Humans don't have a monopoly on laughter, says Silvia Cardoso. A behavioural biologist at the State University of Campinas, Brazil, she says it's a primitive reflex common to most animals: even rats laugh. She tells Sophie Petit-Zeman that too little laughter could have serious consequences for our mental, physical and social well-being Why are you interested in laughter? It's a universal phenomenon, and one of the most common things we do. We laugh many times a day, for many different reasons, but rarely think about it, and seldom consciously control it. We know so little about the different kinds and functions of laughter, and my interest really starts there. Why do we do it? What can laughter teach us about our positive emotions and social behaviour? There's so much we don't know about how the brain contributes to emotion and I think we can get at understanding this by studying laughter. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Emotions; Evolution
Link ID: 2080 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An acne drug which has been linked to teenagers' deaths should be banned in the UK, campaigners will tell health officials on Friday. Families will tell the Medicines Control Agency (MCA) they believe the drug Roaccutane caused mental and physical harm to their children and ask for its UK licence to be withdrawn, pending further research. MCA statistics show 15 young people have committed suicide in Britain while taking the drug. But pharmaceutical company Roche which makes the drug rejects the suggestion that the drug is in any way to blame for the suicides or depression and insist the drug is safe. Liam Grant, one of the campaigners meeting the MCA, wants Roche to be forced to carry out more studies to find out what effect their product is having on teenagers. He is one of those calling for the drug's UK licence to be withdrawn, but he said if that did not happen, it should at least be made subject to stricter controls. Mr Grant said: "In the United States you have to sign a ten page form which shows that the doctors has described the side effects that you understand them and it also has a book that showing how you can identify depression and so on. (C) BBC

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 2079 - Posted: 05.17.2002

Physicists have shown for the first time that electrical signals in the human brain are amplified by noise. This effect is called 'stochastic resonance' and is well known in a wide range of systems, including living organisms. But the discovery by Toshio Mori and Shoichi Kai of the University of Kyushu in Japan is the first observation of stochastic resonance in the information processing part of the human central nervous system (T Mori and S Kai 2002 Phys. Rev. Lett. 88 218101). In many complex systems, weak periodic signals can be strengthened by noise. This happens when random peaks in the noisy signal coincide with regular peaks in the periodic signal. This stochastic - meaning 'random' - resonance is most effective when the noisy signal has a certain amplitude relative to the periodic signal. Scientists have already found evidence for the effect in humans, in the control of blood pressure in the brain and in the sense of touch. Copyright © IOP Publishing Ltd 1996-2002. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 2078 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Are our thoughts made of electricity? Not the familiar kind of electrical signals that travel up and down wires in our computer or nerves in our brain, but the distributed kind of electromagnetic field that permeates space and carries the broadcast signal to the TV or radio. Professor Johnjoe McFadden from the School of Biomedical and Life Sciences at the University of Surrey believes our conscious mind could be an electromagnetic field. “The theory solves many previously intractable problems of consciousness and could have profound implications for our concepts of mind, free will, spirituality, the design of artificial intelligence, and even life and death,” he said. © AlphaGalileo 2002

Keyword: Intelligence
Link ID: 2077 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Work is first to show brain's gray matter is affected by MS BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Ten years ago people with multiple sclerosis could expect little from the medical profession other than drugs to help relieve their symptoms and canes or walkers to help them get around as their physical disabilities mounted. That, however, was before researchers were able to focus the full power of biotechnology on the disease. Today, by using advanced MRI brain imaging methods and tapping into one of the most powerful supercomputing systems in the world, University at Buffalo researchers in the Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center (BNAC) are providing insights into the disease that never before were possible.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Brain imaging
Link ID: 2076 - Posted: 05.17.2002

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press ATLANTA - Smoking among U.S. high school students has dropped to its lowest level in a decade, the government said Thursday, a decline that was credited to cigarette taxes and school programs that discourage youngsters from taking up the habit. Just 28.5 percent of high-schoolers in a nationwide survey last year reported they had smoked a cigarette in the previous month - down from 36.4 percent five years ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The rate is the lowest since 1991, when 27.5 percent of high school students said they smoked. The figure had climbed for most of the 1990s before reversing in 1999. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2075 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A study by UK scientists at the University of Sheffield and University College London also found that infants can even tell the difference between monkeys. They believe natural changes in the brain as we grow older may be the reason why adults are not as good at recognising people. In a paper published in the journal Science, they said the changes might be like those associated with language - our ability to learn new languages decreases with age. The findings are based on an analysis of brain patterns and eye movements of infants after they were shown a series of pictures of human and monkey faces. (C) BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Vision
Link ID: 2074 - Posted: 05.17.2002

Scientists are closer to understanding the mysterious "circadian" rhythm that governs sleep and wake after an experiment using fruit flies. They bred flies missing a gene vital to the daily cycle - which made sleep deprivation have fatal consequences within hours. But they managed to help the flies survive longer by kick-starting a process which protects cells from sleep deprivation. Despite years of study, relatively little is known about the mechanism by which animals shut down for the night - or even precisely what biochemical processes are taking place while the body is asleep. The effects of sleep deprivation - in both humans and flies - can be damaging. (C) BBC

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 2072 - Posted: 05.16.2002

Scientists have explained the extra-sensory powers of alligators and crocodiles. The animals can hunt without sight, sound or smell using sensors on their jaws that detect ripples in the water. The reptiles lurk half submerged at night, waiting for a potential snack. When prey enters the water, perhaps to take a drink, the alligator or crocodile is able to sense even the slightest movement and pounce. Even a single droplet falling into a tank the size of a bath can be sensed by the network of pressure detectors on the creatures' jaws. (C) BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2071 - Posted: 05.16.2002

Learn how Pinocchio felt (without having to lie) By Eric Haseltine How do you know how long your nose is? Perhaps you just feel how far it protrudes every time you twitch it or flare your nostrils. Or, you might have palpated your proboscis enough times to take its measure. Finally it's possible that you simply know the size of your shnozz by instinct. This last explanation, although elegant, is unsatisfying because it implies that your brain is born knowing how much your various body parts will grow. Given the variability of nutrition, disease and other factors that strongly influence growth, the brain cannot know a priori how big you will be. Recent research shows we not only have to learn-as-we grow about the size of our bodies, but that these learned perceptions can be altered in an astonishingly short time. © Copyright 2002 The Walt Disney Company. Back to Homepage.

Keyword: Vision; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2070 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Optimism for chemical that destabilizes harmful protein build-ups. HELEN PEARSON Clinical studies will start within weeks on a new drug that may erode the protein clumps behind Alzheimer's disease and type II diabetes. In these diseases, proteins that are usually soluble fold abnormally into tightly packed deposits called amyloid that wreck internal organs. In mice, the prototype drug shrank these protein accretions within weeks, scientists have revealed. Preliminary tests on patients look promising. "I can't describe how excited I was," says Mark Pepys of University College Medical School in London, who has been working on the idea for the past 25 years. "We've invented a new molecule - and it does what we want." * Pepys, M.B. et al. Targeted pharmacological depletion of serum amyloid P component for treatment of human amyloidosis. Nature, 417, 254 - 259 , (2002). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 2069 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientific discoveries about the animal kingdom are often used, even by biologists, to elucidate human behavior, especially our behaviors that pertain to sex and gender. For example, some people argue that male marmosets helping take care of their offspring helps us understand today's stay-at-home fathers. Or that the high divorce rate in recent years can be explained by invoking the fact that many female birds have chicks fathered outside the primary breeding pair. But in her new book 'Sexual Selections: What We Can and Can't Learn about Sex from Animals' (University of California Press, 2002), Marlene Zuk, professor of biology at UC Riverside, argues that while animals do display a lot of interesting variation, not all of it can be extrapolated to explain human behavior. She thinks some researchers have been too quick to ignore vital information from the animal kingdom, and have instead hustled "evidence" they believe is supportive of their ideas. "I am not saying we should never try to draw conclusions about human behavior from animals," says Zuk. "But people who already have social or political agendas sometimes see science as automatically deterministic about our behavior, as though we are programmed to behave in only a certain way. Then again, we have scientists who sometimes completely ignore the social or political biases that can affect our work." Copyright 2002, Regents UC.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 2068 - Posted: 05.16.2002

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Deciding on hormone-replacement therapy – weighing the far-reaching benefits and risks – can give a woman a headache. Now researchers say estrogen may dictate what problem-solving strategies the brain uses to solve problems. According to a study of rats published in the June issue of Behavioral Neuroscience, activation of different parts of the brain may depend on the presence or absence of estrogen. Rats treated with the hormone learned a place-oriented task faster than rats not getting it, but those not on estrogen were faster completing a response-driven task. These tasks are believed to be controlled by different neural or memory systems. “What we found is that given these analogous tasks that require different cognitive strategies, estrogen biased the rats to use a place, or spatial, strategy,” said Donna L. Korol, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. “Those not given estrogen are better using a response, or non-spatial, strategy. This suggests that estrogen isn’t just good for all kinds of memory. Rather, it is very specific in dictating what strategy one takes. Estrogen may enhance some and impair other forms of learning.”

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2067 - Posted: 06.24.2010

SAN DIEGO -- Like sleuths in an endlessly complex Agatha Christie novel, scientists at The Neurosciences Institute have been trying to solve the mystery of why we need to sleep. Now, following a two-year investigation, they have identified two genetic suspects that suggest one day it may be possible to prevent the consequences of sleep deprivation. The work presented in this week’s Nature, a scientific journal, built upon their previous work showing that sleep in the fruit fly is eerily similar to mammalian sleep, right down to the level of which genes are activated. Now they have shown that, like mammals, flies will die if they don’t sleep. "The significance of the study is that sleep is an important part of life and that without it you die," said lead project scientist Paul Shaw. "It is so important that it has survived throughout evolution even though it is a costly behavior. While animals sleep, they can't take care of their young, forage for food or engage in any number of other vital biological activities."

Keyword: Sleep; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 2066 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute have come one step closer to understanding how experimental, memory-enhancing drugs affect the brain on a molecular level. The researchers published their results in the May 16 issue of Nature. The finding provides an important insight into the mechanisms that regulate the sensitivity of brain cells to neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that the cells use to communicate with one another. “Learning how neurons respond to neurotransmitters is important not only to understanding basic brain functioning, but also may one day lead to new insight into a variety of new therapies,” said Duane Alexander, Director of the NICHD.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 2065 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Trials of a promising new treatment for Alzheimer's will begin within weeks - and it might work for adult-onset diabetes as well. Mark Pepys of the Royal Free and University College Medical School in London and his colleagues have developed a drug designed to rid the body of amyloid, the clumps of misfolded protein that form in the brain of Alzheimer's sufferers and in the pancreas of people with diabetes. The drug has already produced promising results in 19 people with a rare condition called systemic amyloidosis, in which deposits build up in various organs. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 2064 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Key breakthroughs into epilepsy will rely on the consistent support of charities, says a lead researcher specialising in the condition. Internationally renowned Professor John Duncan says: ‘Those with epilepsy can take some comfort from the fact we are narrowing down the likely causes and consequences of this potentially-devastating disease of the brain. ‘But we still have much to learn, and unfortunately this is unlikely to happen without generous donations from charities.’ Paddington Bear ©P & Company 2001

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 2063 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By CHRISTOPHER NEWTON, Associated Press WASHINGTON - President Bush's top drug policy adviser says teens are largely ignoring the government's anti-drug ads, and a survey finds no evidence the multimillion-dollar campaign is discouraging drug use. The survey, conducted by the private research firm Westat and the University of Pennsylvania, actually charted an increase in drug use among some teenagers who saw the television ads. But it noted that further analysis was necessary before the ads could be directly tied to the increase. The White House drug policy office, headed by John P. Walters, said the ad campaign must be refocused. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2062 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists said they have found the first direct biological evidence that smoking destroys brain cells and stops others being produced. Anti-smoking groups said this provided an even greater incentive to stop smoking. French researchers led by Pier-Vincenzo Piazza and Djoher Nora Abrous, at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM) let three groups of rats give themselves low, medium or high amounts of nicotine. A fourth group was allowed no nicotine at all. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2061 - Posted: 05.14.2002

A British scientist is still hopeful that cannabis extracts will relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients - despite disappointing research results. Testimonies from many MS patients suggest that the drug is helpful in relieving symptoms such as spasticity - a painful rigidity of muscles experienced by many. However, a small Dutch study of only 16 MS patients given cannabis extract in capsule form found no apparent benefits. Despite this, Dr William Nottcutt, a consultant in pain management from the James Paget Hospital in Kings Lynn, said other research projects now coming to fruition were likely to produce more positive results. He said: "This is one study among dozens being conducted into MS. (C) BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 2060 - Posted: 05.14.2002