by Joy Press Lauren Slater is the closest thing we have to a doyenne of psychiatric disorder. Not only has she outflanked Elizabeth Wurtzel with smart, slippery memoirs chronicling her lifelong adventures in mental pandemonium (Prozac Diary, Lying), but she has also become The New York Times Magazine's resident expert on treatments and theories that overturn some of our most deeply held ideas about ourselves. Slater, a practicing psychologist, wrote one feature proposing that self-esteem may be dangerous; another suggested we should be repressing traumatic memories instead of airing them. "I've had my fair share of traumas," Slater wrote in her piece on repression, "and if I could learn to tamp them down and thereby prune my thorny lived-out-loud life a little, I'd be more than happy to. Go ahead. Give me a lock and key." That's funny coming from the author of multiple memoirs, but never mind—I like Slater's inconsistency. Some people spend thousands of dollars on therapy and self-help books searching for "closure," but she prefers to keep her mind dangerously ajar. Slater's latest book, Opening Skinner's Box, re-evaluates 10 crucial (and in many cases, reviled) American experiments, from António Egas Moniz's lobotomies and Harry Harlow's brutal investigations into the nature of love to Elizabeth Loftus's false memory research. But the authoritative, generic subtitle (Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century) is misleading. It suggests that Slater has swerved off the autobiographical path and embraced a more straightforward narrative, whereas these essays feel nearly as intimate as her memoirs. She dandles each experiment on her lap, delectating over its history and implications. Copyright © 2004 Village Voice Media, Inc.,

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 5058 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists believe they have taken a big step forward in their effort to be able to repair damaged nerves. Researchers at Harvard Medical School say they have had some success trying to regenerate optic nerves in rats. Writing in the Journal of Neuroscience they said while they were unable to restore sight they achieved three times more regeneration compared to others. Finding a way to re-grow nerves could lead to cures for a wide range of conditions from blindness to paralysis. Any injuries that cause damage to nerves tend to be permanent. This is because nerve cells cannot regenerate or repair themselves. Scientists around the world are working on projects aimed at finding a way to get nerves to re-grow. One of the reasons nerves are unable to regenerate is that proteins in the outer layer of nerve fibres are programmed to stop re-growth. (C) BBC

Keyword: Regeneration; Vision
Link ID: 5057 - Posted: 03.01.2004

By GARDINER HARRIS Women, the maker of Viagra has found, are a lot more complicated than men. After eight years of work and tests involving 3,000 women, Pfizer Inc. announced yesterday that it was abandoning its effort to prove that the impotence drug Viagra improves sexual function in women. The problem, Pfizer researchers found, is that men and women have a fundamentally different relationship between arousal and desire. For men, arousal almost always leads to desire. So by improving a man's ability to have erections, Viagra measurably affects his sexual function. But arousal and desire are often disconnected in women, the researchers found, to their consternation. Although Viagra can indeed create the outward signs of arousal in many women, that seems to have little effect on a woman's willingness, or desire, to have sex, the researchers said. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5056 - Posted: 02.28.2004

Nathan Seppa A drug normally used against epilepsy can prevent migraine headaches, according to two studies. The research trials are the first to test the drug topiramate in hundreds of migraine patients. The combined results are likely to push topiramate closer to Food and Drug Administration approval for use against migraines, says neurologist Jan Lewis Brandes of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville and the research clinic Nashville Neuroscience Group. Marketed as Topamax by Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceutical in Raritan, N.J., topiramate is already prescribed by many doctors for migraines, even though the FDA has formally approved it only for preventing epileptic seizures, says neurologist Stephen D. Silberstein of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Copyright ©2004 Science Service.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 5055 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations BERKELEY – The debut this month of a new University of California, Berkeley, Web site devoted to evolution provides a much-needed resource for teachers as schools across the nation are being challenged to kick evolution out of the classroom or pair it with instruction in non-scientific alternatives, such as "intelligent design." The "Understanding Evolution" Web site (evolution.berkeley.edu), funded by the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and created jointly by UC Berkeley's Museum of Paleontology and the National Center for Science Education, went online in early February. It debuted just as Georgia's Superintendent of Education advocated eliminating the evolution "buzzword" from the state science curriculum and the Ohio state Board of Education voted to include some aspects of intelligent design in lesson plans about evolution. For teachers caught up in the imbroglio, or those who just want to brush up on their understanding of the theory or find an engaging lesson plan for their students, the Web site is the place to go. Copyright UC Regents

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 5054 - Posted: 06.24.2010

MADISON - When a new mom gazes at her baby, it's not just her mood that lights up - it's also a brain region associated with emotion processing, according to a new study from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The study, published in the current issue of NeuroImage, explored what happens in the brain when mothers are shown pictures of their babies, as well as images of unfamiliar infants. While all the photos increased the amount of activity in a part of the brain associated with emotion, the images of the mothers' own infants generally increased activity even more, suggesting that this brain region may be involved in maternal attachment. Motivations for the study originated from a lack of reliable knowledge about positive emotions, says Jack Nitschke, a neuroscientist and assistant professor of psychiatry and psychology at UW-Madison. "We know that depression and anxiety are not accompanied solely by an increase in negative emotions, but also by a decrease in positive ones," says Nitschke, lead author of the paper. "Yet we know much more about negative emotions than about positive emotions."

Keyword: Emotions; Brain imaging
Link ID: 5053 - Posted: 02.28.2004

Many animal experiments may be of little benefit to treating human disease, according to experts. Much of the research is poorly conducted and not thoroughly evaluated, say scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. They are now urging a systematic review of all existing animal research before new experiments are carried out. The findings, published in the British Medical Journal, have boosted animal rights groups. However, on the same day that the BMJ paper is published, the Royal Society has produced a guide which says humanity has benefited immensely from scientific research involving animals. The society, which is the UK's national academy of science, says virtually every medical achievement in the past century has been reliant on the use of animals in some way. In contrast, the London School of Hygiene scientists question the point of some animal experiments, citing examples where research has been badly designed or where it has been carried out alongside human trials, rendering it unnecessary. (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 5052 - Posted: 02.27.2004

By DEAN E. MURPHY SAN FRANCISCO, — The federal appeals court here has refused to reconsider its ruling that allows Californians to grow and use marijuana to treat their illnesses. The Bush administration had asked the court, for the Ninth Circuit, to hold a new hearing on that ruling, issued by a three-judge panel in December on a lawsuit filed by two women with chronic illnesses. But in an order issued Wednesday and made public on Thursday, the court denied the request. Justice Department officials declined to comment on the order or whether it would be appealed to the Supreme Court. Medicinal-marijuana advocates said it would allow tens of thousands of people in California and six other Western states with laws that permit such marijuana use to continue it without fearing federal prosecution. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 5051 - Posted: 06.24.2010

DURHAM, N.C. -- Stress is a well known culprit in disease, but now researchers have shown that stress can intensify the effects of relatively safe chemicals, making them very harmful to the brain and liver in animals and likely in humans, as well. Even short-term exposure to specific chemicals -- just 28 days -- when combined with stress was enough to cause widespread cellular damage in the brain and liver of rats, said Mohamed Abou Donia, Ph.D., a Duke pharmacologist and senior author of the study. Results of the study were published in the Feb. 27, 2004, issue of the Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health. Abou Donia's study was designed to reproduce the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome, a disorder marked by chronic fatigue, muscle and joint pain, tremors, headaches, difficulties concentrating and learning, loss of memory, irritability and reproductive problems. The Gulf War Syndrome symptoms have been difficult to explain because veterans outwardly appear healthy and normal, said Abou Donia. Likewise, the chemically exposed animals in Abou Donia's studies looked and behaved normally. © 2001-2004 Duke University Medical Center.

Keyword: Stress; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 5050 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Studies point to danger of deafness and mental decline in old age MICHAEL HOPKIN Diabetics may be more prone than others to hearing loss in middle age, according to a US study. The discovery adds to a growing number of mental and neurological complications that can arise from the condition. The finding highlights the need for diabetics to undergo regular hearing checks, says Nancy Vaughan, a researcher at the US Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Portland, Oregon, who took part in the study. Diabetes is known to cause a raft of medical problems. "Diabetics undergo yearly tests of vision, kidney function and other checks," says Vaughan. "We are suggesting that hearing tests be added to these." © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 5049 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New Haven, Conn. -- Detecting and treating schizophrenia rapidly, following the onset of a first psychotic episode, improves the patients' response to treatment, according to a study by a Yale researcher. Thomas McGlashan, M.D., professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, said the length of time between the onset of psychosis and detection and treatment can stretch from several weeks to several years. This time span is a concern because the patient is sick and untreated and because there is some indication that the untreated psychotic state itself may increase the risk of a poor outcome. "It looks like the longer the period of time before treatment, the worse off the patients are not only when they come into treatment, but how they respond to treatment," McGlashan said.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 5048 - Posted: 02.27.2004

David Ewing Duncan Doug Melton sighs. For hours, this Harvard molecular embryologist has been toiling in a small personal lab attached to his office in Cambridge, Mass., where he's trying to save the lives of his two children. Twelve-year-old Sam and 16-year-old Emma have been diagnosed with insulin- dependent diabetes. If Melton's research is successful, they could be spared the organ failure, blindness and heart disease that eventually afflict diabetics -- but only if Melton is allowed to continue his work by lawmakers in Washington, D.C. They worry that his methods might be immoral or dangerous and are threatening to shut down his work. Melton, the Thomas Dudley Cabot Professor in the Natural Sciences at Harvard University, studies the mechanisms of how embryonic stem cells form in mice and humans just after an egg is fertilized. These stem cells have the unique ability to grow into any tissue in the body -- whether of a liver, eyeball or skeleton. ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Stem Cells; Obesity
Link ID: 5047 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Imagine not being able to enjoy the sweet smell of fresh-baked bread or taste your favorite food. Nearly half of people between the ages of 65 to 80 and three-quarters of those over the age of 80 experience some degree of smell loss, and even 1-2% of the North American population below the age of 65 years experience smell loss to a significant degree. Now, some scientifically enhanced mice might be able to help researchers solve this problem. Debra Fadool, a biology professor, and her team at Florida State University wanted to understand the involvement of certain nervous system protein called Kv1.3 in nerve cell communication in the brain. Kv1.3 is an ion channel that affects the area of the brain that's wired for smell, called the olfactory bulb. The scientists genetically altered mice to lack Kv1.3 and expected them to smell less well, because typically when an animal loses a gene that affects the nervous system, a deficit in sensation usually follows. The smelling abilities of the mice were tested by hiding a smelly object (a peanut butter cracker) and a scent-less object (a marble). Fadool was surprised to find that the genetically modified mice could find the peanut butter crackers twice as fast as the normal control mice. "Instead of them having smell deficiency, they were 'super smellers'," says Fadool. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5046 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Faced with a potential threat to the hive, some honeybees take on the suicidal mission of attacking the intruder. These guard bees aren’t just angry, they may be insane: Scientists have proposed that their brains are infected with a virus that causes their deranged behavior. In the brains of honeybees, organs known as mushroom bodies are enlarged relative to most other insects. These cerebellum-like structures play a role in a multitude of tasks related to memory and learning, and changes in gene activity in the mushroom bodies have been linked to behavioral changes (Science, 26 April 2002, p. 741). While combing the mushroom bodies for evidence of aggression genes, a team of researchers at the University of Tokyo and Tamagawa University in Japan found a weird chunk of RNA that wasn’t encoded by the honeybee genome. The RNA was present only in the brains of the bees that went into attack mode when a hornet was dangled in front of the hive, not in the brains of the hive's nurses or foragers. Copyright © 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 5045 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Adolescents show less activity than adults in brain regions that motivate behavior to obtain rewards, according to results from the first magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study to examine real-time adolescent response to incentives. The study also shows that adolescents and adults exhibit similar brain responses to having obtained rewards. Researchers in the Laboratory of Clinical Studies of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), one of the National Institutes of Health, conducted the study, which appears in the February 25 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience (Volume 24, Number 7). "Understanding adolescent motivation is critical for understanding why so many young people drink alcohol and engage in associated behaviors such as drinking and driving and sexual risk-taking. That understanding also will be critical for shaping prevention messages that deter such behaviors," said Ting-Kai Li, M.D., Director, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "With today's report, researchers in NIAAA's Laboratory of Clinical Studies provide an important part of the picture." In the MRI study, James Bjork, Ph.D., and others in the laboratory of Daniel Hommer, M.D., scanned the brains of twelve adolescents aged 12 to 17 years and twelve young adults aged 22 to 28 years. While being scanned, the subjects participated in a game-like scenario risking monetary gain or loss. The participants responded to targets on a screen by pressing a button to win or avoid losing 20 cents, $1, or $5.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5044 - Posted: 02.26.2004

MADISON AVENUE was challenged again yesterday over the way it markets food to children, as a new report was released suggesting that advertising contributes to childhood obesity. The report, by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, summarized existing studies on obesity and the media like television, video games and movies that capture children's attention. Although it endorsed no solutions, it did discuss possible policy changes, like regulating or reducing food advertising aimed at children. And it is far from the first examination of ads focusing on children; just on Monday, the American Psychological Association recommended that the government put restrictions on marketing to those younger than 7 or 8 because they are unable "to recognize advertising's persuasive intent.'' Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 5043 - Posted: 02.25.2004

Interested in continuing education? Here's some good news. As this ScienCentral News video reports, brain researchers have uncovered one mechanism that controls how our brains make new connections. Our ability to learn new things depends on the expansive network of "wires" inside our brains. Luckily, that network keeps growing throughout our adult lives. "The brain is very dynamic," says Bonnie Firestein, professor of cell biology and neuroscience at Rutgers University. "You have billions of nerve cells. And while you're an adult, your brain doesn't just stop growing, it actually forms new connections all the time. We know that when you're learning something you have new connections made. So, the brain is constantly growing and constantly changing." © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 5042 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Multiple sclerosis (MS) has long been thought of as an autoimmune disease. But new research suggests that it's not immune cells that strip the insulation off neurons and cause neurological symptoms. Rather, the insulation may be disrupted when the cells that build it self-destruct. In MS, the insulating layer of myelin around neurons degrades, leading to loss of muscle control, numbness, or cognitive problems. Most researchers have thought this happens when the victim's own immune cells move in on the myelin and chew it up, leaving plaquelike scars behind. Now, neurologists Michael Barnett and John Prineas of the University of Sydney, Australia, have found evidence to the contrary. They autopsied 12 patients who died from MS shortly after suffering a bout of neurological symptoms. All of the patients had the plaquelike scars typical of MS. But contrary to all expectations, seven of them had intact myelin and little inflammation, the researchers reported online this week in Annals of Neurology. Copyright © 2004 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 5041 - Posted: 06.24.2010

U of MN doctors receive NIH grant to test promising new bulimia treatment that aims to stop involuntary binge-eating and vomiting MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL -- The University of Minnesota's Neuroscience Research Group received nearly $300,000 from the National Institutes of Health to study the effectiveness of a common epilepsy therapy in treating bulimia nervosa. This is the first study of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Therapy (VNS) for this disorder. VNS Therapy aims to reverse the physiological changes that have occurred in the function of the vagus nerve from repeated binge eating and vomiting. By controlling vagus nerve activity through electrical stimulation, doctors hope to reduce the frequency of vomiting in bulimics. VNS Therapy is expected to dampen activity in the vagus nerve, the main "information highway" from the stomach to the brain. A pacemaker-like pulse generator is implanted directly below the skin of a patient's chest to deliver intermittent pulses of electrical stimulation to the brain via the vagus nerve in the neck. Using an external programming system, doctors can adjust the timing and amount of stimulation the patient receives. This stimulation is expected to control vagus nerve activity and reduce the urges to binge eat and vomit. "Most people don't realize that women with bulimia only self-induce vomiting at the early stages of the disorder. Later on, this behavior becomes involuntary as a result of changes in the activity level of the vagus nerve" says Patricia Faris, Ph.D., associate professor in the University of Minnesota Medical School's Department of Psychiatry and principal investigator of the VNS Therapy trial. "Bulimia is both a psychological and physiological disorder. The social pressure to be thin is probably the reason for an individual to start binge eating and vomiting, but after a while these behaviors induce changes in the activity of the vagus nerve. The goals of our research are to reverse the physiological changes that have occurred thereby reducing, or eliminating, the urges to vomit and to address the psychological components which originally led to the initiation of the disorder and which, if not re-structured, may result in future relapses."

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 5040 - Posted: 02.25.2004

Treatment prevents later-stage tissue loss contributing to long-term injury Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Children's Hospital Boston (CHB) have found that a commonly prescribed antibiotic could be used to help prevent paralysis and other long-term functional deficits associated with a partial spinal cord injury (SCI). Researchers in the field have known that a significant proportion of paralysis and long-term functional disorders associated with SCI are triggered by post-trauma tissue loss. Administering the antibiotic, minocycline, to rats within the first hour after a paralyzing injury has been shown to reduce this tissue loss and ultimately enable more hind-leg function, the ability to walk with more coordination, better foot posture and stepping, and better support of body weight than untreated controls. The findings are published in the March 2, 2004 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The BWH/CHB researchers found that minocycline reduces later-stage tissue loss by blocking release of a protein known as mitochondrial cytochrome c. Yang D. Teng, MD, PhD, of the joint BWH/CHB neurosurgery program and co-lead author of the study, notes that other experimental agents can prevent later-stage tissue loss, but must be given immediately after or even before SCI to be effective. "The field has badly needed to develop a drug that could be used in a practical manner," said Teng.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 5039 - Posted: 02.25.2004