Recent milestones are encouraging, but human applications still far away By Jennifer Fisher Wilson Using gene therapy, scientists earlier this year reversed blindness in three dogs afflicted with Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA). The news excited the scientific world and popular press. LCA is a rare, inherited disease characterized by a severe loss of vision at birth. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell University, and University of Florida showed that injecting a good copy of RPE65 protein into the right eye of LCA-afflicted dogs restored sight in that eye.1 But human clinical trials are more than a year away. The Scientist 15[18]:17, Sep. 17, 2001 © Copyright 2001, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Vision
Link ID: 601 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY Q. Why do horses sleep standing up? A. Horses can doze standing up and spend more time upright than other animals, but get their deepest rest, the so-called REM sleep, only when lying down, said Dr. Katherine A. Houpt, a veterinarian and professor of physiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell. "In total relaxation, which rapid eye movement or dream sleep involves, the stay apparatus of tendons and ligaments that keeps horses' legs extended does not work," said Dr. Houpt, who has done laboratory studies of sleep in horses. "If they go into REM sleep while standing, they tend to fall on their knees." Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 595 - Posted: 11.06.2001

by JAMES CHAPMAN, Daily Mail People with insomnia may be able to get a good night's sleep by simply exposing themselves to 15 minutes of daylight in the morning, say scientists. They believe sleep-related problems are connected to a disruption of the body clock, so light therapy could help. Dr Stephany Biello of the University of Glasgow says that difficulty in sleeping is one of the main reasons why over-65s visit their doctor. Just going outside for an early morning walk could be beneficial,' she says. ©2001 Associated New Media Limited

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 594 - Posted: 11.06.2001

Susan Aldridge, PhD Regaining sensory control of the hand after nerve repair is like learning a second language, say Swedish researchers. If you have nerve damage in your hand, it can be repaired by surgery and the damaged nerves will regenerate. But the surgeon doesn't do all the work - your brain has to re-model the right nerve connections so that the hand regains its function. One problem after nerve repair is the restoration of tactile gnosis - the ability to identify shapes and textures. Lancet September 8 2001

Keyword: Regeneration; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 593 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Fossil Suggests Others Cared For Ailing Pre-Neanderthal By Amanda Onion - It was the worst known toothache of prehistoric times. New evidence suggests an early Neanderthal living about 175,000 years ago in France had a mouthful of infection. Hollow pockets in its fossilized lower jaw show where severe abscesses ate into the bone. And exposed, worn tips of tooth roots suggest the individual had gummed food, despite feeling what must have been excruciating pain. The jaw fragment shows the individual had been missing teeth for some time before death in his or her late 40s. And this suggests that pre-Neanderthals may have been a somewhat caring bunch. Copyright © 2001 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 591 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The cells were injected through a drill-hole in the skull A BBC documentary has followed the first ever UK operation using transplanted foetal brain cells in an attempt to halt a devastating disease. Huntington's Disease is caused by a single faulty gene, and causes gradual and invariably fatal decline. Parents who carry it have a 50% chance of passing it on to their children.

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 590 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Unpredictability may be built into our brains. ERICA KLARREICH Making life-or-death decisions on the toss of a coin is hardly advisable, but it happens all the time in our brain's subconscious, according to new research. Neurophysiologists have found that clusters of nerve cells respond to the same stimulus differently each time, as randomly as heads or tails. "It seems that the brain has a gratuitous randomizer, a sort of cerebral roulette wheel," said Roger Carpenter of the University of Cambridge, UK, at the British Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Glasgow on Friday. Randomness could be a valuable aid to survival in a complex world, Carpenter suggested. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 582 - Posted: 10.20.2001

A preliminary report of fetal spinal cord tissue transplantation in two patients suggests that the procedure is both feasible and safe in humans, setting the stage for future research seeking better treatments for spinal cord injuries. The results, part of a four-year study, are included in two papers in the September issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma. The clinical study was based on a long history of laboratory research showing that transplants of embryonic nerve tissue in laboratory animals could achieve partial anatomical and functional repair following spinal cord injury (SCI). To determine whether this strategy could be successfully translated to humans, a pilot safety and feasibility study was initiated in 1997 in a group of eight patients with progressive posttraumatic syringomyelia.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Regeneration
Link ID: 581 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By BYRON SPICE, Scripps Howard News Service Families with high rates of severe depression have dramatically shorter life spans, a new study of 81 familes indicates. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that in these families, 40 percent of the people died before age 65, and the mean age at death was eight years younger than average for the neighborhood. The families also registered an infant death rate five times higher than average. Significantly, it wasn't just the relatives with depression who suffered these ill effects. All family members died at younger-than-expected ages, whether or not they had a diagnosed mood disorder. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 580 - Posted: 10.20.2001

NEW YORK (CNN) -- For the first time, researchers say they have found an important clue through the use of a brain scan that could make it possible to predict whether a healthy, elderly person is going to develop a precursor to Alzheimer's disease, known as mild cognitive impairment. "This study is the first study ever to show that there are changes in the brain in normal people that will predict a worsening of their memory performance," said Dr. Mony De Leon, NYU Medical Center's Center for Brain Health. The change is a dwindling of glucose metabolism in a small part of the brain, known to be a memory center. © 2001 Cable News Network LP, LLLP. An AOL Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Brain imaging
Link ID: 579 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Jean West The Observer The children's drug Ritalin has a more potent effect on the brain than cocaine, a study has found. Using brain imaging, scientists have found that, in pill form, Ritalin - taken by thousands of British children and four million in the United States - occupies more of the neural transporters responsible for the 'high' experienced by addicts than smoked or injected cocaine. The research may alarm parents whose children have been prescribed Ritalin as a solution to Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

Keyword: ADHD; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 576 - Posted: 10.20.2001

For over a decade, neurobiologist Donald Stein (Emory University, Departments of Psychology, Emergency Medicine and Neurology, Atlanta, GA, USA) has championed progesterone's prowess as a neuroprotective steroid. Today, his efforts are paying off and the hormone is being investigated as an agent for treating head trauma. With a team in Atlanta he is about to embark on a pilot clinical study on the use of progesterone to halt the cascade of cell death that follows traumatic injury. "I'd heard a lot of clinical data that females recovered [from head injuries] better than men and I wanted to test that out in the lab", Stein explains. Stein set up animal models of frontal cortex injuries and found that female rats made speedier recoveries than their male counterparts. Further experiments showed that treating brain-injured male and female rats with progesterone led to a striking reduction in brain swelling and neuronal death, improving functional outcomes.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Apoptosis
Link ID: 575 - Posted: 10.20.2001

a sign that perception evolved to help us spot environmental threats Swedish Studies Show That We Can Spot Snakes In The Grass Faster Than Harmless Objects WASHINGTON - It's long been thought that the common phobias of snakes and spiders are reminders of homo sapiens' primal past. Now new studies suggest that human perception evolved to accurately and efficiently spot these environmental threats. The research appears in the September issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Article: "Emotion Drives Attention: Detecting the Snake in the Grass," Arne Öhman, Anders Flykt and Francisco Esteves, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden; Journal of Experimental Psychology - General, Vol. 130, No. 3. © PsycNET 2001 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Emotions; Vision
Link ID: 574 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Studies link weaker source memory to frontal-lobe changes that happen only to some people, and suggest a simple remedy WASHINGTON - At the University of Arizona, new psychological research gives hope to people who fear they'll lose their memory as they age. Elizabeth L. Glisky, Ph.D., Susan R. Rubin, M.A. and Patrick S. R. Davidson, M.A. have found that contrary to popular belief, only some people over 65 suffer greater losses in "source (contextual) memory" than in memory for facts and items. The brain's frontal lobes seem to be the culprits, but only some people suffer frontal-lobe impairment as they age. What's more, despite this age-related brain deficit, people may be able to learn to improve their source memory. The findings appear in the September issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Article: "Source Memory in Older Adults: An Encoding or Retrieval Problem?" Elizabeth L. Glisky, Ph.D., Susan R. Rubin, M.A., and Patrick S. R. Davidson, M.A., University of Arizona, Tucson; Journal of Experimental Psychology - Learning, Memory, and Cognition, Vol 27. No.5 © PsycNET 2001 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 573 - Posted: 10.20.2001

by Deborah A. Lott Psychiatric Times September 2001 Vol. XVII Issue 9 According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders are the most common of childhood psychiatric conditions, affecting an estimated 13% of children during any six-month period. As with other psychiatric disorders of childhood, they tend to go untreated, and, in the absence of effective treatment, children do not simply grow out of them. On the contrary, anxious children often grow up to be adults with anxiety, depression or another affective disorder. According to Daniel Pine, M.D., chief of NIMH's section on development and affective neuroscience, "A large percentage of adult problems, anxiety as well as depression, really begin as anxiety disorders in childhood." About half of children recover, Pine explained in an interview with Psychiatric Times, but "those children who do continue to have problems will account for a large proportion of adults with both anxiety and mood disorders." I ©CME, Inc.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 571 - Posted: 11.05.2001

Never mind the bipedal posture, relative lack of fur, or opposable thumbs. What really sets humans apart from other animals is our supersized brain. But how do we manage to build such big brains? A new report shows that in humans--but not apparently not other species--some neurons in the developing brain take a detour that allows them to support the most overgrown and recently evolved parts of the cerebral cortex. During fetal development, the nervous system is segregated into several regions of cells. The so-called telencephalon gives rise to the most sophisticated parts of the brain--including the frontal lobes and other so-called association areas that do the heavy lifting when it comes to problem solving, social interactions, and memory. These cells normally don't mingle with neurons from the diencephalon, which gives rise to less advanced structures such as the hypothalamus and optic nerves. --LAURA HELMUTH Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution; Neurogenesis
Link ID: 569 - Posted: 10.20.2001

James Randerson, Glasgow The deadly botulinum neurotoxin could be harnessed to treat pain, says a British team. Researchers at the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research (CAMR) in Salisbury have chemically altered the toxin so that instead of acting on motor neurones and causing paralysis, it targets nerve cells that transmit pain signals. "We are developing molecules that will specifically target pain neurones," says researcher Keith Foster. The team hopes their work will lead to effective treatments for a wide range of pain disorders including chronic back pain, neck pain, headaches, post-surgical pain and chronic cancer pain. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 568 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The Associated Press Three drug court programs, including what is to be Mississippi's first for juvenile offenders, will share $140,000 in state funding. A $50,000 award went to a program initiated in February 1999 by Circuit Court Judge Keith Starrett of McComb. The medication therapy program is designed to help offenders addicted to prescription medication.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 564 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By Nicholas Regush We appear to be edging towards an era of "mind control" - a time when human brains might be manipulated routinely by highly sophisticated technology. On the bright side, the powers of this science could be used to mend broken and diseased brains. On the dark side, there would be plenty of opportunity to tinker with consciousness and control human behavior in menacing fashion. Copyright © 2001 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 560 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Sexual selection, which tends to favor animals that win many mates, has spiced up the world with stag antlers, cicada concertos, and other wonders. Biologists have long assumed that sexual selection is possible only with separate sexes. But recent studies on mollusks reveal that, paradoxically, sexual selection acts even in the absence of males and females. That conclusion is backed up by a new study of the hermaphroditic sea slug Aeolidiella glauca. Each individual possesses both male and female organs, and although capable of self fertilization, they've developed a bizarre mating process with each other. Intrigued by this courtship, marine biologist Anna Karlsson of the University of Uppsala, Sweden, and evolutionary biologist Martin Haase of the University of Basel, Switzerland, closely watched the affair. --MENNO SCHILTHUIZEN Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 555 - Posted: 10.20.2001