Piltdown taught science a lesson, sort of BY SAMANTHA LEVINE In 1912, in an English town called Piltdown, a centuries-old woman and an orangutan became unlikely partners in crime. A cunning trickster had stained and filed her skull and the ape's jaw to make them appear ancient, then planted them in a shallow pit where laborers were doing road work. The workmen took their find to a local amateur paleontologist, Charles Dawson, who showed them to Arthur Smith Woodward, the foremost paleontologist at London's British Museum. He confirmed the bones' prehistoric provenance and the new creature's key position in the evolutionary tree: The big-brained hominid bridged the evolutionary gap between ape and man, all but proving Darwin's theory of common descent. The "missing link" had been found. And it was British. Dubbed"Dawson's Dawn Man,"Eoanthropus dawsoni didn't have a lot of competition at the time. There was "almost no fossil record known for humans," says Karen Rosenberg, chair of the University of Delaware's anthropology department and coeditor of the journal PaleoAnthropology –only the jawbone of a hominid found in Heidelberg, Germany, and several fossils from Java. Without better evidence, Piltdown fit some people's preconceptions of man's evolution–specifically, that our big brains, and thus, intelligence, developed before other aspects of modern man. Even so, some scientists of that era argued that certain characteristics of the bones, like the absence of the critical joints that connect a cranium with a jaw, proved they were never really joined as one. The critics were generally ignored. But the puzzle of Piltdown grew with the discovery of other hominid fossils. The finding of tiny-brained Australopithecus in Tanzania in 1924, for example, made Dawn Man's large brain case increasingly inexplicable. Stacks of articles and essays–some say 500 or more–were devoted to the maddening topic. One professor who swallowed the Piltdown scam said the contradictions merely proved that "there were at least two very distinct and independent species of primitive man." Piltdown was slowly cast off as a freakish anomaly until 1949, when chemical tests found that the skull and jaw were younger than many believed. Radiocarbon dating in the 1950s confirmed the true age of the bones and that they came from two different periods. Copyright © 2002 U.S. News & World Report, L.P.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 2506 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Captive dolphins base their whistles on human sounds. KENDALL POWELL Young captive dolphins mimic their trainer's whistle in their calls to other dolphins, researchers say1. The finding is some of the first evidence that animals use imitated sounds to communicate with each other. "In developing their whistle, young dolphins are incorporating sounds they hear in their environment into their vocalization," says Peter Tyack, who studies animal behavior at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts. When separated from their social group, dolphins whistle in short, unique bursts to signal their location and identity. They whistle through their blowholes at frequencies almost too high for humans to hear. Their human trainers use a dog whistle to communicate with the dolphins. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Animal Communication; Hearing
Link ID: 2505 - Posted: 06.24.2010

TORONTO - Dr. Anna Taddio, a researcher at The Hospital for Sick Children (HSC), has found that newborns who experience repeated painful procedures in the first days of life experience more intense pain and learn to anticipate it. This research is reported in the August 21 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. "This was the first study to look at anticipatory pain responses in newborns. This research confirmed anecdotal reports that infants become hypersensitive to pain and learn to anticipate pain as a result of cumulative exposures to pain," said Dr. Taddio, the study's principal investigator, an HSC pharmacist and associate scientist, and an assistant professor of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. "Many newborn infants undergo painful, invasive procedures after delivery for medical reasons and it is important for us to understand how they react to pain, and look at ways to decrease their pain, " added Dr. Taddio.

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2504 - Posted: 08.21.2002

Years of research come together in a book explaining how stress affects the brain ATLANTA -- Emory University psychiatrist J. Douglas Bremner, M.D., has compiled more than ten years of research, reflection, and observations as a clinical psychiatrist in a book that explains how stress-induced changes in the brain may account for some psychiatric disorders, including Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), dissociative disorders, borderline personality disorder, adjustment disorder, depression, and anxiety. The book "Does Stress Damage the Brain? Understanding Trauma-Related Disorders from a Neurological Perspective," outlines the theory that there is a biological basis for trauma-related disorders which can be essential in diagnosing and treating such disorders. This view of trauma spectrum disorders, as Bremner calls them, is a departure from the widely held view in psychiatry that psychiatric disorders are completely different from one another, and have different causes. The idea of trauma spectrum disorders came out of research conducted by Bremner and colleagues when he was a young psychiatry resident at West Haven, VA Hospital and Yale University Hospital, During an experience in the wee hours of the morning with a Vietnam War combat veteran who was trapped in the middle of a post-traumatic "flashback," Dr. Bremner was struck by the seemingly reflexive and uncontrollable nature of the symptoms, which were similar to those of patients having seizures. Dr. Bremner wondered if the flashbacks represented a neurological rather than a psychological condition, as they were considered to be at that time.

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 2503 - Posted: 08.21.2002

NewScientist.com news service Gingko biloba has no beneficial effect on memory in healthy older people, according to a US study. The popular herbal supplement is extracted from leaves of the gingko biloba tree. It is widely believed to enhance memory and concentration, and sales in the US alone exceed £200 million each year. "Many of our older patients were taking gingko and wanted to know if it was of any benefit. But although there had been dozens of trials showing beneficial effects, they all had serious shortcomings. We decided to carry out the first scientifically rigorous study," said Paul Solomon who led the study at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2502 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Peggy Peck UPI Science News SAN DIEGO, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- People who have quick tempers are likely to be more pain sensitive, while their easygoing neighbors find physical aches less painful, new research presented Tuesday at the 10th World Congress on Pain suggests. People who suppress their anger also are more likely to feel pain, said the study's author, Stephen P. Bruehl, assistant professor of anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. Individuals with short fuses tend to produce very low levels of brain chemicals called endogenous opioids, also known as the body's natural pain-killers, "so they are feeling more pain and more constant pain," Bruehl said in an interview with United Press International. People who suppress anger, however, "actually have adequate levels of endogenous opioids, but they are still are more pain-sensitive," said Bruehl. Copyright © 2002 United Press International

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Emotions
Link ID: 2501 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Shows signs of trepanation — drilling to relieve pressure on the brain LONDON (AP) — A Bronze Age man whose skull was fished out of the River Thames survived one of Britain's earliest forms of brain surgery, archeologists said today. The 4,000-year-old skull, found in October, has a 4.5-centimetre by three-centimetre hole in the top, suggesting the man had undergone trepanation, a procedure in which a portion of the skull is removed from a living patient. The bone had re-grown around the hole, indicating the patient — an adult male who lived around 1750 BC — survived the operation, performed without anesthetic. Copyright 1996-2002. Toronto Star Newspapers Limited.

Keyword: Evolution; Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 2500 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Beauty may be in the eye of the beer holder rather than the beholder, according to a new study by scientists. Academics in Scotland have found proof of the so-called "beer goggles" effect, following a study involving 80 students. The researchers wanted to measure the infamous phenomenon by which members of the opposite sex become more attractive more alcohol is consumed. They found that men and women who have drunk a moderate amount of alcohol find the faces of the opposite sex 25% more attractive than their sober counterparts. The study also revealed there was no difference in the beer goggle effect between men and women. Students at Glasgow University were shown colour photos of 120 male and female students from St Andrews University aged 18 to 26. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 2499 - Posted: 08.20.2002

by Glen L. Stimmel, Pharm.D., BCPP, and Alice S. Myong, Pharm.D. Psychiatric Times July 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 7 Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) is primarily a phenomenon of labeling. Patients are treatment-refractory only because they have been labeled as such by their clinician, even though most patients have the potential to respond to treatment (Guscott and Grof, 1991). The current standard in treating major depression is defined as full remission of symptoms and restoration of functioning (Nierenberg and Wright, 1999). Thus, it could be argued that most patients treated for an acute depressive episode are treatment-resistant since most do not achieve full remission of symptoms with the first somatic or psychosocial treatment they receive (Sackeim, 2001). True TRD is usually defined, however, as a much smaller percentage of patients in whom contributory factors to treatment failure have been ruled out. When a patient presents with presumed TRD, the diagnosis requires re-evaluation to identify comorbid medical or psychiatric conditions that may be interfering with expected clinical response. The next step is to identify "pseudo-resistance," in which the patient, for whatever reason, did not have an adequate antidepressant trial.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 2498 - Posted: 08.20.2002

by Phillipa J. Hay, M.D. Psychiatric Times July 2002 Vol. XIX Issue 7 While anorexia nervosa was the first eating disorder to be recognized through the 19th century reports of Gull (1874) and Lasèque (1873), bulimia nervosa and the less well-defined eating disorder not otherwise specified (EDNOS) syndromes are more common. Bulimia nervosa was first described by Russell in 1979 and was introduced into the American Psychiatric Association classification scheme in the 1980 DSM-III, where it was termed bulimia. In clinical samples, however, people with EDNOS may comprise one-third to one-half of patients seen (Hall and Hay, 1991; Herzog et al., 1993). The EDNOS syndromes include people who fall below the diagnostic criteria for bulimia nervosa or anorexia nervosa. Binge-eating disorder is a third classification of eating disorder and is listed as the sixth example of an EDNOS syndrome in the DSM-IV as "recurrent episodes of binge eating in the absence of the regular use of inappropriate compensatory behaviors characteristic of Bulimia Nervosa" (APA, 1994). It is also in Appendix B with suggested criteria as a diagnostic group for further study. With an estimated point prevalence of 0.5% in young women, anorexia nervosa is not a common condition (Aalto-Setala et al., 2001). A systematic review of 12 cumulative incidence studies reported an estimated mean annual incidence in the general population of 18.46 per 100,000 (SD=21.01) in women and 2.25 per 100,000 (SD=2.63) a year in men (Pawluck and Gorey, 1998). There is limited evidence for changes in the overall incidence of anorexia nervosa over time, although the authors reported a significant increase in its incidence in young women from 1950 to 1992.

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 2497 - Posted: 08.20.2002

(Little Rock) Scientists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) today [8-14-02] that premature babies are more likely to have significant learning and behavioral problems after the age of five years than babies born full-term. Using sophisticated statistical methodology to analyze 20 years of research around the world, the scientists at UAMS confirmed that children born prematurely have much lower cognitive scores, with lower-than-average learning ability, and more behavioral problems after the age of five years than children born full-term. The scientists call for "concerted efforts of clinicians and neuroscientists to [study] the biological, environmental, and psychosocial mechanisms responsible for these cognitive and behavioral differences."

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2496 - Posted: 08.20.2002

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University researchers have shown how emotions such as fear or horror travel along separate paths through the brain and are more likely than simple distractions to interfere with a person's efforts to focus on a task such as driving. Using functional MRI to watch human brains in action, the researchers showed that emotional stimuli and "attentional functions" like driving move in parallel streams through the brain before finally meeting up in a specific part of the brain's prefrontal cortex. The results, published in the August 20 issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), help explain why a person who suddenly feels a pang of emotion is especially likely to lose focus. They also may lead to new avenues of research for treating depression, attention-deficit disorder, post-traumatic stress syndrome and other disorders.

Keyword: Emotions; Brain imaging
Link ID: 2495 - Posted: 08.20.2002

A team of researchers asks in a new health journal article, "Are the Fat More Jolly?" What they found was that obesity does not protect people from mental health problems. "The answer," they write, "is a most emphatic 'No.'" Looking at eight different indicators of mental health problems, the researchers examined whether the stereotype of the "jolly fat" is accurate. It's not, says researcher Robert E. Roberts, Ph.D., of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "There was either no observed association between obesity and psychological dysfunction or the obese were worse off," he and his colleagues write. "… In no case did we observe better mental health among the obese. In sum, the obese were not more jolly."

Keyword: Obesity; Emotions
Link ID: 2494 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online The Associated Press LONDON - The government on Monday reprimanded scientists who plied mice with drugs and loud dance music to study the effect on their brains. The Home Office said it was taking "infringement action" against Cambridge University researchers who injected mice with the stimulant methamphetamine and subjected them to loud music, including tracks by dance act The Prodigy. Several mice died and others suffered brain damage in the experiment, whose results were published in the journal NeuroReport last year. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Parkinsons
Link ID: 2493 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The startling question came from the pew in front of us. "Did Joshua die?" a friend's daughter asked, craning her neck to look at our family. "Pardon?" Karen asked, as the Sunday church service began. "Did Joshua die?" the little girl repeated. "No, honey," Karen replied, and pointed to Joshua, our 6-month-old son seated next to his mom. "He's right here." The little girl's confusion was understandable. We, too, have marveled at the differences in our son since doctors removed the right half of his brain to control crippling seizures. Copyright 2002 Lansing State Journal

Keyword: Epilepsy; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2492 - Posted: 08.20.2002

Having trouble sleeping? Maybe a little music will help you sleep. But what Canadian researchers are proposing is not a blast of your favourite pop singer, or a relaxing piece of classical music, but individually tailored "brain music". The therapy has been developed to help insomniacs. A team at the University of Toronto has created music which matches a person's brain waves. When that particular piece of music is played, people's anxiety levels seem to fall, and they are able to relax and sleep. To create the music, researchers study the specific rhythmic and tonal patterns which create a meditative condition in an individual. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sleep; Hearing
Link ID: 2491 - Posted: 08.17.2002

Lower levels could explain disruption in mental function; study points toward better treatments Irvine, Calif., — Levels of a pivotal signal processor in the brain are reduced significantly in people with schizophrenia, a study by scientists at UC Irvine, Weill Cornell Medical College and Rockefeller University has found. The findings suggest that the processor, which helps regulate key neurotransmitters in an area of the brain linked to schizophrenia, could eventually play a key role in reversing the brain dysfunctions associated with the disease. The study appears in the August issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. Dr. William Bunney, the Della Martin professor of psychiatry at UCI; Dr. Paul Greengard, professor of neuroscience at Rockefeller University; and Dr. Hugh Hemmings, professor of anesthesiology at Weill Cornell, and their colleagues found the processor, a chemical called DARPP-32, was reduced in the brains of deceased victims of schizophrenia. UCI Communications Office © copyright 2001 UC Regents

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 2490 - Posted: 06.24.2010

-- Imagine a wall full of clocks with a large dominant clock controlling the synchronization of the peripheral clocks. Now imagine the big clock continuing to keep time, but, as it ages, its connecting signal to the smaller clocks weakens. Some of the smaller clocks eventually become desynchronized and some stop running. This weakening of the signal, rather than a problem with the central timekeeper itself, apparently is the cause of alterations in the biological timing system in aging mammals -- possibly including humans -- according to a new University of Virginia study in the current issue of the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This may explain why older people experience sleep disorders -- the signal from the master clock in the brain has weakened, even as it keeps on ticking. This weakened output causes some of the peripheral clocks in other organs to eventually stop oscillating or to fall out of proper synch, causing sleep disruption and malaise. © 2002 by the Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 2489 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New pathway to cell death found lurking outside of nerve cells LA JOLLA, CA. Scientists at The Burnham Institute report in this week's issue of Science magazine that an ephemeral gas, called nitric oxide, found in the body and as an air pollutant, can activate enzymes on the outside of nerve cells to trigger their demise during stroke and neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, and AIDS dementia. The enzymes belong to a family known as matrix metalloproteinases or MMPs. When activated in excess, these enzymes chew up the outside of nerve cells, resulting in their death. "The new work uncovers the mechanism of activation of an enzymatic pathway that leads to nerve cell death," said Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., a neurologist who is Professor and Director of the Center for Neuroscience and Aging at The Burnham Institute, and head of the team reporting the new findings. "The MMP enzymes act outside of the nerve cell rather than inside," Lipton continued. Previously, the best characterized enzyme pathways that killed nerve cells were found inside nerve cells rather than outside. "The new results also link two previously unrelated scientific fields studying MMP enzymes and nitric oxide gas, both of which were thought to be important in the life and death of nerve cells, but the fact that nitric oxide [abbreviated NO] could activate these enzymes was not previously recognized," commented Lipton.

Keyword: Stroke; Apoptosis
Link ID: 2488 - Posted: 08.17.2002

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By LAURAN NEERGAARD, Associated Press WASHINGTON - Nosy birds snoop on other nests to scope out the best breeding grounds and then remember how to get back to them after a long winter half a world away, researchers say. The study suggests that birds have more complex brains than previously thought - not to mention humanlike preferences for good neighborhoods. The factors that make wild birds choose specific places to nest are important to conservationists. Set up a protected habitat without the right qualities, and the birds won't stick around. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 2487 - Posted: 06.24.2010