By Kathleen Fackelmann, USA TODAY Researchers next week will report on the first human studies of a brain-scanning technique that may soon allow doctors to reliably test for Alzheimer's disease before symptoms emerge. The brain scans reveal the abnormal deposits of senile plaque that over time can cause memory loss and other symptoms of Alzheimer's, which afflicts 4 million Americans. Right now, doctors can diagnose Alzheimer's after a battery of tests rules out other conditions that can cause memory loss. But there's no way to see the brain-damaging senile plaques until an autopsy is performed. © Copyright 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Brain imaging
Link ID: 2326 - Posted: 06.24.2010

St. Paul, MN – A drug that boosts memory for Alzheimer's patients may also augment the performance of airplane pilots, according to a study published in the July 9 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study involved 18 pilots with an average age of 52. First, the pilots conducted seven practice flights on a flight simulator to train them to perform a complex series of instructions. Then half of them took the drug donepezil for 30 days and half took a placebo. They then took the flight simulator test twice more to see if they had retained the training. The pilots who had taken the drug retained the training better than those who had taken placebo did. Researchers were testing the theory that declines in cognitive abilities due to aging are caused in part by loss of functioning of acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that relays messages between cells in areas of the brain important for memory and thought. Donepezil is a cholinesterase inhibitor, which blocks the action of an enzyme responsible for breaking down acetylcholine.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 2325 - Posted: 06.24.2010

DALLAS, – Giving patients aspirin within 48 hours of the onset of an acute ischemic stroke can reduce death and severity of stroke, according to a joint scientific statement from the American Stroke Association and the American Academy of Neurology. An ischemic stroke is caused by a blood clot and is the most common type of stroke. The statement, published in the July issues of Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association, and Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology, aims to define the roles of the drugs such as aspirin – which is in a class of drugs called antiplatelet agents that prevent blood clot formation – and drugs such as heparin, a type of anticoagulant that slows blood clotting.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 2324 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A new source of insulin-producing cells could improve the chances of an operation which could cure diabetes in some patients. People with type-1 diabetes have lost the ability to make the vital hormone insulin because "beta cells" in the pancreas have been destroyed. They rely on regular insulin injections to control their blood sugar levels and keep them healthy. They also have to avoid very sugary foods. However, scientists now say that certain cells found in adult diabetics can be transformed into fully-functioning beta cells. This paves the way for a treatment which would replace the missing beta cells and reduce or completely remove the need for extra insulin. In addition, because the source of the cells is the patient, there would be no danger of conventional immune system rejection. (C) BBC

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 2323 - Posted: 07.17.2002

By MARIAN BURROS FOR some people, a glass of red wine is an invitation to a roaring headache. After a few such episodes, which usually include a feeling of queasiness, those who suffer them may banish wine from their tables for life. The symptoms are part of a syndrome known as Red Wine Headache, or R.W.H. "The red wine headache is a real if poorly understood phenomenon," says an article in the June issue of the Harvard Health Letter. That is a masterpiece of understatement. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2322 - Posted: 07.17.2002

By JODI WILGOREN SPRINGFIELD, Ill., — Michael Krygowski curses his shortness of breath while coaching his 10- year-old son's baseball team. He dreads dying before his three children finish college. And the 40-cent tax rise that took effect July 1 brings his two packs of Marlboro Lights to $8.70 a day — $269.70 this month. "That's a pretty big car payment," Mr. Krygowski, 39, who lives in Hirscher, Ill., lamented during a call to a smokers' "quit line" today. "I am just sick of smoking. I'm tired of the way I feel. "I wanted to quit even before the price went up," he added. "The cost just kind of sealed the deal." Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2321 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Writing in the July 12 issue of the journal Science, Hopkins-led researchers say they have identified in neurons a novel form of "programmed" cell death unlike those already known -- apoptosis and necrosis. The finding, in mouse cells, defines for the first time a window of opportunity to prevent a neuron's death and perhaps find new targets to try to treat Parkinson disease, stroke and traumatic brain injury, says Valina Dawson, Ph.D., of Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering and professor of neuroscience at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "All cell death is 'programmed' in that it results from a particular series of events," says Dawson. "But up to a certain point, the outcome is not inevitable and interference with the process can prevent or delay cell death. Knowing when that window of opportunity closes is critical."

Keyword: Apoptosis; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2320 - Posted: 07.17.2002

A new study by UCLA neuroscientists shows for the first time that a unique pattern of cellular activity found in early brain development also triggers repairs to damaged adult brains. The findings, appearing in the July 15 edition of the peer-reviewed Journal of Neuroscience, hold implications for treating brain damage caused by stroke and other disorders. Researchers in the Department of Neurology and Brain Research Institute at UCLA used rat models to show how cells in brains damaged with stroke-like lesions, caused by interruption of blood flow, develop slow synchronous activity. This activity triggers cells to sprout new connections into areas of the brain disconnected by the lesion. "Our research shows for the first time that this activity works to trigger repairs in adult brains," said Dr. Marie-Francoise Chesselet, professor of neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and study co-author. "Previously this activity has been identified as a key component of brain development."

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 2319 - Posted: 07.17.2002

By Marc Kaufman Washington Post Staff Writer The Navy won approval yesterday to deploy two ships that use controversial low-frequency sonar to detect faraway submarines, despite continuing questions about whether the system's loud blasts will injure whales and other ocean mammals. The ruling by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grants the Navy an exemption from federal rules that guard marine mammals from incidental injury. The agency concluded that protective measures required of the Navy will ensure that the effects of the sonar will be "negligible" and will not undermine the long-term health of whales and other ocean mammals. However, the five-year authorization requires the Navy to investigate unanswered questions regarding how the low-frequency sonar affects whale behavior, and whether it can silence the songs of large whales in particular. It also forbids the Navy from using the system when ocean mammals are within 1.1 nautical miles, since the force of the noise can damage their hearing and disrupt their activities within that range. © 2002 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Hearing; Animal Communication
Link ID: 2317 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bacterial infections can trigger high levels of a brain steroid that can make infants too drowsy to awaken when they encounter difficulty breathing, suggests new research on lambs. Although a link between infections and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has been previously suspected, this is the first time a clear mechanism has been found that might explain such a link. SIDS usually occurs while an infant is sleeping at night. An emerging theory holds that the condition is caused by bacterial toxins, encountered by virtually all infants in the first year of life. Researchers have proposed several theories to explain how these toxins might kill infants, but so far there has been little experimental evidence to back them up. Now, physiologist Saraid Billiards of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, has found that even a mild bacterial infection can cause brain steroid levels to rise dramatically, leading lambs to become extremely drowsy and difficult to wake. In a trial involving 12 lambs, a mild infection with Escherichia coli caused levels of the steroid allopregnanolone in the blood to rise by 50%. Results were even more dramatic in the brain, where levels of allopregnanolone, which is known to have sedative and anaesthetic properties, increased two- to threefold. If the same occurs in humans, even a mild infection could blunt infants' ability to awaken, Billiards says. "If they develop breathing problems while they're asleep that cause their blood oxygen to fall, they don't have the appropriate arousing response that allows them to wake." Copyright © 2002 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Sleep
Link ID: 2316 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service A theory portraying children as start-up companies and middle-aged adults as their investors has been proposed to explain why humans have such big brains and long life spans. Evolutionary biologists have puzzled for decades over why humans live twice as long as chimpanzees and gorillas and have brains three to four times larger than their closest living relatives. "We're thinking of the brain as an investment," says economist Arthur Robson, at the University of Western Ontario. Robson and anthropologist Hillard Kaplan, at the University of New Mexico, believe this investment is so substantial that it requires a longer human life span to give it the time to pay off. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 2315 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Chillies keep elephants out of African farmers' fields. JOHN WHITFIELD Growing chilli peppers could keep elephants and crops apart, say researchers. Elephants avoid chilli plants, and burning the peppers keeps the animals away from other crops. Chillies are also a cash crop - one project is already selling 'elephant' chilli sauce. Crop raiding is a huge problem anywhere farmers and elephants come together. Entire fields can be destroyed overnight. Botswana, one of the few African countries to compensate farmers for elephant damage, pays out more than US$1 million each year. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2314 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Gift will expand programs, sow seeds of national depression network ANN ARBOR, MI -- A new $750,000 gift to the University of Michigan Depression Center will accelerate new programs to help people with depression get the treatment they need, and sow the seeds for a potential future network of depression centers across the United States. The unrestricted, three-year gift from the Lilly Foundation is the largest ever given to a U-M program by the foundation, the nonprofit philanthropic arm of Eli Lilly and Company. "With this gift, we will be better able to reach out to patients and their families in primary care and community settings, find ways to help improve patients' adherence to treatment, and share the U-M Depression Center model with other institutions across the country," says John Greden, M.D., executive director of the U-M Depression Center and Rachel Upjohn Professor and chair of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School. "We're tremendously grateful to the foundation for sharing and supporting our vision of improving depression care for everyone."

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 2313 - Posted: 07.16.2002

BY TIM DAHLBERG Associated Press LAS VEGAS (AP) — Pedro Alcazar spent much of his last day alive like any other tourist. He watched pirates do battle on the Strip, had lunch atop the tallest building in town and fed some quarters into slot machines. The night before, he had taken a beating before being stopped in the sixth round of the biggest fight of his career. Yet now he was in remarkably good spirits, joking and laughing, posing for pictures and signing autographs for the occasional tourist. "I know I lost the title, but I didn't lose everything," he said. "I'm going to try to win a world championship for Panama and my family." © 2002 FOX Interactive Television, LLC. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 2312 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists believe they may have uncovered the reason why women live longer than men - they are better sleepers. A team from the US has found that women tend to sleep more soundly than men. They are also less affected by the effects of sleep deprivation. The researchers, from Pennsylvania State University, found that missing sleep can affect hormone levels and generate harmful chemicals in the body. Lead researcher Dr Alexandros Vgontzas believes women's sleeping habits may have evolved to help them cope with crying babies and disturbed nights. He thought it could help explain why women live, on average, several years longer than men. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 2311 - Posted: 07.15.2002

Attention problems found to last at least a month WASHINGTON — North Carolina neuropsychologists believe they have gathered reliable evidence linking cardiopulmonary bypass surgery to impaired memory and attention. Claims about this relationship have been made before, but the current team used statistical methods that they consider to be more sound, less biased and less likely to over-estimate occurrence than those used in previous research. The researchers also, for the first time, documented that the cognitive declines persist beyond the first couple of weeks. The study appears in the July issue of Neuropsychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) surgery, notes Julian Keith, Ph.D., of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, and his co-authors, is performed in the United States on more than 500,000 people annually. The procedure -- like many major surgeries -- exposes patients' brains to a variety of abnormal physiological conditions, including inflammation, lack of oxygen, elevated blood sugar, lowered body temperature, showers of microscopic blood clots, and the presence of a lot of amnesia-causing drugs.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2310 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The increased anger and irritability stroke sufferers often exhibit may be related to brain damage from the stroke rather than to distress about their condition, scientists in South Korea report. Moreover, that anger and irritability is more common in stroke victims than currently recognised, they add. In a study of 145 people who had suffered a stroke, researchers from the Asian Medical Centre in Seoul found a correlation between symptoms of anger and aggression and lesions on parts of the brain that are responsible for producing serotonin - a brain chemical that moderates behaviour. All Rights Reserved © Copyright 2000, 2001 Health24.co.za

Keyword: Stroke; Emotions
Link ID: 2309 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By KATHRYN WEXLER, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times TAMPA -- Elderly rats that eat certain fruits and vegetables stay smarter than rats that don't, according to two new University of South Florida studies. While the jury is still out on humans, the studies, to be published today in the Journal of Neuroscience, offer evidence that eating foods high in antioxidants may reverse the cognitive effects of aging. "Your mother was right," said Paula Bickford, the senior author of the studies, referring to the age-old admonition to eat your vegetables. "All we're doing now is using good scientific methods to prove it." © Copyright St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Intelligence; Alzheimers
Link ID: 2308 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By EMILY EAKIN Once an obscure ape dwelling in remotest Zaire, the bonobo surged to celebrity in the mid-1990's on a groundswell of liberal sentiment. Here was a primate tailor-made for the age of political correctness: vegetarian, peace-loving, female-dominant, with an outsize libido and an open-door policy when it came to sex. (Male, female, night, day -- almost anything would do.) Moreover, 98 percent of its genes were ours too, making the bonobo not a freak of nature but a next of kin -- like us, only better. ''The very model of a modern liberated woman,'' one scientist exulted. ''Every program in women's studies should include a little excursion into the world of the bonobo,'' urged another, comparing the apes' largely conflict-free lives to the ''make love, not war'' ethos of 1960's hippies. Conservatives were left to grumble that the bonobo society was too P.C. to be true, bearing a suspicious resemblance to -- as one disgruntled male commentator put it -- life on the campus of Brown University. He was onto something. As Marlene Zuk demonstrates in her fascinating and persuasive new book, ''Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can't Learn About Sex From Animals,'' the tendency to hold up animals as role models -- to see in their behavior inspiration or vindication for our own -- is as rampant in science as the common cold, and considerably more debilitating. ''The lens of our own self-interest not only frequently distorts what we see when we look at other animals,'' she writes. ''It also in important ways determines what we do not see, what we are blind to.'' Most of what we know about bonobos we've learned in the last 20 years, Zuk notes, ''after the feminist revolution in anthropology.'' Had we focused on them earlier, she speculates, they might have been seen as more violent and warlike, ''simply because the paradigm of the day emphasized male aggression, which the bonobos do possess.'' Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 2307 - Posted: 07.14.2002

by Dennis Meredith Steven Vogel was suffering sore muscles -- ironic for a biologist who had just published a widely praised book on the science and history of muscles, from flies to humans. Ensconced in his comfortable office, the sinewy, fit scientist-author of Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle (Norton, 2002) revealed that he had been persuaded to walk down the Eiffel Tower. Ever the scientist, Vogel precisely explained the basis of his discomfort. "You're exerting more force when you decelerate them when you accelerate, but the aerobic cost is so low you don't notice that you're doing much," said the James B. Duke Professor of Biology, wincing. "You don't notice it until afterwards." [Steven Vogel, a Duke biologist and author of Prime Mover: A Natural History of Muscle Photo: Les Todd/ Duke Photography] Indeed, the phenomenon of sore muscles is only one scientific morsel Vogel offers in a smorgasbord of topics covered in his book, including that facts that

Keyword: Muscles; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 2306 - Posted: 07.14.2002