By JOHN TIERNEY ATLANTA — The chimpanzees, after spotting the humans at the corner of their compound, came over to us with their arms outstretched and their palms turned upward. This was the chimps’ way of asking for a banana — and a lot more, as researchers here at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center have discovered. That simple gesture, the upturned palm, is one of the oldest and most widely understood signals in the world. It’s activated by neural circuits inherited from ancient reptiles that abased themselves before larger animals. Chimps and other apes, notably humans, adapted it to ask not just for food, but also for more abstract forms of help, creating a new kind of signal that some researchers believe was the origin of human language. If that’s true, if human eloquence can be traced from a primal message signifying “Gimme,” I’m not sure what conclusion to draw about our species. Maybe that we are inherently social creatures who survived and prevailed against mightier animals by learning to enlist the cooperation of others. Or maybe just that, in our heart of hearts, we are all slackers. The meaning of the gesture is clear whether it’s with one upturned palm, the “Brother, can you spare a dime” stance of beggars around the world, or with the two-palm version favored by preachers who reach out to beseech divine assistance. Or by exasperated Hollywood directors who rise from their chairs with upturned palms to implore their actors, “Work with me, people!” Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 10654 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS BAKALAR It may be that when adults talk to babies, they use a language that is universally understood. Researchers made recordings of English-speaking mothers talking to babies and to adults, then played them to residents of a Shuar village in Morona Santiago Province in southeastern Ecuador. The Shuar are an indigenous group of hunter-horticulturalists who had been taught Spanish but have their own language, and the scientists wanted to see if they could understand the meaning, even without understanding any of the words, when adults talked to babies in English. The researchers recorded four utterances from each of eight English-speaking mothers, ages 21 to 51. The mothers viewed pictures of babies to provoke speech suggesting one of four categories of meaning: prohibition, approval, comfort or paying attention. They were given no script, but were asked to speak as if they were talking to their own baby, using the same phrasing and intonation. Then the women were recorded conveying the same meanings as if speaking to an adult. The 26 Shuar young adults were successful about three-quarters of the time in determining whether an adult or a child was being addressed. With adult speech, they identified the correct meaning category 64 percent of the time, with only moderate success in identifying attention and comfort, and very little in understanding prohibition and approval. Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 10653 - Posted: 08.28.2007

If your child is born in the winter or fall, it will have better long-range eyesight throughout its lifetime and less chance of requiring thick corrective glasses, predicts a Tel Aviv University investigation led by Dr. Yossi Mandel, a senior ophthalmologist in the Israel Defense Forces Medical Corps. Forming a large multi-center Israeli team, the scientists took data on Israeli youth aged 16-23 and retroactively correlated the incidence of myopia (short-sightedness) with their month of birth. The results were astonishing. Babies born in June and July had a 24% greater chance of becoming severely myopic than those born in December and January – the group with the least number of severely myopic individuals. The investigators say that this evidence is likely applicable to babies born anywhere in the world. The results of the study were published this month in the clinical eye journal Ophthalmology. The team interpolated data from a sample size of almost 300,000 young adults, making it one of the largest epidemiological surveys carried out in the world on any subject. Is this great disparity in eyesight related to one’s luck or astrological sign? “Nonsense,” balks study co-author Prof. Michael Belkin of Tel Aviv University’s Goldschleger Eye Research Institute, the most prominent eye research organization in Israel and the region. Belkin is also Incumbent to the Fox Chair of Ophthalmology and one of the founders and first director of the Goldschleger Institute, established more than 25 years ago at the Sheba Medical Center. In November Prof. Belkin will attend the annual American Academy of Ophthalmology conference in New Orleans, La. © PhysOrg.com 2003-2007

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Vision
Link ID: 10652 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rob Stein Many people maintain rich, active sex lives well into their 80s, according to the first detailed examination of sexuality among older Americans. The nationally representative survey of more than 3,000 U.S. adults ages 57 to 85 found that more than half to three-quarters of those questioned remain sexually active, with a significant proportion engaging in frequent and varied sexual behavior. Sexual problems do increase with age, and the rate of sexual activity fades somewhat, the survey found. But interest in sex remains high and the frequency remains surprisingly stable among the physically able who are lucky enough to still have partners. "There's a popular perception that older people aren't as interested in sex as younger people," said Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago, who led the study, being published today in the New England Journal of Medicine. "Our study shows that's simply not true. Older people value sexuality as an important part of life." "This study paints a portrait of this aspect of older Americans' lives that suggests a previously uncharacterized vitality and interest in sexuality," agreed Georgeanne E. Patmios of the National Institute on Aging, the primary funder of the study. "This has not perhaps been fully appreciated." © 2007 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 10651 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CBC News A non-invasive test that measures magnetic fields associated with brain activity may soon be available to diagnose brain diseases. Magnetoencephalography — a process by which a sensitive device picks up brain waves — examines the tiny magnetic fields produced by neuron activity in the brain, activity that can potentially act as a biomarker for brain disease. Using magnetoencephalography, researchers tested patients' neural activity to determine which biomarkers identify specific diseases. The research findings, authored by investigators from the University of Minnesota medical school in Minneapolis, are to be published next week in the Journal of Neural Engineering. Researchers used magnetoencephalography to examine 142 volunteers, testing them 45 to 60 seconds at a time. First, a group of 52 volunteers, some suffering from multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's, schizophrenia, Sjogren's syndrome (an autoimmune disorder) and chronic alcoholism were studied and their patterns of neural activity charted to characterize the different illnesses. Next, 46 patients were tested to see whether the patterns identified in the first group could reveal brain disease within the second group. © CBC 2007

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 10650 - Posted: 06.24.2010

LONDON - Scientists using a computer game have discovered how the brain's response to fear changes as a threat gets nearer in a development that could help people suffering from panic attacks. Two key areas of the brain are involved in fear, with the more impulsive region taking over as a threat looms closer. A malfunctioning in the balance between the two could explain some anxiety disorders, researchers believe. To find out exactly where our fear resides, British scientists scared volunteers with a Pac Man-like computer game, in which subjects were chased through a maze by an artificial predator. If caught, they received a mild electric shock. Simultaneous brain scans measuring blood flow showed that when the predator was distant, lower parts of the prefrontal cortex area of the brain behind the eyebrows were active. This region is associated with complex decision-making, such as planning an escape. But when the predator moved closer, activity shifted to the periaqueductal grey area, responsible for quick-response survival mechanisms such as fighting, flight or freezing. The findings by Dean Mobbs and colleagues at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London were reported in the journal Science on Thursday. © 2007 MSNBC.com

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 10649 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Plenty of adolescent behaviors are annoying, but others can be dangerous or even potentially deadly-- like substance abuse and unprotected sex. Brain researcher Monique Ernst points out that teenagers' propensity for thrill-seeking doesn't just come from having more independence, exposure to risky behaviors, or peer pressure. "This behavior doesn't come from the environment only," she says. "It is actually very much governed by changes that happen in the brain as the adolescents grow." Ernst, a researcher and clinician in the National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH) Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program Branch, says in spite of teens generally being at their peak of health, they have a disproportionately high rate of injury and death. "Their speed of reaction time is really high, their cognitive function, or their thinking, is pretty good, their athletic ability is great," Ernst says. "So they're really healthy, and at the same time, their rate of being sick or impaired and their rate of [injury and death] is really high. To understand why teens tend to make risky choices, Ernst and her colleagues have imaged the brains of teens and adults who were asked to play a gambling game that the researchers have dubbed "the wheel of fortune." Volunteers chose whether to bet in a situation with low odds of winning a larger amount of money, and another situation with good odds of winning a small amount of money. The scientists took functional MRI brain scans during the task, and also questioned the volunteers about their emotional reactions to betting, winning and losing. © ScienCentral, 2000-2007.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 10648 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Whether it's people or animals, we all get itchy, and scratching doesn't necessarily help. Molecular biologist Zhou-Feng Chen and colleagues at Washington University's Pain Center may have found a remedy while looking for a treatment for chronic pain. They tested mice that lacked the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor "GRPR" gene, which normally helps transmit messages in the spinal cord. But when they injected a chemical that acts like GRPR into the mice, the animals began to scratch. Chen says the more they injected, the more the mice scratched. "Those mice would begin to scratch a lot, scratch their body very vigorously," he says. "That's the first sign and the first clue we had well, this gene may be involved in itchy sensation." The relationship may not seem obvious as first, but pain and itch sensations are transmitted through the same region of the spinal cord. And when we have an itch, we can temporarily eliminate it by scratching, which causes pain. So, pain and itch seem to be related sensations, though the exact connection is just beginning to be understood. While everyone can appreciate research to alleviate pain, less attention has been paid to itchiness."This has been really neglected and there's really not much huge effort in this area," Chen says. © ScienCentral, 2000-2007.

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10647 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Mary Muers The elephantnose fish, which finds its way at night using an electrical version of sonar, has sharp enough senses to assess the shape and size of objects in its tank in the dark, researchers have found. The fish can even identify shapes when they are present as simple wire frames rather than solid objects. The sensing organ of Gnathonemus petersii (which looks, as the name suggests, like an elephant's nose) is actually an elongated chin packed with electrical sensors that detect distortions in the fish's own electric field. As it hunts for food in the pitch darkness of a tropical central African night, the elephantnose fish sweeps its snout over the ground like a person using a metal detector, to navigate around obstacles and locate the larvae it feeds on. During daylight hours, most fish can use their eyes to form a sophisticated picture of the size and shape of objects around them. But no one knew whether elephantnose fish could do the same using their electrolocation. To find out, Gerhard von der Emde and his colleagues at the University of Bonn, Germany, put a cube and a pyramid in the tank and studied the fishes' navigation in complete darkness, while watching with an infrared camera. Each time a fish swam to the pyramid it received a worm as a reward. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 10646 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Brian Vastag Twenty-five years ago, researchers discovered that certain viruses can cause obesity in some animals. A decade ago, they extended the finding to people. Now, a team reports that one such virus works by transforming adult stem cells into fat-storing cells. The finding supports the notion that some cases of obesity may be infectious. Magdalena Pasarica of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, who led the new work, stresses that obesity has many causes, including genetic factors, overeating, and a sedentary lifestyle. In some people, however, adenovirus-36 may be the culprit, she says. Adenoviruses cause colds, but adenovirus-36, apparently, does more. In a 2005 study of 502 obese and normal-weight people, researchers reported that 30 percent of the obese group showed signs of previous adenovirus-36 infection, while only 11 percent of the lean group did. In earlier laboratory tests, the virus made chickens, rodents, and monkeys fat, says Richard Atkinson, now president of Obetech in Richmond, Va., who led some of that work. But how the virus might be raising obesity risk remained a mystery. To solve it, Pasarica and her colleagues collected adult stem cells from fat removed from patients during liposuction. These cells sometimes grow into adipocytes, or fat-storing cells, but can also transform into bone and cartilage. ©2007 Science Service

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 10645 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Maria Cheng, Associated Press — Having trouble persuading your child to eat broccoli or spinach? You may have only yourself to blame. According to a study of twins, neophobia — or the fear of new foods — is mostly in the genes. "Children could actually blame their mothers for this," said Jane Wardle, director of the Health Behavior Unit at University College London, one of the authors of the study in this month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Wardle and colleagues asked the parents of 5,390 pairs of identical and non-identical twins to complete a questionnaire on their children's' willingness to try new foods. Identical twins, who share all genes, were much more likely to respond the same way to new foods than non-identical twins, who like other siblings only share about half their genes. Researchers concluded that genetics played a greater role in determining eating preferences than environment, since the twins lived in the same household. Wardle said food preferences appear to be "as inheritable a physical characteristic as height." Unlike nearly every other phobia, neophobia is a normal stage of human development. © 2007 Discovery Communications

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10644 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Using genetic engineering, researchers have created an obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) — like set of behaviors in mice and reversed them with antidepressants and genetic targeting of a key brain circuit. The study, by National Institutes of Health (NIH) — funded researchers, suggests new strategies for treating the disorder. Researchers bred mice without a specific gene, and found defects in a brain circuit previously implicated in OCD. Much like people with a form of OCD, the mice engaged in compulsive grooming, which led to bald patches with open sores on their heads. They also exhibited anxiety-like behaviors. When the missing gene was reinserted into the circuit, both the behaviors and the defects were largely prevented. The gene, SAPAP3, makes a protein that helps brain cells communicate via the glutamate chemical messenger system. “Since this is the first study to directly link OCD-like behaviors to abnormalities in the glutamate system in a specific brain circuit, it may lead to new targets for drug development,” explained Guoping Feng, Ph.D., Duke University, whose study was funded in part by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS). “An imbalance in SAPAP3 gene-related circuitry could help explain OCD.”

Keyword: OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 10643 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Gisela Telis There may be more to baby talk than cooing over cuteness. A new study suggests that female rhesus monkeys engage in a kind of baby talk, casting doubt on the long-held belief that the behavior is exclusively human. And another study--in humans--shows that the tones mothers use to address their children may be universal. Although female rhesus monkeys don't baby talk to their own young, they make pantlike grunts and high-pitched, melodic nasal sounds called girneys when near other baby monkeys. Scientists assumed the females were "talking" to other mothers, not the infants, as a way of showing they had no ill intent toward the youngsters. Jessica Whitham, who is now an animal behaviorist at Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, Illinois, wasn't so sure the mothers were the intended audience. So she and University of Chicago behavioral biologist Dario Maestripieri spent 2 years observing wild monkeys on the Puerto Rican island of Cayo Santiago. They watched 19 female rhesus monkeys both before and after their birth season. They found that whereas grunts and girneys were rare before the birth season, they "just exploded" once the first infants appeared. When infants briefly wandered away from their mothers, the other females kept a close eye on them and grunted or girneyed, and the infants frequently looked back at them, which led Whitham and Maestripieri to conclude that the sounds are meant to attract the infants, not the mothers. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Language; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 10642 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Michael Hopkin Scientists have deliberately fooled people into feeling they are watching themselves from outside their own bodies, using virtual-reality technology. The achievement reveals how the brain can be confused as it struggles to integrate confusing information from the different senses. People who claim to have had out-of-body experiences (OBEs) — most famously patients on the operating table or those who have narrowly avoided death — describe a sensation of having floated out of themselves, for example towards the ceiling of an operating theatre. From there they watch their body and activities surrounding it. Such experiences have been claimed by spiritualists to represent evidence of a soul. But the new research shows that it is possible to create a similar sensation simply by tricking the mind. Understanding how the mind sometimes perceives itself as journeying out of the body could help with the development of more realistic computer games or remote robotic systems, or even help to understand the brains of those who claim to experience the phenomenon naturally, such as schizophrenics or epileptics. ©2007 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 10641 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CBC News The after-effects of a medically-termed 'minor stroke' often result in hidden disabilities that significantly impair a stroke patient's full recovery, according to a research study at the University of Calgary. The study tracked 48 patients who had experienced minor strokes and their wives for three months after release from hospital. It found that nearly half of the patients had difficulties recuperating and experienced problems in their employment, social and recreational activities and family interactions. Researcher Teri Green, a PhD student in the University of Calgary's Faculty of Nursing and a post-doctoral fellow in the Calgary Stroke Program, told CBC News that "minor" strokes are often a misnomer, because there are often hidden disabilities, like fatigue, and the loss of concentration and memory. She says there needs to be more awareness and education around these after-effects. Unfortunately, many patients aren't receiving that counselling. "The problem is we send these patients home from hospital so fast we don't have a chance, and we don't take the time, to give them the information that they need," she said. © CBC 2007

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 10640 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By TOM BREEN GILBERT, W.Va. -- When his craving for painkillers got to be too much, Steve Dotson lay down and let his wife drive a car over his leg. It hurt, but he could dismiss the pain with thoughts of the medicated bliss that would follow. Soon, he lost his house, the state took his children away and he was spending nights under a bridge, where he hoped to die. "You get to where you don't even want them (pills) anymore, you just do them so you can get through the day," said the 43-year-old southern West Virginia resident. Dotson is one of millions of Americans who have experienced the harm that can come from addiction to the prescription narcotic hydrocodone. Less regulated than similar prescription painkillers, drugs containing hydrocodone have quietly become the most widely prescribed _ and, perhaps, widely abused _ opiate painkillers on the market. With 124 million prescriptions in 2005, drugs containing hydrocodone are the most popular of their type in the country, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's Office of Diversion Control. They are sold under hundreds of brand names and generic titles, and hydrocodone can be found in medication ranging from cough syrup to painkillers. © 2007 The Associated Press

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 10639 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sharon Begley - Like 700,000 other Americans every year, Christopher Ware had a stroke in 1997. But unlike most stroke victims, who tend to be elderly, Ware was all of 25 when he woke up one morning with an excruciating headache, numbness in his right side and—he learned when his parents were unable to understand what he was saying—slurred speech. Once the doctors at BroMenn Regional Medical Center in Normal, Ill., determined that a clot in his brain had cut off crucial oxygen to neurons in one region, he spent a week in the intensive care unit before beginning what would be a month of speech, physical and occupational therapy. When he was discharged, Ware's speech was still slurred and, although his right leg could move well enough to walk (awkwardly), his right arm hung uselessly at his side. He was unable to lace his shoes or tie his tie, or use his right hand to write or eat or type. That's how Ware would be today, one of 4 million Americans living with the aftereffects of stroke. But in addition to shattering the stereotype about who suffers a stroke, Ware has become a pioneer in how to recover from one, long after physicians have said further improvement is impossible. Seven years after his stroke, he enrolled in a clinical trial at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, where physicians have been testing an experimental stroke-rehab device. Through electrodes implanted on the brain's thin covering (called the dura), it delivers electrical jolts to specific brain regions. Manufactured by Northstar Neuroscience, it has now given hundreds of stroke patients mobility they thought they had lost forever. After six weeks of the experimental treatment, for instance, Ware could use his right hand to tie his shoes and tie, type, maneuver utensils and write. © 2007 MSNBC.com © 2007 Microsoft

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 10638 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Benjamin Lester Bug repellent might not set human hearts aflutter, but it does crested auklets. These arctic sea birds produce citrus-scented secretions that repel ticks--and attract mates, according to new research. The discovery clears up a long-standing mystery over the purpose of the compounds, and--because birds rub each other with the secretions during courtship--it represents the first documented transfer of chemical defenses between birds. Crested auklets (Aethia cristatella) live in massive colonies on islands off Siberia and Alaska. Compounds similar to the auklet secretions act as insecticides in other species, so researchers believed they might play a role as a natural defense against the ticks and other arthropods that plague the birds. In addition, auklets' habit of rubbing the strongly scented napes of each other's necks during courtship fueled speculation that the compounds serve as a sexual attractant. However, the questions have proved difficult to answer, in part because of the remoteness of the birds' habitat. Hector Douglas found some answers at the zoo. The University of Alaska, Fairbanks, biologist placed two taxidermic auklets into an enclosure with 14 live birds at the home of one of the world's few captive populations--the Cincinnati Zoo. The models were placed on top of rock piles and dispensers placed underneath wafted out the scent of a synthetic version of the auklet "essence." © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 10637 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Gretchen Vogel There's one more doughnut in the box. Do you reach for it or not? The answer may depend on a brain region just behind your eyes called the dorsal frontomedial cortex. New experiments point to it, and two smaller regions, as the sources of our self-control. The question of free will--whether and how we consciously control our actions--has puzzled philosophers for centuries. Twenty-five years ago, the question got a bit stranger when psychologists found that electrical signals in the brain that direct movement of a finger or limb occur about a half a second before a person is aware of making a decision to move. In other words, our brains seem to make decisions before we are consciously aware of doing so. That result raised the question of why we should be aware of our actions at all. If our conscious minds don't control our actions, why did consciousness evolve? Benjamin Libet, a psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who did the original experiments, suggested that perhaps our conscious mind has the ability to veto actions--to stop ourselves from doing things that our brains have sent a message to do. Psychologists Marcel Brass of Ghent University in Belgium and Patrick Haggard of University College London attempted to measure what happens in the brain when we stop ourselves from doing something. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Attention
Link ID: 10636 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Cutraro BOSTON--People who start their mornings by pouring cream and sugar into a steaming mug of coffee are usually trying to mask the beverage's bitterness. But the reason coffee makes us pucker has eluded scientists for decades. Now, researchers have narrowed the search by identifying two chemical compounds responsible for bitter taste in coffees ranging from mild breakfast blends to intense espressos. According to work presented here at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society, it turns out that the roasting process--not the raw beans--produces these compounds, a finding that could open the door to improved methods for processing coffee beans. A cup of coffee is a complex brew of more than 30 chemical compounds that contribute to its taste, aroma, and acidity. Since the 1930s, scientists have separated and identified numerous chemicals responsible for many of the sensory components of a cup of joe, but few have investigated those that produce bitterness. To explore further, food chemist Thomas Hofmann of the Technical University of Munich in Germany and colleagues sequentially filtered brewed coffee. They found that the fractions containing the lowest molecular weight compounds were the most bitter, giving the team a target for further analysis. Using mass spectroscopy, the researchers identified one of the compounds as chlorogenic acid lactone, a breakdown product of chlorogenic acid, which is present in nearly all plants. Next, the team brewed a series of coffees from light to dark roasts and measured the amount of chlorogenic acid lactone in each. © 2007 American Association for the Advancement of Science

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 10635 - Posted: 06.24.2010