By Laura Sanders Human brains all work pretty much the same and use roughly the same genes in the same way to build and maintain the infrastructure that makes people who they are, two new studies show. And by charting the brain’s genetic activity from before birth to old age, the studies reveal that the brain continually remodels itself in predictable ways throughout life. In addition to uncovering details of how the brain grows and ages, the results may help scientists better understand what goes awry in brain disorders such as schizophrenia and autism. “The complexity is mind-numbing,” says neuroscientist Stephen Ginsberg of the Nathan Kline Institute and New York University Langone Medical Center, who wasn’t involved in the studies. “It puts the brain in rarefied air.” In the studies, published in the Oct. 27 Nature, researchers focused not on DNA — virtually every cell’s raw genetic material is identical — but on when, where and for how long each gene is turned on over the course of a person’s life. To do this, the researchers measured levels of mRNA, a molecule whose appearance marks one of the first steps in executing the orders contained in a gene, in postmortem samples of donated brains that ranged in age from weeks after conception to old age. These different patterns of mRNA levels distinguish the brain from a heart, for instance, and a human from a mouse, too, says Nenad Šestan of Yale University School of Medicine and coauthor of one of the studies. “Essentially, we carry the same genes as mice,” he says. “However, in us, these genes are up to something quite different.” © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 15961 - Posted: 10.29.2011

Despite vast differences in the genetic code across individuals and ethnicities, the human brain shows a "consistent molecular architecture," say researchers supported by the National Institutes of Health. The finding is from a pair of studies that have created databases revealing when and where genes turn on and off in multiple brain regions through development. "Our study shows how 650,000 common genetic variations that make each of us a unique person may influence the ebb and flow of 24,000 genes in the most distinctly human part of our brain as we grow and age," explained Joel Kleinman, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Clinical Brain Disorders Branch. Kleinman and NIMH grantee Nenad Sestan, M.D., Ph.D. of Yale University, New Haven, Conn., led the sister studies in the Oct. 27, 2011 issue of the journal Nature. genetic difference vs. transcriptional distance colored by race comparison. Our brains are all made of the same stuff. Despite individual and ethnic genetic diversity, our prefrontal cortex shows a consistent molecular architecture. For example, overall differences in the genetic code (“genetic distance”) between African -Americans (AA) and caucasians (cauc) showed no effect on their overall difference in expressed transcripts (“transcriptional distance”). The vertical span of color-coded areas is about the same, indicating that our brains all share the same tissue at a molecular level, despite distinct DNA differences on the horizontal axis. Each dot represents a comparison between two individuals. The AA::AA comparisons (blue) generally show more genetic diversity than cauc::cauc comparisons (yellow), because caucasians are descended from a relatively small subset of ancestors who migrated from Africa, while African Americans are descended from a more diverse gene pool among the much larger population that remained in Africa. AA::cauc comparisons (green) differed most across their genomes as a whole, but this had no effect on their transcriptomes as a whole. Source: Joel Kleinman, M.D., Ph.D., NIMH Clinical Brain Disorders Branch

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 15960 - Posted: 10.29.2011

By Dina ElBoghdady, A chemical used widely in plastic bottles, metal cans and other consumer products could be linked to behavioral and emotional problems in toddler girls, according to a government-funded study published online Monday in the journal Pediatrics. After tracking 244 Cincinnati-area mothers and their 3-year-olds, the study concluded that mothers with high levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in their urine were more likely to report that their children were hyperactive, aggressive, anxious, depressed and less in control of their emotions than mothers with low levels of the chemical. While several studies have linked BPA to behavioral problems in children, this report is the first to suggest that a young girl’s emotional well-being is linked to her mother’s exposure during pregnancy rather than the child’s exposure after birth. Girls were more sensitive to the chemical in the womb than boys, maybe because BPA mimics the female hormone estrogen, which is thought to play a role in behavioral development. The results add to a growing body of research that suggests exposure to BPA poses health risks in humans. While the federal government has long maintained that low doses of BPA are safe, the Food and Drug Administration and other federal agencies are taking a closer look and investing in more research about the chemical’s health effects. © 1996-2011 The Washington Post

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 15959 - Posted: 10.29.2011

by Kim Krieger Some sounds are excruciating. Take fingernails squeaking on a chalkboard. The noise makes many people shudder, but researchers never knew exactly why. A new study finds that there are two factors at work: the knowledge of where the sound is coming from and the unfortunate design of our ear canals. Previous research found that the painful parts of unpleasant sounds appear to be in the middle range of audible frequencies. But scientists didn’t nail down exactly which frequencies or explain why the sounds were painful. So musicologists Michael Oehler of the Macromedia University for Media and Communication in Cologne, Germany, and Christoph Reuter of the University of Vienna asked listeners to rank sounds in a listening test. Fingernails raking against a chalkboard and chalk squeaking against slate were the most unpleasant sounds from a family of recordings, which also included sounds such as Styrofoam squeaks and scraping a plate with a fork. The researchers then modified the recordings of fingernails and chalk, removing or attenuating various frequency ranges. They also modified the sounds by selectively extracting either the tonal, musical-pitch parts or the scraping, growling, noiselike parts of the sound. Some listeners were told the true source of the sounds, whereas others were told that the sounds were part of contemporary musical compositions. The same listeners then rated the pleasantness or unpleasantness of the sounds while the researchers measured physical indicators of distress: the listeners’ heart rate, blood pressure, and the electrical conductivity of their skin. As they will report next week at the Acoustical Society of America conference in San Diego, California, Oehler and Reuter found that a listener’s skin conductivity changed significantly when the person heard a sound he or she later reported as unpleasant, showing that disturbing sounds do cause a measurable physical reaction. More surprisingly, they found that the frequencies responsible for making a sound unpleasant were commonly found in human speech, which ranges from 150 to 7000 hertz (Hz). The offending frequencies were in the range of 2000 to 4000 Hz. Removing those made the sounds much easier to listen to. Deleting the tonal parts of the sound entirely also made listeners perceive the sound as more pleasant, whereas removing other frequencies or the noisy, scraping parts of the sound made little difference. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 15958 - Posted: 10.29.2011

by David Eagleman Only a tiny fraction of the brain is dedicated to conscious behavior. The rest works feverishly behind the scenes regulating everything from breathing to mate selection. In fact, neuroscientist David Eagleman of Baylor College of Medicine argues that the unconscious workings of the brain are so crucial to everyday functioning that their influence often trumps conscious thought. To prove it, he explores little-known historical episodes, the latest psychological research, and enduring medical mysteries, revealing the bizarre and often inexplicable mechanisms underlying daily life. Eagleman’s theory is epitomized by the deathbed confession of the 19th-century mathematician James Clerk Maxwell, who developed fundamental equations unifying electricity and magnetism. Maxwell declared that “something within him” had made the discoveries; he actually had no idea how he’d achieved his great insights. It is easy to take credit after an idea strikes you, but in fact, neurons in your brain secretly perform an enormous amount of work before inspiration hits. The brain, Eagleman argues, runs its show incognito. Or, as Pink Floyd put it, “There’s someone in my head, but it’s not me.” There is a looming chasm between what your brain knows and what your mind is capable of accessing. Consider the simple act of changing lanes while driving a car. Try this: Close your eyes, grip an imaginary steering wheel, and go through the motions of a lane change. Imagine that you are driving in the left lane and you would like to move over to the right lane. Before reading on, actually try it. I’ll give you 100 points if you can do it correctly. © 2011, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 15957 - Posted: 10.29.2011

By Wynne Parry Marijuana hurts memory and cognition, and a new rat study indicates this is because it causes once-coordinated brain regions to fall out of sync with each other. The result resembles the effects of schizophrenia, the neuroscientists found. The researchers measured the electrical activity in nerve cells of rats given a drug that mimics the effect of the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). The drug had only subtle effects on individual brain regions; however, it disrupted the coordinated activity between regions of the brain. Specifically, they found the drug disrupted the coordinated fluctuations in electrical activity -- called brain waves -- across the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. The result resembled two instruments within an orchestra playing out of sync. A lack of synchronization between the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex -- areas of the brain associated with memory and decision-making -- is also associated with schizophrenia. A group of severe brain disorders, schizophrenia causes people to interpret reality abnormally. Its symptoms may include a combination of hallucinations, delusions and disordered thinking and behavior, according to the Mayo Clinic. As a result of the disruption to their brain activity, the rats became unable to make accurate decisions when navigating around a maze. © 2011 CBS Interactive Inc

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 15956 - Posted: 10.27.2011

by Valerie Ross Some might call skin the unsung hero of organs. It provides waterproofing, mediates sensation, guards against germs, and—as if that’s not enough—now researchers believe it may serve as a valuable repository of brain cells. Last spring, scientists at the Salk Institute in California announced the creation of a technique for transforming simple skin cells scraped from patients with schizophrenia into functional neurons, a major step toward more personalized, noninvasive approaches to drug testing. “Psychiatrists give patients first line, second line, third line drugs, hoping that one will work,” says Salk neuroscientist Fred Gage, who led the research. Pre-screening drugs on patient-derived cells could increase the odds of picking the right drug from the beginning. After collecting skin cells from people with and without schizophrenia, Gage and team genetically reprogrammed the cells to become pluripotent stem cells, with the youthful ability to give rise to any of the more than 200 cell types in the body. From there, the blank-slate cells were bathed in a biochemical solution designed to mimic the developmental conditions of a brain cell. A month later, the cells from the healthy volunteers looked nearly identical to conventional brain cells, while the cells from the schizophrenic patients were smaller and formed fewer connections, hinting at the physical root of the disease. In further tests, the diseased neurons responded in petri dishes to five schizophrenia drugs. One common medication, loxapine, boosted the number of connections among the cells, providing a window into how the medication might work in the brain. © 2011, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 15955 - Posted: 10.27.2011

Analysis by Marianne English Experts say a surplus of alcohol -- not a lack of it-- killed British singer Amy Winehouse in July. The news overturns the idea that alcohol withdrawal led to the pop star's death. Instead, pathology reports point to alcohol poisoning as the culprit. So what's alcohol poisoning, and how's it different from alcoholism? Alcohol poisoning occurs from drinking large amounts within a short period of time, most likely from binge drinking. In some cases, poisoning stems from extensive exposure to lotions, paints and cleaning products, according to the Mayo Clinic. Poisoning calls for immediate medical attention. Depending on the situation, emergency rooms can help flush alcohol out of a person's system. Other cases might be too severe and can kill a person. Most events involve people abusing alcoholic beverages. Drinking too fast, or consuming more alcohol than the liver can metabolize in a given period of time, causes a person's blood alcohol level to spike. High levels limit involuntary functions, including regular heart beating and breathing. A person's gag reflex, which can help expel the alcohol (through vomiting), can be suppressed as well. © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 15954 - Posted: 10.27.2011

By Tina Hesman Saey A genetic variant that makes small tweaks in an important brain protein may cause aging to hit some people’s brains harder than others. Pilots’ performance on a flight simulator test generally declines slightly with age. But a new study shows that pilots with a particular version of a gene called BDNF have a faster drop than others. Researchers also observed a decline in the size of an important learning and memory center in the brains of those with the variant, Ahmad Salehi of the Department of Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System and Stanford University, and colleagues report online October 25 in Translational Psychiatry. About 38 percent of pilots in the new study carried the variant in either one or both of their copies of the BDNF gene. Over the course of two years the flight simulator scores of all the pilots in the study declined a little with age. But scores of pilots carrying the variant dropped about three times faster than scores of pilots who have the normal version of the gene. The drop in scores was not so dramatic that pilots should be removed from the cockpit, says Salehi. “It certainly did not disable them at all,” he says. But the score drop did reflect a slightly faster decline in factors like reaction time, navigation skills, plane positioning and performance in emergency situations. For some of the pilots, the researchers measured the size of the hippocampus, a structure in the brain that is important for learning and memory. After age 65, men who had the alternate version of the gene also lost more hippocampus volume than men with the normal version of the gene, the researchers found. The size of the hippocampus did not correlate with scores on flight simulator tests, probably because flying a plane requires much more of the brain than just the hippocampus, Salehi says. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 15953 - Posted: 10.27.2011

By GINA KOLATA For years, studies of obesity have found that soon after fat people lost weight, their metabolism slowed and they experienced hormonal changes that increased their appetites. Scientists hypothesized that these biological changes could explain why most obese dieters quickly gained back much of what they had so painfully lost. But now a group of Australian researchers have taken those investigations a step further to see if the changes persist over a longer time frame. They recruited healthy people who were either overweight or obese and put them on a highly restricted diet that led them to lose at least 10 percent of their body weight. They then kept them on a diet to maintain that weight loss. A year later, the researchers found that the participants’ metabolism and hormone levels had not returned to the levels before the study started. The study, being published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, is small and far from perfect, but confirms their convictions about why it is so hard to lose weight and keep it off, say obesity researchers who were not involved the study. They cautioned that the study had only 50 subjects, and 16 of them quit or did not lose the required 10 percent of body weight. And while the hormones studied have a logical connection with weight gain, the researchers did not show that the hormones were causing the subjects to gain back their weight. Nonetheless, said Dr. Rudolph Leibel, an obesity researcher at Columbia, while it is no surprise that hormone levels changed shortly after the participants lost weight, “what is impressive is that these changes don’t go away.” © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 15952 - Posted: 10.27.2011

By Jennifer Nalewicki After years of fumbling while reading the written word, Christian Boer, a graphic designer from the Netherlands, has developed a way to help tackle his dyslexia. The 30-year-old created a font called Dyslexie that has proved to decrease the number of errors made by dyslexics while reading. The font works by tweaking the appearance of certain letters of the alphabet that dyslexics commonly misconstrue, such as "d" and "b," to make them more recognizable. This month Boer released the font in English for U.S. users to purchase online. Boer began designing the font in 2008 while studying at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. It eventually became his graduate school project. In December 2010 a fellow student conducted an independent study on the font as part of a master's thesis and discovered a significant reduction in reading errors by dyslexics when reading Dutch text typed in Dyslexie as opposed to the Arial font. Boer's research could likewise have a big impact on English speakers, given the prevalence of dyslexia when reading that language, as compared with Italian, whose words are pronounced more closely to how they are spelled. In the U.S. one out of every five persons is dyslexic, according to the National Institutes of Health. Unlike other readers, dyslexics have a tendency to rotate, swap and mirror letters, making it difficult for them to comprehend what they’re reading. For years it was thought that dyslexia was a vision problem, but scientists now know that the condition stems from the brain. Scans of dyslexic brains show that there are structural differences—including in the thalamus, which serves an information way station—when compared with other brains. Some dyslexics even see letters as suspended 3-D animations that twist before their eyes. "I perceived letters floating like balloons in my head," Boer says. As a means to finally "tie down" these balloons, Boer dedicated his time and graphic design skills to come up with Dyslexie. © 2011 Scientific American,

Keyword: Dyslexia
Link ID: 15951 - Posted: 10.27.2011

By Tina Hesman Saey The spark that ignites multiple sclerosis may come from within. A new study in mice points to normal intestinal bacteria as a trigger for the immune disorder. In patients with multiple sclerosis, the body’s immune system attacks the brain, stripping away a protective sheath called myelin from nerve cells. This causes inflammation that leads to the disease. Although the exact causes of MS are not known, scientists generally agree that a genetic predisposition combines with one or more environmental triggers to set off the attack on the brain. The new study provides evidence that friendly bacteria may be one of those triggers. Mice genetically engineered to develop multiple sclerosis–like symptoms don’t get the disease when raised without any bacteria in their guts, a research team from Germany reports online October 26 in Nature. But germ-free mice that were then colonized with intestinal bacteria quickly developed the disease, the team found. About 80 percent of mice with intestinal bacteria developed MS-like symptoms, but none of the germ-free mice did. The result is not a total surprise. Previous reports had indicated that gut bacteria might be involved in autoimmune disorders such as MS, juvenile diabetes and arthritis, says Simon Fillatreau, an immunologist at the German Rheumatism Research Center in Berlin. “So maybe it was expected, but that it is really such a black-and-white response? Probably not,” says Fillatreau, who was not involved in the study. “It’s very big news.” © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 15950 - Posted: 10.27.2011

Many yoghurts are loaded with live bacteria, and labelled with claims that consuming these microorganisms can be good for your health. But a study published today shows that such yoghurts have only subtle effects on the bacteria already in the gut and do not replace them. Nathan McNulty, a microbiologist at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, recruited seven pairs of identical twins, and asked one in each pair to eat twice-daily servings of a popular yoghurt brand containing five strains of bacteria. By sequencing bacterial DNA in the twins' stool samples, the team showed that the yoghurt microbes neither took up residence in the volunteers' guts, nor affected the make-up of the local bacterial communities. Jeffrey Gordon, the microbiologist at Washington University who led the study, was not surprised. "We were only giving several billion bacterial cells in total to the twins, who harbour tens of trillions of gut microbes in their intestines," he says. McNulty also fed the five bacterial strains from the yoghurt to 'gnotobiotic' mice — animals raised so that the only microorganisms that their guts contain are 15 species found in humans. As with the twins, the yoghurt bacteria did not change the composition of the rodents' resident communities. However, the activity of genes that allow the native bacteria to break down carbohydrates did increase. One of the five yoghurt strains — Bifidobacterium animalis lactis — also showed a similar boost in its ability to metabolize carbohydrates. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 15949 - Posted: 10.27.2011

By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent Children who are short-sighted spend an average of 3.7 fewer hours a week outside compared with those who have normal vision or are long sighted, a review of previous research has found. Nearsightedness, or myopia, runs in families and has also been linked to a host of factors including the amount of time spent focusing on near objects, for example when reading, and levels of physical activity. But simply spending time out of the house may also be enough to protect the eyesight. The positive effect from being outdoors appeared to be independent from the amount of time children spent reading or playing computer games, or to an increased amount of exercise, researchers said. Between 15 and 20 per cent of British people are short-sighted but the problem is much more serious in parts of east Asia where as many as 80 per cent of the population is myopic. One study comparing Chinese children living in different countries found that those in Australia had better vision on average than their peers in China and Singapore. The Australian group read as much and achieved the same results academically as those in other countries, but tended to spend more time outdoors. The review of eight studies by Dr Justin Sherwin and Dr Anthony Khawaja, covering 10,400 participants in total, was presented to the American Academy of Opthalmology on Monday. © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2011

Keyword: Vision; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 15948 - Posted: 10.27.2011

Duncan Graham-Rowe The first drug to show signs of not just halting multiple sclerosis (MS), but actually reversing the nerve damage caused by the condition, has taken a significant step towards clinical approval. The results of a phase III trial, presented on 22 October at the 5th Joint Triennial Congress of the European and Americas Committees for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis, in Amsterdam, found that 78% of patients treated with the monoclonal antibody alemtuzumab remained free from relapse after two years — and half the relapse rate of one of the standard therapies, interferon β-1a (marketed as Rebif, among other names). However, alemtuzumab did not perform quite as well as it had in earlier trials1. There was some evidence that it had reversed damage to nerves, but the result was not statistically significant, says Alasdair Coles, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge, UK, and the UK chief investigator of the Comparison of Alemtuzumab and Rebif Efficacy in Multiple Sclerosis (CARE-MS) I trial. Coles told the meeting that magnetic resonance imaging showed that subjects taking alemtuzumab had also lost less brain volume than those taking Rebif, a proxy measure for overall tissue damage. "Alemtuzumab has eliminated the loss of brain tissue," he says. Just 8% of patients taking alemtuzumab experienced a worsening in disability according to standard measures, in comparison with 11% taking Rebif. There was no statistical difference between the two groups, but Coles puts this down to Rebif performing better than expected. "The patients recruited in this trial showed very little worsening of disability," he says. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 15947 - Posted: 10.25.2011

by Catherine de Lange THE intimate link between itch and pain has been teased apart for the first time - a development that could lead to powerful anaesthetics without any of that intolerable itching. Itch is one of the most common side effects of the anaesthetics used in procedures such as epidurals. One explanation is that itch and pain receptors are intrinsically connected. "Itch and pain are two sensations that antagonise each other," says Zhou-Feng Chen from Washington University in St Louis, Missouri. "By scratching you create a kind of mechanical pain and suppress the itch. Conversely, if you suppress pain you see more itching." To understand this mechanism better, Chen used mice to study the action of morphine, a painkiller that can cause itching. Morphine works through a receptor called MOR, and Chen suspected that different variants of the receptor might be responsible for the itch and pain responses. His team bred mice lacking one form of this receptor, called MOR1D. These mice did not scratch themselves when given morphine, though they still felt its painkilling effect (Cell, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.08.043). "It's quite exciting that we are able to segregate the two," says Cheng, who believes that separate pathways for pain and itch exist in humans too. "Our study suggests there are different ways that you can inhibit itch without interfering with analgesia." © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 15946 - Posted: 10.25.2011

Peter Aldhous It sounds like a teenager's dream: playing shoot-'em-up video games, on doctor's orders. At the American Academy of Opthalmology's annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, a team led by Somen Ghosh of the Micro Surgical Eye Clinic in Kolkata, India, reported that video game therapy improved the visual acuity of 10- to 18-year-olds with amblyopia, or "lazy eye". This comes hot on the heels of similar findings from a study of adults with the condition, published in PLoS Biology by a team led by Roger Li and Dennis Levi of the University of California, Berkeley. Even more impressive results may be on the horizon, as video games are combined with another approach, known as "perceptual learning". Amblyopia occurs when the neural connections from one eye to the brain fail to develop normally. Over time, the brain reacts by ignoring the blurry input from this "weaker" eye. The condition can be treated in childhood by patching the good eye and using visual training exercises to build the faulty neural connections - but the dogma has until recently been that little can be done after about the age of 9. The idea of using video games stemmed from the discovery that expert gamers have unusually strong visual skills. Subsequent studies have shown that action games can improve contrast sensitivity in people with normal vision. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 15945 - Posted: 10.25.2011

by Charles Harvey A study published last week suggests tired hospital doctors might make decisions better if they took a drug that combats fatigue. So much for the science – what is less certain is the ethics of doctors turning to drugs to get through long shifts. Doctors, like many others, already rely on stimulants like caffeine and nicotine to boost flagging performance, but Colin Sugden at Imperial College London and colleagues decided to test whether they could benefit from something stronger: modafinil, a drug originally designed to treat sleep disorders such as narcolepsy and sleep apnoea. The exact way modafinil affects the brain is not known, but it is believed that it acts on specific parts of the hypothalamus responsible for keeping people awake. After missing a night's sleep, 39 male doctors were put into one of two groups. Sugden's team gave one group a dose of modafinil while the other got a placebo. Both groups were then subjected to a number of cognitive tests, and asked to use a surgical training simulator to gauge their motor skills. Neither the participants nor the researchers they met knew which group received which treatment – a strategy to avoid inadvertent bias. The doctors who had taken modafinil scored higher on the cognitive tests: they had better working memory, could plan more effectively and made less impulsive decisions – all useful qualities for a doctor. No improvements were seen in their surgical ability, however. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sleep
Link ID: 15944 - Posted: 10.25.2011

By RONI CARYN RABIN Ruth Grau was first told her son had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder when he was 3. The idea of medicating him was anathema to her, so she and her husband tried an alternative approach: exercise, occupational therapy and a diet free of junk food — no sweets, no dairy, no processed food. When the boy was 4, they started a behavior modification program with the help of a psychiatrist. But when their son started kindergarten, he still “wouldn’t sit down, would fidget, wouldn’t be on task, wouldn’t stop talking, wanted to go outside and play,” said Ms. Grau, 46, who with her husband owns Springboard Vacations, a travel company in Redondo Beach, Calif. “He had a wonderful teacher, but he was falling further and further behind.” When the child was 5, the psychiatrist started him on medication, and though Ms. Grau had not shared that information with his teacher, the teacher sensed a difference right away. “She rang us the same day and said, ‘I don’t know what you’ve done, but he was so much better in class today,’ ” Ms. Grau said. Of the decision to put her son on medication, she said, “I don’t regret it for a minute.” Although methylphenidate, a stimulant used to treat A.D.H.D. and sold under brand names like Concerta and Ritalin, is not approved for use in children under age 6, physicians may prescribe it to them. And they may be doing so more often. Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics revised its A.D.H.D. treatment guidelines, giving doctors a green light to prescribe drugs even to preschoolers with A.D.H.D. if behavioral efforts fail. © 2011 The New York Times Company

Keyword: ADHD; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 15943 - Posted: 10.25.2011

More time spent outdoors could mean a reduced rate of nearsightedness for children and adolescents, according to an analysis by Cambridge University researchers. They found that instances of myopia — or nearsightedness — occurred less frequently in children who spent more time outdoors, suggesting increased exposure to natural light and more time spent looking at distant objects may be key factors. Researchers found that the chance of myopia decreased by two per cent in children for each additional hour they spent outdoors per week. "Increasing children's outdoor time could be a simple and cost-effective measure with important benefits for their vision and general health," said Dr. Anthony Khawaja of the University of Cambridge. "If we want to make clear recommendations, however, we'll need more precise data. Future, prospective studies will help us understand which factors — such as increased use of distance vision, reduced use of near vision, natural ultra violet light exposure or physical activity — are most important." Two of the studies examined whether the children who spent less time outdoors spent more time studying or playing computer games but there was no evidence of that connection. There were 10,400 participants included in the data taken from eight selected studies. © CBC 2011

Keyword: Vision; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 15942 - Posted: 10.25.2011