Scientists have uncovered further evidence that an ingredient of cannabis may trigger miscarriage. US scientists found that anandamide, at low concentrations, appeared to play a vital role in the implantation of the embryo into the womb lining. However, writing the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they said that even slightly higher doses might interfere with that process. The researchers say that the embryo is a "target" for cannabis chemicals. Anandamide is a substance which occurs naturally in the body, as well as being one of the cocktail of chemicals released when cannabis is burned. The strong suspicion that it naturally plays a role in fertility is boosted by the fact that the body produces more just before an embryo is meant to implant in the womb wall, and less at the time of implantation. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4598 - Posted: 11.25.2003

By BARRY MEIER Over the past two decades, conflicting medical ideas have surfaced about narcotic painkillers, the drugs that Rush Limbaugh blames for his addiction while being treated for chronic back pain. And both of them, not surprisingly, have centered on the bottom-line question: just how great a risk of abuse and addiction do narcotics pose to pain patients? Throughout much of the last century, doctors believed that large numbers of patients who used these drugs would become addicted to them. That incorrect view meant that cancer sufferers and other patients with serious pain were denied drugs that could have brought them relief. But over the past decade, a very different viewpoint has emerged, one championed by doctors specializing in pain treatment and drug companies eager to broaden the market for such drugs. It held that these medications posed scant risk to pain patients, and some experts now believe that it also had unfortunate consequences because it caused, among other things, physicians to develop a false sense of security about these drugs. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4597 - Posted: 11.25.2003

By NICHOLAS WADE Fossil bones record the history of the human form but they say little about behavior. A richer source on the way human social behavior evolved may come from chimpanzees, with whom people shared a common ancestor as recently as five or six million years ago. From knowledge of chimp behavior, biologists can plausibly infer the social behavior of the shared human-chimp ancestor, and from that reconstruct the evolutionary history of human social behavior. Such reconstructions are subject to much uncertainty and debate, especially when they imply a genetic basis to human behaviors like living in communities based on male kinship, or conducting lethal campaigns against neighbors. But the goal is to shed light on the full sweep of human social behavior, tracing its evolution from an apelike community with separate male and female hierarchies five million years ago to the family-based societies of today. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 4596 - Posted: 11.25.2003

Chimps are the most notorious swingers among the great apes. Their wanton sex lives, in which males compete to impregnate females, have led males to evolve huge testicles, three times the size of humans'. Now a study finds that the effects of promiscuity extend inside the testes as well. The research uncovered the genetic footprint of rapid evolution in a male protein that helps block the sperm of subsequent flings from entering the vagina. It's not unusual for female primates to mate with more than one male in rapid succession. In response, males have evolved large testes that make voluminous ejaculates of sperm and cocktails of proteins. One of those proteins, called semenogelin, coagulates into a kind of vaginal plug (gelatinous in humans, solid in chimps) that keeps out sperm from the female's subsequent suitors. But another ingredient, an enzyme that rides in the front part of the ejaculate, can breach the plug. That kind of reproductive head-to-head means that new and improved versions of the gene for semenogelin ought to constantly appear and spread as they give their owners the edge in sperm competition, says evolutionary biologist Sarah Kingan, then an undergraduate at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. This would lead to reduced variability in the gene, as more effective versions sweep through the population again and again, each time replacing outdated ones. To test if such an evolutionary sweep has actually happened, Kingan and her faculty advisors determined the DNA sequences of the gene in 12 humans, 10 chimps, and seven gorillas. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 4595 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ST. PAUL, MN ? A 33-year study of all births by women in Norway with Myasthenia Gravis (MG) confirms that MG is associated with an increased risk for complications during pregnancy, including a threefold higher incidence of preterm rupture of the amniotic membranes, and twice the occurrence of delivery by cesarean section. The study is reported in the November 25 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Data for the study was collected from the Medical Birth Registry of Norway, based on compulsory notification of all births in the country. The study included 127 births by women with MG and the 1.9 million births by women without MG. Women with MG had twice the rate of cesarean section (17.3 percent) when compared to the control group (8.6 percent). Preterm rupture of amniotic membranes occurred three times more often ? or 5.5 percent ? compared to 1.7 percent of the general population.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4594 - Posted: 11.25.2003

Brain researchers would dearly love to reliably identify changes in brain structure and metabolism associated with early Alzheimer's disease -- before symptoms emerge. Such information would buy precious time and perhaps permit potential therapies to delay or even prevent the memory-robbing disease. Now, a new study by NYU School of Medicine researchers brings this goal one step closer to being realized. Using a new technique to measure the volume of the brain, they were able to identify healthy individuals who would later develop memory impairment, a symptom associated with a high risk for future Alzheimer's disease. The study is published in the December issue of the journal Radiology.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Brain imaging
Link ID: 4593 - Posted: 11.25.2003

Scientists have identified four new drugs which they believe could provide powerful weapons against brain tumours. One of these drugs may even fight three different types of brain tumour. The results follow tests on animals but scientists at the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center in the United States say they expect similar results in humans. Presenting their findings at a conference in Boston, they said the drugs could transform treatment for people who develop brain tumours. "Despite our best efforts in the laboratory and the clinic, the survival rate for glioblastoma - the most common and lethal brain tumour - hasn't changed in 10 years," said Dr Jeremy Rich, who led the study. "This new class of drugs has shown great promise in treating human tumours that were grown in mice and we feel these results are indicative of how the drugs may act in humans." (C)BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4592 - Posted: 11.24.2003

by Paul Collins In 1994, no eight-year-old girls died in Sweden. Not from poisoning or bone cancer; not from meningitis or car accidents: none. In 1994 there were 112,521 eight-year-old girls, and the following New Year's Day they had become exactly 112,521 nine-year-old girls. This, evolutionary biologist Armand Marie Leroi admits, is a statistical fluke. But it represents centuries of medical progress against childhood mortality. Historically, we live in a uniquely safe time. For all our fears of murder, plagues, and plane crashes, the vast majority of us will live long and die of drearily familiar ailments: heart disease, cancer, and so forth. We die from internal failures—from aging, a series of slowly unraveling genetic vulnerabilities. "Were it not for aging's pervasive effects," Leroi notes, "95 percent of us would celebrate our centenaries; half of us would better the biblical Patriarchs by centuries and live for more than a thousand years." If conquering death is medicine's ultimate goal, then perhaps the ever shortening genetic sequences called telomeres, where a cell's regenerative powers trickle away like hourglass sand, are the goalkeepers. But—surprise!—there are cells whose telomeres don't shorten, and they thrive vibrantly with endless life. Cancer cells. Copyright © 2003 Village Voice Media, Inc.,

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 4591 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Survey finds mercury in 4 species at markets in Bay Area Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer Four popular varieties of fish sold by high-end markets in the Bay Area contain toxic mercury at levels suspected of causing health problems, a Chronicle/CBS5 survey has found. Recent reports have raised new concerns about the mercury content of such big, ocean-caught fish as swordfish and tuna, including a study last year of local residents who ate fish several times a week. The Chronicle and CBS5 wanted to find out just how much mercury a consumer might be getting from fish sold at some of the Bay Area's best fish markets. The results underscore what many longtime fish lovers and health- conscious consumers may not completely understand -- that consuming large amounts of certain types of fish can jeopardize one's health. And for some people, particularly children and pregnant women, no amount of these fish would be safe. ©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4590 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A quirky phenomenon that scientists once dismissed could help explain the creativity of the human brain By Anne Underwood, NEWSWEEK — As a child, Julian Asher had a theory about the symphony concerts he attended with his parents. “I thought they turned down the lights so you could see the colors better,” he says, describing the “Fantasia”-like scenes that danced before his eyes. Asher wasn’t hallucinating. He’s a synesthete—a rare person for whom one type of sensory input (such as hearing music) evokes an addition-al one (such as seeing colors). In Asher’s ever-shifting vision, violins appear as a rich burgundy, pianos a deep royal purple and cellos “the mellow gold of liquid honey.” IT WASN’T UNTIL Asher began studying neuroscience at Harvard six years ago that he learned there was a name for this phenomenon—synesthesia, from the Greek roots syn (together) and aesthesis (perception). Almost any two senses can be combined. Sights can have sounds, sounds can have tastes and, more commonly, black-and-white numbers and letters can appear colored. For Patricia Lynne Duffy, author of “Blue Cats and Chartreuse Kittens,” five plus two equals green: her color for seven. Sound crazy? For most of the last century, scientists dismissed synesthesia as the product of overactive imaginations. But in recent years they’ve done an abrupt about-face, not only using modern technology to show that it’s real but also studying it for clues to the brain’s creativity. “Synesthesia is not a mere curiosity,” says retired neurologist Richard Cytowic, who helped spur the current interest. “It’s a window into an enormous expanse of the mind.” Scientists have devised ingenious tests to prove that synesthetes didn’t simply invent their unusual associations. In a 2001 study, Dr. V. S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard of the University of California, San Diego, showed volunteers a display of black-and-white digital 2s hidden among 5s (illustration). Most people took several seconds to find all the 2s. To synesthetes, they popped out immediately in contrasting colors. “This proves that it’s a real perceptual phenomenon,” says Ramachandran. Brain scans are confirming the findings. At a Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans two weeks ago, Colin Blakemore and Megan Steven of Oxford University showed that a key color-processing region of the brain really is being activated in one synesthete who says he sees colors when he hears certain words. “What makes this interesting is that he’s been blind for 10 years,” says Steven. © 2003 Newsweek, Inc.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4589 - Posted: 06.24.2010

If you’re helpless without your glasses, try using your ears. For some tasks, hearing can augment poor eyesight, according to research reported by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center today at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. “It has been long known that blind people often develop more acute hearing,” said Dr. Mark Wallace, senior researcher. “What we’ve shown is that hearing can also help people with mildly impaired eyesight and that it works immediately — it doesn’t take time to develop. This suggests that we could find ways to reduce disability in people with vision problems such as cataracts by teaching them to use both senses.” © 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 The Pilot LLC

Keyword: Vision; Hearing
Link ID: 4588 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bacteria, viruses and parasites may cause mental illnesses like depression and perhaps even autism and anorexia By Janet Ginsburg, NEWSWEEK INTERNATIONAL - Olga Skipko has had the good fortune to live most of her adult life in the Polish village of Gruszki, in the heart of the Puszcza Bialowieska, one of Europe's most beautiful forests and home to wolves, lynxes and the endangered European bison. Unfortunately, the forest is also a breeding ground for disease-carrying ticks. Skipko, 49, thinks she was bitten about 10 years ago, when she began having the classic symptoms of Lyme borreliosis, a tickborne nervous-system disease: headaches and aching joints. She didn't get treatment until 1998. "I was treated with antibiotics and felt a bit better," she says. THAT WAS only the beginning of her troubles. A few years later, she began to forget things and her speaking grew labored. It got so bad that she had to quit her job in a nursery forest and check herself in to a psychiatric clinic. "I hope they will help me," she says. "I promised my children that when I come back home, I will be able to do my favorite crosswords again." Doctors ran a battery of tests and concluded that her mental problems were the advanced stage of the Lyme disease she had contracted years ago. Scientists have long known that some diseases can cause behavioral problems. When penicillin was first used to treat syphilis, thousands of cured schizophrenics were released from mental asylums. Now, however, scientists have evidence that infections may play a far bigger role in mental illness than previously thought. They've linked cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia to a variety of infectious agents, and they're investigating autism, Tourette's and anorexia as well. They're beginning to suspect that bad bugs may cause a great many other mental disorders, too. "The irony is that people talked about syphilis as the 'great imitator'," says University of Louisville biologist Paul Ewald, "but it may be the 'great illustrator'-a model for understanding the causes of chronic diseases." © 2003 Newsweek, Inc.

Keyword: Depression; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4587 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Spinal injuries may be made much worse by a chemical chain reaction set off by even minor damage to nerves. As the nerves die, they trigger the release of chemicals which kill neighbouring cells. Scientists from Ohio State University in the US believe that preventing this reaction could reduce the damage suffered by spinal injury patients. Treatments could prevent long term disability in some patients, they told a neuroscience conference. The study took a detailed look at exactly what happens when someone suffers a spinal cord injury. At present, there is very little that medicine can offer to people even in the days following spinal injury which might reduce the damage. (C) BBC

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion; Apoptosis
Link ID: 4586 - Posted: 11.23.2003

Taking too many painkillers can damage some people's kidneys permanently, scientists claim. Overuse was defined as taking two doses of full strength aspirin or extra strong paracetamol every day. The risk only affects people who are susceptible - most people, including cardiovascular patients taking small doses of aspirin - are not at risk. But doctors told the American Society of Nephrology they had no way of spotting the few who are at risk. The researchers found that heavy use of aspirin or paracetamol - defined as 300 grams a year - was linked to a condition known as small, indented and calcified kidneys (SICK). The condition was detected in patients with irreversible kidney failure by carrying out computed tomography (CT) scans. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4585 - Posted: 11.23.2003

By HARRIET McBRYDE JOHNSON My father died when I was 2, and I lost my mother when I was 5.'' Throughout my childhood, that's what Grandmother says. She's a fine storyteller with rare gifts for gross delicacy and folksy pomposity, but she doesn't give the details, and we don't ask. To me, it's enough knowing that she's an orphan, like Heidi -- like Tarzan even! What else is worth knowing? Eventually our cousins tell us. When Grandmother was 5, her mother didn't die. She was placed in an asylum. There she lived until Grandmother was in her 20's. There she died. The news seems to answer some questions about Grandmother. Why does an independent thinker set such store on conventional behavior? Why did she marry a ridiculously steady Presbyterian? Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 4584 - Posted: 11.23.2003

NewScientist.com news service Cambridge University has been granted permission to build a controversial new laboratory for conducting neuroscience research on primates. The centre is aimed at studying conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and stroke. The go-ahead, issued on Friday by John Prescott, the UK's deputy prime minister, was greeted with delight by scientists and doctors, but with anger by anti-vivisectionists. The proposed lab was the subject of a bitter public enquiry. Scientists argued that vital medical research cannot be done in any other way than by experiments on the brains of monkeys. Opponents disagreed, saying the work is unethical and that research on primates actually hinders rather than helps research into neurological disease (see New Scientist print edition, 23 November 2002). © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 4583 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Giving eyesight to the blind raises questions about how people see Bruce Bower One witheringly hot day last summer, a 10-year-old boy performed a few miracles at a hospital near Calcutta, India. For openers, he caught a balled-up piece of paper thrown to him. Then, he picked up paper clips and inserted them into a holder through a small opening. Looking determined, the boy proceeded to identify drawings of an elephant and other animals. Finally, he greeted all of his physicians and nurses, referring to each by name. Not impressed? These accomplishments sure looked miraculous to Pawan Sinha, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who was in Calcutta visiting the hospital. Sinha knew that the boy had had severe cataracts in both eyes since birth. He had grown up in a poor family, and the reason for his blindness went undiagnosed until he tripped and broke his leg at age 10. A physician treating the boy's leg instantly noticed the youngster's cataracts and arranged for free surgery. Five weeks later, the boy—a newcomer to the world of sight—dazzled Sinha with visual feats. It's not yet clear whether a child deprived of sight for many years can learn to see the world with all the subtlety and skill of a person who grew up with normal vision, however. Researchers are just beginning to piece together how the brain responds to blindness early in life and then how it reacts to the sudden unleashing of vision, however years or even decades later. Copyright ©2003 Science Service.

Keyword: Vision; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4582 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — DNA studies on the personality of birds, which researchers suggest could reflect on the behavior of humans and other animals, reveal that mates with opposing personalities produce offspring with higher survival rates. The findings emerged from two papers released by biologists at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO). The papers, recently presented at Utrecht University, contain the first personality research ever to illustrate genetic structure and its resulting effects on survival. For the initial study, Kees van Oers used artificial selection to breed great tits (Parus major) with extreme personalities. Some of the birds were fast moving, aggressive risk takers. Others were more slow and cautious. Copyright © 2003 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 4581 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GARDINER HARRIS Cialis, a drug for impotence made by Eli Lilly & Company and the Icos Corporation, was approved yesterday, adding a new competitor in a $1.74 billion annual market. Cialis joins Pfizer's Viagra, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1998, and GlaxoSmithKline's Levitra, approved earlier this year. The company has said that clinical studies have shown that the effect of Cialis can last 24 to 36 hours - several times that of either Viagra or Levitra. The drug's absorption is unaffected by eating, the company says, whereas absorption of both Viagra and Levitra are impeded by rich meals. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4580 - Posted: 11.22.2003

By Pallab Ghosh People with a low sense of self worth are more likely to suffer from memory loss as they get older, say researchers. The study, presented at a conference at the Royal Society in London, also found that the brains of these people were more likely to shrink compared with those who have a high sense of self esteem. Dr Sonia Lupien, of McGill University in Montreal surveyed 92 senior citizens over 15 years and studied their brain scans. She found that the brains of those with low self-worth were up to a fifth smaller than those who felt good about themselves. These people also performed worse in memory and learning tests. Dr Lupien believes that if those with a negative mind set were taught to change the way they think they could reverse their mental decline. (C) BBC

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4579 - Posted: 11.21.2003