By Wynne Parry Experience can be a disadvantage, since preconceptions may limit our ability to creatively solve a problem we think we've seen before. However, stimulating the brain in a certain way may provide flashes of insight, according to two scientists. In a study of 67 adults, researchers found that electrical stimulation of two parts of the brain prompted three times as many participants to come up with an insightful solution to a puzzle compared with those who didn't receive a brain zap. "Our experiences can blind us," Richard Chi and Allan Snyder, researchers at the Center for the Mind at the University of Sydney in Australia, write in the Feb. 2 issue of the journal PLoS ONE. "Once we have learned to solve problems by one method, we often have difficulties in generating solutions involving a different kind of insight." Chi and Snyder set out to induce a temporary mental state less constrained by preconceptions, focusing on the brain's anterior temporal lobes, located just above the ears. The left anterior temporal lobe is associated with maintaining existing concepts and representations of these concepts; research has shown that when this brain region is inhibited, people are less likely to draw on their preconceived notions. The right anterior temporal lobe, meanwhile, is associated with insight. They gave study participants "matchstick arithmetic" puzzles, in which matchsticks spelled out inaccurate equations in Roman numerals. Participants had to correct the statements by moving only one stick. They first solved 27 puzzles all with a particular type of solution — making an "X" into a "V." © 2011 LiveScience.com.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 14995 - Posted: 02.12.2011

Ewen Callaway Sex and violence are intertwined in mice. A tiny patch of cells buried deep within a male's brain determines whether it fights or mates, and there is good reason to believe humans possess a similar circuit. The study, published in Nature today1, shows that when these neurons are quieted, mice ignore intruding males they would otherwise attack. Yet when the cells are activated, mice assault inanimate objects, and even females they ought to court. The cells lie within an area of the hypothalamus with known links to violent behaviour. An electrical jolt to this vicinity causes cats and rats to turn violent, but neurophysiological experiments conducted decades ago stimulated too big an area to identify the specific brain circuits, let alone the individual neurons, involved in aggression. More recently, scientists studying mice engineered to lack specific genes have found that some of them act more aggressively than normal mice. "We really don't know which part of the brain went wrong in those mice. Consequently it's tough to make sense of that behaviour," says Dayu Lin, a neuroscientist now at New York University and an author of the study, who began searching for the seat of aggression in mice while working with David Anderson at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. © 2011 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Aggression; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 14994 - Posted: 02.12.2011

By Janet Raloff On his third consecutive evening of air combat, a military pilot closes in on the night’s quarry, a suspected Taliban fuel depot in Afghanistan. Fatigued, his alertness flagging, the pilot throws some chewing gum into his mouth. Laced with caffeine, it’s the cockpit alternative to a cup of coffee. This pilot would probably suspect that the gum is just a perk-me-up. But several caffeinated military rations — including this relatively new one — do more than stave off sleepiness. Emerging data indicate that these rations boost not only attention but also cognitive performance, features that do not necessarily climb in lockstep. The U.S. Department of Defense has been investigating such supplements to improve the ability of U.S. armed forces to maintain sustained periods of intense vigilance and focus, explains Harris Lieberman, a psychologist at the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, Mass. Another hope, he notes: These dietary aids might minimize the risk of “friendly fire.” Army researchers at the institute, including Lieberman, are at the forefront of a small but growing cadre of investigators exploring how to boost what they call mental energy. This rather fuzzy phrase embraces wakefulness, but also includes mood, motivation and the capacity to perform key mental tasks. Increasing mental energy is important for those enervated because of a lack of sleep or for those whose jobs, like those of fighter pilots, require vigilance even in the face of sleep deprivation. Compounds that keep you awake, it turns out, can also boost other aspects of mental performance. Improved cognition is emerging as a quantifiable side benefit of many of these substances — in some cases, even for those folks who aren’t sleepy to begin with. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: ADHD; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 14993 - Posted: 02.12.2011

New research shows a link between use of two pesticides, rotenone and paraquat, and Parkinson's disease. People who used either pesticide developed Parkinson’s disease approximately 2.5 times more often than non-users. "Rotenone directly inhibits the function of the mitochondria, the structure responsible for making energy in the cell," said Freya Kamel, Ph.D., a researcher in the intramural program at NIEHS and co-author of the paper appearing online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. "Paraquat increases production of certain oxygen derivatives that may harm cellular structures. People who used these pesticides or others with a similar mechanism of action were more likely to develop Parkinson's disease. The authors studied 110 people with Parkinson’s disease and 358 matched controls from the Farming and Movement Evaluation (FAME) Study (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/atniehs/labs/epi/studies/fame/index.cfm) to investigate the relationship between Parkinson’s disease and exposure to pesticides or other agents that are toxic to nervous tissue. FAME is a case-control study that is part of the larger Agricultural Health Study (http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/atniehs/labs/epi/studies/ahs/index.cfm), a study of farming and health in approximately 90,000 licensed pesticide applicators and their spouses. The investigators diagnosed Parkinson's disease by agreement of movement disorder specialists and assessed the lifelong use of pesticides using detailed interviews.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 14992 - Posted: 02.12.2011

Jessica Marshall Mild-mannered male squid turn into furious fighting machines when their tentacles brush a chemical on the surface of squid eggs, a finding that could give insights into how aggression works. The discovery also reveals how male squid compete for female mating partners. "I think that this is really a novel and kind of wonderful addition to our understanding of how aggression might work," said Russell Fernald of Stanford University, who was not a part of the study. Researchers diving on squid spawning grounds had noticed that not just female squid would hang around the many mop-like clusters of egg capsules. "We noticed underwater that the males were attracted to the eggs, too. This made no sense. All the eggs are fertilized already. This caught our attention," lead author Roger Hanlon of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. told Discovery News. A key to solving the puzzle came during a Cape Cod dive. "There was absolutely nothing that was happening, it was Deadsville." Hanlon said. So, he fetched some squid eggs from the boat and brought them back to the dive site. "I just put the squid eggs on the bottom. Within a minute or two, one bold male squid went down and touched them. He came back up to the squid above him and started fighting with other squid." © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC.

Keyword: Aggression; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 14991 - Posted: 02.12.2011

By Susan Gaidos You know the feeling — the flush of excitement when your boss hands you a bonus check, or you unexpectedly run into an old friend, or you discover a way to get tickets to the big game that was long ago sold out. When life throws you a gift or a gain, it’s not just your mood that perks up. Two small almond-shaped masses of nerve cells buried deep in your brain take notice too. Those clumps of cells, one on each side of the brain, are known as the amygdala (uh-MIG-duh-luh). For years the amygdala has been regarded primarily as the brain’s center for fear. Scores of studies have shown that it is essential both for perceiving fear and expressing it. In recent years, though, a surge of new research has expanded scientists’ view of the amygdala’s importance. It turns out that the amygdala helps shape behavior in response to all sorts of stimuli, bad and good. It plays a role not only in aversion to fright, but also in pursuit of pleasure. Studies of the brain’s anatomy reveal good reasons for the amygdala’s power: It is very well connected. In humans and other primates, the amygdala is linked through a complex network of cells to brain regions involved in all five senses. Signals about everything you encounter are passed from the brain’s sensory processing areas directly to the amygdala. And the amygdala shares elaborate communications channels with the prefrontal cortex — the brain’s control center for planning and decision making. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 14990 - Posted: 02.12.2011

by Kirsten Weir 1 Remember the tongue map you learned about in junior high—the one showing taste receptors for sweet flavors on the tip of the tongue, bitter in the back, and sour on the sides? It’s totally wrong. 2 That bogus map came from an English mistranslation of a German research paper. 3 In truth, any area can pick up any taste (although sensitivity does vary across the tongue). 4 We all know about sweet, salty, sour, and bitter. Less widely known is the fifth taste: umami, that savory flavor of soy sauce, tomatoes, and many other foods high in glutamate. 5 Go with your gut: Japanese scientists recently identified umami receptors not only on the tongue but throughout the digestive tract. Their role in digestion and nutrition remains a mystery. 6 Those bumps on your tongue aren’t actually your taste buds. They are fungiform papillae—“mushroom-shaped nipples,” to any Latin speakers out there—and each houses 50 to 100 buds. 7 Scientists believe there are only a few receptor types each for sweet, sour, salty, and umami. But there are a lot more for bitter (at least 25), as anyone paying alimony is probably aware. © 2011, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 14989 - Posted: 02.12.2011

Catherine de Lange, reporter Romantics say you should follow your heart. So in anticipation of Valentine's Day, here's an illusion where you have to do just that. Spot it? What you should have seen is that the blurry hearts don't seem to move at the same rate as the sharp-edged ones. Here's another illusion which seems to work in the same way: this time, follow the green heart. This is quite a subtle effect, so you may not be able to spot it at first, but you should see the blurred hearts move in the opposite direction to your eye, while the sharp-edged hearts stay fixed. Both of these illusions were sent to us by Kohske Takahashi, a perception researcher at the University of Tokyo. As we reported last year, Takahashi stumbled upon this type of illusion, quite by chance, when staring at some heat maps he had created to visualise his research data. His first examples were static: a blurry heart appears to pulse whereas one with crisp edges does not. When an object has a blurry contour, it doesn't give our eyes enough detail about the shape of the figure - while we have an idea of its shape, size and orientation, its boundary isn't clearly defined. Takahashi's blurry heart images appear to wobble as our brain tries to decipher where the shape ends and the background begins. Takahashi thinks the same principle could be at work in these two videos, but with the added complication of motion. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 14988 - Posted: 02.12.2011

by Eliza Strickland A sad person who says that the world looks dull and gray and that flowers no longer smell so sweet may not just be speaking figuratively. Two recent studies from Germany provide evidence that sensory perception is diminished in depressed individuals. To determine if depression has an effect on vision, neuropsychiatrist Ludger Tebartz van Elst of the University of Freiburg hooked up depressed patients and control subjects to a pattern electroretinograph, a device that measures electrical signals in the retina. When viewing black-and-white checkerboard images, people with depression showed markedly reduced electrical responses. advertisement | article continues below The effect may originate in the retina’s amacrine cells, which feed sensory input to the neurons in the eye. Amacrine cells rely on the neurotransmitter dopamine to function, and mood disorders have been linked to dopamine dysfunctions in the brain. Tebartz van Elst believes the visual response test could serve as an objective measure for establishing a diagnosis of depression: “The patients don’t have to say anything at all—they just keep their eyes open,” he says. Separately, otorhinolaryngologist Thomas Hummel of the University of Dresden Medical School explored odor perception in depressed patients. Compared with control subjects, he found, people suffering from depression were less able to detect weak smells; MRI scans revealed that they had smaller olfactory bulbs, the brain structures involved in odor perception. Both Hummel and Tebartz van Elst next plan to investigate whether the successful treatment of depression restores the richness of the senses. © 2011, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 14987 - Posted: 02.12.2011

By David Nichols As a chemist at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., David Nichols studies psychedelic compounds in a quest to understand the brain, often creating new compounds as part of his research. He was recently dismayed to find himself cited by name in a newspaper article about an amateur chemist who scours the scientific literature for recipes that he can use to produce designer drugs that are legal but untested and often unsafe. In fact, street drugs based on a paper that Nichols published years ago have contributed to a number of deaths. Nichols recently spoke with Science News neuroscience writer Laura Sanders about the misuse of his research and the dangers that can accompany the free exchange of scientific information. How did you learn that people were using your published research to create new drugs? There was a Wall Street Journal article in their health section in October, and in that article the writer had interviewed a chemist, I believe in Belgium, who was making these so-called ‘legal highs.’ And he was very open about what he did. He said, ‘You know, what I’m doing is legal.’ A former crack addict, by the way…. He said, ‘Well, I search the literature, and the work of David Nichols is particularly valuable to us.’ Were you surprised to see your name? Well, the thing that happened earlier, in the late 1990s, was that we had been doing research on ecstasy, MDMA, and we had made a compound called MTA. I got an e-mail from a colleague one day that said, ‘Did you know that people have been making tablets with MTA in it, I think in the Netherlands, and a couple of people have died?’ So that was kind of a shocker to me because the work that we had done suggested if anything, it might have utility as an antidepressant that would be a little faster acting than Prozac and the standard antidepressants. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2011

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 14986 - Posted: 02.12.2011

Admit it: You love your dog, your cat, even your white rat. And so you’re planning to lavish a platter of filet mignon on your doggy-love… a plank of sushi-grade tuna on kitty numero-uno, and some aged cheese on your rodent. But do our dogs, cats and rats love us back? Sure, parrots are endlessly uttering “I love you” on You Tube, and some bereaved dogs seem to grieve for their dead owners. And yes, some animals “love” to spend time together. But that doesn’t answer our nagging question: Can animals really love? Or are we projecting our own feelings of affiliation, closeness, and passion on beasts that don’t have the mental machinery to love? Almost like being in love? More than half a century ago, Harry Harlow, a research psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, performed experiments that forever changed our view of human and animal emotions. At a time when academic psychologists explored learning and behavior by studying rats, when low-grade learning in a “Skinner Box” was considered high-grade science, when hospitals limited contact between mothers and their newborns, Harlow focused on maternal touch and the emotional life of monkeys.

Keyword: Emotions; Evolution
Link ID: 14985 - Posted: 02.12.2011

Giving women a small dose of the male sex hormone testosterone makes them less able to empathise with others, say UK and Dutch researchers. Their findings, in journal PNAS, add weight to the theory that the hormone is significant in the development of autism. Sixteen volunteers given testosterone were less able to judge the mood of facial expressions they were shown. Exposure to the hormone in the womb may be key, it is suggested. Autism is a disorder which, to varying degrees, affects the ability of children and adults to communicate and interact socially. While various genes linked to the condition have been found, the precise combination of genetics and other environmental factors which produce autism is still unclear. The latest study, from the universities of Cambridge and Utrecht, tests the idea that the disorder may be the result of an "extreme male brain", perhaps compromised by exposure to male sex hormones during brain development in the womb. The rate of autism is much higher among boys than it is among girls. Women, on average, have lower levels of the male sex hormone testosterone than men, and 16 volunteers were given a dose of the hormone to see if this affected one of the key areas linked to autism - the ability to empathise. BBC © MMXI

Keyword: Autism; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 14984 - Posted: 02.10.2011

By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News What you look at can influence how much pain you feel, a study has revealed. Contrary to many people's compulsion to look away during a painful event such as an injection, scientists found that looking at your body - in this case the hand - reduces the pain experienced. The team also showed that magnifying the hand to make it appear larger cut pain levels further still. The study, published in Psychological Science, is shedding light on how the brain processes pain. The researchers say that gaining a better understanding of this could lead to new treatments. The University College London (UCL) and University of Milan-Bicocca research, which was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), was carried out with the help of 18 volunteers. The scientists applied a heat probe to each participant's hand, gradually increasing the temperature. As soon as this began to feel painful, the probe was removed and the temperature was recorded. Patrick Haggard, professor of cognitive neuroscience from UCL, explained: "This gives us a measure of the pain threshold, and it is a safe and reliable way of testing when the brain pathways that underline pain become active." BBC © MMXI

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 14983 - Posted: 02.10.2011

Young and middle-aged Americans are experiencing a sharp rise in hospitalization for strokes, says a new study echoing Canadian research that this age group is at greater risk for heart disease than they were in the past. The U.S. numbers, reported Wednesday at an American Stroke Association conference in California, come from the first large U.S. -wide study of stroke hospitalizations broken down by age. Government researchers compared figures in 1994 and 1995 with those in 2006 and 2007. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention number show the sharpest increase - 51 per cent - was among men under the age of 35. Strokes rose among women in this age group, too, but not as fast -17 per cent. The Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation's 2010 annual report describes a similar problem in this country. It showed that between 1994 and 2005, rates of high blood pressure among Canadians in general skyrocketed by 77 per cent, while diabetes rose by 45 per cent and obesity by 18 per cent. It also said that more than 250,000 Canadians in their 20s and 30s had high blood pressure, making them the newest at-risk group. High blood pressure, diabetes and obesity increase a person's likelihood of suffering a stroke. The problem was worst among those aged 35 to 49. The prevalence of high blood pressure in that age group increased 127 per cent, diabetes by 64 per cent and obesity by 20 per cent. © CBC 2011

Keyword: Stroke; Obesity
Link ID: 14982 - Posted: 02.10.2011

Pessimists may be born to take a gloomy view, a study hints. The study is trying to explore any link between genetics and depression. To that end, researchers at the University of Michigan conducted a study of how the brain responds to stress and negative situations for 181 people. They focused on a brain chemical called neuropeptide Y or NPY. People genetically predisposed to produce lower levels of NPY showed stronger responses to negatively charged words like "murderer" when scientists scanned their brain activity. In the first part of the study, participants with low levels of NPY showed a stronger activation in their prefrontal cortex, which is involved in processing emotion. In another experiment, Dr. Brian Mickey of the university's psychiatry department and his colleagues measured responses after subjects were injected with a salt solution in their jaw muscle. The injection caused moderate pain for about 20 minutes with no long-term damage. Subjects with low NPY rated their emotional response to the stress more negatively, both when anticipating it and when they reflected on it afterwards, the study showed. "This tells us that individuals with the risk-associated NPY gene variant tend to activate this key brain region more than other people, even in the absence of stress and before psychiatric symptoms are present," Mickey said in a release. © CBC 2011

Keyword: Emotions; Brain imaging
Link ID: 14981 - Posted: 02.10.2011

By Steve Connor, Science Editor Women have a stronger genetic predisposition to help other people compared with men, according to a study that has found a significant link between genes and the tendency to be "nice". The research, based on an analysis of nearly 1,000 pairs of identical and non-identical twins, found that about half of "prosocial" traits – the willingness to help others – identified in women could be linked with genes rather than environmental upbringing, whereas the figure was just 20 per cent in men. Scientists believe the findings lend further support to the idea that prosocial behaviour has a strong heritable component with some people displaying an innate tendency from childhood. One conclusion from the study, published in the journal Biology Letters, is that some women, and rather fewer men, find it easier than the rest of the population to be generous and helpful towards others, given the right sort of upbringing. "There is a very big debate at the moment about whether humans are altruistic or not," said Gary Lewis, a psychologist at the University of Edinburgh who carried out the research. "There are some people who argue that we have evolved to be altruistic independently of external interventions, and others who argue that we are rather selfish and need a rather conducive external environment for us to be nice to others. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 14980 - Posted: 02.10.2011

by Richard Knox It's a landmark in the controversial, 30-year-old field of fetal surgery: Surgeons are reporting success in treating a common, serious birth defect called spina bifida — before birth. Spina bifida is a hole in the spine that sometimes allows a loop of the naked spinal cord to protrude outside the body. Such neural-tube defects are down 30 percent because more expectant mothers are taking folic acid pills and dietary supplements. But about 1,500 babies are born with spina bifida every year, and many are destined to have severe lifelong disabilities. A new study, published online in the New England Journal of Medicine, shows that repairing the most severe form of spina bifida during pregnancy can reduce the paralysis and brain damage that often result when the defect isn't corrected until after birth. The surgery is delicate and risky for both mother and fetus. Doctors must make a three-inch incision in the mother's uterus to expose the fetus, which is typically about four inches long at this stage. They then put the exposed piece of spinal cord — between the size of a raisin and an almond — back where it belongs, and suture layers of tissue to keep it in place and prevent cerebrospinal fluid from leaking out. Copyright 2011 NPR

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 14979 - Posted: 02.10.2011

By Jennifer Viegas As Valentine's Day cards attest, humans value love and friendship that aren't just forged by family ties, common interests or sexual attraction. Now researchers have determined that such human-like friendships exist among at least five different types of animals. Prior studies determined that elephants, dolphins, some carnivores and certain non-human primates, such as chimpanzees, have the ability -- just as humans do -- to maintain enduring friendships in highly dynamic social environments. A new study, published in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, adds bats to that list. Female wild Bechstein's bats prefer to literally hang out with certain friends while they also keep loose ties to the rest of their colony. Lead author Gerald Kerth told Discovery News that these bat buddies mirror human ones. Despite all of their "daily chaos, the bats are able to maintain long-term relationships," he said. "We do not work, play and live together with the same individuals all the time during the day and week," he explained. "But nevertheless, we are able to maintain long-term relationships with our friends and our family despite our often chaotic and highly dynamic social lives." Kerth, a professor at the University of Greifswald's Zoological Institute, and colleagues Nicolas Perony and Frank Schweitzer monitored colonies of the bats over a period of five years. Male bats of this species are solitary, but females roost together in bat boxes and tree cavities. They preferred certain companions over the years. © 2011 Discovery Communications, LLC.

Keyword: Animal Communication; Evolution
Link ID: 14978 - Posted: 02.10.2011

by Ferris Jabr Some birds need more than warm feathers or a tropical getaway to survive the winter – they need serious brainpower. Black-capped chickadees that endure harsh winters have bigger and denser memory centres in their brains than those that enjoy more forgiving climes. Timothy Roth of the University of Nevada, Reno, and his colleagues wanted to know the effect of hard winters on the birds' hippocampus – a part of the brain that seems vital for the formation of memories. So they compared the volume of the hippocampus, and the total number of neurons it contained, in populations of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) living in Seattle, Washington; Grant, Minnesota; and Presque Isle, Maine. All three locations lie at approximately the same latitude and so birds in all three states have the same hours of daylight in which to forage and build up winter food caches – black-capped chickadees don't fly south for winter. They differ dramatically in their climate, however: winters in Minnesota and Maine are far colder and snowier than in Washington. Despite the consistency of day length across the different environments, birds from Minnesota and Maine had bigger hippocampi than those from Washington. Washington birds have smaller hippocampi, the reasoning goes, because they inhabit a relatively mild climate in which their spatial memory is not as critical to their survival. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 14977 - Posted: 02.10.2011

By Piercarlo Valdesolo Five years ago I had the misfortune of beginning a relationship one week before Valentine’s day. Long hours and many glasses of wine were consumed trying to develop the perfect strategy to court this new woman, and this most saccharine of holidays was proving to be an obstacle. Should I be assertive and make plans with her for the night? Should I assume that we’d be together that evening? Should I assume the contrary? Would presents be involved? If so, of what sort? According to friends’ counsel, my decision would hinge on the message I wanted to communicate. That is, how interested did I want to appear to this woman? The answer to this type of question has long been debated. When trying to establish a relationship is it better to play hard to get or is it better to wear one’s heart on one’s sleeve? Psychologists have had little to say on this matter for quite some time. Some seminal data suggests that honesty is the best policy. If you like him, tell him. After all, it feels good to be liked by others, so to win his heart you should aim to be the source of such feelings. Shower the object of your desire with attention and gifts. Make it clear that you’re into him. But pop culture tells us otherwise. In the words of Vince Vaughn, “If you call too soon you might scare off a beautiful baby who’s ready to party”. Indeed, one of the principle tenets of the burgeoning pick-up artist business is to mildly insult your prospective partner – “neg” her. Let her know that you could truly do without her. © 2011 Scientific American

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 14976 - Posted: 02.10.2011