Drug user survey reveals long-term memory problems People who take the recreational drug ecstasy risk impairing their memory, according to an international study which surveyed users in places including the USA, UK, other European countries and Australia. The study, which also surveyed non-drug users, found that those who regularly took ecstasy suffered from mainly long-term memory difficulties, and that they were 23 per cent more likely to report problems with remembering things than non-users. The British research team, led by the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, also questioned volunteers about their use of other recreational drugs. It found those who regularly used cannabis reported up to 20 per cent more memory problems than non-users. Their short-term memory was mainly affected.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4806 - Posted: 01.15.2004

The purpose of disgust has been quantitatively demonstrated for the first time - it is an evolved response that protects people from disease or harm. Researchers at the UK's London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine surveyed over 40,000 individuals, using a web-based questionnaire posted on BBC Online. Respondents were asked to rate a series of paired photographs according to how disgusting they found each one. In the pairs, one image had some link to disease, while the other was very similar but had no relevance to disease. For example, one pair had a photograph of a healthy-looking man, while in the other the man looked sweaty and ill. Another had a towel with a blue stain paired with a towel with a stain resembling bodily fluids. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Emotions; Evolution
Link ID: 4805 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists who study whales are starting to notice signs that these giant creatures may be exhibiting signs of what we humans would call culture. As this ScienCentral News video reports, it's the latest research into a question that has puzzled scientists for years. Humans may not be the only mammals who have different cultures. Some scientists are starting to consider the notion that whales might also. "Whales are pretty hard to study, but evidence is coming up from quite a number of species that in a whole range of ways, they're learning things from each other and they're passing it on to other whales, and that's culture," says Hal Whitehead, biology professor at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada. He explored the topic in the journal Behavioral and Brain Sciences and based his conclusions on several studies including his own. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 4804 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Sharing might not be as nice as it's cracked up to be. MICHAEL HOPKIN Have you ever given a friend part of your dessert just so they will stop bugging you for some? You're not alone - chimpanzees and monkeys share their food with others to avoid hassle too. The question of why animals give food to others is a tricky one. Previous theories suggested that generous animals might benefit from similar kindness at a later time. But the no-hassle approach offers a simpler explanation, says Jeffrey Stevens, who carried out the study at the University of Minnesota. Scrounger and donor are both acting in their best interests - the beggar gets food and the other is left in peace. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 4803 - Posted: 06.24.2010

People rate shapeliness based on a girl's ratio of volume to height. HELEN PEARSON Some people say it's long legs that count, others say it's the bits on top. But according to a Hong Kong study, the best way to judge a woman's attractiveness is to take her volume in cubic metres and divide it by the square of her height. The researchers call the figure her volume-height index, or VHI. The researchers showed more than 50 people 3D movies of rotating female silhouettes in assorted shapes and sizes. They asked the viewers to rate their attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 9. VHI was the formula of the women's body measurements that best matched the scores, they found1. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 4802 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists hunting for culprits that lead to brain damage after strokes have discovered that one likely "bad guy" is actually a "good guy." In experiments in the laboratory and with mice, the Johns Hopkins researchers found that the chemical prostaglandin-E2 protects brain cells from damage. The finding was completely unexpected, the researchers say, because prostaglandin-E2 causes damage in other tissues and is made by an enzyme, COX-2, known to wreak havoc in the brain after injury. The findings appear in the Jan. 7 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. "It's kind of paradoxical, that the product of an enzyme that causes damage is itself beneficial," says Katrin Andreasson, M.D., an assistant professor of neurology and of neuroscience. "It's possible that future treatments for stroke might use drugs to block COX-2 and enhance the effects of prostaglandin-E2, providing sort of a double whammy of protection.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 4801 - Posted: 01.14.2004

Research suggests sick animals may not show symptoms By TODD HARTMAN, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE Below the drumbeat of reassurances from government and the cattle industry that the meat supply remains safe despite this one case of mad cow disease, a small universe of scientists working on a family of related illnesses is finding disturbing evidence to the contrary. Several studies, including research at a government laboratory in Montana, continue to spark questions about human susceptibility not only to mad cow, but also to sister diseases such as chronic wasting disease, which mainly affects deer and elk, and scrapie, which infects sheep. Mice research and clusters of cases in which humans contracted a disease similar to mad cow also has a few scientists wondering whether consuming infected meat might have killed far more people than medical experts have long assumed, not only in Great Britain, but in the United States as well. ©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 4800 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have identified a gene that appears to have played a role in the expansion of the human brain's cerebral cortex — a hallmark of the evolution of humans from other primates. By comparing the gene's sequence in a range of primates, including humans, as well as non-primate mammals, the scientists found evidence that the pressure of natural selection accelerated changes in the gene, particularly in the primate lineage leading to humans. The researchers, led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator Bruce Lahn at the University of Chicago, reported their findings in an advance access article published on January 13, 2004, in the journal Human Molecular Genetics. Patrick Evans and Jeffrey Anderson in Lahn's laboratory were joint lead authors of the article. ©2003 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Evolution; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4799 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By LAURIE TARKAN When Jennifer Klein, a 32-year-old social worker in Los Angeles, discovered that she was pregnant, she immediately stopped taking her antidepressant to avoid exposing her baby to it. She had made the same choice with her first child and experienced only the normal ups and downs of pregnancy. This time was drastically different. Several weeks after going off the drug Zoloft she slid into a major depression, which left her crying all day, feeling overwhelmed by simple tasks like going to the supermarket, feeling too tired to move, and extremely anxious, worrying about the pregnancy, her 2-year-old son and her job. "I'd spend all day crying and I couldn't stop," Ms. Klein said. "I hated that my son saw me like that." When she was feeling the most overwhelmed, she said, she thought of giving away the new baby to her sister. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4798 - Posted: 01.13.2004

By ANDREW POLLACK A mericans are about to be reminded again how much they need sleep — and sleeping pills. A new effort appears to be developing to expand the use of sleeping pills, which because of their potential for abuse have long had a reputation as being in some ways more dangerous than the insomnia they are meant to treat. Some sleep experts say newer pills are safer than the ones that once caused deaths from overdose. Moreover, some say, there is growing evidence that insomnia is a serious medical condition, not just a nuisance. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 4797 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Supplements lower risk of rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. HELEN R. PILCHER A diet rich in vitamin D may reduce the risk of developing rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Two studies involving more than 200,000 American women have highlighted the vitamin's benefits. Women who consumed the recommended daily amount of vitamin D or more were 30% less likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis1, and 40% less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS)2, than those on lower doses. One or two people in 100 worldwide typically develop rheumatoid arthritis, which causes swollen, painful joints. Around 0.04% of the world's population has MS - an incurable condition that can cause fatigue, tremor and paralysis. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 4796 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ST. PAUL, MN – Women who take vitamin D supplements through multivitamins are 40 percent less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) than women who do not take supplements, according to a study published in the January 13 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Food is a source of vitamin D, and the body makes vitamin D through exposure to sunlight. "Because the number of cases of MS increases the farther you get from the equator, one hypothesis has been that sunlight exposure and high levels of vitamin D may reduce the risk of MS," said study author Kassandra Munger, MSc, of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, MA. "This is the first prospective study to look at this question. "These results need to be confirmed with additional research, but it's exciting to think that something as simple as taking a multivitamin could reduce your risk of developing MS."

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 4795 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Men are better suited for math and science than women. Whites have more positive feelings toward other whites than blacks. The young are preferred over older people. These are just a few of the biases discussed by social psychologists Mahzarin R. Banaji and Thierry Devos in their article, "Implicit Self and Identity", published in The Self: From Soul to Brain, Volume 1001 of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Based on a recent Academy conference, the book offers the latest research from 16 experts in the areas of neuroscience, cognitive science, social and developmental psychology, anthropology, philosophy and theology. Their article is one of many that examine how the neurological aspects of our unconscious selves influence our explicit, psychological, social and spiritual selves. Using a population of college students who described themselves as "liberal" and professed to have no "consciousness of stereotyping" others, Dr. Banaji and her colleagues tested them for hidden racial, age, national, and gender bias by using rapid association tests, dubbed Implicit Association Tests or IATs. These tests consist of rapid visual and linguistic stimuli designed to provoke responses too quickly for rational consideration. For example, the "Race" test asked subjects to classify words such as "wonderful", "agony", "love" as being either "good" or "bad". Photos of White Americans and African-Americans were then flashed with these words and testers made rapid word-picture associations. Response times indicated that many white Americans exhibited an automatic preference for whites over blacks. © 2002 New York Academy of Sciences, All rights reserved.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4794 - Posted: 06.24.2010

At the tender age of 12, Zoe Pearson was already an accomplished athlete, good enough to represent her county at netball. But a minor injury during a match was to spark a crippling condition that left her in agony and meant she spent most of her teenage years in a wheelchair. Zoe had been struck down by a rare and complex syndrome called Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, also known as complex regional pain syndrome. Extremely difficult to diagnose, it can cause such severe pain and swelling in the hands, wrist, ankles or knees that some victims have been known to resort to amputation just to ease their agony. In Zoe's case, it took more than a year for doctors to pinpoint her problem. "The problems started after I twisted my knee during a game," says Zoe, from Nottingham. "The pain that followed was excruciating and I ended up spending four-and-a-half years in a wheelchair." (C) BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4793 - Posted: 01.13.2004

The body mass index doesn't weigh up for Asian populations HELEN PEARSON The index commonly used to rate healthy body weight has come under fire in a new report showing that Asian populations don't fit into the existing scale1. Doctors routinely use the body-mass index (BMI) to classify patients as healthy or unhealthy. BMI is calculated by dividing a person's weight in kilograms by their height in metres squared. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends cut-off points, such that a BMI below 18.5 is considered underweight, 20.0-24.9 is classified normal, 25.0-29.9 is overweight and a BMI of 30 or greater is obese. These lines were drawn largely based on mortality statistics from European and American populations. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 4792 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new type of ear implant may work better by placing electrodes inside the brain stem itself. US surgeons have now finished putting the implants into the first two patients, reports New Scientist. The operation to place the implant is potentially riskier than one involving a standard cochlear implant - but the results may be better for patients. The procedure could help people who have lost their auditory nerve through cancer - or who were born without one. Normal cochlear implants place electrodes in various locations against the outside of the brain stem. The implant receives sound signals such as speech, and converts them into electrical signals which stimulate cells near the surface of this brain region. (C) BBC

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 4791 - Posted: 01.11.2004

Patients who have suffered a head injury may be more likely to develop depression, say researchers. A small study published in a US journal revealed that head injury patients had a higher risk of problems than patients who had suffered other injuries. A third of those examined by doctors in Iowa City showed signs of depressive illness within a year. Patients who suffered major bouts of depression had differences in the physical structure of their brains. The mechanism by which a head injury might cause changes of mood and behaviour are poorly understood. However, many people who have suffered a head injury become more irritable and aggressive, or endure anxiety attacks or full-blown clinical depression. (C)BBC

Keyword: Depression; Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 4790 - Posted: 01.11.2004

By ALEXANDER COOLIDGE, SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE Procter & Gamble is in the advanced stages of testing a drug to improve the sex drive in women that executives say may be a "blockbuster" seller. Company officials say the first-of-its-kind drug, called Intrinsa, is intended for women suffering from a loss of sexual desire as a result of menopause or surgery. The drug is being developed as a skin patch containing testosterone, a hormone that affects sexual desire in women. ©1996-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4789 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A brain chemical has been found that could improve the lives of people with Huntington's disease, scientists say. Mice tailored to develop the degenerative brain disease had fewer symptoms and declined at a slower rate when given Ciliary Neurotrophic Factor. The team at Portugal's Centre for Neuroscience in Coimbra used gene therapy to reprogramme the brain to produce the chemical. A UK team is now working to produce a tablet that has a similar effect. The research, published in the journal Experimental Neurology, is further evidence that the lack of certain "neurotrophic factors" are key to the progressive symptoms of Huntington's. (C) BBC

Keyword: Huntingtons; Trophic Factors
Link ID: 4788 - Posted: 01.10.2004

Siberian hamsters are being drafted in by researchers in a drive to combat obesity in humans. Scientists at Aberdeen's Rowett Research Institute believe genes in the hamsters could control how much they eat at various times of the year. Siberian hamsters are able to adjust their weight to become fatter in the summer and leaner in the winter. Rowan Institute director Professor Peter Morgan said he hoped the work would help to tackle human obesity. The institute has been awarded £250,000 in EU funding to continue its research. The five-year project will involve 24 groups of scientists in 10 countries and has been co-ordinated by Gothenburg University in Sweden and funded under the EU Sixth Framework Programme. (C) BBC

Keyword: Obesity; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 4787 - Posted: 01.10.2004