Results further implicate iron deposits in brain in MS impairments BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The mental impairment and problems with walking experienced by patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) are linked to damage in the brain's gray matter, with MRI findings suggesting the damage is due to toxic deposits of iron, researchers from the University at Buffalo have shown for the first time. Previous breakthrough work by the team had linked deep gray matter iron deposits to the disease course of MS, brain atrophy and overall disability, but not to cognition or ambulation. Results of these latest studies were presented today (Oct. 21, 2003) at the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association in San Francisco. The researchers, affiliated with the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) and Jacobs Neurological Institute, use specialized, computer-assisted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology to focus on hypointensity, or unnatural darkness, of gray matter structures as seen on so-called T2-weighted images. This condition is referred to as T2 hypointensity. Using this approach, they were able to show that structures in the brain's deep gray matter of MS patients contained T2 hypointensity compared with normal individuals, suggesting higher-than-normal levels of iron deposits, and confirmed the relationship of T2 hypointensity to MS symptoms.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 4406 - Posted: 10.22.2003

DURHAM, N.C. - By applying a new technique that combines independent lines of genomic evidence, Duke University Medical Center researchers and colleagues have identified a single gene that influences the age at which individuals first show symptoms of Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Such genes that can impact patients' age at onset for the two very prevalent neurological disorders are of particular interest as alternative targets for treatment, said Margaret Pericak-Vance, Ph.D., director of the Duke Center for Human Genetics . Drugs that delay the onset of Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases beyond the normal human lifespan would effectively prevent them in patients at risk for the disorders, she added. Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia among people over the age of 65, affecting up to 4 million Americans. Parkinson's disease -- characterized by tremors, stiffness of the limbs and trunk, slow movements and a lack of balance -- afflicts approximately 50,000 Americans each year. Both are complex disorders involving multiple genes. © 2001-2003 Duke University Medical Center.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4405 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MIKE FREEMAN Don Catlin, the scientist who identified a previously undetected steroid and oversaw tests indicating that as many as a half-dozen athletes in track and field had used the drug, said yesterday that he thought athletes were probably using similar unidentified drugs. Catlin, a molecular pharmacologist at U.C.L.A.'s Olympic Analytical Laboratory, led an eight-man team that identified the steroid tetrahydrogestrinone, or THG. The drug is at the center of an investigation that started in track and field but appears likely to involve dozens of other professional athletes. Forty have been called before a federal grand jury in San Francisco to investigate a sports nutrition company accused of creating the drug. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4404 - Posted: 10.21.2003

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD On a hillside in the badlands of Ethiopia, an ancestral home of the human family, an international team of scientists has uncovered the earliest known stone tools to be found mixed with fragments of fossilized animal bones. The scientists think the material, almost 2.6 million years old, is the strongest evidence yet that the primal technology was used to butcher animal carcasses for meat and marrow. The discovery could go a long way toward resolving a debate in paleoanthropology: which came first, a significant advance in the brain that enabled human ancestors to make tools, or the toolmaking ability that led to an enriched diet and then an evolutionary change in the brain? "I believe the use of stone tools came first and the larger brain came later with a more substantial meat diet," Dr. Sileshi Semaw, the leader of the discovery team, said last week by telephone. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 4403 - Posted: 10.21.2003

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR The notion that poverty and mental illness are intertwined is nothing new, as past research has demonstrated time and time again. But finding evidence that one begets the other has often proved difficult. Now new research that coincided with the opening of an Indian casino may have come a step closer to identifying a link by suggesting that lifting children out of poverty can diminish some psychiatric symptoms, though others seem unaffected. A study published in last week's issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association looked at children before and after their families rose above the poverty level. Rates of deviant and aggressive behaviors, the study noted, declined as incomes rose. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4402 - Posted: 10.21.2003

By HOWARD MARKEL While progress has been made in combating alcoholism and drug addiction in the United States, the medical establishment is still failing in large numbers to diagnose the disease in their patients, several experts said at a recent conference. "Although doctors and nurses have the best opportunity to intervene with alcoholics and substance abusers, our research indicates they are woefully inadequate of even diagnosing someone with this disease," said Joseph Califano Jr., the chairman and president of Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. At the conference sponsored by the Columbia center this month, policy makers and addiction specialists evaluated recent research on addiction, which affects 2 of 10 Americans at some point in life and costs billions of dollars for health care each year. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4401 - Posted: 10.21.2003

Genetic discrepancies between males and females measured mid-term. HELEN PEARSON Genes drive the brains of male and female embryos apart as early as midway through gestation, a new study suggests1. These gender differences were assumed to arise around birth due to hormones pumped out by males' budding testes. Halfway into a mouse pregnancy, before the testes have even formed, the activity of 51 genes is different in males and females, says Eric Vilain of the University of California, Los Angeles. His team analysed 12,000 brain genes. The discovery hints that unknown genes hardwire our gender - perhaps influencing the way that men and women think, tackle problems or perceive themselves. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4400 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Participation in a greater overall number of leisure activities during early and middle adulthood is related to lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, according a team of researchers headed by University of Southern California graduate student Michael Crowe. He and his colleagues - University of South Florida faculty member Ross Andel (a recent USC PhD), USC and Karolinska Institute professors Margaret Gatz and Nancy Pedersen, and University of Gothenberg professor Boo Johansson - published the results of this recent study in the September issue of The Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences (Vol. 58B, No.5, September, 2003). "The idea that mental activity is good for the brain is not unlike the idea of 'use it or lose it' when it comes to keeping the body fit," said Andel. Using data from the Swedish Twins Registry, a population-based dataset of twins living in Sweden, the team analyzed information on like-sexed twins born between 1886 and 1925. The study was funded by the Alzheimer's Association and the National Institute on Aging. In the 1960s, these twins had filled out questionnaires about their leisure activities, which included reading, social visits, theater and movie going, club and organization participation, gardening and other outdoor activities, and playing sports. They subsequently participated in clinical follow-ups in the 1980s and 1990s, when they where tested for Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 4399 - Posted: 10.21.2003

By Carol Hyman, Media Relations BERKELEY – Imagine the smell of coffee in the morning. Did you close your eyes and inhale deeply through your nose? Neuroscientists at the University of California, Berkeley, found that most people do and that the very act of sniffing plays a vital role in the brain's perception of odor. In the Oct. 19 online issue of Nature: Neuroscience the researchers report that the sniff people take when trying to imagine an odor closely resembles the sniff they would have taken if the odor were really there. For example, when imagining the smell of bus fumes, people take a timid sniff, but when imagining the smell of a rose, they take a vigorous sniff. If people are prevented from sniffing, the vividness of the image is significantly reduced. From these findings, the scientists conclude that the brain recreates the components of real sensation, such as sniffing, in order to create mental images. Copyright UC Regents

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 4398 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ROWAN HOOPER The job of undertaker is not one that is restricted to human society. In honeybee colonies, too, some individuals have the task of removing the cadavers of their dead fellows. Researchers have previously demonstrated that bees are genetically inclined to perform the specialist job of undertaker, though they only take on that role when they reach middle age. (As often seems to be the case with human undertakers.) When they are young adults, honeybees are typically "nurses" who assist with brood care. Nurse bees feed larvae with royal jelly, and later with honey and pollen. When the nurses become older, most become foraging bees, searching for food outside the hive. The Japan Times (C) All rights reserved

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4397 - Posted: 10.20.2003

Making IQ Tests Harder Due To Flynn Effect Has Educational, Financial, Legal and Military Recruiting Implications WASHINGTON — The steady rising of IQ scores over the last century – known as the Flynn effect – causes IQ tests norms to become obsolete over time. To counter this effect, IQ tests are “renormed” (made harder) every 15-20 years by resetting the mean score to 100 to account for the previous gains in IQ scores. But according to new research, such renorming may have unintended consequences, particularly in the area of special education placements for children with borderline or mild mental retardation. The findings are reported on in the October issue of American Psychologist, a journal of the American Psychological Association (APA). Researchers Tomoe Kanaya, M.A. and Stephen J. Ceci, Ph.D., of Cornell University and Matthew H. Scullin, Ph.D., of West Virginia University used IQ data from nearly 9,000 school psychologist special education assessments from nine school districts across the U.S. to document how the Flynn effect influences mental retardation diagnoses for several years after a new test is introduced. The students (ages 6 – 17) were from different geographical regions, neighborhood types and socioeconomic status. © 2003 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Intelligence
Link ID: 4396 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service One form of a common brain protein makes us rather worse at remembering things, researchers have discovered. It is a first step towards finding the genes for intelligence. Human intelligence is partly inherited - studies of parents and children show that about half our cleverness, or lack of it, is down to genes rather than environment. Now Dominique de Quervain and colleagues at the University of Zurich in Switzerland have found one of those genes. People who inherit the less common form of a serotonin receptor have worse short-term memory than people with the more common form. It is not - by itself - a gene for intelligence. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4395 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Yankees star says he visited firm last year John Shea, Mark Fainaru-Wada, Chronicle Staff Writers New York Yankees star Jason Giambi is among a number of high-profile athletes called to testify in a San Francisco federal grand jury investigation of a Burlingame nutritional supplement laboratory, the former A's first baseman told The Chronicle before Game 2 of the World Series on Sunday. Giambi joins Giants home run slugger Barry Bonds and Union City track standout Kelli White among as many as 40 athletes who have been subpoenaed to testify in the case that has targeted Victor Conte and his Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO). Conte and BALCO are in the middle of a burgeoning steroid scandal sparked last week by an announcement from U.S. Olympic drug- testing officials. Giambi said he visited BALCO last fall to ask about nutritional supplements. He said he knows Greg Anderson, who is Bonds' personal trainer and who also is connected to the probe. ©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4394 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bruce Bower In a cruel double whammy, poor people endure material deprivation while experiencing more than their share of mental disorders. Some scientists theorize that this disproportion of mental illness stems from individuals with genetically based psychological ailments drifting into poverty and staying there. Other researchers suspect that the stress of financial hardship undermines emotional health. An unusual new study boosts the latter view. During the 4 years after their families moved out of poverty thanks to a community-wide economic windfall, Cherokee children in rural North Carolina exhibited marked declines in behaviors such as delinquency, violence, disobedience, and truancy, according to epidemiologist E. Jane Costello of Duke University Medical School in Durham, N.C., and her coworkers. Mental-health clinicians typically diagnose kids with these problems as having either conduct disorder or oppositional defiant disorder, a penchant to defy authority. "In families that moved out of poverty, parents were better able to supervise their children, apparently leading to fewer behavioral symptoms," Costello says. "Poverty or any other single factor can't fully explain the development of such symptoms." Copyright ©2003 Science Service

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4393 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON, — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved a new option for people with Alzheimer's disease, the first treatment specifically for late stages of the illness. The drug, memantine, has long been sold in Germany, and many people in the United States have bought it over the Internet. Now that memantine has been approved, Forest Laboratories will sell it in the United States under the brand name Namenda for patients with moderate to severe symptoms of Alzheimer's. The company said the drug should be on pharmacy shelves in January. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 4392 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By EMILY EAKIN Radiant Cool" has the makings of a gripping noir thriller: a missing body, a tough-talking female sleuth and a mustachioed Russian agent mixed up in a shadowy plot to take over the world. But the novel, by Dan Lloyd, a neurophilosopher at Trinity College in Hartford, is also a serious work of scholarship, the unlikely vehicle for an abstruse new theory of consciousness. Lured in by the sinister atmospherics (a possible murder victim turns up on Page 1) and clipped, Sam Spade narration ("He was a fool and a moron, but I never wanted to see him dead"), readers soon find themselves enrolled in a heady tutorial on Husserl, phenomenology, neural networks and multidimensional scaling. Mr. Lloyd says that embedding his theory of consciousness in a novel was essential for making his scholarly case. "I'm trying to show the way that consciousness is personal and idiosyncratic and especially bound up with time," he said. "If you put those factors together, you end up with a novel as a way to express those ideas." ("Radiant Cool," which will be published by M.I.T. Press in December, has a 100-page appendix explaining the theory in technical terms, in case scholars fail to grasp the literary version.) Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 4391 - Posted: 10.18.2003

NewScientist.com news service A skin patch that boosts the "male" hormone testosterone markedly improves the sex lives of women suffering from a loss of sexual desire, following the removal of their ovaries. Testosterone increased desire scores and sexual activity in these women by about 40 per cent compared to a placebo. The international team of researchers tested the patch in European and Australian women who had suffered early menopause due to the surgery and developed hypoactive sexual desire disorder. The disorder is the most common female sexual dysfunction and can be caused by depression, medication or natural menopause. "The results are striking for two specific reasons," says study leader Susan Davis, at the Jean Hailes Foundation, in Melbourne. "There was an extremely low placebo response, so it's a true treatment effect. Also, we are not just talking about sex, this study is really about quality of life. This is about women wanting to feel better." The work was funded by the multinational company Procter & Gamble. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4390 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JERE LONGMAN A previously undetected steroid has been identified and a new test indicates that as many as a half-dozen athletes in track and field have recently used the performance-enhancing drug, American drug-testing officials said yesterday. That is considered a significant number of athletes from one country in a single sport, and would constitute the biggest drug scandal to hit track and field since the Canadian Ben Johnson was stripped of his gold medal for 100 meters at the 1988 Summer Olympics after testing positive for a steroid. "I know of no other drug bust that is larger than this," Terry Madden, chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, an independent group that conducts drug testing for Olympic-related sports, said in a conference call with reporters yesterday. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4389 - Posted: 10.17.2003

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- In 1998, scientists found the mammalian version of a gene, known as timeless, which in flies is crucial for the biological clock. However, all but one of the research groups involved determined that timeless did not have such a role in mammals. Now that research group says timeless is indeed a key timekeeper in mammals. In a new complex molecular study of rats, published in the Oct. 17 issue of Science, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign blocked the functional ability of timeless, leaving the circadian clock in disarray. The key difference between the previous studies and this new one was the identification of two timeless proteins -- one a full-length protein and the other a shorter, incomplete version.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 4388 - Posted: 10.17.2003

Radioactive materials for medical imaging produced at lower cost. PHILIP BALL PET scanning could become cheaper and more widespread, thanks to a new bench-top way to produce rare radioactive atoms1. Current methods of making radioisotopes render the medical-imaging technique cumbersome and expensive. Positron-emission tomography (PET) scans of tumours and organs rely on the radioactive decay of isotopes such as carbon-11 and fluorine-18. Isotopes are versions of chemical elements that differ in the number of neutrons in each atom. Carbon's most common isotope, carbon-12, for example, has six neutrons per atom, whereas carbon-11 has five. The isotopes used for PET decay by emitting positrons, which are like positively charged electrons, made from antimatter; normal electrons have a negative charge. When positrons collide with electrons, they annihilate each other in a flash of gamma rays. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 4387 - Posted: 06.24.2010