PORTLAND, Ore. – For years, doctors have suggested the best treatment for multiple sclerosis is pregnancy. Now, an Oregon study is delivering solid evidence to support the theory. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University and the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center have uncovered the mechanism by which estrogen, produced in high volumes during pregnancy, boosts the expression and number of regulatory cells that are key to fighting MS and other autoimmune diseases, such as arthritis and diabetes. The study, published in the "Cutting Edge" section of the current issue of The Journal of Immunology, shows the hormone augments a compartment containing T cells known as CD4+CD25+, and a regulatory protein called FoxP3. The cells are important for protecting mice against a model for human MS called experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Autoimmune disease has been associated with a deficiency of FoxP3, whose expression is a reliable indicator of the regulatory T cells' function and development. "This is the first report that this single, benign compound – estrogen – can increase regulatory cells," said study co-author Halina Offner, Ph.D., professor of neurology, and anesthesiology and peri-operative medicine, OHSU School of Medicine and the Portland VA Medical Center. "When you remove (the CD4+CD25+ cells), animals get autoimmune disease. They're very important to maintaining a healthy state."

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6036 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Mark Peplow Neuroscientists have created a computer game based on table tennis that people can play using nothing more than the power of their minds. It is hoped that the technology will one day train people to generate neural signals that could control a wheelchair or communication device. Each 'brain pong' player lies in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, usually reserved for medical brain scans. After a short period of training, the players are able to make their ping-pong bat move up and down the screen by concentrating on specific thoughts. Sophisticated data analysis software makes the system responsive enough for two players to compete in real time. "It's exciting that for the first time we have two subjects whose brains are interacting like this," says Rainer Goebel, a neuroscientist at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, who described the work on 27 August at the EuroScience Open Forum in Stockholm, Sweden. Other researchers have shown that it is possible to control cursors on a computer screen by detecting electrical signals from the brain. But this is the first two-player game that exploits brain activity. The improved sensitivity of fMRI also makes it much easier to learn to control the bat, says Goebel. ©2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 6035 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Does estrogen help cognition? Many women ponder that question as a quality-of-life issue while deciding on estrogen therapy since it has been linked to potential disease complications. Now, a new study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suggests that the stress of any given task at least partially determines if hormones will help the mind. Reporting in the August issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, four researchers show the introduction of a single stressor -- water temperature -- into a water maze prompted opposite responses among female rats with either high or low levels of estrogen and progesterone. "Water temperature totally reversed who did better," said Janice M. Juraska, a professor of psychology and of neuroscience. "Proestrous rats, which have high hormone levels, did better when the water was warm, presumably because they were less stressed. Estrous rats did better when the water was cold, presumably because they are not as prone to get stressed during this time." Proestrous rats are fertile and ready to mate, while estrous rats have low hormone levels and won't mate. For the study -- funded by a grant to Juraska from the National Science Foundation -- 44 female rats were divided into four groups. The two groups of rats in proestrus and the two groups in estrus had to learn the route and swim to a submerged platform in either warm (91 degrees Fahrenheit; 33 Celsius) or cold water (66.2 degrees Fahrenheit; 19 Celsius).

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6034 - Posted: 08.28.2004

People genuinely enjoy telling others off if they have done something wrong, according to scientists. Researchers from the University of Zurich in Switzerland tested seven pairs of men as they played a game. The game involved money changing hands. If one player failed to play fairly, he tended to be punished by the other. Writing in Science, the researchers said telling someone off activated a part of the brain which is linked to enjoyment and satisfaction. The researchers said it might explain why many people choose to reprimand others if they break the rules or abuse their trust. The men playing the game were unable to see each other. They were each given 10 units of money and told they could increase their winnings if they trusted each other. The first player was given the option of keeping all his money or giving it to his opponent. If he kept his money, he did not make anything extra. But if he gave it all to his opponent, the opponent's winnings would quadruple. The second player would then be asked whether he wanted to keep the money or share it with his opponent. If he failed to share it, the first player would be asked whether or not his opponent should be punished. They were given one minute to make their decision. In six out of the seven cases, they chose to reprimand them. During the time it took them to make their decision, scientists monitored their brain. (C)BBC

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 6033 - Posted: 08.27.2004

By GARDINER HARRIS In a settlement that the New York attorney general said would transform the drug industry, GlaxoSmithKline agreed yesterday to post on its Web site the results of all clinical trials involving its drugs. "This settlement is transformational in that it will provide doctors and patients access to the clinical testing data necessary to make informed judgments," the attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, said. While the case involves only GlaxoSmithKline, the British drug maker, Mr. Spitzer predicted that other companies would follow its lead by posting the results of their studies online. Eli Lilly, for example, has said it would create a Web site on which it would list the results of clinical tests of approved drugs. Other companies, including Johnson & Johnson and Merck, have said they support the concept of a public database that would list trial results. Mr. Spitzer filed suit in June against GlaxoSmithKline, contending that it committed fraud by publicizing the results of only one of five trials studying the effect of its antidepressant, Paxil, in children. That single study showed mixed results. The others not only failed to show any benefit for the drug in children but demonstrated that children taking Paxil were more likely to become suicidal than those taking a placebo. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 6032 - Posted: 08.27.2004

Two books on the (big) business of the pharmaceutical industry. Reviewed By Shannon Brownlee Every author should be so lucky. While Jerome Kassirer and Marcia Angell were holed up in their offices, typing away, Congress launched an investigation into financial entanglements between industry and the National Institutes of Health. Then Pfizer was hit with nearly half a billion dollars in fines for paying doctors to hype its anti-seizure drug Neurontin for unapproved—and largely unproven—uses. Now, New York state attorney general Eliot Spitzer has accused another drug giant, GlaxoSmithKline, of burying evidence that the antidepressant Paxil can trigger suicide. It's great news for Angell's and Kassirer's book sales, bad news for the rest of us. These stories about the unholy alliance between the pharmaceutical industry, researchers, and doctors may have seemed, to the casual observer, like nothing more than isolated blips. Sad to say—as these surprisingly bare-knuckled books by the last two editors-in-chief at the New England Journal of Medicine make clear—such accounts provide a mere glimpse of the corruption of medical science. In the last two decades, the drug and biotech industries have gained unprecedented leverage over what doctors and patients know—and don't know—about the $200 billion worth of prescription pharmaceuticals consumed by Americans each year. Industry has gained that leverage by funding and, increasingly, controlling medical research. It has also used its deep pockets to effectively buy the loyalty of physicians in private practice and to sway the opinion of thought-leaders in academia. Grasp the full scope of industry influence over medical science and practice, and it's enough to make anybody think twice before filling a prescription. © 2004 The Foundation for National Progress

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6031 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A bad night's sleep for a child could mean more, in the long run, than just a cranky kid. As this ScienCentral news video reports, new research suggests that childhood sleep troubles may be a potential marker for alcohol, cigarette and drug problems later in life. Even as first-time parents, Suzanne Hill and Ralph Scibelli knew that babies often wake up during the night, but after the a year or so their son Ethan was only sleeping a few hours at a time, waking up throughout each night. "Ethan did not like to sleep," Scibelli recalls. They tried feeding him more, walking him around their Manhattan neighborhood, playing soothing music and even resorted to letting him cry in hope that he would tire himself out. Nothing worked. "We tried everything." Hill says. "Three and a half, four hours would be the maximum that he would sleep. We just said, 'Ok, well if this is the way he is...'" Fortunately, Ethan outgrew his restless nights. But what if he hadn't? © ScienCentral, 2000- 2004.

Keyword: Sleep; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 6030 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Columbia University Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers have identified a possible cause of an inherited form of Parkinson's disease, which may be related to more common forms of the disease. The findings are reported in the August 27, 2004 issue of Science. While the cause of most cases of Parkinson's disease is unknown, a few cases are inherited and can be traced to mutations in four different genes, including the alpha-synuclein gene. This is the first study that may pinpoint the mechanism by which the mutant gene initiates a cascade of events that causes this devastating neurological disease. "This discovery could aid in the development of new, targeted treatments to slow or stop the disease progression," said David Sulzer, Ph.D., professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and senior author of the study. "This is an extension of the genetic research that discovered the mutant alpha-synuclein gene and it is exciting to see how this information can be used to possibly determine the cause of Parkinson's disease."

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 6029 - Posted: 08.27.2004

Mice “rewired” to receive visual cues in the hearing region of their brains learned to respond to a fear-inducing flashing light as if they had heard it instead of seen it, researchers from MIT’s Picower Center for Learning and Memory report in the Aug. 22 online issue of Nature Neuroscience. This research shows that even the adult brain is far more plastic, or adaptable, than previously believed. If extended to humans, this may mean that in the future, individuals with brain damage from aging, disease or injury may be able to have stimuli from the outside world routed in new ways to major brain structures—even those responsible for emotional responses and learning. This work also sheds light on how emotional responses are learned, illustrating the ability of widely different external stimuli to elicit a common emotion such as fear. The research is the result of a collaboration between the laboratories of Mriganka Sur, the Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience and head of the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Susumu Tonegawa, director of the Picower Center and professor of biology.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Emotions
Link ID: 6028 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In an effort that may someday lead to the treatment of hearing loss and balance disorders, which currently affect about 28 million Americans, Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) visiting investigators Jeffrey Corwin and Stefan Heller are working this summer to make large numbers of mouse stem cells "grow" into inner ear sensory hair cells-acoustic receptors that are a critical part of the auditory system. The work is important because, in humans, inner ear sensory hair cells are a precious commodity. Humans are born with only about sixteen thousand of these sound detectors in each ear, which can be easily damaged by age, certain illnesses, exposure to loud sounds, and some medications. Once damaged, the cells do not easily grow back. And with the cell loss comes so-called irreversible hearing loss. The two scientists are collaborating to develop new methods to expand and maintain adult stem cells isolated from the mouse inner ear to establish long-term stable cell lines. This is the first step toward the ultimate goal of creating implantable human hair cells that will grow happily; eventually repairing damaged hearing and restoring balance. © 2004 by The Marine Biological LaboratoryTM

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 6027 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Many men dream of having a larger member, and penis envy is at the root of much popular psychology - witness all those unwanted e-mails. But the idea of having a penis so large that it is an encumbrance is horrific. Penis length in humans generally varies from 10-20cm (erect), but there is a tribe in Africa in which the male member is much longer, and its owners tie it into a loose knot while walking. But for these people, it is big, but not quite an encumbrance. Among animals, penises show a startling variation in both size, shape and number. Some flatworms have dozens of penises - essential because, in the competition over mates (which is complex because they are all hermaphrodites), individuals bite off each others' penises at every opportunity. The record for size must go to another hermaphroditic beast, the Corsican slug, whose fully extended member is 60cm long, four times longer than its body. The human equivalent would be an 8m-long penis. Penises are important. Not just because they bring us joy and make us laugh, but because they provide a beautiful example of evolution in action. Competition between males to sire offspring results in the rapid evolution of animal genitalia - both male and female, since they tend to co-evolve. Male genitalia are more obvious because they are often on show, and the diversity in penis design is so remarkable that biologists can often discriminate between otherwise indistinguishable species on this characteristic alone. © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6026 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Physical symptoms are nearly as common as emotional ones in patients suffering from depression, according to Indiana University School of Medicine research published in the August issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. Patients with depression frequently talk to their physicians about symptoms such as headache, back or muscle pain, stomach ache and dizziness instead of symptoms more commonly associated with depression such as fatigue, lack of motivation and moodiness, says Kurt Kroenke, M.D., professor of medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at IU and a research scientist at the Regenstrief Institute, Inc. "Depression is a risk factor for symptoms of pain," he said. "The most reports of pain – such as muscle pain, headaches, leg pain – are two or three times more common in people with depression." Physical symptoms also may serve as a barometer for physicians to gauge the effectiveness of common antidepressant treatments, he said. "Physical symptoms may not respond to common antidepressant treatment as much as the emotional symptoms," says Dr. Kroenke. "Even though the physical symptoms may be related to or aggravated by the depression, they can linger longer than the emotional symptoms."

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6025 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Normally, a network of nerve fibers effortlessly sends messages between the brain, spinal cord, and the rest of the body. Not so in multiple sclerosis (MS). The immune system, an internal defense team designed to attack foreign invaders like germs, is thought to mistakenly attack the message system and damage myelin, a substance that insulates nerve fibers and speeds up message conduction. Communications start to resemble an erratic cell phone call that fades in and out. Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? Underlying fibers may also suffer damage, severing communication lines. Click, the phone call goes dead. As more and more messages fail to transmit properly, people with MS face an array of problems, including blurred vision, poor coordination, impaired balance, numbness, and fatigue. Some 400,000 Americans are affected. Treatment strategies generally have aimed at blocking future immune attacks to help prevent additional harm. Now scientists have made headway in fighting the disease from another angle. One line of study indicates that cell transplants hold promise in repairing the existing damage so that communication lines can get back up and running. This research is leading to: Copyright © 2004 Society for Neuroscience

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 6024 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Like workaholic employees, worker bees, ants, and wasps give up families of their own for the good of the hive. But every company has its cheats, and some workers try to sneak eggs of their own into the queen's brood. That chutzpah puts their peers in a tizzy, and researchers have long thought that the outrage stemmed from blood loyalty to the queen. A new study, however, casts doubt on that theory. In many species of social insects, workers try to lay eggs on the side, says evolutionary biologist Laurent Keller of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. The unfertilized eggs develop into males, which can then abandon the colony and find a queen of their own. Usually, a police force of other workers cracks down on these freeloading co-workers by killing them or eating their illegal eggs. Accepted wisdom among sociobiologists has always been that such policing happens because workers are more related (and hence more loyal) to their queen's offspring than to other workers' sons. To test this hypothesis, Keller and his colleague Robert Hammond combed the scientific literature for data on 50 species of ants, wasps, and bees. For each, they recorded the proportion of working-class males in the royal brood and the average number of males a queen mates with. When queens have many consorts, workers are less related to the bastard sons of other workers (their half-nephews) than when the queen mates just once. (In that case, the workers are full sisters, and their sons are full nephews.) So policing ought to be especially evident in species in which the queen is a swinger. But, as the researchers report in next week's Public Library of Science, Biology, they found no such relationship: The numbers of males produced by workers was independent of the colony's family ties. Keller thinks the real reason behind policing may be that egg-laying workers are slacking off on their regular chores, to the colony's detriment. Evolutionary biologist Heike Feldhaar, who studies ants at the University of Würzburg, Germany, says the new study is interesting because it highlights the growing awareness that factors other than just relatedness are important in the lifestyle of social insects. --MENNO SCHILTHUIZEN Copyright © 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 6023 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Growing up in a chaotic home could be bad for a child's developing mind. An association between disorganised, noisy and cramped homes and lower childhood intelligence has been observed before. But whether socio-economic status (SES), genetics or the environment itself is the cause has never been clear. So Stephen Petrill at Pennsylvania State University and his colleagues turned to a database of twins born in the UK between 1994 and 1996. By noting differences between genetically identical twins, and fraternal twins, who share only half their genes, the researchers hoped to tease apart the influence of genes and environment. The team collected information about nearly 8000 3- and 4-year-old twins, on SES, household chaos and cognitive ability, which they measured with quizzes and vocabulary and grammar tests. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Intelligence
Link ID: 6022 - Posted: 06.24.2010

- Hormone-fueled songbirds are steadily forcing out a rival species in North America's Northwestern fir forests and threatening the more timid warblers with extinction, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday. They said high levels of testosterone may explain the aggressiveness of the Townsend's warbler, which has been steadily displacing its more timid sister species, the hermit warbler, for thousands of years. "The hermits have slowly been pushed out of Alaska and British Columbia, and now they are being pushed out of Washington," said Luke Butler, a biologist at the University of Washington. "They are running out of places to go." The Townsend's warbler outshines the smaller, less-flashy hermit warbler on several levels. It has dramatic yellow and black streaks, compared to the darker, less striking plumage of the related hermit warbler. Tests showed the Townsend's males have higher levels of male hormones, notably testosterone. © Reuters 2004. All rights reserved. © 2004 Microsoft Corporation.

Keyword: Aggression; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 6021 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sandi Doughton, Seattle Times staff reporter The woman treated at Harborview Medical Center this summer for a mysterious brain ailment related to mad-cow disease has died. An autopsy was performed, and should help national experts in their quest to identify the disease, said epidemiologist Dr. Jo Hofmann, of the Washington Department of Health. "There will be brain tissue obtained from multiple parts of the brain, that will definitely provide more information," Hofmann said. The tissue will be sent to the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. The woman, who Hofmann said was under the age of 60, was not a resident of Washington and did not die here. The woman has not been identified to protect her family's privacy. She was treated at Harborview, where doctors performed a brain biopsy, collecting a tiny sample of brain tissue they hoped would help them diagnose the baffling illness, characterized by dementia.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 6020 - Posted: 08.26.2004

By BENEDICT CAREY Debates about the safety and effectiveness of treatments for depression miss a basic reality about the disease: most people affected by it do not seek help at all, and those who do commonly neglect to complete counseling or drug regimens recommended by doctors. For at least a third of the people who try them, treatments of any kind fall short, surveys show. But improving success rates may be a matter of picking up the phone, according to a report today in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In a large-scale, 18-month study, doctors in Seattle found that they could significantly increase recovery rates for patients taking antidepressants by providing several 30- to 40-minute counseling sessions over the phone. In previous studies, researchers showed that phone calls from nurses or other clinic staff members providing emotional support could help people trying to quit smoking, stay on medication or shake low moods. The Seattle study is the first to test the effect of a standardized form of counseling, cognitive behavior therapy, delivered entirely over the phone. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 6019 - Posted: 08.25.2004

By HENRY FOUNTAIN People yawn because they're tired, bored or nervous, but sometimes they yawn just because they've seen someone else do it. This behavior, contagious yawning, has now been documented for the first time in another species, chimpanzees. Dr. James Anderson of the University of Stirling in Scotland and colleagues in Japan demonstrated that a third of adult chimps exposed to videos of yawning chimps will yawn themselves. While no one knows precisely why people yawn contagiously, recent research suggests that the roughly 50 percent of adults who show the trait are more empathetic and score higher on self-recognition tests. Dr. Anderson said there is evidence that chimps demonstrate empathy, too. "And I knew that chimps showed self-recognition in a mirror or a photograph," he added. "So if they showed self-recognition, they were likely to show contagious yawning." In the study, six female chimps at the Kyoto University Primate Research Institute watched the videotapes while in an experimental cubicle. All the chimps yawned somewhat, which was not unexpected, Dr. Anderson said. "Usually when they go into this experimental setup they are asked to do a cognitive task," he said. "Here they were asked to do nothing, so they may have been bored. But in two of the adult chimps, there was just an overwhelming increase in the frequency of yawning." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 6018 - Posted: 08.25.2004

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Researchers in Italy have observed significant reductions of gray matter volume in areas of the brain associated with language processing among people with a family history of dyslexia in comparison with controls with no reading problems. Published in the August 24 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology, the study also lends support to previous studies suggesting intensive reading therapy activates areas of the brain necessary for word de-coding. The study of 10 people with familial dyslexia and 11 controls was the first to employ an advanced testing method – voxel-based morphometry (VBM) – which allows more in-depth detection and measurement of gray-white tissue volume and density differences than other testing tools, including magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI. The brain is made up of gray matter, where the brain cells reside, and white matter, where the nerve tracts that allow connections between different parts of the brain and spinal cord reside. The study also was the first to account for variabilities in whole brain volume, age of the subjects and differences in brain shape. Each of the subjects with dyslexia had at least one close relative with either clinically evident dyslexia or a long history of reading problems.

Keyword: Dyslexia
Link ID: 6017 - Posted: 06.24.2010