NewScientist.com news service Post-menopausal women who receive hormone replacement therapy may risk diminished hearing, suggest the results of a new study. Tests on 64 women over the age of 60 - half of whom were on HRT - showed that those taking HRT had 10 to 30 per cent worse hearing than those not taking HRT. But the HRT group did not just perform badly on tests that measure how well the ear actually detects a sound - tests on how well the brain processes that information showed that those on HRT had their processing ability reduced by an average of 30 per cent. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Hearing
Link ID: 5038 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Parents who smoke outdoors still expose homes and kids to nicotine. HELEN R. PILCHER Parents who chose not to smoke inside the family home may still be subjecting their children to the effects of passive smoking, a study suggests. Nicotine, a major ingredient of secondhand smoke, can be detected in the dust and air inside the homes of smokers who deliberately go outside for a puff. Children in such homes have up to eight times more nicotine in their bodies than the offspring of non-smokers1. The levels of nicotine are still quite low, says Georg Matt from San Diego State University, California, who led the study. But they could build over time, potentially making the children more prone to smoking-related problems, such as asthma and sudden infant death syndrome. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 5037 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Size an indication of sexual behaviours Jacob Berkowitz OTTAWA - The next time you're nibbling your lover's fingers, or scoping hands for wedding bands, you might want to pay more attention to length. A McMaster University evolutionary psychologist has found the length ratio of a woman's ring to index finger points to her sexual behaviour -- from fantasies to the number of partners she might have. It's the latest discovery in the fascinating study of how finger-length ratio is a sign of the mix of male and female hormones that directed our prenatal development, shaping everything from finger length, to sexual behaviour and sports ability. © Copyright 2004 Edmonton Journal

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5036 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JANE E. BRODY Hormone replacement for women past their childbearing years was originally popularized with the promise that taking estrogen could keep women "feminine forever" — preserving their health, skin, bones, muscles, brains and, especially, their sexual pleasure. Now our youth-oriented culture has spawned another rush to fountain of youth drugs, this time testosterone for men. As with estrogen, testosterone — the hormone that surges in puberty to turn boys into men — is known to act on myriad tissues in the body, either directly or through its derivatives. Various studies have documented the influences of testosterone on bones, muscles, strength, stamina, abdominal fat, hair, mood, cognitive functions like memory and, of course, libido and potency. Also documented is the gradual decline in testosterone production that occurs as men age. After 30, blood levels of both total testosterone and biologically active free testosterone decline by 1 to 2 percent a year, so that by 70 a man's testosterone production may have dropped by a third. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5035 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ERICA GOODE He is blond and 3 years old, 33 pounds of compressed energy wrapped in OshKosh overalls. In an evaluation room at Yale's Child Study Center, he ignores Big Bird, pauses to watch the bubbles that a social worker blows through a wand, jumps up and down. But it is the two-way mirror that fascinates him, drawing him back to stare into the glass, to touch it, to lick it with his tongue. At 17 months, after several ear infections and a bout of the flu, the toddler's budding language skills began to deteriorate, his parents tell the evaluators. In the playroom, he seems intent on his own activities and largely oblivious to the adults in the room. Only when the therapist bends down to tickle him does he give a blinding smile and meet her gaze with startling blue eyes. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5034 - Posted: 02.24.2004

by Maher Karam-Hage, M.D., Psychiatric Times Despite the fact that about 30% of our life is spent sleeping and decades of research have been spent on sleep, we still do not know its real function. What we do know is lack of sleep can have serious implications, such as increased risk of depressive disorders, impaired breathing and heart disease. On the other hand, nighttime sleep disturbance is usually followed by excessive daytime sleepiness that is associated with delayed problems like memory deficits and impaired social and occupational function, and immediate consequences such as car accidents (Kupfer and Reynolds, 1997; Roehrs and Roth, 1995). People who abuse alcohol and other substances are at high risk for sleep disturbances due to the direct effect of the substance or its withdrawal on their sleep architecture and their sleep-wake cycle or its effect on their behavior and daily functioning, which in turn impacts their daily need for sleep. Two states of sleep alternate throughout the night, characterized in part by different types of brain electrical activity (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism [NIAAA], 1998). There is slow wave sleep (SWS), during which the brain waves are very slow (commonly referred to as Stage III and IV), and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, in which the eyes undergo rapid movements although we remain asleep. Restful SWS has the lion's share of sleep time, while REM sleep occurs periodically, resulting in about 25% of sleep time in the young adult. Normally present every 90 minutes, the REM stage lasts five to 30 minutes and is associated with dreaming, but no clear function is known for it. There are about four occurrences of REM in total, the first is shortest and the last is usually longest (NIAAA, 1998). © 2004 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sleep
Link ID: 5033 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Knowing whether a pregnancy will produce a boy or girl is not left up to chance for some mammals - UK biologists claim they have conclusive proof that zebras, bison and certain other mammals actively adjust the sex of their offspring. It has long been known that many insects, birds and fish are capable of influencing the sex of their offspring, but the idea of gender adjustment in mammals has been controversial. American biologist Robert Trivers first suggested that female red deer alter the sex of their offspring according to their physical condition at the time of conception, and the idea has been debated for the 30 years since. "We looked at all 73 of the different studies carried out into sex adjustment in ungulates - herbivorous mammals with hoofed feet - and found a consistent pattern across the different species. Sons were produced in higher numbers by mothers who were in good condition and daughters were preferentially produced by mothers in poor condition," explains Stuart West at the University of Edinburgh, who carried out the study with Ben Sheldon from Oxford University. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5032 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Medical journal says it regrets publishing Wakefield's research on MMR. NICOLA JONES A series of allegations have been brought against Andrew Wakefield, the physician whose research and press statements first brought into the public eye a possible link between the combined measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism. One allegation points out that Wakefield had been given £55,000 (US$103,000) for a legal-aid project to investigate a possible link between MMR and autism, after several parents suspected the vaccine had negatively affected their children. Wakefield did not declare the existence of this project when he published a paper on a similar topic in The Lancet in February 1998. Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, says this is in violation of his journal's policy regarding conflict of interest. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5031 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists learning adolescent brain develops more slowly than previously believed By SONYA PADGETT It happened to your grandparents. Then it happened to your parents. And, if you have adolescents, it's happening to you. That once achingly sweet toddler who became a winsome child charming strangers in checkout lines is torturing you, his parents, with teenaged apathy and angst. The kid you were convinced was the next Albert Einstein has been replaced by what looks like an underage adult but acts like a mumbling ogre whose brain seems to have short-circuited. He drives a car and holds a job, plans to vote soon and maybe join the military. But he sleeps in class -- when he goes -- drag races on city streets, rides grocery carts down embankments or re-enacts other stunts from MTV's "Jackass." He's moody, makes decisions a 9-year-old might find questionable and sometimes acts like he should be wearing Pampers instead of Paper jeans. Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal, 1997 - 2003

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 5030 - Posted: 06.24.2010

If you think those side effects you're feeling are a result of your medication ... you may be wrong BY EARL LANE SEATTLE -- While researchers have tried to understand why some patients feel better after receiving a sham pill, a placebo, rather than an active drug, relatively little attention has been paid to the placebo's evil twin: the nocebo. Dr. Arthur Barsky, a professor of psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, said recently the nocebo effect occurs when patients experience negative symptoms, such as headache, fatigue and dizziness, after taking an inert substance they believe is an active drug. A placebo, Latin for "I will please," is often given to one group of subjects in a clinical trial as a way to judge the true benefit of the active medication being given to a second group of patients. The sham pill itself can sometimes produce improvement in symptoms for reasons that are still largely a mystery. Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 5029 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The government's top doctor has criticised the man at the centre of the MMR controversy. Sir Liam Donaldson, England's chief medical officer, accused Dr Andrew Wakefield of peddling "poor science". He said the 1998 study has never been replicated and was criticised by "independent experts around the world". His comments came as the General Medical Council prepared to open an investigation into the way Dr Wakefield carried out his study. On Friday, the medical journal The Lancet said it should never have published Dr Wakefield's study. Dr Richard Horton, the journal's editor, said the work was "flawed" because Dr Wakefield had "a fatal conflict of interest". (C) BBC

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5028 - Posted: 02.23.2004

By FOX BUTTERFIELD BOONE, N.C.,— Sandra Rupert, a counselor at an elementary school in this town tucked high up in the Blue Ridge Mountains, wondered last year about two sisters who were second and third graders. They had headaches, colds and coughs virtually every day. Sheriff Mark Shook found the explanation when he raided the children's home and discovered their mother and her boyfriend were cooking methamphetamine in the attic, next to where the girls slept. The girls were suffering from the toxic fumes emitted by the methamphetamine cooking, said Chad Slagle, a social worker with the Watauga County Child Protective Services Unit. They were removed immediately from the house and taken away from their mother. They had to leave without taking any of their clothes or toys, Mr. Slagle said, for fear of further contamination. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 5027 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Hunger is the downfall of many dieters, causing them to reach for the closest, but not necessarily the healthiest, foods. What they end up eating may taste different, too. New findings suggest that hunger affects how food tastes by making peckish people more sensitive to sweetness and saltiness. A number of factors, including obesity, oral hygiene, drinking and smoking, have been shown to alter a person’s ability to taste. In the new work, published today in the journal BMC Neuroscience, Yuriy P. Zverev of the University of Malawi investigated how overnight fasting affected the tastebuds of healthy males who neither smoked nor drank. After eating a set meal for dinner, the subjects skipped breakfast and were subsequently tested on their ability to taste salty, sweet and bitter solutions of varying concentrations. The participants returned later in the day, about an hour after eating lunch, and repeated the blind taste tests. When hungry, the men detected lower concentrations of sugar and salt than they did after a meal, but their ability to detect bitter compounds remained unchanged. © 1996-2004 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5026 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Killing the eldest males will protect lion populations. MICHAEL HOPKIN Researchers have developed a rule of thumb that they hope could save lion populations from declining at the hands of trophy-hunters. They are urging hunters to kill only males with dark noses. A lion's nose is speckled with dark pigment, and these freckles become more pronounced as the lion ages, explains Craig Packer of the University of Minnesota in Saint Paul, who led the study. Removing only the old males whose noses are at least 50% dappled with pigment would minimize the disruption to lion prides, his team found1. This gives cubs a better chance of survival. (C) Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 5025 - Posted: 02.23.2004

[Subscription required] ANTHONY P. MONACO The Birth of the Mind: How a Tiny Number of Genes Creates the Complexities of Human Thought by Gary Marcus If the mind can be explained from the workings of the brain, and the brain develops by direction from our genes, then presumably the mind can be explained from our genetic make-up. But how can only 30,000 genes make a brain with billions of neurons and encode the particular aspects of cognition that make us human? The Birth of the Mind tries to unravel this complex problem by first explaining what we know about each component of the argument: the mind, the brain, our genes and the environment. The breadth of examples used to achieve this is impressive, encompassing 40 different organisms (from bacteria to chimpanzees), 30 different genes and 20 different brain regions. The author, Gary Marcus, spends much of his efforts building up the reader's knowledge base. It is difficult to make an argument that involves such diverse disciplines as evolution, genetics, gene expression, cell biology, neurobiology and psychology without teaching the reader the bare essentials. Marcus does particularly well to make the relevant issues in these areas understandable to the lay reader, and does an even better job of dispelling the myths that impede the way we think about genes and their role in making brains, and hence minds. © 2004 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 5024 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A researcher wants to help you measure your AQ By Steven Johnson THESE DAYS, NEW THEORIES about how the human brain works are everywhere. Whether it's a magazine feature on the brain's evolutionary history, or a book purporting to reveal the origins of consciousness, or a newspaper report on the discovery of a new neurological center ("This is where a craving for chocolate comes from!"), there's no lack of fascinating hypotheses about how we, as a species, are wired. But modern brain science can also be directed toward more idiosyncratic and immediately useful ends. Much as an art historian can help us discern hitherto unnoticed qualities in a painting, today's neuroscientists are bridging the gap between the physical reality of our brains and our everyday mental lives. They're making us aware of ingrained reflexes and patterns we didn't realize were affecting us intimately. Cutting-edge neuroscience can teach us not only "how the mind works," but how our own minds work. Take mindreading skills, for example. Although it may suggest something from the Psychic Friends Network, "mindreading" is a term used by some scientists to describe the complex yet taken-for-granted talent most people have for detecting the inner emotional states of others. Whenever we converse, our spoken dialogue is accompanied by a second, lightning-fast discourse of small gestures, vocal intonations, fleeting smiles, arched eyebrows, and other signals that help us understand one another. © Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5023 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A relatively limited form of throat surgery may be more effective at correcting a common sleep disorder than more invasive alternatives. Researchers from Taipei's Chang Gung Memorial Hospital achieved an 82% success rate when they operated on sleep apnoea patients. The research, which was only based on 55 patients, is published in the journal Archives of Otolaryngology. However, UK experts have expressed doubts about the study's validity. Sleep apnoea causes snoring and interruptions in breathing. This forces the sufferer to wake up in order to start breathing again. Sometimes this can happen up to 100 times a night. Standard surgery for severe sleep apnoea involves removing some of the tissue in the throat to widen the airway. However, it usually only works in about half of cases. The new technique - called uvulopalatal flap surgery - removes fatty tissues, soft glands and the tonsils to increase airway space, but spares muscle tissue. Patients who had the surgery said they snored less, were less sleepy during the day and had higher oxygen levels in their blood. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 5022 - Posted: 02.22.2004

By Dr David Whitehouse, BBC News Online science editor Exposure to low-level magnetic fields could be harmful, say US scientists. Rats exposed to magnetic fields similar to those humans encounter developed damage to the DNA in their brain cells. Professor Henry Lai, of Washington University, said that people should be prudent in their use of electrical devices held close to the head. The peer-reviewed study is published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal of the US National Institute of Environmental Sciences. The researchers discovered that rats exposed to a weak magnetic field oscillating 60 times per second for 24 hours showed DNA damage to their brain cells. Rats exposed for 48 hours showed even more damage. They also say that the exposure resulted in an increase in brain cell "apoptosis" or "cell suicide" - a process in which the cell self-destructs because it cannot repair itself. But what are the implications for people and the magnetic fields most of us encounter in our daily lives? (C) BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 5021 - Posted: 02.22.2004

By GINA KOLATA SHE charges that his group is like the Taliban. He claims that her group's dangerous message has "spread like a virus across North America, Europe and elsewhere." The issue inspiring such invectives? Not religion, but diets. The latest spat is between Veronica Atkins, widow of Robert Atkins, the doctor who promoted a low-carbohydrate diet, heavy on the meats, and the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a group that advocates vegetarianism. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity; Animal Rights
Link ID: 5020 - Posted: 02.22.2004

By ABRAHAM VERGHESE In America, we have always taken it as an article of faith that we ''battle'' cancer; we attack it with knives, we poison it with chemotherapy or we blast it with radiation. If we are fortunate, we ''beat'' the cancer. If not, we are posthumously praised for having ''succumbed after a long battle.'' If you accept the war metaphor (and not everyone does), then a diagnosis of cancer becomes a call to arms, an induction into an army, and it goes without saying that in such a war, optimism is essential. Memoirs of cancer survivors and the Web sites of some cancer centers state this as a creed: a ''positive attitude'' influences survival. But a recent Australian study of 204 people with lung cancer found that those who were optimistic before and after treatment did not live longer; they did not fare better (or worse) than their less hopeful counterparts. Earlier studies have examined cancer patients' helplessness or depression or pessimism. The results are a mixed bag, with some studies showing that a negative attitude hurts survival and others showing no relation between one's temperament and one's survival. What makes the Australian effort different is that it focused rigorously on a fairly large group of patients with a single type and stage of cancer, and it used a well-accepted method for assessing optimism. The study followed patients for five years. By taking these steps, the Australians overcame many (though not all) of their predecessors' methodological weaknesses. (Ideally, they would have examined whether optimism detected before a diagnosis of cancer was ever made -- optimism as a character trait, rather than as an attitude after diagnosis -- correlated with outcome.) Optimism, it seems, is overrated -- at least when it comes to this particular form of cancer. Biology (and the availability of effective treatment) determines fate. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Neuroimmunology; Stress
Link ID: 5019 - Posted: 02.22.2004