By Paul Rincon, BBC News Online science staff, at the BA festival Parents of children with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) often show signs of the condition themselves, research has suggested. University of Wales at Bangor scientists said this made dealing with their child's condition more difficult. But they told the British Association Festival of Science in Exeter that sharing these symptoms did not put the child at any greater risk. Nor did it mean ADHD adults necessarily had poor parenting skills, they argued. Children with ADHD have extreme difficulty sitting still, learning or concentrating; and looking after these children can be exhausting for parents. "Parenting a child with ADHD when you have symptoms yourself must be the most difficult thing to do." However, he said his study of over 250 parents and children indicated there might be some positive aspects to sharing ADHD traits between parent and child. The research confirms that in families with shared symptoms, ADHD parents are more likely to engage in negative and undesirable parenting practices, and have a negative emotional relationship with their child. But this group of parents is also more likely to engage in affectionate and constructive parenting when dealing with their child. This includes the parent expanding on a child's play idea, without criticism, and spending more time playing together, all of which are positive parenting traits. (C) BBC

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 6096 - Posted: 09.11.2004

Researchers have discovered a critical protein that regulates the growth and activation of neural connections in the brain. The protein functions in the developing brain, where it controls the sprouting of new connections and stimulates otherwise silent connections among immature neurons, and potentially in the mature brain as well, where it may play a role in memory formation. The researchers published their discovery of the protein, called dendrite arborization and synapse maturation 1, or Dasm1, in two papers in the September 7, 2004, issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They were led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators Yuh Nung Jan and Lily Yeh Jan. The first author on both papers was Song-Hai Shi in the Jans' laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco. Dendritic spines are mushroom-shaped protuberances that extend from the surface of the cable-like axon of a neuron. Dendrites receive chemical signals that trigger nerve impulses in the form of neurotransmitters launched from neighboring neurons. Growth of new dendrites can therefore increase the connection between neurons. Changes in the strength of connections, known as long-term potentiation, allow the brain to create memories. © 2004 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6095 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Quality-control system in neurons triggers cell suicide when excessive accumulation of GM1 ganglioside in lysosomes disrupts protein folding inside endoplasmic reticulum Excess accumulation in brain cells of a fat molecule called GM1-ganglioside (GM1) disrupts the folding of newly assembled proteins into their proper shapes, triggering nerve degeneration and mental retardation in children. This finding, from investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the Sept. 10 issue of Molecular Cell. The disease, called GM1 gangliosidosis, disrupts the normal function of brain cells and causes them to self-destruct. The St. Jude discovery offers strong evidence for the cause of GM1 gangliosidosis in children. GM1 gangliosidosis is a lysosomal storage disorders, an inherited disease in which one or more enzymes in the lysosomes are defective. Lysosomes are the cell's recycling centers, where proteins, fats and other molecules are broken down into their basic building blocks, which are then reused to make new molecules. Lysosomal storage diseases occur when lysosomes lack the enzymes they need to perform their recycling tasks, leading to abnormal accumulation of the molecules the lysosome is supposed to break down. These diseases are responsible for most severe cases of nerve degeneration and mental retardation among children.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6094 - Posted: 09.10.2004

Molly Brown was left profoundly deaf after her auditory nerves were removed during treatment for a genetic illness. But late last year she became one of the first people to be given a radical new type of implant that attempts to recreate hearing by stimulating the brainstem directly. Of the five who received the implant, she has had the most success. She still finds the telephone difficult, so when she told Duncan Graham-Rowe about her strange new world they used instant messaging When did you first notice problems with your hearing? In 1982, when I was 22, I noticed I was having some difficulty talking on the phone. The sound seemed to be getting softer and more garbled. What did you do? I went to an ear doctor, who diagnosed "sinus difficulties". But it was getting worse, so after another year I switched doctors. My new doctor straightaway suspected a brain tumour. He said, "You are too young to lose that much hearing." What was the diagnosis? I had neurofibromatosis type II (NF2), although it wasn't diagnosed for certain until last October. It is a disease in which chromosome 22 basically tells your body to develop non-malignant growths or tumours on the hearing nerves, spine and sometimes elsewhere in your body. It is present at conception. You know, I almost feel better knowing that I have had this from day one and that I was not doing something "wrong". © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 6093 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Challenging decades of scientific belief that the decoding of sound originates from a preferred side of the brain, UCLA and University of Arizona scientists have demonstrated that right-left differences for the auditory processing of sound start at the ear. Reported in the Sept. 10 edition of Science, the new research could hold profound implications for rehabilitation of persons with hearing loss in one or both ears, and help doctors enhance speech and language development in hearing-impaired newborns. "From birth, the ear is structured to distinguish between various types of sounds and to send them to the optimal side in the brain for processing," explained Yvonne Sininger, Ph.D., visiting professor of head and neck surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Yet no one has looked closely at the role played by the ear in processing auditory signals." Scientists have long understood that the auditory regions of the two halves of the brain sort out sound differently. The left side dominates in deciphering speech and other rapidly changing signals, while the right side leads in processing tones and music. Because of how the brain's neural network is organized, the left half of the brain controls the right side of the body, and the left ear is more directly connected to the right side of the brain.

Keyword: Hearing; Laterality
Link ID: 6092 - Posted: 09.10.2004

A grand tradition in the study of the brain is to wait for disaster to strike. The functional map of the brain--identifying which areas underlie movement, different senses or emotions, memory, and so on--has largely been filled in by observing which functions were eliminated or changed with injuries or strokes to focal areas of the brain. In a study published September 10, 2004, in the online edition of the Annals of Neurology, scientists describe a patient who lost all dreaming, and very little else, following a stroke in one distinct region of the brain, suggesting that this area is crucial for the generation of dreams. "How dreams are generated, and what purpose they might serve, are completely open questions at this point. These results describe for the first time in detail the extent of lesion necessary to produce loss of dreaming in the absence of other neurological deficits. As such, they offer a target for further study of the localization of dreaming," said author Claudio L. Bassetti, M.D., of the Department of Neurology at the University Hospital of Zurich in Switzerland. These unique scientific observations began with an unfortunate event: a stroke suffered by a 73-year-old woman. When blood flow was disrupted to a relatively small area deep in the back part of her brain, she lost a number of brain functions.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 6091 - Posted: 09.10.2004

Michael Hopkin A brain-imaging study has shed light on why some people are more susceptible than others to hypnosis. By hinting at the brain processes involved, the analysis also suggests that hypnosis - both the stage and therapeutic varieties - does have genuine effects on the brain's workings. Those who are easily hypnotized show different activity in a brain region called the anterior cingulate gyrus, which is involved in planning our future actions, reports John Gruzelier of Imperial College London. In a hypnotic trance, the function of this region may be impaired, he says, meaning that subjects are more likely to follow a hypnotist's suggestion: "The hypnotist tells you to go with the flow, and so you don't evaluate what you're doing." This is consistent with the idea that those who are easiest to hypnotize tend to describe themselves as generally letting go of their inhibitions quite easily, Gruzelier told the British Association Festival of Science in Exeter, UK, on Thursday. Some experts have argued that hypnotism is not a real physiological phenomenon at all, but rather the result of hypnotists imposing themselves on their subjects, who may be simply swept along. Stage hypnotists are often accused of intimidating their 'volunteers' into playing along for the sake of the show. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Brain imaging; Attention
Link ID: 6090 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Christopher Shea ATTENTION, NEW PARENTS. Jerome Kagan, a professor emeritus of psychology at Harvard, has devised a fun little test for you. At 4 months old, plop your baby into a bouncy seat and present him with a series of colorful new toys - ones he's never seen - one after the other, for 20 seconds at a time. Does he cry madly and shake his arms and legs? If yes, be forewarned: Your baby may be at higher risk for "developing serious anxiety over social interactions" a decade down the road. If he screams at 4 months, he'll be more likely to stay home from junior-high dances. If he screams, he'll be more likely to answer "no" when a psychologist asks, at age 11, "Are you happy most of the time?" It won't really matter if you cuddled your child as an infant or showered him with play dates as a toddler. He'll probably never be a brash CEO or politician, although he might become a brilliant solitary researcher or a melancholy poet. On the other hand, if your baby just stares calmly at the toys, he will be calm on dates but also slightly more likely to become a delinquent, because parental threats won't faze him. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6089 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Arline Kaplan, Psychiatric Times August 2004 Vol. XXI Issue 9 Although eating disorders have been considered to be largely sociocultural in origin, findings from family, twin and molecular genetic studies conducted during the last decade are refuting that perspective, an expert in genetic epidemiology told attendees at the recent 2nd World Congress on Women's Mental Health in Washington, D.C. (Bulik et al., 2004). "Twenty years ago when I started in this field, and gave my favorite lecture on eating disorders, it was all about the role of the family and social factors in the etiology of eating disorders," said Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., William R. and Jeanne H. Jordan Distinguished Professor of Eating Disorders in the department of psychiatry and director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "Both anorexia and bulimia were very much viewed as disorders of choice. These young girls were viewed as trying to emulate some cultural ideal and diet themselves down to a certain weight. Now, any patient would have told you had you listened that wasn't what they were doing. They went far beyond any societal ideal in Cosmopolitan or any other magazine." Bulik explained that when she and colleagues started talking about genes as being involved in these disorders, "people pretty much thought we were out of our minds." However, the investigators are discovering a complex interplay between genes and the environment leading to the development of anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). © 2004 Psychiatric Times

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 6088 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Amir Raz, Ph.D., Psychiatric Times August 2004 Vol. XXI Issue 9 In the United States, approximately 2% to 6% of school-age children are diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Data show that stimulant medication is the most consistently successful form of treatment in ADHD, with psychostimulants such as dextroamphetamine (Adderall, Dexedrine) and methylphenidate (Ritalin) exerting therapeutic effects via modulation of the noradrenergic and dopaminergic systems. In the United States, methylphenidate is used to treat over 2 million children with ADHD annually. Methylphenidate acts primarily by blocking the dopamine transporter and increasing extracellular dopamine in the striatum. Despite more than 50 years of clinical and neuroscientific research, appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic interventions for ADHD are still an issue for many people, and although reports summarize the current knowledge (American Academy of Pediatrics Subcommittee on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Committee on Quality Improvement, 2001), they use parameters that are still based on the same descriptive determinations that have plagued the field for years. Stimulants are thus widely prescribed for the treatment of ADHD even though the mechanisms subserving their calming effects are not easily understood. The past two decades have ushered in a new era of methodological advances in tools for noninvasive imaging of the living brain. Brain imaging has forged an impressive link between psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience. The information gleaned from such advances has been used to study both the anatomical and functional aspects of neural processing. © 2004 Psychiatric Times.

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 6087 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Antonio Mantovani, M.D., Ph.D., and Sarah H. Lisanby, M.D. Psychiatric Times August 2004 Vol. XXI Issue 9 Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive means of stimulating focal regions of the brain using magnetic fields. Since its introduction in 1985, TMS has been used to study localization of brain functions, connectivity of brain regions and pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders. The potential uses of TMS to treat psychiatric disorders are under active study. This article reviews the state of knowledge about the therapeutic potential of TMS in psychiatry. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is an investigational medical procedure performed by placing an electromagnetic coil on the scalp (Figure). High-intensity current is rapidly turned on and off in the coil through the discharge of a capacitor. This produces a time-varying magnetic field that lasts for about 100 to 200 microseconds. The magnetic field strength is about 1.5 to 2 tesla (about the same intensity as the static magnetic field used in clinical magnetic resonance imaging) at the surface of the coil, but the strength of the magnetic field drops off exponentially with distance from the coil. The proximity of the brain to the time-varying magnetic field results in current flow in neural tissue and in membrane depolarization. Transcranial magnetic stimulation is experimental; it is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of any disorder. A striking effect of TMS occurs when one places the coil on the scalp over the primary motor cortex. A single TMS pulse of sufficient intensity causes involuntary movement in the muscle represented by that region of cortex. © 2004 Psychiatric Times.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6086 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Psychiatric Times August 2004 Vol. XXI Issue 9 It Is Reasonable To Try and Treat Depression in BD Primarily With Antidepressants by Lori Altshuler, M.D. Bipolar disorder (BD) affects approximately 1% of the population and is associated with a high morbidity and mortality (Goodwin and Jamison, 1990). Bipolar disorder is recurrent in almost all cases, and most patients will spend more time in the depressed than the manic phase of their illness over their lifetime. This is true for patients with bipolar I disorder (BD-I) as well as bipolar II disorder (BD-II) (Goodwin and Jamison, 1990; Judd et al., 2002). Suicide attempts and completed suicides are high in this population (Goodwin and Jamison, 1990). Most Patients With BD Do Not Need, or Would Not Benefit From, Antidepressants by S. Nassir Ghaemi, M.D. Voltaire is reputed to have held his contemporary medical colleagues in low regard, saying: "Doctors pour drugs of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, into human beings of whom they know nothing." There is, no doubt, a herd mentality, codified in the "standard-of-care" legal criterion, that physicians share with all of mankind. Progress in medicine depends, however, on the ability to critically examine one's assumptions and a willingness to apply standards of evidence that share at least some aspects of scientific method. © 2004 Psychiatric Times

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Depression
Link ID: 6085 - Posted: 06.24.2010

BU neurobiologists find evidence hippocampus in rat brain triggers special form of memory (Boston) -- For millennia, the process of memory and remembering has intrigued scholars and scientists. In 350 B.C., Aristotle, in his seminal treatise on the subject, described it as having two forms: familiarity and recollection. Of these, he considered recollection to be a purely human condition. That tenet is now being challenged by researchers at Boston University. Neurobiologists at Boston University's Center for Memory and Brain have provided the first evidence that rats use recollection when recognizing items they have recently experienced. In addition, the researchers show that rodents' capacity for recollection-like memory retrieval depends on the brain structure known as the hippocampus, the same structure believed to be involved in recollection in humans. Their findings are published in the September 9 issue of the journal Nature. Although neuroimaging studies of hippocampal activity in normal individuals as well as studies of amnesia indicate the hippocampus could be crucial to recollection, definitive methods for assessing hippocampal activity in memory have largely remained out of reach.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 6084 - Posted: 09.09.2004

By Anna Salleh, ABC Science Online — Next time you start imitating chimpanzees at the zoo, be aware that they know what you're doing. Australian researcher Mark Nielsen and colleagues at the University of Queensland report they have the first evidence that animals other than humans can recognize when they're being imitated. The research is published online ahead of print publication in the journal Animal Cognition. "We know that human children are able to recognize they're being imitated by around 14 months," Nielsen told ABC Science Online. "So we were interested to see if chimpanzees showed a similar ability." The researchers set up a series of videotaped experiments where one researcher, Emma Collier-Baker, imitated a friendly 31-year old male chimp called Cassie. The researchers looked for behavior normally seen in human children when they know someone is imitating them. Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 6083 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Two proteins may halt Parkinson’s disease, experiments with rats have shown, and work towards a potential human therapy has already begun. Researchers claim to have slowed the progress of Parkinson’s disease in rats by injecting two proteins into their brains. The proteins prevented the brain cell loss associated with the disease. The debilitating illness is caused by progressive brain cell death in a central part of the brain called the substantia nigra. These cells are responsible for producing the chemical dopamine, which acts on the basal ganglia - the part of the brain that controls movement. As more of these cells die, less dopamine is produced, giving rise to the characteristic movement problems associated with Parkinson’s disease. Until now, most therapies have concentrated on replenishing dopamine, but that does not stop the brain cell loss and so has had limited success. Now, working in rats, a team from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California, US, have succeeded in halting brain cell death in the vital dopamine-producing region. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 6082 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CHERYL WITTENAUER, Associated Press Writer ST. LOUIS -- Scientists say they've identified a gene that appears to be linked to both alcoholism and depression, a finding that may one day help identify those at higher risk for the diseases and guide new treatments. Previous studies of twins and adopted siblings have suggested there likely are genes in common underlying alcoholism and depression, and that the two disorders seem to run in families. But the lead researcher of the new study says this is the first report of a specific gene that seems to increase risk for both disorders. "Clinicians have observed a connection between these two disorders for years, so we are excited to have found what could be a molecular underpinning for that association," said Alison Goate, the Washington University School of Medicine researcher who led the study. Follow-up research might help reveal the underlying biology that makes some people susceptible to alcoholism, others to depression, some to both diseases, and others to neither. Goate says a variation or alteration of the CHRM2 gene influences those four separate conditions. The study is published in the September issue of the journal Human Molecular Genetics. Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Depression
Link ID: 6081 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Anyone who has looked at the aerial world during an underwater dive will have marvelled at the distortions in apparent size, shape, and position of aerial objects. In a new study, researchers have shown that archer fish can learn to cope with these strongly viewpoint-dependent distortions, and this ability enables the fish to precisely judge from any underwater viewpoint the absolute size of their aerial prey. The work is reported by Stefan Schuster, now at the University of Erlangen-Nuremburg, and colleagues at the University of Freiburg. Many animals are able to judge the absolute size of visual objects, a skill that becomes especially useful for tasks such as selecting prey. The ability to judge absolute size, however, requires that the visual system be able to perform a critical correction to account for distance between the eye and the viewed object: dramatic differences in the size of the actual retinal image occur as the distance between viewer and object changes. A situation in which this corrective requirement is especially challenging arises for animals that need to judge the size of aerial prey from an underwater vantage point. Here, as the study of Schuster and colleagues shows, the complex optical situation arising from distance and refraction requires precise understanding of the relationship between an object's apparent size and the fish's relative position to the object. In the experiments reported by the researchers, archer fish viewed a set of eight disks at various heights above the water surface from various horizontal distances and selected one of the disks as a shooting target based only on its absolute size. Although naïve fish often selected disks that would be too large to be swallowed, all could eventually learn to judge absolute size with great precision; in doing so, they perfectly accounted for the complex optical situation posed by their underwater viewpoint.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 6080 - Posted: 09.08.2004

Pushing neurons' physiological limits provides researchers with new ways to repair nerve damage (Philadelphia, PA) – Sometimes it is the extremes that point the way forward. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have induced nerve fibers – or axons – to grow at rates and lengths far exceeding what has been previously observed. To mimic extreme examples in nature and learn more about neuronal physiology, they have mechanically stretched axons at rates of eight millimeters per day, reaching lengths of up to ten centimeters without breaking. This new work has implications for spinal cord and nerve-damage therapy, since longer implantable axons are necessary for this type of repair. In the present study, the team, led by Douglas H. Smith, MD, Professor of Neurosurgery and Director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair, placed neurons from rat dorsal root ganglia (clusters of nerves just outside the spinal cord) on nutrient- filled plastic plates. Axons sprouted from the neurons on each plate and connected with neurons on the other plate. The plates were then slowly pulled apart over a series of days, aided by a precise computer-controlled motor system. "By rapid and continuous stretching, we end up with huge bundles of axons that are visible to the eye," says Smith. The axons started at an invisible 100 microns and have been stretched to 10 centimeters in less than two weeks. Smith and colleagues report their findings in the cover story of the September 8, 2004 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6079 - Posted: 06.24.2010

London, UK: International experts will (Wednesday 8 September) consider the evidence for a link between the rise in childhood leukaemia and increased light at night at an international scientific conference in London. The incidence of childhood leukaemia increased dramatically in the twentieth century. The increase has mainly affected the under five age group, in whom the risk increased by more than 50 per cent during the second half of the century alone. Although the causes of leukaemia in children are poorly understood, environmental factors are thought to play a major role in the rising incidence since changes in our genetic make up simply do not happen on this kind of timescale. If this is the case, then it may be possible to take preventative measures, but first we need to determine what these factors are. Whilst the link between leukaemia and light at night may, on the surface, seem surprising, it has a logical basis and there is considerable evidence pointing towards the association. Compared with 100 years ago we are exposed to considerable light at night (LAN) during the natural hours of darkness. LAN disrupts our natural circadian rhythm, suppressing the normal nocturnal production of the hormone melatonin.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 6078 - Posted: 09.08.2004

Helen Pilcher Ever wondered what makes parrots so good at mimicking human speech? It turns out that the feathered impressionists use their tongues to create vowel-like sounds, just as we do. In human speech, noise is produced in the larynx and can then be modified by the movement of the tongue in the mouth. This helps us to make complex vowel and consonant sounds. Until now, many researchers thought that birds produced and modified their song in the avian equivalent of the larynx, the syrinx, and that the tongue played no role at all. But parrots are known to bob their fleshy tongues back and forth when they talk, so Gabriel Beckers from Leiden University in the Netherlands and colleagues decided to see whether these movements contribute to the birds' great talent for mimicry. Their results are published in Current Biology1. The team studied five feral monk parakeets (Myiopsitta monachus), which had been caught and killed as part of a government pest control program in Florida. In each bird, they replaced the syrinx with a tiny electronic speaker and then used a hook to move the tongue around as the amplifier played bursts of sound. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 6077 - Posted: 06.24.2010