Brain – Page 4 – BioQuakes

Tag: Brain (Page 4 of 6)

Why do we actually care about celebrities?

On November 16, 2014

In Student Post

Celebrities are a huge facet of many people’s lives. They fill the news and occupy hours of thought from millions of people who don’t even know them on a personal level. Why is there such a huge fascination with celebrities? It turns out that it all links back to our primal nature.

All primates experience the competition for resources within their ecosystem. Granted, some experience this more fiercely than others, but there’s no doubt that it exists in all primates. Let’s look at the savannah baboon, for example. The most defining factor in the life of a savannah baboon is its societal rank in a sex-specific dominance hierarchy. These baboons are constantly observed stealing glances at the most dominant of their pack. Social status is always on their minds. This ranking system is not an anomaly for the savannah baboon. It makes sense. With the hierarchy in place, there’s less fighting, the distribution of food is more orderly, and mates are chosen more easily.

In humans, things get a bit more complex. We simultaneously belong to several hierarchies, valuing most the one we rank highest in. Despite the complexity, the general idea remains the same as that of the savannah baboon. Over the course of our evolution, this hierarchy of social dominance has remained deeply ingrained in our brains. Psychology professor Nicholas Rule found that humans could correctly identify whether a face was of high or low social status in a mere 40 milliseconds. A study by Lotte Thomsen of Harvard shows that ten-month-olds are already accustomed to the idea of dominance and social hierarchy.

To find out more, scientists are looking at brain scans. When subjects evaluate social status from faces, they are using the “fanciest, most recently evolved part of the brain, the frontal cortex.”(http://nautil.us/issue/5/fame/on-the-origin-of-celebrity) Caroline Zink of the Lieber Institute for Brain Development found that if a subject observes two people flip-flopping in their standing on the social ladder, the amygdala is also activated, which is responsible for processing fear and anxiety.

Looking into the lives of celebrities entrances people because most often, celebrities hit the news because they did something foolish or embarrassing. For that one instant, we feel like we are on even footing with the “alphas” of our society by being able to gossip and joke about them. Caring about celebrities is literally part of our brain, and shows that we have a common ancestor with primates. As someone who has never taken a big interest in celebrities, maybe it’s time to get my brain checked out.

Stop Taking Notes

On November 16, 2014

In Student Post

Put down your pencils. Stop taking notes. Scientists have recently proven that you are less likely to remember something once you write it down. Now you all have scientific explanations for not bringing a backpack to school. Scientists began by researching the effects of technology on our memories. Unsurprisingly, they concluded that people who saved information on the computer were less likely to remember it than those who were told the facts verbally. More of this study can be seen in the article “Poor Memory, Blame Google”. It brings up a larger concern; what will the mental capacities of our society come to in our increasingly technological age? This brought Professor Susan Greenfield to investigate the affects of all information processing tactics and their effect on human memory.

She began with the most simple and popular of memory methods, note taking. They split a population of undergraduate students into 2 groups, one that took notes and one that relied on straight memory. They showed them pairs of cards and instructed them to memorize the location. One group wrote it down and the other did not. After the study time, the note-taking group had their notes taken away and the full group was tested on the cards’ location. Surprisingly, the note-taking group performed very poorly in the exercise, far underperforming the memory group.

The scientists concluding that by taking notes, the students were relying on an external form of storage rather than their own synapses. So keep those pencils down, your memory will thank you.

Original Article: http://www.wired.com/2014/11/paper-effect-note-something-youre-likely-forget/

Contrary Study:

http://library.wcsu.edu/dspace/bitstream/0/65/1/dewitt.pdf

Dying Brain cells signal new brain cells to grow in songbird

On September 25, 2014

In Student Post

Original article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140923182051.htm

In a recent paper written by leading author Tracy Larson and co-authors Nivretta Thatra and Brian Lee, they discovered a brain pathway that replaces brain cells lost naturally. This study could further the progress of using replacement cells for the neurons lost during aging, Alzheimer’s Disease, and other natural causes.

These scientists used songbirds, specifically Gambel’s white-crowned sparrows, as a model and observed that the area of their brain that controls song increases during breeding season, and decreases during other times in the year. After breeding season the cells in the area of the bird’s brain that controls songs undergoes programmed cell death. What is noteworthy about these dying cells is that they are also releasing a signal that reaches certain stem cells in the brain that will eventually redevelop the singing part of the brain by the time the next breeding season arrives. This process of developing new neurons from stem cells called neurogenesis normally occurs in the form of “regenerative” neurogenesis post brain trauma in mammals; however, it also occurs in the hippocampus in small amounts.

These songbirds could provide insight on how the human brain can perform natural neurogenesis and help replace neurons lost because of aging and neurodegenerative diseases. These finding may pave the way to alternative treatment for repairing human brains using neurogenesis and replacement cells.

Antidepressants Change Brain Connectivity After One Dose

On September 24, 2014

In Student Post

Lloyd Morgan- “Despair”

The prescribing of anti-depressants is a controversial topic in that most scientists are unaware how these medications work. Previously, SSRIs (serotonin reuptake inhibitors) were thought to have taken effect after a few weeks. Recent studies show, rather, that these medications take effect in a matter of hours.

SSRIs are very widely prescribed and frequently studied as antidepressants. They work by fundamentally changing brain connectivity and the way in which the brain undergoes simple processes. New studies are showing that this rewiring of the brain occurs after only one dose of this medication, producing dramatic changes.

The Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences conducted this study by conducting extensive brain scans, allowing participants to let their minds wander so that the lab technicians could accurately measure the oxygenation of the blood flow in the brain as well as the number of connections between voxels in the brain.

This lab yielded interesting results. Scientists discovered that one single dose of SSRI reduced the level of intrinsic connectivity in most parts of the brain, but increased connectivity within the cerebellum and the thalamus.

This study opens up a lot of opportunities for deeper investigation into antidepressants. It can help researchers to understand why some people do not respond well to this form of treatment, and how to better individualize treatments for depression patients. Depression is a serious and life-altering illness that effects every sector of a person’s life. With added research and understanding of treatment methods, there can be hope for the many that struggle with this mental illness everyday.

Article Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140918121436.htm

Out Like a Light: Sleep Switch in Brain Identified

On February 27, 2014

In Student Post

Researchers from Oxford University’s Center of Neural Circuits and Behavior have identified the switch in the brain, which causes sleep, from a study of fruit flies. This switch regulates sleep promoting neurons in the brain. When one is tired and in need of sleep, these neurons will activate. Once you are fully rested, neuron activity will die down. Though this new insight was gained through studying fruit flies, or Drosophila, the researchers believe this information is also relevant to humans. In the human brain, there are similar neurons that are active during sleep and are the targets of general anesthetics that cause sleep. These facts support the idea that humans have a sleep mechanism like that found in fruit flies, according to Dr. Jeffrey Donlea, one of the lead authors of the study. The findings of this study were published in the journal, Neuron.The discovery of this sleep switch is important for a number of reasons like finding new treatments for sleep disorders, but it is just a small piece of the enigma that is sleep. The internal signal, which this sleep switch responds to, is still unknown, as is the activity of these sleep-promoting cells while we are awake. We do not even know why humans and all other animals need sleep.

In spite of these mysterious, scientists do know how the body regulates sleep. Humans and animals have a body clock, which makes us accustomed to the 24 hour cycle of day and night, and a sleep switch, which logs the hours you are awake and causes you to sleep when you need rest. When this mechanism is off or not being used, sleep deficiency increases. The combination of these two is the most likely cause of us sleeping at night.

The significance of this switch in the process of sleep and its relationship to bodily function was found when studying the fruit flies. If they did not sleep, mutant flies cannot regain these lost sleep hours. Sleep-deprived flies are also more likely to nod off and be cognitively impaired. Like sleep-deprived humans, these flies were subject to severe learning and memory deficiencies. In the mutant flies, the researchers proved the insomnia of the flies was due to a broken part of the electrical activity switch, which caused the sleep-inducing neurons to always be off.

Why do you think sleep is important? How is this discovery significant and how do you think this information will be used in the future? Will the mystery of sleep be solved soon?

Photograph by Pedro Ribeiro Simões

Other helpful links:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140219124730.htm
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/understanding_sleep.htm
http://www.sleepfoundation.org

The “Sleep Switch” Has Been Discovered

On February 27, 2014

In Student Post

Screen Shot 2014-02-25 at 12.07.37 AM

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourtwenty/2922398332/in/photostream/

If you’re like me, and most of you are since you’re all human, you’ve probably had a night or two where you just couldn’t fall asleep and figured that you had too much going on in your brain. Maybe, if you’ve taken a biology course at some point or another, you’ve thought that your brain just has too much activity going on and you wished it would all just come to a nice rest. In reality, if you’re experiencing that little bit of restlessness, your brain isn’t doing enough! Scientists at Oxford University’s Centre for Neural Circuits and Behavior recently carried out a study on fruit flies in which they determined the “sleep switch” is really just a regulation of certain neurons in the brain which become more active when the body needs sleep. Although the study was done on an entirely different species, these scientists still believe that the mechanism is comparable in humans due to the presence of similar neurons in the human brain. The study showed that when sleep is needed by the body, the “electrical excitability” of the neurons increases, leading to the conclusion that their activity is related to how sleep is triggered.

While this recent discovery has already been inspiring new ideas on how to combat sleep disorders, it is really a step towards the much more basic question, “Why do we (animals) need to sleep?” The next step towards answering this questions, explains Dr. Diogo Pimentel of Oxford University, is to identify “what happens in the brain during waking that requires sleep to reset.”

This “sleep switch” mechanism is one of two that are theorized to be used in the process of sleep. The other being the body’s internal clock, which adjusts an animal to certain cycles based on the 24 hour day. At the point of sleepiness, “The body clock says it’s the right time, and the sleep switch has built up pressure during a long waking day,” explains Professor Miesenböck, in whose laboratory the study was conducted.

Original Article: http://www.biologynews.net/archives/2014/02/19/scientists_identify_the_switch_that_says_its_time_to_sleep.html

Microglia! Here to the Brain Rescue?

On November 19, 2013

In Student Post

Recently, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators have used a new sequencing method to identify a group of genes used by the brain’s immune cells, called microglia, to sense pathogenic organisms (bacteria that cause bacterial infection), toxins or damaged cells. Identifying these genes could lead to better understanding of the role of microglia both in normal brains and in neurodegenerative (nervous system) disorders. This discovery could also lead to ways to protect against brain dysfunctions caused by conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

The set of genes microglial have also been able to react with their environment. “We’ve been able to define, for the first time, a set of genes microglia use to sense their environment, which we are calling the microglial sensome,” says Joseph El Khoury, MD, of the “MGH Center for Immunology and Inflammatory Diseases and Division of Infectious Diseases, senior author of the study”. A type of macrophage microglia are known to consistently test their environment in order to sense any indication of infection, inflammation, and injured or dying cells. Depending on the situation they are involved in, the microglia reacts in a neurotoxic response, replying in a defensive protective manner. The microglia can “engulf pathogenic organisms, toxins or damaged cells or release toxic substances that directly destroy microbes or infected brain cells”. In this way microglia is extremely beneficial to the brain because it is able to identify infections before they have any direct contact with the brain. However, this neurotoxic response can also damage healthy cells and can “contribute to the damage caused by several neurodegenerative disorders”, so keeping the response under control is crucial.

El Khoury’s team’s “next step is to see what happens under pathologic conditions” and to define the sensome of microglia and other brain cells in humans, identifying how the sensome changes in central nervous system disorders, and eventually finding ways to safely manipulate the sensome. Discovering the microglia gene is a large and successful step to eventually finding a cure for infectious brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson ’s disease.

Can Scientists Create a Brain?

On October 8, 2013

In Student Post

attributed to hawkexpress

attributed to hawkexpress

The brain is one of the few things that scientists struggle to understand. For now, the only brain models you could find is one made of plastic or rubber. In a recent study, Viennese scientists Madeline Lancaster and Jürgen Knoblich have created “cerebral organoids”. These “cerebral organoids” are neural balls, about the size of a BB pellet. It is the most complex brain structure that has been created in a lab.

The scientists that created this placed cells in a nutrient broth for two months. After this time, the cells specialized into neurons that can be found in distinct parts of a developing brain such as hippocampus, retina and choroid plexus, which produces cerebrospinal fluid in the brain. Although they look like clumps of tissue, the “cerebral organoids” had “discrete parts of the cerebral cortex, the outer sheet of the human brain that’s responsible for advanced thought processes.” The organoids also sent electrical messages and some groups of young neutrons moved from one place to another, an activity necessary to populate a brain with neurons. Also found abundantly in this tissue was a stem cell called radial glial stem cells, which is important to keep the number of neurons growing.

In order to create the organoids, the scientist must take human stem cells either from an embryo or from adult skin samples altered to an embryo-like state. The cells grow for a few days in a dish and medium and then moved to a nutrient broth to grow neuroectoderm tissue, the tissue that makes the beginnings of a brain. Then, the researchers inject the cells into a gel that gives a strict,”scaffold” to grow on. The final and most important step was to place the gel droplets into spinning flasks with nutrients. This was important because the “spinning motion distributed oxygen and nutrients to all of the cells in the organoid” After two months, the cells stopped growing. Although they are still alive, they stop dividing and reach maximum size.

This research gives a very important window into the study of the brain, especially the study of brain development. Although this information is groundbreaking, the organoids lack many important systems that the brain has.

Helpful links

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/brain_basics/ninds_neuron.htm

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23995685

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/352830/description/Tiny_human_almost-brains_made_in_lab

Hope for Cocaine Addicts?

On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

Cocaine, known as “the caviar of street drugs”, is expensive and has “powerful, negative effects”. Roughly 25% of americans between the age of 24 and 36 use or have used cocaine. Despite the dangerous effects of cocaine, After marijuana and amphetamines, cocaine is considered to be the most widely available drug on high school and college campuses in the United States. In 2002, there were 212 hospital admissions for cocaine abuse per 100,000 residents aged 12 or older in New York. Because cocaine use is so prevalent, it is important to raise awareness and to help addicts stop using.

Image taken from WikiMedia

What happens when you snort cocaine?

The cocaine quickly enters the bloodstream and travels to the brain. In the brain, cocaine interferes with neurotransmitters. Cocaine blocks norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitters from being reabsorbed. The resulting chemical buildup between nerves causes euphoria or feeling “high.”

Long term use of cocaine can prevent neurotransmitter to be released naturally in the brain. This means the only way to feel good is to do cocaine again. It is estimated that there are 200,000 people in the united states addicted to cocaine.

Stopping the use of cocaine is a painful and even harmful experience for addicts. However, recent studies have indicated that there may be a fast track to addiction recovery.In addicts, the drug compulsion can be blamed on a group of “sluggish neurons” that rely on drugs to be stimulated. In drug-addicted rats, the drug compulsion was eased by a laser stimulated those affected neurons.

This experiment seems to partially solve the issue of cocaine addiction. Laser therapy could make the withdrawal of cocaine a much more doable process. However, there is still part of the problem to address: relapse. Most previous addicts relapse when they are surrounded by users. this is because the sight of cocaine triggers the memory of the euphoric high they used to experience on cocaine.

Link to Main Article:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/349410/description/Light_found_in_cocaine_addiction_tunnel

Links to Additional Articles:

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/cocaine-use-and-its-effects

http://www.michaelshouse.com/cocaine-addiction/statistics/

Link to Photo:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Physiological_effects_of_Crack_cocaine.png

Why We Love Music

On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

We have all experienced it; hearing a new song that you really like, and rushing to your preferred digital music distributor to buy it. Researchers at Science Magazine have recently determined why we have this feeling. Hearing a new song activates a part of the brain called the Nucleus Accumbens. This part of the brain is used to make predictions, which it tries to do with a new song as well. When it correctly predicts where the song will go, it stimulate the feeling of pleasure, given that it is located within the reward center of the brain. However, the nucleus accumbens doesn’t work alone. It has been found that it works in conjunction with three other parts of the brain: one looks for patterns, another compares the music to sounds previously heard and the last checks for emotional ties. According to Robert Zatorre of the Montreal Neurological Institute at McGill University, these four regions of the brain “work overtime” when listening to a new song. This development has been taken further, and now researchers believe that they can correctly predict what a person is willing to spend on a new song judging by the amount of activity that their nucleus accumbens displays. Aniruddh Patel of Tufts University commented that a music store such as Google Music and iTunes was “a very clever idea” that plays to “an old theory in music cognition”. Some researchers believe that these discoveries will lead to breakthroughs in speech and sound recognition in the future.

Primary Source Article

Why do you enjoy music?

On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

Have you ever wondered why that new song you enjoyed hearing that new song on the radio? This recent study shows that there are four regions of our brain responsible for pleasure while listening to music. The main region is called the nucleus accumbensand is located in the “reward center” of the brain. This region is responsible for making predictions and when the prediction your brain makes is correct it releases feel-good chemicals. Along with guessing correctly pleasant surprises also cause this region to release those same chemicals. The other three regions look for patterns, compare the sounds to other sounds you have heard before, and link emotional ties within the song. This study took the brain activity of 19 people who were listening to music in an MRI machine. They were then asked whether they would like to buy the song they were listening to and there was a direct correlation between how much a person was willing to spend on a song and how much the nucleus accumbens was stimulated. This can lead to further investigation on how the brain deciphers complex sounds such as speech.

Photo taken by Ferrari + caballos + fuerza = cerebro Humano 
Link URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gallery-art/3497849677/

The Brain that Looked like Jello

On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

Scientists at Stanford University made an entire mouse brain and part of a human brain that is the same consistency as Jell-O. The brain model is transparent so that neurons sending and receiving information can be highlighted and in in the same complexity as 3-D, but without having to slice the model. This new process, called Clarity, preserves the biochemistry of the brain so well researchers can reuse the same model over and over again.

Why Now?

The Obama Administration recently announced it’s interest in discovering the secrets of the brain. While this project was not part of the Obama Administration’s new initiative, Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health said that Clarity will help build the foundation of the Obama administration’s brain initiative.

The Clarity technique also works with brains that have been preserved for years.

One of the challenges of studying a preserved brain is making it clear enough to see into it. Unlike previous methods, Clarity makes the brain clear enough to see its inner workings.

Imagine if you could see through this brain!

How it Happened

There are many was to make a tissue transparent. Clarity uses hydrogel, a substance of water held together by other molecules to give it solidity. The hydrogel forms a mesh that permeates the brain and connects to most molecules other than lipids. The hydrogel brain is then put in a soapy electrical solution, where a current is applied, driving the solution to the brain and getting rid of the lipids. The brain is then transparent with its biochemistry still in tact, so it can be infused with chemicals that will show the details of its structure.

The hardest part of the procedure is obtaining the correct ratio of temperature, electricity and solution. More work is needed to be done before this method can be applied to an entire human brain.

The Benefits

The Clarity technique gives scientists a more exact image of what’s going on in people’s brains. This process may discover physical reasons for debilitating mental disorders, such as PTDS, schizophrenia, and autism.

Can we fix the expensive problem of obesity??

On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

Today, America faces what can be considered an “obesity epidemic”. An estimated 69 million americans are considered obese, and obesity is the #2 cause of preventable death in America. Obesity can lead to a number of dangerous conditions and even life threatening conditions. Consequences of obesity include coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, different types of cancers, stroke, live disease, sleep apnea, arthritis and more! In addition to health consequences, the epidemic of obesity in america also includes severe economic consequences. In 2002, the estimated health care expenditure for obesity-related issues was $147 billion.

taken from WikiMedia

The statistics concerning obesity, childhood obesity, money lost due to obesity etc. are shocking. America is deeply affected by a preventable issue affecting roughly 35% of adult americans and 20% of youth americans. Scientists and doctors have long explored ways to address this issue medically. Until recently, it was believed that the part of the brain controlling appetite is fully developed before birth, and therefore, cannot be altered. As genetics play a big role in weight and appetite control, the ability to alter the appetite control center (the hypothalamus) would be a huge step in “curing” obesity.

However, “research published in theJournal of Neuroscience has identified a population of stem cells capable of generating new appetite-regulating neurons in the brains of young and adult rodents”. This information suggests that altering the appetite regulation system in humans is a possibility.

There is now hope that “the neural circuitry that controls appetite is not fixed in number and could possibly be manipulated numerically to tackle eating disorders.

Link to Main Article:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130405064253.htm

Link to Additional Articles:

http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/causes/index.html

http://obesityinamerica.org/statistics/

http://www.getamericafit.org/statistics-obesity-in-america.html

Link to Photo:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Medical_Complications_of_Obesity.svg

The damages of Sleep Loss

On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

Roughly 30 million Americans are “just trying to catch up on their sleep.” 20% of Americans report that they get less than 6 hours of sleep on average. This nation-wide sleep loss is “taking a toll on our physical and emotional health, and on our nation’s highways.” Sleep loss leads to a variety of inconvenient issues.

image taken from WikimediaCommons

According to Discovery Health, Inability to handle stress, inability to concentrate, poor memory, poor decision making, increased appetite, diminished motor skills, relationship trouble, medical problems, and mood swings can all be the ill effects of sleep deprivation. This has been known by scientists for a long time, but the reasons on a molecular-level were unclear.

However, recent headway has been made in understanding the consequences of sleep deprivation on a molecular level. A new study at the University of Surrey in England showed changes in gene activity in 26 people who had built up a sleep deficit. Reports in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that after a week of considerable sleep deprivation the blood tests of the 26 subjects showed changes in 711 of their genes.

The “changes” observed in the genes including a disruption of the cell cycle; the cells stopped their circadian rhythm. On the other hand, cells that don’t typically follow a cycle fell into a daily rhythm. Many of the genes that showed changes were related to the immune system. This would account for the previously and widely observed medical issues connected with sleep loss. “The researchers conclude that skimping on sleep can drastically change the body’s daily rhythms and may lead to health problems”.

Main article:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348604/description/News_in_Brief_Sleep_loss_affects_gene_activity

additional articles:

http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/sleep/disorders/10-signs-you-may-be-sleep-deprived6.htm

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/features/toll-of-sleep-loss-in-america

picture link:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Effects_of_sleep_deprivation.png

Why is it so hard to stop drinking?

On April 28, 2013

In Student Post

It is well known that alcohol is an addictive substance that is hard to quit. The question is why? Some factors of alcoholism are genetic. People whose brains “release more natural opioids in response to alcohol may get more pleasure out of drinking and may be more likely to drink too much and become alcoholics” Also, the orbitofrontal cortex, which is “a brain region linked with decision-making” is affected by alcohol and is a factor of addiction. In addition, Alcohol triggers dopamine release in the brain, a chemical known to spur satisfying feelings. If all of these factors leading to addiction aren’t enough, scientists recently found evidence of a chemical that makes it hard to stop drinking alcohol.

taken from WikimediaCommons

Researchers from the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that long term alcohol abuse leads to higher levels of acetate. Our brains usually run on sugar but recent studies show that heavy drinkers are better able to use acetate to fuel their brain.

Studies show that heavy drinkers were more adept at transporting acetate to their brains than light drinkers. In addition heavier drinkers “burned the chemical about twice as fast as light drinkers”. This showed that the brains of heavy drinkers are able to use alternate energy sources very efficiently. This may seem like an advantage but this extra energy source makes the body even more addicted to alcohol.

main article:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348839/description/Heavy_drinkers_get_extra_brain_fuel_from_alcohol

addition articles:

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/alcohol-abuse/news/20120111/study-sheds-more-light-on-why-some-get-alcoholism

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/13/alcohol-addictive-endorphins-_n_1202406.html

picture link:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Alcohol_desgracia.jpg

The Elderly, Video Games, and Mental Health

On March 10, 2013

In Student Post

In our culture video games generally get a bad rap. Many people associate them the younger generations, as well as violence and time wasting. However, all of this focus on the negative has kept many people from seeing their potential benefits. According to new research by North Carolina State University, video games can improve the mental well-being of the elderly. The study consisted of 140 adults with an average age of about 77.5 years old grouped into three categories, non-gamers, occasional gamers, and frequent gamers (played at least once per week). These adults were then tested across six categories of mental health: Well-Being, Positive Effect, Negative Effect, Depression, Social Functioning and Self-Reported Health. In every category except for Negative Effect and Depression, both occasional gamers and frequent gamers scored considerably higher. Both forms of gamers experienced less Depression and Negative Effects than did the non-gamers. According to Dr. Jason Allaire, one of the main researchers behind the study, these games can be things like Solitaire or Bejeweled, and not fully fledged Xbox, PS3 or Wii games. This means that a large number of people can have access to these benefits, at a relatively low cost. In addition, video games have been found to have other positive effects on people, such as speeding up decision making and increasing awareness of surroundings. These studies are only the beginning of larger effort to examine the potential benefits of video games on people. Maybe video games aren’t that bad after all?

We All Owe Mice a “thank you”

On March 10, 2013

In Student Post

Recently in our AP Biology class, we read about advances in stem cell research. Important developments began with experiments involving mice. The scientists were able to generate induced pluripotent stem cells from mouse fibroblasts and were later able to generate iPS cells from human fibroblasts . The research as been extremely helpful and scientists were able to learn a lot through the mice cells. It turns out mice are useful for many other avenues of medical research.

“Mice have become a critical tool in the quest for new drugs and medical treatments because their genes are remarkably similar to a person’s”. Mice affected with various human ailments, such as “obesity, diabetes, cancer and countless other conditions are being used to study both the illnesses themselves and potential treatments”.

photo from WikimediaCommons

The latest “mouse sacrifice” for society involves cigarette smoke. We know that cigarette smoke heavily damages the lungs but scientists and doctors have long wondered what it does to the brain. There is an established, but “murky”, relationship between cigarette smoking and Alzheimer’s. A recent study with mice inhaling cigarette smoke significantly strengthened the suggested relationship.

Scientists led by Claudio Soto of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston exposed mice to cigarette smoke for four months. These exposed mice all showed signs of Alzheimer’s. Additionally, mice were bred with Alzheimer’s and then later exposed to cigarette smoke. These mice exhibited significantly worsened Alzheimer’s symptoms.

This sort of research proves extremely beneficial to humans and will most likely continue to become even more popular. Already, there are as many as 25 million mice used for medical research each year.

It seems as though we will have many mice to thank in the future.

Main Article:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/348321/description/News_in_Brief_Smoking_damages_mouse_brains

Additional Articles:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/11700807/#.US1BO81RLzd

http://images.cell.com/images/Edimages/Cell/IEPs/3661.pdf

Picture Link:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spiny_Mice.jpg

Why do only some COCAINE users become addicted?

On February 11, 2013

In Student Post

The obvious precursor to cocaine addiction is cocaine use. However, some people are able to use cocaine on and off with out becoming addicted while others become afflicted by addiction very quickly. There has always been the theory that your personality can make you more prone to addictions and other “weak” decisions but recent studies go a step beyond that and link addiction to the structure of an individual’s brain.

The frontal lobe of the brain is associated with self-control. The size of the frontal lobe appears to indicate how susceptible an individual would be to cocaine addictions. A study done by scientists at the University of Cambridge compared the brains of casual cocaine users versus cocaine addicts. What they found was a noticeable difference in size of the frontal lobe: users had a larger frontal lobe while addicts had a smaller frontal lobe.

The scientists believe that the size difference was preexistent and not a result of drug use because both groups were cocaine users. The main difference was that the mere users “could take it or leave it” due to their more powerful self control.

The brain is a popular subject when it comes to addictions due to the harm addictions can cause and due to the hope of a better understanding of addictions so that they can be “cured”. There are newly defined addictions more and more frequently, as addictions to food, caffeine, internet, and shopping become more and more prevalent.

Another example of increased susceptibility to addiction is the genetic or hereditary quality of alcoholism. “Though the exact mechanisms haven’t been identified, experts in alcoholism widely agree that some people are genetically vulnerable to developing the disorder.” Also, experts suggest that many people addicted opiates may have “deficiencies in their brain reward systems.”

Further studies exploring the links to the brain and addictions would be instrumental in curing the countless addictions that interfere with people’s quality of life.

Link to Main Article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/05/science/brain-shape-may-play-role-in-cocaine-addiction.html?ref=science&_r=0

Link to additional articles:

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3076712/#.URBDX81RLzc http://www.time.com/time/interactive/0,31813,1640235,00.html

Link to the photo used:http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalarchives/4327205241/

The Woman who cant be Afraid teaches us about Fear

On February 11, 2013

In Student Post

A lot of people say they aren’t scared of anything, but the reality is every body is scared of something. Everybody, except a woman known as SM.

SM had a rare illness that caused damage to the part of her brain associated with fear. The amygdala “is involved in many of our emotions and motivations, particularly those that are related to survival”. In the same way that pain is a warning sign in attempt to protect you from danger, fear is a function of protection. Without fear you would constantly place yourself in dangerous situations with out responding to an impulse of survival.

The Amygdala- the area of the brain responsible for fear

The damage to SM’s amygdala caused her to lose the ability to feel fear. Scientists tested her on several simulated and real life situations such as being held up at gunpoint, watching scary movies, watching domestic violence. SM felt no fear what so ever in any of these situations. Scientists naturally would predict that with the loss of a functioning amygdala, SM would never feel fear again.

Yet, one day SM had a panic attack. The panic attack was brought on in an experiment where SM inhaled a small amount of carbon dioxide that created a short feeling of suffocation.

The fact that SM felt fear from a panic attack without an amygdala “illuminates some of the brain’s most fundamental processes and may have practical value in the study of panic attacks.” Additionally, it suggests that there may be an alternative center for fear responding to internal threats- such as suffocation or a heart attack.

This study is particularly fascinating because it shows just how little we know about ourselves and the world around us. It illuminates the flaws in our apparent definitive knowledge and encourages further research and speculation about what we know concerning the brain.

Link to Main Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/04/health/study-discovers-internal-trigger-for-the-previously-fearless.html?ref=science

Link to additional Articles:

http://biology.about.com/od/anatomy/p/Amygdala.htm

Link to Picture used:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amygdala.png

Fluent in another language? Studies show your brain will likely be stronger than average when you’re old!

By sciencegirl025

On February 11, 2013

In Student Post

Photo by: “Barefoot Liam Stock” on Deviantart.com
Find through “Free to use and share” on Google.com http://barefootliam-stock.deviantart.com/art/Huge-map-book-open-book-82979234

A recent study released by the University of Kentucky in Lexington aimed to better understand why “being fluent in more than one language protects against age-related cognitive diseases.”

Researchers used fMRI’s to compare the brains of monolinguals to life-long bilinguals, “LLBL”, (people fluent in two languages since the age of at least 10) during various activities. Of the 110 participants, they found that mostly all monolinguals and LLBL preformed the same on tests that required simple memory, however on tests which required them to switch between activities, the older LLBL were much faster and quicker to respond than the older monolinguals.

The researchers explained that the results they saw from the older generation of monolinguals and LLBL during the two main testing categories (simple memory and switching tasks), were about the same to the results of the younger generation that they tested in a different study. They concluded that the older LLBL’s experienced less activation in several frontal brain regions linked with effortful processing, meaning that the “older bilinguals used their brain more efficiently than the older monolinguals“.

The scientists also explained that they are not sure if learning a language later in life will give a person the same cognitive benefits when they are older compared to a person who is a LLBL. They are also unsure if it’s the “knowledge of two languages that leads to benefits in aging or if there is some underlying characteristics that bilinguals have” which allows them to be more neurally efficient.

Although researchers still have a lot to learn about the increased neural efficiency found in bilinguals, this study made a vast contribution to the understanding of “the cognitive advantage of bilinguals at an old age.”

Read more at: http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2013/01/08/lifelong-bilinguals-may-have-more-efficient-brains/?hpt=he_bn2

http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/122/12/2207.full

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121008082953.htm

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