By Michael S. James Aug. 2 - A 58-year-old man who survived a nail gun accident that drove a nail 3 inches into his head without causing major damage is being called the "luckiest man" a doctor ever saw. An X-ray of the nail in the anonymous man's head, taken at least a year ago, is being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. "I refer to him when I teach as the luckiest man I've ever encountered," said Dr. Anne Hayman, a professor of neuroradiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Copyright © 2001 ABCNEWS Internet Ventures.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 416 - Posted: 11.07.2001

Hormone Keeps Diabetes in Check
Injections of a hormone naturally produced by fat cells can reduce the severity of diabetes and related disorders in mice, two teams of scientists report in the August issue of Nature Medicine. The findings also show that the hormone, called adiponectin, plays an active role in regulating blood sugar levels. Nearly 16 million Americans, almost 6% of the population, have diabetes--an inability to control the blood levels of sugar called glucose. In type 2 diabetes, insulin is present, but cells don't respond. This insulin "resistance," recent studies have shown, develops both in people who are obese and those with very little fat. Because fat tissues are the sole producers of adiponectin, researchers had proposed that the hormone may play a role in metabolism. --JOSH CHAMOT Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 414 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Splish-Splash, Gorillas Are Taking a Bath and Sending a Message
By HENRY FOUNTAIN That teenage showoff doing cannonballs off the high dive at the local pool has a counterpart in the wild: male gorillas, who have been seen jumping into and otherwise splashing about a swamp in West Africa. The rare activity, observed among western lowland gorillas in the Congo Republic, appears to be intended to intimidate rivals, said Richard J. Parnell, who reported the behavior in a brief paper in the journal Nature. "They want to communicate and want to say something about themselves - `Look, I'm here,' or `Don't mess with me,' " said Mr. Parnell. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 413 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Studying the "Inner CEO" can improve interface design, personnel training and diagnosis of brain damage
WASHINGTON - New scientific studies reveal the hidden costs of multitasking, key findings as technology increasingly tempts people to do more than one thing (and increasingly, more than one complicated thing) at a time. Whether people toggle between browsing the Web and using other computer programs, talk on cell phones while driving, pilot jumbo jets or monitor air traffic, they're using their "executive control" processes -- the mental CEO -- found to be associated with the brain's prefrontal cortex and other key neural regions such as the parietal cortex. These interrelated cognitive processes establish priorities among tasks and allocate the mind's resources to them. "For each aspect of human performance -- perceiving, thinking and acting -- people have specific mental resources whose effective use requires supervision through executive mental control," says Meyer. ### Article: "Executive Control of Cognitive Processes in Task Switching," Joshua S. Rubinstein, U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, Atlantic City, N.J.; David E. Meyer and Jeffrey E. Evans, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich., Journal of Experimental Psychology – Human Perception and Performance, Vol 27. No.4 (Full text of the article is available from the APA Public Affairs Office and at http://www.apa.org/journals/xhp/press_releases/august_2001/xhp274763.htm).

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 412 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Weight loss, life gain
People with a rare syndrome that causes insatiable hunger find help. By CHRISTINA JEWETT GAINESVILLE -- It's 1 p.m., and Ervin Currie has just 430 calories left for the day. Before dinner he can earn 100 more calories with a walk on the treadmill and another 100 for a day of good behavior. Currie, 22, and the five other residents of the group home have Prader-Willi syndrome, an illness characterized by insatiable appetite, low muscle mass and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Left unchecked, the disease can lead from morbid obesity to death. The disorder results from a random loss of a gene during conception, causing an incomplete development of the brain. The error shows up in the hypothalamus region, which tells the heart to beat and the body to cool. It also registers hunger and fullness. © Copyright 2001 St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 411 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Quantum memories should mimic ours.
PHILIP BALL Quantum memories will be like the brain. According to Carlo Trugenberger of InfoCodex in Geneva, Switzerland, quantum-computer engineers should design memories like our own, storing information as patterns rather than putting each item in its own labelled box, as in conventional computers. Quantum computing has a lot of ground to cover before it can even start to draft its memory banks. But in theory it will use the peculiarities of quantum physics, in which quantum objects can exist simultaneously in two states at once, to boost the processing power of computers to many times its current level. References 1.Trugenberger, C. A.Probabilistic quantum memories. Physical Review Letters, 87, 067901, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 410 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism have found that anticipation of increasing monetary rewards selectively activates the human nucleus accumbens of the ventral striatum. Since this brain region is implicated in animal studies of alcohol and drug self-administration, the research may help lead to methods for understanding the biological basis of alcohol and drug craving in humans. Researchers in the laboratory of Daniel Hommer, M.D., measured changes in blood oxygen level dependent contrast in a functional magnetic resonance (FMRI) scanner in order to track changes in brain activity that occurred while eight volunteers participated in a videogame task involving real money. In this monetary incentive delay (MID) task, participants saw cues that indicated that they might win or lose money, waited for a variable anticipatory delay period, then tried to either win or avoid losing money by pressing a button in response to a rapidly presented target. The researchers examined the response of the nucleus accumbens during anticipation of different amounts of potential rewards (i.e., gains of $0.20, $1.00, and $5.00) or punishments (i.e., losses of $0.20, $1.00, and $5.00).

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 406 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Nathan Seppa
People with severe epilepsy who undergo brain surgery have markedly fewer disabling seizures during the following year than those relying on medication do, a study finds. Epilepsy patients become candidates for surgery when the effectiveness of their epilepsy medication diminishes greatly. Roughly 400,000 to 600,000 people in the United States have reached such a state, known as intractable epilepsy. The patients usually endure this chronic condition for decades before being referred for surgery, says study coauthor Samuel Wiebe, a neuroscientist at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ont. From Science News, Vol. 160, No. 5, Aug. 4, 2001, p. 69. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 404 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Designer chemical offers Alzheimer's hope
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have designed and synthesized highly potent inhibitor compounds that could lead to an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease. The work was reported in the American Chemical Society's Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. In earlier work, Ghosh and Tang designed an inhibitor that blocks the action of one of two protein-cutting enzymes, called proteases, thought to be responsible for Alzheimer's disease. This enzyme, called memapsin 2, severs a longer protein in the brain called amyloid precursor protein, or APP, to produce beta-amyloid, which accumulates in the brain and forms plaques that lead to the development of Alzheimer's disease.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 403 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Comparative Mammalian Brain Collections
This web site provides browsers with images and information from one of the world's largest collections of well-preserved, sectioned and stained brains of mammals. Viewers can see and download photographs of brains of over 100 different species of mammals (including humans) representing 17 mammalian orders. Also available are examples of stained sections from a wide variety of brains of special interest, including humans, chimpanzees, monkeys, various rodents and carnivores, California sea lion, Florida manatee, Big brown bat, etc.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 401 - Posted: 10.20.2001

How Nerve Cells Get Ready to Fire:
Utah Biologists Demonstrate A Protein's Key Role in Nerve Signals -- For humans and other animals to think, move, remember or do most other things, nerve cells must communicate with adjacent nerve cells or neurons by releasing chemicals called neurotransmitters. In a new study, University of Utah biologists showed how a single protein plays an essential role in preparing nerve cells to send these chemical signals. Nematode worms were paralyzed - unable to move, eat or eliminate waste - when the scientists crippled the protein, which is named UNC-13 for "uncoordinated" and is found in all animals examined so far.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 400 - Posted: 10.20.2001

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - A non-invasive diagnostic tool that can study changes occurring at the surface of the brain because of brain activity has been developed by scientists at the University of Illinois. The technique is based upon near-infrared spectroscopy and is simpler to use and less expensive than other methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography. "Whenever a region of the brain is activated – directing movement in a finger, for example – that part of the brain uses more oxygen," said Enrico Gratton, a UI professor of physics. "Our technique works by measuring the blood flow and oxygen consumption in the brain."

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 399 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NEJM, Volume 345:311-318 August 2, 2001 Number 5
Background Randomized trials of surgery for epilepsy have not been conducted, because of the difficulties involved in designing and implementing feasible studies. The lack of data supporting the therapeutic usefulness of surgery precludes making strong recommendations for patients with epilepsy. We conducted a randomized, controlled trial to assess the efficacy and safety of surgery for temporal-lobe epilepsy. The New England Journal of Medicine is owned, published, and copyrighted © 2001 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 398 - Posted: 10.20.2001

"Bionic Ear" Implanted by Penn Surgeons to Give Hearing to the Deaf
FDA-Approved Device Provides the World's Fastest Hearing Technology (Philadelphia, PA) - Doctors at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center's Department of Otorhinolaryngology are now surgically implanting the recently FDA-approved "bionic ear," bringing hearing to once-deaf adults throughout the Delaware Valley. Surgeons and audiologists from Penn are the first in Pennsylvania to implant this device and are participating in current clinical trials assessing the benefits of the new capabilities of the CII Bionic Ear. The Bionic Ear is marketed by Advanced Bionics Corporation under the trade name CLARION CII Bionic Ear. It can deliver sound information directly to the hearing nerve up to 1 million times a second- significantly faster than conventional cochlear implant technology- which delivers sound information under 20,000 times each second.

Keyword: Hearing; Regeneration
Link ID: 391 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of the Human Prefrontal Cortex Induces Dopamine Release in the Caudate Nucleus
Dopamine is implicated in movement, learning, and motivation, and in illnesses such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and drug addiction. Little is known about the control of dopamine release in humans, but research in experimental animals suggests that the prefrontal cortex plays an important role in regulating the release of dopamine in subcortical structures. Here we used [11C]raclopride and positron emission tomography to measure changes in extracellular dopamine concentration in vivo after repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in healthy human subjects. Repetitive TMS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex caused a reduction in [11C]raclopride binding in the left dorsal caudate nucleus compared with rTMS of the left occipital cortex. There were no changes in binding in the putamen, nucleus accumbens, or right caudate. This shows that rTMS of the prefrontal cortex induces the release of endogenous dopamine in the ipsilateral caudate nucleus. This finding has implications for the therapeutic and research use of rTMS in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Antonio P. Strafella, Tomá Paus, Jennifer Barrett, and Alain Dagher The Journal of Neuroscience, 2001, 21:RC157:1-4 Copyright © Society for Neuroscience

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 390 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Fire fought with fire
Adding more prions may slow prion disease down. ERICA KLARREICH Prions could be fought with prions, a team of US physicists propose. Their computer simulations suggest that the tiny proteins from one species might actually shield their counterparts in another species from other prions' malignant influence, slowing down disease1. Prions are thought to be the villains of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as BSE ('mad cow disease') and its human analogue, Creuzfeldt-Jacob Disease. The proteins are thought to attract and deform their healthy equivalents in victims' brains. The clumps that accrue can lead to dementia and death. 1.Slepoy, A. et al. Statistical Mechanics of Prion Diseases. Physical Review Letters (in press), 87, No.5, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 388 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Carnegie Mellon study provides conclusive evidence that cell phones distract drivers
PITTSBURGH-By studying images of the brain at work, Carnegie Mellon University scientists have concluded that we cannot converse on cell phones without distracting our brains from the task of driving. In findings reported in the journal NeuroImage, a team led by Carnegie Mellon Psychology Professor Marcel Just discovered that attending to a conversation significantly distracts the brain from processing complex visual information. "This has direct implications for cell phone use during driving because it answers one of the classic questions about human thinking. We've demonstrated that the human brain has a limited ability to perform two cognitive tasks concurrently under demanding circumstances, such as simultaneously conversing and driving," said Just.

Keyword: Attention; Vision
Link ID: 387 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The following dates and events were gathered from several sources. These events are certainly not all of the important events to take place in neuroscience...just some of the ones that I have selected. 4000 B.C. to 0 A.D ca. 4000 B.C. - Euphoriant effect of poppy plant reported in Sumerian records ca. 2700 B.C. - Shen Nung originates acupuncture ca. 1700 B.C. - Edwin Smith surgical papyrus written. First written record about the nervous system ca. 500 B.C. - Alcmaion of Crotona dissects sensory nerves 460-379 B.C. - Hippocrates discusses epilepsy as a disturbance of the brain 460-379 B.C. - Hippocrates states that the brain is involved with sensation and is the seat of intelligence 387 B.C. - Plato teaches at Athens. Believes brain is seat of mental process 335 B.C. - Aristotle writes on sleep; believes heart is seat of mental process 335-280 B.C. - Herophilus (the "Father of Anatomy"); believes ventricles are seat of human intelligence 280 B.C. - Erasistratus of Chios notes divisions of the brain

Keyword: None
Link ID: 385 - Posted: 10.20.2001

On Left-Handedness, Its Causes and Costs
By DAVID E. ROSENBAUM REDERICK, Md. -- In medieval times, right-handed warriors had a distinct advantage in swordfights. They held their shield with their left hand -- over their heart -- and thus lived to fight another day, and to reproduce, even after they had been stabbed. That, suggested Thomas Carlyle, the 19th century British writer, is why so many more people are right-handed. The lefties never lived to have offspring

Keyword: Laterality
Link ID: 384 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Don't look now, but is that dog laughing?
Susan Milius Amid all the panting, a dog at play makes a distinctive, breathy exhalation that can trigger playfulness in other dogs, says a Nevada researcher. Yes, it might be the dog version of a laugh. "To an untrained human ear, it sounds much like a pant, 'hhuh, hhuh,'" says Patricia Simonet of Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe. However, this exhalation bursts into a broader range of frequencies than does regular dog panting, Simonet discovered when she and her students analyzed recordings. Simonet, O., M. Murphy, and A. Lance. 2001. Laughing dog: Vocalizations of domestic dogs during play encounters. Animal Behavior Society conference. July 14-18. Corvallis, Oregon. From Science News, Vol. 160, No. 4, July 28, 2001, p. 55. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Animal Communication
Link ID: 383 - Posted: 10.20.2001