By Greg Miller The ability to suppress distracting or distressing memories helps people cope with everyday life, yet neuroscientists know little about how it works. Now researchers have gained some clues from a study that combined hypnosis and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate changes in brain activity as volunteers suppressed--and later recalled--memories of a recently viewed movie. Some people can be made to suppress a particular memory by hypnotic suggestion, an effect called posthypnotic amnesia. Hoping to take advantage of this phenomenon, neuroscientist Yadin Dudai of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and colleagues had subjects watch a movie depicting a young woman going about her daily routine--making meals, talking on the phone, rollerblading with friends, and so on. A week later, the volunteers returned to the lab and, under hypnosis, were instructed to forget the movie until they heard the phrase "Now you can remember everything." As the researchers had hoped, the hypnosis triggered memory suppression. After the subjects woke up, they took a quiz about the activities of the woman in the movie. They performed no better than chance, answering only half of the yes-no questions correctly. Immediately afterward, the volunteers heard the magic phrase and took the quiz again. This time they averaged about 80% correct, the same as a control group that wasn't susceptible to posthypnotic amnesia. © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 11190 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Charles Q. Choi Just as Nana and Papa help take care of the kids, senior birds have now been seen for the first time behaving like grandparents. The new findings could shed light on how grandparenting — rare in the animal kingdom except in humans — develops. In a very small number of mammal species other than humans — such as pilot whales and some monkeys — researchers have occasionally seen older adults engage in what might be grandparenting. Still, this behavior remains largely overlooked outside humans, explained molecular ecologist David Richardson of the University of East Anglia in England. For more than 10 years, Richardson and his colleagues have investigated the Seychelles warbler (Acrocephalus sechellensis), once one of the world's rarest birds due to human interference. Conservation efforts have now helped rescue this tropical songbird from the edge of extinction. The small island the researchers worked on is also the nesting site of half a million seabirds. The constant rain of bird droppings "means a hat is a must!" Richardson recalled. In addition, "although the island is incredibly beautiful, it can also be full of mosquitoes, especially in the jungle. In some wet years you would be lucky to get away with 300 to 400 bites a day. Fortunately, there is no human malaria, so it is not life threatening." © 2008 LiveScience.com.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 11189 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A little alcohol combined with a healthy active lifestyle may be the best recipe for a longer life. A European Heart Journal study suggests the combination can cut the risk of heart disease. A Danish team found people who led an active lifestyle were less prone to heart disease - but the risk was cut still further if they drank moderately. However, UK experts warned people should not be encouraged to drink, as too much alcohol can be very damaging. The researchers followed nearly 12,000 men and women for nearly 20 years, during which 1,242 died from ischaemic heart disease (IHD). Overall, they found people who did not drink or take any exercise had the highest risk of heart disease - 49% higher than people who either drank, exercised or did both. When comparing people who took similar levels of exercise, they found that those who drank moderately - one to 14 units of alcohol a week - were around 30% less likely to develop heart disease than non-drinkers. This finding held good for people who were completely inactive, through to those who took vigorous regular exercise - with the overall risk declining as exercise levels increased. Non-drinkers who were physically active had a 31%-33% reduced risk of IHD compared to physically inactive non-drinkers. But their reduced risk was dwarfed by physically active people who drank at least one drink a week - their risk was up to 50% lower than that of physically inactive non-drinkers. Past research has suggested that alcohol consumption may decrease the risk of heart disease by increasing the levels of "good" cholesterol and possibly thinning the blood. It was a similar story when the researchers looked at deaths from all causes: physical activity appeared to reduce the risk, while moderate drinkers fared better than their abstemious peers across all physical activity levels. (C)BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 11188 - Posted: 01.09.2008

New approaches to the treatment of tinnitus - a buzzing or ringing in the ears - are being pioneered and may hold the promise of a future cure. Over a third of the UK population will suffer from tinnitus at some point in their lives. For 600,000 of these people the condition will become so severe that it seriously impedes the quality of their lives. Sufferers can become agitated and forgetful. They are sometimes unable to sleep, sustain relationships, or hold down employment. Every year there are many reports of tinnitus driving sufferers to suicide. There is no respite from the constant noise and no cure. Tinnitus is often described as a 'mild ringing' in the ears. But for Kate Cook, a busy working mother of two and presenter of the documentary Longing for Silence, the effects of the condition are debilitating. She has had a high pitched whistle inside her head for 25 years and the impact on her life is huge. It never goes away and when she is tired or stressed the volume swells to unbearable levels. "After a long day you have got this incredible noise inside you. A whistling, squeaking, almost physical sensation in your ears. That is when you feel really really lonely. And because it is a silent symptom to everyone around you, there is this hopeless feeling of being on my own with it," says Kate. Like many tinnitus sufferers, she feels frustrated by the lack of help on offer. "There is a complete vacuum of information for people like me. Because it is not fatal people think it is not that bad. But it ruins lives." (C)BBC

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 11187 - Posted: 01.09.2008

By Elizabeth Quill Each fall, millions of monarch butterflies wing it from their birthplaces in eastern North America to a small winter retreat in the mountains of central Mexico. Scientists have long puzzled at how the insects navigate the unfamiliar journey, which can span up to 3000 kilometers. Now researchers have exposed the cogs and gears that make a monarch's biological clock tick, timekeeping that they say is necessary for successful southward navigation. Scientists believe monarchs follow the sun like a compass. But this is easier said than done. Because the sun appears to rise and fall each day, the insects must constantly adjust to its movements, lest they quickly lose their way. In 2003, Steven Reppert, a neurobiologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, showed that butterflies use an internal timepiece to help them fly in the right direction (ScienceNOW, 22 May 2003). In a pair of new studies, Reppert and his colleagues suggest that the connection between the clock and the compass relies on light-absorbing proteins called cryptochromes. First discovered in plants, cryptochromes help synchronize the internal clock--or circadian rhythm--in flies and mice (Science, 27 November 1998, p. 1628). © 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Animal Migration
Link ID: 11186 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Karla Gale NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Administration of orexin-A, a naturally occurring brain neurotransmitter, counteracts the intellectual deficits and altered brain metabolism induced by sleep deprivation in monkeys, new research findings show. Orexin-A was tested because of its know specific brain activity in controlling sleep processes in mammals, lead author Dr. Sam A. Deadwyler told Reuters Health. Orexin-A is released by neurons in the brain, the scientists explain in the Journal of Neuroscience, and orexin-A receptors are located on neurons in many brain regions affected by sleep and sleep deprivation. Deadwyler, a neurobiologist at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and his team worked with eight monkeys trained to perform an intellectual task to test short-term memory. The effect of orexin-A on the animals' performance was analyzed after a normal 12-hour sleep cycle and after being kept awake for 30 to 36 continuous hours. Brain metabolism was evaluated by F18-fluorodeoxyglucose PET scanning. When the monkeys were alert, orexin-A did not improve test performance. In fact, at the highest concentration of orexin-A, intellectual functioning worsened. However, when the monkeys were deprived of sleep, a low- or high-dose of orexin-A significantly improved the animals' test performance. SOURCE: Journal of Neuroscience, December 26, 2007. © 1996-2007 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 11185 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer WASHINGTON - Those Type A go-getters aren't the only ones stressing their hearts. Nervous Nelsons seem to be, too. Researchers reported Monday that chronic anxiety can significantly increase the risk of a heart attack, at least in men. The findings add another trait to a growing list of psychological profiles linked to heart disease, including anger or hostility, Type A behavior, and depression. "There's a connection between the heart and head," said Dr. Nieca Goldberg of the New York University School of Medicine, a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association who wasn't involved in the study. "This is very important research because we really are focused very much on prescribing medicine for cholesterol and lowering blood pressure and treating diabetes, but we don't look at the psychological aspect of a patient's care," she added. Doctors "need to be aggressive about not only taking care of the traditional risk factors ... but also really getting into their patients' heads." The research was published Monday by the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Everybody's anxious every now and then. At issue here is not the understandable sweaty palms before a big speech or nervousness at a party, but longstanding anxiety — people who are socially withdrawn, fearful, chronic worriers. It's a glass-half-empty personality.

Keyword: Emotions; Stress
Link ID: 11184 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JANE E. BRODY Scott McCredie is a Seattle-based health and science writer who says he “discovered” what he calls “the lost sense” of balance after he watched in horror as his 67-year-old father tumbled off a boulder and disappeared from sight during a hike in the Cascades. Though his father hurt little more than his pride, Mr. McCredie became intrigued by what might have caused this experienced hiker, an athletic and graceful man, to lose his balance suddenly. His resulting science-and-history-based exploration led to a book, “Balance: In Search of the Lost Sense,” published last June by Little, Brown. Noting that each year one in three Americans 65 and older falls, and that falls and their sometimes disastrous medical consequences are becoming more common as the population ages, Mr. McCredie wonders why balance is not talked about in fitness circles as often as strength training, aerobics and stretching. He learned that the sense of balance begins to degrade in one’s 20s and that it is downhill — literally and figuratively — from there unless steps are taken to preserve or restore this delicate and critically important ability to maintain equilibrium. Vertigo, which can be caused by inner ear infections, low blood pressure, brain injuries, certain medications and some chronic diseases, is loss of balance in the extreme. Anyone who has experienced it — even if just from twirling in a circle — knows how disorienting and dangerous it can be. Really, without a sense of balance, just about everything else in life can become an insurmountable obstacle. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 11183 - Posted: 06.24.2010

LOS ANGELES - Autism cases in California continued to climb even after a mercury-based vaccine preservative that some people blame for the neurological disorder was removed from routine childhood shots, a new study found. Researchers from the state Department of Public Health found the autism rate in children rose continuously during the 12-year study period from 1995 to 2007. The preservative thimerosal hasn’t been used in childhood vaccines since 2001, but is used in some flu shots. Doctors say the latest study adds to existing evidence refuting a link between thimerosal exposure and autism risk and should reassure parents that the disorder is not caused by vaccinations. If there was a risk, they said, autism rates should have dropped between 2004 and 2007. The findings show “no evidence of mercury poisoning in autism” since there was no decline in autism rates even after the elimination of thimerosal, said Dr. Eric Fombonne, an autism researcher at Montreal Children’s Hospital who had no role in the research. © 2008 The Associated Press.

Keyword: Autism; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 11182 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By TARA PARKER-POPE For people with chronic pain, relief comes with a tradeoff. Bed rest means missing out on life. Drugs take the edge off, but they also dull the senses and the mind. But there’s another potential option: implantable stimulators that blunt pain with electrical impulses. In this case, the tradeoff is living with a low-grade buzzing sensation in place of the pain. The devices, which are implanted near the spine, are not widely used. They are expensive, don’t work for everyone and rarely offer complete relief. Industry officials estimate that fewer than 10 percent of eligible patients opt for the treatment. But when they do work, they can be life-changing. Carolyn Stewart, 45, of Clifton, N.J., has lived with chronic back pain since she was 18, when she had surgery after a car accident. Then four years ago, a procedure for a collapsed lung accidentally resulted in nerve damage that caused excruciating pain. “I just want to sleep normally and not have pain that wakes me up every 20 minutes,” she said. Ms. Stewart has been using pain drugs to cope, but side effects, including fatigue and constipation, only add to her discomfort. A few years ago she did a “test drive” of a spinal cord stimulator and experienced a significant drop in her pain. Insurance troubles delayed a permanent implant, but this month she is finally undergoing surgery to attach the device to her spinal cord. “It’s not going to be 100 percent,” she said. “But I will be happy with a 50 percent change.” Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 11181 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Emily Lyons When strangers ask her for directions, Karen Kostyal responds quickly. She has lived around Washington about 30 years and has a well-rooted sense of the area. Nonetheless, the Alexandria resident says, "my husband usually cuts in," supporting the stereotype that men feel their sense of orientation and direction is superior. "No question," says Buzz Smith, Kostyal's husband. "It's not that I don't get lost. [But] I can give directions . . . better than my wife can." That assertion may be contestable, but there are well-documented differences in how men and women get from Point A to Point B -- perhaps giving a scientific root to timeworn jokes about women being batty drivers and men never admitting (though committing) error. Studies over the past decade have shown that women are likelier to rely on landmarks and visual cues, and men on maps, cardinal directions (such as north and south) and gauges of distance. "Women are more dependent on a surrounding frame," says Luc Tremblay, an assistant professor of physical education and health at the University of Toronto, who has led studies on the matter. If landmarks change, women are more apt to notice and question their sense of orientation. "Men are capable of relying on another source of information alone," Tremblay says. While some scientists theorize that hormones account for navigational differences between the sexes, Tremblay thinks the answer may lie in the inner ear. © 2008 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 11180 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Marlowe Hood, -- Tiny nerves crisscrossing the spine can bypass crippling injuries recently written off as irreversible, scientists reported in a study published Monday. Experiments conducted on mice at the University of California in Los Angeles showed for the first time that the central nervous system can rewire itself to create small neural pathways between the brain and the nerve cells that control movement. This startling discovery could one day open the way to new therapies for damaged spinal cords and perhaps address conditions stemming from stroke and multiple sclerosis, according to the study. Normally, the brain relays messages that control walking or running via neural fibers called axons. When these long nerves are crushed or severed -- in a road crash or sports accident, for example -- these lines of communication are cut, resulting in reduced movement or paralysis. "Not long ago, it was assumed that the brain was hard-wired at birth and that there was no capacity to adapt to damage," explained neurobiologist Michael Sofroniew, who led the research. © 2008 Discovery Communications

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 11179 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Rachel Courtland By mating blind fish from distant underwater caves, researchers have bred offspring that can see. The results, published this week in Current Biology 1, show that the two populations took different evolutionary paths to blindness. “We’ve basically shown that these different populations have converged upon the same outward appearance independently, and that they use different genes to do it,” says Richard Bolowsky of New York University. The blind fish, called Astyanax mexicanus , live in isolated limestone caves in northeast Mexico. Over hundreds of millennia of living in darkness, the fish, which have a sighted ancestor, accumulated genetic mutations that affect eye development, and so lost their sight. Today some 29 different varieties of the blind Mexican fish live in isolated caves. Researchers have long wondered whether they all lost their sight the same way or not. Bolowsky and his assistants descended into the caves and fished out different blind populations to cross in the lab. If the fish had the same developmental mutations, the researchers reckoned they would produce blind offspring. Instead, the experiment produced a number of fry with functioning eyes; in the most successful pairing, 40% of hybrid fry could see. The results suggest fish from different caves have mutations that don’t overlap. © 2008 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Vision; Evolution
Link ID: 11178 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In experiments done in lab and animal studies, a breakdown in proper cell development has been shown to cause brain-specific stem cells to become starter seeds for aggressive brain tumors called glioblastoma multiforme, according to research from a team of researchers. This developmental breakdown is caused by an error in methylation, one of the cell's primary methods of controlling the extent to which genes are expressed. In laboratory studies and animal models of brain cancer, reversing this error repaired the breakdown, restoring the normal neural cell development pathway. The findings, which appear in the January 2008, issue of Cancer Cell, could increase basic understanding of brain tumor biology and lead to the development of targeted therapies for brain cancer. "The discovery of a link between tumor stem-like cells and expression control is both novel and exciting," said NCI Director John Niederhuber, M.D. "These results bring new clarity to how all aspects of the genome's function, regulation, and structure can be perturbed in the development of cancer." Many researchers have come to believe that the activity of a small group of stem-like tumor starter cells, or tumor-initiating cells with stem-like properties (TICs) may be one of the main reasons that cancer develops. Like normal stem cells, TICs are able to self-renew; unlike stem cells , TICs give rise to cells that develop into tumors, instead of differentiating into normal tissue. TICs have been reportedly found in tumors in a number of organs, including the breast, colon, lung, and brain.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 11177 - Posted: 01.08.2008

A first-of-its-kind autism prevention study will test whether high-risk babies are helped by extra eye contact and attention from parents. University of Washington autism researchers are hoping to recruit 200 Seattle-area babies who have an older sibling diagnosed with autism for the $11.3 million study. Autism affects as many as one in every 150 newborns in the United States, but the risk is as high as one in 20 for infants who have a sibling with autism. All of the babies recruited for the study will be monitored by specialists and evaluated at the ages of 6, 12 and 24 months. But half the mothers in the study will be coached in a unique intervention that trains them to detect subtle communication cues from their babies. The mothers will be taught how to take advantage of periods when their children are reaching out, engaging infants in eye contact and communicating with them in a lilting voice that captures attention and may make it easier for kids to learn language. “We want parents to really be attuned when a child reaches for a toy and looks at the parent,’’ said Annette Estes, associate director of the University of Washington Autism Center and research assistant professor of psychiatry and behavior science. “We want parents to be really aware when their child is allowing them into their world and to know what to do at that point.’’ Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 11176 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ST. PAUL, Minn. – People with restless legs syndrome (RLS) are twice as likely to have a stroke or heart disease compared to people without RLS, and the risk is greatest in those with the most frequent and severe symptoms, according to research published in the January 1, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study, the largest of its kind enrolling both men and women, involved 3,433 people with an average age of 68 who were enrolled in the Sleep Heart Health Study. Participants were diagnosed with RLS by detailed questionnaire and asked if they had been diagnosed with a variety of systemic diseases including cardiovascular disease and cerebrovascular disease. Of the participants, nearly seven percent of women and three percent of men had RLS. The study found people with RLS were more than twice as likely to have cardiovascular disease or cerebrovascular disease. The results remained the same after adjusting for age, sex, race, body mass index, diabetes, high blood pressure, high blood pressure medication, HDL/LDL cholesterol levels, and smoking. "The association of RLS with heart disease and stroke was strongest in those people who had RLS symptoms at least 16 times per month," said study author John W. Winkelman, MD, PhD, with Harvard Medical School in Boston. "There was also an increased risk among people who said their RLS symptoms were severe compared to those with less bothersome symptoms."

Keyword: Sleep; Stroke
Link ID: 11175 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Madeline Vann -- Almost half of Chicago internists say they have prescribed a placebo to a patient during their years of practice, a new study finds. A majority of doctors in the study also said they believed in the power of placebos, indicating that doctors do accept a mind-body relationship that can affect health, the researchers said. A placebo, often referred to as a "sugar pill," has no medicinal qualities. A University of Chicago research team sent surveys about placebo use to 466 internists at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University and the University of Illinois -- Chicago. Half of the recipients responded, and 45 percent of the respondents reported giving a patient a placebo at least once during their years of practice. "Placebos have been used in medicine since ancient times and remain both clinically relevant and philosophically interesting. In addition to their recognized use as controls in clinical trials, this study suggests that placebos themselves are viewed as therapeutic tools in medical practice," co-author Rachel Sherman, a fourth-year medical student at the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement. © 2008 ScoutNews, LLC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 11174 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By PETER S. GOODMAN NEW ORLEANS — Are movies like “Hannibal” and the remake of “Halloween,” which serve up murder and mutilation as routine fare, actually making the nation safer? A paper presented by two researchers over the weekend to the annual meeting of the American Economic Association here challenges the conventional wisdom, concluding that violent films prevent violent crime by attracting would-be assailants and keeping them cloistered in darkened, alcohol-free environs. Instead of fueling up at bars and then roaming around looking for trouble, potential criminals pass the prime hours for mayhem eating popcorn and watching celluloid villains slay in their stead. “You’re taking a lot of violent people off the streets and putting them inside movie theaters,” said the lead author of the study, Gordon Dahl, an economist at the University of California, San Diego. “In the short run, if you take away violent movies, you’re going to increase violent crime.” Professor Dahl and the paper’s other author, Stefano DellaVigna, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, attach precise numbers to their argument: Over the last decade, they say, the showing of violent films in the United States has decreased assaults by an average of about 1,000 a weekend, or 52,000 a year. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 11173 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Nikhil Swaminathan Often spinal cord injuries result in the severing of the long nerve fibers connecting the brain to the spinal cord, disrupting one's ability to walk, among other things. But even with the primary top-to-bottom signal highway rendered out of order, the nervous system can, over time, reroute itself, finding neural detours and side streets that restore movement, according to a new study out of the University of California, Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.). "It's been known for some time that after certain types of lesions, animals and human[s] will recover their ability to walk," notes Michael Sofroniew, a professor of neurobiology at U.C.L.A.'s David Geffen School of Medicine. For instance, if the long nerve fibers on only one side of the spinal cord are damaged, "the previous explanation is that the other [intact] side was able to activate things," he adds. Recent work in Sofroniew's lab contradicts that theory. Using mice, the U.C.L.A. researchers first severed the nerve fibers coming from the brain to one side of lumbar spinal cord (in the lower back), which controls walking. This resulted in a complete loss of movement in the corresponding hind limb, causing the animal to drag it along when it moved. Over a period of 10 weeks, Sofroniew says, "the swing of the injured leg starts coming back and gets to become 80 percent of normal," on average. © 1996-2007 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 11172 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sharon Crawford When Bob Martin, 59, was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea, he had to surrender his driver's licence to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation. The Mayo Clinic calls sleep apnea a "potentially serious sleep disorder." When asleep, the person's back throat muscles relax, causing repeated stops and starts in breathing. It sometimes reduces oxygen levels, and can be accompanied by loud snoring. Martin, a technical writer for the Construction Safety Association of Canada, experienced an average of 54.1 combined apnea/respiratory events per hour during the night, according to his doctor, not during the day. So why the licence suspension? "Sleep apnea causes impairment in performance and is associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle crashes compared to the general population of drivers," says Dr. Charles George, chair of the University of Western Ontario's respirology division, in one of several recent obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) studies. In short, drivers with OSA receive insufficient nighttime sleep, so they can have difficulty concentrating, their minds can wander and they can fall asleep at the wheel. © CBC 2008

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 11171 - Posted: 06.24.2010