Parents who complain about their lazy teenagers, take note—new research is revealing that laziness could be programmed in growing teens' brains, and can lead some kids to risky behavior. James Bjork, a neuroscientist at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study the brains of 12 adolescents (ages 12-17) and 12 adults in their twenties (22-28). While being scanned, both groups played a computer game using monetary gain or loss as a motivator. Bjork reported in the Journal of Neuroscience that even though both teen and adult brains showed a high desire to win, a different area of the brain lit up much less in the teen brains. "What we found is that the parts of the brain that are in the frontal lobe, that tend to assign picture value to rewards in the environment—the enjoyment of, say, having won five bucks—[were] the same in adolescents and adults," explains Bjork, "but what was deficient in the adolescents is the circuitry at the base of the brain in a region called the ventral striatum…and that region is a motivational center. It energizes action toward a goal. And we found that that was markedly deficient in the adolescents. This is despite the fact that questionnaires after the test indicated that the adults and the adolescents were equally happy and excited about the prospect of winning five dollars. But the adolescent brains didn't show in the actual circuitry and their activation in their brain." © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6196 - Posted: 06.24.2010

For some people, learning a new language is a frustrating struggle, while for others it seems no harder than falling off a log backwards. No one knows what makes someone a whiz at picking up foreign languages. One possibility is that the brain is more efficient at temporarily storing the sounds of unfamiliar words. To test this idea, a team led by Michael Chee, a cognitive neuroscientist at Singapore General Hospital, tested the ability of 30 young adults to learn words in French, a language none spoke. All of the subjects were native English speakers, but 10 years of studying Chinese had resulted in fluency for only half. Using magnetic resonance imaging, the researchers looked for differences in blood flow to certain parts of the brain. Chee's team found a significant difference between a language juggler and a language struggler, they report in the 4 October online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Subjects who had been unable to master Chinese showed relatively greater blood flow in the brain while learning French vocabulary than did those who had become bilingual. This was particularly the case in the left insular, a part of the brain thought to handle unfamiliar words before they can be laid down in long-term memory. These subjects also showed greater activation in parts of the brain normally used during difficult mental tasks. Chee concludes that the brain is working less efficiently in one group than the other, which could explain why the same efforts in school seem to have yielded such different language abilities. It's still an open question whether these neural differences are the cause or consequence of differing language abilities, he says. Copyright © 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 6195 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHICAGO – Patients with deficit schizophrenia, a subtype of schizophrenia characterized by "negative" symptoms, such as blunted speech and expression, lack of emotional response, and apathy, are more likely to have been born in the summer months, according to an article in the October issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. According to the article, winter birth was reported to be a risk factor for schizophrenia in 1929. Clinical aspects of patients with schizophrenia born in the winter include paranoia and a more benign course of illness. Additionally, the clinical features associated with winter birth are different from patients with deficit schizophrenia, defined by the presence of negative symptoms, including inability to experience pleasure, lack of interest in socializing, speech deficits, blunted emotional response, poor eye contact, and more severe course of illness. Nondeficit schizophrenia is characterized by symptoms including hallucinations, incoherent thinking, and prominent delusions. Erick Messias, M.D., M.P.H., of The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md., and colleagues analyzed published and unpublished data from the northern hemisphere on studies of season of birth with information on schizophrenia and its subtype- deficit or nondeficit. A total of 1,594 patients were included in the nine studies examined.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 6194 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHICAGO – The use of fluoxetine (an antidepressant) or comprehensive cognitive behavioral therapy (CCBT) were similarly effective for treating social phobia, while combining these treatments did not provide further benefit, according to an article in the October issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. According to the article, as many as 14 percent of people in the United States experience social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder. Previous studies have shown that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and cognitive behavioral treatments (CBTs) have been effective in treating social phobia. Jonathan R.T. Davidson, M.D., from Duke University Medical Center at Durham, N.C., and colleagues compared the efficacy of fluoxetine, CCBT, placebo, CCBT plus fluoxetine, and CCBT plus placebo in 295 patients with generalized social phobia. Of the study participants, 156 were male and 226 (76.3 percent) were white, with an average age of 37.1 years. Treatment lasted for 14 weeks, with fluoxetine and placebo administered in 10 mg/day to 60 mg/day doses. Those receiving group CCBT attended sessions one day a week for the 14 weeks. The sessions included specific social skills training (for example, how to begin a conversation with a stranger), role playing, and cognitive restructuring.

Keyword: Depression; Emotions
Link ID: 6193 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Modern humans made direct contact with a now-extinct early human species, according to a new study of head lice. The species probably was Homo erectus, a chinless individual with a large projecting face, a prominent brow ridge, and a brain that was smaller than ours is today, the study said. The lice research, which involved both observational and DNA analysis, also provides a mini-history of human evolution from 5.5 million years ago to the present. Scientists believe the historical evidence is recorded in the genetic makeup of lice that can be found on the heads of many kids and others infected with the pesky parasites. Two related press releases issued by the University of Utah and the University of Florida explain that humans inflicted with head lice today can harbor two genetically distinct types. The first, found worldwide, evolved on our Homo sapiens ancestors. The second, only found in the Americas, evolved on another species of human that researchers believe was Homo erectus. Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 6192 - Posted: 06.24.2010

High blood pressure in otherwise healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 83 is associated with a measurable decline in cognitive function, according to a report published today by University of Maine researchers in the pre-publication online edition of the journal Hypertension. The article will appear in the October issue of the printed journal. While they characterize the decline as "relatively minor and manageable in terms of everyday functioning," the authors underscore the importance of treatment for high blood pressure. In their study, younger individuals (18-47) performed at a higher level than older individuals (48-83), but they, like older individuals, showed blood pressure-related decline in cognitive function over time. The study "breaks new ground," and "has far-reaching public health implications," according to an editorial by medical researchers in Belgium and the Netherlands published in the same issue of the journal. It extends what has been viewed as a problem of the elderly to younger people. Hypertension is published by the American Heart Association.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 6191 - Posted: 10.05.2004

Alison Abbott Our ability to smell, known as 'olfaction', is a potent yet often neglected player in our sensory world, and a surprising 3% of our genes are dedicated to fine-tuning its subtleties. The Nobel Prize committee has now honoured two scientists who have done most to determine just how we recognize and differentiate the scents of roses, wines, or of good or bad meat. Their work also helps explain how an evocative smell can take us back to a poignant time in our lives. Neuroscientists Richard Axel from Columbia University in New York and Linda Buck from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle share this year's US$1.4-million Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Exploiting state-of-the-art molecular techniques over the past two decades, they have developed a complete picture of how a scent is converted into a signal in the brain, where it is not only recognized, but remembered in association with accompanying emotions. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 6190 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rick Weiss Convinced they have sound science on their side, advocates for the medical use of marijuana plan to launch a novel effort today to get the federal government to ease restrictions on the illicit drug. Americans for Safe Access, a Berkeley, Calif., coalition of patients and doctors wanting easier access to pot for research and patient use, plans to file a petition with the Department of Health and Human Services charging the agency with spreading inaccurate information about the drug's medical value. Unlike previous efforts to ease marijuana access, which relied on the courts and have dragged on for years, the petition invokes the Data Quality Act, a little-known but powerful law that gives people the right to challenge scientific information disseminated by federal agencies. The law demands that agencies respond to petitions within two months. The act's use by marijuana advocates represents a peculiar political twist. The act was written by a tobacco industry lobbyist and slipped into a huge piece of legislation after the 2000 election without any congressional discussion or debate. It has been used almost exclusively by corporations challenging the validity of scientific information that they fear might lead to costly regulations. © 2004 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 6189 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Research Showing Men and Women Differ in More Than One Area By Amanda Onion — Men and women may really be from the same planet, but research is yielding mounting evidence that our brains are more different than we might think. From the way we record information to how we process language to the size of our brains and different regions of the brain, clear differences have emerged through animal studies and the use of technology such as brain scanning. Scientists are also trying to get at the roots of what may be behind these differences by looking at the effects of chromosomes and hormones at work in lab animals. And this is just the beginning. Jill Goldstein, a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, argues that social climates have only recently made such research acceptable. "When I was growing up, to say there were sex differences in the brain, you weren't even supposed to talk about it," said Goldstein. "I think we're living in a time now when we can look at what some of these differences are without saying they are necessarily deterministic."

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6188 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute announced this morning that the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Richard Axel, an HHMI investigator at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Linda Buck, an HHMI investigator at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. The scientists were honored for their discoveries that clarify how the olfactory system works. Axel and Buck discovered a large gene family, comprised of some 1,000 different genes (three per cent of human genes) that give rise to an equivalent number of olfactory receptor types. These receptors are located on the olfactory receptor cells, which occupy a small area in the upper part of the nasal epithelium and detect the inhaled odorant molecules. In 1991 Axel and Buck—who was then a postdoctoral fellow in Axel's lab—discovered a family of genes that encode the odorant receptors of the olfactory epithelium, a patch of cells on the wall of the nasal cavity. The olfactory epithelium contains some 5 million olfactory neurons that send messages directly to the olfactory bulb of the brain. When an odor excites a neuron, the signal travels along the nerve cell's axon and is transferred to the neurons in the olfactory bulb. This structure, located in the very front of the brain, is the clearinghouse for the sense of smell. From the olfactory bulb, odor signals are relayed to both the brain's higher cortex, which handles conscious thought processes, and to the limbic system, which generates emotional feelings. © 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 6187 - Posted: 06.24.2010

You try listening to a tape of mellow ocean sounds, wearing an aromatherapy eye mask, even the old standby, counting sheep. Nothing works. You toss and turn. Toss and turn. Toss and turn. The alarm rings and instead of feeling refreshed and ready for the day, you’re in a fog. One out of three people have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at some point in their lives, according to estimates. This condition, technically termed insomnia, may last for days, weeks, months, or years, and can take a large toll. Individuals with insomnia report symptoms that include fatigue, decreased alertness, irritability, depressed mood, impaired memory, poor concentration, and problems in their work and social life. In the past, the biological underpinnings of sleep were undefined, which hampered the development of treatments that could improve the nights and days of those with insomnia. Now, recent discoveries are lifting this roadblock. Scientists have identified several important components in the body and brain’s sleep-wake system that appear to be prime targets for drug development. This advance is leading to: A better understanding of the biology behind body rhythms and sleep. Improved treatments for troubled sleepers that unlike current medications could tap into specific internal sleep mechanisms. Today’s prescription medications for insomnia target the function of an important brain chemical, GABA, and quiet general brain activity to induce sleep. These drugs are considered safe and effective, but despite their success, they can have a downside. The medications’ widespread actions in the brain, for example, may also trigger unwanted effects, like memory problems. Copyright © 2004 Society for Neuroscience

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 6186 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Paul, Minn. – Pregnant women are at higher risk for the occurrence or worsening of restless legs syndrome (RLS), a movement disorder that affects up to 10 percent of the general population, according to a study reported in the September 28 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers in Milan, Italy, recently concluded a large and detailed epidemiological study on RLS during pregnancy and six months post-partum that demonstrates at least one in four pregnant women experience RLS. RLS is characterized by an urge to move the legs, generally accompanied by unpleasant numbness, tingling, or burning sensations; an increase in symptoms during rest and a partial, temporary relief from symptoms through activity; and a worsening of symptoms in the evening or at night. Symptoms tend to progress with age. The association between RLS and pregnancy was noted first in 1940, and confirmed later by a few epidemiological investigations. “While several attempts have been made to study the connection between pregnancy and RLS, ours is the first epidemiological study to use the four standard International RLS committee diagnostic criteria,” noted Mauro Manconi, MD, of the Sleep Disorders Center at Vita-Salute University, Milan.

Keyword: Sleep; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6185 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON — Scientists may be learning why it’s so hard to stop the cycle of violence. The answer may lie in the nervous system. There appears to be a fast, mutual, positive feedback loop between stress hormones and a brain-based aggression-control center in rats, whose neurophysiology is similar to ours. It may explain why, under stress, humans are so quick to lash out and find it hard to cool down. The findings, which could point to better ways to prevent pathological violence, appear in the October issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA). In five experiments using 53 male rats, behavioral neuroscientists from the Netherlands and Hungary studied whether stimulating the brain’s aggression mechanism raised blood levels of a stress hormone and whether higher levels of the same hormone led to the kind of aggression elicited by that mechanism. The results showed a fast-acting feedback loop; the mechanism works in both directions and raising one variable raises the other. Thus, stress and aggression may be mutually reinforcing, which could explain not only why something like the stress of traffic jams leads to road rage, but also why raging triggers an ongoing stress reaction that makes it hard to stop. In the study, the scientists electrically stimulated an aggression-related part of the rat hypothalamus, a mid-brain area associated with emotion. The rats suddenly released the stress hormone corticosterone (very like cortisol, which humans release under stress) -- even without another rat present. Normally, rats don’t respond like that unless they face an opponent or another severe stressor. © 2004 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Aggression; Stress
Link ID: 6184 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Specially-adapted scanners can be used to help physicians during brain surgery, a study shows. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanners are generally used to screen the body for diagnosing cancer. The German study in Radiology said scanning found extra tissue that needed to be removed in a quarter of cases, meaning repeated surgery was avoided. A UK expert said such scans would be beneficial - but he warned the cost of the machines could be prohibitive. There are two types of MRI scanner; low and high field. While low-field scanners - which provide lower clarity images - have been used for some operations, the adapting of high-field scanners has proved hard due to technological restraints. The first open low-field scanners were developed and used during surgery in the mid 1990s. But high-field scanners which produce better images are now available. This is the type of MRI scanner used in the German research. Their design means it is difficult for a surgeon to operate while they are being used. During the study by the team at the University Erlangen-Nurnberg, patients, aged from seven to 84, had to be manoeuvred in and out of the MRI scanner. The researchers assessed the size of the tumour by scanning the patient's brain during the operation, and then decided if their plans for the surgery needed to change. In just over a quarter of the 200 cases, the surgeons found more cancerous tissue needed to be removed. (C)BBC

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 6183 - Posted: 10.02.2004

Colleen Carroll Campbell hen Ronald Reagan slipped the surly bonds in June after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, Americans seemed to grieve his manner of dying as much as his death itself. Stories abounded about the indignities that Reagan had suffered in his last years, including his inability to recall his two-term presidency and his failure to recognize Nancy, his wife of 52 years. A decade after Reagan had announced his Alzheimer’s diagnosis in a letter to the American people, he once again brought the horrors of this progressive, degenerative brain disease into the national spotlight. From coast to coast, pundits repeated the conventional wisdom that Alzheimer’s had rendered Reagan a mere shadow of his former self. Chicago Sun-Times columnist Richard Roeper said the former president had been “alive in body, but his spirit was gone.” Boston Globe syndicated columnist Ellen Goodman said Reagan had suffered from a “disease that kills the self.” In the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Doug Grow argued that a day of celebration would have been more appropriate than a day of mourning: “[H]ow can there be tears after seeing a person lose everything from memory to dignity?” Law professor Paul Campos wrote in the Rocky Mountain News that Reagan died “a horrible and depressing death.… [W]ould it not have been better for everyone, not least of all Ronald Reagan himself, if he had died of a heart attack several years ago?” An anonymous reader writing to the Seattle Times seemed to think so. “Thinking about (Reagan) and others living ten years with the disease is appalling. If I were ever diagnosed with dementia, I’d want to investigate suicide. Does one need to move to Oregon?”

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 6182 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Matt Ridley Evolution is both a process and a narrative; a science and a history. Richard Dawkins has made himself the foremost philosopher of the process, exploring with ruthless and surprising logic how bodies can be best understood as vehicles for the propagation of genes. But until now he has left the history to others such as Stephen Jay Gould and Richard Fortey: the grand narrative of how (some) microbes became men over three billion years. Now, in this extraordinary book, Dawkins turns chronicler. He does so with a clever twist that avoids the perennial problem of evolutionary history-telling: how not to make it sound like an inevitable progression towards complexity and us. After all, bacteria and worms did not "fail" to evolve into mammals. You could argue the opposite: that they were so good at being what they were that our ancestors had to invent a different way of living. Dawkins's twist is to tell the story backwards, starting with us. If you do this, then the ancestors you meet along the way are indeed the clichés of evolutionary narrative - ape-like, monkey-like, shrew-like, lizard-like, fish-like, worm-like, blob-like. It is not the first time the story has been told backwards: we do it in the exhibition at the International Centre for Life in Newcastle, for instance. But Dawkins, ingenious as ever, has made it idiosyncratically his own by a clever conceit that he is a pilgrim, meeting the ancestors of all other living forms at the point where their lineages join ours and progressing with them towards a sort of primordial Canterbury.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 6181 - Posted: 10.02.2004

Hypnosis has been misunderstood as a nightclub stunt, a loss of control and a type of sleep, but it's been a therapeutic tool for centuries. Dr. David Spiegel, associate chair of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine describes hypnosis as a "focused state of attention." "Being hypnotized is something like looking through a telephoto lens," Spiegel explains. "What you see you see with great detail, but you're less aware of the surroundings, of the context in which you're experiencing it. So it's like getting so caught up in a good movie that you forget you're watching the movie, you enter the imagined world. That's what a hypnotic state is like. You wake up and pay attention in a highly focused way. So the parts of the brain that are involved in attention, the frontal cortex, for example, are turned on when you're hypnotized." Spiegel uses hypnosis—specifically, he teaches self-hypnosis—to help people control their pain and anxiety during certain surgical procedures. He has treated hundreds of patients undergoing medical and surgical procedures over decades, and has conducted clinical trials of hypnosis in the operating room, reporting dramatic results. "In the last five years we've begun doing randomized trials for acute surgical and medical pain," he says, "and we've got a number a studies now that show that hypnosis reduces pain, reduces anxiety, reduces the amount of medication people need, reduces complications, and makes the procedures shorter, 17 to 20 minutes per procedure." © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 6180 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers are learning whether normal neuron behavior depends on the ability to produce an essential neurotransmitter. Recent studies in living mice indicate that dopamine-producing neurons are capable of triggering nerve impulses even when they are deprived of dopamine. According to the study's senior author, Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher Richard Palmiter, at the University of Washington, Seattle, these kinds of basic questions are important to ask because dopamine-producing neurons are affected in a number of disorders, including Parkinson's disease, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette's syndrome. Their activity is also implicated in most forms of drug abuse. The results of the experiments, performed by Siobhan Robinson in Palmiter's lab, are published in the September 7, 2004, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, a specialized chemical messenger that plays a specific role in the brain. When neurons release neurotransmitters in bursts, they trigger nerve impulses in neighboring neurons. The finding that dopamine-deprived neurons continue to fire normally, including in bursts, even in the absence of dopamine suggests that neuronal inputs from other neurons play a major role in influencing the firing pattern of dopamine neurons. © 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 6179 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Adam Brimelow Women who took epilepsy medication while pregnant are suing for damages, claiming the drug harmed their children. They have foetal anti-convulsant syndrome (FACS), which can involve physical and learning difficulties. Lawyers argue the women had to choose between taking the drug, risking side effects - and not, risking seizures. Sanofi-Synthelabo, which makes the drug, said the risks associated with the drug were well-known to doctors. It says there could be a range of causes for the congenital abnormalities, not just exposure to anti epileptic drugs during pregnancy. (C)BBC

Keyword: Epilepsy; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6178 - Posted: 10.01.2004

When embryonic stem cells prove their medical merits, public support--both social and financial--will probably grow substantially, said National Institutes of Health director Elias A. Zerhouni in a panel discussion held Wednesday in Washington, D.C. by Scientific American. Comparing the state of embryonic stem cell science today to that of organ transplantation during the 1950s and '60s, Zerhouni noted that public consensus in favor of organ transplants only emerged when the "greater good" offered by the treatment had been fully demonstrated. "This is the people's dollars we're talking about," Zerhouni stated, "and that's where the rubber hits the road." Without public consensus, he explained, consensus in Congress to expand funding for embryonic stem cell science is unlikely. "California is going to test that," he added. A November 2nd California ballot initiative seeking to raise $3 billion for stem cell research in that state loomed large in the panel's discussion of the best way for science and society to proceed with regard to embryonic stem cell research. If passed, California's Proposition 71 might break an essential impasse in the debate over using embryos in research. Proponents say that without adequate funding and materials, U.S. scientists cannot fully explore the potential of embryonic cells. Critics counter that without demonstrated medical potential, the ethical risks of expanding embryo research are too great. © 1996-2004 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Stem Cells
Link ID: 6177 - Posted: 06.24.2010