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 6222 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Richard Warry Many people paralysed from the neck down in the prime of life would be tempted to give up on life. Christopher Reeve, who died on Monday, was certainly not one of them. The actor admitted that he briefly thought of suicide in the dark days following his appalling riding accident. But instead, he fought a courageous battle, not just against his own paralysis, but as a tireless campaigner for medical research to find new ways to aid others in a similar position. Reeve, in particular, was a high-profile advocate of the use of stem cells in research. These are the body's master cells with the ability to become any type of tissue. Scientists believe they will eventually be used to treat a range of medical conditions - including spinal paralysis. Their use, however, is steeped in controversy. The most effective stem cells come from embryos, and many people have serious doubts about the morality of using tissue which they argue has the ability to become another human life. In the US, this type of research is effectively banned, save for limited work on lines of cells that have already been created. Reeve played a leading role in trying to get the ban lifted. (C)BBC

Keyword: Regeneration; Stem Cells
Link ID: 6221 - Posted: 10.11.2004

A major, international Medical Research Council (MRC) trial has found that a routine treatment for patients with head injuries, widely used around the world for the last 30 years, does not improve survival rates and may do more harm than good. The results of the study are published in full in this week's edition of The Lancet. Every year millions of people world-wide are treated for serious head injury. One in five die and a substantial proportion are permanently disabled. Previous studies suggested that giving patients anti-inflammatory treatments called corticosteroids could reduce deaths by preventing the potentially lethal brain swelling that occurs after head injury. But these studies were too small to be able to provide definitive evidence of benefit. The MRC CRASH* trial was specifically designed to answer this question and with over ten thousand patients recruited from nearly 50 countries is the largest head injury trial ever conducted. The trial, co-ordinated by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Universities of Manchester, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Oxford, compared patients treated with corticosteroids with patients on a placebo treatment. They found that 21 per cent of those given the corticosteroids died within two weeks compared with 18 per cent of those on the placebo treatment.

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6220 - Posted: 10.11.2004

A significant new brain imaging study shows clear brain differences between autistic boys with language impairment and those with normal language development. The study, published October 11, 2004, in the online edition of the Annals of Neurology, found that a language center of the brain -- Broca's area -- is apparently normal in autistic boys who have normal language capabilities. By contrast, autistic boys with language problems have brain changes that match those seen in non-autistic boys who suffer from a rare disorder called Specific Language Impairment (SLI). "The variability of these brain difference measures within the study groups is probably too high to allow this to be used as a diagnostic test for individual subjects," said study leader Gordon J. Harris, Ph.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. "However, this study strongly supports viewing the deficits in language functioning of autism and SLI as disruptions in neurodevelopment and neurobiology." Although autism affects many aspects of communication and social interaction, language difficulties are among the core impairments of the disease. Researchers have noted that the set of language deficits in autism is very similar to that seen in SLI.

Keyword: Autism; Language
Link ID: 6219 - Posted: 10.11.2004

Several toxin-based products are in the running as treatments for cancer, stroke, and diabetes By Alicia Ault Combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput screening have been the rage in drug discovery since the late 1990s, but plant and animal sources still hold promise. In particular, venoms have proven to be rich areas for exploitation. Drugs derived from snakes, vampire bats, and Gila monsters are all nearing regulatory review and potentially, approval. But in September, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted against approval of AstraZeneca's Exanta, a cobra venom-derived anticoagulant. These products face the same and possibly higher hurdles as other molecules when it comes to reaching the market. One of the most successful products derived from venom was the first FDA-approved angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, captopril. John Vane, a researcher at the Royal College of Surgeons, and a Brazilian fellow in his lab discovered that a peptide in Brazilian viper venom blocked the formation of angiotensin II. That drug went on to become Bristol-Myers Squibb's captopril, which was approved in 1981. In 2002, worldwide sales of ACE inhibitors totaled $7.8 billion (US). A more recent success is Integrilin, an antiplatelet drug approved in 1998 to treat acute coronary syndrome. Integrilin binds to glycoprotein IIb/IIIa, inhibiting platelet aggregation. It is a synthetic analog of barbourin, which is found in the venom of the Southeastern pygmy rattlesnake. The drug was developed by San Francisco-based COR Therapeutics, which merged with Millennium Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass. COR screened venoms from 62 snakes to find the right compound, according to COR executive Robert Scarborough.1 The drug is sold by Millennium and Schering-Plough. © 2004, The Scientist LLC,

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 6218 - Posted: 06.24.2010

One in four people caring for relatives with schizophrenia say they have been given no information to help them over the last three years, a survey finds. Rethink, which supports people with schizophrenia, found 27% of the 1,500 questioned felt they had been denied access to help. It has joined up with 17 other mental health groups in Europe in a bid to improve the information available. The network has published a handbook to help both patients and relatives. The group, which will be known as the International Network for Mental Health Education (INFORMED), is publishing 100,000 copies of the handbook. Schizophrenia affects an estimated one in 100 people across Europe. It is a serious brain disorder, characterized by symptoms that make it difficult for a person to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, and to organise their thoughts. The survey found carers wanted to know more about medication, specific mental health problems, new treatments, local service provision and coping strategies. Patients said the information currently available was either found in leaflets which did not provide sufficient depth of information, particularly for people newly diagnosed, or on the Internet and in textbooks which could be much too detailed. (C)BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 6217 - Posted: 10.09.2004

The questions, "Why do we dream?" or "What is the function of dreaming?" are easy to ask but very difficult to answer. The most honest answer is that we do not yet know the function or functions of dreaming. This ignorance should not be surprising because despite many theories we still do not fully understand the purpose of sleep, nor do we know the functions of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, which is when most dreaming occurs. And these two biological states are much easier to study scientifically than the somewhat elusive phenomenon of dreaming. Some scientists take the position that dreaming probably has no function. They feel that sleep, and within it REM sleep, have biological functions (though these are not totally established) and that dreaming is simply an epiphenomenon that is the mental activity that occurs during REM sleep. I do not believe this is the most fruitful approach to the study of dreaming. Would we be satisfied with the view that thinking has no function and is simply an epiphenomenon--the kind of mental activity that occurs when the brain is in the waking state? Therefore I will try to explain a current view of dreaming and its possible functions, developed by myself and many collaborators, which we call the Contemporary Theory of Dreaming. The basic idea is as follows: activation patterns are shifting and connections are being made and unmade constantly in our brains, forming the physical basis for our minds. There is a whole continuum in the making of connections that we subsequently experience as mental functioning. At one end of the continuum is focused waking activity, such as when we are doing an arithmetic problem or chasing down a fly ball in the outfield. Here our mental functioning is focused, linear and well-bounded. When we move from focused waking to looser waking thought--reverie, daydreaming and finally dreaming--mental activity becomes less focused, looser, more global and more imagistic. Dreaming is the far end of this continuum: the state in which we make connections most loosely. © 1996-2004 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 6216 - Posted: 06.24.2010

There’s an old myth that we only use 10 percent of our brains, but researchers at the University of Rochester have found in reality that roughly 80 percent of our cognitive power may be cranking away on tasks completely unknown to us. Curiously, this clandestine activity does not exist in the youngest brains, leading scientists to believe that the mysterious goings-on that absorb the majority of our minds are dedicated to subconsciously reprocessing our initial thoughts and experiences. The research, which has possible profound implications for our very basis of understanding reality, appears in this week’s issue of the journal Nature. “We found neural activity that frankly surprised us,” says Michael Weliky, associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. “Adult ferrets had neural patterns in their visual cortex that correlated very well with images they viewed, but that correlation didn’t exist at all in very young ferrets, suggesting the very basis of comprehending vision may be a very different task for young brains versus old brains.” A second surprise was in store for Weliky. Placing the ferrets in a darkened room revealed that older ferrets’ brains were still humming along at 80 percent as if they were processing visual information. Since this activity was absent in the youngsters, Weliky and his colleagues were left to wonder: What is the visual cortex so busy processing when there’s no image to process?

Keyword: Vision; Brain imaging
Link ID: 6215 - Posted: 06.24.2010

From muscle strength to immunity, scientists find new vitamin D benefits Janet Raloff The story of vitamin D would appear simple. Take in enough sun or drink enough fortified milk to get the recommended daily amount, and you'll have strong bones. Take a supplement, if you want insurance. But recent studies from around the world have revealed that the sunshine vitamin's role in health is far more complex. More than just protecting bone, vitamin D is proving to preserve muscle strength and to give people some protection against deadly diseases including multiple sclerosis (MS), diabetes, and even cancer. What's now clear is that vitamin D is a potent force in regulating cell growth, immunity, and energy metabolism, observes David Feldman of Stanford University School of Medicine. He's the editor of a new 1,300-page compilation of research findings from more than 100 labs working on this substance (2004, Vitamin D, Academic Press). Not only is the vitamin gaining increasing respect as a governor of health, he notes, but it's also serving as the model for drugs that might tame a range of recalcitrant diseases. Ironically, observes bone-metabolism specialist Robert P. Heaney of Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Neb., vitamin D is a misnomer. "A vitamin is an essential food constituent that the body can't make," he explains, but people have the capacity, right in their skin, to produce all the vitamin D they need from a cholesterol-like precursor. Copyright ©2004 Science Service.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6214 - Posted: 06.24.2010

It swallows, breathes, salivates and knocks back fizzy drinks like there is no tomorrow. It is the latest weapon in food chemistry: the artificial throat. Developing the flavour of a new sports or low-carbohydrate drink is a lengthy task, involving many tests by panels of human tasters. The artificial throat was developed to spare drinks makers the expense and hassle involved in organising and analysing hundreds of tests by helping to predict how a drink will taste. It works by mimicking the process of human tasting. Taste is mostly smell. The tongue’s taste receptors identify only the basic flavours: sweet, sour, salt, bitter and umami. The finer distinctions are made high in the nasal passages where flavours such as orange, cherry and chocolate are sensed. Most of the information used to sense these more subtle flavours comes from the very first puff of air we exhale after swallowing. That breath picks up molecules from the drink or food and carries them up the nasal passages. This information is especially important with drinks, because they spend so little time in the mouth before heading down the hatch. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 6213 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Men and women with mental disorders have higher odds of being diagnosed with brain tumors and lung cancer and they develop these cancers at younger ages than individuals without mental illness according to a study published in the current issue of Psychosomatic Medicine. "This work is a piece in the larger puzzle of understanding the relationships between mental and physical health," said Caroline Carney, M.D., M.Sc., associate professor of psychiatry and medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. Dr. Carney is the first author of the study which looked at insurance claims data from over seven hundred thousand adults between the ages of 18 and 64 living in Iowa and South Dakota. "It is known that people with mental illness smoke more than the general population, so the higher incidence of lung cancer was not surprising. The association between mental health problems and brain tumors, was less expected but is explained by the likelihood that brain tumors cause mental symptoms prior to other symptoms like neurological symptoms. Our data showed the new diagnosis of mental symptoms up to one year prior to brain tumor diagnosis," said Dr. Carney who is both a psychiatrist and an internist.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Stress
Link ID: 6212 - Posted: 10.09.2004

Hidden cameras in the Congo rainforest have captured the closest look yet at tool use by chimps in the wild, finding that the wily primates use different types of sticks depending on the termite colony they're trying to pillage. While scientists know chimps use sticks to "fish" for termites, the knowledge is based only on indirect evidence and fleeting field observations. Now David Morgan of the Wildlife Conservation Society and Crickette Sanz, a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, have obtained an abundance of direct evidence after planting motion-sensing video cameras near termite mounds and nests in a remote area of the Congo Basin called the Goualougo Triangle, which is home to thousands of chimps that have never had any dealings with humans. Over 6 months they filmed 121 chimps that repeatedly visited six termite nests. In a report published in the November issue of the American Naturalist, the authors describe what they say are "some of the most complex tool kits and techniques that have been observed in wild chimpanzees." The chimpanzees regularly visit two kinds of termite nests and use two different sets of tools to extract their prey. For mounds, the chimps first punch into the nest with a small, short stick. Then they switch to a "fishing probe" that the termites crawl onto. For underground nests, the chimps use a longer "puncturing stick" to get to the nest and follow up with their probes. The videos show them nimbly switching back and forth between the two tools. They can also be seen placing a foot on the stick to push it into the ground like a shovel. In one video, a female chimp pulls a stick through her teeth, shredding the end to make it like a brush, which picks up more termites. Copyright © 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 6211 - Posted: 06.24.2010

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – A research team based at Brown University has created a theoretical model that may shed light on a brain science mystery: What happens to cells when humans learn and remember? Luk Chong Yeung, a neuroscience research associate, and her colleagues have come up with a concept that hinges on calcium control. Certain receptors, which act like gates, allow calcium to rush into brain cells that receive memory-making information. Once inside these cells, calcium sets off chemical reactions that change the connections between neurons, or synapses. That malleability, known as synaptic plasticity, is believed to be the fundamental basis of memory, learning and brain development. The Brown team showed that the control of these receptors not only makes synapses stronger or weaker, but also stabilizes them - without interfering with the richness of the cellular response to signals sent from neighboring cells. Their model appears in the current online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "The beauty of the brain is that it is plastic and robust at the same time," Luk Chong said. "If the model is verified experimentally, we've solved an important piece of the puzzle of how these seemingly antagonistic properties can and, in fact must, coexist in the cell."

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 6210 - Posted: 06.24.2010