By Shankar Vedantam,Washington Post Staff Writer A recent report criticizing the funding priorities of the federal government's National Institute of Mental Health has reignited controversy over the organization's direction and destiny -- with the top official at the institute echoing some of the criticism himself. The percentage of funds devoted to severe mental illnesses has shrunk even as the institute's budget has doubled, according to the report issued last month by psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey's Treatment Advocacy Center, the Public Citizen Health Research Group and other mental health experts. The report has created sharp divisions among the many mental health experts, advocacy groups and professional organizations that have stakes in the agency's mission and direction, and has illustrated the growing gap between scientific and popular visions of mental health research. Ultimately, the issue may be decided not within the NIMH but on Capitol Hill. © Copyright 1996-2003 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4738 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Alzheimer's disease may be linked to processing problems in part of the brain that triggers daydreams. Activity in this area normally reduces or shuts down when somebody has to concentrate on a task at hand. But scientists at Washington University in St Louis have found evidence from brain scans that this may not be the case in people with Alzheimer's. The work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may lead to new diagnostic tests. The researchers found there are parts of the brain in young people that are very active when they are day dreaming. But when they are asked to do something, they seem to have the ability to shut down activity in these areas. (C) BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 4737 - Posted: 12.24.2003

Faults in the brain's wiring may cause some cases of schizophrenia in young people, say scientists. A team from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York found brain abnormalities in children with the condition. They believe these changes disrupt the transmission of signals that regulate behaviour. The research was presented at a meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The researchers used a sophisticated scanning technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). They found abnormalities in tissue known as white matter in an area of the brain called the frontal lobe, which controls emotions and many thinking processes. (C) BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4736 - Posted: 12.24.2003

by Erik Ness Attention, parents: Now that you've seen your kids' first report cards of the year, it's time for a little homework of your own. No doubt you're doing the best you can to ensure your little ones' eventual membership in Mensa -- promoting stimulating dinner conversation, reading a chapter together each night, maybe even playing Mozart during bath time. But wait -- there's more. You'll find your next assignment in the pages of Colleen Moore's Silent Scourge: Children, Pollution, and Why Scientists Disagree. You probably already know that lead is not an appropriate component of any cerebral calisthenics program. But nor is it the only pollutant that can stunt intellectual development. In Silent Scourge, Moore, a developmental psychologist, reviews the case against lead and five additional types of pollutants -- mercury, PCBs, pesticides, noise, and radioactive and chemical wastes. With the possible exception of noise, most people recognize these pollutants as harmful and wouldn't actively incorporate them into K-12 curriculums or meal plans. But that doesn't mean we've got the necessary information -- or power -- to protect kids from them. Each of these pollutants has been the object of protracted debate, the kind of media-moderated, he-said/she-said dispute that frequently leaves us more worn down than wised up. Moore cuts through the confusion, using lay language to explain the dangers each pollutant poses to child development, including intellectual function, behavior, emotional state, and overall physical and psychological well-being. © 2003, Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4735 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MATTHEW L. WALD and ERIC LICHTBLAU WASHINGTON, — A sick cow slaughtered about two weeks ago near Yakima, Wash., has tested positive for mad cow disease in early laboratory results, the first such case in the United States, the secretary of agriculture said on Tuesday. Shortly after the announcement, Japan said it was banning imports of American beef. The South Korean agriculture ministry said in a statement that South Korea was also halting American beef imports and that it was pulling American beef products off supermarket shelves. [On Wednesday morning, Russia, Thailand and Hong Kong also announced that they too were banning imports of American beef products.] Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 4734 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Cohabiting is better for men's mental health, but marriage is better for women's happiness, suggests a new study. The study of nearly 4,500 men and women in the UK also reveals that men and women who stick with their first enduring relationship enjoy good mental health. However, where men recover from serial break-ups, women fare much worse. In fact it may be much better for a woman's mental health to stay single than to have loved and lost, suggests the study by Michaela Benzeval at Queen Mary, University of London and colleagues. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4733 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ERIC NAGOURNEY If you're looking for a nice smoky place, it is hard to do better than some casinos. So when scientists from the University of Minnesota wanted to see how people were affected by secondhand tobacco smoke, they asked a group of volunteers to roam among the slot machines and gambling tables for a while to see what happened. After just four hours or so, the volunteers had significant amounts of a biochemical marker in their urine traceable only to a known carcinogen in tobacco, the researchers reported yesterday. Writing in Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention, a medical journal, they said the study was the first to look at carcinogen levels in people exposed to smoke in a commercial setting. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4732 - Posted: 12.23.2003

ST. PAUL, MN – New research finds that deficiencies in the hippocampus play a key role in alcoholism-related Korsakoff's syndrome, a memory disorder. The deficiencies are comparable to those found in the brains of Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the December 23 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Researchers used MRI to compare the brains of five men with alcoholic Korsakoff's syndrome to 20 men with Alzheimer's disease and 36 healthy men. The brains of all Korsakoff's patients and Alzheimer's patients were comparable in significant volume loss in the hippocampus, which plays an important role in memory functions. Greater hippocampal damage was correlated to a higher memory deterioration index score for the Korsakoff's patients. The study authors also reported a similar correlation in Alzheimer's patients, where poor memory performance correlated with smaller hippocampal size. "Awareness of the clinical and radiological similarities between Korsakoff's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease may help with the detection of each," said study author Edith V. Sullivan, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, Calif. "Although controversial, we believe that the nature of the memory impairment in these disorders is the same, while their overall profiles are different."

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4731 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Chemical might help human cells reach clinic. ERIKA CHECK A humble marine snail has helped scientists to unravel the signals that keep stem cells young. Human embryonic stem (ES) cells can give rise to almost all of the body's different cell types. They could eventually provide patients with replacement tissues - but there are some roadblocks that currently prevent researchers from putting the cells into patients' bodies. One problem is that scientists don't yet know how to control the cells' transformations into other types. Another is that the cells cannot be grown without help from mouse cells, which means that they could be contaminated with mouse proteins. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Stem Cells; Regeneration
Link ID: 4730 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Shankar Vedantam, Washington Post Staff Writer Scientists are gaining new insights into the role of temperament in making some people vulnerable to physical disease through studies exploring how stress influences the immune system, weakening disease-fighting cells and creating fertile environments for pathogens. This month, a carefully done study showed that shy men have much less resistance to the AIDS virus than extroverted men and benefit far less from treatment with antiretroviral drugs. It is the first study to demonstrate through laboratory tests a connection between being introverted and the course of AIDS in individuals, researchers said. Such studies are sketching in the details behind the growing awareness that the workings of the body and mind cannot be neatly compartmentalized into the departments and disciplines taught in medical school. As a result, paying attention to the emotional state of patients with infectious and chronic diseases is increasingly more than a matter of good bedside manner; it is becoming an essential part of treatment. © 2003 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Stress; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 4729 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A senior UK Government scientist has said he may resign after reports he was not put forward for an honour because of his support for animal experiments. Colin Blakemore, head of the Medical Research Council (MRC), has called for the government to issue a statement backing experiments on animals. Professor Blakemore said the move undermined the MRC's aim of engaging with the public about research. MPs say they will begin an inquiry into the honours system in the new year. Professor Blakemore said he understood his name was blocked because of his work with animal experimentation, but pointed out other scientists who worked on animals "but don't speak about their work" had been given honours recently. "I take it to mean because I have been willing to engage publicly on that very sensitive but very important issue [my name was blocked]," Professor Blakemore told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 4728 - Posted: 12.22.2003

Why are humans nearly hairless? And why do some wish to become more so? AT THE back of a hairdresser's shop, just off Piccadilly in London, an Irish beautician called Genevieve is explaining what a “Brazilian” is as she practises her art on your correspondent. A Brazilian strip, some are surprised to learn, is nothing to do with Latin American football. Between each excruciating rip, she explains that she is going to remove nearly all my pubic hair, except for a narrow vertical strip of hairs the width of a couple of fingers. This is known colloquially as the “landing strip”. In only a few years, this form of waxing has gone from the esoteric to the everyday and is starting to rival the ordinary bikini wax in popularity. At the same time the bikini wax is becoming a normal procedure for women of all ages: the youngest person Genevieve has waxed is a 12-year-old girl. Women are styling their pubic hair into hearts, stars and arrows. It is one of the more notable developments in hairdressing since the permanent wave. Copyright © The Economist Newspaper Limited 2003

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4727 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A common question flowing across holiday tables trimmed with turkey this week may be "white meat or dark?" Now scientists have identified the genetic switch that governs the formation of the two types during development. White and dark meat differ in appearance because each is made up of a distinct type of muscle fiber. Dark meat comprises so-called slow twitch muscle fibers, which are specialized for extended exertion, whereas white meat is made up of fast twitch fibers that fuel short, intense bursts of energy. That much has been known for some time. The genetic mechanism underlying the specification of one muscle type versus the other was unclear, however. Philip Ingham of the University of Sheffield and his colleagues studied muscle cells of developing zebrafish and found that a gene dubbed u-boot (ubo ) plays a key role in determining what type of muscle develops by controlling the transcription factor protein known as Blimp-1. © 1996-2003 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Muscles
Link ID: 4726 - Posted: 06.24.2010

First UK case of variant CJD from blood. NICOLA JONES A patient who died from the human form of mad cow disease may have caught the illness from a blood transfusion. Policies governing blood donation may require a rethink as a result. It is not possible to tell whether the patient caught the fatal disease - called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) - from the transfusion or contracted it by eating infected meat. But the incident is the first case of "possible transmission" through transfusion - something that scientists have long known to be a possibility. Britain's Department of Health and the National Blood Service have since contacted 15 other patients who also received blood from donors who later died from vCJD. The patients have been offered counselling. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 4725 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Emotions triggered by wailing tots. HELEN R. PILCHER The brains of mums and dads are tuned in to the sound of toddlers' cries, reveals a brain-imaging study. Non-parents, on the other hand, remain largely oblivious. Researchers at the University of Basel, Switzerland, played parents and childless adults recordings of babies' cries and laughter. They measured their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Parents' brains fired up more in response to sobs than giggles, the researchers found1. The cries activated one brain region in particular, called the amygdala, which is involved in processing emotions. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 4724 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have found an explanation for those mornings where you put coffee on your cornflakes and the cat in the washing machine. They say it is because of a change in the kind of brainwaves someone produces. But the researchers, who presented their findings to the Physiological Society Conference, said the change could have more serious consequences. They say it may have been a factor in accidents like the Chernobyl disaster. A team from the Medical Research Council's cognitive and brain sciences unit in Cambridge examined brainwaves produced by people as they made mistakes. Volunteers took part in a 10-minute repetitive action test that requires prolonged periods of concentration. (C) BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4723 - Posted: 12.20.2003

A drug used to treat epilepsy can also control debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis. Levetiracetam was effective in all 11 patients studied by doctors at Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. Research published in the Archives of Neurology showed the drug also reduced nerve pain. Multiple sclerosis (MS) experts said the majority of people with the disease experienced muscle spasms and cramps. Spasms and cramps can be extremely debilitating for those affected, leading to loss of balance, increased risk of falls, pain, fatigue, and walking difficulties. People who have experienced a stroke or spinal-cord injury may also be affected. Drugs currently used to treat spasticity may cause memory problems, weakness and lethargy in some patients. (C) BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Epilepsy
Link ID: 4722 - Posted: 12.20.2003

ANN ARBOR, Mich.----The proportion of American 10th- and 12th-grade students who reported using the drug ecstasy in the prior 12 months has fallen by more than half just since 2001. The usage rate among eighth-graders is down considerably, as well, over the same two-year interval. That is just some of the encouraging news to emerge from the 2003 Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of nearly 50,000 students in 392 secondary schools across the country. Ecstasy rose rapidly in popularity from 1998 through 2001, but in 2001 the study's investigators detected the beginning of an increase in the proportion of students coming to see ecstasy as a dangerous drug. That perception strengthened further in 2002 as use began to decline, and use dropped more sharply in 2003 as the perceived dangers of ecstasy continued to increase. "We have been saying for several years that use of this newly popular drug was not going to diminish until young people began to perceive its use as dangerous," said Lloyd Johnston, the study's principal investigator. "It now appears that teens are finally getting the word about ecstasy's potential consequences, probably due to extensive media coverage of the issue and concerted efforts by several organizations active in educating young people about the dangers of ecstasy." These organizations include the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the White House Office on National Drug Control Policy, and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The latter two organizations launched an anti-ecstasy ad campaign in January 2002.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4721 - Posted: 12.20.2003

'Tis the season for the fun ritual of decorating Christmas trees for many families. But for bowerbirds, a type of bird native to Australia and New Guinea, decoration is a serious business. Bowerbirds build elaborate structures called bowers to attract potential mates. The bower's primary function is to relate a sense of protection. "A bower makes the female comfortable by making it so that the male cannot jump on top of her and copulate with her against her will," says Gerald Borgia, a biologist at the University of Maryland and an expert on bowerbirds who has been studying them for 24 y ears. Borgia says the bowers have another important function: "The females seem to use the bowers in part of their mate choice process. So males with better built bowers are more attractive to females." As seen on the PBS documentary series NOVA , some bowers are small, and others can reach up to 9 feet tall or 6 feet wide. And bowerbirds use everything at their disposal, both natural and man-made, to decorate their creations. "The kind of natural objects they use include parrot feathers, blueberries, yellow leaves, skins from snakes, skulls from rodents, and those kinds of things," says Borgia. "They also use man-made objects including blue clothespins, and occasionally you find yellow condoms on bowers. They often use spoons, money—with the shiny coins in the middle of the bower and the dull coins toward the outside. They use jewelry—invariably if you go out in the Outback of Australia, the local people will tell you stories about spotted bowerbirds stealing wedding rings and putting them on their bowers, and it's said by many people that that's where they go to look for rings when they lose them." © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Animal Communication
Link ID: 4720 - Posted: 06.24.2010

First-of-its kind study concludes circulating endogenous hormone profile is more dependent on exercise mode or intensity than exercise volume as measured by caloric expenditure in men (Bethesda, MD) -- There are a number of reasons why, in men, the manipulation of anabolic hormones (such as testosterone) and the anabolic/catabolic hormone ratio (e.g., testosterone/cortisol) might be beneficial. From the perspective of an athlete, an increase in anabolic-androgenic hormones can improve performance by decreasing body fat and increasing lean body mass and muscular strength. Among older men, it may help to replace the decline in testosterone, which can negatively affect body composition and physical function. Studies have shown that endurance-trained men tend to have lower levels of testosterone compared to their sedentary counterparts and that resistance-trained men have higher basal testosterone levels. Studies have also found that both endurance- and resistance-trained males had lower testosterone levels than sedentary control subjects. Thus, while it is known that training status can influence the hormone response to exercise, it is not clear whether the mode of training can affect the hormone response to different modes of exercise. Such information could be useful in designing training regimes that will result in the most favorable ratio of anabolic and catabolic hormones.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4719 - Posted: 12.19.2003