By HENRY FOUNTAIN If you’ve seen one damselfish, you’ve seen them all. That may be true for people, who have a difficult time telling some damselfish species apart. But the fish themselves see it differently, according to a study in Current Biology. They can use ultraviolet facial patterns to tell one species from another. Ulrike E. Siebeck of the University of Queensland in Australia and colleagues studied Pomacentrus amboinensis and P. moluccensis, two species of damselfish capable of seeing light at the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. They are also highly territorial: P. amboinensis males, for example, will chase off unfamiliar members of their species because they are seen as competitors, but go easier on P. moluccensis intruders. To people, the two species of reef fish look practically identical. But under UV light they are revealed to have distinctly different patterns in the scales around the eyes. “These are really fine, intricate patterns that we can’t see at all,” Dr. Siebeck said. The question for her and her colleagues was whether the patterns, and the ability to see them, had an effect on behavior. In a series of experiments in which, among other things, they placed fish inside a glass chamber equipped with UV filters, they showed that P. amboinensis used the patterns to discriminate between the two species. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 13806 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D. Picture a cupped hand. A capsule and a pill lie in the palm. The hand is extended toward a small child. The caption reads, “Take your vitamins.” It’s better than a Rorschach test, that image: most people will erupt with a passionate visceral reaction, especially if they deduce that the proffered medications are not vitamins at all, but strong psychoactive drugs like Ritalin and Prozac. For some, the picture symbolizes the best kind of parenting, proactive and nurturing. For others, it is an evocative summary of everything that is wrong with our culture, as pushy parents blithely dose hapless children with unnecessary medication in the name of conformity and achievement. The journalist Judith Warner was a die-hard member of the second camp, and wanted to spread the word. Six years ago, she happily landed a book contract to explore and document the overmedication of American youth. Readers of Domestic Disturbances, the online column Ms. Warner wrote for The New York Times until December, will be familiar with what happened next. She sallied forth to interview all the pushy parents, irresponsible doctors and overmedicated children she could find — and lo, she could barely find any. After several years of dead ends, missed deadlines and worried soul-searching, she was forced to reconsider her premise and start all over again. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: ADHD; Depression
Link ID: 13805 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Katherine Harmon Would you feel better if, besides giving you a pill, your doctor also explained some potential benefits? It's quite likely, according to research from placebo effect studies from the past couple of decades. But an international group of researchers, led by Damien Finniss of the University of Sydney Pain Management and Research Institute in Australia, wanted to take a closer look at just how such an approach affects patients—and doctors who might make use of it. "The placebo effect is a genuine psychobiological event attributable to the overall therapeutic context," the researchers explained in their review article published online February 18 in The Lancet. In other words, the effect is real but heavily dependent not just on the existence of possible treatment, but perhaps even more so on the environment in which it is administered. Several types of placebo effects have been identified—from the psychological (conditioning and expectation) to the neurobiological (opioid release and changes in metabolic activity in the brain). But few studies have charted precisely how the clinical context of a placebo or treatment administration changes its effect. Some studies have shown the effect of "nocebos," which patients are told their treatments might increase discomfort. Others have shown that receiving acupuncture, whether it is real, faked (with retracting needles) or done incorrectly, can better relieve back pain than traditional treatments. But the ethical slope is a slippery one, the researchers conceded, often making further research difficult without ample deception or withholding real treatment from people who need it. © 2010 Scientific American, a division of Nature America,

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 13804 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Laura Sanders SAN DIEGO — Quantity, not quality, of sleep may determine how well older people’s brains function the next day, research reported February 21 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science suggests. For youngsters, though, quality may be more important. The study shows that sleep affects young and old brains differently, and may ultimately lead to new ways to offset age-related cognitive decline. The link between sleep and learning has been well-established, comments Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley. “It’s critical to sleep before learning. Sleep almost prepares the brain like a dry sponge to soak up new information.” Contrary to common beliefs, older adults don’t sleep substantially less than younger adults. From age 35 to 85, people really lose only about an hour of nightly sleep, psychologist Sean Drummond of the University of California, San Diego said at the meeting. Rather, the thing that changes is something called sleep efficiency — a measure of the portion of time spent tossing, turning or lying awake in bed. “The biggest, most common, most robust change is that we spend more time awake in the middle of the night,” Drummond said. In the new study, 33 adults with a mean age of 67 and 29 adults with a mean age of 27 slept in a lab while Drummond and his colleagues measured the duration and quality of their sleep. The next day, the researchers tested participants’ brain activity and performance on a learning and memory task. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Sleep; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13803 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Lisa Grossman Karen Emmorey, a cognitive neuroscientist at San Diego State University, has been looking at how the brains of deaf people interpret American Sign Language. She showed 10 subjects pictures of objects that have actions associated with them — a cup for “drink,” say, or a broom for “sweep.” She asked participants to either sign the word that goes with the picture or to pantomime using the object. In some cases, like “drink,” the word and the gesture are the same: Subjects pretended to hold a cup in one hand and brought it to their mouths. For other words, like “sweep,” the sign and the pantomime look different. By taking positron emission tomography images of the brain as subjects signed, Emmorey found that the brain broadcast participants’ intentions: Different regions of the brain lit up when the deaf subjects signed than when they pantomimed, even when the word and gesture were identical. "For sign production we find language regions engaged,” Emmorey said February 19 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. But when subjects were pantomiming, the brain regions that lit up were those associated with grasping, manipulation and motor planning. “The fact that many signs are iconic doesn’t change the fundamental organization of language, nor does it change the neural systems that underlie language,” she said. The work has been submitted for consideration for publication in Language and Cognitive Processes. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 13802 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Taking a mid-afternoon nap may prepare the brain to learn new things, early research suggests. Researchers in the U.S. studied 39 young adults who were divided into two groups. At noon, study participants took a memory test that required them to remember faces linked to names. Of those in the study, 20 took a nap for 100 minutes. All of the volunteers were then retested at 6 p.m. Those who stayed awake did about 10 per cent worse on the tests compared with those who napped, Matthew Walker of University of California at Berkeley said. He presented the preliminary findings Sunday at the American Association of the Advancement of Science meeting in San Diego. The more hours we spend awake, the more sluggish the brain becomes, the study suggests. Normally, the ability to learn declines between noon and 6 p.m., but a nap seemed to fight off the decline. "After about 1:30, I notice my last class of the day I just want the day to be over," Marquis Majore said during reading week at the University of Regina. "It's hard to concentrate and stay focused in class." Previous data from the same team showed pulling an all-nighter also reduces the brain's ability to cram in new facts by nearly 20 per cent. Walker's team showed that fact-based memories are temporarily stored in a region of the brain called the hippocampus before being sent to the brain's prefrontal cortex, which may have more storage space. © CBC 2010

Keyword: Sleep; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 13801 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Raymond A. Levy and J. Stuart Ablon A remarkably important event has just occurred in the world of psychology: A leading, peer-reviewed journal has published the strongest evidence yet that psychodynamic psychotherapy -- “talk therapy” -- works. In fact, it not only works, it keeps working long after the sessions stop. Full disclosure: We report this not as disinterested observers, but as psychotherapists and researchers on the process and efficacy of therapy. Our book, “Handbook of Evidence-Based Psychodynamic Psychotherapy,” summarized the body of research through last year and another will follow late this year. Still, we can state as fact: The movement to establish an evidence base for psychodynamic therapy has taken a giant new step forward. This new academic paper reports positive findings about the form of therapy that began with Sigmund Freud and has historically been utilized more than any other psychotherapy treatment. What does modern psychodynamic psychotherapy look like? Its distinctive features include several basic building blocks: A focus on emotion and relationships; identification of recurring themes and patterns; discussion of past experiences; a focus on the therapy relationship; exploration of attempts to avoid distressing thoughts and feelings; and exploration of fantasy life. Overall, the paper found, psychodynamic psychotherapy demonstrates efficacy at least equivalent to other psychotherapy treatments commonly labeled as “empirically supported” and “evidence based.” And in fact, it notes, psychodynamic therapy's "active ingredients" are shared by many other forms of therapy as well. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 13800 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Laura Sanders SAN DIEGO — Disrupting a gene implicated in schizophrenia early in development leads to brain anomalies and behavioral defects later in life, a new study in mice finds. The results, presented February 22 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, may help researchers understand how early developmental problems contribute to schizophrenia — a disease that typically shows up after adolescence. In humans, mutations in a gene called DISC1 cause flaws in networks of brain cells early in development, scientists believe, long before symptoms of schizophrenia appear. Researchers led by Akira Sawa of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore developed a new technique to diminish DISC1 activity in mice that are still developing in the womb. The method temporarily reduces DISC1 activity in brain cells in the mice’s prefrontal cortex, a region known to be important for schizophrenia. Sawa and colleagues disturbed DISC1 very early in development and tested the mice later. The mice’s brain chemistry and behavior seemed normal at 28 days. But at 56 days, Sawa and colleagues saw a big change. “After adolescence, we start to observe a dramatic difference in behavior, neurochemistry and information processing,” Sawa says. Mice that had reduced DISC1 activity in the womb had lower levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex at 56 days, the team found. DISC1 might be interfering with the normal development of dopamine-producing neurons, leading to the reduction of the chemical signal, Sawa says. What’s more, these mice performed worse on behavioral measures that require information processing. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13799 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Victoria Gill Teaching stroke patients to sing "rewires" their brains, helping them recover their speech, say scientists. By singing, patients use a different area of the brain from the area involved in speech. If a person's "speech centre" is damaged by a stroke, they can learn to use their "singing centre" instead. Researchers presented these findings at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego. An ongoing clinical trial, they said, has shown how the brain responds to this "melodic intonation therapy". Gottfried Schlaug, a neurology professor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, led the trial. The therapy is already established as a medical technique. Researchers first used it when it was discovered that stroke patients with brain damage that left them unable to speak were still able to sing. Professor Schlaug explained that his was the first study to combine this therapy with brain imaging - "to show what is actually going on in the brain" as patients learn to sing their words. Most of the connections between brain areas that control movement and those that control hearing are on the left side of the brain. "But there's a sort of corresponding hole on the right side," said Professor Schlaug. For some reason, it's not as endowed with these connections, so the left side is used much more in speech. If you damage the left side, the right side has trouble [fulfilling that role]." But as patients learn to put their words to melodies, the crucial connections form on the right side of their brains. Previous brain imaging studies have shown that this "singing centre" is overdeveloped in the brains of professional singers. (C)BBC

Keyword: Stroke; Language
Link ID: 13798 - Posted: 02.23.2010

By Matt Walker The first monogamous amphibian has been discovered living in the rainforest of South America. Genetic tests have revealed that male and females of one species of Peruvian poison frog remain utterly faithful. More surprising is the discovery that just one thing - the size of the pools of water in which they lay their tadpoles - prevents the frogs straying. That constitutes the best evidence yet documented that monogamy can have a single cause, say scientists. Details of the frog's sex life is published in the journal The American Naturalist. "This is the first discovery of a truly monogamous amphibian," says biologist Dr Jason Brown, then of East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, who made the discovery with colleagues Dr Victor Morales and Professor Kyle Summers. The monogamous frog species Ranitomeya imitator, known as the mimic poison frog, is already known to science. In recent years, Dr Brown and his colleagues have extensively studied many of its habits, which were filmed by the BBC natural history documentary series Life in Cold Blood. After mating, a female mimic poison frog lays her eggs on the surface of leaves. The male frog then takes away the tadpoles that hatch, carrying them one by one on his back to pools of water which collect in bromeliad leaves high up in the branches of trees. Each of half a dozen babies are put into their own tiny pool, which he then looks after. When the tadpoles become hungry, the male calls to his female partner who arrives to lay a non-fertile egg in each pool, which the tadpole eats as food. But while the male and female frogs appear to act in unison, new experiments have revealed the extent of their fidelity. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 13797 - Posted: 02.22.2010

By Randolph E. Schmid SAN DIEGO - Words and music, such natural partners that it seems obvious they go together. Now science is confirming that those abilities are linked in the brain, a finding that might even lead to better stroke treatments. Studies have found overlap in the brain's processing of language and instrumental music, and new research suggests that intensive musical therapy may help improve speech in stroke patients, researchers said Saturday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In addition, researchers said, music education can help children with developmental dyslexia or autism more accurately use speech. People who have suffered a severe stroke on the left side of the brain and cannot speak can sometimes learn to communicate through singing, Gottfried Schlaug, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School told the meeting. "Music making is a multisensory experience, activating links to several parts of the brain," Schlaug said. Schlaug showed a video of one patient who could only make meaningless sounds learning to say "I am thirsty," by singing the words, and another was able to sing "happy birthday." Copyright 2010 The Associated Press

Keyword: Hearing; Stroke
Link ID: 13796 - Posted: 02.22.2010

by Michael Torrice SAN DIEGO—Don’t get too close to a tired teen; you could start losing sleep as well. When one teenager starts sleeping less, her friends and others in her social circle soon lose sleep, too, according to new research presented here today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW). This lack of sleep not only produces groggy high-school students but also can lead to drug use, the researchers reported. Our social networks—the ones in real life and on Facebook—can influence our behaviors and moods. Political scientist James Fowler of the University of California, San Diego, has studied these effects and previously found that obesity, smoking, and even happiness can spread through networks of people solely based on their relationships. Today, Fowler described his study of a network of more than 8000 seventh- to 12th-grade students and their sleeping and pot-smoking habits. He and colleagues mapped an entangled web of connections between each student and his or her friends. In one of these friend webs, a gang of sleepless boys dominated the middle of the jumble, where the most connected kids landed—the so-called “cool” kids. He and his colleagues found that the more central a teen landed on the map, the greater chance that he or she got less than 7 hours of sleep per night. Drug use was also contagious, the team found. Each pot-smoking friend increased the chance that a student used marijuana by 42%. Both sleepless and drug-use contagions could still be felt four-degrees of separation away, influencing a friend of a friend of a friend’s friend. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sleep; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13795 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Laura Sanders SAN DIEGO — Rigid pathways in brain cell connections buckle and break when stretched, scientists report, a finding that could aid in the understanding of exactly what happens when traumatic brain injuries occur. Up to 20 percent of combat soldiers and an estimated 1.4 million U.S. civilians sustain traumatic brain injuries each year. But the mechanics behind these injuries have remained mysterious. New research, described February 19 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, suggests exactly how a blow to the brain disrupts this complex organ. The brain “is not like the heart. If you lose a certain percentage of your heart muscle, then you’ll have a certain cardiac output,” says Geoffrey Manley, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco. Rather, the brain is an organ of connections. Car crashes, bomb blasts and falls can damage these intricate links, and even destroying a small number of them can cause devastating damage. “You can have very small lesions in very discrete pathways which can have phenomenal impact,” says Manley, who did not participate in the study. One of the challenges brain injury researchers face, he says, is that “we’re not really embracing this idea of functional connectivity. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Stress; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 13794 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by David Grimm, SAN DIEGO—Are dolphins as smart as people? And if so, shouldn't we be treating them a bit better than we do now? Those were the topics of discussion at a session on the ethical and policy implications of dolphin intelligence here today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (which publishes ScienceNOW). First up, just how smart are dolphins? Researchers have been exploring the question for three decades, and the answer, it turns out, is pretty darn smart. In fact, according to panelist Lori Marino, an expert on cetacean neuroanatomy at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, they may be Earth's second smartest creature (next to humans, of course). Marino bases her argument on studies of the dolphin brain. Bottlenose dolphins have bigger brains than humans (1600 grams versus 1300 grams), and they have a brain-to-body-weight ratio greater than great apes do (but lower than humans). "They are the second most encephalized beings on the planet," says Marino. But it's not just size that matters. Dolphins also have a very complex neocortex, the part of the brain responsible for problem solving, self awareness, and variety of other traits we associate with human intelligence. And researchers have found gangly neurons called Von Economo neurons, which in humans and apes have been linked to emotions, social cognition, and even theory of mind—the ability to sense what others are thinking. Overall, said Marino, "dolphin brains stack up quite well to human brains." © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Intelligence; Animal Rights
Link ID: 13793 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer Regardless of whether "Avatar" wins the best picture Oscar next month, 3-D technology seems to be here to stay - and the people who produce that technology should be taking steps now to make it comfortable to watch, doctors say. Even the most modern, realistic 3-D technology can cause vision fatigue after extended viewing, according to a UC Berkeley optometrist who has studied how people see in 3-D, both in real life and in movie theaters. The good news is that the people making movies these days are working closely with doctors and other vision experts to make sure the entertainment is easy on the eyes. "The message is definitely getting out that we have to do some things to help people have a good experience," said Martin Banks, a professor of optometry at UC Berkeley. In real life, objects appear naturally in 3-D because our two eyes see two slightly different images that the brain forms into one central view. The same concept works with 3-D technology, in that two images are flashed at us - one for the left eye and one for the right eye. The 3-D glasses viewers wear help distinguish which image is meant for which eye. But with 3-D technology, images may seem to appear in front of the screen, or at a distance beyond the screen, and the potential for eye fatigue comes from the brain trying to figure out where to focus the eyes. We're used to focusing on something exactly where we perceive it to be - hold your finger in front of your face, and it quickly comes into focus. In a 3-D movie, if a hand appears to reach toward us, our brain has to figure out that it needs to focus on the image of a hand on the screen, not the image in front of our face. © 2010 Hearst Communications Inc.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 13792 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Spotting athletes who are still unfit to return to action days or weeks after a blow to the head could be made simpler by a new test. The check, devised by University of Michigan scientists, looks for sluggish reaction times. Those too slow to catch a falling object - a weighted cylinder - are likely to have concussion. A UK expert warned athletes should expect a three-week layoff after concussion. Minor head injuries are part and parcel of many of the most popular sports in the UK, particularly contact sports such as rugby. Many of these concussions go undetected by the player or their coaches. And even when spotted, there is some uncertainty as to when the player should be allowed to compete again. The after-effects can linger for several days, even after other more obvious symptoms such as headaches, dizziness and confusion have abated. The Michigan test involved 209 young male and female footballers and wrestlers. They were asked to catch the weighted cylinder when it was dropped by the coach, and their speed of response was recorded. Then, during the season, if any of them suffered a concussion, the test was repeated a few days afterwards. Seven of the athletes had a longer reaction time - on average 15% longer. Dr James Eckner, who devised the test, said: "Because of its simplicity and low cost, this test may work well with youth athletes, where there is limited access to computerised testing of reaction time." He will showcase his work at the American Academy of Neurology's 62nd annual meeting in Toronto in April. (C)BBC

Keyword: Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 13791 - Posted: 02.20.2010

LONDON - When it comes to the placebo effect, it really may be mind over matter, a new analysis suggests. In a review of recent research, international experts say there is increasing evidence that fake treatments, or placebos, have an actual biological effect in the body. The doctor-patient relationship, plus the expectation of recovery, may sometimes be enough to change a patient’s brain, body and behavior, experts write. The review of previous research on placebos was published online Friday in Lancet, the British medical journal. “It’s not that placebos or inert substances help,” said Linda Blair, a Bath-based psychologist and spokeswoman for the British Psychological Society. Blair was not linked to the research. “It’s that people’s belief in inert substances help.” While doctors have long recognized that placebos can help patients feel better, they weren’t sure if the treatments sparked any physical changes. In the Lancet review, researchers cite studies where patients with Parkinson’s disease were given dummy pills. That led their brains to release dopamine, a feel-good chemical, and also resulted in other changes in brain activity. “When you think you’re going to get a drug that helps, your brain reacts as if it’s getting relief,” said Walter Brown, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Brown and Tufts University. “But we don’t know how that thought that you’re going to get better actually translates into something happening in the brain.” © 2010 The Associated Press

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Parkinsons
Link ID: 13790 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SINDYA N. BHANOO If an expectant mother knew that dangerous creatures lurked around her, and knew also that she wouldn’t be around to take care of her young, she might be stressed. And if she had a way to warn her young before they were born, surely she would. Human mothers cannot do this, to the best of our knowledge. But pregnant crickets, it appears, do have the ability to forewarn. This is especially useful since crickets abandon their young after birth. Researchers from the University of South Carolina Upstate and Indiana State University placed pregnant crickets in an enclosure where they were stalked, but not eaten, by a wolf spider, whose fangs had been coated with wax to protect the crickets. The young of the spider-exposed mothers turned out to be more predator-savvy than those with mothers who were not exposed to the wolf spider; they stayed hidden longer, and were more likely to freeze when they encountered spider feces or spider silk. In a second experiment, the researchers placed the juvenile crickets in an arena with a starving wolf spider with fully functioning fangs. Eventually, the spider got all the crickets, but the young born from spider-exposed mothers lasted longer in the arena of death. The research was published last month in The American Naturalist. Copyright 2010 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 13789 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Robert Emery and Jim Coan When people have their feelings hurt, what is actually happening inside the body to cause the physical pain in the chest? —Josh Ceddia, Melbourne, Australia Terms such as “heartache” and “gut wrenching” are more than mere metaphors: they describe the experience of both physical and emotional pain. When we feel heartache, for example, we are experiencing a blend of emotional stress and the stress-induced sensations in our chest—muscle tightness, increased heart rate, abnormal stomach activity and shortness of breath. In fact, emotional pain involves the same brain regions as physical pain, suggesting the two are inextricably connected. But how do emotions trigger physical sensations? Scientists do not know, but recently pain researchers uncovered a possible pathway from mind to body. According to a 2009 study from the University of Arizona and the University of Maryland, activity in a brain region that regulates emotional reactions called the anterior cingulate cortex helps to explain how an emotional insult can trigger a biological cascade. During a particularly stressful experience, the anterior cingulate cortex may respond by increasing the activity of the vagus nerve—the nerve that starts in the brain stem and connects to the neck, chest and abdomen. When the vagus nerve is overstimulated, it can cause pain and nausea. Heartache is not the only way emotional and physical pain intersect in our brain. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Emotions; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 13788 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Aria Pearson You may hate forgetting things, but healthy brains need to be able to overwrite old memories. Now a protein responsible for forgetting has been identified in flies, and it's been used to speed up and slow down the erasure of painful memories. It is still unknown if the protein plays a similar role in people. But the finding is intriguing because the natural process of memory decay remains shrouded in mystery. "We know very, very little about what causes normal forgetting," says James McGaugh, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Irvine, who was not involved in the new work. If the protein does play a similar role in humans, it could lead to new techniques for either enhancing or erasing memory. Until now approaches to erasing unwanted memories have largely focussed on interfering with the laying-down of memories, rather than our natural ability to forget. After learning that some humans with cognitive disabilities have mutations in genes that control the activity of a protein called Rac, Yi Zhong and his colleagues at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York reasoned that the protein might be involved in memory. They tested this idea in fruit flies by using genetic engineering to enhance or repress the activity of Rac in the parts of the flies' brains associated with short-term memory. Then they measured how quickly the flies' memories seemed to disappear. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 13787 - Posted: 06.24.2010