As asthma rates have surged in recent decades, scientists have searched hard for causes of the disease. Genetics, exposure to allergens, and infectious diseases are all suspects. Researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center have now added another risk factor for the development of asthma-the early psychological environment of the child. An eight-year prospective study of 145 children, published in the October 2001 issue of Pediatrics, indicates that parenting difficulties in the first year of a baby's life increase the chances that the child will develop asthma. Children in the study whose parents coped poorly with the demands of parenting were more than twice as likely to develop asthma by the time they were 6 to 8 years old than were children whose parents did "okay." The report is the first to document psychological factors in the development of asthma.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 737 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The first linking of a gene to language could speed our understanding of this most unique and most controversial of human abilities. JOHN WHITFIELD Language problems run in the 'KE' family. Members of several generations speak "as if each sound is costing them their soul", one researcher has said. They struggle to control their lips and tongue, to form words, and to use and understand grammar. "To the naive listener, their speech is almost unintelligible," says geneticist Anthony Monaco, of the University of Oxford in England. Researchers today unveil the single gene that, when it goes wrong, causes this speech breakdown. The gene - the first to be definitively linked to language - switches others on and off, and so could lead the way through a genetic network of language learning and use. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Language; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 735 - Posted: 10.20.2001

PHILADELPHIA ­-- Evolution has so precisely honed certain specialized muscles involved in fish mating calls that the muscles are now physically incapable of much else, including any significant locomotion, biologists at the University of Pennsylvania have found. The finding, made in studies of the toadfish Opsanus tau, is the cover story in the Oct. 7 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. It's the first demonstration of different skeletal muscles in the same species diverging so thoroughly through evolution that they're now mutually exclusive.

Keyword: Animal Communication; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 734 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Scientists Say Discovery Opens New Area of DNA Studies By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer Scientists have for the first time identified a gene that plays a crucial role in human language and speech. The finding sheds light on what scientists suspect is one of several inherited elements of language ability, which in combination with key social and environmental cues have allowed the human species to talk, gab, gossip and schmooze its way to global dominance. The new work does not reveal the extent to which linguistic ability is "hard-wired" into the brain as opposed to learned; nor does it answer longstanding questions about other animals' potential to learn grammar and syntax. Indeed, the study focuses entirely on a rare speech disorder known to affect only 16 people worldwide, 15 of them in a single family. © 2001 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Language; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 733 - Posted: 10.20.2001

David Coursey, The name: "Brain Fingerprinting" is a particularly unfortunate name that suggests an ability to somehow gather the contents of someone's brain for identification. It is also painfully close to "brain washing." For this discussion, I will propose a more accurate, descriptive term: "Threat Recognition Testing," or when used in criminal investigations, "Evidence Recognition Testing." What the test looks for: Threat Recognition Testing seeks to determine whether the subject being tested recognizes certain items--which may be images of physical items, pictures, or terminology. If the subject being tested recognizes enough specific items, he or she can be assumed to have certain training or experience. In actual testing, the technique was used to find 100 percent of the FBI agents in a test group without falsely selecting civilians as FBI agents. How the test works: Subjects are hooked up to a device that measures brain activity (the cerebral equivalent of a heart monitor) and shown a series of images. An image or word the person recognizes presents a distinct brainwave pattern when compared with an unrecognized image or word. The person cannot consciously control this response. Copyright © 2001 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 731 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Athletes have long basked in the happy glow that follows a good workout. Now, a new study suggests where those good feelings come from: Exercise boosts levels of phenylethylamine, a mood-elevating neuromodulator. Many researchers believe that, in addition to the short-term feeling of well-being known as "runner's high," physical activity has significant, longer-lasting antidepressant effects. But a recent review questioned the evidence for that theory, and scientists have struggled to pin down the brain chemicals that explain how exercise might relieve depression. Some proposed endogenous opiates such as endorphins might be at work. But that theory was undermined by studies showing that opiate blockers did not dampen the good mood of the physically active. The new study examined phenylethylamine, a molecule the brain uses to regulate the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine, and is sometimes prescribed for depression when other drugs fail. Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 726 - Posted: 10.20.2001

AUSTIN (AP) - Why people drink too much alcohol is the subject of six researchers at the University of Texas at Austin who have received $8 million in grants for their studies. During the next five years, the grant money will come from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. That institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, also is providing millions to other researchers across the nation who are studying the roots of alcoholism. At UT, the grant money will allow pharmacology professor Rueben Gonzales to concentrate on the brain chemistry of mice as they drink a solution with an alcohol content akin to wine. Copyright ©2001, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications Copyright © 1995-2001, E.W. Scripps Publications,

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 724 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By Alana Connor Snibbe Observer Contributor Hollywood's Sunset Strip has often been the stomping ground of rising stars and glitterati. It was no different earlier this year, when 250 social psychologists, cognitive neuroscientists, brain mappers, neuropsychologists, anthropologists, political scientists and economists descended on the Hyatt West Hollywood for the inaugural Social Cognitive Neuroscience conference. For three intense days, conference-goers attended invited symposia, perused a poster session, and participated in roundtable discussions about whether, how, and why minds and social environments are linked. "I'm in seventh heaven," reported neuro-psychologist David Perret of the University of St. Andrews, capturing the almost giddy energy of the conference-goers. "Psychology often seems polarized between people who accept physical or biological explanations and people who want to describe phenomena and not look for biological mechanisms. Here we see the marriage of the two. It's really exciting." Copyright © 2001 American Psychological Society. All Rights Reserved.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 723 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Research teams from the Drug Abuse Program of the VU Medical Center in the Netherlands and the intramural laboratories of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) have identified a process in the brain that may lead to a new generation of medications to prevent relapse to cocaine use. In studies using rats, the scientists, led by Dr. Taco J. De Vries of VU Medical Center and Dr. Yavin Shaham of NIDA, found that the same system -- the cannabinoid system -- that governs the pharmacological actions of marijuana in the brain also plays an important role in the neuronal processes underlying relapse to cocaine use. By blocking cannabinoid receptor activity with chemical antagonists, the investigators prevented relapse to cocaine use induced by exposure to cocaine-associated cues or by cocaine itself. The study is published in the October 1 issue of Nature-Medicine.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 722 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Emma Young The first long-term follow-up of a high-fat/low-carbohydrate diet to treat severe drug-resistant epilepsy has revealed spectacular results, say US researchers. Between three and six years after stopping the diet, one quarter of 150 treated children were free from seizures and more than half showed a 50 per cent reduction in seizure frequency. While 70 per cent of children with epilepsy respond to medication, these drug-resistant children had shown no improvement after trying at least two different anti-seizure drugs. Journal reference: Pediatrics (Vol 108, p 898) © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 721 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Ian Sample A team of scientists hopes to improve the sight of blind people by implanting proteins from spinach leaves into their eyes. When light falls on the proteins, it creates an electrical voltage, which could stimulate healthy regions of the retina and produce meaningful images, they say. "The idea is to insert these proteins into cells in the retina," says Elias Greenbaum of Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, US. "If we can do that, we know light can make them produce voltages high enough to stimulate the optic nerve." Greenbaum, who is working on the project with Mark Humayun of the University of Southern California's Doheny Eye Institute, Los Angeles, says the spinach proteins - known as photo-reaction centres - perform a similar task to photoreceptor cells in the retina. These cells, which lie at the base of the retina, send electrical pulses to the optic nerve when illuminated. These impulses are then interpreted as images by the brain. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 720 - Posted: 10.20.2001

A psychiatrist and critic of antidepressant drugs is suing the University of Toronto and an affiliated mental health center for breach of contract, after the center rescinded a job offer to him. The suit, filed in Toronto on 24 September, seeks reinstatement of the job offer, at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), or $9.4 million in lost salary and damages for libel. David Healy, an expert in psychopharmacology at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, has testified as an expert witness for plaintiffs claiming injury from antidepressant drugs like Prozac and other so-called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). In August 2000, CAMH offered him a job as clinical director of its mood and anxiety disorders program and professor of psychiatry at the University of Toronto. But after hearing Healy give a talk in Toronto on 30 November, where he linked antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs to brain injury and suicide, CAMH officials had second thoughts and less than a week later retracted the job offer. Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 719 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded grants totaling $3.9 million to support new autism research at 13 universities across the country. These grants are in addition to $50 million a year that NIH currently provides to a wide range of autism research projects. The seven innovative treatment grants, which will run for three years each, were solicited by NIH through a Request for Applications mechanism. Each of the grants will focus on an aspect of autism spectrum disorder treatment: Comparing two methods for teaching speech to nonverbal children; Refining a method to teach imitation skills; Developing a method to teach joint attention skills using parents as therapists; Refining the use of an anti-seizure medication to treat difficult behavior; Testing the usefulness of a cognition-enhancing medication to treat learning difficulties and mood disturbances; Examining the biological effects of a commonly used mood-stabilizing medication in order to refine its use in treating autism; and, Testing a new animal (mouse) model to increase understanding and treatment of self-injurious behavior.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 716 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Children with ADHD often are given medication such as Ritalin to control the inattention, hyperactivity and poor behavior that characterizes the disorder. A Lehigh University research team will introduce alternative strategies with the goal of reducing the use of medication and preventing more serious problems among children 3- to 5-years-old. "What we're trying to do, with early intervention, is prevent some of the behavioral problems that these children might otherwise take into elementary school, as well as improve their learning skills," DuPaul says. "Ultimately, we hope early-intervention will prove to be more cost-effective in treating ADHD, since fewer children will need special education and other services in order to succeed in the classroom."

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 715 - Posted: 10.20.2001

ANN ARBOR---For recovering alcoholics and ex-smokers, as well as former users of illicit drugs, the mundane trappings of their addictions-ice cubes, ashtrays, straws, needles-exert a strong, long-lasting power to trigger relapse. A new University of Michigan study, published in the current (October 2001) issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, provides experimental evidence supporting a neurological explanation for why cues as innocent as the sound of ice cubes tinkling in a glass can cause "recovered" addicts to experience dangerous drug cravings. "Drug use is known to 'sensitize' certain neural systems within the brain, causing changes that are relatively permanent," says U-M psychologist Kent C. Berridge, co-author of the study with U-M psychologist Cindy L. Wyvell. "This study shows that the brain is vulnerable to cues that trigger irrational 'wanting,' even after a long period of remaining drug-free, once sensitized by prior drug use or exposure."

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 711 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Patients don't always get the support they need. By Stephanie Stapleton, AMNews staff. Because traumatic brain injury is a sweeping category that includes both severe and mild traumas, it has been a persistent challenge for public health surveillance and treatment. The most basic questions are: How many people sustain traumatic brain injury each year? What happens to survivors? Are brain injuries that are less severe being missed? October is Brain Injury Awareness Month -- a time when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and other organizations, focus attention on efforts to find these answers.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 710 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Lack of Leptin a cause of 'plateau' all too familiar to dieters New York, NY- Dieters know the phenomenon all too well: They cut calories, exercise, and lose some weight but at some point they can't seem to get rid of any more of the excess poundage. Now researchers from Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, and the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, in a study of rats, may have some new clues why the plateau effect occurs and what could be done to overcome it. The findings have led to clinical tests in people. The investigators theorized that rats--and humans--may not be able to lose weight after a certain amount of dieting, even with drugs or surgery, such as gastric bypass, because the loss of fat decreases the amount of the hormone leptin in the body.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 708 - Posted: 10.20.2001

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A protein targeted by drug treatments in some patients with Alzheimer's disease also appears to play an important role in honeybees (Apis melifera), researchers say. U.S. and Israeli scientists – led by Gene E. Robinson of the University of Illinois – report that forager bees, which work outside the hive collecting nectar and pollen, have lower activity levels of the acetylcholingesterase (AChE) protein in their brains than do younger nurse bees. AChE is an enzyme that breaks down a primary neurotransmitter known as acetylcholine (ACh). Neurons use ACh to communicate with one another. In the human body, ACh signals muscle movement, and, in the brain, it is linked to learning and memory. In many Alzheimer's patients, researchers have noted a loss of neurons that secrete ACh. One treatment is the use of an AChE inhibitor. The scientists, reporting in a recent issue of the Journal of Molecular Neuroscience, showed that the reduction of AChE protein activity is the result of the down regulation of the AChE gene.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Animal Communication
Link ID: 707 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Andrew Osborn The Observer European Union scientists have secretly given their blessing to controversial experiments in which live monkeys will be infected with mad cow disease. In a move that has outraged animal rights campaigners, the EU's most powerful scientific committee has concluded that 'important and valuable information' can be gained from such experiments. They believe the information will help scientists better understand how BSE is caught, particularly by humans. The monkeys will be fed brain matter from British and French meat infected with BSE. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 706 - Posted: 10.20.2001

A unique way to save your brain during a heart attack By Charles Platt If your heart stops beating, standard medical procedure is to shock it back into action with a defibrillator. This has to be done fast, so that your blood will resume supplying oxygen and glucose to the brain. But if you experience cardiac arrest when you're not in a hospital, paramedics are unlikely to reach you soon enough to avert permanent damage. Unexpectedly, a technique that fills the lungs with a chilled, breathable liquid may revolutionize this dismal picture. Researchers claim that the liquid treatment can double the survival times without blood flow and enable perhaps one patient in three to survive cardiac arrest. The national average is around one in 20. The key discovery was made by Peter Safar, a doctor best known for introducing the techniques of cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the United States almost 50 years ago. © Copyright 2001 The Walt Disney Company.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 705 - Posted: 10.20.2001