Researchers have discovered that some monkeys process the sounds of other monkeys in their brains much like the way people process language. As this ScienCentral News video reports, it's a discovery that may lead to a better understanding of how people acquired the ability to communicate. We've all seen primates when they are monkeying around. But how much actual communicating is going on? "[Monkeys] do communicate vocally," says John Roden, Curator of Animals at the Central Park Zoo. "They definitely have different vocalizations that they'll do, that I would say have a communicative role in their interactions. If they are startled, they might make a loud vocalization that would alert the group that there's potential danger around. They have smaller vocalizations, if they find a food source or something like that, that they might want to share with others. It's not necessarily as complex, obviously, as human vocalization, but it certainly does convey information." © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Keyword: Animal Communication; Language
Link ID: 5078 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — For the first time, scientists have identified a chemical that turns males off sex. While the chemical, methyl salicylate, is only known to work on a certain species of butterfly, researchers said a similar phenomenon may occur among humans and other animals and insects. Researchers discovered the anti-aphrodisiac while studying the green-veined white butterfly, Pieris napi. Instead of giving a female partner an engagement ring to signify that she is spoken for, male butterflies of this species give their mates a dose of methyl salicylate in their sperm. The smell of the chemical puts other males off. They move to females that are stink-free and available. Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5077 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Ten of the original 13 authors of a controversial 1998 medical report which implied a link between autism and the combined MMR vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella, have retracted the paper's interpretations. The retraction will be printed in the 6 March issue of The Lancet, which published the original paper. One author could not be reached and two others, Peter Harvey and lead author Andrew Wakefield, refused to join the retraction. "We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism as the data were insufficient," write the 10 authors in their retraction. "However, the possibility of such a link was raised and consequent events have had major implications for public health." © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5076 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have created a mouse model for migraine headache that may serve as an invaluable tool for future study of these debilitating headaches that are often accompanied by severe neurological symptoms. The research, published in the March 4 issue of Neuron, is a major step towards development of more successful treatments targeted at specific neurobiological events that underlie migraines. Migraine is a common, chronic disorder characterized by recurrent disabling headaches. Approximately one-third of migraine sufferers have headaches preceded by a transient neurological aura of flashing jagged lights and pins and needles. Researchers from Leiden University Medical Centre in The Netherlands and the University of Padova and CNR Institute of Neuroscience in Italy examined a rare subtype of migraine called familial hemiplegic migraine (FHM) that is identical to other types of migraine except it is also associated with hemiparesis, weakness on one side of the body. FHM is associated with specific genetic mutations in a gene for a calcium channel protein that is involved in neuronal excitability. The researchers used a sophisticated genetic technique to create mice with a mutation seen in humans with FHM. Compared to normal mice, the migraine mice showed activation of calcium channels by weaker stimuli with consequent enhanced calcium entry into neurons, increased release of excitatory neurotransmitters, and increased susceptibility to cortical spreading depression (CSD), the phenomenon that underlies the migraine aura.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 5075 - Posted: 03.04.2004

Foraging workers push and shove to steer others around bottlenecks. MICHAEL HOPKIN When it comes to traffic congestion, ants prefer the no-nonsense approach - they barge others out of the way, forcing them to take an alternative route. The strategy allows ants to prevent time-consuming blockages on foraging trails, say European researchers. Foraging ants lay down scent cues that allow others to follow the route between the nest and a food source. As more ants follow the trail, the chemical signposts are reinforced and become more attractive. But problems can arise when too many ants try to use the route, says Vincent Fourcassié of the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France. His team found that ants are surprisingly good at avoiding congestion, simply by shoving each other off the main highway and on to back streets. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Animal Communication; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5074 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ALBANY, N.Y. -- University at Albany researchers are pioneering more accessible, cost-effective treatment programs for two of the nation's common ailments, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). Rather than relying on the common face-to-face, therapist-patient relationships, the unique treatments are self-managed, with the patient undertaking much of the therapy through reading material, structured homework, and diagnostic tools. "It's the wave of the future," says doctoral research supervisor Edward B. Blanchard, director of the UAlbany Center for Stress and Anxiety Disorders. "The treatment is very accessible to people who have limited mobility or limited access to areas where therapists tend to locate, such as cities. It's self-managed and self-paced, and less expensive than traditional treatment. And it's done under the trained eye of a clinician, who can help assess progress."

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 5073 - Posted: 03.04.2004

IRA DREYFUSS, Associated Press Writer The Agriculture Department said Tuesday its meat recall from the nation's first case of mad cow disease was nearly four times larger than previously disclosed, but dismissed the size as irrelevant. The government said the recall grew to 38,000 pounds from the 10,400 it announced Dec. 23, when the government reported that a slaughtered Holstein cow in Washington state had tested positive for the brain-wasting disease. Officials had originally set the recall at 10,400 pounds after determining that Vern's Moses Lake Meats in Moses Lake, Wash., had mingled meat from the infected cow with meat from 19 other head of cattle on Dec. 9. ©2004 Associated Press

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 5072 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Elderly people and those with a history of bleeding disorders have been warned of the risk of taking certain types of anti-depressants. Experts say a group of anti-depressants called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors or SSRIs may predispose some people to internal bleeding. Writing in the Drug and Therapeutic Bulletin, they said the drugs should not be given to 'at risk' groups. The Department of Health said clearer warnings were being considered. Over 12 million prescriptions for SSRIs are written each year. Around four million of these are given to elderly people. Researchers from the Consumer's Association reviewed three studies where patients had taken SSRIs. One study of 12,000 people in the UK found that those who suffered gastrointestinal bleeding were three times more likely to have been prescribed SSRIs during the previous 30 days, compared to other patients. (C) BBC

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 5071 - Posted: 03.03.2004

Birds are capable of recognising warning calls from other species, according to scientists. University of St Andrews experts claim certain species are able to tell one warning call from another, ignoring those which do not concern them. A study found that the wild hornbill and the Diana monkey warned each other of predators nearby in their shared West African habitat. It is thought to be the first time any such relationship has been observed. Biologists Hugo Rainey, Professor Peter Slater and primatologist Dr Klaus Zuberbühler spent 18 months studying the animals. Diana monkeys are a brightly coloured, extremely observant species and are excellent look-outs for predators. The scientists noticed the hornbills were often present in their vicinity when they studied the monkeys' alarm calls. The duo share a predator - the crowned eagle - and it was found the birds only responded to the monkeys' specific warnings for the eagles. (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Communication
Link ID: 5070 - Posted: 03.03.2004

By RICHARD SANDOMIR Steroids continued to be the dominant subject in major league baseball yesterday as players, and baseball's hierarchy, tried to deal with a tide of speculation even as teams prepared for the first games of spring training. "What matters is not what the players think," Mets pitcher Tom Glavine said at training camp in Port St. Lucie, Fla. "It's what the fans think. If they find out guys are doing steroids, absolutely they'll think less of them." Glavine, who has long been a prominent member of the players union, added, "It's a hot-button item, and everyone is digging and trying to find out who did what." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5069 - Posted: 03.03.2004

By DENISE GRADY A large federal study of estrogen therapy in postmenopausal women has been stopped a year ahead of schedule because the hormone increased the risk of stroke and offered no protection against heart disease, the government announced yesterday. The study included only women taking estrogen alone, not those who take combined hormones. An earlier study, halted abruptly in 2002 after the researchers found an increased risk of breast cancer, involved only women taking the combined hormones estrogen and progestin. The National Institutes of Health, which sponsored the estrogen study, part of the Women's Health Initiative, said it stopped the study because ``an increased risk of stroke is not acceptable in healthy women in a research study.'' Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5068 - Posted: 03.03.2004

Results of a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health, suggest that disulfiram, a medication used to treat alcohol addiction, is effective in combating cocaine abuse. The researchers also conclude in the same study that combining disulfiram with behavioral therapy provides more positive results in treating cocaine dependence than disulfiram in combination with another form of therapy. The research is published in the March 2004 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. In the study, 121 cocaine-dependent individuals randomly were assigned to receive disulfiram (also known as Antabuse) or a placebo, in addition to undergoing one of two behavioral therapy interventions. Participants received either cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) in individual sessions during the 12-week project. Results showed that participants given disulfiram reduced their cocaine use significantly compared with people given placebo. In addition, those who received disulfiram in combination with CBT reduced their cocaine use compared with those who received disulfiram in combination with IPT. Lead investigator Dr. Kathleen Carroll, of Yale University School of Medicine, and her colleagues also report that benefits seen with disulfiram and CBT were most pronounced for people who were not alcohol dependent or who abstained fully from alcohol during therapy. "About 60 percent of people dependent on cocaine also abuse alcohol, so it was thought you could reduce cocaine abuse by targeting the accompanying codependence on alcohol,” says NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow. “But these results suggest that disulfiram exerts a direct effect on cocaine use, rather than reducing concurrent alcohol use. More research is needed about whether combining disulfiram with CBT provides an even more effective tool for treating cocaine dependence.”

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5067 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By RENEE C. LEE, Associated Press Writer DALLAS -- Hotheaded men who explode with anger seem to be at greater risk of having a stroke or dying, new research shows. Their risk is even greater than men who are simply stressed-out Type A personalities. Angry women, on the other hand, don't run as high a risk of having a stroke or heart problems, according to a study released Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. The study showed that men who express their anger have a 10 percent greater risk than non-hostile men of developing an atrial fibrillation, a heart flutter that 2 million Americans have. It is non-threatening for many, but it can also increase the risk of stroke. Copyright © 2004, The Associated Press

Keyword: Emotions; Stroke
Link ID: 5066 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The small, eyeless crustaceans known as Remipedia have been underestimated, scientists say. According to a report published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the creatures actually have highly organized and well differentiated brains. The findings suggest that the animals may belong further up the evolutionary tree, alongside crabs and lobsters. Discovered in 1979, Remipedia inhabit deep, dark ocean caves and use fangs and poisonous glands to kill their prey. But just how the animals should be classified amongst their fellow crustaceans is the subject of ongoing debate. To shed new light on the creatures, Martin Fanenbruck of the University of Bochum in Germany and his colleagues reconstructed the brain anatomy (see image) of the remipede Godzilliognomus frondosus. They found that the brain is surprisingly complex, considering G. frondosus’s generally slow movements and ancient body plan. The olfactory region in particular is very large, the team reports, because the creatures rely predominately on smell to locate food in their cavernous surroundings. © 1996-2004 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 5065 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Both of the leading Democratic candidates say the federal government should support embryonic stem cell research that could lead to cures for millions of patients. As this ScienCentral News video reports, a leading stem cell researcher left the U.S. to pursue that dream. South Korean scientists announced on February 12th that they had cloned human stem cells, which could be used to replace cells damaged by disease or aging. The research was announced in the U.S. but is strictly limited here, which has forced some Americans to do their research abroad. Roger Pedersen, professor of regenerative medicine at the University of Cambridge and director of the Cambridge Centre for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine, decided in 2001 to leave the University of California at San Francisco for England when President Bush banned research that creates any type of human embryo. "The United States government had at that moment cancelled its plans, suspended really any consideration of funding this area of research," Pedersen says. "And I had by then dedicated my entire lab to carrying out research on human embryonic stem cells. I had to consider other options," he says. "One way would be to stop working on human embryonic stem cells, but I didn't choose that option. I chose to move to a country that was willing to provide support, broad support for this research." © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Keyword: Stem Cells
Link ID: 5064 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The advent of the hindbrain is an evolutionarily important event in the organization of the central nervous system. In work published in the journal Development, Shigeru Kuratani and colleagues in the RIKEN CDB Laboratory for Evolutionary Morphology revealed discrete mechanisms for segmentation and neural cell specification in a one of the most primitive species known to possess a segmented hindbrain. In vertebrates, the hindbrain is a segmented structure, subdivided into clearly demarcated units called rhombomeres, which generate specific sets of neurons. The lancelet Amphioxus, a more primitive chordate, however, lacks this hindbrain segmentation. The lamprey, a jawless fish that arose in the interval between non-vertebrate chordates (such as Amphioxus) and gnathostomes (jawed animals), provides a relevant model for studying the emergence of the hindbrain developmental plan. Yasunori Murakami in the Kuratani lab labeled reticulospinal and branchial motor neurons (which derive from rhombomeres) to reveal the neuronal organization of the hindbrain of the Japanese lamprey, Lethenteron japonicum, and studies the expression patterns of rhombomere-specific genes. They found that lamprey reticular neurons develop in conserved rhombomere-specific positions, similar to those observed in the gnathostome zebrafish. Interestingly, in lamprey the positions of other sets of hindbrain neurons —the trigeminal and facial motor nuclei — do not map neatly to rhombomeric borderlines, as they do in gnathostomes.

Keyword: Evolution; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5063 - Posted: 06.24.2010

fMRI shows certain brain areas "light up" as we learn Memories do indeed light up the corners of our mind, just as the songwriter said. Scientific evidence for this notion comes from studies using magnetic resonance imaging to examine the living human brain. These studies show that certain brain areas "light up" as an individual is learning information. Scientists had previously established that people remember emotionally charged events and facts better than neutral ones. Now researchers at MIT have discovered that memories with an element of arousal or excitement are remembered by a different area of the brain--the amygdala--from memories of a calmer nature, which are remembered by the prefrontal cortex. These findings, published in the journal PNAS Online on Feb. 23, are an important step in understanding how the brain makes memories. Scientists hope this information will one day lead to a treatment for memory loss and learning impairments. For the study, Elizabeth Kensinger, a researcher in MIT's Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, and Suzanne Corkin, professor of behavioral neuroscience in the same department, asked 14 men and 14 women to "learn" 150 words related to events, while the participants brains were being scanned in an fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) procedure. Some of the words represented arousing events, such as "rape" or "slaughter." Others were nonarousing, such as "sorrow" and "mourning."

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Brain imaging
Link ID: 5062 - Posted: 03.02.2004

A preliminary clinical trial, conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), found that an investigational treatment for uveitis (pronounced yoo-vee-eye-tis) seems to have many fewer side effects than existing therapies, leading to improved quality of life for patients with this potentially blinding disease. Accounting for an estimated 10-15 percent of blindness in the United States, uveitis is a condition in which tissues in the eye become inflamed. If not properly treated, chronic inflammation causes scarring and leads to irreversible vision loss. Currently, people with severe uveitis must take steroids or other drugs that suppress the immune system to control the inflammation. Unfortunately, these powerful drugs can have many serious side effects, such as kidney dysfunction, glaucoma, osteoporosis, increased blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, and weight gain. Because their immune systems are compromised, patients must also limit contact with other people to avoid contagious illnesses. Obviously, current therapies for uveitis severely diminish a patient's quality of life. The clinical trial results, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Autoimmunity, found that once monthly intravenous infusions with an immune therapy drug called daclizumab controlled uveitis and was well tolerated in seven of 10 patients over a four-year period. The study authors also found initial evidence that a formulation of daclizumab that can be injected under the skin conferred similar results. This might allow patients to administer the drug to themselves at home, making the treatment even more convenient.

Keyword: Vision; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 5061 - Posted: 03.02.2004

By Daniel Dickinson A rat runs up and down a see-through perspex cage sniffing at a series of holes its base, where saliva samples - one positive for tuberculosis - have been randomly placed. The rat sniffs and scratches at the hole with the TB sample, and is rewarded with a small piece of banana. This is Eusebio, an African Giant Pouched rat, one of around 300 well-fed and highly-trained rodents at the Apopo research centre at the University of Sokoine in Morogoro. Scientists at the centre are hoping to radically change the way TB is diagnosed using the exceptional sniffing abilities of these rats. In early clinical tests, it has proved to be a cheap and relatively accurate diagnostic tool, one that could be copied in laboratories across the developing world. The team of scientists have been putting the rats through their paces over the last few months. (C) BBC

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5060 - Posted: 03.01.2004

Women executives are more likely to develop an alcohol problem than junior staff, a study shows. They are also more inclined to turn to alcohol than men in similar grades, according to researchers at University College London. It is thought the stress of trying to compete with men for executive roles is partly to blame. The findings are published in the journal Occupational Environmental Medicine. About 8,000 government employees took part in the survey of men and women working at different levels in 20 departments in London. The prevalence of problem drinking among the men was roughly the same (between 10 and 12%) from clerical right through to senior executive grades. But the picture was very different for women, who made up a third of the survey sample. Women at lower grades were less likely to be problem drinkers than men in comparable grades, but they caught up with men, overtaking them at senior grades. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Stress
Link ID: 5059 - Posted: 03.01.2004