by Jocelyn Kaiser Many of us are zombies without 8 hours of sleep, while envied others seem to get by just fine on much less. Now geneticists have homed in on the first gene in the general population that seems to influence how much sleep we need. Sleep interests biologists in part because it varies with other factors, such as weight, that make people more prone to diabetes or heart disease. (The larger a person's body mass index, the less they generally sleep.) In search of sleep genes, a group of European researchers studied populations in seven countries, from Estonia to Italy, for a total of 4260 subjects. Each one filled out a simple questionnaire asking about his or her sleep habits and donated a DNA sample. The researchers then scanned the participants' DNA for thousands of genetic markers, looking for ones that were more common in people who slept more than those who slept less. Sleep duration correlated strongly with a single genetic marker in a gene called ABCC9. When allowed to sleep as long as they want, those who have two copies of one version of this marker sleep on average 6% less than those carrying two copies of the other version, or about 7.5 hours versus 8 hours, says postdoc Karla Allebrandt, who is leading the study at the Centre for Chronobiology headed by Till Roenneberg at the University of Munich in Germany. Allebrandt presented the work last week at the annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Washington, D.C. The ABCC9 gene codes for a protein called SUR2 that is part of a potassium channel, a structure that funnels potassium ions into and out of cells. When the researchers knocked down the corresponding gene in two species of fruit flies, the flies slept significantly less at night compared with controls, Allebrandt reported. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sleep; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14658 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Andy Coghlan Elderly people who did 10 sessions of brain training had half as many crashes on the road as untrained counterparts – even though the training didn't directly relate to driving itself. "There are no other cognitive training programs, or 'brain games', that have been demonstrated by published, peer-reviewed studies to enhance driving performance," says Jerri Edwards of the University of South Florida in Tampa, a co-leader of the study. The results contradict a study of 11,000 people earlier this year, carried out by Adrian Owen at the University of Cambridge and colleagues, which found that brain training didn't help improve cognitive skills outside the game itself. "Overall, people need to know that not all brain training is equal," says Edwards. "Some programs work and some don't." With an average age of 73, the 908 participants in the latest study were assigned to one of three different computer training programs or to no training at all. One program focused on improving reaction speed, another on reasoning skills and the third on memory. Each course lasted for 10 sessions, and then the participants were tracked for six years to see how many times they had road crashes for which they were personally responsible. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 14657 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Jennifer Carpenter As surprising at it may seem, wasps, bees, and even ants have relatively large and complex brains. That allows these "social insects" to keep track of the intricate relationships between the thousands of individuals in their colony—or so researchers thought. A new study indicates that these insects didn't grow big brains to cope with social living; they evolved them millions of years earlier when they were solitary parasites. The link between brain size and social living was first noted in 1850, when scientists identified mushroom bodies in the insect brain. Aptly named because they're shaped like mushrooms, the structures contain thousands of neurons responsible for processing and remembering smells and sights. Social insects tend to have larger mushroom bodies than solitary ones, leading researchers to believe that the transition from solitary to social living increased the size of these brain regions. But Sarah Farris has found a different explanation. Instead of comparing social insects with solitary ones, Farris, a neurobiologist at West Virginia University in Morgantown, looked into the past. To get a sense of how the wasp brain evolved over time, she and taxonomist Susanne Schulmeister of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City compared the mushroom bodies of parasitic wasps with those of nonparasitic wasps, which represent the very oldest form of wasp. The parasitic wasps had consistently larger and more elaborate mushroom bodies than the nonparasites, the duo reports online today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. In particular, the caps, called calyces, of the parasitic mushroom bodies were twice the size of nonparasites. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 14656 - Posted: 11.11.2010

By Larry Greenemeier Party beverages that go by "blackout in a can" and other monikers may soon be banned from store shelves in some U.S. states, thanks to a number of incidents that have left drinkers unconscious and with dangerously high blood alcohol levels. The Michigan Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) last week effectively prohibited the sale of all alcoholic energy drinks after considering several studies regarding such beverages as well as concerns voiced by substance abuse prevention and parental groups, the general public, and an ongoing U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation. The Commission called the packaging of these products "misleading," and an attempt to appeal to younger customers "encouraging excessive consumption while mixing alcohol with various other chemical and herbal stimulants." The ban takes effect in early December. The MLCC pointed out that a typical alcoholic energy drink is 24 ounces (0.7 liters) and has a 12 percent alcohol content—compared with a 12-ounce (0.35-liter) can of beer, which normally has 4 to 5 percent—plus the caffeine equivalent of five cups of coffee. Some of the beverage lines singled out for their 12 percent alcohol content were Associated Brewing's Axis, United Brands's Max and Phusion Projects's Four Loko offerings. The commission concluded that a person need only consume one can of such a beverage to become intoxicated—and that because these drinks typically cost $2 to $5 per can they are "easily accessible and affordable." Such beverages were in the news last month when nine Central Washington University students were hospitalized following a party. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 14655 - Posted: 11.11.2010

By Dave Lee BBC World Service Young offenders are more likely to have suffered a brain injury compared with the rest of society, a study suggests. A survey of 197 young male offenders found about half reported having had a childhood brain injury - three times higher than in non-offenders. Multiple head injuries were linked with carrying out more violent crimes, says the University of Exeter team. Better assessment of injuries could help prevent re-offending, they add. The researchers asked 197 offenders aged 11 to 19 years about their past medical history, convicted crimes, mental health and drug use. They considered the effects of traumatic brain injury alongside other factors such as deprivation and lack of life opportunities to determine if a childhood brain injury contributed to future acts of criminal behaviour. The study, published in the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation, found that while a brain injury alone is unlikely to increase a child's chances of criminal activity, it could play a factor in those already susceptible to crime, and may increase the chance of repeat offences. "The associations between brain injuries and crime are very problematic," explained Huw Williams, associate professor of clinical neuropsychology at the University of Exeter, on Radio 4's All in the Mind. "It may not be causal in the sense of increasing the chances of crime, but it may well be a factor in terms of re-offending." BBC © MMX

Keyword: Aggression; Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 14654 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Andy Coghlan Women who take mild painkillers such as aspirin and paracetamol during pregnancy are slightly more likely to have boys with undescended testicles, a study from Denmark has reported. The risk of having a son with the condition remains low, with or without painkillers, but the finding may explain why it has become more common in recent decades. However, a similar investigation in Finland found no links at all. The risk rose significantly for women in the Danish group who took more painkillers, particularly between 8 and 14 weeks: it increased 21-fold if women took more than one type of painkiller daily for more than a fortnight during this period. "The most important message is that if you take the occasional paracetamol, it's not going to do your baby any harm," says Richard Sharpe of the University of Edinburgh, UK, who was not involved in the study but who investigates the causes and origins of fetal sexual development in boys. "It's prolonged usage that might be a problem." In the study itself, Henrik Leffers of the University Hospital of Copenhagen led a team that followed women through their pregnancies, 834 of which resulted in boys. The researchers identified which women took paracetamol, aspirin or ibuprofen for pain relief during pregnancy, and investigated whether this raised the likelihood that their sons would have undescended testicles at birth, a condition called cryptorchidism. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 14653 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Catherine de Lange Calcium activity in the brain plays an important role in the onset of Parkinson's disease, according to a study in mice. The finding helps explain why common calcium-blocking drugs, such as those used to control blood pressure, appear to protect against the disease. Damage to dopamine-releasing cells in a brain area called the substantia nigra (SN) is known to be involved in the onset of Parkinson's disease. "Pacemaking" cells in this area release pulses of dopamine, a hormone crucial for movement and balance. So damage to these cells leads to the symptoms of Parkinson's – such as tremors and stiffness. A key question is why cells of the SN are so much more susceptible to damage than those in surrounding areas. Now it seems that calcium, which enters these cells to regulate their activity, is the culprit. Jaime Guzman from Northwestern University in Chicago and colleagues compared the effect of calcium activity in two brain areas in mice – the pacemaking SN and a neighbouring area where there was no pacemaking activity. They found that the calcium influx in the SN caused much higher levels of oxidative stress – pressure on cells to counteract the effects of molecules such as free radicals, that can damage proteins and DNA. Oxidative stress is thought to be the source of the cell damage that leads to Parkinson's disease. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Apoptosis
Link ID: 14652 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Douglas Fox Steven and David Elmore were born identical twins, but their first days in this world could not have been more different. David came home from the hospital after a week. Steven, born four minutes later, stayed behind in the ICU. For a month he hovered near death in an incubator, wracked with fever from what doctors called a dangerous viral infection. Even after Steven recovered, he lagged behind his twin. He lay awake but rarely cried. When his mother smiled at him, he stared back with blank eyes rather than mirroring her smiles as David did. And for several years after the boys began walking, it was Steven who often lost his balance, falling against tables or smashing his lip. Those early differences might have faded into distant memory, but they gained new significance in light of the twins’ subsequent lives. By the time Steven entered grade school, it appeared that he had hit his stride. The twins seemed to have equalized into the genetic carbon copies that they were: They wore the same shoulder-length, sandy-blond hair. They were both B+ students. They played basketball with the same friends. Steven Elmore had seemingly overcome his rough start. But then, at the age of 17, he began hearing voices. The voices called from passing cars as Steven drove to work. They ridiculed his failure to find a girlfriend. Rolling up the car windows and blasting the radio did nothing to silence them. Other voices pursued Steven at home. Three voices called through the windows of his house: two angry men and one woman who begged the men to stop arguing. Another voice thrummed out of the stereo speakers, giving a running commentary on the songs of Steely Dan or Led Zeppelin, which Steven played at night after work. His nerves frayed and he broke down. Within weeks his outbursts landed him in a psychiatric hospital, where doctors determined he had schizophrenia. © 2010, Kalmbach Publishing Co.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 14651 - Posted: 11.11.2010

Some people hear voices that are the products only of processes in their brains. These hallucinations can lead to persistent delusions that someone is plotting against them or urging them to harm others. When a person acts on those delusions, headline-grabbing tragedy can ensue, usually involving someone close to the protagonist. Violence is not a symptom of schizophrenia — only a tiny proportion of sufferers with the condition are homicidal. Yet these incidents dominate the media coverage of the disease. The reality of schizophrenia is much more complex. Hallucinations are one of several symptoms, others of which — cognitive dysfunction, loss of motivation and of social engagement — are much less amenable to medication, and are often more damaging to the ability of those with schizophrenia to function. In recent years it has been increasingly appreciated that this collection of symptoms, which typically first fully manifest in early adulthood, represents a late stage of the illness, and that the illness itself may perhaps turn out to be a collection of syndromes, rather than a single condition. Motivated by the undue stigma and by the recent advances reported in our own pages and elsewhere, Nature this week examines the state of our understanding of schizophrenia, and how researchers can hope to make progress in an entangled landscape of innate and environmental influences. The image on this issue's cover and in the logo that links the associated content is a piece of art by a schizophrenia sufferers. It is one of many compiled by NARSAD, a US charity based in New York that spends significant public donations on psychiatric health research. The image reflects a world of confusion and distorted reality — but not a 'split personality', which is a mythical symptom of the condition, and leads to a misleading metaphorical use of the word 'schizophrenic' that those involved with the condition perpetually seek to eradicate. © 2010 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 14650 - Posted: 11.11.2010

Kerri Smith Halfway through a satellite meeting at the Federation of European Neurosciences conference in Amsterdam in July, researcher Ken McCarthy takes the stage to give his presentation. He sports a black shirt and jeans, and his strong cheekbones, shock of white hair and tanned skin give him the look of a film star. But he doesn't have the confidence to match. I find this a little bit daunting, he says, as he organizes his slides. McCarthy, a geneticist at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, is about to fan the flames of a debate about whether glia, the largest contingent of non-neuronal cells in the brain, are important in transmitting electrical messages. For many years, neurons were thought to be alone in executing this task, and glia were consigned to a supporting role regulating a neuron's environment, helping it to grow, and even providing physical scaffolding (glia is Greek for 'glue'). In the past couple of decades, however, this picture has been changing. Some glia, known as astrocytes, have thousands of bushy tendrils that nestle close to the active junctions between neurons the synapses (see 'Neural threesome'). Here they seem to listen in on neuronal activity and, in turn, to influence it. Studies show that chemical transmitters released by neurons cause an increase in the levels of calcium inside astrocytes, spurring them to release transmitters of their own. These can enhance or mute the signalling between neurons, or influence the strength of their connections over time. Moreover, astrocytes activated at one synapse might communicate with other synapses and astrocytes with which they make contact. © 2010 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Glia; Brain imaging
Link ID: 14649 - Posted: 11.11.2010

by Ann Gibbons With brains as big as ours, Neandertals were no dumb brutes. But their brains may have developed in a manner much different from the way ours do, according to anew study. The differences suggest that Neandertals did not see the world the same way we do and may not have been as adept at language or forming complex social networks. Paleoanthropologists Jean—Jacques Hublin, Philipp Gunz, and Simon Neubauer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, made the find by first comparing CT scans of the brains of 58 humans and 60 chimps, varying in age from birth to adulthood. The researchers used three—dimensional imaging and several hundred landmarks on the braincases to match the brains accurately despite differences in size. As the team reports this month in the Journal of Human Evolution, humans—but not chimps—preferentially expand their parietal lobes and cerebellums and widen their temporal lobes in the first year of life. This results in the characteristic rounded dome of our skulls. In another study published online today in Current Biology, the researchers and a colleague used the same imaging methods to study nine fossil Neandertals, including a newborn, a year—old baby, and three children. Because the brain does not fossilize, they studied endocasts, imprints of the brain left in the skull. They found that at birth, both Neandertal and modern human infants had elongated braincases that were similar in shape, although Neandertal faces were already larger. But by age 1 or so, modern humans had grown globular brains, whereas Neandertal babies had not; like chimpanzees, they did not show the preferential bulging in the parietal and cerebellar regions, even though the brain grew overall. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 14648 - Posted: 11.09.2010

By PAM BELLUCK Much of the research on Alzheimer’s next year will be about going back in time, trying to determine when and how the brain begins to deteriorate. Scientists now know Alzheimer’s attacks the brain long before people exhibit memory loss or cognitive decline. But the specifics are crucial because so far, drug after drug has failed to effectively treat Alzheimer’s in people who already show symptoms. Many scientists now think the problem may be that the drugs were given too late, when, as Dr. John C. Morris, an Alzheimer’s expert at Washington University in St. Louis, puts it, “there’s a heck of a lot of brain cell damage and we’re trying to treat a very damaged brain.” If drugs could be given sooner, tailored to specific biological changes, or biomarkers, in the brain, treatment, or even prevention, might be more successful. “We’re trying to go earlier and earlier in the course of the disease,” said Neil Buckholtz, chief of the Dementias of Aging branch at the National Institute on Aging. “The idea is to locate how people move through these stages and what indications there are of each stage.” Several research projects are expecting to make strides next year. One involves the world’s largest family to experience Alzheimer’s disease, an extended clan of about 5,000 people in Colombia, many of whom have inherited a genetic mutation that guarantees they will develop dementia, usually in their 40s. Except for its clear genetic cause and that it strikes people so young, the Colombian condition is virtually identical in its disease process to more common Alzheimer’s, which has unknown causes and afflicts millions of elderly people. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 14647 - Posted: 11.09.2010

By DENISE GRADY It was a desperate measure, for a desperate disease. Fourteen months ago, Dennis Sugrue let doctors thread a fine tube through his blood vessels and up into his head, so they could spray the drug Avastin directly into the part of his brain where a tumor had been cut out. It was an experiment, devised mainly to find out whether the procedure was safe, and to gauge how much Avastin the brain could tolerate. But Mr. Sugrue, then 50, was hoping the experiment would also free him of cancer. He had glioblastoma, a brain tumor that fights off every known therapy. The same disease killed Senator Edward M. Kennedy last year. Mr. Sugrue’s cancer was diagnosed in April 2009 and bombarded with the usual weapons: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Within months, the tumor was growing back. That was when he signed up for the Avastin study. About 10,000 Americans a year develop glioblastoma. Nearly all find that the standard treatments seem to work — for a while. And then the clock starts to run down. With treatment, the median survival is about 15 months. Only 25 percent of patients make it to two years. The disease is the focus of much research, and will almost certainly be for years to come. Hundreds of studies are being conducted in glioblastoma and other brain cancers. Among other things, they involve vaccines, drug combinations and special drug-delivery techniques. Progress is measured in small steps — a few more months of survival, more patients managing to survive two years. On paper the gains may seem minute, but for patients the added time may translate into a graduation or wedding that might otherwise have been missed. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 14646 - Posted: 11.09.2010

Jessica Marshall A man lies in a brain scanner, with his foot in one end of a long, narrow box, which is divided into six compartments of equal size. On a screen he watches a tarantula crawling in one of the compartments. A hand reaches in and moves the spider into another compartment, first one further away from the man's foot, then one closer. Although the subject was led to believe he was viewing the scene unfold in real-time, the man was actually watching a previously recorded video of the tarantula creeping through the boxes, nowhere near the subject. His fear, however, was real. The scanner -- a functional magnetic resonance imager (fMRI) -- allowed researchers to capture that fear by recording the activity in his brain as he watched the spider, illuminating the hallmarks of the human fear response in the man's brain. In a study of 20 individuals who watched the same video, researchers report today that our brains evaluate fear in a nuanced way, drawing on several different regions depending on the proximity, trajectory and our expectations of the feared object -- in this case a Brazilian salmon pink tarantula. By better understanding which of these brain regions fail to function normally when confronted with fear, the authors hope their findings could one day help treat people with phobias. © 2010 Discovery Communications, LLC.

Keyword: Emotions; Brain imaging
Link ID: 14645 - Posted: 11.09.2010

Michael Marshall, In "one of the biggest mass deaths of cetaceans in Irish history" at least 33 whales have beached themselves on the north-west coast of County Donegal. They were found on Rutland Island near Burtonport on Saturday. It's thought they were the same group spotted in the Outer Hebrides at the end of October. The whales' deaths come just after the latest research into cetacean strandings, which suggests that stranded whales and dolphins often suffer from hearing loss. The finding is the latest salvo in the long-running controversy over whether undersea noise pollution is harming whales. David Mann of the University of South Florida and colleagues looked at eight species of cetacean, all of which had either stranded themselves or become entangled in fishing gear. 4 out of 7 of the bottlenose dolphins they looked at, and 5 out of 14 rough-toothed dolphins, had either severe or profound hearing loss, as did one short-finned pilot whale. They also looked at 7 Risso's dolphins, 2 pygmy killer whales, 1 Atlantic spotted dolphin, 1 spinner dolphin, and 1 Gervais' beaked whale. None of them had any hearing problems, so it seems hearing loss is far from the only possible cause for strandings. In total, 9 of the 34 animals had hearing problems (PLoS ONE, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0013824). © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Hearing; Animal Migration
Link ID: 14644 - Posted: 11.09.2010

by Miriam Frankel When newborn female rats are given a substance mimicking cannabis, their brains become more masculine – as does their behaviour. Margaret McCarthy from the University of Maryland in Baltimore and colleagues found that newborn female rats usually make more new cells than males in a part of their brain called the amygdala, an area that governs social and emotional behaviour. They also found that females had a smaller endocannabinoid system, involving brain receptors that react to cannabis. That correlation made them wonder whether injecting substances that mimicked cannabis would alter the rate of cell proliferation in the amygdala. To find out, the team injected newborn rats with a compound that triggers cannabinoid receptors in the brain. They also injected a chemical that allowed them to see cell division in brain tissue. To find out how these changes affected rats' behaviour, the team also studied the playing habits of the pups after four weeks. Without treatment, female rats produced between 30 and 50 per cent more glial cells – which help maintain homeostasis and protect neurons – in the amygdala than males. They also played 30 to 40 per cent less than males. But females that were given cannabinoid compounds had cell proliferation rates and play behaviour similar to those of males. "Play behaviour is similarly sex-specific in humans," says McCarthy. "The ultimate goal is now to find out whether the neurological underpinnings of this behaviour, which we are beginning to understand in this study, are similar in humans". © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 14643 - Posted: 11.09.2010

By Barnabe Geisweiller Which do you like better, Coke or Pepsi? You may be surprised by the answer. The Pepsi Challenge TV commercials from the ’70s and ’80s featured people blind-tasting Pepsi or Coke. Not surprisingly, people chose Pepsi. Yet Coke continued to outsell Pepsi. In 2003, neuroscientist Read Montague decided to repeat the Pepsi Challenge with subjects lying in a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, which tracks changes in blood flow related to neural activity in the brain. Most subjects in Montague’s study chose the Pepsi sample as better tasting, and Pepsi tended to produce a stronger response in the brain’s ventral putamen, a region thought to process feelings of reward. But in a second test when subjects were told which brand they were drinking, more said they preferred Coke. Montague observed that their brain activity also changed. The knowledge that they were drinking Coke increased activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain associated with thinking and judging. This seemed to validate the claims of marketers that they can influence consumers’ decisions. Neuro-marketing was born. Marketing is only one field in which neuro-imaging is applied. Studies done in labs across the world provide researchers with new insight into how our brains work. This knowledge could help in the treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, say neuroscientists. ©2008 New York Press.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Brain imaging
Link ID: 14642 - Posted: 11.09.2010

Erin Allday, UCSF researchers are kicking off a clinical trial to test whether certain children with autism can benefit from regular doses of an enzyme to help them digest proteins, which may in turn improve their brain function and ease some symptoms of their disease. It's one of several treatments being explored that could address the root causes of autism - an incurable set of developmental problems that affects socialization, language and behavior - instead of just the symptoms of the disease. But the theory behind the enzyme is controversial, because there is little solid research demonstrating that the missing enzyme, or digestion problems in general, is a direct cause of autism. Some studies have shown that autistic children are more likely than healthy children to have gastrointestinal problems, and that a certain subgroup of autistic kids have enzyme deficiencies. But whether those problems cause autism or are just another symptom of the disease isn't known for sure. Still, some researchers say that even if there's no clear connection between the missing enzyme and autism, it's a treatment worth exploring. "I think every avenue, every potential hypothesis, should be investigated in autism," said Dr. Antonio Hardan, a pediatric psychiatrist and an autism researcher at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital who is not involved in the enzyme trial. "This is one of them, and regardless what the results show, it will be helpful to look at what they find." © 2010 Hearst Communications Inc.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 14641 - Posted: 11.08.2010

WRINKLES reveal how ageing has degraded your skin, but how can you tell how well your brain is coping? Measure levels of lactic acid, perhaps. It seems that a build-up of the chemical in the brain is a hallmark of the ageing process, in mice at least. The finding came when Jaime Ross from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues investigated how ageing is affected by damage to the DNA in mouse mitochondria, the energy-producing part of cells. The team modified mitochondrial DNA, producing a mouse strain that aged prematurely. In these mice and healthy controls, the time it took for levels of lactic acid in the brain to double correlated with how fast they aged. Lactic acid is a normal product of metabolism, so Ross's team speculated that age-damaged mitochondria could be affecting metabolic processes. Indeed, the brains of both types of mice showed damage to the genes responsible for lactate regulation (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1008189107). Future studies may reveal if changes in brain lactate are linked to neurodegenerative diseaseMovie Camera in humans, says Ross. Issue 2785 of New Scientist magazine © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 14640 - Posted: 11.08.2010

By Emily Singer Most of the robotic arms now in use by some amputees are of limited practicality; they have only two to three degrees of freedom, allowing the user to make a single movement at a time. And they are controlled with conscious effort, meaning the user can do little else while moving the limb. A new generation of much more sophisticated and lifelike prosthetic arms, sponsored by the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), may be available within the next five to 10 years. Two different prototypes that move with the dexterity of a natural limb and can theoretically be controlled just as intuitively--with electrical signals recorded directly from the brain--are now beginning human tests. Initial results of one of these studies--the first tests of a paralyzed human controlling a robotic arm with multiple degrees of freedom--will be presented at the Society for Neuroscience conference in November. The new designs have about 20 degrees of independent motion, a significant leap over existing prostheses, and they can be operated via a variety of interfaces. One device, developed by DEKA Research and Development, can be consciously controlled using a system of levers in a shoe. © 2010 MIT Technology Review

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 14639 - Posted: 11.08.2010