Children with a twin of the opposite sex may do better than their classmates when it comes to emotional and social development, claim researchers. A survey carried out in Finland found that boy and girl twins were more developed than both same-sex sets and singleton children. The researchers involved, from the University of Jyvaeskylae, suggest that the best qualities of each assist the progress of the other. Traditionally, twins are thought to take longer to develop certain social, emotional and language skills. Twins are often smaller at birth than singleton babies, and this is thought to contribute to marginally delayed development. In addition, a delay in picking up language skills is often blamed on very young twins choosing to babble at each other rather than attempt communication with their parents. (C) BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3728 - Posted: 04.24.2003

Men who sport chiselled jaws and classic "masculine" facial features are actually healthier than their less manly peers, researchers suggest. And women who choose them may do so because they are instinctively looking for a healthier mate, they say. However, Australian researchers found that although adolescent males with more masculine faces had better health, they were not necessarily seen as more attractive. So it may be that women are, deep down, aiming to attract the healthiest, rather than the most attractive, father for their children. Femininity in teenage girls' faces is perceived as a sign of being healthy and attractive, but there was no link with how healthy they actually were. The theory that masculine faces in men may be seen as "healthier" is connected to the effect of testosterone on the immune system. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3727 - Posted: 04.24.2003

Having meningitis as a baby can lead to teenage behavioural problems, researchers have suggested. In a survey, almost half of parents with children who had been affected by meningococcal disease said their children had behavioural problems, compared to just one in five parents whose children had not had it. The researchers, from the Imperial College of Medicine, admit teenage behaviour is complex, but say teenagers affected by meningitis do behave more badly their peers. The team surveyed the parents and teachers of 739 English and Welsh 13-year-olds who had contracted bacterial meningitis before their first birthday between 1985 and 1987. The children had previously been studied by researchers looking at meningitis in infancy. The parents were asked whether their children had emotional problems, and about their behaviour, hyperactivity, peer problems and social skills, using a recognised scale designed to assess behaviour. (C) BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 3726 - Posted: 04.24.2003

People with synesthesia--whose senses blend together--are providing valuable clues to understanding the organization and functions of the human brain By Vilayanur S. Ramachandran and Edward M. Hubbard When Matthew Blakeslee shapes hamburger patties with his hands, he experiences a vivid bitter taste in his mouth. Esmerelda Jones (a pseudonym) sees blue when she listens to the note C sharp played on the piano; other notes evoke different hues--so much so that the piano keys are actually color-coded, making it easier for her to remember and play musical scales. And when Jeff Coleman looks at printed black numbers, he sees them in color, each a different hue. Blakeslee, Jones and Coleman are among a handful of otherwise normal people who have synesthesia. They experience the ordinary world in extraordinary ways and seem to inhabit a mysterious no-man's-land between fantasy and reality. For them the senses--touch, taste, hearing, vision and smell--get mixed up instead of remaining separate. Modern scientists have known about synesthesia since 1880, when Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, published a paper in Nature on the phenomenon. But most have brushed it aside as fakery, an artifact of drug use (LSD and mescaline can produce similar effects) or a mere curiosity. About four years ago, however, we and others began to uncover brain processes that could account for synesthesia. Along the way, we also found new clues to some of the most mysterious aspects of the human mind, such as the emergence of abstract thought, metaphor and perhaps even language. A common explanation of synesthesia is that the affected people are simply experiencing childhood memories and associations. Maybe a person had played with refrigerator magnets as a child and the number 5 was red and 6 was green. This theory does not answer why only some people retain such vivid sensory memories, however. You might think of cold when you look at a picture of an ice cube, but you probably do not feel cold, no matter how many encounters you may have had with ice and snow during your youth. © 1996-2003 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Hearing; Vision
Link ID: 3725 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Improve your memory by taking something found in nature! And you don’t need a prescription! Is it too good to be true? Gingko biloba, extracted from the leaves of the gingko tree and available in health food stores, supermarkets and countless internet sitesis one of the most widely used herbal treatments for improving memory, and people in the U.S. spend millions of dollars on it every year. The scientific community has taken note; the National Institute on Aging is currently supporting a clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy of gingko in treating the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. “Gingko has become a very popular [supplement], partly because there is a sort of pent-up demand for something that will enhance memory and cognitive function,” says Steven Ferris of the Institute for Aging & Dementia at NYU Medical School. Sometimes the supplement is even marketed as a kind of “Brain Viagra,” with claims that it increases circulation in the brain and protects it from tissue-damaging substances. The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) cites a review article in a British Journal that found “promising evidence of improvement in cognition with gingko.” © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 3724 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Seafaring turtles may use smell to navigate during the epic ocean voyages they undertake to reach their breeding grounds, suggests a new satellite-tracking study. Green turtles swim over 2200 kilometres from foraging grounds in Brazil to nest on Ascension Island, which sits in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. How they find their way has puzzled scientists since Darwin. Now Graeme Hays, at the University of Wales Swansea, and colleagues have shown that sniffing the air is at least part of the answer. The researchers abandoned turtles in the sea 50 kilometres from the island and found that those left downwind returned much more quickly. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Animal Migration; Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 3723 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Habitual snoring and chronic headaches appear to go together, according to a study released yesterday. For the study, published in the journal Neurology, researchers surveyed 206 people who reported an average of 260 days with headaches a year, and a comparison group of 507 people who reported an average of 24 headache days. In the headache group, 24 percent said they always snored, compared with 14 percent of the other group. When the figures were adjusted for factors like body weight and alcohol use, people with chronic headaches were more than twice as likely to be habitual snorers, the study said. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 3722 - Posted: 04.23.2003

ST. PAUL, MN – Researchers have discovered abnormalities in the chromosomes of several patients with sporadic, or non-hereditary, ALS, according to a study published in the April 22 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. ALS, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a progressive disease of the nervous system also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Five to 10 percent of ALS cases are hereditary, and researchers have identified several genes that are linked to the disease. In sporadic ALS, researchers have identified several genetic risk factors for the disease, but much remains to be discovered about the role genetics play in the disease. This study examined the chromosomes of 85 people in Germany with sporadic ALS. Five people had chromosomal abnormalities, for a rate of 5.9 percent.

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 3721 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A team of researchers led by cognitive scientist Elizabeth Bates, a professor at the University of California, San Diego, has developed a novel new brain imaging technique that produces maps that “light up” the relationship between the severity of a behavioral deficit and the voxels (similar to pixels in computer images) in the brain that contribute the most to that deficit. Discovery of the new technique, known as Voxel-based Lesion-Symptom Mapping (VLSM), was reported in the April 21 issue of Nature Neuroscience. According to Bates, who is known for her research on the brain and how it is organized to process language, VLSM will give researchers an invaluable new tool for pinpointing the specific areas of the brain that are most crucial for normal functioning during critical brain activities, starting with the measures of language comprehension and production that were used for the first demonstration in Nature Neuroscience, but moving on to many different language and non-language functions. To view or download the paper, which includes color VLSM brain maps, please visit: “This is a new brain mapping technique to be used with structural rather than functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (fMRI) that locate brain damage for individual patients,” said Bates. “It is an important breakthrough because it is a bridge, a tool, to bring two completely different traditions in brain research – lesion-behavior mapping and fMRI’s -- into alignment.” Copyright ©2001 Regents of the University of California

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 3720 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A major study has confirmed the value of potential markers for identifying people with Alzheimer's disease. Scientists at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) found that levels of two key indicators in spinal fluid distinguished clinically diagnosed Alzheimer's patients from controls with 89-92 percent efficiency. This matches or exceeds current clinical diagnostic methods, such as doctor's evaluation of medical history, cognitive testing, and brain scans. However, the potential telltale signs, or biomarkers, won't be ready for use as predictive and diagnostic tools until completion of long-term studies now underway. Trey Sunderland, M.D., chief, NIMH Geriatric Psychiatry Branch, and colleagues, report on their study -- which included both direct examination of 203 patients and controls and a meta-analysis of world literature -- in the April 23, 2003 Journal of the American Medical Association. "We're hopeful that biomarkers will eventually be developed to help detect incipient illness in younger people who are at risk but who may not yet show any symptoms," said Sunderland. "Clues from biochemical, genetic and brain imaging studies could point to new possibilities for preventive interventions." The NIMH study examined cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of two protein fragments, hallmarks of the disease process, found in brains of Alzheimer's victims: beta-amyloid, which clumps together to form brain-damaging plaques, and tau, which strangles neurons in tangled filaments.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 3719 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GINA KOLATA For nearly nine months, doctors and researchers have been struggling with an intractable problem: how could two large high-quality studies come to diametrically different conclusions about menopause, hormone therapy and heart disease? The question arose in July, when scientists saw data from a large federal study called the Women's Health Initiative, which was ended early when it became clear that a widely used hormone-replacement drug, Prempro, had risks, including heart attacks, that exceeded its benefits. That finding directly contradicted previous studies showing that the hormones reduced heart disease risk — in particular, the Nurses' Health Study, a large research effort that has been going on for years. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 3718 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists report for the first time that “baby” teeth, the temporary teeth that children begin losing around their sixth birthday, contain a rich supply of stem cells in their dental pulp. The researchers say this unexpected discovery could have important implications because the stem cells remain alive inside the tooth for a short time after it falls out of a child’s mouth, suggesting the cells could be readily harvested for research. According to the scientists, who published their findings online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the stem cells are unique compared to many “adult” stem cells in the body. They are long lived, grow rapidly in culture, and, with careful prompting in the laboratory, have the potential to induce the formation of specialized dentin, bone, and neuronal cells. If followup studies extend these initial findings, the scientists speculate they may have identified an important and easily accessible source of stem cells that possibly could be manipulated to repair damaged teeth, induce the regeneration of bone, and treat neural injury or disease. “Doctors have successfully harvested stem cells from umbilical cord blood for years,” said Dr. Songtao Shi, a scientist at NIH’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) and the senior author on the paper. “Our finding is similar in some ways, in that the stem cells in the tooth are likely latent remnants of an early developmental process.”

Keyword: Stem Cells
Link ID: 3717 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers find important similarity among Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's and other degenerative diseases Irvine, Calif. -- UC Irvine researchers have discovered an important similarity in the causes of cell degeneration and death in diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, Huntington's, type II diabetes and CJD, suggesting that a single therapy could combat these different ailments. UCI molecular biologists Charles Glabe and Rakez Kayed found that small toxic molecules believed to trigger cell damage in these diseases have a similar structure. The study, which appears in the April 18, 2003 issue of Science, implies that these molecules, called toxic soluble oligomers, share parallel functions, which makes them suitable targets for new drugs or vaccines that could halt progression of many degenerative diseases. "This discovery will help focus attention on what may be the primary mechanism for degeneration and cell death," said Glabe, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry. "Whatever makes these molecules toxic is likely to be the same for all of the different types of oligomers in the different diseases."

Keyword: Alzheimers; Huntingtons
Link ID: 3716 - Posted: 04.22.2003

HOUSTON – A gene therapy developed by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine has apparently cured diabetes in mice by inducing cells in the liver to become beta cells that produce insulin and three other hormones. "It's a proof of principle," said Dr. Lawrence Chan, professor of medicine and molecular and cellular biology as well as chief of the division of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism at the College. "The exciting part of it is that mice with diabetes are 'cured.' " In the research, which is described in a report in Nature Medicine's online edition today, Chan and his colleagues used the NeuroD gene, a transcription factor that induces the liver to produce cells that make insulin and the three hormones associated with the pancreas' endocrine system.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 3715 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The brain's miserly habits can make your head spin By Eric Haseltine Your brain is a taskmaster that often makes individual neurons perform multiple operations at the same time. Like any other overworked laborers forced to juggle too many responsibilities, overwrought nerve cells are prone to make mistakes. Experiment 1 Focus on the star in the center of Figure A. Slowly move your head toward the page, then away from it. The rotation you perceive is called the Pinna-Brelstaff illusion. Vision researchers Filippo Pinna and Gavin Brelstaff theorize that illusory rotation arises from the brain's strategy of making certain neurons responsible for detecting both the orientation and the direction of movement of visual lines and curves. Neurons in the visual cortex of the brain are organized into subgroups, each of which responds best to lines oriented at a specific angle. Neurons that "prefer" the particular angle of an object viewed at any given moment are more active than those preferring other orientations. A subgroup of visual neurons gets most excited when a line with a preferred orientation is in motion and the direction of that motion is at a right angle to the line's orientation. © Copyright 2003 The Walt Disney Company

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 3714 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Life-altering surgery on rise By Christine Rook Lansing State Journal More than ever, Americans turn to surgery to control their weight. The number of weight-related operations has more than tripled nationwide in the past eight years. These are not cosmetic quick fixes. They include everything from stomach stapling to permanently bypassing several feet of intestine. They are costly and invasive and mean lost time from work, strict diets and the understanding that even with surgery a person still might end up obese. Why, then, are people signing up? Because for the morbidly obese - people whose weight is slowly killing them - surgery isn't an easy out. It's the only out. webmaster@lsj.com Copyright 2003

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 3713 - Posted: 04.20.2003

Possible link between this orphan disease and neurodegenerative disorders considered | By Brendan A. Maher A movement disorder can start as a twinge. A child's leg turns in while walking. Writing becomes difficult, painful. For many, these types of diseases--broadly termed dystonias--progress no further than persistent muscle cramps. Yet in many children affected by rare, heritable, early-onset dystonia, a generalized movement disorder called torsion dystonia develops as well. The disorder can affect the entire body: Opposing muscles work against each other, twisting the posture, causing repetitive movements, or contorting arms and legs into unnatural positions. Oftentimes, the earlier in life symptoms appear, the worse they get. To uncover the roots of this dominant trait, which has only 30% to 40% penetrance, researchers spent more than 15 years studying afflicted, diverse families and a population of Ashkenazi Jews to zero in on a responsible mutation: a three-basepair deletion in DYT1 that appears exactly the same across ethnic groups.1 Recent efforts to elucidate the function for torsinA--the protein this gene encodes--reveal that torsins may act as molecular chaperones, altering protein folding and clearing aggregates from living cells. In worms, torsins alleviate engineered poly-glutamine clumps,2 and in cell culture, torsinA suppresses a-synuclein aggregation.3 These results and others reveal ties to troublesome neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson, Huntington, and Alzheimer disease. Protein aggregates are hallmarks of these diseases, but their role remains controversial. Likewise, torsinA's role in clearing the aggregates is murky, and such clumps are not even found in patients with dystonia. Yet, some draw parallels between torsion dystonia and Parkinson disease: Uncontrollable movements are common to both, and some treatments, including deep-brain stimulation, seem to ameliorate symptoms, even though dystonia is not a neurodegenerative disease. ©2003, The Scientist Inc.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3712 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The discovery could help understand fat absorption Scientist have discovered a gene that makes people more likely to absorb fat. They were looking at why some people are more prone to diseases linked to excessive consumption of fat. But they say it may help understand how too much fat can lead to obesity, diabetes, high blood fat levels and heart attacks. It may and aid the development of new treatments. An international team of researchers looked at the genetic causes of severe fat malabsorption in three rare diseases, chylomicron retention disease (CMRD), Anderson Disease and CMRD with Marinesco Sjogren syndrome, a neuromuscular disorder. The genetic mutations in the three disorders mean that a protein called Sar1b, which is required for all dietary fat absorption, cannot work properly. Scientists from Imperial College London and the Hammersmith Hospital studied families from across the world and found all those affected by the three disorders had the same genetic mutation. (C) BBC

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3711 - Posted: 04.19.2003

Talk is cheap, but it can tax your memory Bruce Bower Law-enforcement officials typically solicit descriptions of criminals from eyewitnesses, often just after an offense has occurred. It stands to reason that thorough accounts by those who saw what happened will help investigators round up the likeliest suspects. Eyewitnesses can then pick the criminals out of a lineup. When crime-scene interviewing had its first brush with memory research in 1990, however, the results proved disturbing. A series of laboratory studies found that memories for a mock criminal's face were much poorer among eyewitnesses who had described what the perpetrator looked like shortly after seeing him, compared with those who hadn't. Psychologist Jonathan W. Schooler of the University of Pittsburgh, who directed the studies, dubbed this effect "verbal overshadowing of visual memories." His paper's subtitle put it more bluntly: "Some things are better left unsaid." Not among scientists, though. Discussion generated by Schooler's results ushered in a wave of research examining how eyewitnesses can find themselves, as he later quipped, "at a loss from words." Studies have confirmed that, at least under certain circumstances, verbal descriptions impair memories for faces and other hard-to-describe perceptions, such as the taste of a fine wine or the sound of a person's voice. Recent investigations, described in the December 2002 Applied Cognitive Psychology , extend what's known about verbal overshadowing and offer potential tactics for counteracting this memory-sapping effect. However, no one yet knows the full range of perceptions subject to verbal overshadowing or its implications for various eyewitness-interviewing techniques. From Science News, Vol. 163, No. 16, April 19, 2003, p. 250. Copyright ©2003 Science Service

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Language
Link ID: 3710 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By EMILY EAKIN In the middle of the 17th century, Spinoza took on Descartes and lost. According to Descartes' famous dualist theory, human beings were composed of physical bodies and immaterial minds. Spinoza disagreed. In "The Ethics," his masterwork, published after his death in 1677, he argued that body and mind are not two separate entities but one continuous substance. As for Descartes' view of the mind as a reasoning machine, Spinoza thought that was dead wrong. Reason, he insisted, is shot through with emotion. More radical still, he claimed that thoughts and feelings are not primarily reactions to external events but first and foremost about the body. In fact, he suggested, the mind exists purely for the body's sake, to ensure its survival. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 3709 - Posted: 04.19.2003