By Emily Sohn New moms may feel their brain cells dying with every cumulative hour of sleep loss. But a new study offers hope. In the first months after giving birth, the study found, parts of a mother's brain may actually grow. Even better news, doting mamas who gushed the most about how special and perfect their babies were showed the most growth. The parts of the brain that grew are involved in motivation, reward behavior and emotion regulation. That suggests that, by reshaping itself, the post-partum brain motivates a mother to take care of her baby, and then feel happy and rewarded when she does. The findings may eventually help women who feel disconnected from their babies or even hostile toward them in the early months, said lead author Pilyoung Kim, a developmental psychologist, now at the National Institutes of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md. "We could maybe compare brain changes in mothers who were depressed or had problems bonding with their infants to normal mothers," said Kim, who was at Yale University when she did the work. "And we might be able to develop some kind of intervention programs to help mothers feel more rewarded about their parenting and their baby." During pregnancy and the post-partum period, women often feel their brains turning to mush. New moms report that they have trouble remembering things that they used to remember easily. It's such a common phenomenon that women often call it "Mommy Brain." Some research has even shown that women's brains shrink slightly during pregnancy. © 2010 Discovery Communications, LLC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 14582 - Posted: 10.23.2010

by Patricia Churchland WHERE do moral values come from? Not from Plato's heaven, nor from any other. Aristotle, Confucius and Darwin all recognised valuing as a basic function of biological creatures generally, and moral valuing as a basic function of highly social and intelligent animals like humans. Until very recently, however, science could not explain how brains, built by gene networks interacting with the environment, give rise to morality. Natural selection being what it is, caring for others must serve the fitness of the animals involved. Evolutionary biologists have developed models to show how this might work, but it is only now that neuroscientists are catching the first glimpses of how altruistic behaviour happens in the brain. Morality seems to be shaped by four interlocking brain processes: caring, rooted in attachment to and nurture of offspring; recognition of others' psychological states, bringing the benefit of predicting their behaviour; problem-solving in a social context, such as how to distribute scarce goods or defend the clan; and social learning, by positive and negative reinforcement, imitation, conditioning and analogy. These factors result in the emergence of a conscience: a set of socially sanctioned responses to prototypical circumstances. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 14581 - Posted: 10.23.2010

by Martha J. Farah We have long known that moral character is related to brain function. One remarkable demonstration of this was provided by Phineas Gage, a 19th-century construction foreman injured in an explosion. After a large iron rod was blown through his head, destroying bits of his prefrontal cortex, Gage was transformed from a conscientious, dependable worker to a selfish and erratic character, described by some as antisocial. Recent research has shown that psychopaths, who behave antisocially and without remorse, differ from the rest of us in several brain regions associated with self-control and moral cognition (Behavioral Sciences and the Law, vol 26, p 7). Even psychologically normal people who merely score higher in psychopathic traits show distinctive differences in their patterns of brain activation when contemplating moral decisions (Molecular Psychiatry, vol 14, p 5). The idea that moral behaviour is dependent on brain function presents a challenge to our usual ways of thinking about moral responsibility. A remorseless murderer is unlikely to win much sympathy, but show us that his cold-blooded cruelty is a neuropsychological impairment and we are apt to hold him less responsible for his actions. Presumably for this reason, fMRI evidence was introduced by the defence in a recent murder trial to show that the perpetrator had differences in various brain regions which they argued reduced his culpability. Indeed, neuroscientific evidence has been found to exert a powerful influence over decisions by judges and juries to find defendants "not guilty by reason of insanity" (Behavioral Sciences and the Law, vol 26, p 85). © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 14580 - Posted: 10.23.2010

By Amanda Chan If you're a guy who finds it hard to talk about your feelings, the problem might lie with your testosterone levels, a recent study suggests. A psychological condition called alexithymia is found in people who have an extraordinarily difficult time conveying emotions to others and interpreting others' feelings. Past studies have shown that alexithymia and depression are closely related, and the condition has long been associated with aging. Depression, low testosterone and erectile dysfunction are all known to become more common in men as they age. Researchers from Finland wanted to see if alexithymia is a result of aging itself, or if it is actually caused by other factors that typically come with aging, like a lower sex drive. In the study, nearly 1,400 men ages 25 to 65 filled out questionnaires during a three-year period, beginning in 1998, and reported difficulties they had in expressing thoughts and emotions, symptoms of depression and general life-satisfaction levels. Out of those 1,400 men, researchers chose 116, half who had symptoms of alexithymia and half who did not, and asked them to complete a follow-up survey and report their alcohol intake, smoking status, and other information, and were also given a blood test to check their testosterone levels, said study researcher Kirsi Honkalampi, a professor at the Kuopio Psychiatric Center in Finland. MyHealthNewsDaily Copyright © 2010.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 14579 - Posted: 10.21.2010

By Carolyn Y. Johnson The black-and-white brain scans that have become a routine part of medicine reveal a curved gray structure folded around large lakes of white — a map that helps doctors diagnose, treat, and understand disease. But to some scientists, these images are crude and incomplete, akin to medieval maps of the world in which unexplored regions were filled in with sea monsters or dragons. “It’s like there’s a continent there, and we are nibbling along the shores,’’ said Dr. Van Wedeen, a physicist and radiologist at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is helping to lead an effort to develop a superscanner that can reveal that unknown territory and provide new insight into the brain. On a recent morning, Wedeen pulled up images created with the new technology, in which the lakes of white were crisscrossed by colorful, ropy bundles of fibers, revealing an elegant, three-dimensional architecture. Looking more like art than anatomy, these strands form the connections in the brain — the “connectome.’’ They are neural highways crucial for brain function, including thoughts, movements, and sensations. “This isn’t just statistical stuff, or mush, or steel wool, or chaotic spaghetti,’’ Wedeen said. “This is as important a structure as you’re ever going to meet, and this thing had to be designed by evolution.’’ © 2010 NY Times Co.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 14578 - Posted: 10.21.2010

by Sara Reardon A pregnant mom who regularly chows down on cheeseburgers probably isn't doing her baby any good; she may even predispose him to obesity, according to some studies. But when pediatrician Sheau-Fang Ng noticed that her chubby child patients tended to have not just one but two overweight parents, she began to wonder: Could dad's habits be weighing in, too? She and her colleagues have now found the first direct evidence that a father's diet, not just his genes, can increase his offspring's risk of diabetes and other diseases, at least in rats. In a simple experiment, the researchers—based at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia—fed normal male rats a diet consisting of more than 40% fat, the rodent equivalent of vending machine food. The animals quickly became obese. The rats' daughters, born from mothers of normal weight and fed a healthy diet, weren't fat, but they did show early signs of diabetes by the time they reached puberty. Not only did their insulin levels fail to rise in response to high glucose, the team reports online today in Nature, but their insulin-producing islet cells in the pancreas also expressed very different genes than do normal islet cells. In addition, many of the daughters were underweight at birth, which, in humans, often foretells obesity later in life. Sons of fat fathers showed some signs of diabetes, too, but to a much lesser extent than their sisters. Lead author Margaret Morris believes that the sons, too, would likely develop symptoms as they age or if they were fed a high-fat diet. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Obesity; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 14577 - Posted: 10.21.2010

By Karl Deisseroth Despite the enormous efforts of clinicians and researchers, our limited insight into psychiatric disease (the worldwide-leading cause of years of life lost to death or disability) hinders the search for cures and contributes to stigmatization. Clearly, we need new answers in psychiatry. But as philosopher of science Karl Popper might have said, before we can find the answers, we need the power to ask new questions. In other words, we need new technology. Developing appropriate techniques is difficult, however, because the mammalian brain is beyond compare in its complexity. It is an intricate system in which tens of billions of intertwined neurons—with multitudinous distinct characteristics and wiring patterns—compute with precisely timed, millisecond-scale electrical signals, as well as with a rich diversity of biochemical messengers. Because of that complexity, neuroscientists lack a deep grasp of what the brain is really doing—of how specific activity patterns within specific brain cells ultimately give rise to thoughts, feelings and memories. By extension, we also do not know how the brain's physical failures produce distinct psychiatric disorders such as depression or schizophrenia. The ruling paradigm of psychiatric disorders—casting them in terms of chemical imbalances and altered levels of neurotransmitters—does not do justice to the brain's high-speed electrical neural circuitry. And psychiatric treatments have historically been largely serendipitous: helpful for many but rarely illuminating, and suffering from the same challenges as basic neuroscience. In a 1979 Scientific American article Nobel laureate Francis Crick suggested that the major challenge facing neuroscience was the need to control one type of cell in the brain while leaving others unaltered. Electrical stimuli cannot meet this challenge because electrodes are too crude a tool: they stimulate all the circuitry at their insertion site without distinguishing between different cell types, and their signals cannot turn off neurons with precision. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 14576 - Posted: 10.21.2010

By ALAN SCHWARZ NORMAN, Okla. — Moments after her son finished practicing with his fifth-grade tackle football team, Beth Sparks examined his scuffed and battered helmet for what she admitted was the first time. She looked at the polycarbonate shell and felt the foam inside before noticing a small emblem on the back that read, “MEETS NOCSAE STANDARD.” “I would think that means it meets the national guidelines — you know, for head injuries, concussions, that sort of thing,” she said. “That’s what it would mean to me.” That assumption, made by countless parents, coaches, administrators and even doctors involved with the 4.4 million children who play tackle football, is just one of many false beliefs in the largely unmonitored world of football helmets. Helmets both new and used are not — and have never been — formally tested against the forces believed to cause concussions. The industry, which receives no governmental or other independent oversight, requires helmets for players of all ages to withstand only the extremely high-level force that would otherwise fracture skulls. The standard has not changed meaningfully since it was written in 1973, despite rising concussion rates in youth football and the growing awareness of how the injury can cause significant short- and long-term problems with memory, depression and other cognitive functions, especially in children. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 14575 - Posted: 10.21.2010

By John von Radowitz, PA A gene that helps drink go to your head has been discovered by scientists. As well as providing a cheap night out, it is believed to protect against alcoholism. Previous research has shown that people who react strongly to alcohol are less likely to become alcoholics. The gene, CYP2E1, provides the coded instructions for making an enzyme that breaks down alcohol. Scientists found that 10% to 20% of the population possess a particular version of the gene that causes them to get drunk easily. The first few drinks during a night out will leave these individuals feeling more inebriated than their friends. Drugs that enhance the effect of CYP2E1 could in future be used to sensitise people to alcohol before an evening's drinking - or even sober them up when they have had one too many, said the researchers. Scientists in the US investigated the genetics of 237 college student siblings who had one alcohol-dependent parent but were not alcoholics themselves. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14574 - Posted: 10.21.2010

By Laura Sanders Researchers have pinpointed a region of the brain where scarcity of a key protein may contribute to depression. The new findings, appearing October 20 in Science Translational Medicine, may pave the way to treating some cases of depression with gene therapy. In the new study, researchers led by Michael Kaplitt of the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City found that depressed people had lower than normal levels of a protein called p11 in the brain’s nucleus accumbens. This brain structure is important for reward, drug addiction and depression. Delivering the gene for the p11 protein to this region eliminated depression-like behavior in listless mice, the researchers showed. “We believe that low levels of p11 may be one of the causes of depression in at least some patients,” Kaplitt says. “If we can restore it to normal levels, we can potentially reverse the process.” Depression is notoriously difficult to treat. “It’s very hard to get people to remission and keep them well with the treatments currently available,” says psychiatrist Madhukar Trivedi of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. In a recent large-scale study, about 40 percent of patients with depression who received consistent treatment relapsed within a year. Developing new treatments like the one proposed in the new study is critical, he says. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Depression; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14573 - Posted: 10.21.2010

By Richard Alleyne, Science Correspondent The popular belief that women's minds turn to mush during pregnancy and birth is completely wrong and their grey matter actually increases, they say. Research published by the American Psychological Association found that the brains of new mothers bulked up as they coped with the steep learning curve of dealing with a newborn. Mothers who gushed the most about their babies showed the greatest growth in key parts of the brain, it was found. The researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health in Maryland scanned the brains of 19 women who gave birth to 10 to boys and nine to girls. A comparison of images taken two to four weeks and three to four months after the women gave birth showed that grey matter volume increased by a small but significant amount in various parts of the brain. In adults, grey matter does not ordinarily change over a few months without significant learning, brain injury or illness, or major environmental change. The authors speculated that hormone levels and the need to cope with the challenges of a baby led to the increase in brain cells. The areas affected are involved with motivation – the hypothalamus -, reward and emotion processing – the amygdala – senses – parietal lobe – and reasoning and judgment – the prefrontal cortex. The findings were published in the journal Behavioural Neuroscience. © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2010

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 14572 - Posted: 10.21.2010

By RONI CARYN RABIN At their first family therapy session, Rina Ranalli and her husband tried to coax their anorexic 13-year-old daughter to eat a bagel with cream cheese. What followed was a protracted negotiation. The girl said she would eat it only if she could have it plain, with nothing on it. The parents countered that they really wanted her to eat it with the cream cheese. Her last offer: she would eat half. “Does this happen at every meal?” the therapist, Daniel Le Grange, asked them, Ms. Ranalli recalled. He added gently, “It has to stop.” “It’s anorexic debate, and it’s really not helpful,” Dr. Le Grange said later in an interview. “I will usually turn to the parents and say: ‘Mom and Dad — it’s your decision what she has to eat. You have to make the choices for her, because the anorexia doesn’t allow her to think clearly.’ ” Unlike traditional treatments for anorexia nervosa in adolescents, in which the patient sees the therapist one on one, this kind of family-based treatment encourages parents to play a pivotal role in restoring their child’s weight while trying to avoid hospitalizations. It is a demanding program: for the first two weeks of treatment, at least one parent must be available around the clock to supervise meals and snacks, and monitor children between meals to make sure they do not burn off the calories with excessive exercise. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 14571 - Posted: 10.19.2010

By CHRIS FILARDI Waking at 1,600 meters in the Solomons is like waking in the clouds. Cloud days begin with a vigil of sorts: a slow and deliberate ascent up a ladderlike trail through the tangles to a perch that hangs out into the gloaming heart of morning cloud surrounding the high ridges. At dawn, wind heaves up from the central caldera, shifting the heavy mist. Other than this mountain breath, there is little indication of anything beyond moss, wood and orchids splaying out everywhere along the limb holding me up. From this perch one can read the morning chorus of birdsong. Many bird species roost for the night at perches reflecting their distribution within a forest and then sing in a beautifully clocklike species-specific cadence at dawn. This awakening can disclose the presence and distribution of species that are otherwise seldom detected and, properly interpreted, can provide an incredible amount of information about a forest bird community. Mornings here I actually hear two choruses — one softly twittering in the mossy heights, and another, almost a din, rising from the crater floor far below. It is remarkable, indescribable really, hearing montane songs in the leafy tufts around my head unique to Kolombangara and reminiscent of Eurasia or North America, and simultaneously the blare of whistlers, monarch flycatchers, coucals, fantails and cuckoo-shrikes rising from tall hill forest nearly 1,100 meters below. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Animal Communication; Language
Link ID: 14570 - Posted: 10.19.2010

by Michael Balter Neandertals are looking sharp these days. Many researchers now credit our evolutionary cousins, once regarded as brutish and dumb, with "modern behavior," such as making sophisticated tools and fashioning jewelry, a sign of symbolic expression. But new radiocarbon dating at a site in France could mar this flattering view. The study concludes that the archaeological layers at the site are so mixed up that ornaments and tools once attributed to Neandertals could actually be the work of modern humans, who lived in the same cave at a later date. One prominent researcher even argues that this celebrated site, the Grotte du Renne (literally "reindeer cave") at Arcy-sur-Cure in central France, should now be eliminated from scientific consideration. "This key site should be disqualified from the debate over [Neandertal] symbolism," says Randall White, an archaeologist at New York University. But João Zilhão, an archaeologist at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom who has often tussled with White and other researchers over the evidence from the Grotte du Renne, says that the new study "prove[s] the exact opposite of what [its] authors claim." The Grotte du Renne was excavated between 1949 and 1963 by the late French prehistorian André Leroi-Gourhan, who found 15 levels of hominid occupation ranging from about 45,000 to 28,000 years ago. This period includes the overlapping occupation of Europe by Neandertals, who show up about 130,000 years ago and disappear no later than 30,000 years ago, and modern humans, who arrived in Europe between 45,000 and 40,000 years ago and stayed for good. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 14569 - Posted: 10.19.2010

By REUTERS LONDON (Reuters) — Starch grains found on 30,000-year-old grinding stones suggest that prehistoric humans may have dined on an early form of flatbread, contrary to their popular image as primarily meat eaters. The findings, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal on Monday, indicate that Paleolithic Europeans ground down plant roots similar to potatoes to make flour, which was later whisked into dough. “It’s like a flatbread, like a pancake with just water and flour,” said Laura Longo, a researcher on the team, from the Italian Institute of Prehistory and Early History. “You make a kind of pita and cook it on the hot stone,” she said, describing how the team replicated the cooking process. The end product was “crispy like a cracker but not very tasty,” she added. The grinding stones, each of which fits comfortably into an adult’s palm, were discovered at archaeological sites in Italy, Russia and the Czech Republic. The researchers said their findings throw humankind’s first known use of flour back some 10,000 years, the previously oldest evidence having been found in Israel on 20,000-year-old grinding stones. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Evolution; Obesity
Link ID: 14568 - Posted: 10.19.2010

Repeated viewing of violent scenes in films, television or video games could make teenagers behave more aggressively, US research suggests. The National Institutes of Health study of 22 boys aged 14 to 17 found that showing dozens of violent clips appeared to blunt brain responses. Dr Jordan Grafman said it might make aggression feel more "acceptable". However, a UK expert said the reasons behind violence were too complex to be explained by laboratory research. The effect of violent imagery on young people has been debated from the early days of television, and, more recently, that debate has expanded to include video games. Various studies have suggested that exposure appears to have an effect on the way that the brain processes emotional responses, yet it is unclear whether this can have a direct impact on behaviour. The US study, published in the journal Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience, involved 60 violent scenes from videos being collated, mostly involving street brawling and fist fights. The violence was ranked "low", "mild" or "moderate", and there were no "extreme" scenes. BBC © MMX

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 14567 - Posted: 10.19.2010

Evidence is mounting that levels of vitamin B12 may be connected to the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. A study of 271 Finns found those with the highest levels were the least likely to be diagnosed with dementia. However, an Alzheimer's charity said despite the findings, published in the journal Neurology, it was "too early" to think about taking supplements. It called for more research into the protective power of vitamins such as B12 - found in meat, fish and eggs. Vitamin B12 can also be found in milk and some fortified cereals. Alzheimer's has been linked to B vitamins for some years, and scientists know that higher levels of a body chemical called homocysteine can raise the risk of both strokes and dementia. Homocysteine levels can be lowered by increasing the amount of vitamin B12 in the blood. A recent trial found that "brain shrinkage", which has been associated with Alzheimer's, was slowed in older people taking high doses of vitamins, including B12. The volunteers for the latest study, carried out by scientists from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, were all aged 65 to 79, and did not have dementia at the start of the study. BBC © MMX

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 14566 - Posted: 10.19.2010

by David Hambling Imagine a bionic arm that plugs directly into the nervous system, so that the brain can control its motion, and the owner can feel pressure and heat through their robotic hand. This prospect has come a step closer with the development of photonic sensors that could improve connections between nerves and prosthetic limbs. Existing neural interfaces are electronic, using metal components that may be rejected by the body. Now Marc Christensen at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and colleagues are building sensors to pick up nerve signals using light instead. They employ optical fibres and polymers that are less likely than metal to trigger an immune response, and which will not corrode. The sensors are currently in the prototype stage and too big to put in the body, but smaller versions should work in biological tissue, according to the team. The sensors are based on spherical shells of a polymer that changes shape in an electric field. The shells are coupled with an optical fibre, which sends a beam of light travelling around inside them. The way that the light travels around the inside of the sphere is called a "whispering gallery mode", named after the Whispering Gallery in St Paul's Cathedral, London, where sound travels further than usual because it reflects along a concave wall. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 14565 - Posted: 10.19.2010

By Steve Connor, Science Editor A gambling experiment has shown that pigeons like a flutter as much as humans – and that taking big risks in the hope of high rewards may be a fundamental part of our biological nature. Scientists have shown that when faced with a choice between a series of safe, small but guaranteed rewards or a single much larger reward that is less likely to happen, pigeons will almost always choose to gamble. The findings were a surprise to researchers, because Darwinist theory would predict that the birds would be honed by natural selection to act in a way that optimises the way they behave, rather than allowing them to take unnecessary risks that are going to leave them worse off in the long term. However, the scientists believe that if pigeons have an innate predisposition to gamble then this could be a widespread trait across the animal kingdom – and might even explain why so many people like to gamble, even though they know they are likely to be worse off over time. The experiment on pigeons indicates that there may be a fundamental biological reason for gambling rather than explanations based on purely human-centred preferences, such as the idea that gambling is practised because it is enjoyable and entertaining, said Thomas Zentall, professor of psychology at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 14564 - Posted: 10.19.2010

By Shaun Dreisbach Anxiety. It’s a term that’s often tossed around in conversation—as a casual synonym for stress, or worry, or that feeling you get when you look at your to-do list. But for 40 million Americans, anxiety disorders are debilitating and omnipresent, and women are twice as likely to suffer as men, according to the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. “There is an intense, constant fear that is hard to describe,” says Laura Rowe, 34, of Denver. “It’s a sinking feeling in your stomach—almost as if someone is stalking you and you never know when those arms are going to wrap around you and drag you away.” And more and more of us are being diagnosed: A recent study of about 63,700 college students found that five times as many young adults are dealing with high levels of anxiety as in the late 1930s (itself a stressful time!). The signs of anxiety’s prevalence among women are everywhere: Ads for anti-anxiety drugs run frequently on TV shows often aimed at women; young female stars, like the actress Amanda Seyfried, confide their own experiences in the press; websites like findthelight.net attract thousands of users. And though no national data of rates in women exist, many experts believe the surge is not just media hype—it’s real. “I think there’s little question that there’s more anxiety today, and that women, in particular, are feeling it,” says JoAnn E. Manson, M.D., chief of the division of preventive medicine at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “I see it not only among patients but with friends, colleagues and people I interact with daily.” Copyright © 2010 CondéNet.

Keyword: Emotions; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 14563 - Posted: 10.16.2010