PITTSBURGH, – Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have completed the first survey of the entire human genome for genes that affect the susceptibility of individuals to developing clinical depression. George S. Zubenko, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and adjunct professor of biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon University and his team have located a number of chromosomal regions they say hold the genetic keys to a variety of mental illnesses, including major depression and certain addictions. The survey was done in 81 families identified by individuals with recurrent, early-onset, major depressive disorder (RE-MDD), a severe form of depression that runs in families. The Pitt team's findings are published today in the American Journal of Medical Genetics. Finding the genetic roots of depression is important for many reasons. Depression is the second-leading cause of disability worldwide, affecting nearly 10 percent of the population. And while scientists have made significant progress developing new drugs to treat it, studies that identify specific risk genes may lead to even more effective drugs designed to target depression in specific individuals.

Keyword: Depression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3988 - Posted: 06.24.2010

People at risk of developing schizophrenia may soon be identified years before they develop any symptoms, psychiatrists have said. Research carried out on people considered to be high risk has led to hopes that treatment could be offered to help prevent the onset of the disease. Experts at the University of Edinburgh have been tracking a group of more than 150 people with a high risk of developing schizophrenia since 1994. The individuals, who come from all over Scotland, were considered high risk as they had two or more close relatives with the disease. Since the study began, 20 of the group have gone on to develop schizophrenia. Psychiatrists compared them with the rest and found clear differences which they claim may be used to help identify the condition at an early stage. (C) BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 3987 - Posted: 07.02.2003

Dogs are naturally nosy creatures, so chemists have been trying to find a way to create a device as sensitive as their snouts. As this ScienCentral News video reports, they’re coming close. If you wanted to create something that could sniff out the competition, you’d model it after nature’s furry odor-detecting machine, the dog. That’s what David Walt, professor of chemistry at Tufts University, did when he built an artificial nose, one that resembles a dog’s--both inside and out. “The nasal cavity of a dog is actually quite complex,” says Walt. “It has all sorts of little channels and tunnels. And if you could imagine all these channels and tunnels when the dog, or even humans, take a sniff of an odor, the odor has to travel down those long passageways. Those passageways are lined with receptors. That is, the sensors that do the smelling.” © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 3986 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ever been in a spot where you can’t put a name to a face or a face to a name? As this ScienCentral News video reports, neuroscientists have more information about what happens in the brain as these memories are made. You meet someone and later you’re trying to remember his or her name. Sound familiar? Neuroscientists call it associative memory. “It’s a critical form of memory because it really defines us as individuals,” says Wendy Suzuki, assistant professor of neuroscience and psychology at the Center for Neural Science at New York University. “Our memories for the facts that we’ve learned and the events that we’ve experienced in our lives is really what makes us who we are. So that’s why it’s the focus of so much cognitive neuroscience research today.” Associative memory is, for example, the ability to learn the relationship between unrelated items, such as the name of someone you just met and that person’s face. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 3985 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The movie Trainspotting , with its horrific depictions of heroin withdrawal, might someday seem as outdated as steam locomotives. Researchers have found a neurotransmitter that alleviates many of these chilling symptoms in mice. That transmitter is a new clue for developing therapies to deal with drug withdrawal in humans. Withdrawal symptoms, such as tremors, anxiety, and a racing heart, are due to signals from the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which arouses these "fight or flight" urges in times of stress. Opiates such as morphine sedate neurons sensitive to norepinephrine, causing them to work harder to communicate with their neighbors. When the opiate is later removed, the neurons respond to norepinephrine with excessive gusto. Another piece of the puzzle is galanin, a brain chemical that reduces norepinephrine release. It's not clear how galanin interacts with these neurons, but because neurons near the so-called locus coeruleus--a brain region that fires wildly during withdrawal--have receptors for galanin, neuroscientist Marina Picciotto of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues tested whether galanin was involved in withdrawal. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3984 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Treatment with medication or psychotherapy reduced depressive symptoms in women from minority populations, according to research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Most of the participants in the controlled trial were low-income African-American and Latino women who are at high risk for depression and use county health and welfare services. Research findings appear in the July 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Participants were randomly assigned an antidepressant, psychotherapy, or referral to a community mental health service provider. “Structured care reduces major depression in these diverse and impoverished patients,” said lead author Jeanne Miranda, Ph.D., University of California at Los Angeles Neuropsychiatric Institute. “This study broadens the knowledge base by evaluating depression treatments among young, predominantly minority women. It is the first study to let providers know that treating depression in this population can significantly improve the ability of these women to feel and function.” Results show that low-income women in minority populations benefit from depression treatment when it is paired with intensive outreach and encouragement to support the interventions. Not only did women achieve lower levels of depressive symptoms, but they also gained higher levels of functioning in daily life.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 3983 - Posted: 06.24.2010

HANOVER, NH – While picking apart the genetic makeup of the plant Arabidopsis, two Dartmouth researchers made a startling discovery. They found that approximately 36 percent of its genome is potentially regulated by the circadian clock, which is three and a half times more than had previously been estimated. The study, which appears in the June issue of Plant Physiology, was conducted by C. Robertson McClung, Dartmouth professor of biological sciences, and Todd Michael, a former Dartmouth graduate student who is now a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, Calif. Their research on circadian-controlled genes contributes to efforts to help improve plant productivity and can possibly lead to growing crops that are more resistant to stressful soil or climate conditions. McClung and Michael used a technique called "gene trapping" or "enhancer trapping" to measure how much mRNA is produced or synthesized by large sections in the genome. According to McClung, a great deal of gene regulation occurs in the gene's ability to synthesize mRNA, which then is translated into proteins that perform the critical metabolic activities of a cell.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 3982 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A study led by a UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute researcher challenges standard treatment guidelines for bipolar depression that recommend discontinuing antidepressants within the first six months after symptoms ease. Study participants treated under the guidelines relapsed at nearly twice the rate of those who continued taking antidepressants in conjunction with their mood stabilizer medication during the first year after remission of acute bipolar depression. The researchers found no increased risk of manic relapse in those who continued the medication for one year. The findings appear in the July 2003 edition of the American Journal of Psychiatry. "The common clinical practice of discontinuing antidepressant use in bipolar patients soon after remission of depression symptoms may actually increase the risk of relapse," said Dr. Lori Altshuler, a professor at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and the study's lead author.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 3981 - Posted: 07.02.2003

Some people who find it hard to give up smoking may have a good excuse - it's down to their genetic make-up. Scientists have found that people who carry a version of one particular gene may find it harder to give up their habit. However, there may be an upside. It seems that the same variant may protect people from developing lung disease. The gene in question - dubbed CYP2A6 - plays a role in processing nicotine in the body. However, there are at least three versions of the gene. One, called del, is less active than the others. A team of researchers from Keio University in Tokyo took DNA samples from 203 current or ex-smokers suspected of having respiratory disease, and compared them with samples from 123 healthy non-smokers. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3980 - Posted: 07.01.2003

NewScientist.com news service The idea that women are hunting for rich husbands while men choose wives for their beauty is a long way from the truth, suggests a new study. While some celebrity marriages may fit this pattern, most men and women are seeking a mate who is similar to them in qualities such as income, beauty, and desire to have children. The new study flouts the traditionally accepted views that, to maximise our ability to reproduce, men are seeking young, attractive women who are likely to bear them children while women are seeking older, successful men who have the resources to support and protect their young. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3979 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By HENRY FOUNTAIN Scientists have long known that there is more to speech perception than meets the ear. Humans, even infants who cannot yet speak, pick up visual cues from the movement of the lips and other parts of the face to help understand what it is they are hearing. Now there is evidence that this ability may go back a long way. Researchers in Germany say they have found that rhesus monkeys can also combine visual and auditory information to perceive vocal signals, suggesting that the ability had some kind of evolutionary precursor before humans and other primates diverged millions of years ago. The researchers, Dr. Asif A. Ghazanfar and Dr. Nikos K. Logothetis of the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics in Tübingen, tested monkeys by showing them side-by-side video images of another monkey making two sounds, while playing a soundtrack of just one of the sounds. Time after time, the test monkeys were able to match the sound with the correct video image. The research was reported in the current issue of the journal Nature. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Animal Communication; Emotions
Link ID: 3978 - Posted: 07.01.2003

By ABIGAIL ZUGER An itch demands a scratch, but science has barely begun to scratch the surface of why an itch itches, and how to make it stop. The itch-scratch cycle sits right at the fascinating intersection of pleasure and pain, reflex and compulsion, but it has received relatively little scientific attention. Ten years ago, one of the small band of international itch researchers called itch "sadly neglected," an "orphan symptom." But new developments are slowly beginning to refine scientific understanding of itch. They include the identification of nerve fibers devoted to transmitting itchy sensations, of brain sectors that process itch, and of molecules that seem to provoke itch. Itch experts hope that better treatments for itchy patients will soon follow. People who sail through the occasional mosquito bite without a conscious thought may be unmoved by this news. But for the many others whose itch-scratch cycle has been deranged by yet-unknown neurochemicals into a tortured process that scars their skin, destroys their sleep and sometimes sends them to the brink of suicide, the dearth of scientific understanding and treatment options for itch is deeply frustrating. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 3977 - Posted: 07.01.2003

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The human brain combines motion and shape information to recognize faces and facial expressions, a new study suggests. That new finding, part of an engineer’s quest to design computers that “see” faces the way humans do, provides more evidence concerning a controversy in cognitive psychology. Were computers to become adept at recognizing faces and moods, they would be more user-friendly, said Aleix Martinez, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Ohio State University. They could also support intelligent video security systems and provide potentially hack-proof computer identification. Martinez developed a model of how the brain recognizes the faces of people we’ve seen before, and how we discern facial expressions. These two activities take place in different areas of the brain, and some scientists believe that the mental processes involved are completely separate as well; others believe that the two processes are closely linked.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 3976 - Posted: 06.24.2010

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A new study suggests that men and women might not be as far apart in sexual behaviors as previous research has shown. In many surveys, men typically report engaging in sex at earlier age, more often, and with more sexual partners than do women. However, a new study shows that some reported gender differences might show up because women don’t always answer surveys honestly, but give answers they believe are expected of them. “Women are sensitive to social expectations for their sexual behavior and may be less than totally honest when asked about their behavior in some survey conditions,” said Terri Fisher, co-author of the study and associate professor of psychology at Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3975 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHAPEL HILL -- Taking care of chronically ill loved ones over long periods stresses caregivers, as everyone knows, but a new study provides strong new evidence that such continuing stress boosts the risk of age-related diseases by prematurely aging caregivers' immune systems. Levels of a damaging compound known as a proinflammatory cytokine not only increased considerably faster among those taking care of ailing spouses but also continued to increase faster for years after the spouses died. A report on the research, conducted by scientists at Ohio State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will appear online Monday afternoon (June 30) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Keyword: Neuroimmunology; Stress
Link ID: 3974 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers have produced a genetically altered mouse that exhibits behavioral abnormalities that are strikingly similar to those observed in humans with schizophrenia. The scientists report that they have already used insights from studying the mouse to identify a genetic variant associated with schizophrenia in humans. According to the researchers, the findings could well mean that they have identified a molecular signaling pathway involved in the origin of schizophrenia, which affects about one percent of the population. If so, the search for drugs affecting that pathway could yield a new class of antipsychotic drugs that more precisely and effectively treat the disorder. ©2003 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 3973 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer A less intrepid scientist might have stayed in the comfort of her laboratory. But not Anna Gislen. Gislen went the extra mile. The extra 5,328 miles, to be more precise -- from her lab in Lund, Sweden, to a cluster of tropical islands off the west coast of Thailand, to study a tribe of highly skilled divers known as "sea gypsies." It was rough. The blazing sun. The gorgeous beaches. The fresh coconuts and crystal-clear waters. But in the end, with the help of her 7-year-old daughter and a few colleagues, Gislen overturned conventional thinking about the limits of human vision underwater. © 2003 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 3972 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ERIC NAGOURNEY A new study has found the first physical clue to the cause of restless leg syndrome, a condition that disturbs the sleep of millions of Americans. The syndrome, which causes sufferers to move their legs frequently to avoid unpleasant sensations like tingling and throbbing, particularly at night, has sometimes been considered psychological. But the new study, which involved comparing autopsy samples of the brains from seven people with the condition and five without, contradicts that idea, said the lead researcher, Dr. James Connor of the Penn State College of Medicine. "There's a difference in the R.L.S. brain and the non-R.L.S. brain," he said. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 3971 - Posted: 06.30.2003

By DAVID BARBOZA Can a white leghorn hen be truly happy? That's one question researchers are asking in the emerging academic field called "animal well-being." These researchers videotape chickens at play or rig doors so pigs can use their snouts to choose between eating their food alone or hanging out with other swine. The scientists attend conferences to hear papers with titles like "Hyperaggressiveness in Male Broiler Breeder Fowl." Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions; Animal Rights
Link ID: 3970 - Posted: 06.30.2003

So, how many millions of years has it been? Susan Milius In barstool speculation on how long it's possible for someone to survive without sex, the phrases "old fossil" and "a million years" certainly do turn up. However—meaning no disrespect to snubbed Homo sapiens —our species doesn't even register in the scientific version of the debate. In this, there are genuine geologic fossils. And a million years? Forget it. The species attracting interest now look as if they may not have had sex for tens, or even hundreds, of millions of years. Yes, there really is a scientific version of the barroom lament, and it's a serious inquiry. Biologists have long held that asexuality is an evolutionary dead end because sex purges the genes of detrimental mutations, provides the genetic variation for coping with environmental change or both. But new methods of genetic analysis are suggesting that certain groups of species have avoided sex and still have done quite well over the eons, thank you very much. "The question of, 'Why sex?' is a very central one to biology," says David Mark Welch of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. Copyright ©2003 Science Service.

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3969 - Posted: 06.24.2010