Virtual injury catches the brain's halves competing for attention.
JOHN WHITFIELD Knocking out one half of the brain can boost the performance of the other, researchers creating virtual brain injuries have found1. The finding supports the idea that mental activity is a tussle between the brain's many different areas. It also illustrates how virtual brain injuries might allow neurologists to study a whole variety of disorders without relying on the haphazard effects of accidents or strokes. Still in its infancy, the technique also offers new ways to investigate healthy minds. Claus Hilgetag, of Boston University, and his colleagues fired focused magnetic pulses through healthy subjects' skulls for 10 minutes to induce 'hemispatial neglect'. This condition, involving damage to one side of the brain, leaves patients unaware of objects in the opposite half of their visual field (which sends messages to the damaged half of the brain). 1.Hilgetag, C. C. Theoret, H. & Pascual-Leone, A Enhanced visual spatial attention ipsilateral to rTMS-induced 'virtual lesions' of human parietal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 953 - 957, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Laterality; Attention
Link ID: 486 - Posted: 10.20.2001

UCLA scientists have found a small group of brain cells from which they believe breathing originates. The discovery could lead to better treatment of such problems as sleep apnea and sudden infant death syndrome, researchers say. In a previous study, the University of California, Los Angeles, team had pinpointed a specific region of brain tissue called the preBotzinger Complex as the command post for controlling breathing in mammals. Now, within the region, they distinguished a small group of neurons responsible for issuing the commands that generate breathing. Their finding appear in the September issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 484 - Posted: 10.20.2001

20/20 lenses coat body of sea creature
Charlotte Schubert Look closely enough at the arms of the brittlestar, a starfish relative, and you'd see that those arms are looking right back at you. Each one is coated with perfect lenses that focus light onto a nerve bundle, researchers report in the Aug. 23 Nature. Made of skeletal material, these lens structures rival recent engineering advances in microlens arrays. "To find them [microlens arrays] in nature is absolutely astonishing," says physicist Roy Sambles of the University of Exeter in England. Joanna Aizenberg of Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., and her colleagues discovered the lenses while studying the architecture of the transparent calcite skeletons that protect brittlestars. In some species, the team found "an incredible array of spherical structures" on the animals' skeleton, says Aizenberg. Aizenberg, J., et al. 2001. Calcitic microlenses as part of the photoreceptor system in brittlestars. Nature 412(Aug. 23):819. From Science News, Vol. 160, No. 8, Aug. 25, 2001, p. 116. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Vision; Evolution
Link ID: 482 - Posted: 10.20.2001

THE EYE'S PHOTORECEPTORS CAN QUICKLY REALIGN TOWARDS LIGHT, MUCH LIKE PLANTS
Like a field of sunflowers nodding toward the sun, photoreceptors - the light-sensitive cells in the retina of the eye - can apparently swiftly reorient themselves towards the brightest points of light after cataract surgery, according to a research paper published today in Nature. The research findings, presented in the "Realignment of Cones After Cataract Removal," by University of California, San Diego psychologists Harvey Smallman and Don MacLeod and Dartmouth mathematician Peter Doyle, represent the strongest evidence to date that photoreceptors have this reorienting capability. According to Smallman, the lead author who is also a senior scientist at the San Diego-based Pacific Science and Engineering Group, the findings are based on a unique case study of Peter Doyle, who for 40 years lived with asymmetrical congenital cataracts until age 43, when he decided to have them removed. Copyright ©2001 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 480 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Breakthrough mouse model for Alzheimer's more like human disease
In a breakthough with important implications for research on Alzheimer's disease (AD), scientists at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville (FL) have developed a new mouse model that more closely resembles the disease as it appears in humans. The new "double transgenic" mouse, the first to include both the brain plaques and tangles associated with AD, is expected to contribute considerably to knowledge about the course of the disease and will help in further development and testing of potential therapies. The research, supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), is reported in the August 24, 2001, issue of Science by Michael Hutton, Ph.D., Dennis Dickson, M.D., Jada Lewis, Ph.D., Shu-Hui Yen, Ph.D., and Eileen McGowan, Ph.D. of Mayo Jacksonville.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 479 - Posted: 10.20.2001

SOCIAL STRESS MAY TRIGGER PROBLEMS IN IMMUNE SYSTEM
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Certain social interactions may weaken the immune system to the point it can't control inflammation, new research suggests. In turn, the inflammation may cause irreversible organ and tissue damage. In a new study, socially stressed mice were twice as likely to die after exposure to a compound that triggered an infection-like response as were physically stressed mice. "The stress somehow triggered an abnormal immune response to a bacterial toxin," said John Sheridan, a study co-author and a professor of molecular virology at Ohio State University.

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 478 - Posted: 10.20.2001

How Brain Cells "Remember" their Birth Order
While teasing out the molecular signals that govern neural development in fruit flies, researchers have discovered how brain cells "remember" the order in which they are "born" from precursor stem cells. This type of molecular memory appears to determine the specific cell type the newly born cells will become and influences where in the developing brain those cells will reside permanently. In an article published in the August 24, 2001, issue of the journal Cell, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Chris Q. Doe and colleagues at the University of Oregon reported that Drosophila neural precursor cells, called neuroblasts, sequentially activate four different transcription factors. Transcription factors are proteins that activate or repress the expression of genes. ©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 477 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Genetic basis for panic attacks revealed
Philip Cohen and Michael Le Page The genetic basis for most panic attacks and other devastating anxiety disorders has been discovered. The breakthrough could make it possible to develop drugs that help people conquer their fears. "It looks like they have found an entirely new mechanism of disease," says Raymond Crowe, a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa who studies the genetics of panic disorder. "It's a very important finding." According to some estimates, more than 10 per cent of people suffer from some form of anxiety disorder. Xavier Estivill's team at the Centre for Medical and Molecular Biology in Barcelona was studying families with a history of problems such as panic disorders, agoraphobia (fear of public places) and social phobia.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 476 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Eyes in their stars Engineers envy brittlestar bones' built-in lenses.
JOHN WHITFIELD A relative of the starfish and sea urchin has turned its skeleton into an all-seeing eye. Near-perfect microscopic lenses in brittlestars' bones are more sophisticated than anything humans can produce, say engineers keen to copy the trick. Plastic microlenses, inferior to those on the brittlestars, control signals in optical fibres and enhance some displays. They may one day be used in optical computers that process light, rather than electricity. 1.Aizenberg, J., Tkachenko, A., Weiner, S., Addadi, L. & Hendler, G.Calcitic microlenses as part of the photoreceptor system in brittlestars. Nature, 412, 819 - 822, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Vision; Evolution
Link ID: 475 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Unique hormone provides physical and emotional relief for women with severe PMS Results from a double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the current issue of the Journal of Women's Health and Gender-Based Medicine show that the combination of the progestin drospirenone with the estrogen ethinyl estradiol contained in the oral contraceptive Yasmin may be beneficial in treating premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) that affects more than 3 million U.S. women. This study was sponsored by Berlex Laboratories Inc., which makes Yasmin.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 474 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Brain trauma may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease
New research published in the online journal BMC Neurology suggests that brain injury leads to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This is the first study to use autopsy brain material to study the connection between traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer's and confirms similar findings gained from clinical studies. Kurt Jellinger and colleagues from the Institute of Clinical Neurobiology in Vienna examined brain tissue from two collections. The first collection contained tissue from 58 individuals who had suffered from brain injury and the second from 57 Alzheimer's sufferers. Analysis of the injured brain tissue showed higher levels of Alzheimer's disease than seen in the general population. © 1999-2001 BioMed Central Ltd

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 473 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Brain drain
THE inevitable memory loss that comes with age is more like a long, slippery slide than falling off a cliff, according to a psychologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She has found that our performance in a wide variety of memory tasks deteriorates steadily from our mid-20s. Denise Park selected 350 volunteers, ranging from 20-somethings to octogenarians. They sat 11 tests on visual, spatial, verbal, and other types of memory. She found that performance in all the tests decreased steadily with age-the decline in performance between the 70s and 80s age groups, for example, was the same as that between the 20s and 30s. The findings, which Park will present at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in San Francisco next week, run counter to the popular notion that mental abilities decline sharply after a particular age. Author: Greg Miller New Scientist issue: 25th August 2001 http://www.newscientist.com

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 472 - Posted: 10.20.2001

NEURONS IMPLANTED IN STROKE-DAMAGED BRAIN TISSUE SHOW FUNCTION, SAY UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH RESEARCHERS
PITTSBURGH, – An imaging study of neurons implanted in damaged areas of the brains of stroke patients in the hopes of restoring function has shown the first signs of cellular growth, say University of Pittsburgh researchers. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans taken six months after surgery to implant LBS-neurons showed a greater than 10 percent increase in metabolic activity in the damaged parts of some patients' brains compared to scans taken just a week prior to surgery. The increased metabolism corresponds with better performance on standardized stroke tests for behavioral and motor function. The study was funded by Layton BioScience Inc. © 2001 UPMC Health System

Keyword: Regeneration; Stem Cells
Link ID: 471 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Patrick Wall Dies at 76; British Authority on Pain
Dr. Patrick Wall, a British neurophysiologist and educator whose research centered on the nature of pain, died on Aug. 8. He was 76. The cause was prostate cancer, according to British press reports. Dr. Wall, of London, was among the first to undertake a systematic study of the mechanisms of pain. He tackled the subject in several books and more than 400 articles that appeared in journals of neurology and general science, Brain and Nature, among others. Like other researchers, he was curious about the lack of a direct correlation between the actual tissue injury and the intensity of the pain that results. This led him and a longtime associate, Dr. Ronald Melzack, to postulate what they called a "gate control system" in the spinal cord. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company |

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 469 - Posted: 10.20.2001

A 'miracle' medicine will treat a sickness that is a bigger threat than Aids, reports Peter Beaumont from Luanda The Observer It begins with a low-grade fever, pain in the joints and itchy skin. Later the patient displays the symptoms that give the disease its name - lethargy, drooping eyes, vague movement and disconnected speech. In the later stages, hallucinations and disruptive behaviour are common. Finally, the victim experiences excruciating pain, eventually lapsing into a coma before death. The disease is sleeping sickness, a fly-borne parasite that gradually destroys the brain and leads to death within six months. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 467 - Posted: 11.06.2001

By Joyce Burland
For people with mental illness and their families, Freudian psychology has been a catastrophic deterrent to society's understanding of serious brain disorders, and it has postponed our human rights for a century. This should never have happened. Back in 1900, a new scientific era of biological discovery about brain disorders seemed imminent. German neurologist Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915) had located the "senile plaques" and "neuro-fibrillary tangles" related to the disease that was eventually to bear his name. The founder of modern scientific psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926), had assembled a world-class group of neurologists in Munich to study the brain. There was widespread medical consensus that the diseases we now call schizophrenia, manic depression and major depression were organically based, and that the new field of neuropsychiatry would offer greater understanding and more effective treatments. But that bright promise was hijacked -- shanghaied by the American psychiatric profession itself, which repudiated the biological basis of mental illness and replaced it with Freudian personality theory. © 2001 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 466 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Vaccination Following Spinal Cord Injury: Innovative Approach Limits Paralysis
Weizmann Institute scientists propose an innovative approach for preventing complete paralysis after partial spinal cord injury. The approach consists of boosting the body's natural immune mechanisms to improve the outcome of trauma. The team of Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute's Neurobiology Department has in the past already developed one immune-based therapy for the spinal cord, currently tested in humans by Proneuron Biotechnologies Ltd. That therapy is aimed at repairing the spinal cord after a complete injury. The new approach pursues a related but different therapeutic target: to limit degeneration after a partial spinal cord injury. The scientists report their latest results in the August 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 465 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Scientists find a way to block prions that cause mad cow disease
La Jolla, CA, August 16, 2001 -- Scientists working at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and at the University of California, San Francisco, have published a paper in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature that describes an antibody that clears prion infection in cell culture. This finding may point the way to a treatment for mad cow disease and its human equivalent. "[The antibody] stops the whole process," says Professor Dennis R. Burton, Ph.D. Prion infections are known to cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, and one form of the same disease in humans, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. BSE itself is believed to have originated from a sheep form of the disease called scrapie.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 460 - Posted: 10.20.2001

No stemming the tide Adult skin and brain stem cells flesh out debate.
HELEN PEARSON The stem-cell furore rumbles on. Hot on the heels of US President George W. Bush's decision to allow limited human embryonic stem cell research come two advances in capturing stem cells from adult brain and skin1,2. Yet the true potential of these cells in tissue repair remains unclear. Blood, brain, fat, skin - stem cells from the fringes of the adult body hit the headlines weekly, with the tantalizing promise of tissue repair. But only rigorous comparisons of these diverse cell types will reveal key molecules that trigger production of one cell type rather than another. References 1.Rietze, R. L. et al. Purification of a pluripotent neural stem cell from the adult mouse brain. Nature, 412, 736 - 739, (2001). 2.Toma, J. G. et al. Isolation of multipotent adult stem cells from the dermis of mammalian skin. Nature Cell Biology, 3, 778 - 784, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Regeneration; Stem Cells
Link ID: 459 - Posted: 10.20.2001

NEURON BY NEURON, PENN RESEARCHERS STUDY BRAIN CELLS' ATTEMPTS TO HEAL THEMSELVES AFTER SEVERE INJURIES
PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have won a $3.1 million bioengineering research grant to study brain injuries at a level of detail never before attained. The team, lead by Penn bioengineer David F. Meaney, will detect the genes and proteins altered in single neurons in the brain to better understand the cells' responses to contusions and other forms of brain trauma. The Penn team will focus initially on contusions, bruises to the brain surface that often occur with skull fractures. These injuries are often localized in regions along the surface of the brain and can result in problems with the brain's ability to process data and sensory input. Penn investigators will examine the response of individual neurons both within and alongside areas of contusion in the brain, searching for patterns of genes and associated proteins that are activated or suppressed following an injury. For each neuron studied, researchers will compare the activated genes and protein levels to the mechanical stress experienced by the neuron at the moment of injury.

Keyword: Stroke; Regeneration
Link ID: 455 - Posted: 06.24.2010