Study shows that perception is tied to movement Our fingers run over surfaces; our eyes are in constant motion. This is all a part of "active sensing," key principles of which have now been uncovered by a Weizmann Institute study. "We intuitively understand that active sensing should provide the brain with information very different from that which is acquired by mere passive sensing, (e.g. feeling without finger movement)," says Prof. Ehud Ahissar of the Neurobiology Department, "yet current experiments nearly always keep the organs stationary." Much of his recent research focuses on discovering how the sensory nerves in these organs perform when in motion. Such research, he hopes, will deepen our understanding of perception, and help optimize the design of artificial sensory aids for the deaf and blind. Rats' whiskers, which sweep back and forth to locate and appraise objects in the immediate vicinity, are an ideal tool for studying the active aspects of perception. Working with doctoral student Marcin Szwed and Dr. Knarik Bagdasarian, Ahissar recorded the transmissions of neurons that connect whiskers to the brain. Tracking these cells' responses while whisker hairs actively swept over objects, they saw that two basic types of neurons came into play. The first, which they call whisking neurons, respond solely to the whisking motion itself, regardless of whether the whiskers touch an object or not.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4838 - Posted: 01.21.2004

The fear centre finds a role in arousal. HELEN PEARSON Researchers have suggested that size matters when it comes to sex - the size of part of the brain, that is1. According to David Reutens at the University of Melbourne, Australia, a person's sex drive may be proportional to the size of their amygdala, a small 'emotion' centre nestled at the base of the brain. The almond-sized nugget has been implicated in sex drive before; it is tickled by erotic movies and is vital for mating behaviour in many animals. But the effect of its size was unclear. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 4837 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Findings suggest that enzyme may be manipulated phamalogically to control brain receptor by Jessica Whiteside -- The discovery of a molecular "addiction switch" in the mammalian brain has the potential to control the addiction process in drug addicts, say U of T researchers. A study published Jan. 18 in the online edition of Nature Neuroscience finds that a region of the brain called the VTA contains receptors that, when exposed to a certain enzyme, can control the switch from an addicted to non-addicted state and back again. This goes against previous ideas that viewed drug addiction as a permanent change in the brain, says lead author Steven Laviolette who conducted the research while a PhD student at U of T's Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology with senior author Professor Derek van der Kooy. "Our findings suggest that instead of a permanent alteration in the brain, there's actually a switch that goes on between two separate systems (one that mediates the brain's response to drugs while not yet addicted and the other that mediates response once addicted)," says Laviolette. "They also suggest we may be able to manipulate that switch pharmacologically to take drug addicts back to a non-addicted state in a relatively short period of time so they do not crave the drug."

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4836 - Posted: 01.21.2004

University Memory and Aging Center focuses on epilepsy drug The University Memory and Aging Center (UMAC) of University Hospitals of Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University is one of 30 institutions participating in a $10 million National Institutes of Health study to determine if the medication valproate can reduce the occurrences of problem behaviors and affect the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease. Valproate has been successfully used for about 40 years to treat epilepsy, migraines and bipolar disorder, and may provide new hope for the more than four million Americans suffering with Alzheimer's disease. This study is the first of its kind to research a medication that may have the potential to block "tangles," one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease linked with memory loss and other symptoms of dementia. Tangles are abnormal brain tissue structures formed by unusual processing of a protein called "tau." Normally, tau is crucial for intracellular functioning and structure, but in Alzheimer's patients, a stringy cluster of tau and phosphate molecules form, leading to dysfunction that impairs the cell's ability to communicate with neighboring cells. This eventually leads to cell death, contributing to the confusion, disorientation and forgetfulness associated with Alzheimer's disease. The "Valproate in Dementia" study, led by the Alzheimer's research group at the University of Rochester Medical Center, will target 300 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's who are living at home and have not yet shown signs of agitation.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 4835 - Posted: 01.21.2004

ATLANTA -- The reward mechanism involved in addiction appears to regulate lifelong social or pair bonds between monogamous mating animals, according to a Center for Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN) study of prairie voles published in the January 19 edition of the Journal of Comparative Neurology. The finding could have implications for understanding the basis of romantic love and disorders of the ability to form social attachments, such as autism and schizophrenia. In their research, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Larry Young, PhD., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Emory University School of Medicine and an affiliate scientist at Yerkes National Primate Research Center; graduate student Miranda Lim; and Anne Murphy, PhD., associate professor of biology at Georgia State University, examined the distribution of two brain receptors in the ventral forebrain of monogamous prairie voles that have been previously tied to pair bond formation: oxytocin (OTR) and vasopressin V1a receptor (V1aR). Using receptor audiographic techniques, the scientists found that these receptors are confined to two of the brain's reward centers, the nucleus accumbens and the ventral pallidum. V1aR receptors, which are thought to be activated in the male vole brain during pair bond formation, were confined largely to the ventral pallidum. OTR receptors, which play a crucial role in pair bond formation in females, were found mainly in the nucleus accumbens.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4834 - Posted: 01.21.2004

Asperger syndrome challenges experts to distinguish its symptoms and treatments By Jamie Talan, Staff Writer When Eric Schissel was a boy, ZIP codes fascinated him. And he had magnificent obsessions with mathematics, dictionaries, penguins and foreign languages. He was master of an amazing party trick: Pick any date in history, and he could tell you what day it landed on. But Eric Schissel wasn't invited to any parties. To all, he was a brilliant loner, inept at face-to-face exchanges. Early on, the Roslyn boy was put in special education classes because of his odd behavior, but his academic work would win him admittance to Princeton University. In graduate school at Cornell University in Ithaca, where he had to work closely with colleagues, his isolated world began to crumble. He seemed to have little idea how to build relationships. While his parents, teachers and doctors never had the right label for Schissel's behavior, early in the 1990s psychiatrists were putting together lists of behaviors that spelled out a new diagnosis in the lexicon of American psychiatry. It is now called Asperger syndrome, but it remains a controversial diagnosis because of disagreement over whether it's a version of a high-functioning form of autism or a condition unto itself. As the debate heats up, experts worry that people like Schissel may be either misdiagnosed or missed altogether. Copyright © Newsday, Inc.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 4833 - Posted: 06.24.2010

They say laughter is good for the soul. But, as this ScienCentral News video reports, scientists have found out how the brain responds to a good joke. What's happening in your brain when you find something funny? Researchers at Stanford University have discovered that what makes us laugh also activates the reward mechanism in the brain. "For the first time we know that the reward centers of the brain are explicitly involved in perception of humor," says Allan Reiss, psychiatry professor at Stanford University, director of the Stanford Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory and co-director of the Center for Brain and Behavior at Packard Children's Hospital. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4832 - Posted: 06.24.2010

If you want to go from scrawny to brawny in 30 days, there is no shortage of miracle shape-up programs. But as impressive as beefy pecs and triceps may look, they won't help you cite the evidence for Einstein's special theory of relativity, rattle off pi to the 20th decimal place, or liberate yourself from the mass delusion that a penny dropped from the Empire State Building will gather enough speed to kill a hapless pedestrian. We at PopSci believe the body part most worth stretching and toning -- not to mention showing off -- is the brain. You need to ensure that yours is flexible enough for creative problem solving, strong enough to run the occasional intellectual mini-marathon, and most of all, free of pseudoscientific flab. You say the brain isn't really a muscle? Irrelevant. Recent studies indicate that it can bulk up: The hippocampus, a brain region responsible for thought and memory, produces new cells throughout a person's life, and some neuroscientists believe other parts of the brain also regenerate. The trick to keeping those new neurons? Use 'em or lose 'em. So take our scientific-aptitude quiz, learn the mental muscle groups, and get pumping. Copyright © 2004 Popular Science.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4831 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service The blind mole rat continually monitors its direction using the Earth's magnetic field when it makes long underground journeys, new research has revealed. It is first animal discovered to have this talent. Blind mole rats have no eyes and spend most of their time burrowing in subterranean tunnels. They often have to make long journeys from their nests to find food and yet are able to find their way efficiently through complex mazes of tunnels. They use signals such as smell and balance to check their direction and progress over short distances. But scientists have now discovered that on longer routes they combine this information with constant reference checks of the Earth's magnetic field. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 4830 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Antioxidant vitamin supplements, particularly vitamins E and C, may protect the aging brain against damage associated with the pathological changes of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions. The researchers believe antioxidant vitamin supplements may be an ideal prevention strategy for our aging population as they are relatively nontoxic and are thought to have wide-ranging health benefits. The study, "Reduced Risk of Alzheimer's Disease in Users of Antioxidant Vitamin Supplements" is published in the January 2004, issue of the journal Archives of Neurology. Peter P. Zandi, PhD, lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the School's Department of Mental Health, said, "These results are extremely exciting. Our study suggests that the regular use of vitamin E in nutritional supplement doses, especially in combination with vitamin C, may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease."

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 4829 - Posted: 01.20.2004

By RANDI HUTTER EPSTEIN Bugs ruled Brandon Howard's life as long as he could remember. One glimpse of a beetle flitting by was enough to send Brandon racing away from his buddies to the safety of home. But no more. A single three-hour treatment session turned Brandon, who was 10 then, into a friend of beetles. In this intensive exposure session, a therapist helped Brandon bond with a red-striped beetle and conquer his fears. So far he's been phobia-free for nine months. Brandon, who is now 11 and lives in Dublin, Va., is one of 120 children participating in a trial sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health that is testing a speedy cure for childhood phobias. So far, investigators, from Virginia Tech and Stockholm University in Sweden, claim a 75 percent cure rate — with follow-up of about a year. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 4828 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS WADE If you see the world with only two color-detecting pigments in your eye, as many monkeys do, your sense of smell is very important. But in higher primates, which see with three pigments, the sense of smell is less critical, evolutionary biologists have found — to the extent that people have lost the use of more than half their odor-detecting genes. The finding has emerged from analysis of odor-detecting genes in the primate tree, which includes people, monkeys and apes. A large proportion of the genes have become inactive in just those primate species that have developed full color vision, say Dr. Yoav Gilad and Dr. Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The detection of smell begins with special receptors embedded in the surface of the nerve cells in the nose. Humans have more than 1,000 receptor-making genes. But analysis of the DNA sequence of these genes, made possible by the recent decoding of the human genome, shows that about 60 percent of the genes carry a mutation that would render useless the receptor protein they specify. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Evolution
Link ID: 4827 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NEW BRUNSWICK/PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers researchers have discovered what could be the newest target for drugs in the treatment of memory and learning disabilities as well as diseases such as Alzheimer's and fetal alcohol syndrome: a protein known as cypin. Cypin is found throughout the body, but in the brain it regulates nerve cell or neuron branching. Branching or dendrite growth is an important process in normal brain function and is thought to increase when a person learns. A reduction in branching is associated with certain neurological diseases. "The identification of cypin and understanding how it works in the brain is particularly exciting since it opens up new avenues for the treatment of serious neurological disorders," said principal investigator Bonnie Firestein, assistant professor of cell biology and neuroscience at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. "This paves the way to designing new drugs that could target this protein molecule."

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4826 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Pet project may to help unravel the biological basis of character. HELEN R. PILCHER A test that can assess a dog's personality has helped to prove what pet owners know, but many psychologists deny: pooches have personality. The test, developed by Sam Gosling from the University of Texas at Austin and his colleagues, may help researchers to unravel the biology of animal and human character. Scientists readily accept that animals and humans share a similar anatomy and physiology, says Gosling, but many are reluctant to say that they share the traits of emotion and personality too. "Some see it as one more blow against the special status of humans," he says. Instead, many people believe that pet owners project their own personality onto their animals, and that true character is lacking. But personality traits are just as likely to have evolved in animals as physical traits, argues Gosling. What was needed was a test to prove that canine character exists. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4825 - Posted: 06.24.2010

How does your brain pass the time while you're sleeping? In a study designed to apply state-of-the-art techniques to this old question, Sidarta Ribeiro and his colleagues at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, recorded over a hundred neurons continuously over the course of the normal sleepwake cycle in rats, focusing on four major forebrain areas that are essential for rodent-specific behaviors. Halfway through the recording time, animals were transiently allowed to explore novel objects placed in their cage. The researchers found that in all the forebrain areas examined the neuronal firing patterns recorded when the rats initially explored the new objects reappeared for up to 48 hours after these objects were removed. This reverberation of neuronal activity that they recorded was most significant during slow-wave sleep (a state that accounts for nearly 40% of a rat's life), decreased during waking periods, and was highly variable during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 4824 - Posted: 01.20.2004

Proteins which behave like those linked to vCJD and BSE may play a role in forming memories, scientists claim. Prions, abnormal proteins which change normal proteins into copies of themselves, are thought to cause neurodegenerative diseases. But researchers at New York's Columbia University say a protein which behaves in the same way may help make memories. Writing in Nature magazine, they say prions may perform other beneficial roles in the body. In diseases such as variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, prions enter the brain and reproduce, converting other proteins into copies of themselves. These accumulate in the brain and progressively damage and destroy cells. (C) BBC

Keyword: Prions; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4823 - Posted: 01.19.2004

What feels good is good for you too. Making love can boost the heart, relieve pain and help keep you healthy By Alice Park The "sex glow." Carrie Bradshaw and her Sex and the City trio may be the champions of detecting it, getting it and keeping it, but you don't need a closetful of Prada to appreciate the rosy radiance that follows a pleasant sexual encounter. The fact is, sex leaves its mark, not just on the mind but on the body as well. Researchers have begun to explore its effects on almost every part of the body, from the brain to the heart to the immune system. Studies are showing that arousal and an active sex life may lead to a longer life, better heart health, an improved ability to ward off pain, a more robust immune system and even protection against certain cancers, not to mention lower rates of depression. But finding mechanisms for these benefits and proving cause and effect are no easy matter. "The associations are out there, so there has to be an explanation for it," says Dr. Ronald Glaser, director of the Institute of Behavioral Medicine Research at Ohio State University. Thanks to a better understanding of the biochemistry of arousal, as well as advances in imaging techniques, doctors are closing in on some possibilities. Their efforts are leading them to the hormone oxytocin, which may be the key lubricant for the machinery of sex. Known for controlling the muscles of the uterus during childbirth, oxytocin surges up to five times as high as its normal blood level during orgasm. Studies in animals have also revealed oxytocin's softer side. It is responsible for helping individuals forge strong emotional bonds, earning its moniker as the cuddle hormone. Released in the brain, oxytocin works in the blood, where it travels to tissues as distant as the uterus, as well as along nerve fibers, where it regulates body temperature, blood pressure, wound healing and even relief from pain. Copyright © 2004 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4822 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Kathy A. Svitil From November 10–14, a diverse lot of physicists, engineers, oceanographers, physiologists, and other researchers met in Austin, Texas, for the 146th meeting of the Acoustical Society of America. Over 700 papers were presented. The highlights include: Facing the music: Many professional musicians shell out hundreds of dollars to throw their trumpets, tubas, saxophones, and other instruments into a deep freeze. Fans of the technique, called cryogenic tempering, say it improves the tone of instruments and makes them easier to play by realigning the molecules that make up the lattice of which metal is composed. But scientists at Tufts University say the musicians are probably just blowing their money away. Jesse Jones IV and Chris Rogers had a cryogenics company chill five professional-grade trumpets down to –321 degrees Fahrenheit in a chamber cooled by liquid nitrogen, let them sit for 10 hours, then slowly warmed them up to room temperature over a period of 20–25 hours. Jones and Rogers found no statistical difference in the quality of the sound produced by the treated trumpets compared to that of five untreated instruments; a microscopic analysis of the trumpets did not reveal any structural changes. Six trumpet players, beginners to professionals, were asked to assess the quality of all 10 instruments and guess whether or not they’d been treated. They detected no difference in the tone or playability of the instruments and correctly identified the cooled trumpets only 52.5 percent of the time: “Virtually a coin flip,” Jones says. “I also found that there was a great variation in a single player’s tone when he was well practiced versus somewhat out of practice. This leads me to believe that you’re better off keeping your trumpet at home and practicing rather than sending it away to freeze it.” © 2003 The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 4821 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Our pharmaceutical drugs are turning up in the environment and in animals. What will the consequences be? By Kathy A. Svitil Over the past few years, ecologists surveying the waters around waste treatment plants have found contraceptives, synthetic musks, ibuprofen, and other compounds flushed off or out of our bodies and into the environment via municipal effluent. A recent study in Tromsø, in northern Norway , for example, found extremely elevated levels of caffeine in the seawater of the Tromsø Sound. Now the compounds are turning up in animals as well—with unknown consequences. Environmental toxicologist Bryan Brooks and his colleagues collected bluegill, channel catfish, and black crappie from Pecan Creek, a stream in the Dallas suburb of Denton, Texas , that is prime dumping ground for effluent from the city’s waste treatment plant. The researchers took brain, liver, and muscle samples from the fish and tested them for fluoxetine, the active ingredient in the antidepressant Prozac. Fluoxetine and norfluoxetine, the metabolized form of the drug, were found in every tissue sample and in high enough concentrations, Brooks says, to warrant studies of their possible physiological effects. Fluoxetine blocks nerves from gobbling up serotonin—a neurotransmitter known to elevate mood and increase relaxation—from the synapses between communicating neurons. In humans, the result is less anxiety and an improved sense of well-being. “We would suspect that some level of fluoxetine exposure would influence serotonin in the fish and could cause behavioral changes,” Brooks says. “It has also been shown that even low levels of pharmaceuticals may affect fish,” he says. In addition, in lab studies, other researchers found that injections of fluoxetine led to less aggressive behavior in fish. Brooks cautions, however, that “injection is a very different form of exposure than a fish taking up a chemical across its gills or acquiring it in its food. At this point it is too early to suggest that the concentrations of fluoxetine that we’ve detected might result in a behavioral response.” © 2003 The Walt Disney Company. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 4820 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Discovery provides taste of a possible route for human drug development. HELEN R. PILCHER A simple sugar called trehalose helps to relieve the symptoms of Huntington's disease in mice. The discovery may help researchers to design drug treatments for the human condition. Huntington's disease is an inherited illness that causes profound cognitive and movement problems. It affects 1 in 10,000 people. There is currently no cure. Nobuyuki Nukina and colleagues from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Saitama, Japan, tested a variety of compounds on a test-tube model of the disease1. They discovered that sugar compounds seemed to have a positive effect. They then tested one specific sugar called trehalose on genetically modified mice with Huntington's disease-like symptoms. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 4819 - Posted: 06.24.2010