By Laura Sanders Rats dosed with a compound isolated from an ancient herbal remedy appear all but impervious to quantities of alcohol that put their compatriots under the table. Rodents on the drug can drink large quantities of alcohol without passing out, show fewer signs of hangover and even fail to become addicted to alcohol after weeks of drinking, researchers report in the Jan. 4 Journal of Neuroscience. If the compound proves to have similar effects in humans, it may offer a powerful way to combat alcohol’s dizzying effects, the dreaded hangover and even alcohol dependence. “I think it’s really pretty incredible that one study opens up avenues for so many angles,” says neuroscientist A. Leslie Morrow of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. Researchers led by Jing Liang of the University of California, Los Angeles began by surveying herbal compounds that reportedly have antialcohol effects. A promising candidate caught the researchers’ eyes: an extract isolated from the seeds of the Asian tree Hovenia dulcis, first described as a primo hangover remedy in the year 659. In the new study, Liang and her team tested one ingredient of Hovenia called dihydromyricetin, or DHM, on rats, which respond to alcohol in similar ways to humans. After rats were given the human equivalent of 15 to 20 beers in under two hours, the animals passed out in a drunken stupor and lost the reflex to flip over when placed on their backs. The rats took about an hour after this binge to begin to regain control of their bodies and flip themselves over. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2012

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 16217 - Posted: 01.05.2012

by Stephen Battersby TACKLING a crossword can crowd the tip of your tongue. You know that you know the answers to 3 down and 5 across, but the words just won't come out. Then, when you've given up and moved on to another clue, comes blessed relief. The elusive answer suddenly occurs to you, crystal clear. The processes leading to that flash of insight can illuminate many of the human mind's curious characteristics. Crosswords can reflect the nature of intuition, hint at the way we retrieve words from our memory, and reveal a surprising connection between puzzle solving and our ability to recognise a human face. "What's fascinating about a crossword is that it involves many aspects of cognition that we normally study piecemeal, such as memory search and problem solving, all rolled into one ball," says Raymond Nickerson, a psychologist at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. In a paper published earlier this year, he brought profession and hobby together by analysing the mental processes of crossword solving (Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, vol 18, p 217). 1 across: "You stinker!" - audible cry that allegedly marked displacement activity (6) Most of our mental machinations take place pre-consciously, with the results dropping into our conscious minds only after they have been decided elsewhere in the brain. Intuition plays a big role in solving a crossword, Nickerson observes. Indeed, sometimes your pre-conscious mind may be so quick that it produces the goods instantly. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Attention; Consciousness
Link ID: 16216 - Posted: 01.05.2012

by Zoë Corbyn Scorpions don't need to use their eyes to get a full picture of their surroundings: their body seems to function as a basic eye under ultraviolet light. To test the idea that the waxy cuticle covering a scorpion's body can detect light, Doug Gaffin of the University of Oklahoma in Norman exposed 40 of the arachnids to visible or UV light. He studied their behaviour both with and without "eye-blocks" – pieces of foil placed over their eyes to act like opaque glasses. Wearing their shades, the scorpions did not move around much when illuminated by green light. But under UV light they scuttled around freely with or without the glasses, suggesting they did not rely on their eyes to see. The larva of the fruit fly is thought to be the only other creature whose body can detect light. Carl Kloock at California State University in Bakersfield says the idea complements his own work. He found that the ability of scorpions' cuticles to fluoresce in UV light affects their behaviour at night, since moonlight contains a modest amount of UV. Journal reference: Animal Behaviour, DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.11.014 © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Vision; Evolution
Link ID: 16215 - Posted: 01.05.2012

by Jason Daley Over recent months, in José del R. Millán’s computer science lab in Switzerland, a little round robot, similar to a Roomba with a laptop mounted on it (right), bumped its way through an office space filled with furniture and people. Nothing special, except the robot was being controlled from a clinic more than 60 miles away—and not with a joystick or keyboard, but with the brain waves of a paralyzed patient. The robot’s journey was an experiment in shared control, a type of brain-machine interface that merges conscious thought and algorithms to give disabled patients finer mental control over devices that help them communicate or retrieve objects. If the user experiences a mental misfire, Millán’s software can step in to help. Instead of crashing down the stairs, for instance, the robot would recalculate to find the door. Such technology is a potential life changer for the tens of thousands of people suffering from locked-in syndrome, a type of paralysis that leaves patients with only the ability to blink. The condition is usually incurable, but Millán’s research could make it more bearable, allowing patients to engage the world through a robotic proxy. “The last 10 years have been like a proof of concept,” says Justin Sanchez, director of the Neuro­prosthetics Research Group at the University of Miami, who is also studying shared control. “But the research is moving fast. Now there is a big push to get these devices to people who need them for everyday life.” © 2012, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 16214 - Posted: 01.05.2012

By Alison Abbott Deep depression that fails to respond to any other form of therapy can be moderated or reversed by stimulation of areas deep inside the brain. Now the first placebo-controlled study of this procedure shows that these responses can be maintained in the long term. Neurologist Helen Mayberg at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, followed ten patients with major depressive disorder and seven with bipolar disorder, or manic depression, after an electrode device was implanted in the subcallosal cingulate white matter of their brains and the area continuously stimulated. All but one of twelve patients who reached the two-year point in the study had completely shed their depression or had only mild symptoms. For psychiatrists accustomed to seeing severely depressed patients fail to respond—or fail to maintain a response—to antidepressant or cognitive therapy, these results seem near miraculous. “It’s almost spooky,” says Thomas Schlaepfer, a psychiatrist at the University of Bonn, Germany, who says he has seen similar long-term results in five treatment-resistant depressed patients following deep-brain stimulation (DBS) in the nucleus accumbens brain area. DBS is hardly a quick fix for depression though. Not only does it involve invasive brain surgery, but recovery is usually slow. © 2012 Scientific American

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 16213 - Posted: 01.05.2012

By C. CLAIBORNE RAY Q. How do deer communicate? Do they have any ability to vocalize? A. As both hunters and zoologists know, deer have many means of communication, and vocalizations are an important part of their repertory. “Deer vocalizations are also notable for their diversity, ranging from doglike ‘alarm’ barks to high-pitched, whistlelike mating bugles,” according to a 2003 review article in the journal Advances in the Study of Behavior. The occasions for deer conversations vary by species, the article says, but include social contact, interactions between mother and young, encounters with predators and especially the complex negotiations involved in mating. An expert on hunting white-tail deer, T. R. Michels, offered a list of deer signals in his “Whitetail Addicts Manual” (Creative Publishing International). Among them are foot stomping, tail flagging, head bobbing, ear twitching, hoof pawing and nose licking; lunges, charges, chases, pokes and antler thrusts; and aggressive sounds he describes as grunt-snorts and grunt-snort-wheezes. There are also alarm snorts and bawls and less disturbing sounds, like social-contact grunts between does. Deer have a variety of glands that produce strongly scented hormonal signals. The vomeronasal organ detects hormones and other chemicals in urine with a characteristic intake of breath called the flehmen sniff. C. CLAIBORNE RAY © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Animal Communication; Language
Link ID: 16212 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR Can the right sonata soothe the pain of a medical operation? A growing number of doctors have been using music in clinical settings, believing that it might have analgesic effects on patients — or at least take their minds off an otherwise painful procedure. Scientists only now are seeking to determine whether the notion is more romance than reality. In the most recent study, published in December in The Journal of Pain, 153 people were subjected to increasingly painful shocks on their hands as they listened to music. All the while, they were encouraged to engage in the songs and to identify certain notes and tones. By measuring pupil dilation and brain activity, scientists at the University of Utah found that as the subjects became focused on the melodies, they experienced more and more relief from the pain. The biggest effect was seen on the participants who were initially most anxious. A Swedish study published in 2009 reported similarly encouraging findings: Children who were given “music therapy” after minor surgery required smaller amounts of morphine than those who were not. But a meta-analysis of data on more than 3,600 patients in 51 studies, published in the Cochrane Database, found that the magnitude of the effect was not very large, so the potential usefulness in clinical practice — for now, at least — was “unclear.” THE BOTTOM LINE Listening to music during or after a medical procedure may relieve pain, but more research is needed to determine whether the effect is significant. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 16211 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By RONI CARYN RABIN When a malnourished teenager with anorexia nervosa is admitted to the hospital, weight gain is a top priority — and food is medicine. But doctors mete out meals with caution, providing fewer calories than needed at first because the patients may be so frail that major swings in diet can be life-threatening. The strategy, called “start low, advance slow,” often results in further weight or fluid loss during the first day or two of hospitalization. Now some researchers and health providers, both in the United States and abroad, are challenging the start-low approach, suggesting that many patients could be fed more aggressively as long as they are closely monitored for medical complications. Scientific evidence in support of the start-low method has been scarce. In a study published online in The Journal of Adolescent Health in August, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, sought to evaluate it more closely, examining weight gain in hospitalized teenagers on a recommended refeeding protocol, in what they believe is the first study of its kind. The study, which involved 35 young people, found that 83 percent on the start-low regimen, who were fed 1,200 calories a day with increases of 200 calories every other day, lost weight. Over all, patients did not regain the newly lost weight until the sixth day in the hospital, on average. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 16210 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR Higher blood levels of omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B, vitamin C, vitamin D and vitamin E are associated with better mental functioning in the elderly, a new study has found. Researchers measured blood levels of these nutrients in 104 men and women, whose average age was 87. The scientists also performed brain scans to determine brain volume and administered six commonly used tests of mental functioning. The study is in the Jan. 24 issue of Neurology. After controlling for age, sex, blood pressure, body mass index and other factors, the researchers found that people with the highest blood levels of the four vitamins scored higher on the cognitive tests and had larger brain volume than those with the lowest levels. Omega-3 levels were linked to better cognitive functioning and to healthier blood vessels in the brain, but not to higher brain volume, which suggests that these beneficial fats may improve cognition by a different means. Higher blood levels of trans fats, on the other hand, were significantly associated with impaired mental ability and smaller brain volume. The lead author, Gene L. Bowman, a neurologist at Oregon Health and Science University, said that the study could not determine whether taking supplements of these nutrients would decrease the risk for dementia. But he added: “What’s the harm in eating healthier? Fish, fruits, vegetables all have these nutrients, and staying away from trans fats is one key thing you can do.” © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 16209 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By Jennifer LaRue Huget Multiple sclerosis has long been understood to be an autoimmune disease in which the body’s immune system, for reasons poorly understood, responds destructively to antigens in the central nervous system. But research published in December in The Quarterly Review of Biology posits a different way of looking at MS. Angelique Corthals, a forensic anthropologist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, suggests that MS may result from problems with the way the body metabolizes lipids, or fats in the blood, which in turn cause inflammation and spark a series of damaging events. Corthals, in her lengthy review and analysis of existing research, notes that MS shares that underlying mechanism with atherosclerosis. (“Sclerosis” refers to hardening or scarring such as the build-up of plaque in arteries and the development of plaques in the brain associated with MS.) She concludes that viewing MS in this light helps explain many mysteries that the autoimmune model leaves unanswered, including the role genetics play in MS risk, the environmental elements or pathogens that may trigger disease onset, and the reasons MS strikes twice as many women as men. (Atherosclerosis affects men more commonly than women; Carthals suggests gender differences in lipid metabolism may play a big role in determining who gets which condition.) Because anti-inflammatory drugs such as statins commonly used to fight cardiovascular disease have also been used to treat symptoms of MS, she writes, such drugs may become part of more comprehensive and effective MS treatments than currently exist. © 1996-2012 The Washington Post

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 16208 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By Sarah C.P. Williams, When a rattlesnake shakes its tail, does it hear the rattling? Scientists have long struggled to understand how snakes, which lack external ears, sense sounds. Now, a new study shows that sound waves cause vibrations in a snake’s skull that are then “heard” by the inner ear. “There’s been this enduring myth that snakes are deaf,” says neurobiologist Bruce Young of the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, who was not involved in the new research. “Behavioral studies have suggested that snakes can in fact hear, and now this work has gone one step further and explained how.” In humans, sound waves traveling through the air hit the eardrum, causing the movement of tiny bones and vibrations of tiny hair cells in the inner ear. These vibrations are then translated into nerve impulses that travel to the brain. Snakes have fully formed inner ear structures but no eardrum. Instead, their inner ear is connected directly to their jawbone, which rests on the ground as they slither. Previous studies have shown that vibrations traveling through the ground—such as the footsteps of predators or prey—cause vibrations in a snake’s jawbone, relaying a signal to the brain via that inner ear. It was still unclear, however, whether snakes could hear sounds traveling through the air. So Biologist Christian Christensen of Aarhus University in Denmark took a closer look at one particular type of snake, the ball python (Python regius). Studying them wasn’t easy. “You can’t train snakes to respond to sounds with certain behaviors, like you might be able to do with mice,” says Christensen. Instead, he and his colleagues used electrodes attached to the reptiles’ heads to monitor the activity of neurons connecting the snakes’ inner ears to their brains. © 1996-2012 The Washington Post

Keyword: Hearing; Evolution
Link ID: 16207 - Posted: 01.03.2012

Victoria Colliver, Chronicle Staff Writer Researchers are getting closer to being able to predict who might be more vulnerable to stress even before they experience trauma. A study of Bay Area and New York police academy recruits by researchers at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center, UCSF and New York University is considered one of the first and largest studies to look at biological stress indicators before and after traumatic events. "This study is unique because it looks at people before they've actually been exposed to trauma," said lead author Sabra Inslicht, a psychologist at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCSF. Nearly 300 academy recruits took samples of the waking levels of a stress hormone called cortisol. The results, published in last month's issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry, found that recruits with higher cortisol levels shortly after waking up in the morning were most likely to have stressful reactions to trauma years later as police officers. The new study is part of a larger body of research involving hundreds of recruits from the San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose and New York police departments that has been going on for seven years, said Dr. Charles Marmar, who spent 30 years at UCSF before taking over as chairman of the department of psychiatry at NYU's Langone Medical Center. © 2011 Hearst Communications Inc.

Keyword: Stress; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 16206 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature Chimpanzees appear to consider who they are "talking to" before they call out. Researchers found that wild chimps that spotted a poisonous snake were more likely to make their "alert call" in the presence of a chimp that had not seen the threat. This indicates that the animals "understand the mindset" of others. The insight into the primates' remarkable intelligence will be published in the journal Current Biology. The University of St Andrews scientists, who carried out the work, study primate communication to uncover some of the origins of human language. To find out how the animals "talked to each other" about potential threats, they placed plastic snakes - models of rhino and gaboon vipers - into the paths of wild chimpanzees and monitored the primates' reactions. "These [snake species] are well camouflaged and they have a deadly bite," explained Dr Catherine Crockford from University of St Andrews, who led the research. "They also tend to sit in one place for weeks. So if a chimp discovers a snake, it makes sense for that animal to let everyone else know where [it] is." The scientists put the snake on a path that the chimps were using regularly, secreting the plastic models in the leaves. "When [the chimps] saw the model, they would be quite close to it and would leap away, but they wouldn't call," she told BBC Nature. BBC © 2011

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 16205 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By Scicurious Humans walk well. More to the point, we walk EFFICIENTLY. As we evolved to walk upright, we also evolved to do so with great economy, expending fewer calories at an optimal walking pace, but then expending more calories when we either speed up or slow down. We also may be economically efficient runners as well as walkers, we’re average for mammals, but our long legs and ability for those legs to take repeated strain suggests we may be on the efficient end of primates (and we’re some of the BEST long distance runners on the planet, so we can preen a bit over that one). The jury is still out on running, but as far as walking goes we are the most efficient at a moderate speed (roughly 5 km/hr, or 3.1 miles/hour for men, a relatively brisk walk of 20 min a mile). So we’re good walkers, or at least economic ones. But the question is, what MAKES for this efficiency? How exactly are we burning fewer calories at a specific walking pace? Ideally, this means that our muscles, like our bodies overall, are at their most efficient at a moderate walking pace. The calories burned over time are the result of the total metabolic rate of all the muscles that produce locomotion. So since your metabolism is minimized at a moderate walking pace, creating the most efficiency, it would make theoretical sense that your individual MUSCLES are also minimizing their metabolism at that moderate walking pace, and the cumulative effect is one of energy efficiency. Theoretically, it makes sense. At a certain pace, you’re overall burning fewer calories and not working as hard, so your individual muscles must also not be working as hard. Right? Well…possibly wrong. © 2012 Scientific American,

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Muscles
Link ID: 16204 - Posted: 01.03.2012

Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. New research has discovered that people with schizophrenia have certain brain cells where their DNA stays too tightly wound. When DNA is too tightly wound, it can stop other genes from expressing themselves in their normal pattern. The new findings suggest that drugs already in development for other diseases might eventually offer hope as a treatment for schizophrenia and related conditions in the elderly. The research shows the deficit is especially pronounced in younger people. This suggests that treatment might be most effective early on at minimizing or even reversing symptoms of schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a usually-serious mental disorder characterized by hallucinations, delusions, and emotional difficulties, among other problems. “We’re excited by the findings,” said Scripps Research Associate Professor Elizabeth Thomas, a neuroscientist who led the study, “and there’s a tie to other drug development work, which could mean a faster track to clinical trials to exploit what we’ve found.” Working with lead author Bin Tang, a postdoctoral fellow in her lab, and Brian Dean, an Australian colleague at the University of Melbourne, Thomas obtained post-mortem brain samples from schizophrenic and healthy brains held at medical ”Brain Banks” in the United States and Australia. The brains come from either patients who themselves agreed to donate some or all of their bodies for scientific research after death, or from patients whose families agreed to such donations. © 1992-2012 Psych Central.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 16203 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By Melissa Dahl When a Russian man was only 3, his older brother accidentally shot him with a pistol. More than eight decades later, the bullet was still there, according to a case report just published online in the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The bullet hit the little boy right below the nose and eventually lodged itself in his foramen magnum, the opening in the bottom of the skull that allows the spinal cord to pass through and connect to the brain. The 3-year-old lost consciousness for several hours. At the time, a doctor examined the poor kid, but didn't remove the bullet for fear of causing more harm than good, says Dr. Marat Ezhov of Moscow's Cardiology Research Center, who examined the patient more than 80 years later. Incredibly, the boy recovered completely. "The body has an amazing ability to 'get used to' things," explains Dr. Richard O'Brien, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians. "Also, children have a great ability to overcome hardship and rebuild themselves when injured." Eighty-two years later, Ezhov and Dr. Maya Safarova were treating the man at the cardiology center for his coronary heart disease. His patient history included the story of the accidental shooting, so doctors did a CT scan to check it out, which revealed the stowaway bullet. But the bullet had left no sign of neural damage -- further evidenced by the man's successful career as an award-winning engineer. © 2012 msnbc.com

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 16202 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By JAMES GORMAN Once, animals at the university were the province of science. Rats ran through mazes in the psychology lab, cows mooed in the veterinary barns, the monkeys of neuroscience chattered in their cages. And on the dissecting tables of undergraduates, preserved frogs kept a deathly silence. On the other side of campus, in the seminar rooms and lecture halls of the liberal arts and social sciences, where monkey chow is never served and all the mazes are made of words, the attention of scholars was firmly fixed on humans. No longer. This spring, freshmen at Harvard can take “Human, Animals and Cyborgs.” Last year Dartmouth offered “Animals and Women in Western Literature: Nags, Bitches and Shrews.” New York University offers “Animals, People and Those in Between.” The courses are part of the growing, but still undefined, field of animal studies. So far, according to Marc Bekoff, an emeritus professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Colorado, the field includes “anything that has to do with the way humans and animals interact.” Art, literature, sociology, anthropology, film, theater, philosophy, religion — there are animals in all of them. The field builds partly on a long history of scientific research that has blurred the once-sharp distinction between humans and other animals. Other species have been shown to have aspects of language, tool use, even the roots of morality. It also grows out of a field called cultural studies, in which the academy has turned its attention over the years to ignored and marginalized humans. © 2012 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Animal Rights; Evolution
Link ID: 16201 - Posted: 01.03.2012

By Scicurious A week or so ago (hard to tell with holiday time as it is) Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) released his 2011 “Wastebook”, a list of govt. funded projects that he and his staff consider to be a waste of money. I was of course dismayed to find several science projects make the list, including several funded by the NIH and of importance to public health. In particular, there was this: 23) Rockin’ Robins: Study Looks for Connections Between Cocaine and Risky Sex Habits of Quail – (KY) $175,587 What common sense suggests, science has confirmed over and over again: namely, that cocaine use is linked to increased risky sexual behavior. 137 Just to be sure, however, one federal agency thought it should test the hypothesis on a new subject: Japanese quail. The University of Kentucky received a grant of $181,406 in 2010 from the National Institute of Health to study how cocaine enhances the sex drive of Japanese quail. 138 In 2011, grant funding was extended and an additional $175,587 was provided for the study. 139 The total awarded to the project will be $356,933.140 Senator Coburn clearly thinks that because we already know that cocaine is bad and increases sexual promiscuity, it is no longer worth studying. I rather strongly disagree with this, and so I’d like to use this post to talk a bit about WHY we still need to study the effects cocaine and addictive drugs in general, why we need to study the effects on sexual behavior in particular, and why quail are a good choice. © 2011 Scientific American,

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 16200 - Posted: 12.31.2011

(Relaxnews) - Having to follow a restrictive diet that limits the consumption of foods like bread and pasta has been shown to cause depression, disordered eating and impaired quality of life in women suffering from celiac disease, says a new report that delves into the psychiatric impacts of leading a gluten-free lifestyle. In a study published in the December issue of Chronic Illness, researchers from Penn State University, Syracuse University and Drexel University analyzed the online answers of 177 American women who suffer from celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder triggered by gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye-based products. Symptoms of the illness include abdominal pain, constipation, decreased appetite, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting. In their study, researchers found that women who adhered to strict gluten-free diets also reported higher rates of stress, depression, and body image issues compared to the general population. Where their study falls short, researchers say, is understanding what comes first: disordered eating or depression. Not only does celiac disease impose a slew of dietary restrictions, the illness also increases "psychosocial distress," said study co-author Josh Smyth of Penn State. "Going out to eat with friends or to a holiday potluck is a much different experience for these people because they have to be vigilant and monitor their diets," he said in a statement. "They may feel that they are a burden on a host or hostess. In many cases the only treatment option they are given is to manage their diets.” © 2011 NY Times Co.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 16199 - Posted: 12.31.2011

By Nick Bascom Superstar athletes are revered for their physical prowess, not for what goes on between their ears. And most postgame interviews do little to challenge the notion that athletes have more brawn than brains. But brainpower has a vital role in elite sports performance, recent research shows. “Brawn plays a part, but there’s a whole lot more to it than that,” says John Milton, a neuroscientist at the Claremont Colleges in California. Whether on the court, field or course, the body depends on the brain for direction. But the brain is a busy taskmaster, with duties beyond guiding motion, making it difficult to focus on that particular job. Like chess masters and virtuoso musicians, superior athletes are better than novices at turning on just the parts of the brain relevant to the desired task, Milton’s work reveals. “In professionals, the overall brain activation is much lower, but certain connections are enhanced,” he says. In other words, experts employ only the finely tuned neural regions that help enhance performance, without getting bogged down by extraneous information. Elite athletes’ ability to focus the brain might even explain their struggle to eloquently describe performance after the game. Like a starship captain diverting power from life support to bolster shields in a battle, professional athletes temporarily shut down the memory-forming regions of the brain so as to maximize activity in centers that guide movement. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Biomechanics; Muscles
Link ID: 16198 - Posted: 12.31.2011