By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News — Tubers, scavenging, and women — this might have been the winning combination that spurred human evolution about 2 millions years ago, according to a provocative hypothesis by American anthropologists. Writing in the current issue of the Journal of Human Evolution, University of Utah anthropologist James O'Connell and colleagues challenge the conventional wisdom that meat, brought home by man the hunter and shared out, fueled the rise of early humans. "Meat consumption cannot account for the significant changes in life history now seen to distinguish early humans from ancestral australopiths. Our argument relies on a combination of life history theory, data on modern humans and primates, and the archaeological record," O'Connell told Discovery News. Copyright © 2002 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 3305 - Posted: 06.24.2010

As many as 100 lives a year could be saved in the UK by the wider use of a drug to treat schizophrenia, researchers claim. The half a million people with the condition have a 50 times higher risk of attempting suicide than the general population. But experts say treating schizophrenia with the drug clozapine, an atypical antipsychotic, could reduce the number of suicide attempts, and therefore deaths. They have fewer side-effects than older drugs, but are significantly more expensive. The government is committed to reducing suicides by 20% by 2010. (C) BBC

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 3304 - Posted: 01.14.2003

By ERICA GOODE The number of children and adolescents who take a wide variety of psychiatric drugs more than doubled from 1987 to 1996, researchers are reporting today. Stimulants like Ritalin, prescribed for attention deficit disorder, and antidepressants were the most commonly prescribed drugs, according to the study, which experts said was the most comprehensive on the topic. The investigators, led by Dr. Julie Magno Zito, an associate professor of pharmacy and medicine at the University of Maryland, also found precipitous growth in the use of antipsychotics, so-called mood stabilizers prescribed for mania or aggression, and other classes of potent psychoactive medications. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; ADHD
Link ID: 3303 - Posted: 01.14.2003

By GINA KOLATA The clinical signs of Alzheimer's disease are all too familiar — the erosion of memory for recent, then distant events, the declining ability to reason or to think. Eventually, there is the blank look, a sort of Alzheimer's stare, and a failure to recognize a husband, a wife, a child. But the real question has been, What is going on in the brain, and why do patients suffer the terrible forgetfulness? For years, the prevailing notion was that Alzheimer's was a disease of brain-cell death. Pathologists could see that progressively, relentlessly, brain cells died, leaving behind piles of debris that they detected in autopsies and that are the hallmarks of the disease. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 3302 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JAMES GORMAN When red deer stand up and honeybees dance, they are not simply stretching their legs or indicating where the nectar is, according to a new study. As bizarre as it may seem, they are voting on whether to move to greener pastures or richer flowers. The process is unconscious, the researchers say. No deer counts votes or checks ballots; bees do not know the difference between a dimple and a chad. But no one deer or bee or buffalo decides when the group moves. If democracy means that actions are taken based not on a ruler's preference, but the preferences of a majority, then animals have democracy. Not surprisingly, decisions based on majority preferences tend to fit in with what most individuals in the group want. But, the researchers say, this is not a mere tautology. An analysis based on some hefty mathematical models that they developed shows that democracy in groups of animals can have a tangible survival edge over despotism. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Animal Communication
Link ID: 3301 - Posted: 01.14.2003

University of Washington (UW) researchers have found a genetic mutation underlying one of the Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorders. Their results appear in the Jan. 14 edition of Neurology, a journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorders are characterized by nerve degeneration in the hands and lower arms and in the feet and lower legs. The nerve damage leads to muscle weakness and loss of sensation in these parts of the body. Affecting about 1 in 2,000 people, Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorders are the most common inherited neurological diseases. Different forms of the disease appear as the result of different genetic abnormalities. Charcot-Marie-Tooth-related abnormalities have been located on a number of human chromosomes.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3300 - Posted: 01.14.2003

Through the study of fat storage in nematode worms, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have formulated a new model for understanding the mechanisms of obesity and diabetes in humans. Their work appears in today's issue of Developmental Cell. "Obesity and its associated diseases are now among the most important medical conditions in the world," said Dr. Jonathan M. Graff, senior author of the study and associate professor in the Center for Developmental Biology. "A billion people in the world are overweight, and during the next few decades, it will be one of the major health issues facing mankind. The alarming increase in obesity highlights the critical need to identify genes that are involved in regulating fat-cell development and function," he said.

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3299 - Posted: 01.14.2003

Many people who use drugs start during adolescence, a time when the brain is undergoing many neural changes. Now, researchers from the University of Miami School of Medicine have demonstrated in rats that repeated exposure to cocaine during adolescence may cause different neurochemical and behavioral effects than when exposure occurs during adulthood. To study the behavioral effects of cocaine, Drs. Stephanie Collins and Sari Izenwasser administered either cocaine or a placebo to 12 adolescent rats and 16 adult rats daily for seven days. Each day, the rats were placed in an enclosure with a photobeam array that recorded their activity. After 10 days during which the rats did not receive any substance, all of the rats were given cocaine and their activity was recorded. Adult rats receiving cocaine for seven days showed a significantly higher daily increase in activity than the adult group receiving the placebo. Ten days after cocaine administration stopped, the activity level of cocaine-exposed adult rats was greater when re-exposed to the drug than when they were initially exposed, indicating that they had developed a sensitivity to the behavioral effects of the drug.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3298 - Posted: 01.14.2003

Nicotine administration in humans is known to sharpen attention and to slightly enhance memory. Now scientists, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), have identified those areas of the brain where nicotine exerts its effects on cognitive skills. Their findings suggest that nicotine improves attention in smokers by enhancing activation in the posterior cortical and subcortical regions of the brain--areas traditionally associated with visual attention, arousal, and motor activation. This study provides the first evidence that nicotine-induced enhancement of parietal cortex activation is associated with improved attention. The investigators used functional MRI to visualize nicotine's effects on the brain during a rapid visual information-processing (RVIP) task -- a task that requires sustained attention and working memory. Fifteen smokers with and without a 21- mg transdermal nicotine patch performed the RVIP task while undergoing MRI screening. The subjects performed the RVIP task twice--once with a placebo patch and once with a nicotine patch--and were scanned during each session. They smoked their last cigarette 15 minutes before performing the RVIP task.

Keyword: Attention; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3297 - Posted: 01.14.2003

Cocaine is traditionally thought to exert its effects on behavior by interacting with dopamine transporters. However, recent research, cofunded by NIDA, has shown that other mechanisms may also mediate the behavioral effects of the drug. The research team led by Dr. Rae Matsumoto from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has demonstrated that interfering with cocaine's access to sigma receptors can block the behavioral and toxic effects of the drug. Sigma receptors are unique proteins located in many areas of the body, including the brain and the heart, which are target organs for the actions of cocaine. The research team interfered with cocaine's access to sigma receptors by treating mice with antagonists or antisense oligodeoxynucleotides. An antagonist is a chemical compound that competes with drugs such as cocaine for occupancy of the receptor. Antisense oligodeoxynucleotides reduce the number of receptors in the body by decreaseing the formation of new receptors. When old receptors are degraded, they are not replaced. The researchers showed that when mice were treated with sigma receptor antagonists and then exposed to cocaine, they were less likely to experience the toxic effects of the drug. The effectiveness of the antagonists in preventing the toxic effects of cocaine appears related to their ability to interact with sigma receptors, rather than dopamine transporters. Additionally, the hyperactivity produced by cocaine was reduced in mice when they received antagonist treatments, showing a reduced sensitivity to the stimulant effects of cocaine.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3296 - Posted: 01.14.2003

Scientists have discovered how the brain processes emotionally-charged information. They have found that the left side of the brain alone appears to take responsibility for decoding the literal meaning of emotional messages. But it seems that the brain's right hemisphere plays a role in assessing the tone in which the message is delivered - a concept known technically as prosody. The findings are based on measuring how fast blood flows to the tissues of the brain. A greater velocity implies more activity in that area of the brain because brain cells, when active, require an increased supply of oxygen and glucose, both of which are carried in the blood. A team from Ghent University in Belgium used a technique called transcranial doppler ultrasonography to measure blood flow velocity in the brain's left and right middle cerebral arteries. (C) BBC

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 3295 - Posted: 01.13.2003

Kansas City, Mo. - Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research are gaining new insight into the molecular players involved in the process of vertebral column formation in the embryo. A research team headed by Dr. Olivier Pourquie, currently an Associate Scientist at the Stowers Institute, were pioneers in providing evidence for an oscillator called the segmentation clock, a timing mechanism responsible for the periodic production of the somites (the precursors of the vertebrae) in the embryo. This group now reports that the Notch signaling pathway provides the backbone of the segmentation clock in the chick embryo. These findings are reported in the Jan. 12 Advance Online Publication of the journal Nature at http://www.nature.com by Dr. Pourquie and co-authors Drs. Kim Dale and Miguel Maroto, senior research associates of Dr. Pourquie and co-equal contributors to the research. The paper's title is "Periodic Notch inhibition by lunatic fringe underlies the chick segmentation clock."

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3294 - Posted: 01.13.2003

First Ed Beale's mother, then his son developed schizophrenia. How tragedy gave way to love By Christine Gorman and Wendy Cole Howard Schizophrenia is the most personally destructive and least understood of all the major mental illnesses. Its principal hallmark is extremely disordered thinking—the kind that robs many of its victims of the ability to keep a job, maintain a relationship or even hold a coherent conversation. The first serious symptoms typically begin sometime after puberty, in the late teens or 20s. Some but not all schizophrenics suffer hallucinations. Some but not all schizophrenics hear voices. The cause is undeniably physical—perhaps the unhappy combination of a genetic predisposition and an infection suffered in the womb. In any event, it's clear that the results can be heartbreaking. In this way, schizophrenia affects far more than one person at a time. For a look at its extended impact, Time visited one family to see how schizophrenia touched its members across four generations and how the family coped with the disease. In some ways, their story is uncommon—most schizophrenics don't have a family history of the disorder. In other ways, particularly in their struggle to deal with the stigma and isolation of a mental illness, the Beales of Howard, Ohio, are all too typical. Ed Beale, 65, never knew his mother, Emma, a vivacious former schoolteacher with a knack for picking up foreign languages. When she was 30 and Ed was just 7 months old, she was committed to a psychiatric institution with what the family later recognized as schizophrenia. When Ed was 3, his dad told him that his mother had died soon after giving birth to him. Although she actually lived until 1973—when Ed was 36—he never met her, heard her voice or kissed her cheek. Copyright © 2002 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 3293 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Doctors and scientists are learning how emotions are connected to our physical health By Michael D. Lemonick If you close your eyes and think about it for a while, as philosophers have done for centuries, the world of the mind seems very different from the one inhabited by our bodies. The psychic space inside our heads is infinite and ethereal; it seems obvious that it must be made of different stuff than all the other organs. Cut into the body, and blood pours forth. But slice into the brain, and thoughts and emotions don't spill out onto the operating table. Love and anger can't be collected in a test tube to be weighed and measured. Rene Descartes, the great 17th century French mathematician and philosopher, enshrined this metaphysical divide in what came to be known in Western philosophy as mind-body dualism. Many Eastern mystical traditions, contemplating the same inner space, have come to the opposite conclusion. They teach that the mind and body belong to an indivisible continuum. In the past, doctors and scientists have tended to dismiss that view as bunk, but the more they learn about the inner workings of the mind, the more they realize that in this regard at least, the mystics are right and Descartes was dead wrong. FROM THE JAN 20, 2003 ISSUE OF TIME MAGAZINE; POSTED SUNDAY, JAN 12, 2003 Copyright © 2002 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 3292 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MICHAEL D. LEMONICK A major mental illness like clinical depression will send biochemical shock waves through the body. But the intimate relationship of body to mind isn't limited to serious disease. Researchers have come to understand that what lies below the neck can also be harmed by less acute kinds of brain disturbances. The chronic stress that millions of people feel from simply trying to deal with the pressures of modern life can unleash a flood of hormones that are useful in the short term but subtly toxic if they persist. Thus it shouldn't come as a surprise that stress-reduction strategies that take pressure off the mind — meditation, yoga, relaxation exercises and such — can take the heat off the body as well. Humanity's physical reaction to stress, known as the "fight or flight" response, probably evolved to help our primitive ancestors deal with a treacherous world. When confronted with imminent danger — a saber-toothed tiger, say, or a club-wielding enemy Homo erectus — the body had to be instantly ready either to defend itself or to run like hell. So the terrified brain would signal the adrenal glands, located on top of the kidneys, to release hormones, including adrenaline (its more technical name: epinephrine) and glucocorticoids (see chart), and the nerve cells to release norepinephrine. These powerful chemicals made the senses sharper, the muscles tighter, the heart pound faster, the bloodstream fill with sugars for ready energy. Then, when the danger passed, the response would turn off.

Keyword: Depression; Stress
Link ID: 3291 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ST. PAUL, MN - – Many of the 1.1 million heart attacks and 731,000 strokes that occur each year in the United States might be prevented by controlling risk factors. Among those with a history of heart disease or stroke, African Americans could possibly benefit most from a greater degree of awareness and control of risk factors, as they are significantly more likely to have a higher risk factor profile than many other groups. According to a study published in the January 14 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology, inadequate rates of awareness and control of risk factors remain prevalent among African American stroke patients. Risk factors studied include hypertension, diabetes, cigarette smoking, excessive alcohol use, and high cholesterol. “We sought to determine rates of awareness, treatment and control of major risk factors among patients at the time of enrollment into the African American Antiplatelet Stroke Prevention Study (AAASPS),” said study author Sean Ruland, DO, of Rush University in Chicago. The AAASPS is a clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of ticlopidine hydrochloride (an anti-clotting agent) with aspirin in preventing recurrent stroke, heart attack and other vascular-related death.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 3290 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The body's internal 24-hour biological clock is controlled by a single protein, say scientists. The husband and wife team at Perdue University, Indiana, who have come up with the theory say it could lead to new ways to help people whose internal clock has been disrupted by jet lag or health problems. But other experts in the field say the control of the body's natural rhythms is likely to be a great deal more complex. Professor James Morre and his wife Professor Dorothy Morre say the as yet unnamed protein is responsible for determining when the body's cells are active or inactive. They found that if the protein is altered, the body's clock is thrown into turmoil - and an internal "day" can last for as long as 42 hours. Professor James Morre said: "We can now begin to understand the complex chain of events that connect the clock to events in the body. (C) BBC

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 3289 - Posted: 01.12.2003

By Robert Parsons in Dmanisi, Georgia The moment is indelibly burned into Dato Zhvania's memory. It had been a day like any other - a day of back-breaking, painstakingly meticulous work. A day of throbbing, enervating heat. But as he sifted gingerly through the baked patch of ground before him, his fingers touched something different. His pulse quickened. The archaeological site at the medieval town of Dmanisi, 80 kilometres (50 miles) south-west of the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, had already revealed some of its secrets. Perhaps, just perhaps, this was his turn. But what emerged as he brushed away the earth was to far exceed his expectations. (C) BBC

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 3288 - Posted: 01.12.2003

By WILLIAM GRIMES The wrath of PETA, the animal rights group, has now been turned on KFC, the fried-chicken chain. After two years of failed negotiations aimed at forcing KFC to introduce more humane practices into the raising and slaughtering of chickens, PETA announced last week that it would start a worldwide "Kentucky Fried Cruelty" campaign, distributing posters, stickers and leaflets that feature a cartoon Colonel Sanders grinning wickedly as he slices open a live bird. PETA, or People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, wants KFC, among other things, to kill its chickens using gas rather than slitting their throats, to increase their living space and to provide perches and shelters for the birds. "KFC has shortchanged the chickens, leaving us no choice but to turn up the heat," said Bruce Friedrich, PETA's director of vegan outreach. "McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's responded to consumer pressure; KFC would do well to follow their lead." YUM Brands, the parent company of KFC, insisted that its animal welfare program had brought about improvements in the way its suppliers raised and killed their chickens. One claim in the PETA campaign is sure to catch the attention of anyone who has ever had close dealings with a chicken. "Chickens are inquisitive and interesting animals," the campaign's press release begins, "and are thought to be at least as intelligent as dogs or cats." Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 3287 - Posted: 01.12.2003

BY DANIEL Q. HANEY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Some doctors would enjoy nothing more than poking around inside your brain. First they would give your frontal cortex a thorough going-over. Then maybe they would take a peek at your temporal lobes. Finally, they would confidently predict whether in five or 10 or maybe even 20 years you will lose the whole works to Alzheimer's disease. Not that you would want to know this, necessarily, since nothing can be done yet to stop the disease. Still, doctors appear surprisingly close to getting their wish. © Sarasota Herald-Tribune. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Brain imaging
Link ID: 3286 - Posted: 06.24.2010