Desire drives remote-controlled rodents. TOM CLARKE Remote-controlled rats could soon be detecting earthquake survivors or leading bomb-disposal teams to buried land mines. Signals from a laptop up to 500 metres away make the rats run, climb, jump and even cross brightly lit open spaces, contrary to their instincts. The rodents carry a backpack containing a radio receiver and a power source that transmits the signals into their brains through electrical probes the breadth of a hair. "They work for pleasure," says Sanjiv Talwar, the bioengineer at the State University of New York who led the research team. One electrode stimulates the rat's medial forebrain bundle, or MFB, the 'feelgood' centre of the mammalian brain. "The rat feels nirvana," Talwar says. Talwar, S. K. et al. Rat navigation guided by remote control.. Nature, 417, 37 - 38, (2002). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 1992 - Posted: 06.24.2010

LITTLE ground squirrel has revealed a slumbering secret of hibernating mammals True hibernators, such as ground squirrels, marmots and chipmunks, regularly wake themselves from deep sleep. It didn't seem to make sense because this uses up huge amounts of valuable stored energy. But the answer seems to be they do it to fire up their immune systems and carry out a systems check for parasites and pathogens. Small mammals hibernate to conserve energy when food is scarce during long, cold winters. While larger creatures such as bears and badgers go into a state of torpor, in which their body temperature drops for short periods, true hibernators cool right down. Their temperature often drops as low as 5 ¡C for weeks on end. California's golden-mantled ground squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis) is a champion hibernator. For five to six months each winter it spends most of the time with its heart ticking over at just two beats a minute. But roughly once a week, it wakes up and for 12 to 16 hours its body temperature rises to 37 ¡C. The wake-up periods use up to 80 per cent of the animal's winter energy budget. Researchers wondered if the animals wake to clear waste from their body, but that seemed unlikely given the huge energy costs. To investigate, Brian Prendergast of Ohio State University at Columbus and his team took 31 squirrels into the lab and implanted them with radio transmitters that recorded body temperature every 5 seconds.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 1991 - Posted: 05.02.2002

DURHAM, N.C. -- A Duke University Medical Center pharmacologist is recommending caution when using the insecticide DEET, after his animal studies last year found the chemical causes diffuse brain cell death and behavioral changes in rats after frequent and prolonged use. Mohamed Abou-Donia, Ph.D. has also called for further government testing of the chemical's safety in short-term and occasional use, especially in view of Health Canada's recent decision to ban products with more than 30 percent of the chemical. Every year, approximately one-third of the U.S. population uses insect repellents containing DEET, available in more than 230 products with concentrations up to 100 percent. While the chemical's risks to humans are still being intensely debated, Abou-Donia says his 30 years of research on pesticides' brain effects clearly indicate the need for caution among the general public.

Keyword: Neurotoxins
Link ID: 1990 - Posted: 05.02.2002

The ability to learn a new language is determined by the onset of language experience during early brain development – regardless of the specific form of the language experience. This is the finding of a Canadian study led by Rachel Mayberry of McGill University. Mayberry, director of McGill’s School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, along with Elizabeth Lock of the University of Ottawa and Hena Kazmi of the University of Western Ontario, studied groups of deaf and hearing adults to see how the onset and type of initial language experience affects the ability to learn a new language. The results of the study, which will appear in the May 2 issue of the prestigious journal Nature, show that deaf and hearing adults who experience language in early life perform similarly well in learning a new language later in life – whereas deaf adults who had little language experience in early life showed low levels of performance in a later learned language. These findings are not affected by whether the early language or the later language was signed or spoken.

Keyword: Language; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 1989 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 Scripps Howard News Service By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service - Chin up, positive mental attitude, keep plugging along, don't let it get you down. Most aging experts - and most people - figure that being depressed, or anything but chipper, is a ticket toward illness and a shorter life. But a new study challenges this view with a finding that older women with mild depression actually live longer than women who aren't experiencing any symptoms of depression. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 1988 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 AP Online By RICK CALLAHAN, Associated Press - By implanting electrodes in rats' brains, scientists have created remote-controlled rodents they can command to turn left or right, climb trees and navigate piles of rubble. Someday, scientists said, rats carrying tiny video cameras might search for disaster survivors. "If you have a collapsed building and there are people under the rubble, there's no robot that exists now that would be capable of going down into such a difficult terrain and finding those people, but a rat would be able to do that," said John Chapin, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at the State University of New York in Brooklyn. The lab animals aren't exactly robot rats. They had to be trained to carry out the commands. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 1987 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — Until recently, scientists thought human ears were passive devices that detected and processed sounds, but new findings suggest that ears are like perpetually turned on stereo receivers that quiver spontaneously and sing along with incoming sounds. The latest findings, published in the May issue of the journal Physics World, help to explain why some people's ears emit noise that actually can be heard by passers by. According to Thomas Duke, a physicist at The Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University in England, at least four major discoveries about how the ear works were made in recent months. The first is that hair bundles — filament-like sensors in the inner ear that are deflected by sound waves — have been found to vibrate spontaneously, which can itself produce noise similar to a stereo speaker. Copyright © 2002 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 1986 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Richard Black Scientists in Norway have for the first time managed to turn one sort of human cell into another. Conventional scientific wisdom has been once a skin cell, always a skin cell. All the evidence has been that nerve cells can only produce other nerve cells, muscle cells only produce other muscle cells, and so on. But researchers at the University of Oslo have turned the conventional view on its head. (C) BBC

Keyword: Stem Cells
Link ID: 1985 - Posted: 05.01.2002

STANFORD, Calif. - Using microarray technology, researchers at Stanford University Medical Center have uncovered thousands of genes that may be involved in multiple sclerosis. Although some of the genes are new, others were known genes that had previously been thought to play roles that were unrelated to MS. These results could lead to new treatments and help clarify previous observations about the disease. "We've been bumping around looking at a few genes," said Lawrence Steinman, MD, professor of neurology and neurological sciences. "Now there are hundreds if not thousands of other genes that may be critical." This work will be published in the May issue of Nature Medicine. MS occurs when cells of the immune system target their attack on cells that insulate neurons in the brain. The disease generally progresses in stages with an acute attack followed by a recovery - or chronic phase - in which the insulating cells degenerate and scar tissue builds up. Eventually, the disease can lead to paralysis and sensory disturbances such as blindness or deafness.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 1984 - Posted: 05.01.2002

Whether it's a widely prescribed medication or a placebo, a successful treatment for depression must trigger a common pattern of brain activity changes, suggests a team of researchers funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. Using functional brain imaging, Helen Mayberg, M.D., and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, have found increased activity in the cortex accompanied by decreases in limbic regions in patients who responded to either the popular antidepressant fluoxetine or to a placebo. They propose that this pattern of changes may be necessary for therapeutic response. However, patients who responded to fluoxetine also experienced unique changes in lower areas -- brainstem, striatum and hippocampus -- thought to confer additional advantage in sustaining the response long term and preventing relapse. The researchers report on their Positron Emission Tomography (PET scan) study in the May 2002 American Journal of Psychiatry.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 1983 - Posted: 05.01.2002

(REUTERS) Two new studies could shed more light on why infants who lie on their stomachs are more likely to die of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. One shows that lying prone can twist a baby's neck so far that the arteries leading to the head become blocked, and another showed that nerve cells near brain arteries may not work properly. Both support the recommendation that babies be put to sleep on their backs. ©MMII, CBS Worldwide Inc, All Rights Reserved

Keyword: Sleep; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 1982 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JENNIFER HOYT The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- Concussions are common in soccer, with better training needed for coaches and parents to identify and treat children who may get serious head injuries, according to the Institute of Medicine. "A lot of people -- parents anyway -- found soccer more appealing for their kids because they saw it as less dangerous than football," said Janet Joy, who prepared a review for the institute. "But the fact is, concussions are just as frequent in soccer." Players can get concussions from heading the ball, colliding, running into goalposts or hitting their heads on the ground. A player who has a second concussion before recovering from the first may suffer brain swelling that could lead to brain damage and death. Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 1981 - Posted: 05.01.2002

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