By JAN HOFFMAN Just in time to protect patients from the dangers of holiday cheer, a new scholarly review from a British medical journal describes many harmful effects wrought by laughter. Among the alarms it sounds: The force of laughing can dislocate jaws, prompt asthma attacks, cause headaches, make hernias protrude. It can provoke cardiac arrhythmia, syncope or even emphysema (this last, according to a clinical lecturer in 1892). Laughter can trigger the rare but possibly grievous Pilgaard-Dahl and Boerhaave’s syndromes (see explanation below). And ponder, briefly, the mortifying impact of sustained laughter on the urinary tract (detailed in a 1982 The Lancet paper entitled “Giggle Incontinence”). At the very least, the new review could be considered an affirmation for the perpetually dour. If 2013 was the year of the worried well, the authors imply that 2014 is poised to be the year of the humorless healthy. The analysis, “Laughter and MIRTH (Methodical Investigation of Risibility, Therapeutic and Harmful),” was drawn from about 5,000 studies. It appears in BMJ, formerly known as The British Medical Journal, which for more than 30 years has traditionally featured rigorously researched but lighthearted articles in its Christmas issue. A deputy editor, Dr. Tony Delamothe, said that the MIRTH study was indeed peer-reviewed — presumably by a doctor with a carefully managed sense or humor (or humour). This year, companion studies in the issue include “Were James Bond’s drinks shaken because of alcohol induced tremor?” , “The survival time of chocolates on hospital wards: covert observational study,” and “Operating room safety: the 10 point plan to safe flinging” (among the cautions: “Before flinging, identify your target and the area beyond it” and “Never fling an instrument straight up into the air”). Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 19059 - Posted: 12.21.2013

By Felicity Muth This might seem perplexing to some, but I’ve just spent two days listening to talks and meeting with people who all work on social insects. And it was great. I was at Royal Holloway, University of London, where the IUSSI meeting was taking place. The IUSSI is the ‘International Union for the Study of Social Insects’, although they seem to let people in who work on social spiders too (a nice inclusive attitude if you ask me). This meeting was specifically for researchers who are in the UK and North-West Europe, of which there are a surprisingly large number. The talks were really good, sharing a lot of the recent research that’s happened using social insects, and I thought I’d share my highlight of first day’s events here. One of my favourite talks from the first day was from Elli Leadbeater who spoke about work carried out primarily by Erika Dawson. I’ve written before about ‘social learning’ in monkeys and whales, where one animal can learn something from observing another animal, normally of the same species. Dawson and her colleagues were looking specifically at whether there is actually anything ‘social’ about ‘social learning’, or whether it can be explained with the same mechanism as other types of learning. In the simplest form of learning, associative learning, an animal learns to associate a particular stimulus (for example a particular colour, smell or sound) with a reward (usually food). The classic example of this was Pavlov’s dogs, who learned to associate the sound of a metronome with food. When Pavlov then sounded the metronome, the dogs salivated even when there was no food present. © 2013 Scientific American

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 19058 - Posted: 12.21.2013

By Deborah Kotz / Globe Staff Anyone who hears about the tragic death of a 13-year-old California girl after a routine tonsil-removal surgery has to feel for the grieving parents who don’t want her removed from life support. The McMaths refuse to believe that their daughter Jahi, who was declared brain dead more than a week ago, is truly dead because machines are keeping her other organs alive. “How could you not let me have my kid for Christmas?” said Nailah Winkfield, McMath’s mother, in an interview with local reporters. “And this is Children’s Hospital, supposed to be so compassionate, so loving, and I asked, can my daughter just live a few more days? Because she is living.” McMath was declared brain dead more than a week ago, and her family has been fighting with hospital staff at Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland to keep her body in a viable state and have her provided with nutrition via a feeding tube. “To me, it just looks like she’s at peace and she’s resting,” said Jahi’s uncle Omari Sealey, “and when she’s done going through the traumatic stuff that her body’s going through right now, and she feels well enough, she’ll wake up.” But McMath is dead—as horrible as that is for her family to fathom—and leaving her body attached to machines is akin to allowing a corpse remain in a hospital bed without a proper burial. Perhaps hospitals should stop calling such care “life support” since it’s not actually supporting any living person, just a body. “This case is so sad it is almost beyond description,” wrote Arthur Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in a blog he posted Thursday on the NBC News website. “But that fact should not be a reason to take the view that we don’t know what to do when someone is pronounced brain dead. Brain dead is dead.” © 2013 Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC

Keyword: Consciousness
Link ID: 19057 - Posted: 12.21.2013

// by Megan Gannon, Live Science News Editor Bonobos have a reputation among the great apes as "hippie chimps," and new research hints that high levels of a key thyroid hormone may play a role in keeping the animals' aggression in check. Found in the lowland forests of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, bonobos (Pan troglodytes) are closely related to chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) but the two diverge in behavior. Bonobos seem to diffuse social tension with an impressive repertoire of sex acts rather than physical fights. Males in particular show low levels of aggression — they even maintain platonic friendships with females and stick by their mothers into adulthood. The life of male chimpanzees, meanwhile, revolves around climbing the social ladder (or at least hanging onto their current rung), and navigating cooperative and aggressive relationships with other males. [8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates] Scientists recently found another big difference between the two Pan species: A key thyroid hormone decreases at a much later age in bonobos compared with chimps. For their study, scientists took urine samples from about 100 chimpanzees and 96 bonobos living in zoos. The researchers specifically looked at the apes' levels of triiodothyronine (T3), a hormone in the thyroid gland that is crucial for development in all vertebrates (animals with backbones). © 2013 Discovery Communications, LLC

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Aggression
Link ID: 19056 - Posted: 12.21.2013

Ed Yong As the H1N1 swine flu pandemic swept the world in 2009, China saw a spike in cases of narcolepsy — a mysterious disorder that involves sudden, uncontrollable sleepiness. Meanwhile, in Europe, around 1 in 15,000 children who were given Pandemrix — a now-defunct flu vaccine that contained fragments of the pandemic virus — also developed narcolepsy, a chronic disease. Immunologist Elizabeth Mellins and narcolepsy researcher Emmanuel Mignot at Stanford University School of Medicine in California and their collaborators have now partly solved the mystery behind these events, while also confirming a longstanding hypothesis that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system attacks healthy cells. Narcolepsy is mostly caused by the gradual loss of neurons that produce hypocretin, a hormone that keeps us awake. Many scientists had suspected that the immune system was responsible, but the Stanford team has found the first direct evidence: a special group of CD4+ T cells (a type of immune cell) that targets hypocretin and is found only in people with narcolepsy. “Up till now, the idea that narcolepsy was an autoimmune disorder was a very compelling hypothesis, but this is the first direct evidence of autoimmunity,” says Mellins. “I think these cells are a smoking gun.” The study is published today in Science Translational Medicine1. Thomas Scammell, a neurologist at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, says that the results are welcome after “years of modest disappointment”, marked by many failures to find antibodies made by a person's body against their own hypocretin. “It’s one of the biggest things to happen in the narcolepsy field for some time.” It is not clear why some people make these T cells and others do not, but genetics may play a part. In earlier work2, Mignot showed that 98% of people with narcolepsy have a variant of the gene HLA that is found in only 25% of the general population. © 2013 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Narcolepsy; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 19055 - Posted: 12.19.2013

by Ashley Yeager With a little help from implanted electrodes, Parkinson's patients make fewer driving errors, at least on a computer. When steering a simulator, patients with active brain stimulators averaged 3.8 driving errors, compared with 7.5 for healthy people and 11.4 for those with Parkinson's disease who did not have implants. The Parkinson’s patients’ driving skills were also more accurate when receiving deep brain stimulation than when taking levodopa, a common treatment for the disease, researchers report December 18 in Neurology. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2013

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 19054 - Posted: 12.19.2013

Amanda Mascarelli In children with certain gene variants, symptoms similar to common learning disabilities could be omens of serious psychiatric conditions. People who carry high-risk genetic variants for schizophrenia and autism have impairments reminiscent of disorders such as dyslexia, even when they do not yet have a mental illness, a new study has found. The findings offer a window into the brain changes that precede severe mental illness and hold promise for early intervention and even prevention, researchers say. Rare genetic alterations called copy number variants (CNVs), in which certain segments of the genome have an abnormal number of copies, play an important part in psychiatric disorders: Individuals who carry certain CNVs have a several-fold increased risk of developing schizophrenia or autism1. But previous studies were based on individuals who already have a psychiatric disorder, and until now, no one had looked at what effects these CNVs have in the general population. In a study published today in Nature2, researchers report that people with these variants but no diagnosis of autism or a mental illness still show subtle brain changes and impairments in cognitive function. “In psychiatry we always have the problem that disorders are defined by symptoms that patients experience or tell us about, or that we observe,” says study co-author Andreas Meyer-Lindenberg, a psychiatrist and the director the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, affiliated with the University of Heidelberg. This work, on the other hand, provides a glimpse into the biological underpinnings of people who are at risk of psychiatric disorders, he says. The team searched a genealogical database of more than 100,000 Icelanders, focusing on 26 genetic variants that have been shown to increase the risk of schizophrenia or autism. They found that 1,178 people in the database, or 1.16% of the sample, carried one or more of these CNVs. © 2013 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Autism
Link ID: 19053 - Posted: 12.19.2013

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS A remarkable recent experiment allowed scientists to see inside the skull and brain of animals that had just experienced a concussion, providing sobering new evidence of how damaging even minor brain impacts can be. While the results, which were published in Nature, are worrisome, they also hint at the possibility of treating concussions and lessening their harm. Concussions occur when the brain bounces against the skull after someone’s head is bumped or jolted. Such injuries are fairly common in contact sports, like football and hockey, and there is growing concern that repeated concussions might contribute to lingering problems with thinking or memory. This concern was heightened this week by reports that the brain of the late major league baseball player Ryan Freel showed symptoms of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative condition. He reportedly had been hit in the head multiple times during his career. But scientists did not know exactly what happens at a molecular level inside the brain during and after a concussion. The living brain is notoriously difficult to study, since it shelters behind the thick, bony skull and other protective barriers. In some earlier studies, scientists had removed portions of lab animals’ skulls to view what happened to their brains during subsequent impacts. But removing part of the skull causes its own tissue damage and physiological response, muddying any findings about how the brain is affected by concussions. So scientists at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, a division of the National Institutes of Health, decided to develop a less destructive means of seeing inside skulls and came up with the deceptively simple method of shaving away microscopic layers of a lab mouse’s skull, thinning it to the point that powerful microscopic lenses could see through it, even as the skull remained essentially intact. Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 19052 - Posted: 12.18.2013

By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online Scientists say they have been able to successfully print new eye cells that could be used to treat sight loss. The proof-of-principle work in the journal Biofabrication was carried out using animal cells. The Cambridge University team says it paves the way for grow-your-own therapies for people with damage to the light-sensitive layer of tissue at back of the eye - the retina. More tests are needed before human trials can begin. At the moment the results are preliminary and show that an inkjet printer can be used to print two types of cells from the retina of adult rats―ganglion cells and glial cells. These are the cells that transmit information from the eye to certain parts of the brain, and provide support and protection for neurons. The printed cells remained healthy and retained their ability to survive and grow in culture. Co-authors of the study Prof Keith Martin and Dr Barbara Lorber, from the John van Geest Centre for Brain Repair at the University of Cambridge, said: "The loss of nerve cells in the retina is a feature of many blinding eye diseases. The retina is an exquisitely organised structure where the precise arrangement of cells in relation to one another is critical for effective visual function. Human eye The retina sits at the back of the eye BBC © 2013

Keyword: Vision; Robotics
Link ID: 19051 - Posted: 12.18.2013

Fifty million Americans experience chronic ringing in the ears, a condition known as tinnitus. But new research from the University of Michigan Medical School may soon provide solace to those suffering. The discovery helps to explain what is going on inside the brains of those with tinnitus and may provide a new approach to treat the nagging noise. The research team already has a patent pending and device in development. The findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, explain that a process called stimulus-timing dependent multisensory plasticity is altered in animals with tinnitus and the results have revealed the relationship between tinnitus, hearing loss and sensory input. Dr. Susan Shore, senior author of the paper notes that any treatment likely will have to be customized to each patient and delivered on a regular basis. Some patients may be more likely to benefit than others. © 1996-2013 MacNeil/Lehrer Productions

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 19050 - Posted: 12.18.2013

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR A new federal report shows that the percentage of American high school students who smoke marijuana is slowly rising, while the use of alcohol and almost every other drug is falling. The report raises concerns that the relaxation of restrictions on marijuana, which can now be sold legally in 20 states and the District of Columbia, has been influencing use of the drug among teenagers. Health officials are concerned by the steady increase and point to what they say is a growing body of evidence that adolescent brains, which are still developing, are susceptible to subtle changes caused by marijuana. “The acceptance of medical marijuana in multiple states leads to the sense that if it’s used for medicinal purposes, then it can’t be harmful,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which issued the report. “This survey has shown very consistently that the greater the number of kids that perceive marijuana as risky, the less that smoke it.” Starting early next year, recreational marijuana use will also be legal in Colorado and Washington. Experts debate the extent to which heavy marijuana use may cause lasting detriment to the brain. But Dr. Volkow said that one way marijuana might affect cognitive function in adolescents was by disrupting the normal development of white matter through which cells in the brain communicate. According to the latest federal figures, which were part of an annual survey, Monitoring the Future, more than 12 percent of eighth graders and 36 percent of seniors at public and private schools around the country said they had smoked marijuana in the past year. About 60 percent of high school seniors said they did not view regular marijuana use as harmful, up from about 55 percent last year. Copyright 2013 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 19049 - Posted: 12.18.2013

By DANNY HAKIM LONDON — European food regulators said on Tuesday that a class of pesticides linked to the deaths of large numbers of honey bees might also harm human health, and they recommended that the European Commission further restrict their use. The commission, which requested the review, has already taken a tougher stance than regulators in other parts of the world against neonicotinoids, a relatively new nicotine-derived class of pesticide. Earlier this year, some were temporarily banned for use on many flowering crops in Europe that attract honey bees, an action that the pesticides’ makers are opposing in court. Now European Union regulators say the same class of pesticides “may affect the developing human nervous system” of children. They focused on two specific versions of the pesticide, acetamiprid and imidacloprid, saying they were safe to use only in smaller amounts than currently allowed. Imidacloprid was one of the pesticides placed under a two-year ban this year. The review was prompted by a Japanese study that raised similar concerns last year. Imidacloprid is one of the most popular insecticides, and is used in agricultural and consumer products. It was developed by Bayer, the German chemicals giant, and is the active ingredient in products like Bayer Advanced Fruit, Citrus & Vegetable Insect Control, which can be purchased at stores internationally, including Home Depot in the United States. Acetamiprid is sold by Nisso Chemical, a German branch of a Japanese company, though it was developed with Bayer’s help. It is used in consumer products like Ortho Flower, Fruit & Vegetable Insect Killer. The action by European regulators could affect the entire category of neonicotinoid pesticides, however. James Ramsay, a spokesman for the European Food Safety Authority, which conducted the review, said the agency was recommending a mandatory submission of studies related to developmental neurotoxicity “as part of the authorization process in the E.U.” © 2013 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 19048 - Posted: 12.18.2013

After nearly a year of meetings and public debate, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) today announced how it intends to spend its share of funding for the Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative, a $110 million U.S. effort to jump-start the development of new technologies that can map the brain’s vast and intricate neural circuits in action. In short, it’s looking for big ideas, such as taking a census of all the cells in the brain, even if there’s little data so far on how to accomplish them. The agency is calling for grant applications in six “high-priority” research areas drawn from a September report by its 15-member scientific advisory committee for the project. The agency is committing to spend roughly $40 million per year for 3 years on these areas, says Story Landis, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “We hope that there will be additional funds that will become available, but obviously that depends upon what our budget is,” she says. The six funding streams center almost exclusively on proof-of-concept testing and development of new technologies and novel approaches for tasks considered fundamental to understanding how neurons work together to produce behavior in the brain; for example, classifying different types of brain cells, and determining how they contribute to specific neural circuits. NIH’s focus on innovation means that most grant applicants will not have to supply preliminary data for their proposals—a departure from “business as usual” that will likely startle many scientists and reviewers but is necessary to give truly innovative ideas a fair shot, Landis says. Only one call for funding, aimed at optimizing existing technologies for recording and manipulating large numbers of neurons that “aren’t ready for prime time,” will require such background, she says. © 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 19047 - Posted: 12.18.2013

By MICHAEL MOSS WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — “Here are the nuts,” said Drew Sayer, a graduate student in nutrition science, before shoving me into the M.R.I. machine, flat on my back. “Chew them. Swallow them. And don’t move your head.” I moved my head, which blurred the resulting images. But if all goes well in the coming weeks, researchers here at Purdue University will have stacks of brain scans with crystal-clear views inside the minds of their test subjects — while they were eating nuts. These images could help answer a timely question: Do nuts really merit the hype they’ve been getting as a guilt-free indulgence? The reports about their many benefits have come thick and fast: studies finding that people who eat nuts (tree nuts like cashews, almonds and pistachios, along with their legume pal, the peanut) live longer and healthier lives, with less risk of chronic ailments like heart disease, respiratory problems and Type 2 diabetes. But perhaps the most startling news is that nuts may help in maintaining a healthy weight. Research has found that people can snack on modest amounts of them without gaining pounds, and that nuts can even help in slimming down. This dieting power is particularly hard to fathom when you consider that nuts pack 160 to 200 calories in each tiny ounce, not even a handful. And most of those calories come from fat. Ounce for ounce, cashews and pecans and walnuts are loaded with more calories than many of the processed foods being blamed for the surge in obesity. In the conventional wisdom, a dieter’s best friends are watery foods like celery and carrot sticks. One of the country’s leading nutrition scientists, Richard Mattes of Purdue, has been exploring this seeming paradox and has some intriguing, if still uncertain, findings. His current work on nuts is being funded by a marketing group, the Almond Board of California, which would normally raise concerns about bias. But Dr. Mattes has a record of biting the hands that feed science, and challenging presumptions about nutrition. © 2013 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 19046 - Posted: 12.18.2013

By Greg Miller John McCluskey killed a vacationing couple in eastern New Mexico in 2010, set their camper trailer on fire with their bodies inside, and took off with their truck. In sentencing hearings held after his conviction, McCluskey’s lawyers argued that he should be spared the death penalty because abnormalities in his brain had made him impulsive and unable to control his behavior. Last week, a jury declared it had been unable to reach the unanimous decision required to sentence him to death. It’s not known if the brain scans and other scientific evidence played a role in McCluskey escaping the death penalty. And it’s not the first time such evidence has been introduced when the death penalty was on the line. In fact, neuroscience is making increasingly regular courtroom appearances. “It’s amazing the extent to which judges, attorneys, and juries are taking this in stride,” said Owen Jones, a legal scholar at Vanderbilt University who observed a few hours of testimony in McCluskey’s case. “Just a few generations ago, this was beyond the realm of science fiction,” Jones said. But now, “you watch the jurors and they reflect no outward manifestation of what an extraordinary thing it is to look inside another person’s brain.” ‘It’s amazing the extent to which judges, attorneys, and juries are taking this in stride.’ Nita Farahany, a bioethicist at Duke University has been tracking the rise of legal cases involving neuroscience evidence in the U.S. The number of judicial opinions mentioning neuroscience evidence tripled between 2005 and 2011, from roughly 100 to more than 300. “It’s more prevalent than my numbers show,” Farahany said. That’s because most cases involving neuroscience evidence do not result in a written judicial opinion, and those that don’t are exceedingly difficult to find. © 2013 Condé Nast.

Keyword: Aggression; Consciousness
Link ID: 19045 - Posted: 12.17.2013

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. A long-awaited study has confirmed the fears of Somali residents in Minneapolis that their children suffer from higher rates of a disabling form of autism compared with other children there. The study — by the University of Minnesota, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the research and advocacy group Autism Speaks — found high rates of autism in two populations: About one Somali child in 32 and one white child in 36 in Minneapolis were on the autism spectrum. The national average is one child in 88, according to Coleen A. Boyle, who directs the C.D.C.’s Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. But the Somali children were less likely than the whites to be “high-functioning” and more likely to have I.Q.s below 70. (The average I.Q. score is 100.) The study offered no explanation of the statistics. “We do not know why more Somali and white children were identified,” said Amy S. Hewitt, the project’s primary investigator and director of the University of Minnesota’s Research and Training Center on Community Living. “This project was not designed to answer these questions.” The results echoed those of a Swedish study published last year finding that children from immigrant families in Stockholm — many of them Somali — were more likely to have autism with intellectual disabilities. The Minneapolis study also found that Somali children with autism received their diagnoses late. Age 5 was the average, while autism and learning disabilities can be diagnosed as early as age 2, and children get the most benefit from behavioral treatment when it is started early. Black American-born children and Hispanic children in Minneapolis had much lower autism rates: one in 62 for the former and one in 80 for the latter. © 2013 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 19044 - Posted: 12.17.2013

The National Institutes of Health has selected eight projects to receive support to answer some of the most fundamental problems on traumatic brain injury, including understanding long-term effects of repeated head injuries and improving diagnosis of concussions. Funding is provided by the Sports and Health Research Program, a partnership among the NIH, the National Football League, and the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH). In 2012, the NFL donated $30 million to FNIH for research studies on injuries affecting athletes, with brain trauma being the primary area of focus. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health problem that affects all age groups and is the leading cause of death in young adults. Recently, concern has been raised about the potential long-term effects of repeated concussion, particularly in those most at risk: young athletes and those engaged in professions associated with frequent head injury, including men and women in the military. Current tests cannot reliably identify concussions, and there is no way to predict who will recover quickly, who will suffer long-term symptoms, and which few individuals will develop progressive brain degeneration, called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). “We need to be able to predict which patterns of injury are rapidly reversible and which are not. This program will help researchers get closer to answering some of the important questions about concussion for our youth who play sports and their parents,” said Story Landis, Ph.D., director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of NIH.

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 19043 - Posted: 12.17.2013

By Suzanne Allard Levingston, Chris Ecarius had so much difficulty filling out his Social Security application online that the 62-year-old went to a doctor to find out why his brain didn’t seem to work properly. Over the years, he’d seen other doctors about similar struggles. He’d been told that he was depressed, but he didn’t feel depressed. This time, Ecarius got a different diagnosis: attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a conclusion that seemed more appropriate for a child in grade school than an adult in retirement. When Ecarius, who lives in Houghton Lake, Mich., was young, he had trouble paying attention. He’d dropped out of school and left several jobs, had several traffic accidents and had never quite gotten on track. “I could have been a doctor,” he said. “I could have been a pharmacist, I could have been anything I wanted to be,” had someone diagnosed his ADHD when he was a child. With the help of his wife, Ecarius was able to settle into a skilled trade job with General Motors, a position he held until age 58, when, he says, he became overwhelmed by the computers at work. Ecarius is not alone. While ADHD — a condition marked by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity — is one of the most common brain disorders in children, it also occurs in approximately one in 20 adults, according to a 2006 study. A 2012 study based on interviews with almost 1,500 people by researchers in the Netherlands found that 2.8 percent of adults older than 60 have ADHD, with 4.2 percent of people in that age group reporting several ADHD symptoms and some impairment. But just being forgetful or scatterbrained doesn’t mean you have ADHD. Of course, many people, especially those older than 60, have these problems, but they could be a sign of something else — or nothing at all. © 1996-2013 The Washington Post

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 19042 - Posted: 12.17.2013

By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD Early in the 20th century, two brothers discovered a nearly complete Neanderthal skeleton in a pit inside a cave at La Chapelle-aux-Saints, in southwestern France. The discovery raised the possibility that these evolutionary relatives of ours intentionally buried their dead — at least 50,000 years ago, before the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe. These and at least 40 subsequent discoveries, a few as far from Europe as Israel and Iraq, appeared to suggest that Neanderthals, long thought of as brutish cave dwellers, actually had complex funeral practices. Yet a significant number of researchers have since objected that the burials were misinterpreted, and might not represent any advance in cognitive and symbolic behavior. Now an international team of scientists is reporting that a 13-year re-examination of the burials at La Chapelle-aux-Saints supports the earlier claims that the burials were intentional. The researchers — archaeologists, geologists and paleoanthropologists — not only studied the skeleton from the original excavations, but found more Neanderthal remains, from two children and an adult. They also studied the bones of other animals in the cave, mainly bison and reindeer, and the geology of the burial pits. The findings, in this week’s issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “buttress claims for complex symbolic behavior among Western European Neanderthals,” the scientists reported. William Rendu, the paper’s lead author and a researcher at the Center for International Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences in New York, said in an interview that the geology of the burial pits “cannot be explained by natural events” and that “there is no sign of weathering and scavenging by animals,” which means the bodies were covered soon after death. © 2013 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 19041 - Posted: 12.17.2013

By Phil Plait Our brains are massively complex machines, constantly processing huge amounts of data from our senses. Our eyes provide most of that input; they send a huge amount of information to the brain, and it’s actually rather astonishing we can figure anything out from it. Given that, our ability to detect motion is pretty amazing. Despite all that noise, if something moves, something changes, our brain targets right on it. To see motion, you need at least two objects, so that one can move relative to the other. Sometimes, one of those objects is you. If you turn your head, the room you’re sitting in looks like it’s turning the other way. But our brain compensates for that; it “knows” it’s moving, so you perceive the room as motionless. But this works the other way, too: You can make the brain think something is moving even when it’s not. That’s the principle behind this wonderful optical illusion video created by brusspup: Isn’t that great? Your brain will swear those drawings are moving, even when you can see they are not. Even the cat was fooled! This video looks fantastically complicated, but the way it works is actually pretty simple. Basically, it’s fooling your brain into ignoring the thing that is moving, and making it look like the motionless thing is what’s doing the moving. © 2013 The Slate Group, LLC.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 19040 - Posted: 12.17.2013