It may be possible to treat Alzheimer's by inserting genetically modified tissue directly into the brains of patients, research suggests. A team from the University of California, San Diego, used the technique to boost activity in the brains of volunteers. Brain cells appeared to respond to the introduction of grafts designed to trigger production of growth factors. The research was presented at an American Academy of Neurology meeting. The scientists stress that their work is still at a very early stage. So far they have only worked on a small number of patients, and the tests have been designed to find out whether the technique is safe, rather than effective. However, the early indications suggest that it might help to slow the advancement of disease. (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5379 - Posted: 04.29.2004

By AMY HARMON Last July, Steven Miller, a university librarian, came across an article about a set of neurological conditions he had never heard of called autistic spectrum disorders. By the time he finished reading, his face was wet with tears. "This is me," Mr. Miller remembers thinking in the minutes and months of eager research that followed. "To read about it and feel that I'm not the only one, that maybe it's O.K., maybe it's just a human difference, was extremely emotional. In a way it has changed everything, even though nothing has changed." Mr. Miller, 49, who excels at his job but finds the art of small talk impossible to master, has since been given a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, an autistic disorder notable for the often vast discrepancy between the intellectual and social abilities of those who have it. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 5378 - Posted: 04.29.2004

The brainpower of young women who are lacking in iron can be markedly boosted by taking supplements of the mineral, suggests a new study. Even women who were just modestly iron deficient did much worse on attention, memory and learning tests than those with enough iron in their blood, found the study by researchers at Pennsylvania State University in the US. "The iron deficient women took longer to do tasks and were less successful," says John Beard, one of the team. For those classified as anemic the difference was particularly stark, he says: "The number of errors in a memory task was double than in the iron sufficient group." But giving these women daily supplements of iron for four months reversed this effect. "It was a highly significant improvement, which is really the proof of the pudding," he told New Scientist. "If you give iron and somebody improves you can be pretty sure the iron was causally related in the first place." © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 5377 - Posted: 06.24.2010

— The fast-growing activity of whale watching can interfere with communication between cetaceans, and this could have an impact on their survival, biologists fear. If there are too many vessels, there is too much background noise from engines; this requires the animals to "sing" longer in order to make themselves heard by other members of their group, the experts said in Thursday's issue of Nature. They compared recordings of calls made by orcas living in the inshore waters of Washington state made during three separate periods: from 1977 to 1981, from 1989 to 1992 and from 2001 to 2003. Copyright © 2004 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Hearing; Animal Communication
Link ID: 5376 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHAPEL HILL -- Among the most accomplished navigators in the animal kingdom, sea turtles often migrate across thousands of miles of open ocean to arrive at specific feeding and nesting sites. How they do so, however, has mystified biologists for over a century. Now, new findings by a research team headed by Drs. Kenneth and Catherine Lohmann, marine biologists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, indicate that the navigational ability of sea turtles is based at least partly on a "magnetic map" -- a remarkable ability to read geographic position from subtle variations in the Earth’s magnetic field. Previous work by the group showed that baby sea turtles can use magnetic information as a built-in compass to help guide them during their first migration across the Atlantic Ocean. Their latest studies reveal that older turtles use the Earth’s field in a different, far more sophisticated way: to help pinpoint their location relative to specific target areas, the scientists say. In effect, older turtles have a biological equivalent of a global positioning system (GPS), but the turtle version is based on magnetism.

Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 5375 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Neanderthals' teeth developed faster than their human cousins, new research has revealed. This may mean Neanderthals reached maturity at 15 years old, around three years earlier than our early human ancestors. The study compared the growth rings in the enamel of 150 fossilised Neanderthal teeth with those of ancient humans. The rings are laid down at a rate of around one every nine days. By counting the number of rings in adult teeth, José Maria Bermudez de Castro of the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain, and Fernando Ramirez Rozzi at the CNRS centre for anthropological sciences in Paris, France, calculated that the Neanderthal's teeth developed 15 per cent faster than those of Cro-Magnon man. From this they inferred that Neanderthals matured around three years earlier. In primates, slow developers also tend to have teeth that take longer to reach maturity, notes Bermudez de Castro. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 5374 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Women born in the summer have fewer children on average than women born at other times of the year, according to research published (Thursday 29 April) in Europe's leading reproductive medicine journal Human Reproduction[1]. The findings, from a study of more than 3,000 Austrian women, show that despite the advent of modern contraception a woman's birth month influences her reproductive performance, just as it has been found to do within historic populations. Lead researcher Dr Susanne Huber of the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna and her colleagues at the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, found that, on average, the number of children was lower among women of reproductive age born between June and August than in those born in any other month, although there was no association between birth month and childlessness. "It partially confirms a study of pre-modern women in Canada, which found that women born in mid to late summer and early autumn had below average numbers of live-born children, although that also found that women born in April had fewer children. It also partially confirms a study of historic Dutch women that showed fewer children among women born in mid to late summer and early autumn," said Dr Huber.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5373 - Posted: 04.29.2004

ST. LOUIS -- Looking for another reason to convince your teenager not to try marijuana? Teenage boys who infrequently use marijuana but occasionally binge on the drug may face a greater risk of stroke than their peers, according to a study in Pediatrics by a Saint Louis University associate professor of neurology. Thomas Geller, M.D., who also is a pediatric neurologist at SSM Cardinal Glennon Children Hospital, said the risk of stroke, while increased, remains extremely small. He examined the cases of three teenage boys who used occasionally marijuana and suffered strokes after consuming large doses. "The novice (marijuana user) may be at greater risk of stroke, especially if they use a lot at one time. It's another reason not to start using marijuana," Dr. Geller says. Strokes in children and teens are extremely rare, occurring in about six cases per 100,000 young people a year. When Saint Louis University doctors saw three cases of strokes in male adolescents during a five year period, they became suspicious, Dr. Geller says. All three teens had strokes in the cerebellar hemispheres of the brain. Two of the adolescents died.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Stroke
Link ID: 5372 - Posted: 04.29.2004

Discovery could help doctors plan treatment, prevention before symptoms appear PORTLAND, Ore. – The rate of brain volume loss may help doctors predict whether a patient will develop dementia before they even start showing signs of the disease, Oregon Health & Science University researchers discovered. Scientists at the Layton Center for Aging & Alzheimer's Disease Research in the OHSU School of Medicine's Department of Neurology found that rates of total brain volume loss may help identify patients with mild cognitive impairment who are at high risk of developing dementia. The discovery could help doctors plan early treatment strategies and prevention studies. Joseph F. Quinn, M.D., study co-author and assistant professor of neurology, and cell and developmental biology, OHSU School of Medicine, called the findings "very important." "The measurements can be used to both screen people for prevention studies and to monitor the effects of intervention," said Quinn, an investigator at the OHSU Layton Center for Aging & Alzheimer's Disease Research.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5371 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Despite some early disasters, a novel gene-therapy treatment for Alzheimer's disease has produced encouraging results in the first half-dozen patients, scientists reported Tuesday. After years of animal studies, researchers led by Dr. Mark Tuszynski, a neuroscientist and neurologist at UC San Diego, began the first human safety trial of the new approach in April 2001. Tuszynski summarized the results during the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, which is under way this week in San Francisco. The study has drawn attention as the first attempt to use gene therapy to treat an incurable neurodegenerative disorder. Alzheimer's disease currently affects about 4 million people in the United States, and that number is growing as the population ages. Gene therapy has been touted as a way of curing some of the most intractable diseases known, typically by injecting a benign virus or other "vector" to deliver therapeutic genes inside a patient's own cells. But the first studies were fraught with safety problems that cooled some of the early enthusiasm. ©2004 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5370 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers at Emory University have identified a specific mutation in a sodium channel gene (SCN1A) that is associated with epilepsy syndrome in a family. The findings were presented at the American Academy of Neurology in San Francisco on Tuesday, April 27th . The finding adds to a growing body of information about links between genetic mutations and epilepsy; more than two dozen genes implicated in the disease have been discovered to date, according to the Epilepsy Foundation. "The premise of this study was to enroll families with neurological diseases in which the genetic cause is unknown," says Salina Waddy, MD, associate and post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology, Emory University School of Medicine. "Identifying this novel mutation in a sodium channel gene (SCN1A) on Chromosome 2, which is associated with epilepsy will, in the end, help us learn how to better treat patients and their families who have a type of familial epilepsy called generalized epilepsy with febrile seizures plus (GEFS+)." Six Caucasian family members who all had GEFS+ were enrolled in the Emory study. GEFS+ is described as a condition where unusual bursts of energy discharge across the entire brain simultaneously, resulting in a seizure that is sometimes associated with high fevers. In most people who have febrile seizures, the seizures go away before the age of 6. In these patients, their febrile seizures occasionally persist beyond age 6, hence the "plus" in the GEFS+ name.

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 5369 - Posted: 04.28.2004

Women tend to choose husbands who look like their fathers - even if they are adopted, reveals a new study. The research shows that women use their dads as a template for picking a mate by a process called "sexual imprinting", says Tamas Bereczkei at the University of Pécs in Hungary and colleagues. Husbands and wives have long been suggested to look alike and this is known to occur in many animal species. Couples that look like each other are also more likely to share common genes, and having a degree of similarity is believed to beneficial. This might explain the study's findings, suggests Glenn Weisfeld, one of the research team and a human ethologist at Wayne State University, Detroit, US "There seems to be an advantage for animals to select a mate somewhat similar to themselves genetically," he told New Scientist. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5368 - Posted: 06.24.2010

SAN FRANCISCO – Do you ever wonder how the brain determines its response to emotional stimuli? Researchers have now shown a correlation between secretin, a hormone found in gut and brain tissue, and how the brain responds to affective stimuli. Details and implications of this study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 56th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., April 24 – May 1, 2004. Studies using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods have found that individuals with a range of behavioral disorders including schizophrenia, depression, bipolar illness and autism have abnormal amygdala activation in response to facial emotions and other social stimuli. The amygdala, a part of the limbic brain, has emerged as one of the most critical areas influencing how we respond emotionally. It has also been shown to play an important role in emotional learning and in the attribution of emotional significance to stimuli. These MRI findings point to amygdala dysfunction as a potential neurobiological factor in the development of these disorders. Recent evidence suggests that secretin may modulate the functional response of the amygdala. "We wanted to test the hypothesis that administration of secretin alters amygdala responsiveness to affective stimuli in healthy adult males," notes study author Deborah Yurgelun-Todd, PhD, of McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Belmont, Mass.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 5367 - Posted: 06.24.2010

SAN FRANCISCO – Along with left- or right-handedness, the hemisphere of the brain where language capacity resides is likely predetermined. Researchers have now shown that with age, language capacity in the brain becomes more evenly distributed between hemispheres. These study outcomes may offer promising therapeutic implications for adults who have experienced an injury, illness or other trauma to the brain. Details of this study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 56th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Calif., April 24 – May 1, 2004. From childhood until about age 25, language capacity in right-handers grows stronger in the left hemisphere of the brain. This phenomenon is usually converse to a person's "handedness", where a right-handed person holds language in the left hemisphere, and vice versa. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) researchers have now shown that after about age 25, language capacity "evens out" somewhat, with older adults using more of both hemispheres relative to language skills. "We are most interested in why this occurs, and the age at which the hemispheric language dominance begins to decrease," notes study author Jerzy P. Szaflarski, MD, PhD, of the University of Cincinnati Medical Center in Ohio.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 5366 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Navy biologist detects first call from the abyss. MARK PEPLOW Sounds made by a deep-water fish have been encountered for the very first time. Although the identity of this voluble creature remains a mystery, scientists believe it uses its call to find mates in the dark ocean depths. Shallow-water fish such as croakers and toad-fish are known to make a limited range of sounds, but deep-water fish, which are those that live far from continental shelves at depths greater than about 500 m, have not been heard before. "These guys have the first good data on noise from an abyssal critter," says Adam Summers, a comparative physiologist at the University of California, Irvine, who was also scientific adviser for the fishy film Finding Nemo. The sounds were recorded by four underwater microphones (hydrophones) at the bottom of the ocean between the Bahamas and the coast of Florida. The listening posts are owned by the US Navy's Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, which normally listens for approaching submarines. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Hearing; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5365 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Neural transplants may rein in mental decline. HELEN R. PILCHER Transplanting genetically modified skin cells into the brain might slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease, a preliminary clinical trial suggests. A small study of eight patients suggests that the innovative technique is safe to use and may reduce mental decline, researchers told the American Academy of Neurology meeting in San Francisco this week. Mark Tuszynski from the University of California, San Diego, and his colleagues removed samples of skin cells from Alzheimer's patients and genetically modified them in cultures to produce Nerve Growth Factor (NGF), a naturally occurring protein that prevents cell death in the brain. The team then injected up to 10 million NGF-producing cells into 10 different brain sites. They hoped that the transplanted cells would prevent vulnerable neurons from dying, and thus slow the dementia's progression. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Alzheimers; Trophic Factors
Link ID: 5364 - Posted: 06.24.2010

PORTLAND, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) have identified a set of genes that appear to be involved in the development of Alzheimer's disease. They hope this information will help scientists create of methods for early detection of the disease and for the development of therapeutic strategies to delay or even stop its progression. P. Hemachandra Reddy, Ph.D., of the OHSU Neurological Sciences Institute is the first and corresponding author of the paper, which will be published online on April 27, prior to its appearance in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. "Through studying a mouse model of Alzheimer's, the research team found that a series of genes related to mitochondrial metabolism in brain cells were more active than in normal mice," Reddy said. "Mitochondria are structures located in the cytoplasm of cells that produce energy for the cell. Prior research has linked Alzheimer's to mitochondrial function. However this is the first time genes that are responsible for early cellular change in Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis have been identified."

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5363 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Dr. Murray Feingold / Correspondent I have a general rule based on a nonscientific impression that states "foods that taste good usually contain a lot of fat." Some people can retrain their taste buds so nonfat foods, such as asparagus, taste just as good to them as do fatty foods such as steak and french fries. I have never been able to make such a transition. Now comes an article in the Journal of Neuroscience that explains my love affair with illicit fatty foods. By using magnetic resonance imaging, or MRIs, researchers determined that fatty foods stimulate the taste cortex of the brain much more than nonfat foods, thus making them taste better. These findings provide a scientific reason for my affinity with fatty foods. If this finding is correct, then perhaps scientists can ultimately invent some type of chemical, such as an enzyme, that when added to foods such as broccoli will make it taste like fat, although it really isn't. © Copyright of CNC and Herald Interactive Advertising Systems, Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 5362 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. What could be more useful than a nice set of horns? They seem perfect for driving off predators, handy for clobbering rivals and fine for signaling subtly to potential mates. Ideally, everyone should have a pair, instead of Pan, Lucifer and Hellboy having all the fun. But come to think of it, if they're so great, why are they so rare? Although humans who visit zoos or farms might assume that horns are the norm, they are in fact largely confined to a small and modern slice of mammals, hoofed ungulates, and some unusual reptiles and insects. Cattle, oxen, sheep, goats, yaks and buffalo have them, as do African antelopes, from the prongs of the tiny duiker to the elegant spirals of the kudu. Morphologically extremely different, but also usefully sharp, are the antlers that annually adorn the foreheads of deer, moose, elk and reindeer. Rhinoceroses have horns of compressed hair that ride like gun sights between their notoriously weak eyes. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 5361 - Posted: 04.27.2004

For many people, increasing forgetfulness is an unwelcome side effect of growing old. Just how the human brain reacts to aging, independent of specific diseases such as Alzheimer’s, has proved difficult to discern. Now a report published online by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identifies a specific section of the brain that is most vulnerable during the twilight years. Using human subjects to study age-related changes in the brain is problematic because it is hard to exclude patients who may be suffering from early-stage Alzheimer’s but have not yet been diagnosed. Scott A. Small of Columbia University and his colleagues thus turned to rhesus monkeys and rats--animals that experience brain changes as they age but are free of Alzheimer’s-type diseases--instead. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the team measured blood flow to the brain and found that older monkeys displayed a significant decline in blood volume in a section of the hippocampus known as the dentate gyrus. © 1996-2004 Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 5360 - Posted: 06.24.2010