By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS, Columnist Statistically, people who exercise are much less likely than inactive people to abuse drugs or alcohol. But can exercise help curb addictions? Some research shows that exercise may stimulate reward centers in the brain, helping to ease cravings for drugs or other substances. But according to an eye-opening new study of cocaine-addicted mice, dedicated exercise may in some cases make it even harder to break an addiction. The study, conducted by researchers at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, began by dividing male mice into those that had or did not have running wheels in their cages. All of the mice were injected with a chemical that marks newly created brain cells. The animals then sat in their cages or ran at will for 30 days. Afterward, the mice were placed in small multiroom chambers in the lab and introduced to liquid cocaine. They liked it. Researchers frequently use a model known as “conditioned place preference” to study addiction in animals. If a rodent returns to and stubbornly plants itself in a particular place where it has received a drug or other pleasurable experience, then the researchers conclude that the animal has become habituated. It badly wants to repeat the experience that it associates with that place. All of the mice displayed a decided place preference for the spot within their chamber where they received cocaine. They had learned to associate that location with the pleasures of the drug. All of the mice had, essentially, become addicts. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 16642 - Posted: 04.12.2012

Caroline Morley, online picture researcher Originating in ancient China, acupuncture has been used for 2500 years. Traditional Chinese medicine holds that disease is caused by blockages and imbalances of energy (known as chi) flowing through meridians in the body, and can be eased by inserting needles at specific points. Since the 1970s, acupuncture has become more popular outside east Asia. Once widely considered a quack medicine, there is now tentative support for its use in certain conditions from respected official bodies such as the World Health Organization, the National Health Service in the UK and the National Institutes of Health in the US. There is evidence that acupuncture is effective in treating a range of conditions including spinal injuries, infertility and the side effects of chemotherapy , and that its effects aren't entirely due to the placebo effect. However, despite extensive research, the mechanism of this ancient healing art remains unknown. For example, the two vision-related points GB37 (gall bladder) and UB60 (urinary bladder) showed deactivation in visual brain areas like the cuneus. The team concluded that acupuncture seems to affect the brain's processing of both physical sensations and thought. For now, though, the source of our chi remains elusive. Journal reference: PLoS One, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0032960 © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 16641 - Posted: 04.12.2012

by Helen Fields The average adult human's brain weighs about 1.3 kilograms, has 100 billion or so neurons, and sucks up 20% of the oxygen we breathe. It's much bigger than an animal our size needs. According to a new computer model, the brains of humans and related primates are so large because we evolved to be social creatures. If we didn't play well with others, our brains would be puny. The idea behind the so-called social intelligence hypothesis is that we need pretty complex computers in our skulls to keep track of all the complex relationships we have with each other—who's a friend, who's an enemy, who's higher in the social ranks. Some studies have supported this idea, showing for example that bigger-brained primates tend to live in bigger social groups. The same appears to hold true for dolphins. But these studies only identified associations between brain and group size; they don't show how evolution might have worked. Since they didn't have a few million years of time on their hands, Ph.D. student Luke McNally and colleagues at Trinity College Dublin simulated evolution on a computer. They started with 50 simple brains. Each had just three to six neurons. The researchers then made each brain challenge the others to one of two classic games: the prisoner's dilemma or the snowdrift game. In the prisoner's dilemma, two people have been taken in for questioning by the police. If both keep their mouths shut, they'll both be set free. If one sells out the other, the snitch will get off and the other will do a long stint in jail. If they tell on each other, both get shorter sentences. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 16640 - Posted: 04.12.2012

By Susan Milius Scientists may have been going in the wrong direction to find bird beaks’ built-in navigation sensors, says a provocative new study. Pigeons and other birds appear to use the Earth’s magnetic field, along with sights and sounds, to figure out where they’re flying. But the widely accepted identification of one set of magnetically sensitive cells is “totally wrong,” says neuroscientist David Keays of the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology in Vienna. He’s talking about work published in 2003 identifying clusters at six places in pigeons’ upper beaks as nerve cells. Those clusters have little crystals of iron compounds that might serve as biological compass needles, the earlier study proposed. For the new study, Keays and his colleagues looked for these cells in about 250,000 thin slices of tissue from beaks of more than 200 pigeons collected across Europe. Clusters of beak cells do contain iron, but it turns out that they’re not consistent in abundance or location, and most aren’t nerve cells at all, he says. Instead, they’re immune system cells called macrophages, he and his colleagues report online April 11 in Nature. “If that’s true, this could be really important,” says neuroethologist Henrik Mouritsen of Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in Germany. Discarding the old identification of beak sensors would mean researchers have to start from scratch looking for them. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 16639 - Posted: 04.12.2012

By Frank Jordans GENEVA—Cases of dementia -- and the heavy social and financial burdens associated with them -- are set to soar in the coming decades as life expectancy and medical care improve in poorer countries, the World Health Organization says. Some 35.6 million people were living with dementia in 2010, but that figure is set to double to 65.7 million by 2030, the U.N. health agency said Wednesday. In 2050, it expects dementia cases to triple to 115.4 million. "The numbers are already large and are increasing rather rapidly," said Dr. Shekhar Saxena, the head of WHO's mental health division. Most dementia patients are cared for by relatives who shoulder the bulk of the current estimated annual cost of $604 billion. And the financial burden is expected to rise even faster than the number of cases, WHO said in its first substantial report on the issue. "The catastrophic cost drives millions of households below the poverty line," warned the agency's director-general, Margaret Chan. Dementia, a brain illness that affects memory, behavior and the ability to perform even common tasks, affects mostly older people. About 70 percent of cases are believed to be caused by Alzheimer's. In the last few decades, dementia has become a major public health issue in rich countries. But with populations in poor and middle-income countries projected to grow and age rapidly over the coming decades, WHO appealed for greater public awareness and better support programs everywhere. © 2012 NY Times Co.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 16638 - Posted: 04.12.2012

By Laura Sanders Nerve cells from the brain’s emotion hub talk directly to a region that doles out attention, a study of monkeys shows. The connection, described in the April 11 Journal of Neuroscience, may help explain how people automatically focus on emotional events. “I’m really excited to see this in press,” says neurologist Helen Mayberg of Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. “This provides an anatomical explanation for why an emotionally salient event always bumps the board.” A clearer description of how emotions influence attention is important for understanding and treating psychiatric disorders such as anxiety and depression, both of which may involve perturbed attention systems. Although scientists knew that emotionally significant events quickly capture attention, it wasn’t clear how the process works. To find out, Basilis Zikopoulos and Helen Barbas, both of Boston University, started with a likely suspect — the amygdala. In humans, the amygdala is made up of two structures the shape and size of almonds, one on each side of the brain. Best known for its role in processing fear, the amygdala helps process other emotions, too, including pleasurable ones. The researchers injected dyes deep into the brains of 10 rhesus monkeys. The dyes traced individual neurons and their long, information-carrying tendrils called axons. This technique captured details that even the best human imaging techniques miss. “In humans, we just look at the major highways, so we don’t see the side streets,” Zikopoulos says. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Emotions; Attention
Link ID: 16637 - Posted: 04.12.2012

By Jeanna Bryner and LiveScience Homophobes should consider a little self-reflection, suggests a new study finding those individuals who are most hostile toward gays and hold strong anti-gay views may themselves have same-sex desires, albeit undercover ones. The prejudice of homophobia may also stem from authoritarian parents, particularly those with homophobic views as well, the researchers added. "This study shows that if you are feeling that kind of visceral reaction to an out-group, ask yourself, 'Why?'" co-author Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, said in a statement. "Those intense emotions should serve as a call to self-reflection." The research, published in the April 2012 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, reveals the nuances of prejudices like homophobia, which can ultimately have dire consequences. [The 10 Most Destructive Human Behaviors] "Sometimes people are threatened by gays and lesbians because they are fearing their own impulses, in a sense they 'doth protest too much,'" Ryan told LiveScience. "In addition, it appears that sometimes those who would oppress others have been oppressed themselves, and we can have some compassion for them too, they may be unaccepting of others because they cannot be accepting of themselves." Ryan cautioned, however, that this link is only one source of anti-gay sentiments. © 2012 Scientific American,

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 16636 - Posted: 04.12.2012

By Stephani Sutherland If you have ever jumped at a loud noise and felt an adrenaline rush, you have experienced the effects of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH). In the body, this hormone triggers the familiar fight-or-flight response—racing heart, shortness of breath, sweaty palms. In the brain, however, it acts as a chemical messenger, playing a role in anxiety and depression. That role, a new study suggests, is more complex than anyone expected. Because animal research from the past decade found that CRH contributes to anxiety and depression, drugs were developed that would block its actions in the brain. Clinical trials of these anti­anxiety and antidepressant drugs in human patients, however, have been disappointing. The new study, published last September in Science, shows why. Jan M. Deussing, a molecular biologist at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, and his colleagues genetically altered mice so that some of their brain cells would be unable to detect the presence of CRH because they lacked the proper receptors. When the receptors were missing from neurons that produce the neurotransmitter glutamate, the mice displayed less anxiety, as expected. Yet when the receptors were missing from neurons that produce dopamine, the mice became more anxious. These two different neuron types, when interacting with CRH, “have exactly opposite effects in terms of anxiety-related behavior,” Deussing says. Be­cause the unsuccessful drugs limited the amount of the hormone available to all types of neurons, they ended up blocking its actions at neurons that both produce and prevent anxiety. The finding reaf­firms scientists’ growing understanding that mood disorders do not result from a simple chemical imbalance—too much or too little of one neurotransmitter—but rather from subtle changes in many systems in the brain. “The network is much more complex than we thought before,” Deussing says. © 2012 Scientific American

Keyword: Stress; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 16635 - Posted: 04.12.2012

Tim Parks “There are no images.” This was the first time I noticed Riccardo Manzotti. It was a conference on art and neuroscience. Someone had spoken about the images we keep in our minds. Manzotti seemed agitated. The girl sitting next to me explained that he built robots, was a genius. “There are no images and no representations in our minds,” he insisted. “Our visual experience of the world is a continuum between see-er and seen united in a shared process of seeing.” I was curious, if only because, as a novelist I’d always supposed I was dealing in images, imagery. This stuff might have implications. So we had a beer together. Manzotti has a degree in engineering and another in philosophy. He teaches in the psychology department at IULM University, Milan. The move from engineering to philosophy was prompted by conceptual problems he’d run into when first seeking to build robots. What does it mean that a subject sees an object? “People say the robot stores images of the world through its video camera. It doesn’t, it stores digital data. It has no images.” Manzotti is what they call a radical externalist: for him consciousness is not safely confined within a brain whose neurons select and store information received from a separate world, appropriating, segmenting, and manipulating various forms of input. Instead, he offers a model he calls Spread Mind: consciousness is a process shared between various otherwise distinct processes which, for convenience’s sake we have separated out and stabilized in the words subject and object. Language, or at least our modern language, thus encourages a false account of experience. © 1963-2012 NYREV, Inc.

Keyword: Consciousness
Link ID: 16634 - Posted: 04.12.2012

By ANAHAD O’CONNOR About 28 million Americans have sleep apnea, which causes repeated awakenings and pauses in breathing during the night, sometimes resulting in loud snoring and gasps for air. For decades, the standard treatment has been “continuous positive airway pressure.” A mask worn at night pushes air into the nasal passages, enabling easier breathing. C.P.A.P. reduces and in some cases completely prevents episodes of apnea. But the mask is like something from a bad science fiction movie: big, bulky and obtrusive. Many patients simply refuse to wear it or rip it off while asleep. Studies show that about half of all people prescribed C.P.A.P. machines stop using them in one to three weeks. “For a lot of people out there, the C.P.A.P. machine turns into a doorstop,” said Dr. Joseph Golish, the former chief of sleep medicine at the Cleveland Clinic. “C.P.A.P. is very effective in the sleep lab. But when people go home, there’s a good chance they won’t use it, and the success rate of an unused C.P.A.P. machine is absolutely zero.” Now an alternative form of C.P.A.P. is gaining popularity: a patch that fits over the nostrils. Called Provent, the patch holds two small plugs, one for each nostril, that create just enough air pressure to keep the airways open at night. It is far less intrusive than the traditional C.P.A.P. machine. It is also more expensive, and it doesn’t work for every patient. Approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2008, Provent has spread mostly by word of mouth. But it has caught on fast. Its manufacturer, Ventus Medical, says it has shipped one million of the devices in the past 12 months, up from a half million total in the two years prior. Doctors say it has given them a new weapon in the battle against sleep apnea, and many patients who struggled with C.P.A.P. call it a godsend. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 16633 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By Ferris Jabr Rhesus macaques, which are some of the best studied of all monkeys, establish hierarchies in their social groups. Whenever two macaques tussle over a piece of food, say, or the right to mate, the monkey with the higher rank usually wins. Primatologists have established that monkeys of a lower social status are generally more stressed out than their dominant peers—low-ranking monkeys have higher levels of stress hormones, for instance. But what about differences in gene activity? Does one’s social stature change how one’s genes are expressed. Yes, concludes a new study that used differences in gene expression to identify a monkey’s social status with around 80 percent accuracy. Jenny Tung of Duke University and her colleagues—including several collaborators at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center—studied 10 groups of adult female rhesus macaques made up of five females each. Researchers formed the groups one female at a time, which allowed them to carefully construct the social hierarchy: females introduced earlier generally assumed a higher rank. In this way, the scientists knew exactly which monkey held rank 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in each group. Tung and her colleagues collected blood samples from the rhesus macaques, isolated the white blood cells and analyzed the DNA in those cells. They found 987 genes whose activity depended on social rank: 535 genes that were more highly expressed in high-ranking individuals and 452 genes with higher activity in low-ranking individuals. Many of these genes were involved with the immune system; in particular, genes involved in inflammation were more active in low-ranking individuals. Further testing revealed that low-ranking monkeys also had fewer cytotoxic T-cells, a kind of white blood cell that attacks infected and cancerous cells. Earlier research suggests that the stress of a low social rank compromises the immune system—which fits with the finding about T-cells—but may also trigger the immune system to respond when it does not need to, which fits with the finding about inflammation. Findings about the relationship between stress, social status and the immune system are not clear cut, however; for example, some studies have found that having a higher rank is more stressful than having a lower rank. © 2012 Scientific American

Keyword: Aggression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 16632 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By Sandra G. Boodman, Silvia Bacot had devised a strategy for coping with her steadily worsening eyesight. As she walked down the hall of the suburban Maryland federal building where she works as a medical researcher, Bacot would say, “Hi, how are you?” to everyone she passed, worried that if she didn’t she might inadvertently snub someone she knew but couldn’t see. She always sat in the front row at lectures and close to the screen in movies. At crowded scientific meetings she tried to seem unwaveringly approachable, peering and squinting at name tags when their wearers got close enough. “I would feel like an idiot,” she said, referring to her practice of universal greeting. “At scientific conferences you want to make connections, and if you can’t see people, it’s bad.” Luckily her work was unaffected by her inability to see at a distance because as a bench scientist she focused on objects at close range. Bacot was frustrated that her ophthalmologist had been unable to correct her severe nearsightedness and the distortion known as astigmatism that often accompanies it. She assumed that her deteriorating eyesight was an inevitable result of aging; her eye doctor offered no other explanation. It wasn’t until the summer of 2010, while undergoing a work-up for laser eye surgery, that Bacot, now 38, learned that her visual problems were not caused by the normal progression of myopia, but in fact indicated something far more serious. “I turned white as a sheet of paper,” Bacot recalled, after corneal specialist Roy Rubinfeld told her that lasik was out of the question. “I didn’t even know I had anything wrong with me.” © 1996-2012 The Washington Post

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 16631 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR, Reporter Taking antidepressants during pregnancy raises the risk of high blood pressure in expectant mothers, a new study shows. Antidepressants are one of the most commonly used medications in pregnancy, and hypertension can cause problems for both mother and child. About one in five women suffer from depression during pregnancy, and up to 14 percent of those women end up using an antidepressant medication to treat it. Though the drugs are commonly prescribed to pregnant women, there has not been much research on the effect they can have on a mother’s health. The new study, published in The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, looked at more than 13,000 pregnant women, 1,200 of whom had pregnancy-induced hypertension with no history of the condition before they became pregnant. The researchers found that women taking antidepressants of any kind had a 53 percent greater risk of high blood pressure. Those who were taking Paxil, which belongs to the most commonly prescribed class of antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, saw their risk rise even higher, by 81 percent. Though those numbers sound high, it’s important to note that the absolute risk from taking these drugs remained low. Antidepressants raised a woman’s absolute risk of hypertension from 2 percent to 3.2 percent, and Paxil raised it from 2 percent to 3.6 percent. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 16630 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By Carolyn Butler, My beautiful, fiercely independent grandmother Audrey has always been one of the most positive forces in my life, even as she has endured the death of my grandfather and most of her friends. At the same time, she has faced such mounting challenges as the gradual loss of her hearing and, more lately, the affront of having to walk with a cane. But now, on the eve of her 94th birthday, her vision has deteriorated to the point that she’s having trouble reading her beloved newspaper every morning. For the first time, she seems sort of depressed. Watching Grams struggle to keep up with the family-dinner chitchat on a recent trip home, I couldn’t help but wonder whether the particular trials of growing older — from the death of loved ones to gradual declines in health, self-sufficiency and control — inevitably lead to this unhappy outcome. The short answer is that aging does seem to make us more vulnerable to depression, but it’s not a foregone conclusion. “Even though so many things happen as we get older — lots of losses and physical changes — most people weather those by adapting, and adapting without becoming depressed,” says Susan Lehmann, director of the Geriatric Psychiatry Day Hospital at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. There’s a difference, she adds, between feeling profoundly lonely or blue and true clinical depression, which is a mood state involving physical and behavioral manifestations that does not shift easily. © 1996-2012 The Washington Post

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 16629 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By RONI CARYN RABIN, Reporter Tammy Kwarciak, a 44-year-old nurse whose weight had been creeping up for years, was determined to lose 50 pounds. So in February, she drove from her home in Port Huron, Mich., across the border into Canada and had a small balloonlike device inserted into her stomach. The intragastric balloon, filled with liquid and left in the stomach for up to six months, is not approved for use in the United States, though it’s available in Europe, South America and other parts of the world. Clinical trials required to win federal Food and Drug Administration approval are being initiated, but many Americans aren’t waiting. Since the balloon’s introduction in Canada in 2006, people like Mrs. Kwarciak have been streaming north in growing numbers. Drawn by the relative ease of balloon placement, Americans account for nearly a third of patients undergoing the procedures in Canadian clinics just over the border. “The nice thing about the balloon is that you have such a sense of satiety,” said Mrs. Kwarciak, who has lost 25 pounds since she had the procedure. “I feel full all the time. I have to remind myself at times to eat.” But the balloon is a temporary measure, and once it is removed in a few months, she said, “I’m on my own.” The intragastric balloon appeals to people like Mrs. Kwarciak who have a significant amount of weight to lose but are not heavy enough to qualify for bariatric surgery like gastric bypass surgery and adjustable gastric band surgery. The patient is anesthetized, and the balloon is inserted through the esophagus — a relatively noninvasive procedure. It is removed after six months or so. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 16628 - Posted: 04.10.2012

Dawn Turner Trice What makes some people look at, say, a cupcake and hardly consider taking a bite, and others munch the whole thing into oblivion? We know this isn't just about willpower. How our brain responds to food when we see, smell or taste it and how we decide to act on our desire to eat is what neuroscientists are trying to unlock. Two researchers visiting Chicago recently for a conference of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society are studying what goes on in the brain across a spectrum of eating habits and disorders — from extreme overeating to anorexia. The goal is to use information about brain activity patterns to help tailor treatments for people with eating disorders. But the information can also be used for healthier people who simply want to understand better how their minds and bodies work. Laura Holsen, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School and Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, said eating disorders, especially anorexia, are often difficult to treat. "Prescription medication and therapies are often unsuccessful, and even when they do work it takes a long time to see results," said Holsen. "Being able to predict whether a given treatment will work better for an individual can save time, anguish and money."

Keyword: Obesity; Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 16627 - Posted: 04.10.2012

By BARRY MEIER SEATTLE — It was the type of conversation that Dr. Claire Trescott dreads: telling physicians that they are not cutting it. But the large health care system here that Dr. Trescott helps manage has placed controls on how painkillers are prescribed, like making sure doctors do not prescribe too much. Doctors on staff have been told to abide by the guidelines or face the consequences. So far, two doctors have decided to leave, and two more have remained but are being closely monitored. “It is excruciating,” said Dr. Trescott, who oversees primary care at Group Health. “These are often very good clinicians who just have this fatal flaw.” High-strength painkillers known as opioids represent the most widely prescribed class of medications in the United States. And over the last decade, the number of prescriptions for the strongest opioids has increased nearly fourfold, with only limited evidence of their long-term effectiveness or risks, federal data shows. “Doctors are prescribing like crazy,” said Dr. C. Richard Chapman, the director of the Pain Research Center at the University of Utah. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 16626 - Posted: 04.09.2012

By AMY HARMON THE report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that one in 88 American children have an autism spectrum disorder has stoked a debate about why the condition’s prevalence continues to rise. The C.D.C. said it was possible that the increase could be entirely attributed to better detection by teachers and doctors, while holding out the possibility of unknown environmental factors. But the report, released last month, also appears to be serving as a lightning rod for those who question the legitimacy of a diagnosis whose estimated prevalence has nearly doubled since 2007. As one person commenting on The New York Times’s online article about it put it, parents “want an ‘out’ for why little Johnny is a little hard to control.” Or, as another skeptic posted on a different Web site, “Just like how all of a sudden everyone had A.D.H.D. in the ’90s, now everyone has autism.” The diagnosis criteria for autism spectrum disorders were broadened in the 1990s to encompass not just the most severely affected children, who might be intellectually disabled, nonverbal or prone to self-injury, but those with widely varying symptoms and intellectual abilities who shared a fundamental difficulty with social interaction. As a result, the makeup of the autism population has shifted: only about a third of those identified by the C.D.C. as autistic last month had an intellectual disability, compared with about half a decade ago. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 16625 - Posted: 04.09.2012

Obesity during pregnancy may increase chances for having a child with autism, provocative new research suggests. It's among the first studies linking the two, and though it doesn't prove obesity causes autism, the authors say their results raise public health concerns because of the high level of obesity in this country. Study women who were obese during pregnancy were about 67 percent more likely than normal-weight women to have autistic children. They also faced double the risk of having children with other developmental delays. On average, women face a 1 in 88 chance of having a child with autism; the results suggest that obesity during pregnancy would increase that to a 1 in 53 chance, the authors said. The study was being released online Monday in Pediatrics. Since more than one-third of U.S. women of child-bearing age are obese, the results are potentially worrisome and add yet another incentive for maintaining a normal weight, said researcher Paula Krakowiak, a study co-author and scientist at UC Davis. Previous research has linked obesity during pregnancy with stillbirths, preterm births and some birth defects. More research is needed to confirm the results. But if mothers' obesity is truly related to autism, it would be only one of many contributing factors, said Dr. Daniel Coury, chief of developmental and behavioral pediatrics at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He was not involved in the study. © 2012 Hearst Communications Inc.

Keyword: Autism; Obesity
Link ID: 16624 - Posted: 04.09.2012

Roger Dobson It is the chemical that has been described by women as a "cuddle drug". Now scientists have discovered that its effect on men is more rampant and long-lasting than just the desire for a quick hug. Oxytocin, a hormone traditionally used to induce labour, is as sexually arousing to men as Viagra, according to new research. Studies conducted in the US found that a married man who sniffed a nasal spray containing oxytocin twice daily became more affectionate to friends and colleagues and recorded a marked improvement in his sexual performance. According to the actual breakdown of results, the man's libido went from "weak to strong", while arousal went from "difficult to easy". Ego certainly wasn't hurt either: sexual performance, according to feedback from his wife, was classed as "very satisfying". Scientists at the University of California believe the findings provide strong support for the idea that oxytocin improves sexual performance and, unlike Viagra, remains a chemical glue within the brain to cement relationships between people. Just how it works is not clear, but some studies have suggested that oxytocin levels rise naturally during arousal. The hormone is also thought to interact with the dopamine system, which is involved in the rewarding aspects of sexual activity. © independent.co.uk

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 16623 - Posted: 04.09.2012