Just several doses of the drug Ecstasy, taken in the course of an evening, may increase a person’s risk for developing certain neurological disorders later in life, suggests a new study on monkey and baboons. The findings appear in the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In both primate species, two or three sequential doses of Ecstasy, or “MDMA,”—equivalent to what young adults typically take during an all-night dance party—caused more brain cell damage than was previously expected, the authors report. The newly-identified type of damage occurs in dopaminergic neurons, a set of nerve cells in the brain that help control movement, as well as emotional and cognitive responses, and the ability to feel pleasure. “The most worrisome implication [of the findings] is that, as a consequence of MDMA-induced dopaminergic injury, young adults may be increasing their risk for developing Parkinsonism, a condition with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, as they get older” according to lead author George A. Ricaurte of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2720 - Posted: 06.24.2010

BY PAUL RECER Associated Press WASHINGTON - Using Ecstasy several times a night, a common practice among users of the illegal drug, may damage key neurons in the brain and perhaps hasten the onset of Parkinson's disease, according to a study of monkeys. But some researchers were skeptical that the results from the animal study translates to humans and said such studies discourage research that might lead to medical uses for Ecstasy. A Johns Hopkins University researcher injected squirrel monkeys and baboons with three shots of Ecstasy, also known as MDMA, three hours apart, mimicking dosages ''often used by MDMA users at all-night dance parties.'' He said the drug caused enduring damage to dopamine-producing neurons in the brain.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2719 - Posted: 09.27.2002

Raising new concerns about use of the popular recreational drug ecstasy, or MDMA, scientists have found that just a few doses of the substance causes extensive damage to brain cells in monkeys. The findings, published today in the journal Science, suggest that using ecstasy may increase the risk of developing Parkinsonism—a condition similar to Parkinson’s disease—later in life. Earlier animal studies had shown that repeated ecstasy use damages the serotonin brain cells, which help to regulate mood and behavior. In the new work, Johns Hopkins University researchers working with squirrel monkeys and baboons found that two or three sequential doses of the drug—the amount typically taken by young adults at all-night "raves"—killed dopamine neurons, which are involved in controlling movement, emotional and cognitive responses and the ability to feel pleasure. © 1996-2002 Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2718 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Two experimental drugs appear to prevent Parkinson’s disease-like brain damage and motor dysfunction in mice, according to investigators at the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Gerontology Research Center. The finding identifies a new approach for slowing or halting the progression of Parkinson’s disease that may one day help treat people who have it. “Although one must be cautiously optimistic when moving drugs from animals to humans, as the results are not always the same, these new drugs are remarkably effective in the animal studies, and appear to be well-tolerated”, says Mark Mattson, Ph.D., chief of the NIA’s Laboratory of Neurosciences. The study abstract will be available online at the Annals of Neurology website, http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/issuetoc?ID=78504407 after the embargo lifts. In the study, dopamine-producing nerve cells in mice treated with pifithrin-alpha (PFT), an experimental cancer treatment, and Z-1-117, a modified version of PFT, were more resistant to being killed by environmental toxins and pesticides, such as MPTP, iron, and rotenone. These toxins are suspected of increasing the risk of Parkinson’s disease in humans and can induce symptoms of the disease in rats and mice. The drugs also helped preserve motor function in mice exposed to these compounds. The investigators suspect the drugs work because they block the action of p53, a protein that may promote the death of dopamine-producing nerve cells.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 2717 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Chilli peppers could help scientists to develop an effective treatment for patients with arthritis. Researchers in the United States have found a link between the pain associated with eating the peppers and the pain associated with arthritis. The peppers and arthritis trigger the same chemical signals in the body that can cause pain. The scientists said the discovery enhances their understanding of arthritis and could lead to new treatments in the future. Dr Clifford Woolf and Dr Ru-Rong Ji of Massachusetts General Hospital found that proteins in the mouth react to the active ingredient of chilli peppers - capsaicin, which causes the "hotness". The same protein is also activated with arthritic inflammation. (C) BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2716 - Posted: 09.26.2002

From the dark of a moonless night to the glare of full sunlight on snow, our eyes perform with remarkable versatility. Now researchers have illuminated a new mechanism by which the cells in our eyes let us see in broad daylight. The retina contains two types of light-sensitive cells, called rods and cones. Rods, which support vision in dim light, typically make up 95% of the retina. The remainder consists of cones, which provide high-resolution color vision in daylight. Both types of cells use a specialized chemical cluster called a chromophore--in this case, 11-cis-retinaldehyde. When a photon hits a rod or cone, it switches the chromophore to a lower-energy configuration. The resulting cascade of events culminates in signals to the brain. Once the chromophore sets off that cascade, it needs to be "reset" before it can absorb another photon. Copyright © 2002 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 2715 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON, (AScribe Newswire) -- Two new studies by faculty at Georgetown University Medical Center and colleagues shed new light on the brain mechanisms underlying conscious awareness. The studies are published in the current issue of the journal Neurology. "Despite many advances in our understanding of the brain, the mechanisms of conscious awareness are still poorly understood," said Kimford J. Meador, MD, professor and chair of neurology at Georgetown University Medical Center and the senior author of both articles. "As our understanding of the processes underlying conciousness advances, so will our ability to help patients suffering from a variety of neural impairments." The first article, "Gamma coherence and conscious perception," adds to the growing body of knowledge about the role of brain waves, or electrical pulses in the brain. Gamma waves are fast electrical waves that have been hypothesized to be involved in conscious perception. However, scientists still do not fully understand their role.

Keyword: Attention; Epilepsy
Link ID: 2714 - Posted: 09.26.2002

It's harder to wake a penguin after lunch. JOHN WHITFIELD For penguins, the best time for a snooze is the afternoon. The birds sleep more deeply after lunch than during the morning rush hour, a French ecologist has found1. Gérard Dewasmes crept up on sleeping king penguins (Aptenodytes patagonica) and tapped their shoulders with a weighted stick once a minute till they awoke. "I have to approach the bird very slowly - it takes about ten minutes," says Dewasmes, who works at the University of Picardy in Amiens. "In many cases the bird wakes up first." He spent a month studying penguins living on the Crozet Archipelago, 1,000 km north of Antarctica. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 2713 - Posted: 06.24.2010

500-year-old rock pattern suggests a tree to our subconscious. KENDALL POWELL The beauty of one of Japan's most popular Zen gardens has long eluded explanation. Now neuroscientists have found that its minimalist design suggests a pleasing picture to our subconcious. The 500-year-old Ryoanji Temple garden in Kyoto contains five outcroppings of rocks and moss on a rectangle of raked gravel. Using symmetry calculations the researchers have discovered that the objects imply an image of a tree in the empty space between them that we detect, without being aware of doing so1. The finding suggests that Japanese garden designers - originally priests - "balanced forces from visual science," says study leader Gert Van Tonder of Kyoto University. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Vision; Brain imaging
Link ID: 2712 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Oxidative stress is implicated in a fast-growing list of human conditions, from the superficial (e.g., wrinkled skin) to the deadly: diseases such as cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders including Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS). Researchers at The Jackson Laboratory announced that they have located a gene that protects certain brain and retinal neurons from oxidative stress, and prevents neurodegeneration. Many normal metabolic functions produce free radicals--highly unstable forms of oxygen. Despite their notoriety, these molecules in fact have several beneficial roles, such as helping white blood cells attack bacteria, viruses and virus-damaged cells. Oxidative stress occurs when the amount of free radicals exceeds the normal antioxidant capacity of a cell, leading to cell damage.

Keyword: Apoptosis; ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 2711 - Posted: 09.26.2002

St. Louis, -- When a stroke affects the language areas in the left side of the brain, the right side takes over and learns how to perform language tasks, according to research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The study found that patients' right side of the brain is more active than normal during a verbal language task, and that the right side's activity decreases with practice, similar to what happens on the left side of the brain in healthy individuals. "This is the first demonstration that learning and, by extension, speech therapy change the way compensatory pathways in the brain work," says Maurizio Corbetta, M.D., head of stroke and brain injury rehabilitation. "This study supports the hypothesis that brain pathways in the right hemisphere are directly involved in the recovery of language after stroke." The study appears in the Sept. 26 issue of the journal Neuron. Corbetta, the study's senior author, also is associate professor of neurology, of radiology and of anatomy and neurobiology. The first author is Valeria Blasi, M.D., a former post-doctoral fellow in neurology at the School of Medicine, who now is at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy.

Keyword: Language; Stroke
Link ID: 2710 - Posted: 09.26.2002

Screening to identify people susceptible to Parkinson's Disease could be possible after scientists discovered 40% had a problem processing a drug. Scientists say the discovery of a defective protein involved in the metabolising of the drug, could give them crucial knowledge to help to prevent Parkinson's and other neurological diseases. It might eventually be possible to screen people for the protein when they are young, and develop medication to prevent anyone who is susceptible developing the disease, they say. Researchers from the pharmacy department at King's College, London, spotted that four in 10 patients with Parkinson's or motor neurone disease could not metabolise carbocisteine, a drug commonly used in the treatment of bronchitis and glue ear. Only 3% of healthy people have problems processing the drug. Not being able to metabolise the drug is not in itself a problem, but because of the connection with the neurological diseases, they examined the enzyme was responsible for processing the drug - phenylalanine 4-monooxygenase (PAM). (C) BBC

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 2709 - Posted: 09.25.2002

A double espresso may be able to improve women's tolerance to pain, claim researchers at a London college. However, the caffeine jolt does nothing to help men, according to their research. It has long been suggested that women are the harder sex when it comes to dealing with pain, with their ability to cope with childbirth cited as principal evidence for this. That, however, could be a myth, suggest the researchers, at Goldsmiths College. Men were, on the whole, better able to withstand pain than women. The experiment used 50 men and women, who were asked to plunge their arms into buckets of ice-cold water and keep them there for as long as they could. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2708 - Posted: 09.25.2002

With some practice, it's not that hard to balance a baseball bat on the end of your finger. But try to poise a pen or a short stick, and the task becomes rather difficult. That's because a smaller object moves more quickly--at speeds that approach the time required to carry out corrective motions. Now findings published in the October 7 issue of Physical Review Letters suggest that random movements induced by the nervous system can help keep a stick balanced on a fingertip. © 1996-2002 Scientific American, Inc.

Keyword: Movement Disorders
Link ID: 2707 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Circumcised women experience sexual arousal and orgasm as frequently as uncircumcised women, according to a study in Nigeria. The researchers also found no difference in the frequency of intercourse or age of first sexual experience between the two groups of women. These findings remove key arguments used to defend the practice, they say. Friday Okonofua and colleagues at the Women's Health and Action Research Centre in Benin City studied 1836 women, 45 per cent of whom had been circumcised. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 2706 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News While men today sometimes receive criticism from women about their communication skills, a new book reveals that a male was probably the first human to speak. According to "The Speciation of Modern Homo Sapiens," published last week by The British Academy, a male likely was the first to acquire a gene, called protocadherinXY, believed to play a crucial role in human capacity for language. The book states that the gene emerged as a translocation, or change, of a segment on the Y chromosome, which is associated with men. Tim Crow, who edited the volume and is a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford and a member of England's Medical Research Council's External Research Staff, theorizes that the genetic transition might have occurred between 100,000-150,000 years ago, when there appears to have been an "evolutionary jump" that gave rise to modern humans. Crow and many other researchers believe language could have been the catalyst for the break. Copyright © 2002 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 2705 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Philippine researchers want to restore a sea snake that has been wiped out on Gato Island by translocating the species from other islands. But new research suggests that this may not work because these snakes have such a strong drive to return to their own islands. "The fidelity of snakes to their home island was absolute," say Sohan Shetty, then at the University of Sydney, Australia, and now at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and Richard Shine of the University of Sydney, Australia, in the October issue of Conservation Biology. Widely distributed in the Pacific Ocean, the snakes (yellow-lipped sea kraits) forage for moray and conger eels in the ocean, and typically return to land to digest their prey, mate, lay eggs. The up to 5-foot long snakes are prized for their meat and skins, which are used to make high-quality leather goods, and are easy to catch in huge numbers because they are concentrated on small islands and, although venomous, are so docile that they rarely bite or even try to escape.

Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 2704 - Posted: 09.25.2002

The nature v nurture debate has never been so fierce. Robin McKie and Vanessa Thorpe report on the bitter row between two leading scientists The Observer One is a boor, a scientific dinosaur and 'a hardline left-winger' whose ideas have long since ceased to matter. The other is a 'wicked' individual whose ideas could lead more children to be assaulted by abusive parents. That is how two leading scientists have denounced each other over their claims to know the causes of human aggression. Violence is in the air and, it appears, at its roots. In his book They F*** You Up British psychologist Oliver James argues family influences are critical. Neuroscientist Steven Pinker says nothing matters more than our genes. Both are openly abusive about each other's stance. Hence, the accusation of one of Pinker's allies that James is 'fucked-up' while he has retorted in turn that his opponent is telling lies. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2002

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2703 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have developed a drug which may help addicts wean themselves off cocaine in the same way methadone helps heroin addicts. Nocaine has been developed by US researchers. Tests on animals showed it provided some of cocaine's effects, but at a much lower level. Researchers at Washington DC's Georgetown University Medical Center's Drug Discovery Program say it appears to blunt the effects of withdrawal. Safety trials are expected to begin in humans early next year. Experts warn cocaine use can cause heart problems, chest pain and respiratory failure; strokes, seizure, and headaches; and abdominal pain and nausea, (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2702 - Posted: 09.24.2002

In order to study molecular dynamics and cell interactions successfully, scientists need a way to track the movements of specific cells and cell components. Currently, proteins isolated from jellyfish that emit fluorescent green light are widely used for this purpose. Now researchers have isolated a molecule from a common coral species that fluoresces in three colors. They described the protein in a report published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. © 1996-2002 Scientific American, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2701 - Posted: 06.24.2010