By Brian Reid Special to The Washington Post Ten years ago, researchers stumbled onto a striking finding: Women who believed that they were prone to heart disease were nearly four times as likely to die as women with similar risk factors who didn't hold such fatalistic views. The higher risk of death, in other words, had nothing to with the usual heart disease culprits -- age, blood pressure, cholesterol, weight. Instead, it tracked closely with belief. Think sick, be sick. That study is a classic in the annals of research on the "nocebo" phenomenon, the evil twin of the placebo effect. While the placebo effect refers to health benefits produced by a treatment that should have no effect, patients experiencing the nocebo effect experience the opposite. They presume the worst, health-wise, and that's just what they get. © 2002 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 1980 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Men are more likely to spoil their female partners and keep a close eye on their movements around the time of ovulation. This could be an evolutionary strategy to keep women away from other men during fertile periods, say the researchers who carried out a questionnaire study. "Non-paternity" rates vary from country to country but between one and 30 per cent of children are not the offspring of their purported father. Steven Gangestad and colleagues at the University of New Mexico, US, found that women fantasised more about other men just before ovulation and that their partners apparently responded to this increased risk of unfaithfulness. "It was clear from the results that the women's primary partners were more attentive and proprietary near ovulation," Gangestad says. "The results suggest a conflict of interest between the sexes when women are fertile." © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 1979 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JULIE BAIN Snoring can be a sign of something much more serious, and George Resto's wife at the time, Sonia, was worried. "She used to tell me I was snoring a lot, really loud," Mr. Resto, 39, of the Bronx, said. "But she was concerned because I also couldn't breathe. I would just gag and gasp for air over and over again." Mr. Resto did not think much of it. He often felt exhausted, but attributed it to waking up at 4:30 a.m. for his job as a sanitation worker. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 1978 - Posted: 04.30.2002

A Mayo Clinic study reports that narcolepsy, a sleep disorder, is more common in men and originates in their 20s. The study, which appeared in a recent edition of the journal Sleep, also found that narcolepsy without cataplexy -- a sudden loss of muscle tone -- is an important subgroup, warranting further study. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder associated with excessive daytime sleepiness, involuntary daytime sleep episodes, disturbed nocturnal sleep and cataplexy (weakness with emotions such as laughter). Narcolepsy affects over 100,000 people in the United States. Copyright © 1995-2002 ScienceDaily Magazine

Keyword: Narcolepsy; Sleep
Link ID: 1977 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An international team of researchers leaded by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona have found experimental evidence that the various manifestations of fear in animals are influenced by a specific place or region within the genome. The results, published in the latest edition of Genome Research, were obtained with rats, but the scientists suspect that this research will facilitate an understanding of genetic characteristics and conditioning factors related to fear in humans. Demonstrating that a gene influences susceptibility to fear involves the need to determine the connection between the gene’s activity and a range of various behavioural and manifestation forms pertaining to this activity. To date, however, studies carried out in this area have only been able to establish a link between genetic charge and a few isolated tendencies related to fear. © AlphaGalileo 2002

Keyword: Emotions; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 1976 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The National Science Foundation has given its highest honor for a young researcher to a man of many dimensions. Erich Jarvis is a performing artist turned scientist. He overcame economic disadvantage as a child growing up in New York City's Harlem to become a top young researcher at Duke University -- one of only 52 African American men out of more than 4,300 biologists who received Ph.Ds. in 1995. Despite his parents' divorce and his father's intermittent homelessness, Jarvis claimed from his parents and other family members their best qualities - education, creativity, drive, sensitivity and compassion - and turned it to his own advantage as he developed into one of the nation's most promising young scientific minds. Today named to receive the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Alan T. Waterman Award, NSF's highest honor for a young scientist or engineer, Jarvis was chosen for his individual achievements and leadership in studying the brain system of vocal learning birds.

Keyword: Animal Communication
Link ID: 1975 - Posted: 04.30.2002

A just-published study describes for the first time a method of culturing important but poorly understood cell structures called Hirano bodies. The report by cellular biologists at the University of Georgia could shed light on numerous diseases in which Hirano bodies may play some role - including Alzheimer's disease, Lou Gehrig's Disease and cancer. The research was just published in the Journal of Cell Science and was funded by the National Science Foundation and the Alzheimer's Association. Hirano bodies - named for their discoverer - have been known for several decades, and their presence in autopsy tissue of Alzheimer's patients has led to speculation that they may play a role in disease processes. Studying Hirano bodies, however, has been extremely difficult because they have been resistant to culturing in the laboratory.

Keyword: Alzheimers; ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 1974 - Posted: 04.30.2002

ARTICLE: "Small intestinal enteropathy with epithelial IgG and complement deposition in children with regressive autismÓ It remains unclear whether autism is a single disease or a condition occurring as an end result of various abnormalities. Fundamental uncertainty remains about the relative input of genetic predisposition and environmental exposures. Central to this uncertainty is the conflicting evidence concerning the incidence of autism. While there are several reports of rapid increase in incidence in Western countries - suggesting an important environmental component - others suggest that the increase is more apparent than real, and dependent on increased recognition , thus favoring a primarily genetic predisposition. Most research has focused on the genetics of autism, and several genes have been implicated in classic autism. This study is based on children with a form of autism characterized by regression in the second year of life, after apparently normal early development. Most reports of immunological abnormalities in autistic children have been from this subgroup of affected children, and the authors cite the increasing body of evidence for abnormal immune regulation and autoimmunity in autism. The initial observation of unexpected bowel pathology in autistic children came from the same group, and centered on pathology in the colon (Lancet 1998; 351: 637-641, American Journal of Gastroenterology 2000; 95: 2285-2295). Use of immunohistochemical techniques had suggested a novel form of colitis, in which the epithelium of the colon was particularly affected (Journal of Pediatrics 2001; 138: 366-372), and, thus, possibly suggestive of autoimmunity.

Keyword: Autism; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 1973 - Posted: 04.30.2002

By Barbara Feder Ostrov Mercury News Fifty years ago, physician supply catalogs carried a wide array of sugar pills and tonics in all kinds of shapes and colors. Known as placebos, these were sham medicines, inert substances that sometimes made sick patients feel better, especially when they came from a kindly, authoritative family doctor. Physicians no longer dispense sugar pills, of course. But the placebo effect remains a powerful force in modern medicine, a mysterious victory of mind over body that seems to flout the cherished objectivity of medical science. New brain-imaging studies show for the first time how and where the placebo effect kindles changes in the brain, renewing interest in the topic. Researchers are searching for ways healers can work with the placebo effect, rather than against it, to help patients -- an endeavor in keeping with Americans' keen interest in alternative medicine.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 1972 - Posted: 04.30.2002

By Marianne Szegedy-Maszak In the darkened office of Lexicor Health Systems in Boulder, Colo., 11-year-old Shannon closes her dark brown eyes and sits quietly in her chair. She is wearing a multicolored electrode-studded cap, which transmits the electrical impulses of her brain to an electroencephalogram, or EEG. Behind her on a computer screen scrawl 19 wild lines that represent the activity in several regions of her brain. One would never surmise from Shannon's Zen-like demeanor what the brain scan is detecting inside her head: that she is one of the more than 2 million children in America who suffer from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The result of Shannon's session will be a QEEG–a "quantified EEG" that will allow diagnosticians to statistically compare her brain with thousands of others. What they are interested in, specifically, is the proportion of low-frequency theta brain waves to much faster beta waves in a region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. Studies have suggested abnormalities in both these rhythms associated with attention–or lack of it. Children produce a lot of low-frequency theta brain rhythms when they struggle to concentrate, and when their concentration is overwhelmed by too much stimulation they produce the speedier beta waves. By comparing what Shannon's brain does with both "normal" brains and those of others who have been diagnosed with ADHD, researchers at Lexicor are hoping for the first time to provide a quantitative tool to help identify this vexing disorder. Genetic mystery. The QEEG may never become the "gold standard" in diagnosing ADHD. But it illustrates how increasingly sophisticated understanding of brain activity may offer clinicians greater confidence in their diagnosis. It may also hold out promise for the 20 percent of children diagnosed with ADHD who do not respond to the usual stimulant treatment–by identifying a pool of symptoms that they all might share. Clearly, genes play a role in ADHD, because it runs strongly in families, but no ADHD gene has yet been identified. Lacking that kind of definitive diagnostic tool, a deeper understanding of the neurology underlying the disorder could help clinicians untangle true ADHD from accompanying disorders and disorders that resemble it. Indeed, QEEG is one of several brain-scanning technologies now being deployed to home in on the unique properties of the distracted mind. © 2002 U.S.News & World Report Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 1971 - Posted: 06.24.2010

FORTUNE examines business leaders and artists who have gone beyond the limitations of dyslexia. By Betsy Morris Consider the following four dead-end kids. One was spanked by his teachers for bad grades and a poor attitude. He dropped out of school at 16. Another failed remedial English and came perilously close to flunking out of college. The third feared he'd never make it through school--and might not have without a tutor. The last finally learned to read in third grade, devouring Marvel comics, whose pictures provided clues to help him untangle the words. These four losers are, respectively, Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, John Chambers, and David Boies. Billionaire Branson developed one of Britain's top brands with Virgin Records and Virgin Atlantic Airways. Schwab virtually created the discount brokerage business. Chambers is CEO of Cisco. Boies is a celebrated trial attorney, best known as the guy who beat Microsoft. © Copyright 2002 Time Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Dyslexia
Link ID: 1970 - Posted: 06.24.2010

For some people, overeating is not the only culprit By Myrna E. Watanabe Sedentary people who enjoy high-caloric diets—adults and children alike—are getting dangerously fat.1 Along with the increased weight comes complications. Take obesity, for example. It is a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes. Once considered a strictly adult disease, Type 2 diabetes is now diagnosed in both preadolescents and adolescents.2 Some researchers believe that the interaction between obesity-related genes and society's increasingly sedentary lifestyle and fat-filled diet is to blame. The questions of when and how the environmental triggers set off the genes have, as of yet, no answers. The first hint that obesity has a genetic rather than a totally behavioral basis came in 1994 when Rockefeller University researchers identified the obese gene and cloned the murine version of it.3 The mice were obese, suffered from Type 2 diabetes, and lacked the protein leptin which appears to act primarily on the hypothalamus, where it influences appetite and energy use. The discovery opened the genetic floodgates. "[It] was the paradigm shift that turned [obesity] into a tractable problem," remarks clinical endocrinologist Stephen O'Rahilly, University of Cambridge, who studies the genetics of childhood obesity. O'Rahilly's research had focused on severe insulin resistance in children; after the discovery, he shifted to investigating leptin deficiency in extremely obese youngsters and their families. "Among the first kids we looked at, we did find a pair of first cousins who were [leptin] deficient," says O'Rahilly. In total, they found three families with this deficit; the children had extremely large appetites. "It was the first demonstration that a human being could become severely obese on the basis of a simple genetic defect," he states.4 O'Rahilly points out that these children are not comparable to the average, overeating child in the United States or United Kingdom; the leptin-deficient children would become obese as long as food was available. But even more remarkable than the gene's discovery and its effect in people was the decreased appetites seen in these children when given leptin therapy. O'Rahilly is currently preparing this research for publication. © Copyright 2002, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 1969 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY Randolph Maddix, a schizophrenic who lived at a private home for the mentally ill in Brooklyn, was often left alone to suffer seizures, his body crumpling to the floor of his squalid room. The home, Seaport Manor, is responsible for 325 starkly ill people, yet many of its workers could barely qualify for fast-food jobs. So it was no surprise that Mr. Maddix, 51, was dead for more than 12 hours before an aide finally checked on him. His back, curled and stiff with rigor mortis, had to be broken to fit him into a body bag. At Anna Erika, a similar adult home in Staten Island entrusted by the state to care for the mentally ill, three other residents had previously jumped to their deaths when a distraught Lisa Valante, 37, sought help. But it was after 5 p.m. and, as usual, the residents, some so sick they cannot tie their shoes, were expected to fend for themselves. No one stopped Ms. Valante, then, from flinging herself out a seventh-floor window. Sometimes at these homes, the greatest threat can be the person who sleeps in the next bed. Despite a history of violent behavior, Erik Chapman was accepted at Park Manor in Brooklyn. After four years of roaming the place with a knife, Mr. Chapman stabbed his roommate, Gregory Ridges, more than 20 times. At last, Mr. Chapman was sent to a secure psychiatric facility. Mr. Ridges was sent to Cypress Hills Cemetery at the age of 35. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Alzheimers
Link ID: 1968 - Posted: 04.29.2002

Written by Laszlo Dosa, Voiced by Faith Lapidus Orlando, Florida Scientists already know how to make injured or severed nerve cells, neurons, regenerate and resume carrying messages from the brain to other parts of the body. But, as Johns Hopkins researcher Ronald Schnaar explains, not all nerve cells respond to such treatment. "Many people have heard of people who have had, say, a finger severed and sewn back on. They regain feeling and movement of that finger. That finger is served by motor neurons that actually start in the central nervous system and reach all the way down to your finger," he explained. "So that the end of the neuron can regenerate just fine over several centimeters in your finger. But if you were to cut that same nerve in the central nervous system, it would not regrow at all." Professor Schnarr who led the research on new nerve regeneration techniques said we can best understand the nervous system if we think of the electrical wiring of a house. Insulated copper wires carry electricity to a light bulb or a radio, for example. If the wire is cut, the light goes out and the radio stops playing.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 1967 - Posted: 04.29.2002

Researchers unravel the private life of this weird, wonderful carnivore John Pickrell In the movie The Lion King, hyenas are the villains. They're portrayed as slobbering, mangy, stupid scavengers always ready to do someone else's dirty work. It's entertaining, but the caricature perpetuates wrong ideas about these social carnivores, bemoans zoologist Kay Holekamp. She should know. For the past 14 years, she has followed the soap opera played out by a clan of around 70 spotted hyenas in the Talek area of Kenya's Masai Mara National Reserve, and she's out to set the record straight. The truth of the matter, Holekamp exclaims, is that the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta ) is highly intelligent, with mental abilities and social skills to match many a primate. These hyenas are also superb predators, feeding mostly on fresh meat. Their hunting skill equals that of lions or cheetahs. Moreover, Holekamp continues, "once you've seen a female delicately carrying babies in those great bone-crushing jaws, you realize what wonderful mothers they are." Holekamp and her colleagues at Michigan State University in East Lansing have a deep affection for hyenas. They've given the animals names of U.S. presidents, ancient gods and goddesses and goodies, such as Hot Dog, Moon Pie, and Jujubee. The zoologists have been monitoring the Talek clan from dawn until dusk since 1988. At any one time, several members of Holekamp's team are stationed in Kenya. From Science News, Vol. 161, No. 17, April 27, 2002, p. 267. Copyright ©2002 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Aggression; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 1966 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The findings of a study from a Brazil suggest a new cooperation between physicians and educators to ensure that cognitive stimulus be offered to offset the side-effects of these necessary medicines. New Orleans -- Epilepsy and its treatment have proven to impair cognitive and behavioral functions. The impact on the former by epilepsy associated seizures, brain damage, and use of anticonvulsant drugs can result in memory deficits, attention problems, and reading and writing difficulties. About two million Americans have epilepsy; of the 125,000 new cases that develop each year, up to 50 percent are in children and adolescents, the time when learning capabilities are developed. Developmental disabilities may result from complex interaction of genetic, toxicological or pharmacological (chemical), and social factors. Among these various causes, pharmacological exposure to drugs deserves special scrutiny, because they are readily preventable. This research demonstrates the consequences of anticonvulsant therapy that may contribute to transient cognitive disabilities (impairments of attention, memory, learning and/or social behavior). Previous studies have found that anticonvulsant drugs may themselves cause changes in mental functions. They may be often mixed with neurocognitive behavior, depending on the drug used. There may be also temporary cognitive deterioration. The researchers in a new study assert that clinical experience must be used to identify the subgroup of children who remain at risk for significant and clinically relevant cognitive and behavioral adverse effects of antiepileptic drugs. In testing the effects of drugs on the cognitive functions of the epileptic child, they relied on three established postulates: Copyright © 2002, The American Physiological Society

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 1965 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By THERESA AGOVINO, AP Business Writer NEW YORK - A lifetime of attempted diets didn't stop Andy Schlesinger from ballooning to 705 pounds. At 13, he was a chronic overeater who weighed 200 pounds. His desperate parents tried everything from padlocking the refrigerator to electric shock treatments to keep him from adding more weight. At 32, the 5-foot-11 exporter reached his maximum weight and was practically homebound. "I'd take five steps and be out of breath," he recalled. Sheer size kept him out of many places. He didn't fit in movie theater seats or public toilets. He broke bar stools. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 1964 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Twin's death forces woman to confront aneurysm From Debra Goldschmidt CNN Medical Unit ANN ARBOR, Michigan (CNN) -- Ardith Eastlund was 66 and felt great. She was enjoying life, spending time with her family and traveling with her husband, Dale. They were the best of times. Then last year, while on a cruise, she received news that threatened to topple her happy existence: Her sister had suffered an aneurysm and was in a coma. Her twin sister. The aneurysm, a blister on a blood vessel on the brain, proved fatal for Ardith Eastlund's sister. Like 40 percent of people who suffer an aneurysm, her sister never awoke; she lingered for a week. © 2002 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

Keyword: Stroke; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 1962 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Find helps scientists date evolution of womb-placenta system David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor Scientists digging amid a trove of Chinese dinosaur fossils have unearthed a tiny shrewlike creature that is the earliest known ancestor of mammals -- including humans -- that carry their young in the womb and nourish them through the placenta. Dubbed Eomaia, or "Dawn Mother," the primitive little beast was no bigger than a large mouse, but its remains shed new light on the evolution of mammals during an era when dinosaurs ruled the earth, the international team of fossil hunters said. One of the great unknowns is how and when the so-called placental mammals became separated from the marsupials, which include kangaroos and possums, and the much rarer monotreme mammals, whose only living members are the egg-laying duck-billed platypus and echidna, or "spiny anteaters." ©2002 San Francisco Chronicle

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 1961 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Tampa, FL — University of South Florida neuroscientist Tanja Zigova, PhD, has been awarded a $1.3-million federal grant to study whether stem cells from human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) can rescue the brain from age-related decline. Using an animal model, the 5-year, National Institute on Aging study will address critical questions about HUCB cells' true potential to successfully treat the normal mental declines of aging as well as neurodegenerative diseases. Studies at USF and elsewhere have suggested that HUCB may be a noncontroversial and more readily available source of therapeutic cells for treating neurological diseases like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease and brain injuries such as stroke.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Alzheimers
Link ID: 1960 - Posted: 06.24.2010