By Pam Rutherford Many of us struggle sometimes to put a name to a face, but what if you could recognise someone many years after seeing them for a moment? You know the woman crossing the street. But where from? Ah, she was one of the volunteers staffing the polling station where you voted several years before. You probably saw her for a couple of minutes. Several years ago. Sound like the kind of face you would place immediately? It is for Jennifer. She is a "super recogniser", someone with a significantly above average ability to place a face. In fact, she can almost never forget a face. She first noticed something might be unusual on holiday with her family when she spotted a very minor actor on a plane. Her family were disbelieving but she was proved right. But it really hit home at college that she was different from those around her. "I'd meet so many people in the first few weeks and I'd remember everyone no matter how brief the encounter. I'd then meet them at a party and they wouldn't remember me. I'd think: 'That person is SO fake, I can't believe they're pretending they don't remember me when we met for 30 seconds in the cafeteria three weeks ago.'" It doesn't matter if years have lapsed since seeing them. She describes seeing someone she saw a few times as child, on the subway, now over 20 years older with greying hair and dreadlocks and knowing exactly who she was. "People can get older but their faces look the same to me," says Jennifer. "They don't look different to me whether they're children or adults. I don't know why my mind is able to make the leap." It sounds like a neat party trick, or perhaps something useful in business, but it may mean more than that to scientists. Jennifer's ability may help scientists who are investigating people in the opposite position, those who suffer from the condition prosopagnosia, popularly known as face blindness. (C)BBC

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 13716 - Posted: 01.28.2010

New mothers who are taking a common class of antidepressants may have a delay in lactation and need extra support to breastfeed, researchers say. The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRI type of antidepressants such as Prozac and Paxil may be linked with a delay in the start of full milk secretion, according to a study to be published in the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. The body's production and regulation of the hormone serotonin is closely related to the ability of the breasts to secrete milk at the right time, said study co-author Nelson Horseman of the University of Cincinnati. While SSRI drugs can affect mood, emotion and sleep, "they may also impact serotonin regulation in the breast, placing new mothers at greater risk of a delay in the establishment of a full milk supply," he said in a release. In the study, researchers looked at the effects of SSRI on milk production in 431 new mothers. The average onset of lactation was 85.8 hours postpartum for the SSRI-treated mothers and 69.1 hours for mothers not treated with SSRI drugs, the team found. They defined a delay as 72 hours after the birth. 'Very helpful medications' "SSRI drugs are very helpful medications for many moms, so understanding and ameliorating difficulties moms experience can help them achieve their goals for breastfeeding their babies," said Horseman. © CBC 2010

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 13715 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Amanda Feilding and Paul Morrison THE effects of cannabis on mental health have attracted much attention over the years. As far back as the 19th century it was recognised that cannabis could induce a transient psychosis which mimics the symptoms of schizophrenia. Despite this, until the last decade or so, most psychiatrists regarded cannabis as essentially benign. This, however, is at odds with recent research which concludes that in a susceptible minority, cannabis use can push the brain towards long-term psychosis requiring mental health treatment. Susceptible young people who use cannabis increase their risk of developing a chronic psychotic disorder such as schizophrenia, and the more cannabis they consume, the higher the risk. Additionally, people with schizophrenia who have a history of cannabis use tend to go through their first breakdown up to five years earlier in life than those who do not use the drug. Psychotic patients who fail to give up cannabis experience more symptoms, more relapses and end up in hospital more often. These discoveries about the link between cannabis and psychosis have been widely reported in the media, often accompanied by warnings that street cannabis has risen in strength in recent years and therefore poses a major health risk to the susceptible minority. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 13714 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Children who write with both hands are more likely to struggle in school and have hyperactivity disorder symptoms, research suggests. A study by scientists from Imperial College London found ambidextrous children were twice as likely to struggle as their classmates. They were also more likely to have difficulties with language. Experts told Paediatrics journal the differences might be down to the brain's wiring. But they said much more work was needed to explore this. Lead researcher Dr Alina Rodriguez said: "Mixed-handedness is intriguing - we don't know why some people prefer to make use of both hands when most people use only one." Around one in every 100 people is ambidextrous, or mixed-handed. The study looked at nearly 8,000 children from Northern Finland, of whom 87 were mixed-handed. Mixed-handed children aged seven and eight were twice as likely as their right-handed peers to have difficulties with language and to perform poorly in school. When they reached 15 or 16, mixed-handed adolescents were also at twice the risk of having symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). And they tended to have more severe symptoms of ADHD than their right-handed schoolmates. They also reported having greater difficulties with language than those who were left or right-handed. This is in line with earlier studies that have linked mixed-handedness with dyslexia. Experts know that handedness is linked to the brain's left and right halves or hemispheres. Research has shown that where a person's natural preference is for using their right hand, the left hemisphere of their brain is more dominant, which is where the centre for language lies. Scientists have suggested that ADHD could be linked to having a weaker function in the right hemisphere of the brain. Dr Rodriguez said it was possible that brain differences might explain the findings. (C)BBC

Keyword: ADHD; Laterality
Link ID: 13713 - Posted: 01.26.2010

By Elizabeth Pennisi Bats and dolphins are about as different as mammals get. Yet, both home in on their prey by emitting sound waves and sensing the reflections, a process called echolocation. And a new study shows that in both groups the same protein evolved in the same way to make that possible. Researchers say it's surprising to discover a molecular convergence in these very distantly related groups of animals. The protein, called prestin, exists in all mammals and helps so-called outer hair cells in the inner ear amplify incoming sound waves. Because people with mutations in the prestin gene often can't hear high frequencies, Shuyi Zhang, an ecologist at East China Normal University (ECNU) wondered whether prestin had evolved to make possible the high-frequency hearing that bats use for echolocation. With student Liu Yang of ECNU, James Cotton and Stephen Rossiter of Queen Mary, University of London, and colleagues, he analyzed the sequence of the prestin gene in distantly related bats that had independently evolved echolocation. In 2008, the researchers discovered that the functional parts of prestin had come to look the same in both groups of bats but not in other bats that do not use echolocation, indicating convergent evolution of the protein. The team has now looked even farther afield, examining whether prestin in dolphins and other toothed whales has the same makeup. They sequenced the prestin gene in several dolphin species, in a sperm whale, and in baleen whales, which do not use echolocation, and then compared the sequences with those of bats. Fourteen sites had evolved to be exactly the same, six of which proved most likely to be due to convergent evolution, they report in the 26 January issue of Current Biology. © 2010 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hearing; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13712 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID WASHINGTON – Little girls may learn to fear math from the women who are their earliest teachers. Despite gains in recent years, women still trail men in some areas of math achievement, and the question of why has provoked controversy. Now, a study of first- and second-graders suggests what may be part of the answer: Female elementary school teachers who are concerned about their own math skills could be passing that along to the little girls they teach. Young students tend to model themselves after adults of the same sex, and having a female teacher who is anxious about math may reinforce the stereotype that boys are better at math than girls, explained Sian L. Beilock, an associate professor in psychology at the University of Chicago. Beilock and colleagues studied 52 boys and 65 girls who in classes taught by 17 different teachers. Ninety percent of U.S. elementary school teachers are women, as were all of those in this study. Student math ability was not related to teacher math anxiety at the start of the school year, the researchers report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But by the end of the year, the more anxious teachers were about their own math skills, the more likely their female students — but not the boys — were to agree that "boys are good at math and girls are good at reading." © 2010 The Associated Press

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 13711 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Bob Holmes Wild crows can recognise individual human faces and hold a grudge for years against people who have treated them badly. This ability – which may also exist in other wild animals – highlights how carefully some animals monitor the humans with whom they share living space. Field biologists have observed that crows seem to recognise them, and a few researchers have even gone to the extreme of wearing masks when capturing birds to band (or "ring") them, so that they could later observe the birds without upsetting them. However, it was unclear whether the birds distinguish people by their faces or by other distinctive features of dress, gait or behaviour. To find out, John Marzluff at the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues donned a rubber caveman mask and then captured and banded wild American crows. Whenever a person wearing the same mask approached those crows later, the birds scolded them loudly. In contrast, they ignored the same person wearing a mask of former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, which had never been worn during banding. "Most of the time you walk right up to them and they don't care at all," says Marzluff. The birds' antipathy to the caveman mask has lasted more than three years, even though the crows have had no further bad experiences with people wearing it. The crows responded less strongly to other details of a person's dress, such as the presence of a hat or a coloured armband. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 13710 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jessica Hamzelou, reporter Prion proteins have a bad reputation. The misfolded forms of this brain protein are responsible for a host of neurological diseases including, notoriously, variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), which has been linked to eating contaminated beef. But what about the normal, correctly folded version of prion protein? Surely it must have a function in the brain? Neurologists still haven't figured out exactly what this is, but several pieces of evidence suggest that prions aren't all bad. The latest study, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggests that prions are important in maintaining the myelin sheath that surrounds nerve cells, enabling them to transmit nerve impulses rapidly. Adriano Aguzzi and his team at University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland, bred mice lacking prion protein. They found that these mice developed a condition where their peripheral nerves, which connect the limbs to the central nervous system, lost much of their myelin coating. Although it's too early to say whether the finding can be applied to human disease, Aguzzi told Asian News International that he thinks "it is going to be interesting to see if prions play any role in demyelinating diseases that stem from the brain". This isn't the first time prions have been caught doing some good. Over the past 15 years, researchers have been noting that although mice without the prion protein don't develop prion disease - and can even be rescued from it - they end up with all sorts of other problems. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 13709 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Frederik Joelving You awake with a pounding heart and clammy hands. Relax, you think to yourself—it was just a bad dream. But are nightmares truly benign? Psychologists aren’t so sure. Although some continue to believe nightmares reduce psychological tensions by letting the brain act out its fears, recent research suggests that nocturnal torments are more likely to increase anxiety in waking life. In one study Australian researchers asked 624 high school students about their lives and nightmares during the past year and assessed their stress levels. It is well known that stressful experiences cause nightmares, but if night­mares serve to diffuse that tension, troubled sleepers should have an easier time coping with emotional ordeals. The study, published in the journal Dreaming, did not bear out that hypothesis: not only did nightmares not stave off anxiety, but people who reported being distressed about their dreams were even more likely to suffer from general anxiety than those who experienced an upsetting event such as the divorce of their parents. It is possible, however, that some-thing is going wrong in the brains of individuals who experience a lot of anxiety, so that normal emotional processing during dreaming fails, says Tore Nielsen, director of the Dream and Nightmare Laboratory at Sacred Heart Hospital in Montreal. But Nielsen’s most recent results, published in the Journal of Sleep Research last June, actually bolster the Australian findings. © 2010 Scientific American,

Keyword: Sleep; Emotions
Link ID: 13708 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Fresh research may help explain why regular exercise can improve brain power, say Cambridge scientists. The report, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found mice which exercised performed better on memory tests. These mice also grew more new cells in a part of the brain linked to memory than those which did not exercise. The authors believe the new brain cells were behind the improvement in cognitive performance. The aim of the study, which was carried out by scientists from the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Cambridge and researchers at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, was to find out why exercise might improve brain function. Previous research had suggested that exercise helps mental performance in both people and animals. Studies had also shown that exercise increases the number of new brain cells in rodents. The new finding in this study is that mice which exercise are better able to distinguish between memories of similar things. The authors believe this is explained by the additional brain cells generated by exercise. The study was conducted on two groups of mice over a period of 105 days. The mice were trained to touch a box on a computer screen to get food pellets. One group were then allowed unlimited access to an exercise wheel. They ran over 20km (12 miles) a day on average. The control group were not able to exercise. Both groups were then repeatedly shown two boxes on a screen, one of which provided a treat when it was touched. The mice learned which box released the treat, and then the boxes were moved around. First the boxes were moved close together, which made it harder for the mice to remember which one to touch to get the food. The exercising mice did better on this task than the non-exercising mice. (C)BBC

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 13707 - Posted: 01.25.2010

Experiments on mice may help scientists understand the workings of the prion protein linked to brain disease vCJD. Swiss researchers say there is evidence that prions play a vital role in the maintenance of the sheath surrounding our nerves. They say it is possible that an absence of prions causes diseases of the peripheral nervous system. One expert said there was growing evidence that the prion had a number of important roles in the body. As well as the latest research in the journal Nature Neuroscience, other studies have indicated prions may protect us from Alzheimer's disease or even play a role in our sense of smell. The prion protein only came to the attention of scientists in recent years as they searched for the cause of vCJD - the human variant of BSE, or Mad Cow Disease. This degenerative and incurable brain condition is now thought to be caused by a "mis-folded" version of the prion. However, there is still little understanding of what the protein is supposed to do in its normal, healthy, form. The study, by scientists at the University Hospital in Zurich, looked at mice bred with fewer prion proteins. While these mice are known to be resistant to prion diseases equivalent to vCJD in humans, they showed a number of abnormalities, including a degeneration, later in life, of the peripheral nerve cells, and the protective myelin sheath which surrounds them. Peripheral nerves are those which link the limbs and organs to the central nervous system - the spinal cord and brain. Looking more closely, researchers examined the effects of removing the prion protein in both the nerve cells themselves, and the Schwann cells surrounding them, which are responsible for making the myelin sheath. (C)BBC

Keyword: Prions; Glia
Link ID: 13706 - Posted: 01.25.2010

By Tina Hesman Saey In the beginning, the brain was a dark and shapeless void. Then scientists deployed dyes, and lo, the intricate branching of brain cells called neurons was revealed. It was good but didn’t show which cells rubbed branches with others. After a time, scientists brought forth electrodes and functional MRI machines to eavesdrop on neurons’ electrical chatter. It was good, but the message was hearsay. It could not show that any specific chitchat caused a particular behavior. Then the scientists said let there be light, and a new age of neuroscience dawned. Now researchers create light-responsive molecules — or borrow them from microorganisms — to insert into animals’ neurons. And light shines upon the molecules, giving scientists dominion over the brain cells’ activity. Harnessing light’s power has given birth to a burgeoning new field called opto­genetics, which allows scientists to control neurons in freely moving animals. Although the technology is new, it is already beginning to illuminate some of the darkest corners of the brain, such as the connections that guide movement or make memories and the neuronal circuits that go haywire in depression, addiction or schizophrenia. What scientists learn from the light-aided experiments may lead to refinements of existing therapies or to new treatments for nervous system disorders. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13705 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Tia Ghose Removing a chunk of the skull can make way for stronger, clearer signals from a common method of monitoring brainwaves. The skull-free electroencephalography could make neural prostheses like bionic arms or eyes less invasive. “It’s notoriously hard to have a long-term electrode implanted in the brain,” said University of California at Berkeley neuroscientist Bradley Voytek, lead author of the study to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. So if you can get around that by just having a small hole drilled into the skull, that would be very helpful.” Doctors sometimes treat patients who have suffered severe head trauma, such as gunshot or knife wounds, with what is known as a hemicraniectomy. A surgeon cuts out a chunk of skull that’s the diameter of an orange or grapefruit, to give the brain room to swell. Surgeons usually reattach the piece of bone four to six months later, once the swelling has subsided and the skin has healed. In the meantime, the patient’s scalp and a helmet protect the exposed area. And doctors stitch the skull fragment into the abdomen, “bathed in the body’s own fluids,” to prevent it from deteriorating, Voytek said. Voytek’s team took advantage of this brief window of time to compare EEG signals from people with and without the skull as a barrier. Patients performed simple tasks like squeezing a person’s hand or listening to an “oddball stimulus” of three low-pitched sounds followed by a higher one, he said. Wired.com © 2009 Condé Nast Digital.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 13704 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Brian Alexander The 69-year-old man saw the spider clearly, whacked at it, yet the spider wouldn’t die. At night, people he knew started visiting his bedroom, sitting in the armchair beside his night table. But he hadn’t invited them. Oh, and there were animals roaming around his house. A different patient saw a double decker bus in the living room. Another saw fire hydrants just like the one that used to sit in front of her childhood home. Then there was the woman who saw small children sitting atop her piano. She didn’t know them and had no kids of her own, but there they were. These people, whose cases were documented in medical journals, are not crazy. They are affected by a condition called “Charles Bonnet syndrome,” (pronounced bow-NAY), a somewhat common hallucinatory condition among people suffering various forms vision loss. The condition was named for an 18th-century naturalist who described it in his grandfather. Recently, Ed Connors, a 61-year-old software engineer near Boston saw a woman walking her dog on his street. In reality, it was just a shadow. Sometimes when in a shopping mall, Connors thinks he sees people and will move to get out of their way. Except nobody is there. © 2010 Microsoft

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 13703 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Carina Storrs An event such as sexual assault or a battlefield injury is physically agonizing at the time, but it also can eventually sentence a person to a host of mental symptoms—often vivid flashbacks, anxiety and emotional detachment—known as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The disorder afflicts 3.4 percent of men and 9.7 percent of women in the U.S., according to research estimates. Diagnosing PTSD is not necessarily simple. Psychological evaluations for PTSD cannot always easily distinguish it from other mental illnesses, such as depression, or determine if a patient is over- or underreporting the symptoms. Now, a brain- scanning technique called magnetoencephelography (or MEG) could offer the first biological test to help specifically diagnose and treat those with PTSD. In a study published January 20 in Journal of Neural Engineering, MEG correctly identified 97 percent of patients that psychologists previously determined were suffering from PTSD. MEG, which was developed in the 1960s for military purposes, offers a unique insight into the neural communications within the brain, says Apostolos Georgopoulos, a neuroscientist at the University of Minnesota Medical School and lead author of the study. The instrument measures the magnetic field created as electrical current passes between areas of the brain. In MEG studies about two years ago, Georgopoulos found that, whereas healthy people shared similar patterns of neural communication, people with Alzheimer's and schizophrenia had distinct, disease-specific patterns. © 2010 Scientific American

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 13702 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Helen Thomson I'M lying on a bed in a cosy room. Soothing music plays in the background. Four palm-sized paddles rest silent and cool across my midriff. In the time it takes to do a typical gym workout, I could be up to 7 inches thinner than I was before I lay down. No, I'm not in the middle of a daydream, I'm in a private clinic in London, and I'm about to have my fat zapped. Half an hour ago, I walked into a plush reception lobby on Harley Street - a thoroughfare famed for its exclusive private medical practices. Business is good. Two beauty therapists sit in the reception area chatting to a customer. "You lost just 3 inches this time? Never mind, we'll see if we can get a few more next week. How does Tuesday suit?" I am visiting Harley Fit, one of a string of new companies that promise to transform your waistline in your lunch break. My visit is the culmination of a journey that began when a press release landed on my desk boasting a treatment that could make me "7 inches thinner in 20 minutes". It sounded too good to be true. Yet thousands of people have attended one of the hundreds of clinics around the world that offer the treatment, and scores of reviews in lifestyle magazines speak of results that are "nothing short of amazing". At around £250 per treatment it doesn't come cheap, but with the diet industry estimated to turn over tens of billions of dollars every year in the US alone, the appetite for a quick fix is clearly there. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 13701 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Tina Hesman Saey A little bit of stress might be just what the doctor ordered to combat obesity and diabetes. A new study in mice finds that a protein that plays a role in responding to certain kinds of stress may help regulate a metabolic pathway important for controlling blood sugar, burning fat and even making tumors grow. The study shows that the protein, known to play a role in aging (SN: 1/31/09, p. 13), is part of a protein family that has its finger on the pulse of both major pathways cells use to make energy, says Leonard Guarente, a molecular biologist at MIT who was not involved in the research. The study indicates that the protein, known as sirtuin 6, or SIRT6, is what’s known as a master regulator, in this case helping cells switch between oxidative metabolism, the major form of energy production in cells; and anaerobic glycolysis, a less efficient way of making energy and can be tapped when oxygen or nutrients are in short supply. The anaerobic form of glycolysis needs more glucose to generate the same amount of energy as oxidative processes. The study, which appears in the Jan. 22 Cell, could lead the way to new therapies for diabetes and obesity. Sirtuins are a family of proteins found in many organisms from yeast to humans. The most famous of the seven sirtuin proteins in humans, SIRT1, has been studied as a possible antiaging compound. That protein also helps regulate oxidative metabolism. Until recently, not much was known about the roles of other sirtuins. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2010

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 13700 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas When human measures for intelligence are applied to other species, dolphins come in just behind humans in brainpower, according to new research. Dolphins demonstrate skills and awareness previously thought to be present only in humans. New MRI scans show that dolphin brains are four to five times larger for their body size when compared to another animal of similar size, according to Lori Marino, a senior lecturer in neuroscience and behavioral biology at Emory University, and one of the world's leading dolphin experts. Humans also possess an impressive brain-to-body ratio. "If we use relative brain size as a metric of 'intelligence' then one would have to conclude that dolphins are second in intelligence to modern humans," said Marino, who performed several MRI scans on dolphin brains. Marino will be presenting her findings at next month's American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting. "Size isn't everything," she admitted, but she says at least two other lines of evidence support her claims about dolphin intelligence. First, various features of the dolphin neocortex -- the part of the brain involved in higher-order thinking and processing of emotional information -- are "particularly expanded" in dolphins. Second, behavioral studies conducted by Marino and other experts demonstrate that dolphins exhibit human-like skills. These include mirror self-recognition, cultural learning, comprehension of symbol-based communication systems, and an understanding of abstract concepts. © 2009 Discovery Communications, LLC

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 13699 - Posted: 06.24.2010

African naked mole rats live underground and never come out. They are tiny, toothy and blind. They look like little pink sausages, and they smell terrible. Yet, they are giving scientists valuable insights into evolution, social structure and adaptation. Recently, for example, two University of Illinois researchers discovered that the brains of naked mole rats can withstand long periods of oxygen deprivation--a condition known as hypoxia--for periods far greater than any other mammal. While the researchers are focused on trying to understand evolution--in this case, how species adapt to challenges posed by their environment--the discovery ultimately could lead to new approaches for treating brain injuries caused by heart attack, stroke or trauma that starves the brain of needed oxygen. These creatures, the only mammals that are coldblooded, are small rodents that live in big colonies of 300 members about six feet underground. Their quarters, narrow tunnels, are extremely close, and their air supply is limited. The air they breathe is so toxic that it would kill or lead to irreversible brain damage in any other mammal, the scientists said. “These animals are challenged by low oxygen and high carbon dioxide, and they can survive under these conditions,” said Thomas Park, professor of biological sciences who, along with John Larson, associate professor of physiology in psychiatry, reported the findings. “Our next step will be to find out why and how they are able to do this.” © 2010 U.S.News & World Report LP

Keyword: Evolution; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13698 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ATLANTA - Tests of the first two oral drugs developed for treating multiple sclerosis show that both cut the frequency of relapses and may slow progression of the disease, but with side effects that could pose a tough decision for patients. Two experts not involved in the studies said the drugs appear effective but with potentially dangerous side effects. It’s too soon to know if the pills will be approved by the government or widely adopted by physicians, they said. About 2.5 million people around the world have multiple sclerosis, a neurological disease that can cause muscle tremors, paralysis and problems with speech, memory and concentration. The studies involve the most common form of the disease, in which people are well for a while and then suffer periodic relapses. Current treatments can reduce the duration and severity of symptoms but require daily or regular shots or infusions. The new studies tested two types of pills. Cladribine, made by Merck Serono, is already sold to treat a rare blood cancer. For MS, it would be taken eight to 10 days a year. Fingolimod is a daily MS pill being developed by Novartis. The research found that patients on the pills were about half as likely to suffer relapses of symptoms as those who took dummy pills or a commonly prescribed shot for MS. © 2010 The Associated Press.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 13697 - Posted: 06.24.2010