EVER had the feeling something is missing? If so, you're in good company. Dmitri Mendeleev did in 1869 when he noticed four gaps in his periodic table. They turned out to be the undiscovered elements scandium, gallium, technetium and germanium. Paul Dirac did in 1929 when he looked deep into the quantum-mechanical equation he had formulated to describe the electron. Besides the electron, he saw something else that looked rather like it, but different. It was only in 1932, when the electron's antimatter sibling, the positron, was sighted in cosmic rays that such a thing was found to exist. In 1971, Leon Chua had that feeling. A young electronics engineer with a penchant for mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, he was fascinated by the fact that electronics had no rigorous mathematical foundation. So like any diligent scientist, he set about trying to derive one. And he found something missing: a fourth basic circuit element besides the standard trio of resistor, capacitor and inductor. Chua dubbed it the "memristor". The only problem was that as far as Chua or anyone else could see, memristors did not actually exist. Except that they do. Within the past couple of years, memristors have morphed from obscure jargon into one of the hottest properties in physics. They've not only been made, but their unique capabilities might revolutionise consumer electronics. More than that, though, along with completing the jigsaw of electronics, they might solve the puzzle of how nature makes that most delicate and powerful of computers - the brain. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 13030 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Michael Price Desperate to have a baby girl? It helps to be poor. That's the conclusion of a study in Rwanda, which shows that, when men marry multiple women, low-ranking wives are more likely to have daughters than sons. The findings indicate that the social ranking of human mothers can influence the sex of their offspring. In 1973, evolutionary biologists Richard Trivers and Dan Willard predicted that in many species, social and environmental factors may influence whether a female has more sons or daughters. For instance, in a polygynous species, where males mate with more than one female, males in good condition are at a reproductive advantage over less-fit males because they have more mating partners. According to the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, well-off females in these societies are better off having sons, because sons will have more chances to pass on their parents' genes. However, if moms in polygynous unions don't have many resources to invest, they're better off producing daughters, because only affluent males have multiple wives; daughters will be mated with regardless of status. Over the years, several studies have supported the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, including work in red deer, mice, and a variety of nonhuman primates. And in humans, studies of Hungarian Roma and mothers in rural Ethiopia have shown evidence of a Trivers-Willard pattern, but others looking into modern Venezuelan society and the Sudanese Bari ethnic group haven't returned the same results. Thomas Pollet, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, thinks the confusion is partly a result of researchers struggling to determine what constitutes better or worse conditions for mothers. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 13028 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A simple supplement could help treat people with an impulse disorder that manifests in hair-tearing, say experts. Trichotillomania suffers are blighted by uncontrollable urges to pluck the hair of the scalp and even eyebrows and lashes, often to the point of baldness. Although seen as a behavioural and psychological problem, scientists are hopeful that the problem could be solved with an amino acid pill. Archives of General Psychiatry reports promising early trial findings. A group of 50 people with trichotillomania were asked to take part in a 12-week trial of the pill containing the amino acid N-acetylcysteine. The same supplement has shown promise for treating people with compulsive disorders and is thought to work on the glutamate system, the largest nerve signal transmission system in the human brain. Indeed, some studies suggest that abnormalities in the natural brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine may play a role in trichotillomania, although genes may also be involved. In the trial, half of the volunteers were given the treatment and the other half a dummy pill. After 12 weeks, patients taking the active medication had significantly greater reductions in hair-pulling symptoms than those taking placebo. Overall, 56% of patients were considered to be "much or very much improved" with N-acetylcysteine use compared with 16% taking placebo. And N-acetylcysteine compared favourably with existing treatment options. The magnitude of improvement seen in patients taking the amino acid pills was greater than that reported with other medications and was similar to that reported for cognitive behaviour therapy alone or combined with medication, such as antidepressants. (C)BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 13027 - Posted: 07.09.2009

CHICAGO - Sleepless people sometimes use the Internet to get through the night. Now a small study shows promising results for insomniacs with nine weeks of Internet-based therapy. No human therapist is involved. The Internet software gives advice, even specific bedtimes, based on users' sleep diaries. Patients learn better sleep habits — like avoiding daytime naps — through stories, quizzes and games. "This is a very interactive, tailored, personalized program," said study co-author Frances Thorndike of the University of Virginia Health System, who helped design the software, called Sleep Healthy Using the Internet, or SHUTi. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here Such software could one day be a low-cost alternative for some patients, Thorndike said. And it could be the only non-drug option for people who live in areas without trained specialists, she said. Prior research has shown face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy can have long-lasting results for insomniacs without the side effects of medication. The SHUTi program is based on that style of therapy, which helps patients change thinking patterns that contribute to poor sleep. In the new study, released Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry, the researchers recruited 45 adults with moderate insomnia and randomly assigned 22 of them to try the Internet program. © 2009 The Associated Press.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 13026 - Posted: 06.24.2010

U.S. researchers say they have found a substantial link between increased levels of nitrates in the environment and in food and increased deaths from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Type 2 diabetes. The study, published this month in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, found "strong parallels" between age-adjusted increases in the death rate from those diseases and the progressive increases in human exposure to nitrates and nitrosamines through processed and preserved foods, as well as through fertilizers. The researchers said they recognize that an increase in death rates is anticipated in higher age groups. Yet when the researchers compared mortality from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease among 75 to 84 year olds from 1968 to 2005, they said the death rates increased much more dramatically than for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease, which are also aging-associated. For example, in Alzheimer's patients, the death rate increased 150-fold. However, mortality rates from cerebrovascular disease in the same age group declined, even though this is a disease associated with aging as well. "We have become a nitrosamine generation," said lead researcher Dr. Suzanne de la Monte of Rhode Island Hospital. "In essence, we have moved to a diet that is rich in amines and nitrates, which lead to increased nitrosamine production," she said. "We receive increased exposure through the abundant use of nitrate-containing fertilizers for agriculture," de la Monte said. © CBC 2009

Keyword: Alzheimers; Parkinsons
Link ID: 13025 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sandra G. Boodman The noise, an incessant loud whooshing in his left ear, was driving Roger Luchs crazy -- literally. For six months the real estate lawyer who lives in Bethesda had struggled to cope with a problem relieved only by sleep. The emergency room physician who examined him shortly after the problem surfaced in August 2000 had assured him that the noise, inaudible to everyone but Luchs, would probably clear up on its own. Three otolaryngologists had told Luchs he had tinnitus, a harmless but annoying condition typically characterized by a ringing sound, less often by the pulsating noise Luchs heard. That was not reassuring. To Luchs, then 49, the prospect of living with his own private version of "The Telltale Heart," the classic Edgar Allan Poe story about a man who cannot escape the relentless sound of a phantom beating organ, had caused him intense anxiety and depression, driving him to see a psychiatrist. All his doctors gave him the same advice: There's no cure for tinnitus, nothing else is wrong, find a way to live with it. Which is why Luchs was shocked when a Richmond ear, nose and throat specialist, after listening with a stethoscope, informed Luchs that he, too, could hear the noise, which had a much more ominous cause than simple tinnitus. © 2009 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Hearing; Stroke
Link ID: 13024 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SARAH ARNQUIST Scientists have long observed that women tend to be pickier than men when choosing a mate. The usual explanation is evolutionary: because women have a bigger investment in reproduction — they are the ones who have to endure pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding — they need to hedge their bets against selecting a dud to be the father. In recent years, the emergence of speed dating has given psychologists, economists and political scientists new ways to test this and other hypotheses about mating. Because participants can be randomly assigned to groups and have no prior information about other participants, three-minute speed-dating sessions are about as close to a controlled experiment as researchers are likely to get. Now, two scientists at Northwestern University have published an experiment that challenges the evolutionary hypothesis. The study by Eli J. Finkel and Paul W. Eastwick was published last month in the journal Psychological Science.The experiment looked at speed-dating sessions to determine whether men or women were choosier. The answer, it turned out, was neither. Regardless of gender, people who were instructed to approach other daters were less selective — that is, they were more likely to ask to meet later for a date. Dr. Finkel and Mr. Eastwick write that this does not mean men were just as selective as women. But the scientists suggest that the explanation for the gap lies in social conditioning rather than evolution. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 13023 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JOHN CLOUD We tend to view the brain like an alien that happens to reside in the skull. We see it as unpredictable, ungovernable in ways that other organs aren't. Proper diet, exercise, no smoking — these will help prevent heart and lung disease. But diseases of the mind? They strike at will, right? You just can't keep yourself from going crazy. And yet — what if you can? The most exciting research in mental health today involves not how to treat mental illness but how to prevent it in the first place. Hundreds of studies that have appeared in just the past decade collectively suggest that the brain isn't so different from, say, the arm: it doesn't simply break on its own. In fact, many mental illnesses — even those like schizophrenia that have demonstrable genetic origins — can be stopped or at least contained before they start. This isn't wishful thinking but hard science. Earlier this year, the National Academies — an organization of experts who investigate science for the Federal Government — released a 500-page report, nearly two years in the making, on how to prevent mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. The report concludes that pre-empting such disorders requires two kinds of interventions: first, because genes play so important a role in mental illness, we need to ensure that close relatives (particularly children) of those with mental disorders have access to rigorous screening programs. Second, we must offer treatment to people who have already shown symptoms of illness (say, a tendency to brood and see the world without optimism) but don't meet the diagnostic criteria for a full-scale mental illness (in this case, depression). Neither approach is without controversy. © 2009 Time Inc.

Keyword: Depression; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 13022 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By BENEDICT CAREY The visions seem to swirl up from the brain’s sewage system at the worst possible times — during a job interview, a meeting with the boss, an apprehensive first date, an important dinner party. What if I started a food fight with these hors d’oeuvres? Mocked the host’s stammer? Cut loose with a racial slur? “That single thought is enough,” wrote Edgar Allan Poe in “The Imp of the Perverse,” an essay on unwanted impulses. “The impulse increases to a wish, the wish to a desire, the desire to an uncontrollable longing.” He added, “There is no passion in nature so demoniacally impatient, as that of him who, shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a plunge.” Or meditates on the question: Am I sick? In a few cases, the answer may be yes. But a vast majority of people rarely, if ever, act on such urges, and their susceptibility to rude fantasies in fact reflects the workings of a normally sensitive, social brain, argues a paper published last week in the journal Science. “There are all kinds of pitfalls in social life, everywhere we look; not just errors but worst possible errors come to mind, and they come to mind easily,” said the paper’s author, Daniel M. Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard. “And having the worst thing come to mind, in some circumstances, might increase the likelihood that it will happen.” Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions; Tourettes
Link ID: 13021 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Paul Sims When Martin Jones met his wife four years ago, he never imagined that one day he would get to see what she looked like. The 42-year-old builder was left blind after an accident at work more than a decade ago. But a remarkable operation - which implants part of his tooth in his eye - has now pierced his world of darkness. The procedure, performed fewer than 50 times before in Britain, uses the segment of tooth as a holder for a new lens grafted from his skin. 'The doctors took the bandages off and it was like looking through water and then I saw this figure and it was her,' he said today. 'She's wonderful and lovely. It was unbelievable to see her for the first time.' He added: 'When I found out there was a chance I would get my sight back, the first person I wanted to see was her.' Mr Jones, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, married his wife Gill, 50, four years ago. By that time he had already spent eight years without his sight after a tub of white hot aluminium exploded in his face at work in a scrapyard. © 2009 Associated Newspapers Ltd

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 13020 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease, US scientists say. The Florida research, carried out on mice, also suggested caffeine hampered the production of the protein plaques which are the hallmark of the disease. Previous research has also suggested a protective effect from caffeine. But British experts said the Journal of Alzheimer's disease study did not mean that dementia patients should start using caffeine supplements. The 55 mice used in the University of Florida study had been bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. First the researchers used behavioural tests to confirm the mice were exhibiting signs of memory impairment when they were aged 18 to 19 months, the equivalent to humans being about 70. Then they gave half the mice caffeine in their drinking water. The rest were given plain water. The mice were given the equivalent of five 8 oz (227 grams) cups of coffee a day - about 500 milligrams of caffeine. The researchers say this is the same as is found in two cups of "specialty" coffees such as lattes or cappuccinos from coffee shops, 14 cups of tea, or 20 soft drinks. When the mice were tested again after two months, those who were given the caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills and performed as well as mice of the same age without dementia. Those drinking plain water continued to do poorly on the tests. In addition, the brains of the mice given caffeine showed nearly a 50% reduction in levels of the beta amyloid protein, which forms destructive clumps in the brains of dementia patients. (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 13019 - Posted: 07.06.2009

A ground-breaking laser treatment could prevent millions of older people from going blind, experts believe. The technique helps reverse the effects of age-related macular degeneration - the leading cause of blindness in over 60s in the western world. Developed by pioneering eye expert Professor John Marshall of King's College London, the laser returns the back of the eye to its youthful state. Improvements to sight were reported in early proof of concept trials. AMD affects more than 200,000 people in the UK and attacks the central vision. It develops when a membrane at the back of the eye becomes clogged with natural waste materials produced by the light-sensitive cells, which clouds vision. In youthful eyes, enzymes clear away the debris, but as the ageing process sets in this system can fail. The painless "short pulse" laser works by boosting the release of the enzymes to clean away the waste without damaging the cells that enable us to see. Early tests proved promising in around 50 people with diabetic eye disease - chosen as a model because the problems develop faster than in AMD. Professor Marshall now plans more studies in patients already suffering from AMD in one eye with the aim of saving the sight in their better eye for as long as possible. He said once people have advanced AMD in one eye, studies show the condition usually develops in the second eye in 18 months to three years. "If you can delay the onset by three, four, six, seven or 10 years, it's proof of the principle," he said. (C)BBC

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 13018 - Posted: 07.06.2009

by Nora Schultz WHAT does the human brain sound like? Now you can find out thanks to a technique for turning its flickering activity into music. Listening to scans may also give new insights into the differences and similarities between normal and dysfunctional brains. Brain scans created using functional MRI consist of a series of images in which different areas light up with varying intensity at different times. These can be used to determine which parts of the brain are active during a particular task. To turn such scans into music, philosopher Dan Lloyd at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, identified regions that become active together and assigned each of these groups a different pitch. He then created software that analyses a series of scans and generates the notes at these pitches as the corresponding brain areas light up. Each note is played at a volume that corresponds to the intensity of activity. When Lloyd fed the software a set of scans of his own brain taken as he switched between driving a virtual-reality car and resting, he found that he could detect the switch-over in the sounds. Lloyd then gave the software scans taken from volunteers with dementia and schizophrenia, and from healthy volunteers. The brains of people with schizophrenia switched between low and high activity more erratically than healthy brains, allowing the two types of brain to be distinguished by sound alone. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Hearing; Alzheimers
Link ID: 13017 - Posted: 06.24.2010

People who have a particular gene flaw and live alone in middle-age are at highest risk of developing dementia, researchers suggest. The risk affects those who split up or were widowed from their long-term partner before the age of 50, Sweden's Karolinska Institute found. Researchers say the APOE variant 4 is the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's. However, UK experts said there are many ways of reducing dementia risk. As the world's population ages, dementia is a growing concern. In 2005 around 25m people had dementia, but the number is expected to be around 81m by 2040. The researchers studied 2,000 men and women from eastern Finland aged around 50 and again 21 years later. They looked at their marital status and also carried out genetic tests to see if they carried the gene APOE variant 4. People living alone in middle-age had twice the risk of dementia than those who were living with a partner. But widows and widowers had three times the risk of dementia. And those with the APOE gene variant who had lost their partners and remained living alone had the highest risk of all of developing Alzheimer's. The team, led by Dr Krister Hakannson, said the results were important for preventing dementia and cognitive impairment. They also said "supportive intervention" could be helpful for people who had lost a partner. Writing in the British Medical Journal online, they said: "Living in a relationship with a partner might imply cognitive and social challenges that have a protective effect against cognitive impairment in later life." (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13016 - Posted: 07.04.2009

Medical research out of the University of British Columbia suggests the number of children taking medications known as atypical antipsychotics has increased tenfold over the past decade, CBC News has learned. The drugs — a class of medicines used to treat psychosis and other mental and emotional conditions — can have potentially serious side-effects, and are linked to increases in stroke and sudden death in adults. Health Canada has not approved atypical antipsychotics for children. "None of the atypical antipsychotics approved in Canada [Risperidone, Quetiapine, Olanzapine, Clozapine, Paliperidone, Ziprasidone] are indicated for use in children," Philippe Laroche, a Health Canada spokesman, told CBC News in an email on Thursday. Colin Dormuth is an epidemiologist who reviewed all prescriptions involving atypical antipsychotics and written for children in B.C. over the last decade. He says he found a tenfold increase in prescriptions of atypical antipsychotics for children 14 and under. Also called neuroleptics or second-generation antipsychotics, they include risperidone (Risperdal), quetiapine (Seroquel) and olanzapine (Zyprexa). Dormuth was surprised at the young age of some of the children on the powerful medications, he told CBC. © CBC 2009

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 13015 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Tina Hesman Saey You may not be riding the latest social wave on Facebook or MySpace, or tweeting your every impulse to fans on Twitter. But your brain is hooked on networking. Vision works because different brain regions link up to connect the dots of light and color into a meaningful picture of the world. Language depends on networks of neural circuitry that make sense of the words you hear or see and that help you generate your side of the conversation. Networks of nerves control the motion of your muscles, allowing you to move smoothly and, when necessary, swiftly. Networks are the “in” thing for brain scientists, as surely as they have been for online social butterflies. Scientists learn about the brain’s networks by asking people to perform all sorts of mental acrobatics — interpreting optical illusions, solving riddles, taking tests of mental or muscular skills. But some neuroscientists think they can learn even more about the brain by asking volunteers to just lie back, close their eyes and let their minds wander. Such unstructured journeys of the mind — be they planning tonight’s dinner, thinking about that meeting at work and what your boss said afterward, debating whether to drive or fly for your next vacation, or recalling that day in your childhood when you first sat in your new tree house listening to birds chirp —turn out to offer clues about one of the most important, mysterious and well-connected networks of all. It’s called the default mode network, and it’s responsible for what the brain does when it is doing nothing in particular. It’s the brain’s core, both physically and mentally, and it’s better connected to the brain’s system of circuits than Kevin Bacon is to movie stars. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2009

Keyword: Brain imaging; Attention
Link ID: 13014 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Ewen Callaway, Boston A gadget that could sneak a glimpse inside an astronaut's brain has cleared a significant hurdle, operating successfully aboard an aircraft that simulates the weightlessness of outer space. Eventually, the device could be used to remotely monitor astronauts for signs of brain injury, depression and even mental fatigue that could compromise their ability to make a critical repair of equipment. Gary Strangman, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, is leading development of the non-invasive scanner, which fires weak pulses of near-infrared light into the brain, then reads back what's reflected. Called near-infrared optical spectroscopy, the approach equates changes in blood flow to brain activity, much like a functional MRI scanner (see Tiny scanner may monitor astronauts' mental health). Aboard a mission, the device could help explain why astronauts sometimes suffer from depression, as well as provide an objective gauge of an astronaut's mental state. The scanner has already garnered $400,000 in NASA funding, but to receive more – and eventually, make it aboard a space mission, it must first pass a series of technological hurdles. In June, researchers tested the device in Florida on an aircraft that achieves periods of weightlessness by flying in steep parabolas. The flight showed the device works outside controlled lab settings, and crucially, that it works in weightlessness. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 13013 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Aimee Cunningham Americans consume more fructose than ever before, yet concerns remain that the sugar, used to sweeten beverages and processed foods, poses health risks. In animals, fructose-rich diets increase the production of fat and promote resistance to the energy-regulating hormone insulin. New research suggests that memory suffers as well, at least in rats. Neuroscientist Marise B. Parent of Georgia State University and her col­leagues fed 11 adolescent rats a diet in which fructose supplied 60 percent of the calories. For 10 other rats, cornstarch took the place of the sweetener. The scientists trained the rats to find a submerged platform in a pool, with the help of surrounding cues. Two days after the training ended, Parent’s group removed the pool’s platform and recorded where the rats—now adults—swam. Whereas the control group spent most of its time around the platform’s old location, the fructose-fed rats visited this area significantly less often. “They can learn” the platform’s location, Parent notes, “but they just can’t remember it for long periods.” Another research group has shown in hamsters that insulin resistance can affect the hippocampus, a part of the brain critical for learning and remem­bering facts and events. Parent’s team is examining whether the hippocampus of the memory-impaired rats became resis­tant to the hormone. Parent is also interested in how the addition of glucose, another sugar, would affect her results. The body metabolizes fructose and glucose differently, she explains. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 13012 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Mairi McCleod DEEP in the Atlantic forests of Brazil lives the muriqui - the world's most peaceful and egalitarian primate. Or is it? The cuddly reputation of the "hippy monkey" has taken a battering after a gang of six were spotted attacking and killing an adult male. The victim, an old male, died an hour after receiving savage bites to his face, body and genitals. The observations, published this week in the American Journal of Primatology (DOI: 10.1002/ajp.20713), show how lifestyles may dramatically alter the behaviour of a species. The muriqui's peaceful reputation stems mainly from northern populations that feed on abundant leaves, and where males patiently queue to mate with females. But in the southern population where the attack took place, fruit is more widely available than in the north, and this may provide a clue to the assault, says Mauricio Talebi of the Federal University of São Paulo-Diadema, Brazil, who led the research. Because fruit is widely dispersed, females detach from the main group to locate it, making them less available for sex with the males than in the north where everyone stays together to eat leaves. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Aggression; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 13011 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have uncovered new evidence suggesting that damage to nerve cells in people with multiple sclerosis (MS) accumulates because the body’s natural mechanism for repairing the nerve coating called myelin stalls out. The new research, published by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator David H. Rowitch and colleagues in the July 2009 issue of the journal Genes & Development, shows that repair of nerve fibers is hampered by biochemical signals that inhibit cellular repair workers in the brain, called oligodendrocytes. The symptoms of MS, which range from tingling and numbness in the limbs to loss of vision and paralysis, develop when nerve cells lose their ability to transmit a signal. Axons, which are the fibrous cables radiating from nerve cells, transmit impulses to neighboring neurons. They are dependent on myelin, which protects nerve cells and helps transmit their electrical signals properly. In people with MS, immune cells attack and erode this protective layer of myelin. In the early stages of the disease, damage accumulates in the myelin sheath only, but it does not affect the nerve cells themselves. Later on, axons without myelin and the nerve cells themselves die. Although damaged myelin can usually be repaired, in some people with MS the repair effort is inefficient, said Rowitch, who is at the University of California, San Francisco. This could be because oligodendrocytes themselves might not work properly, or they may be killed off by the disease. Rowitch explained that in chronically demyelinated areas of the central nervous system, oligodendrocyte precursor cells have been found, but they appear stalled in development and never become fully functional oligodendrocytes. © 2009 Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Glia
Link ID: 13010 - Posted: 06.24.2010