By TARA PARKER-POPE Does your husband or wife constantly forget chores and lose track of the calendar? Do you sometimes feel that instead of living with a spouse, you’re raising another child? Your marriage may be suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. An A.D.H.D. marriage? It may sound like a punch line, but the idea that attention problems can take a toll on adult relationships is getting more attention from mental health experts. In a marriage, the common symptoms of the disorder — distraction, disorganization, forgetfulness — can easily be misinterpreted as laziness, selfishness and a lack of love and concern. Experts suggest that at least 4 percent of adults suffer from the disorder; that as many as half of all children with A.D.H.D. do not fully outgrow it and continue to struggle with symptoms as adults; and that many adults with the disorder never got the diagnosis as children. Adults with attention disorders often learn coping skills to help them stay organized and focused at work, but experts say many of them struggle at home, where their tendency to become distracted is a constant source of conflict. Some research suggests that these adults are twice as likely to be divorced; another study found high levels of distress in 60 percent of marriages where one spouse has the disorder. “Typically people don’t realize the A.D.H.D. is impacting their marriage because there’s been no talk about this at all,” said Melissa Orlov, author of the new book “The A.D.H.D. Effect on Marriage,” to be published in September. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: ADHD; Attention
Link ID: 14276 - Posted: 07.20.2010

Infants who will eventually be diagnosed with autism may be slower to eat solid foods and be fussier eaters, but their growth doesn't seem to be impaired compared with children without the disorders, a new British study suggests. Parents often describe infants diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) as "slow feeders," and children with ASDs are often reported to eat a limited range of foods. Compared with 12,901 children without ASDs, 79 children ultimately diagnosed with an ASD were more likely to be slow eaters by six months, Dr. Pauline Emmett of the University of Bristol in England and her colleagues reported in Monday's online issue of the journal Pediatrics. Compared to the control group, children with ASD ate fewer vegetables, salads, and fresh fruit, but also consumed fewer sweets and carbonated drinks, the researchers said. About eight per cent of parents of autistic children reported that, as their kids reached 15 months, they were "very difficult to feed." That compared to about three per cent of kids without autism. Even though children with ASD consumed less of some vitamins and ate a more limited variety of foods, their intake of carbohydrates, protein, fats and total energy were similar to controls. No major differences in weight, height or body mass index were found up to age seven. © CBC 2010

Keyword: Autism; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 14275 - Posted: 07.20.2010

By Daniela Schiller You are on a plane, thirty thousand feet above ground. Four hundred and fifty snakes crawl into the passenger cabin. You think this is terrifying? Hollywood producers certainly gambled on that when they released the 2006 summer blockbuster “Snakes on a Plane.” Israeli scientists, however, have come up with an even creepier scenario. You are in an MRI machine. Your head is fixed in a round cage. Your body is rolled into a narrow tube. Magnetic pulses are beamed into your brain. A meter-and-a-half-long snake is strapped with Velcro atop a small box on a conveyor belt just inches behind your head. Your eyes meet the snake’s beady gaze through a tiny mirror above your head. You can’t move. Why would Uri Nili and Yadin Dudai, two scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, want to put a snake in the MRI scanner with you? Obviously, not to scan the snake’s brain (although this might be an interesting possibility). They wanted to scan your brain while you perform an act of courage. They wanted to push research on fear one step further – from understanding how we passively react to fear, through actively avoiding it, to actually confronting it. FBI agent Neville Flynn (Samuel L. Jackson) could have been an ideal candidate for the experiment. Grabbing and fighting the snakes on the plane with his bare hands, Flynn came to the rescue of the passengers on red-eye flight 121. But there was no FBI or Mossad agent at the Weizmann Institute. The participants in the experiment had to face the snake on their own. All they had were two buttons. Pressing one would roll the snake closer. Pressing the other would slide it away. ‘Advance’ or ‘Retreat’, were their two options. They could choose either one, instructed only to do their best in pulling the snake toward their heads. (See the video here.) © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 14274 - Posted: 07.20.2010

by Lise Eliot IN 2010 we need to ask afresh just how deep the rabbit hole goes when it comes to gender politics - and how far we are from digging ourselves out. Our beliefs about differences between the sexes have an impact on society vastly out of proportion to the magnitude of those differences, from female scientists defending their mathematical and technical expertise to boys accused of lacking the communication and emotional skills to succeed at school. In truth, women are doing well in science: since 1970, the number of doctorates awarded to women in the US has increased five-fold in physics, nine-fold in computer science and 24-fold in engineering, according to the US Department of Education. And yet just last month we heard John Tierney of The New York Times appearing to echo former Harvard University president Larry Summers's claim that women may be intrinsically incapable of performing at the highest level in such fields. At the same time, boys are stepping away from pursuits like creative writing, foreign languages, art and singing in choirs as they hear they are not "hard-wired" for words or feelings. While young women get the message they can do anything, young men are put off careers in journalism, design, teaching, veterinary practice and psychotherapy, where they were once quite successful. When I set out to write my book Pink Brain, Blue Brain, I had little sense of the controversy surrounding gender differences. I was just a neuroscientist with a daughter and two sons, curious about how their brains might differ and how best to raise them. Now I see how little the science of gender differences has penetrated popular culture and am hoping to set the record straight on behalf of both sexes. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 14273 - Posted: 07.19.2010

Ecstasy may help boost therapy success in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder, say researchers. A small trial in 20 patients has shown use of the drug is safe and seems to improve the effects of psychotherapy. The US team has now gained approval for a larger study in military veterans, but stresses more research is needed to confirm the finding. It is thought the drug reduces fear enabling patients to get more out of their therapy sessions. Writing in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the team said patients were selected on strict criteria - they had to have had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for many years and have failed with conventional treatments. Doctors also excluded those with a history of psychosis or addiction. In the trial, patients were offered two eight-hour psychotherapy sessions scheduled a few weeks apart, with 12 of them given a dose of ecstasy and eight a placebo. Two months later, 10 of the 12 patients given ecstasy responded to the treatment, the researchers said. In contrast, just two out of eight patients offered a placebo showed an improvement. BBC © MMX

Keyword: Stress; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 14272 - Posted: 07.19.2010

by Kate Douglas "What are you laughing at?" Ignoring any aggressive intent, the answer is obvious: I am laughing because something you said amused me. Right? Wrong. According to a classic study of laughter by Robert Provine of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and his colleagues, laughter is an unexpectedly serious business. Observing the human animal in its natural habitat - the shopping mall - they documented 1200 instances of laughter, and found that only 10 to 20 per cent of them were responses to anything remotely resembling a joke. Most laughter was in fact either triggered by a banal comment or used to punctuate everyday speech. Furthermore, says Provine in his book Laughter: A scientific investigation, we are 50 per cent more likely to laugh when speaking than when listening, and 30 times gigglier in a social setting than when alone without a social surrogate such as a television. Provine's conclusion was that the essential ingredient for laughter is not a joke but another person. Laughter is far more general than just a response to humour: it is a social glue that we use in all sorts of ways to bind ourselves together. As such, it comes in many guises. Our first laughs occur at between 2 and 6 months of age - even in deaf babies. They are triggered by surprise in a safe situation (think peek-a-boo), and don't just endear babies to their parents. Since laughter is associated with activity in the brain's dopamine reward circuitry, it encourages babies to explore the world by making them feel happy and safe. When infants begin to engage in rough-and-tumble play, laughter signals that the intentions are not serious, allowing children to test physical and social boundaries without serious jeopardy. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Emotions; Language
Link ID: 14271 - Posted: 07.19.2010

by Catherine Brahic THE French have elevated it to an art form, and even the British have got better at it - but chimps can't cook at all. According to one controversial evolutionary theory, early humans developed a taste for cooked food around 2 million years ago, and this set in motion a series of changes that made us utterly different from any other animal. Now the proponents of the cooked-food hypothesis are presenting fresh evidence in support of the idea - and it all comes down to how you chew. The theory, championed by Richard Wrangham at Harvard University, has divided palaeoanthropologists. In an attempt to convince the doubters, Wrangham and his colleagues have been amassing empirical evidence, including evolutionary adaptations consistent with a diet of heated food, such as the small size of our guts. At the Evolution 2010 conference in Portland, Oregon, at the end of June, Christopher Organ of Harvard and Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, presented what he and Wrangham say is the best evidence yet that we are adapted to eating cooked food, and that this is the result of events that occurred early on in human evolution. Organ and Charles Nunn, also of Harvard, had predicted that if humans are uniquely adapted to eating cooked food, then we should spend far less time chewing than other primates, as cooked food tends to be softer than raw food. To test this, they gathered data from various primate species and looked at the correlation between chewing time and body size, taking into account how the different species were related to each other. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 14270 - Posted: 07.17.2010

by Linda Geddes NEXT time a sentimental movie makes you cry, blame your serotonin levels. Differences in the neurotransmitter might explain why some people are more prone to crying in emotional situations than others. Frederick van der Veen's team at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, gave 25 female volunteers a single dose of either paroxetine - a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) which briefly increases serotonin levels - or a placebo. Four hours later they were asked to watch one of two emotional movies: Brian's Song, in which the hero dies of cancer, or Once Were Warriors, about domestic violence, and to indicate if, and to what extent certain scenes had made them cry. On another day, the women watched the second film with their treatments swapped over. "It didn't matter which movie they saw, we saw a strong and consistent effect of paroxetine," says van der Veen, who presented the results at the Forum of European Neuroscience in Amsterdam last week. "Higher serotonin levels lead to less crying." Although SSRIs are used to treat depression, their mood-boosting effects do not normally show up for around six weeks. The women reported no change in mood in the current study. "We're looking at the direct effect of a single dose of paroxetine," says van der Veen, who adds that the findings might help explain why some people report blunted emotions when taking SSRIs. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Emotions; Depression
Link ID: 14269 - Posted: 07.17.2010

by Andy Coghlan NASAL sprays containing the hormone oxytocin, nicknamed the "cuddle chemical" because it helps mothers bond with their babies, have helped people with schizophrenia. Although the 15 participants used the sprays for three weeks only, most reported measurable improvements in their symptoms in this the first trial to test oxytocin in schizophrenia. "It's proof of concept that there's therapeutic potential here," says David Feifel at the University of California in San Diego, head of the team running the trial. Each participant received oxytocin or a placebo for three weeks, then the opposite treatment for three weeks with a week break in between. On the basis of two standard tests for schizophrenia, taken before and after each block of treatment, participants averaged improvements of around 8 per cent when taking the oxytocin compared with the placebo (Biological Psychiatry, DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2010.04.039). The effects didn't kick in until the final week, suggesting that it takes a while for the hormone to begin acting. "Standard antipsychotic drugs increase their efficacy several weeks later too, so oxytocin fits that profile," says Feifel. Feifel thinks that oxytocin is dampening down the excessive production of the neurotransmitter dopamine, which can trigger schizophrenic symptoms such as hallucinations. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 14268 - Posted: 07.17.2010

By THE NEW YORK TIMES Q. What are the risks of long-term use of prescription drugs to combat insomnia?Claudia, New York, N.Y. A. Dr. Thorpy and Dr. Harris respond: In our sleep center, we use several types of prescription medications to treat insomnia. The most well known are drugs like Ambien (zolpidem), Lunesta (escopiclone) and Sonata (zaleplon) — sometimes referred to as the “Z-drugs” or hypnotics. They all affect a brain structure called the GABA receptor, which is widely found throughout the brain and has many functions; their main effect is to dampen arousal, thereby allowing sleep to occur. There are also non-GABA sleep medications like Rozerem (ramelteon), which reduces arousal by affecting the receptor for the hormone melatonin. Before using any of these medications, it is vital to understand the underlying cause of the insomnia, since other treatments may be more appropriate. If depression is the cause of poor sleep, for example, antidepressants or lifestyle changes may be the most appropriate course. Insomnia has now been shown to be associated with a range of underlying medical and psychological disorders, and it is therefore an important condition to treat. We usually use both behavioral and medication therapy, either alone or together, to get the best response. The aim is to have the patient come off the sleep medication completely when the insomnia resolves. Some people, though, have chronic insomnia that is associated with a medical or psychiatric disorder and need to continue medication very long-term. They can do so without any untoward effects. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 14267 - Posted: 07.17.2010

By GINA KOLATA Marilyn Maldonado is not quite sure why she is at the Memory Enhancement Center in the seaside town of Oakhurst, N.J. “What are we waiting for?” she asks. About 10 minutes later, she asks again. Then she asks again. She is waiting to enter a new type of Alzheimer’s drug study that will, in the boldest effort yet, test the leading hypothesis about how to slow or stop this terrifying brain disease. The disease is defined by freckles of barnacle-like piles of a protein fragment, amyloid beta, in the brain. So, the current thinking goes, if you block amyloid formation or get rid of amyloid accumulations — plaque — and if you start treatment before the disease is well under way, you might have a chance to alter its course. On Tuesday, that plan got a new push. The National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer’s Association proposed new guidelines for diagnosis to find signs of Alzheimer’s in people who do not yet have severe symptoms, or even any symptoms at all. The guidelines are needed for the new approach to Alzheimer’s drug development. Just about every pharmaceutical company and many biotechnology companies have experimental drugs to block amyloid — there are more than 100 in the pipeline. And the companies would like to show that if they give their drugs early, they can slow or stop the disease. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 14266 - Posted: 07.17.2010

By Bruce Bower Here’s some not-so-sobering news for party people, barhoppers and clubgoers. Individuals who inherit a particular gene variant that tweaks the brain’s reward system are especially likely to drink a lot of alcohol in the company of heavy-boozing peers. That’s the preliminary indication of a new study directed by psychology graduate student Helle Larsen of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Adults carrying at least one copy of a long version of the dopamine D4 receptor gene, dubbed DRD4, imbibed substantially more alcohol around a heavy-drinking peer than did others who lacked that gene variant, Larsen’s group reports in a paper published online July 7 in Psychological Science. “Carriers of the long gene may be more attuned to, and influenced by, another person’s heavy drinking than noncarriers are,” Larsen says. Her study provides the first evidence that a gene influences human alcohol use in social situations. Scientists have yet to decipher the precise brain effects of DRD4’s long form. Larsen hypothesizes that in the presence of heavy drinkers, the gene variant may increase dopamine activity in brain areas that amplify alcohol’s appeal as a rewarding social activity. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14265 - Posted: 07.17.2010

Miriam Frankel A type of brain cell thought to be responsible for supporting other cells may have a previously unsuspected role in controlling breathing. Star-shaped cells called astrocytes, found in the brain and spinal cord, can 'sense' changes in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood and stimulate neurons to regulate respiration, according to a study published online in Science today1. The research may shed some light on the role of astrocytes in certain respiratory illnesses, such as cot death, which are not well understood. Astrocytes are a type of glial cell — the most common type of brain cell, and far more abundant than neurons. "Historically, glial cells were only thought to 'glue' the brain together, providing neuronal structure and nutritional support but not more," explains physiologist Alexander Gourine of University College London, one of the authors of the study. "This old dogma is now changing dramatically; a few recent studies have shown that astrocytes can actually help neurons to process information." "The most important aspect of this study is that it will significantly change ideas about how breathing is controlled," says David Attwell, a neuroscientist at University College London, who was not involved in the study. During exercise, the amount of CO2 in the blood increases, making the blood more acidic. Until now, it was thought that this pH change was 'sensed' by specialized neurons that signal to the lungs to expel more CO2. But the study found that astrocytes can sense such a decrease in pH too — a change that causes an increase in the concentration of calcium ions (Ca2+) in the cells and the release of the chemical messenger adenosine-5'-triphosphate (ATP). © 2010 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Glia; Sleep
Link ID: 14264 - Posted: 07.17.2010

by Dolly Krishnaswamy Under the vivid green canopies of the tropics, a young gorilla sneaks up behind another, yanks its hair, and dashes away with a toothy grin on its face. It may seem like harmless fun, but this game of tag has profound implications. In a new study, researchers say the behavior indicates that gorillas know the limits of their social status—and that they play tag to help even the score. Other studies have shown that nonhumans can sense unfairness. In 2005, for example, a group led by psychologist Sarah Brosnan of Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Atlanta reported that capuchin monkeys refused to exchange tokens with an experimenter for a cucumber if they saw a fellow monkey receiving a more desirable grape for its "money." But do animals also sense unfairness in more natural settings? To find out, behavioral biologist Marina Davila Ross of the University of Portsmouth in Hampshire, U.K., and colleagues watched videos collected over 3 years of gorillas at various zoos and reserves in Germany and Switzerland. Almost every afternoon, a couple of the gorillas would begin wrestling with each other. In some instances, gorillas hit their playmates and ran away. Most gorillas seemed to play this game of tag, though older mothers observed from the sidelines. Ross's team noticed a pattern in the play: Gorillas lower on the social ladder were usually the taggers. These gorillas were also twice as likely to instigate another round of the game, and they frequently bared their teeth—a possible indication that they were willing to bite the other gorilla. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Evolution
Link ID: 14263 - Posted: 07.15.2010

Lucas Laursen The rust-coloured plateau above Mecca in Saudi Arabia may soon attract pilgrims of palaeontology. The hills, which overlook the Red Sea, have disgorged the 29–28-million-year-old partial skull fossil of an early primate that possesses features both of apes and monkeys. The skull could help palaeontologists to answer questions about the life of primates in a period that until now has provided few fossils. When he caught sight of the skull during an expedition in search of ancient whale fossils last year, Iyad Zalmout wondered whether it belonged to a monkey or an ape. "It turns out it's not an ape, it's not a monkey, it's something intermediate," says Zalmout, a palaeontologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and an author of a paper published in Nature today1. The primate, dubbed Saadanius hijazensis, shares characteristics with Propliopithecoidea, an ancestor of apes and monkeys which existed more than 30 million years ago, as well as with more recent primates found to have lived from 23 million years ago. Saadanius lacks the advanced sinuses of the modern apes and monkeys that are collectively called catarrhines, but has a bony ear tube that was not yet fully developed in the Propliopithecoidea. "This fossil is really key because it has that bony tube," says Erik Seiffert, an anatomist at Stony Brook University in New York. Comparison of the tube and other features, such as the teeth and the position of the eye sockets on the partial skull, with those of other primates could help palaeontologists to reconstruct the branches of the catarrhine family tree, between 30 and about 23 million years ago, says Seiffert. © 2010 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 14262 - Posted: 07.15.2010

By Janet Raloff Being fat may diminish mental performance, studies find — a problem that worsens with age. But among elderly women, where fat is deposited may matter. To wit: The big apple is sharper than the obese pear. Genetics dictates where people preferentially accumulate body fat. For most it’s around the belly. Among the obese, these apple-shaped individuals tend to run a bigger risk of developing heart disease than do pears — people who deposit most of their excess fat at the hips and thighs. For a host of reasons, physicians had expected that if body shape affected mental performance, apples would again prove the bigger losers. In fact, the opposite appears true, Diana Kerwin of Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago and her colleagues report online July 14 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The team pored over data collected from more than 8,700 women, all 65 to 79 years old. These were a healthy subset of incoming participants to the Women’s Health Initiative study. This long-running trial at 40 medical centers across the country has been investigating the role of hormone-replacement therapy and diet on risk of heart disease, fractures and certain cancers. Each woman was administered a test of memory and reasoning known as the Modified Mini-Mental State Examination, or 3MSE. Kerwin’s team correlated a participant’s score with her shape and her height-adjusted weight — something known as body-mass index, or BMI. BMI values were divided into six categories, with 1 being lean and 6 morbidly obese. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Obesity; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 14261 - Posted: 07.15.2010

Having low vitamin D levels may increase a person's risk of developing Parkinson's disease later in life, say Finnish researchers. Their study of 3,000 people, published in Archives of Neurology, found people with the lowest levels of the sunshine vitamin had a three-fold higher risk. Vitamin D could be helping to protect the nerve cells gradually lost by people with the disease, experts say. The charity Parkinson's UK said further research was required. Parkinson's disease affects several parts of the brain, leading to symptoms like tremor and slow movements. The researchers from Finland's National Institute for Health and Welfare measured vitamin D levels from the study group between 1978 and 1980, using blood samples. They then followed these people over 30 years to see whether they developed Parkinson's disease. They found that people with the lowest levels of vitamin D were three times more likely to develop Parkinson's, compared with the group with the highest levels of vitamin D. Most vitamin D is made by the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight, although some comes from foods like oily fish, milk or cereals. As people age, however, their skin becomes less able to produce vitamin D. Doctors have known for many years that vitamin D helps calcium uptake and bone formation. But research is now showing that it also plays a role in regulating the immune system, as well as in the development of the nervous system. (C)BBC

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 14260 - Posted: 07.13.2010

by MARILYNN MARCHIONE MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Scientists are reporting advances in detecting and predicting Alzheimer's disease at a conference in Honolulu this week, plus offering more proof that getting enough exercise and vitamin D may lower your risk. There are better brain scans to spot Alzheimer's disease. More genes that affect risk. Blood and spinal fluid tests that may help tell who will develop the mind-robbing illness and when. But what is needed most — a treatment that does more than just ease symptoms — is not at hand. "We don't have anything that slows or stops the course," said William Thies, the Alzheimer's Association scientific director. "We're really in a silent window right now" with new drugs, he said. Several promising ones flopped in late-stage tests — most recently, Pfizer Inc.'s Dimebon. Results on several others won't be ready until next year. Still, there is some progress against Alzheimer's, a dementia that afflicts more than 26 million people worldwide. Highlights of the research being reported this week: Prevention. Moderate to heavy exercisers had half the risk of developing dementia compared with less active people, researchers from the long-running Framingham Heart Study reported Sunday. Earlier studies also found exercise helps. Copyright 2010 The Associated Press.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 14259 - Posted: 07.13.2010

Steve Connor Huntington’s disease is a relatively rare genetic disorder that you wouldn’t wish upon your worst enemy. If you carry a single copy of the affected gene you are destined to die a horrible death involving uncontrollable movements, psychiatric disturbances and progressive dementia. The first symptoms typically occur around the age of 40, and it takes between 10 and 15 more years for the gradual neurodegeneration to end life. Ten years after the excitement of mapping the human genome, and the revolution in the understanding of genetic disorders that the achievement has brought, it is easy to forget that some of those directly affected by inherited diseases have seen little in terms of practical benefit. The gene involved in Huntington’s disease was mapped to chromosome 4 in 1983 by a team led by Jim Gusella at Harvard Medical School in Boston, but it took another 10 years of intensive effort to isolate and clone the gene itself. This allowed scientists to find the type of changes, or mutations, that cause the disorder – the mutated gene has about two or three times the normal number of ‘GAG repeats. I remember on both occasions – in 1983 and 1993 – there were optimistic predictions that the discoveries would soon lead to a test for the carriers of the Huntington’s mutation and effective treatments – even possibly a cure – for the disease. The sad fact is that although a relatively cheap and accurate diagnostic test for the Huntington’s mutation has existed for some years, this medical advance has for the affected families arguably produced more misery than it has eradicated. For a start, there has been no accompanying revolution in treatment, largely because there are so few affected people (estimated to be about 12,000 in Britain) to make it worth the expense and effort of the drug companies to develop new therapies. ©independent.co.uk

Keyword: Huntingtons; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 14258 - Posted: 07.13.2010

By GINA KOLATA A small company with a new brain scan for detecting plaque, the hallmark physical sign of Alzheimer’s disease, presented its results on Sunday at an international conference in Hawaii, and experts who attended said the data persuaded them that the method works. Until now, the only definitive way to diagnose Alzheimer’s has been to search for plaque with a brain autopsy after the patient dies. Scientists hope the new scanning technique, described June 24 in The New York Times’s series “The Vanishing Mind,” will allow doctors to see plaque while the patient is still alive, improving diagnosis and aiding research on drugs to slow or stop plaque accumulation. Neurologists have known about plaques ever since Alzheimer’s disease was first described in 1906. They are microscopic bumps made up of a protein, amyloid beta, appearing on the surface of the brain in areas involved with learning and memory. They are so characteristic of Alzheimer’s that they are required for a definitive diagnosis of the disease. Of course, doctors do not wait for a brain autopsy to diagnose Alzheimer’s. They use memory tests and evaluations of patients’ reasoning and ability to care for themselves. Yet with autopsy, even doctors at leading medical centers have been wrong as often as 20 percent of the time: people they said had Alzheimer’s did not have plaque. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers; Brain imaging
Link ID: 14257 - Posted: 07.13.2010