Scientists have shown scratching helps relieve an itch as it blocks activity in some spinal cord nerve cells that transmit the sensation to the brain. However, the effect only seems to occur during itchiness itself - scratching at other times makes no difference. While it is widely-known scratching relieves an itch, the physiological mechanisms for how this works are little understood. The University of Minnesota study appears in Nature Neuroscience. Previous research has suggested that a specific part of the spinal cord - the spinothalamic tract - plays a key role. Nerve cells in this area have been shown to be more active when itchy substances are applied to the skin. The latest work, in primates, found that scratching the skin blocks activity of nerve cells in the spinothalamic tract during itchiness - preventing the spinal cord from transmitting signals from the scratched area of skin to the brain. Researcher Dr Glenn Giesler hopes the work could lead to ways to relieve chronic itch effectively for the first time. However, he said more information was still needed about the chemistry underpinning the effect. Professor Gil Yosipovitch, an expert on itching from Wake Forest University in North Carolina, said the finding was "potentially significant". He said: "Although there is a long way to go, methods that can induce a pleasurable scratch sensation without damaging the skin, via mechanical stimuli or drugs that can inhibit these neurons, could be developed to treat chronic itch." (C)BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 12723 - Posted: 04.06.2009

By Rob Stein Children raised in poverty suffer many ill effects: They often have health problems and tend to struggle in school, which can create a cycle of poverty across generations. Now, research is providing what could be crucial clues to explain how childhood poverty translates into dimmer chances of success: Chronic stress from growing up poor appears to have a direct impact on the brain, leaving children with impairment in at least one key area -- working memory. "There's been lots of evidence that low-income families are under tremendous amounts of stress, and we know that stress has many implications," said Gary W. Evans, a professor of human ecology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., who led the research. "What this data raises is the possibility that it's also related to cognitive development." With the economic crisis threatening to plunge more children into poverty, other researchers said the work offers insight into how poverty affects long-term achievement and underscores the potential ramifications of chronic stress early in life. "This is a significant advance," said Bruce S. McEwen, who heads the laboratory of neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University in New York. "It's part of a growing pattern of understanding how early life experiences can have an influence on the brain and the body." © 2009 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Stress; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 12722 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Graham Lawton So you're in your early 20s and your brain has finally reached adulthood. Enjoy it while it lasts. The peak of your brain's powers comes at around age 22 and lasts for just half a decade. From there it's downhill all the way. The peak of your brain's powers comes at age 22 and lasts for just half a decade This long, slow decline begins at about 27 and runs throughout adulthood, although different abilities decline at different rates. Curiously, the ones that start to go first - those involved with executive control, such as planning and task coordination - are the ones that took the longest to appear during your teens. These abilities are associated with the prefrontal and temporal cortices, which are still maturing well into your early 20s. Episodic memory, which is involved in recalling events, also declines rapidly, while the brain's processing speed slows down and working memory is able to store less information. So just how fast is the decline? According to research by Art Kramer, a psychologist at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, and others, from our mid-20s we lose up to 1 point per decade on a test called the mini mental state examination (see graph). This is a 30-point test of arithmetic, language and basic motor skills that is typically used to assess how fast people with dementia are declining. A 3 to 4 point drop is considered clinically significant. In other words, the decline people typically experience between 25 and 65 has real-world consequences. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 12721 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Melinda Wenner Neuroscience has long focused on the brain in terms of components: the visual cortex processes what we see, Broca’s area is the center for language, and so on. As our understanding of the brain has improved, however, it has become clear that a more accurate model depends on how these modules are wired together in circuits. A technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) gives us a tool to probe the nature of those connections. A recent study suggests, for instance, that the more a person seeks out new experiences and relies on social approval, the stronger his or her wiring is among brain areas involved in reward, emotion and decision making. Cognitive neuroscientist Michael Cohen and his colleagues at the University of Bonn in Germany asked 20 adults how often they sought out new experiences and relied on social approval. Then they used DTI to look at the subjects’ white matter, which ­connects disparate regions of the brain. Cognition and high-level processing happen in gray matter, found mostly in the outer layer of the brain and made up of the main cell bodies of neurons. White matter, on the other hand, is made up of the long, spindly “arms” of neurons, called axons, along which electrical signals travel. (This interior part of the brain looks white because the axons are sheathed in myelin, a white insulating protein that helps signals travel more quickly.) Cohen’s team found that the more the subjects sought new experiences, the stronger their connections were from the hippocampus and amygdala, brain regions involved in decision making and emotion, to the ventral and mesial striatum, areas that process information related to emotion and reward. The scientists also found that the subjects who were most dependent on social approval had stronger than normal connections between the striatum and the prefrontal cortex, a brain area involved in higher-order decision making. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 12720 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By BENEDICT CAREY Suppose scientists could erase certain memories by tinkering with a single substance in the brain. Could make you forget a chronic fear, a traumatic loss, even a bad habit. Researchers in Brooklyn have recently accomplished comparable feats, with a single dose of an experimental drug delivered to areas of the brain critical for holding specific types of memory, like emotional associations, spatial knowledge or motor skills. The drug blocks the activity of a substance that the brain apparently needs to retain much of its learned information. And if enhanced, the substance could help ward off dementias and other memory problems. So far, the research has been done only on animals. But scientists say this memory system is likely to work almost identically in people. The discovery of such an apparently critical memory molecule, and its many potential uses, are part of the buzz surrounding a field that, in just the past few years, has made the seemingly impossible suddenly probable: neuroscience, the study of the brain. “If this molecule is as important as it appears to be, you can see the possible implications,” said Dr. Todd C. Sacktor, a 52-year-old neuroscientist who leads the team at the SUNY Downstate Medical Center, in Brooklyn, which demonstrated its effect on memory. “For trauma. For addiction, which is a learned behavior. Ultimately for improving memory and learning.” Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Emotions
Link ID: 12719 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Andy Greenberg, Forbes.com The Force, it seems, is not so strong with this one. In the virtual world of a game called Neuroboy, I'm staring out over a lagoon at an exact digital replica of a Star Wars X-wing spaceship submerged in blue water. My task: to lift that virtual object out of its murky depths using not my mouse or keyboard, but instead — ą la Luke Skywalker — my thoughts. Back in the real world, I'm wearing a bluetooth headset that touches my forehead with a single metal sensor. The more I relax, according to the headset's manufacturer, Neurosky, the more that small metal point will pick up my brain's alpha waves, triggering the ship to rise. I relax. The spaceship doesn't budge. I close my eyes to slits and let myself slip into a half-trance daze. The ship wiggles ever so slightly, and I respond with a bit of hopeful excitement that immediately sends it sinking back into the water. After a minute or so of frustration, I retreat to my keyboard to switch the game from "lift" to "pull" mode. Suddenly, and without a single Jedi mind trick, the X-wing leaps toward me and fills the entire screen, only coming to rest when I pull off the headset to break the sensor's connection with my forehead. Either my mental powers aren't yet ready for Neurosky's gadgetry, or vice versa. Ready or not, telekinesis gadgets like Neurosky's so-called "Mindset" are coming to market, along with those built by competitors like OCZ Technology and Emotiv Systems. Neurosky plans to announce Thursday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco that it's partnering with Toshiba to release the $199 US consumer headsets this summer, along with a software platform for third-party developers to create games and other applications for the device. © CBC 2009

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 12718 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Bruce Bower CHICAGO — In the strange and contentious world of fossil hobbits, a chimp-sized brain may boast humanlike powers. An analysis of the inner surface of an 18,000-year–old skull assigned to Homo floresiensis, a species also known as hobbits, indicates that this tiny individual possessed a brain blessed with souped-up intellectual capacities needed for activities such as making stone tools, says anthropologist Dean Falk of Florida State University in Tallahassee. Even as H. floresiensis evolved a relatively diminutive brain, the species underwent substantial neural reorganization that allowed its members to think much like people do, Falk contended on April 2 in a presentation at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists annual meeting. She also reported the findings in a paper published online February 28 in the Journal of Human Evolution. Falk compared a cast of the cranium’s inner surface, or endocast, obtained from the partial hobbit skeleton LB1 to endocasts from both modern humans and from other fossil skulls in the human evolutionary family, called hominids for short. These casts bring into relief impressions made by various anatomical landmarks on the brain’s surface. “LB1 reveals that significant cortical reorganization was sustained in ape-sized brains of at least one hominid species,” Falk said. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2009

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 12717 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Prions, the mis-folded proteins best known for causing diseases such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy in cows, scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease in humans, could also help yeast survival, according to a study in the journal Cell1. "We think prions are really important," says co-author Simon Alberti of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "When environmental conditions are harsh, they might allow a species to survive." The work, led by Susan Lindquist of the Whitehead Institute, bolsters the theory that prions might confer an evolutionary advantage, says Alberti. Lindquist first broached that idea nine years ago, after finding that a prion called PSI+ in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae triggered heritable changes that could provide a way of adapting to fluctuating environments2. More recent work also suggests prions might play a role in memory in sea slugs and smell in mice. In the new work, a scan of the S. cerevisiae genome yielded 24 potential prion-forming proteins. Only five prions were known to exist in yeast before this study. The team focused on a protein called Mot3 and found that it can twist into a prion form. When in its normal shape, Mot3 suppresses yeast genes involved in building the cellular wall. But when Mot3 kinks into a prion, it loses this function and the wall-building genes activate. Hence, yeast carrying the Mot3 prions grew thicker, more robust cell walls. © 2009 Nature Publishing Group,

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 12716 - Posted: 06.24.2010

New research is shining a light on differences in the brains of soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder when compared with soldiers who return from combat without the condition. The work could some day lead to the use of brain scans to help diagnose PTSD, to tailor treatment or even identify people who might be at risk of developing the problem if they're exposed to violence in a war zone, experts say. 'This is consistent with the hypervigilance symptoms that are associated with PTSD that might make these people be very sensitive to detecting anything that could be relevant for survival.'— Dr. Florin Dolcos Dr. Florin Dolcos, an assistant professor of psychiatry and neuroscience at the University of Alberta, travelled to Italy to present the research Friday at the World Psychiatric Association congress in Florence. The experiments were conducted in North Carolina by a team led by Dr. Rajendra Morey of Duke University. Morey is also director of the neuroimaging lab at Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center. Forty-two U.S. soldiers who had returned from Iraq and Afghanistan took part in the study, including 22 soldiers who had developed post-traumatic stress disorder and 20 who had not. © CBC 2009

Keyword: Stress; Brain imaging
Link ID: 12715 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Roberta Friedman Scientists know that small variations in certain genes can predispose people to cancers or heart disease. Now researchers are starting to show a direct, quantifiable effect on learning traceable to these types of genetic influences: single-nucleotide polymorphisms. A difference in just one amino acid in a protein might explain why some people learn new motor skills faster and reach higher levels of performance. The protein, called brain-derived neurotro­phic factor (BDNF), is a key driver of synaptic plasti­city, the ability of the connections between brain cells to change in strength. This plasticity is an important factor in learning, explains neurologist Janine Reis, who led the study at the National Institutes of Health. According to Reis, this finding offers the first evidence that slight variations in BDNF’s structure affect learning ability. Volunteers with one type of BDNF learned faster and performed better at a task in which they had to grip a handle more or less tightly to move a computer cursor through a sequence of targets. Those with a different variant never reached the skill level acquired by the faster learners. (The researchers excluded people who play video games.) Other groups have found that the BDNF version that Reis linked with poorer acquisition of skills is associated with reduced function of the hippocampus, a brain region involved in motor learning. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Trophic Factors; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 12714 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Tina Hesman Saey You snooze, you lose connections between brain cells, two new studies suggest. People have known for some time that getting enough sleep is crucial for proper brain function. “If you don’t get enough sleep your ability to acquire, process and recall information is going to be impaired,” says Paul Shaw, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis and coauthor of one of the new studies. But scientists debate exactly how sleep helps the brain learn and remember. Two studies appearing in the April 3 Science suggest that sleep weakens or severs connections between brain cells to make way for new information. A study by Giorgio Gilestro, Giulio Tononi and Chiara Cirelli of the University of Wisconsin–Madison shows that proteins found in the connections between neurons, called synapses, build up in fruit fly brains while the flies are awake. Depriving flies of sleep leads to ever-greater levels of synaptic proteins, the researchers show. Levels of the proteins decrease as the flies sleep. Scientists usually determine synapse strength by measuring electrical activity of neurons, but fruit fly brains are far too small for electrical measurements, Cirelli says. The proteins, she says, are markers of synaptic strength. If true, the new finding would offer support for the theory of synaptic homeostasis, advanced by Tononi and Cirelli. The theory holds that sleep scales back the strength of connections between neurons, weakening the strongest connections and completely eliminating the weakest synapses. The cutbacks help save resources, the researchers say, and boost the signal of important memories over the noise of unneeded connections (SN: 12/20/08, p. 9). © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2009

Keyword: Sleep; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 12713 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Adults who suffer chronic sleep problems may be more likely to try to commit suicide, US research suggests. Doctors are being warned to be vigilant if a patient reports disturbed sleep - even if they have no history of mental health problems. The more types of sleep disturbances people had, the more likely they were to have thoughts of killing themselves, or actually try to do so. The study will be presented at a World Psychiatric Association meeting. The World Health Organization estimates that about 877,000 people worldwide die by suicide every year. For every death up to 40 suicide attempts are made. Scientists have consistently linked sleep disturbances to an increased risk of suicidal behaviour in people with psychiatric disorders and in adolescents. But it has been unclear whether the association also exists in the general adult population. A University of Michigan team examined the relationship over one year between sleep problems, and suicidal behaviour in 5,692 Americans. During the course of the year 2.6% of the sample had suicidal thoughts, and 0.5% were recorded as making a suicide attempt. They looked at three types of sleep problems - difficulty falling asleep, difficulty staying asleep and waking at least two hours earlier than desired. The researchers took account of factors such as substance abuse, depression, anxiety disorder, and physical illness, as well as social factors such as marriage and financial status. People with two or more symptoms of insomnia were 2.6 times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those whose sleep was not disturbed. Early morning waking was the single trait most strongly linked to suicidal behaviour. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sleep; Depression
Link ID: 12712 - Posted: 04.02.2009

Do blind people ever suffer from seasonal affective disorder? If so, can sunshine or tanning beds help? —Kirstin Steele, Charleston, S.C. Circadian and vision neu­ro­scientist Russell G. Foster of the University of Oxford answers: Because blind people retain a newly discovered system of light-detecting cells, they, too, can suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Patients who have SAD struggle with serious mood changes in the fall and winter seasons. Symptoms include excessive sleepiness, low energy, and a tendency to crave sweets and starchy foods. Normally our circadian rhythm is synchronized to the light/dark cycle, but in the absence of such cues our internal physiology starts to drift. The body clock of SAD sufferers may lose synchronization under the shorter periods and lower levels of winter light. Exposure to one to two hours of bright light in the morning often can help correct this disruption and alleviate SAD symptoms. A link between the occurrence of cataracts—clouding in the eye that leads to visual loss—and the development of SAD further suggests that light detection by the eye is key in this disorder. Puzzlingly, some people who are completely blind—lacking the eye’s photoreceptors known as rods and cones—can experience SAD. A decade ago scientists at Cornell University proposed that humans can detect light through their skin. But when researchers in the Netherlands tested this idea by exposing just the skin of SAD patients to bright light, they found the treatment had no effect at all. How, then, are they detecting light? © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc

Keyword: Depression; Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 12711 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In the sci-fi movie Men in Black, Tommy Lee Jones could erase a person's memory with a flash from his hand-held "Neuralizer." Neuroscientists aren't quite there yet. Their most successful attempts at memory wiping have involved genetic engineering or injecting drugs into the brains of rodents. Now researchers report a less invasive approach: a form of exposure therapy that makes rats forget a fearful association. The findings may eventually help improve treatments for people with phobias or post-traumatic stress disorder. The new approach combines two methods previously shown to weaken memories of fear, says first author Marie Monfils, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas, Austin. One method, called extinction training, involves repeated exposures to a previously scary stimulus--a tone previously paired with a shock, for example--to dull the stimulus's impact. Extinction training is the basis of exposure therapy for people with debilitating phobias, but its effects aren't permanent. Another method, called reconsolidation blockade, seems to have more lasting effects. It involves prompting a rat (or person) to recall a scary memory and then administering a drug to weaken it (ScienceNOW, 25 October 2004). Researchers think this works because a memory becomes briefly vulnerable to manipulation each time it's recalled. But many of the drugs that have proven effective in rodent studies are toxic, limiting their therapeutic potential in people. Monfils hypothesized that combining elements of both methods might yield lasting effects without the use of toxic drugs. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Emotions
Link ID: 12710 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Susan Milius Count your chickens after they hatch, and they may do a little arithmetic themselves. Chicks only 3 or 4 days old manage an animal version of adding and subtracting, says Rosa Rugani of the University of Trento Center for Mind/Brain Sciences in Rovereto, Italy. Inspired by experiments with human babies, Rugani and her colleagues worked out tests based on adding objects to and taking them away from little piles behind screens. With no special math coaching, the chicks did a decent job of keeping track of object shifts representing such problems as 4 – 2 = 2 and 1 + 2 = 3, she and her colleagues report online March 31 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. “This is the first demonstration of adding and subtracting in young animals” other than humans, Rugani says. Other animals, including some primates and dogs, have demonstrated numerical powers as adults. Karen Wynn of Yale University, who has reported evidence of numerical skills in human babies, points out that the chicks haven’t had a chance to learn or develop much. “This work, then, is a compelling existence proof that numerical understanding comprises a built-in system of unlearned knowledge,” Wynn says. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2009

Keyword: Evolution; Intelligence
Link ID: 12709 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Stem cells that could be used to restore hearing have been successfully created, scientists have said. A Sheffield University team took stem cells from embryos and converted them into cells that behave like sensory hair cells in the human inner ear. Their discovery could ultimately help those who have lost hair cells through noise damage and some people born with inherited hearing problems. But any cure is still some years away, experts told the journal Stem Cell. The Sheffield team is now working on the next stage of the research to check if the cells can restore hearing. Currently, hair cell damage is irreversible and causes hearing problems in some 10% of people worldwide. Embryonic stem cells could change this because they have the unique ability to become any kind of human cell. Not only could they be used to replace the lost hair cells, but also any damaged nerve cells along which the signals generated by the hair cells are transmitted to the brain. But the use of stem cells is controversial - opponents object on the grounds that it is unethical to destroy embryos in the name of science. Lead researcher Dr Marcelo Rivolta, said: "The potential of stem cells is very exciting. We have now an experimental system to study genes and drugs in a human context. "Moreover, these cells would help us to develop the technologies needed to deliver them into damaged tissues, such as the cochlea, in order to restore the different cell types. Dr Ralph Holme, director of biomedical research at RNID, said: "Stem cell therapy for hearing loss is still some years away but this research is incredibly promising and opens up exciting possibilities by bringing us closer to restoring hearing in the future." Vivienne Michael of Deafness Research UK said: "This study highlights the importance of stem cell research. In addition to the future potential for restoring hearing with stem cell therapy, the recent research success means that we may now have better ways to test the efficacy and toxicity of new drugs on auditory cells." (C)BBC

Keyword: Hearing; Stem Cells
Link ID: 12708 - Posted: 04.02.2009

by Caroline Williams By the time we take our first breath, the brain is already more than eight months old. It starts to develop within four weeks of conception, when one of three layers of cells in the embryo rolls up to form the neural tube. A week later the top of this tube bends over, creating the basic structure of fore, mid and hindbrain. From this point, brain growth and differentiation is controlled mainly by the genes. Even so, the key to getting the best out of your brain at this stage is to have the best prenatal environment possible. In the early weeks of development, that means having a mother who is stress-free, eats well and stays away from cigarettes, alcohol and other toxins. Towards the end of the brain-building process, when the fetus becomes able to hear and remember (see "The five ages of the brain: 2 Childhood"), sounds and sensations also begin to shape the brain. In the first two trimesters of pregnancy, though, development is all about putting the basic building blocks in place: growing neurons and connections and making sure each section of the brain grows properly and in the right area. This takes energy, and a variety of nutrients in the right quantity at the right time. In fact, if you consider the size of the construction job at hand - 100 billion brain cells and several million support cells in four major lobes and tens of distinct regions - it is a truly staggering feat of evolutionary engineering. One nutrient we know the brain needs early on is folic acid, which is crucial for closing the neural tube. Deficiencies can lead to defects like spina bifida, where part of the spine grows outside the body, and anencephaly, a fatal condition in which much of the brain fails to develop. There's some evidence that vitamin B12 deficiency has similar effects (Pediatrics, vol 123, p 917). © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 12707 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JANE E. BRODY Concern about the safety of hormone replacement has all but obscured one of the most pressing concerns for women of a certain age: the effects of menopause on their sex lives. Many are reluctant to ask their doctors a question uppermost in their minds: “What has happened to my desire for sex and my ability to enjoy it?” With fully a third of their lives ahead of them, but with little or none of the hormones that fostered what may have been a robust sex life, many postmenopausal women experience diminished or absent sexual desire, difficulty becoming aroused or achieving orgasm, or pain during intercourse caused by menopause-related vaginal changes. Sometimes the reasons for these problems go beyond hormones. Some women may consider themselves less sexually attractive as their bodies change with age, or they have partners who have lost interest in sex or the ability to perform reliably. But for most postmenopausal women, hormone-related changes are the primary factors that interfere with sexual satisfaction. My friend Linda, for example, who lives in Pittsburgh, was 52 years old and recently married when her vibrant interest in sex suddenly plummeted, leading to a frantic search for a way to restore it. A more common situation is described by Pat Wingart and Barbara Kantrowitz in their informative book, “Is It Hot in Here or Is It Me?” (Workman, 2006): “You’re not in the mood a lot of the time. Most nights, you just wish your partner would roll over and go to sleep. When you do feel like a little action, it takes forever to get warmed up. Sometimes sex is more painful than pleasurable.” Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 12706 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS WADE Researchers studying the social behavior of ants have found that a single gene underlies both the aggressive behavior of the ant colony’s soldiers and the food gathering behavior of its foraging caste. The gene is active in soldier ants, particularly in five neurons in the front of their brain, where it generates large amounts of its product, a protein known as PKG. The exact amount of the protein in the ants’ brains is critical to their behavior. Low levels of PKG predispose both castes of ant to foraging; high levels make the soldiers fight and the foraging caste less interested in food gathering, Christophe Lucas and Marla B. Sokolowski report in the current issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The soldier and foraging castes in the species of ant under study, known as Pheidole pallidula, have their career choices settled in infancy when they start to be fed different diets. The soldiers develop large heads and jaws, and go on to guard the colony and kill invaders. The foragers, who remain small, specialize in looking for food and bringing back prey to the nest. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 12705 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Linda Geddes "Moonwalking" mice may provide insights into the genetic causes of a rare debilitating condition called cerebellar ataxia. The illness affects the cerebellum – the part of the brain that controls movement and balance. The mice, which are engineered to express a mutated protein that causes neurons in the cerebellum to die, move backwards when they try to walk forwards on a smooth surface. The same neurons are destroyed in cerebellar ataxia, which causes unsteadiness and loss of co-ordination. Moonwalking – made famous by Michael Jackson – is a dance move where someone appears to walk forwards but actually slides backwards. The mice seem to do it because they place their feet further apart than normal as they walk, in order to maintain their balance. Humans with cerebellar ataxia have trouble coordinating their movements, although "I don't think there are any human patients out there who walk backwards," says Esther Becker of the University of Oxford, who led the study. "The million dollar question is whether mutations of this gene also occur in humans with cerebellar ataxia," says Becker, who is currently screening patients with genetic forms of the condition to find out. If they do, it could pave the way towards new treatments. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 12704 - Posted: 06.24.2010