By Carol Cruzan Morton, Globe Correspondent More than 50 years ago, US Navy doctors stationed on the Pacific island of Guam found a shocking rate of an unknown neurodegenerative disease with the fatal progressive paralysis of Lou Gehrig's disease, the tremors of Parkinson's, and the forgetfulness of dementia. Guam's indigenous Chamorro people were 50 times to 100 times more likely to suffer the symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease and ALS, than populations just about anyplace else on the planet. In one village, more than a quarter of the adults who died between 1944 and 1953 were the victims of this mysterious combination of brain illnesses. Hundreds of research papers since have investigated and dismissed a variety of suspected causes, including microbes, genes, mineral deficiencies and nerve toxins. © Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 4666 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An important clinical trial, sponsored by the National Eye Institute (NEI), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has provided doctors with improved prognostic indicators and treatment options for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a blinding disease that affects premature, low birthweight infants. ROP spurs the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the back of the eye. These vessels leak fluid and blood and scar the nerve tissue inside the eye, increasing the risk of retinal detachment and severe vision loss in infants. Because it follows an unpredictable course, ROP presents doctors with difficult treatment decisions. In many infants the disease spontaneously regresses and spares vision. However, in some infants ROP progresses, resulting in serious visual impairment. Although current therapy can stem its progression, many infants are still blinded by the disease. Due to a lack of clinical criteria to predict which patients will ultimately develop severe vision loss from ROP, ophthalmologists were forced previously to defer treatment until it was clearly indicated. Unfortunately, as it turns out, delaying therapy can leave infants who might benefit more from early treatment with poor visual outcomes. The Early Treatment for Retinopathy of Prematurity (ETROP) study results, published in the December issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology , demonstrated that premature infants, who are at the highest risk for developing vision loss from ROP, will retain better vision when therapy is administered in the early stage of the disease. This treatment approach was found to be better than waiting until ROP has reached the traditional treatment threshold. Just as importantly, the study also established the value of an improved risk assessment model to more accurately identify those infants who are at the highest risk for developing severe vision loss from ROP.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 4665 - Posted: 12.10.2003

Autistic savants are born with miswired neurons - and extraordinary gifts. The breakthrough science behind our new understanding of the brain. By Steve Silberman Matt Savage launched his jazz career by attempting to improve a Schubert sonata. His piano teacher told him that the G-sharp he just played was supposed to be a G-natural. "It sounds better my way," he protested. She replied that only when he wrote his own music could he take liberties with a score. Keen on taking liberties, he became a jazz composer. He released his fifth album this year, making guest appearances on the Today show, 20/20, and NPR. Recently, his trio booked two shows at the Blue Note in New York City. In May, he will celebrate his 12th birthday. Matt is a musical savant. The term savant dates from the late 19th century, when a small number of people in European asylums classified as feebleminded "idiots" were discovered to have extraordinary, even uncanny skills. One had memorized The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire after reading it a single time. Others were able to multiply long columns of numbers instantly and factor cube roots in seconds, though they could barely speak. When Matt was 3, he was diagnosed with a form of autism called pervasive developmental disorder. Autism and savant syndrome overlap, but they are not the same thing. Nine out of ten autistic people have no savant abilities, and many savants suffer from some form of neurological impairment other than autism. Savant syndrome itself is rare. The rarest of the rare is the prodigious savant, like Rain Man's Raymond Babbitt, who could memorize phone books, count 246 toothpicks at a glance, and trump the house in Vegas. Darold Treffert, the leading researcher in the study of savant syndrome, estimates that Matt is one of fewer than 50 prodigious savants alive today. Copyright © 1993-2003 The Condé Nast Publications Inc

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 4664 - Posted: 06.24.2010

High stress life may take toll on longevity. HELEN PEARSON A new study raises the prospect that shy people might die younger than extroverts. As many as 15% of children are thought to suffer from neophobia — a fear of novel but non-threatening situations such as meeting a stranger or entering a new room. They also have higher levels of stress hormones called glucocorticoids. Now researchers have found that neophobic rats die an average of three months younger than their outgoing brothers — equivalent to ten years shaved off a human life1. The scaredy-rats were chosen because they were reluctant to explore new surroundings. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 4663 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JOHN LANGONE Overcoming Dyslexia," by Dr. Sally Shaywitz. Knopf, $25.95. Early in this book about a disorder that may afflict one child in every five in America, the author dispels two widely held beliefs: that children with dyslexia are prone to seeing letters or words backward, and that the problem is linked to intelligence. "The problem is a linguistic one, not a visual one," writes Dr. Shaywitz, a professor of pediatrics at Yale. Dyslexia represents a difficulty with reading, she says, not with thinking skills, one that "does not reflect an overall defect in language," but rather a weakness in a part of the language system. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Dyslexia
Link ID: 4662 - Posted: 12.09.2003

By SANDRA BLAKESLEE Neuroscientists have given up looking for the seat of the soul, but they are still seeking what may be special about human brains, what it is that provides the basis for a level of self-awareness and complex emotions unlike those of other animals. Most recently they have been investigating circuitry rather than specific locations, looking at pathways and connections that are central in creating social emotions, a moral sense, even the feeling of free will. There are specialized neurons at work, as well — large, cigar-shaped cells called spindle cells. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 4661 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Petersburg teenager Amber Myrick shares the story of her ongoing struggle to overcome a brain tumor BY LINDSAY KASTNER, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER Now 16, she knows she wants to attend Longwood College and, someday, own her own day-care center. But the recent past is a mystery for her. "I know you're getting tired of me asking, but what was I in the hospital for?" Amber asks her mother. "You had a brain tumor removed," Cheryl Myrick says. "They get it all?" asks Amber, dressed in a denim skirt, with a brown bandanna covering her head. © 2003, Media General, Inc.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4660 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have developed a way to measure the severity of a patient's multiple sclerosis and gauge how well drugs are working. The researchers at New York University hope it will improve both diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The technique measures the amount of a key chemical that is found in lower quantity than usual in the brain cells of MS patients. Details were revealed at a Radiological Society of North America meeting. The researchers have dubbed the new technique whole brain N-acetylaspartate (WBNAA). Lead researcher Professor Oded Gonen said: "WBNAA measures the amount of a chemical in the brain called N-acetylaspartate (NAA) that is exclusive to brain cells (C) BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 4659 - Posted: 12.08.2003

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR Americans fed up with unwanted advertisements swarming their e-mail accounts might have one more reason to find them irritating. Many of the human growth hormone products sold over the Internet, a new report says, are bogus. The study, conducted by consumerlab.com, looked at a number of supplements promoted either as containing or having the ability to release growth hormone, a naturally occurring protein that prompts bone and muscle growth. The study is to be posted today on the company's Web site. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4658 - Posted: 12.08.2003

WASHINGTON – Over one percent of the American population is involved in a serious (causing personal injury) motor vehicle accident (MVA) each year and a majority will experience at least a minor MVA by the age of 30. MVAs are considered the leading cause of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the general population and car accidents are the number one trauma for men and the second most frequent trauma for women, according to a new book that examines updated research on PTSD among car accident victims and some effective treatments for the disorder. The second edition of After the Crash: Psychological Assessment and Treatment of Survivors of Motor Vehicle Accidents, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), adds new research to the original five-year study of MVA survivors in the Albany, New York area conducted in the early 1990s. Authors Edward B. Blanchard, Ph.D., and Edward J. Hickling, Psy.D., explain in their comprehensive review of MVA survivors the importance of getting appropriate psychological treatment along with medical treatment to overcome the psychological trauma caused by a car accident. The first edition, published in 1997, examined over a five-year period a cohort of 158 motor vehicle survivors who sought medical attention within 48 hours of the MVA and volunteered to be assessed for PTSD one to four months after their accident. The second edition, published December 2003, examines a second cohort of 161 seriously injured motor vehicle survivors for a five-year period who also sought medical attention within 48 hours of the MVA. The difference between the two cohorts was the participants in the second cohort actively sought treatment for psychological distress and were recruited six to 24 months after their accident to meet the criteria for chronic PTSD. © 2003 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 4657 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Among behavioral disorders, anxiety and depression cost more Children with behavioral disorders incur similar overall health care costs to children with physical disorders according to a recent study. Among behavioral disorders, costs were not uniform; anxiety and depression cost twice as much as other common behavioral disorders, mainly as a result of inpatient hospitalizations. This study, by researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania, appears in the electronic pages of the December issue of the journal Pediatrics. "Examining healthcare costs, for children especially, is an increasingly important issue," said James P. Guevara, M.D., general pediatrician at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and primary investigator of this study. "This study shows that children with behavioral disorders incur similar healthcare costs to those with physical disorders, a recent observation which is important knowledge for the healthcare industry." The retrospective cohort study looked at children ranging in age from 2 to 18 years old whose families participated in the 1996 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. Children with common behavioral disorders were identified using diagnostic codes determined from household interviews. Researchers compared them to two control groups – healthy children and children with common chronic physical disorders such as asthma, epilepsy and diabetes.

Keyword: Depression; Emotions
Link ID: 4656 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Deidre Bello, Iowa City Press-Citizen People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says its members will use bullhorns and distribute graphic leaflets in a Palmer College of Chiropractic scientist's Iowa City neighborhood Sunday to protest his use of animals in research. PETA spokeswoman Brandi Valladolid said Palmer College in Davenport is torturing animals to validate the chiropractic profession. She and other PETA members claim work on rats and cats by Dr. Joel Pickar, a neuro-physiological Palmer researcher, is "crippling," "invasive" and a form of "counterfeit science." "He's not doing anything science-based, and it's completely unethical," Valladolid said of alleged amputation of animal limbs. "Use of animals in research is on the decline. So many new things are being developed that can be used instead, like tissue cell cultures and mathematical simulated computer models."

Keyword: Animal Rights
Link ID: 4655 - Posted: 12.07.2003

By ANNE McILROY Only something extraordinary could entice the Carmelite nuns of Montreal to break their vow of silence and venture out of the cloister, ANNE McILROY says. They have joined forces with science to look for a concrete sign from God -- inside the human brain The Carmelite nuns live a life of silent prayer, separated from the modern world by the high stone wall that surrounds their monastery in an industrial part of Montreal. Except for medical care, they rarely leave their sanctuary. But that changed late last month, when they began to make periodic visits to, of all places, a science lab. The sisters arrive at the neuro-science laboratory in the University of Montreal's psychology department two at a time, wearing habits sewn from thick, dark cloth, high white collars and veils that frame their faces and flow down their backs. On their feet are sensible brown laceups that appear to have never seen the outdoors before. © 2003 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 4654 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists who developed the first yeast model of Parkinson’s disease (PD) have been able to describe the mechanisms of an important gene’s role in the disease. Tiago Fleming Outeiro, Ph.D., and Susan Lindquist, Ph.D., of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, studied the gene’s actions under normal conditions and under abnormal conditions to learn how and when the gene’s product, alpha-synuclein, becomes harmful to surrounding cells. The scientists created a yeast model that expresses the alpha-synuclein gene, which has been implicated in Parkinson’s disease (PD). Yeast models are often used in the study of genetic diseases because they offer researchers a simple system that allows them to clarify how genes work. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, funded the study, which appears in the December 5, 2003, issue of Science. ¹ The alpha-synuclein protein, which is found broadly in the brain, has been implicated in several neurodegenerative disorders. Sometimes a mutation or a misfolding of the protein causes the problems; other times there are too many copies of the normal gene. A study earlier this year reported that patients with a rare familial form of PD had too many normal copies of the alpha-synuclein gene, which resulted in a buildup of protein inside brain cells, causing the symptoms of PD.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 4653 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Study also ties sex appeal to cold tolerance In what has been described as the "perfect experiment," evolutionary biologists at the University of Chicago replaced a single gene in fruit flies and discovered a mechanism by which two different "races" begin to become different species, with one group adapted to life in the tropics and the other suited to cooler climates. The tropical group was more tolerant of starvation but less tolerant of cold. The temperate group was less able to resist starvation but better adapted to cool weather. The altered gene also changed the flies' pheromones, chemical signals that influence mating behavior. As a result, the researchers show in the Dec. 5 issue of Science, the two groups of flies are not only fit for different environments but may also be on their way to sexual isolation, a crucial divide in the emergence of a new species. "This study directly connects genetics with evolution," said Chung-I Wu, Ph.D., professor and chairman of ecology and evolution at the University of Chicago and director of the study. "For the first time, we were able to demonstrate the vast importance in an evolutionary context of a small genetic change that has already occurred in nature."

Keyword: Evolution; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4652 - Posted: 12.07.2003

Even short term use of cannabis can damage the lungs of young people, say researchers. A team from Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham, conducted tests on smokers, non-smokers and cannabis users. Non-smokers had the healthiest lungs. But cannabis users showed more signs of damage than those who stuck to cigarettes. A British Thoracic Society meeting heard less than six years cannabis use was enough to cause significant damage. Dr Sarah Nuttall, a research fellow from the Department of Clinical Pharmacology at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said: "The consensus among many young people who use cannabis seems to be that they will not suffer any long-term effects as long as they stop smoking it early enough. "However this is clearly not the case - our study shows that even short-term use of cannabis in addition to tobacco use does have an impact and makes a serious difference to lung function." (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4651 - Posted: 12.05.2003

Thousands of people claim that they have been abducted by aliens. Are they lying? Research suggests that, in many cases, those making the claim truly believe it happened. "In case after case after case, I've been impressed with the consistency of the story, the sincerity with which people tell their stories, the power of the feelings connected with this, the self-doubt," John Mack, a psychiatrist at Harvard University who has worked with people who claim to have been abducted, told PBS' NOVA. " I worked with people over hundreds and hundreds of hours, and have done as careful a job as I could to listen, to sift out, to consider alternative explanations. And none have come forward. No one has found an alternative explanation in a single abduction case." Research in the journal Psychological Science sheds light on the consistency of those powerful feelings by showing that those who claim to have been abducted share traits with people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Previous research has shown that when Vietnam veterans with PTSD heard 30-second audio "re-enactments" of their trauma, they exhibited psychophysiological activity. "For example, their heart rate will go up, their skin conductance activity, the sweating on the palm of the hand, will increase," says Richard McNally, a psychology professor at Harvard University. "Individuals who do not have PTSD but who have experienced traumatic events typically will not show that reactivity." © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Sleep
Link ID: 4650 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Many of us suffer from the occasional bout of hypochondria, but some people's lives are taken over by the condition. For them, the slightest headache is a brain tumour, a spot of pins and needles is multiple sclerosis. Psychiatrist Brian Fallon has been studying hypochondriacs for 15 years. He tells Clare Wilson what he thinks causes the illness, and how he has pioneered a new way of treating it Have you ever been a hypochondriac? No, but I know what it's like to worry about an inexplicable symptom. One morning I noticed my arm was swollen and I was quite concerned. I thought I might have a blockage of my lymphatic system, perhaps caused by cancer. My supervisor pointed out it was probably just a result of spending the previous day using a chainsaw. It was a good demonstration of how, when anxiety takes over, you start to lose some of your more rational powers of observation. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Link ID: 4649 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JAMES GORMAN A 425-million-year-old fossil found in Herefordshire, England, may be the oldest record of an animal that is unarguably male. Scientists report Friday in the journal Science that the tiny crustacean, only two-tenths of an inch long, had an unmistakable penis. In their paper, the scientists name the creature Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which they say means swimmer with a large penis. David J. Siveter, a geologist at the University of Leicester, said that although this was his literal translation of the Greek, it may, like so many other references to virility in males, be a bit of an exaggeration. Colymbosathon, he said, was not remarkable among its group of crustaceans, the ostracodes. Some have copulatory organs one-third the length of their bodies, he said, and some produce sperm 10 times the length of their bodies. Colymbosathon is more modest; its penis was less than a fifth of its body length. Dr. Siveter's colleagues, who contributed to the research, were Derek E. G. Briggs of Yale and Mark D. Sutton and Derek J. Siveter, both of Oxford. The two Siveters are twins. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 4648 - Posted: 12.05.2003

MADISON - With a slight tweak of temperature, geneticist Barry Ganetzky's flies drop like, well, flies. For 25 years, Ganetzky has been identifying, breeding and studying a raft of fly mutants that, when exposed to minor temperature change, become completely paralyzed. The flies, which quickly recover when returned to room temperature, are now finding many uses in studies of human neurological disorders, drug discovery and insecticide development. Ganetzky, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of genetics, and his colleagues have become the undisputed champions of finding such mutants, raising the tally to upward of 100 such strains over the years.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4647 - Posted: 12.05.2003