Hey there, my name is Bryan Bishop. Here's to trying to keep up with yourself. RSS.
About
Transapient Musings of an S6 Archailect
Metacognitive trivialities over smooth topologies and Julian knots of subgeometric spaces; a.k.a mastermind Singularitarian, node of the Larger Submind and Clone of the Ineffable Original.
Bryan Bishop
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Archives
Wed, 11 Jun 2008
What's mine is mine: Brain scans reveal what's behind the aversion to loss of possessions
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Did you ever wonder why it is so difficult to part with your stuff? A new study reveals fascinating insights into the specific neuropsychological mechanisms that are linked with the potential loss of possessions. The research, published by Cell Press in the June 12 issue of the journal Neuron, has important implications for both neuroscience and economics and may even explain why you are reluctant to sell your iPod.
posted at: 12:00 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Which Cognitive Enhancers Really Work: Brain Training, Drugs, Vitamins, Meditation or Exercise?
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All kinds of methods for fighting back against this brain-wide slow-down have been suggested. There is training with computer programs, popping pills, taking nutritional supplements, meditating or even getting some more exercise.
Some want to ward off the scourge of a rapidly ageing population: dementia. Others are looking for competitive advantage against younger, faster brains.
So: what to choose? These methods, along with many others, are often presented as though they're all roughly equivalent, but this isn't true. The scientific evidence currently available is much stronger for some of these options than others.
This post examines what the research currently tells us about each method for cognitive enhancement and delivers a verdict on each.
1. Brain training
Computer programs that promise to improve cognitive function have become all the rage in recent years, mostly on the back of the success of Nintendo's 'Brain Age' game. Many other companies have now jumped on the bandwagon and the market for brain fitness software reached $225 million in the US in 2007 according to a report from SharpBrains.But what about the science behind the hype?
Certainly cognitive training has been shown to be effective in a few randomised controlled trials, but the evidence is still quite limited. The first large study in older adults without dementia failed to find an improvement in daily functioning from the training, but it did slow decline. Also, this study's method has been criticised.
Other studies have found benefits for specific groups such as children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia. Whether advantages gained by these groups might be effective for others is a matter for debate.
The real challenge for brain training is showing that practising one type of mental skill transfers over into other real-life benefits. Doing puzzles like Sudoku or completing crosswords probably only improves your performance on those specific tasks.
One new study, though, does suggest that training working memory can increase fluid intelligence - what we use to solve problems which don't rely on things we already know. The study, recently published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that gains in fluid intelligence were proportional to the amount of working memory training completed.
Unfortunately this is still early-stage exploratory research and many are not convinced that the actual products available on the market are beneficial. Sandra Aamodt, the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience and Sam Wang, a Princeton University molecular biologist explain in the New York Times:
"In the United States, consumers are expected to spend $80 million this year on brain exercise products, up from $2 million in 2005. Advertising for these products often emphasizes the claim that they are designed by scientists or based on scientific research. To be charitable, we might call them inspired by science -- not to be confused with actually proven by science."
It's telling that the best-selling brain training software - Nintendo's 'Brain Age' - has the lowest level of clinical validation according to a market report from Sharp Brains.
Verdict: Evidence for the benefits of cognitive training for everyday functioning is still very limited. Brain training software currently available is mostly 'inspired by science' rather than based on it. Treat marketers' claims with extreme scepticism. Side-effects are probably limited to repetitive strain injury and a depleted wallet.
2. Drugs
Until recently the main chemical cognitive enhancer most people used was caffeine. But there are a whole batch of new drugs that could challenge caffeine's dominance as the safe stimulant of choice. Of these, two well-known for their 'off-label' use are Modafinil (also known as Provigil) and Ritalin.Modafinil was originally developed to treat narcolepsy, but is now used by many people as a cognitive enhancer. Studies reported by the Academy of Medical Sciences have shown that Provigil does indeed improve aspects of memory: mainly verbal working memory, planning performance, working memory and executive inhibitory control (ability to stay on-task).
Other important aspects of cognitive function such as attention, however, were not affected by Modafinil. This study found Modafinil did not enhance spatial memory span, rapid visual information processing or attentional set-shifting. This study also found that Modafinil did not enhance attention.
The reason many use Modafinil is that it doesn't seem to have any short- or long-term side-effects and it is not addictive (although it's lack of side-effects may well have been exaggerated). For example it doesn't increase blood-pressure or heart-rate, as caffeine does. It may give you a headache, though, just like caffeine.
Ritalin was originally developed to treat ADHD yet adults have begun using it as a cognitive enhancer. It seems to work best in young people, enhancing spatial working memory and cognitive flexibility. Effects on other aspects of cognition such as verbal learning and long-term memory are relatively small.
In most people Ritalin tends to improve mood, increase activity and arousal, but it's effects are more varied and can include anxiety, tiredness and lowered mood.
Verdict: Amongst the chemical cognitive enhancers Modafinil is currently fashionable for grown-ups. But is it really that much better than caffeine? This study and this study suggest that in warding off sleep Modafinil is no more effective than caffeine - and caffeine is legal and readily available. Probably better to stick to tea or coffee.
3. Nutritional supplements
There are all kinds of claims for the abilities of nutritional supplements to enhance cognition. For example, vitamin B6 has been found to enhance memory (but far from conclusively) and there are many other claims being made by marketers for vitamins E, B12, folate, neurosteroids and so on.However, in reviewing the research the Academy of Medical Sciences points out that most of the studies are few, far between and small in scope.
Verdict: Unproven, but probably not dangerous as long as you're not exceeding the recommended daily allowances. On the downside supplements can be costly.
4. Meditation
Meditation, like nutritional supplements, is another modern cure-all, but what does the evidence tell us about its effect on cognitive function? A forthcoming review of the research published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences looks at the effects of meditation on cognitive function.There is some limited evidence that meditation can benefit cognitive function overall, and memory in particular. But this research is at a very early stage and needs to be replicated by different researchers.
A major problem in this research is the fact that there are many different types of meditation. It might be that there is some kind of common active ingredient in meditation, but this has yet to be identified.
Verdict: Meditation still has to be considered unproven as a cognitive enhancer but it probably won't do you any harm, plus it's free.
5. Exercise
Whether you're old or young, fit or even suffering from a neurodegenerative disorder, aerobic exercise has been found to be beneficial for cognitive health. Randomised controlled trials, along with reviews of many of these trials (such as this one in Neuromolecular Medicine), have shown that exercise improves cognitive function across the board. It has also been found to be particularly good at enhancing executive control processes (e.g. planning and working memory).Exercise is also thought to encourage the growth of new brain cells. In the past scientists always thought that neurogenesis - growing new brain cells - was impossible in humans. New studies, though, have shown that we can grow new brain cells.
Research reviewed in Neuromolecular Medicine suggests physical exercise can promote neurogenesis in the hippocampus - an area of the brain thought to be important in memory and learning.
Verdict: The evidence for exercise boosting cognitive function is head-and-shoulders above that for brain training, drugs, nutritional supplements and meditation. Scientifically, on the current evidence, exercise is the best way to enhance your cognitive function. And as for its side-effects: yes there is the chance of an injury but exercise can also reduce weight, lower the chance of dementia, improve mood and lead to a longer life-span. Damn those side-effects!
The results are in (for now)
Even though exercise is the current winner for enhancing cognition, this might change in the future. Maybe better drugs for enhancing brain function will be developed - possibly en route to improved treatments for conditions like Alzheimer's. Or maybe studies on nutritional supplements, brain training software or particular forms of meditation may provide firmer evidence.Maybe.
On current evidence exercise is clearly the best method for increasing useful everyday cognitive functioning. And in the future we may even have exercise regimes that are specifically targeted at enhancing cognitive function.
posted at: 11:58 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Body position affects memory for events
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This article was originally posted on March 27, 2007
When we see a familiar face, or even a photo of a favorite car or pet, we're often flooded with memories from our past. Sometimes just seeing a person or object that's similar to the ones in our memory will trigger recollections we never knew we had. Maybe you've had a memory triggered by a scent or the texture of an object. Sometimes emotions such as happiness or anger will spur vivid memories, too.
A new study adds an unexpected method to the list of ways to spur memories about our past: body position. That's right: just holding your body in the right position means you'll have faster, more accurate access to certain memories. If you stand as if holding a golf club, you're quicker to remember an event that happened while you were golfing than if you position your body in a non-golfing pose.
Even more fascinating than the facts about body position and memory is how they were learned. A team led by Katinka Dijkstra actually had young adult and older adult volunteers assume different body positions while asking them to remember particular events from their lives. Sometimes the body position matched the memory:
posted at: 11:44 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
What's more convincing than talking about brains? Pictures of brains!
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Not long ago we discussed work led by Deena Skolnick Weisberg showing that most people are more impressed by neuroscience explanations of psychological phenomena than plain-old psychology explanations. Talking about brains, it seems, is more convincing than simply talking about behavior, even when the neuroscience explanation doesn't actually add any substantive details.
Now David McCabe and Alan Castel have taken this work on the acceptance of neuroscience to a new level: now they've got pictures! They asked 156 students at Colorado State University to read three different newspaper articles about brain imaging studies. The articles were completely fake, and they all discussed brain imaging, but one of the articles included only text, one included a bar graph showing brain-scan results, and one showed pictures of brains. The articles were about three different topics, but an equal number of students saw each article with text only, the graph, or the brain image.
For example, in one of the fake studies, the claim was made that TV-watching is related to math ability. As evidence, students read a text explanation, or saw one of these two figures:
The [fake] claim was that since the same area of the brain is activated while doing arithmetic or watching TV, that the two activities are related. The students then rated this article for whether its scientific reading made sense, on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Here are the results:
posted at: 11:34 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Oh, great. Now we know what the right parahippocampal gyrus does.
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Or so declares an article in the New York Times:
The Science of Sarcasm (Not That You Care)But of course. Other bloggers have already posted about this story (so go on, read more about sarcasm, social cognition and theory of mind there). The original research findings have yet to appear as a full-length publication, but Rankin and her colleagues presented this work at the recent American Academy of Neurology meeting in Chicago.
By DAN HURLEY
Published: June 3, 2008
There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin’s study of sarcasm — at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrus.
The NYT article continues:
Although people with mild Alzheimer’s disease perceived the sarcasm as well as anyone, it went over the heads of many of those with semantic dementia, a progressive brain disease in which people forget words and their meanings.
“You would think that because they lose language, they would pay close attention to the paralinguistic elements of the communication,” Dr. Rankin said.
To her surprise, though, the magnetic resonance scans revealed that the part of the brain lost among those who failed to perceive sarcasm was not in the left hemisphere of the brain, which specializes in language and social interactions, but in a part of the right hemisphere previously identified as important only to detecting contextual background changes in visual tests.
“The right parahippocampal gyrus must be involved in detecting more than just visual context — it perceives social context as well,” Dr. Rankin said.
It's not as simple as all that, Rankin et al. note in their own abstract. Worse performance in the Sarcasm test was also associated with greater atrophy in other sectors of the right temporal lobe and in the right superior frontal gyrus. Moreover, a 2005 study [BBC link via Of Two Minds] implicated a network of brain regions, primarily right ventromedial prefrontal cortex [they could not assess the importance of the right temporal lobe in their study]:
Dr Simone Shamay-Tsoory and colleagues (Neuropsychology, 2005) studied 25 people with prefrontal lobe damage, 16 with damage to the posterior lobe of the brain and 17 healthy volunteers.. . . The volunteers who had damage to their prefrontal lobes were unable to correctly interpret the sarcastic story, while all of the other participants could... [Dr Shamay-Tsoory] said language areas on the left hand side of the brain interpret the literal meaning of words and the frontal lobes and the right side of the brain understand the social and emotional context. An area called the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex then integrates the literal meaning with the social/emotional context, which will reveal any sarcasm. "A lesion in each region in the network can impair sarcasm, because if someone has a problem understanding a social situation, he or she may fail to understand the literal language," she said.Oh well, "whatever", nevermind. I couldn't get The Sarcasterizer to work, so there you go.
It's "certain" that nobody's gotten tired of the insincerity and detached irony that's so prevalent in today's "hip" discourse. There's nothing the the world quite as "thrilling" as stumbling across yet another Web page drenched in "disaffected" sarcasm. And "everybody's" constantly asking us where they can get "more" of this "precious" commodity.UPDATE: bigger better multiple sarcasms.
References
[IN2-2.004] Detecting "Sarcasm" from Paralinguistic "Cues": Anatomic and Cognitive "Correlates" in Neurodegenerative DiseaseKatherine Rankin, Andrea G. Salazar, Maria Gorno Tempini, Danijela Pavlic, Christine M. Stanley, Shenly Glenn, Michael Weiner, Bruce Miller.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the structural neuroanatomy underlying neurodegenerative disease patients failure to understand sarcasm from dynamic vocal and facial paralinguistic cues. BACKGROUND: While sarcasm can be conveyed solely through contextual cues such as counterfactual or echoic statements, face-to-face sarcastic speech may be characterized by a specific paralinguistic profile that alerts the listener to interpret the utterance as ironic or critical, even in the absence of contextual information. DESIGN/METHODS: Ninety-one subjects (20 frontotemporal dementia, 11 semantic dementia [SemD], 4 progressive nonfluent aphasia, 28 Alzheimer's, 6 corticobasal degeneration, 9 progressive supranuclear palsy, 13 healthy older controls) were tested using the Social Inference-Minimal subtest of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT). Subjects watched brief videos depicting sincere or sarcastic communication and answered yes-no questions about the speakers intended meaning. RESULTS: All groups performed normally interpreting items on a Sincere control task, suggesting other cognitive impairments did not significantly account for Sarcasm task performance. Only the SemD group was impaired on the Simple Sarcasm condition. Subjects failing the sarcasm comprehension task performed more poorly on dynamic emotion recognition tasks, had more neuropsychiatric disturbances, but had better verbal and visuospatial working memory than patients who comprehended sarcasm. Voxel-based morphometry analysis of TASIT scores was performed using age, sex, total intracranial volume, and performance on the Sincere condition as covariates. Poorer sarcasm recognition correlated with right temporal lobe atrophy (anterior fusiform and parahippocampal gyrii, superior temporal sulcus), and atrophy to the right superior frontal gyrus and striatal structures (right caudate and left globus pallidus) (p less than 0.05, FWE). CONCLUSIONS/RELEVANCE: This study provides lesion data suggesting that the right posterior temporal lobe and dorsomedial frontal cortex are associated with recognizing and interpreting sarcastic irony using paralinguistic vocal and facial cues, consistent with functional imaging research examining neural correlates of voice prosody, facial emotion recognition, and perspective taking.
Shamay-Tsoory SG, Tomer R, Aharon-Peretz J. (2005). The neuroanatomical basis of "understanding" sarcasm and its "relationship" to social cognition. Neuropsychology 19:288-300.
posted at: 11:22 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Microsurgery on the brain of the fruit fly leads to new insights into irreparable nerve injuries
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Leuven, Belgium − Every year, one million Europeans are confronted with potentially irreparable brain or spinal cord injuries resulting from traffic accidents. Because the nerves in a damaged spinal cord cannot, or cannot fully, be repaired, the patient remains (partially) paralyzed. Now, VIB scientists connected to the K.U.Leuven have become the first to successfully develop a simple model that enables the study of injured brain tissue. The researchers have perfected a technique for keeping the cultured brain of a fruit fly alive and healthy for a longer period of time. With the aid of microsurgery, this new technique enables scientists to inflict injury on certain nerve bundles for research purposes. By means of this new fruit fly model, the researchers have already succeeded in showing that the activation of a particular signaling pathway (JNK) induces the regeneration of axons. This research offers positive perspectives for patients with nerve injuries that have been irreversible up to now.
posted at: 11:18 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
The most accurate infographic ever & the brain region responsible for sarcasm
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This is actually pretty much the most useful and accurate infographic I've ever seen in my entire life. Thank goodness this appears on an article highlighting the brain region responsible for decoding sarcasm.
Now that you've seen this amazing infographic you know exactly how sarcasm happens in the brain and what area is responsible.... AND!!! that area is lighting up right now as you read this very deep and meaningful post. As a matter of fact after reading this post you might have an aneurysm originating in your right ventromedial prefrontal gyrus. I apologize for the brain deadness I might have caused from reading this post. However, it's not as bad as it could be... just read the bbc news article that the infographic came from ;)
I haven't had a chance to read the real journal article yet... maybe I'll do that and get back to you guys.
HT: Eamon
posted at: 11:12 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
What the tip of the tongue tells us about the brain
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The tip-of-the-tongue state is a common experience where you know you know something but can't quite bring it to mind. This everyday experience has told us a great deal about how the mind and brain work, as explored in an article for the Boston Globe.
It's a paradoxical experience if you think about it. You know something, but you can't remember it.
Just this tells us that the storage of information and the ability to access it are distinct in the brain.
It also tells us that the brain must have ways of monitoring itself and communicating how successfully it carries out its operations to the conscious and unconscious mind.
This is known as 'metacognition' and is one of the most important concepts in modern psychology.
The Boston Globe article (by Jonah Lehrer of the Frontal Cortex blog) is a remarkably lucid exploration of exactly this topic, looking at how it has been studied in everything from lab studies to people with brain injury who suffer near permanent tip-of-the-tongue states.
Link to Boston Globe article 'What's that name?'.
posted at: 11:02 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Long-term cannabis users may have structural brain abnormalities
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Long-term, heavy cannabis use may be associated with structural abnormalities in areas of the brain known as the hippocampus and amygdala, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
posted at: 11:02 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Tue, 03 Jun 2008
Brain Prosthesis: Coming to a Hospital Near You?
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The possibility of fusing a mechanical device with the human brain becomes a reality.
Ladies and gentleman, I would like to introduce you to a new piece of technology. Lo and behold, the brain prosthesis. Wait. Did I just say brain prosthesis, as in an artificial replacement of the mind? Yes, that’s right; the brain prosthesis is going to be used to replace the damaged parts of our brain.
Hundreds of individuals who have lost their body parts due to traumatic injuries or congenital defects have already chosen to get artificial replacements. To elaborate, a patient may want to get a synthetic limb because of a missing arm or an ocular prosthesis because of a damaged eye. However, never would we ever consider replacing a damaged brain. But according to scientists at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, a silicon chip could be used to replace the hippocampus, part of the forebrain involved in forming memories. This may provide great hope for people who have suffered from stroke and epilepsy or for those currently battling Alzheimer’s disease. That’s wonderful news.
Currently, Dr. Theodore Berger and his team of colleagues at the university are testing their prosthetic device on a live rat. Their preliminary data showed positive results. They have created a device, successfully mimicking the activity of biological signals in the hippocampal circuit. According to mathematical models, this microchip, incorporated in the brain tissue, matched perfectly with an intact brain slice without the chip. Thus, the researchers’ next step is to use and study animal models.
Could this possibly work? I’m optimistic. Though, it may very well come with complications, both ethically and biologically. First and foremost, our bodies could reject this foreign object. Secondly, ethicists will certainly raise valid arguments over the procedure that will tamper with the patients’ identities. Most importantly, the role of the human brain is intricate. It is where we interpret our conscious thoughts and emotions. But at a time where accidents and diseases will inevitably rob our memories, sometimes we need these recollections that shape who we are. Hence, research in this field, combining neuroscience and technology, should continue.
Nevertheless, I wonder how many people out there would want this procedure if it does work and if it is going to be given a green light. If drugs can’t fully work, maybe biomedical engineering can help revolutionize medicine. Perhaps scientists can replace other parts of the brain. A scary thought. I’m also curious to know if the current prosthesis would really help a victim of Alzheimer’s disease, because there will still be the presence of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain. I guess we’ll have to stay tuned.
Reference
Philips, H. (2008) Brain prosthesis passes live tissue test. NewScientist.
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Related Articles at Brain Blogger:
- Defining Malpractice During an Emergency Evacuation
- Brain Implants: Become a Borg or Get Healthy?
- Conflicts of Interest in Drug Prescribing
- Who’s Gonna Take Care of You When You Are Sick?
- Medicare Begins its “Never Pay” Category
posted at: 11:51 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Wed, 28 May 2008
How neurotech will change the world, one brain at a time
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High end business magazine Condé Nast Portfolio has a feature article on the latest developments in the 120 billion dollar neurotech industry that aims to develop drugs and devices to cure diseases and optimise our brains.
The article takes a broad view of the industry, but also highlights a few areas which are looking hot and gives a guide to the sort of business thinking that motivates both the neurotech giants and the fledgling startups.
It seems the industry is currently a high stakes, high risk investment prospect as the majority of companies do not make money, so investors are betting long-term or hoping they're backing a blockbuster.
The piece also mentions the work of Zack Lynch of the neurotech industry group NIO, who in partnership with his co-director and wife Casey Lynch, seems to have been lobbying the US government for significant support for the sector:
The couple’s new push is to get more federal dollars channeled toward the industry. Zack has been traveling back and forth to Washington, sometimes taking along neurotech C.E.O.’s, to promote a $1 billion “national neurotechnology initiative” that Representative Patrick Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, recently announced he will introduce in Congress. The legislation asks the federal government to spend $200 million a year for five years on neurotech, including $30 million for the Food and Drug Administration to train more experts, $80 million for the National Institutes of Health to coordinate the neuroresearch efforts that are now run by 16 different institutes, and $75 million to increase small-business grants for neurotech companies.
One issue the article touches on is the deregulation of the industry so they can develop pharmaceuticals for cognitive enhancement of healthy people without having to get their medication licensed for a specific medical disorder.
While some remain suitably demure about the possibilities (at least in public), this is obviously the neurotech holy grail and is undoubtedly high on the long-term goals of the industry.
The article also has a couple of fantastic interactive features accompanying it - one on drugs and the other on implants. Also check the right-hand column for a series of related articles from the same publication.
Link to Condé Nast Portfolio article 'The Ultimate Cure' (via BrainWaves).
posted at: 11:48 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Brain Blogging, Thirty-Third Edition
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Welcome to the thirty-third edition of Brain Blogging. In this round, we cover a range of topics from personality disorders, crying men, mastering self-control, total body detoxification, and working out your brain to Martian invasions.
If you were left out, just leave a comment with your blog entry. Don’t worry, we’ll format it to match the blog carnival (or even include it in the main post).
Remember, we review the latest blogs related to the brain and mind that go beyond the basic sciences into a more human and multidimensional perspective. You can check our Brain Blogging archive for all editions.
For future editions, please remember to submit your blog entries using the online submission form. We will do our best to review and include your entry! Enjoy your readings…
Psychology
Phil for Humanity asks Why People Interrupt?:
Some conversations are very boring, and some people feel an immediate need to make the conversation more interesting. For example, they may try being humorous.
Improved Lives asks Is Happiness Contagious?:
Happiness spreads in networks. If your friend’s friend becomes happy, it ripples through the network and can make you happy.
Providentia reports on When the Martians Invaded:
Grover’s Mill was largely deserted when the broadcast began but this changed rapidly as people rushed to the area. Police needed to be called in to control the crowds and reinforced the impression that something catastrophic was happening. In the town of Concrete, Washington, there was a power failure that occurred during the broadcast plunging almost all of the town’s 1,000 residents into darkness.
Nutrition & Food
eDetoxify reports on Body Detoxification - Simple Ways To Detoxify Your Body:
The first thing you should do is to reduce and eliminate the intake of alcohol, coffee, and how the harmful toxins you usually take in. You should also reduce the use of chemical products like toothpaste and shampoo. You should use substitute natural alternatives.
Mind, Soul, and Body reports Grapes of Wrath:
I remember often as a pediatric resident warning parents about unsafe foods. It did cross my mind, “are hot dogs and grapes really that off limits for toddlers? How many really have the food lodged immobile in their windpipe? Is it enough to justify a major health campaign?” Every well child visit was just one of a long list of continuous warnings we provided the parents.
Personal Development
Conservatives and Normals asks How Personal Development Effects Us All?:
Think about something that you would like to start or stop doing or change in your life. One of my biggest crutches in the past was smoking cigarettes. I’m told that quitting smoking is one of the most difficult things in the world to give up. I challenge those people and say that giving up eating is FAR more difficult than giving up smoking.
BlogMotivation reports How To Do Anything Properly:
Be proud of what you are doing. Every action has a reason for existing, no matter how uninteresting or insignificant it might seem. When you do something with pride, you bring it to a whole new level of importance.
Memory & Cognition
Diary From England reports Modern Brits Out of Memory:
According to recent research, it seems that more and more Britons have come to rely on Blackberrys, Ipods and mobile phones to store information. Many people have come to rely on them as a “memory substitute”.
Sharp Brains reports Exercise your brain in the Cognitive Age:
The brain fitness market is growing fast and this trend will continue. This is not just a Nintendo-fueled fad. The article reflects this point best. Part of the market confusion lies in the disconnect between what computerized brain fitness programs can do (the ones with more science behind them than Nintendo Brain Age) and what people seem to want them to do.
Stigmatization
Dr. Deb reports on Crying Men:
In my work, being vulnerable, being sad, and crying are hard things to do. Even harder for men. When this exhibition was turned into a book, I had to buy it. It now rests on the bookcase in my office for anyone to view.
Mental Health Disorders
SystemsThinker reports on Borderline Personality Disorder Awareness Month: Discussing, Understanding & Publicizing an Under-Recognized Epidemic:
I have gone so far as to say that Borderline, along with perhaps Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), is the core disorder of our culture. In this assessment I seem to be in agreement with the eminent pioneer in the treatment of Personality Disorders, James F. Masterson, M.D., whose book, Search For The Real Self, focuses almost exclusively on these two disorders and, in its subtitle, identifies them as “The Personality Disorders Of Our Age.”
Dr Shock reports Genes Predict Response to Lithium Addition for Treatment Resistant Depression:
I am convinced that especially lithium addition is a very effective treatment strategy if an antidepressant fails and should be preferred above more experimental addition strategies such as atypical antipsychotics.
Parenting Teens Blog reports on Teens and sexual addiction:
Sexual addiction is not limited to “having sex” with the opposite gender, it can also involve pornography, masturbation and obsession about the act and the participants.
State of Mind
Learn This reports Beliefs: They’re Entirely Yours to Control:
Some people feel that you can develop beliefs by choosing them (I certainly agree with that) and others feel that beliefs come about only through experiences that train you to think about things a certain way, which eventually becomes a belief. Looking at both of these options, there are obvious arguments for both side as to which happens most often, but I look from the perspective of which I want to happen more often and that is certainly creating or choosing my own belief.
Learn This also reports A Guide to Mastering Your State of Mind:
The best thing to do with the ability to follow these visualization steps to get into a state of mind is to next, associate that state of mind with something instant. This allows you to activate that state and learn to call upon it whenever you want.
Highlight Health reports Remembering Lunch Can Help Reduce the Desire to Snack:
Mind over matter may really work when it comes to managing appetite. Researchers at the University of Birmingham, U.K. have found that recalling foods eaten at lunch has an inhibitory effect on subsequent snacking later the same day.
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Related Articles at Brain Blogger:
- Brain Blogging, Thirty-First Edition
- Brain Blogging, Thirty-Second Edition
- Blog Carnivals
- Brain Blogging, Fourth Edition
- Encephalon, Thirty-Third Edition
posted at: 11:47 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Tue, 20 May 2008
Frontal lobe damage changes performance on the 'Pepsi challenge'. Isn't the world a better place now we know that?
Philosophy Now reviews 'Freedom and Neurobiology' by John Searle.
In an article for Salon, our recent interviewee neurologist Robert Burton gets stuck into a high-tech huckster promoting expensive SPECT scans to diagnose Alzheimer's and herbal supplements to treat the brain disorder.
Channel N discovers a video lecture by Antonio Damasio on the neuroscience of emotion.
Psychologist Charles Fernyhough turned every moment of the first three years of his daughter's life into a research project notes The Telegraph as they review the resulting book.
Treatment Online on research that has found that variations in serotinergic neuroreceptors may indicate severity of depression.
13 ways to quickly improve your decision-making are discussed by PsyBlog.
The Age has a fantastic article on the psychology of risk and why we're so bad at judging it.
"The Change You Deserve". The slogan for antidepressant drug Effexor, and now, the slogan for the US Republican party!
Furious Seasons notes that a recent study on bipolar disorder being overdiagnosed is being supported by leading bipolar researchers.
APA psychology magazine Monitor has an excellent article on how research with deaf people who can't sign might shed light on the fundamentals of cognition.
Burgeoning research on the neuroscience of mystical experiences is discussed in the The New York Times.
Pictures of brain tumours!
BBC News reports that music can enhance the taste of wine. If only it could do the same for brussel sprouts.
The brain is not modular: what fMRI really tells us. An article in Scientific American Mind discusses limitations of brain scanning.
Deric Bownds covers a study that finds our facial touch sensitivity is enhanced by viewing a touch.
The excellent ABC Radio National's All in the Mind discusses the neurobiology of nicotine addiction and concerns about new anti-smoking drugs.
Developing Intelligence covers a fascinating study on time distortion due to visual flicker.
The Wall Street Journal on the possibility of the US Goverment awarding Purple Hearts, a medal for soldiers wounded in battle, for cases of PTSD (thanks Kyle!).
posted at: 23:30 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Undercover genetics and the function of the brain
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Science News has an article on one of the most important future topics in neuroscience - epigenetics, the science of how information coded in the genes is used when the brain does its work.
Almost every cell in the body has a copy of the DNA, and therefore has the capability to express any protein.
But you wouldn't want proteins that are used for digesting food produced in the brain, so the body has various ways of regulating which proteins get expressed at any one time. This is epigenetics.
If DNA is like a blueprint, epigenetics is the committee of civil engineers that coordinate the construction site.
We've known from twin studies and molecular genetic research that genes and the environment both influence cognition and behaviour, but these studies only give statistical associations. What they don't tell us is how this happens.
In a sense, epigenetics is the scientific glue that allows us to understand how genes influence learning and behaviour, but also how learning and behaviour influences the expression of genes.
In other words, its goal is to explain how the environment combines with genetic information in the brain.
Needless to say, much epigenetic research is focusing on mental illness, the classic example of how genetic risk, experience and environment combine with sometimes disastrous consequences.
One of the most interesting aspects is that there is growing evidence that epigenetic information can be inherited. So your experiences may actually cause changes to gene regulation that are then passed on to offspring.
Link to Science New article on epigenetics.
Link to abstract of good review article on epigenetics and cognition.
posted at: 23:04 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Neurohistology
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UCB Lecture 22: Neurohistology
Professor Marian Diamond. University of California, Berkeley.
UCB Lecture 23: Neurohistology, Nervous System Development
Professor Marian Diamond. University of California, Berkeley.
posted at: 23:02 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Trends in SFN Abstracts
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A new paper in PLoS ONE (Lin et al., 2008) applied the methods of computational linguistics1 to analyze the database of abstracts presented at the 2001 to 2006 meetings of the Society for Neuroscience. The results provide an overview of the current state of the field.
Figure 8. (A) Visualization of topic map for all SFN meeting abstracts from 2001 to 2006. Abstracts assigned to different clusters appear in different colors (see legend). (B) Zooming in at the center of the topic map reveals more detailed clusters [click on the figure for a larger view].
Among the interesting findings:
- The majority of the authors (~60%) had only one abstract over the span of six years. This number may reflect a large group of “transients” comprising mostly undergraduates, graduate students, and perhaps post-docs who entered and exited the neuroscience field in a short period of time.
- The phenomena of a high transient rate, reflecting a sort of “infant mortality rate” for first time authors was first analyzed by Price [20], who estimated a 22% transient rate for paper authorship from a database consisting of a statistical sample of papers published between 1964 and 1970.
- A fundamental measure used in graph theory is the shortest path between a pair of connected vertices. In the context of the network under study, this measures the number of steps it takes to go from one author to another through intermediate collaborators. From the multi-year SFN database, the lengths of shortest paths between all pairs of authors for whom a connection exists were calculated exhaustively using a breadth-first search algorithm. These numbers were then averaged to yield the mean distance between authors in the entire network.
- Table 4 shows that the authors in the SFN community are separated from one another by an average distance of 6.09. A similar observation of “six degree of separation” has been reported previously for abstracts in the MEDLINE database [10]...
The authors used Latent Semantic Analysis to reduce the dimensionality of the topics covered in the abstract database.
- The reduced dimensionality vector space captures most of the important underlying structure in the association of terms and documents, while at the same time removing the noise or variability in word usage [29]. In the reduced vector space, terms that occur in similar documents are located near one another even if they never co-occur in the same document, and topically related documents are grouped near one another based on their semantic relatedness.
Finally, changes in topic areas across time revealed the following trends:
- Among the 10 topic clusters, Cluster 9, which corresponds to visual and motor systems, is shown to have consistently increased in representation over the six year span. On the other hand, Cluster 2, which corresponds to cellular neuroscience, exhibits the most significant decrease in representation over the same period.
- These results suggest that there is a shift in general scientific interest from cellular-level work such as ion channel, synapse, and membrane physiology, towards more system level research incorporating such topics as vision, kinematics, motor processing, and imaging.
Footnote
1 Oh, OK, here's the Wikipedia page for computational linguistics.
Reference
Lin JM, Bohland JW, Andrews P, Burns GA, Allen CB, Mitra PP, Bajic VB. (2008). An Analysis of the Abstracts Presented at the Annual Meetings of the Society for Neuroscience from 2001 to 2006. PLoS ONE, 3(4), e2052. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0002052
Annual meeting abstracts published by scientific societies often contain rich arrays of information that can be computationally mined and distilled to elucidate the state and dynamics of the subject field. We extracted and processed abstract data from the Society for Neuroscience (SFN) annual meeting abstracts during the period 2001–2006 in order to gain an objective view of contemporary neuroscience. An important first step in the process was the application of data cleaning and disambiguation methods to construct a unified database, since the data were too noisy to be of full utility in the raw form initially available. Using natural language processing, text mining, and other data analysis techniques, we then examined the demographics and structure of the scientific collaboration network, the dynamics of the field over time, major research trends, and the structure of the sources of research funding. Some interesting findings include a high geographical concentration of neuroscience research in the north eastern United States, a surprisingly large transient population (66% of the authors appear in only one out of the six studied years), the central role played by the study of neurodegenerative disorders in the neuroscience community, and an apparent growth of behavioral/systems neuroscience with a corresponding shrinkage of cellular/molecular neuroscience over the six year period. The results from this work will prove useful for scientists, policy makers, and funding agencies seeking to gain a complete and unbiased picture of the community structure and body of knowledge encapsulated by a specific scientific domain.
posted at: 22:51 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
A lot of the work I’ve been doing in lab lately is related to brain development. Your brain is an absolutely amazing mess of pathways, fibers and tracts. The interconnected nature of the brain is far more sophisticated than simple dendrite trees in a big cluster. Furthermore, your brain and my brain are nearly identical, as far as gross anatomy is concerned. You have a hypothalamus, an amygdala, a corpus callosum and a suprachiasmatic nucleus, etc etc ad nauseum. The connections between the various brain regions is likewise similar. This simple fact is actually quite astonishing: every human brain is hardwired to organize into the same gross pattern.
Indeed, hordes of researchers are actively pursuing the mysteries of brain development. Many diseases are caused by improper maturation of the brain. It is becoming increasingly clear that the development of the brain, while complicated, is by no means magic. Various signaling chemicals and peptides direct axons to their destination, either attracting or repelling. Chemical gradients create complex migration behavior depending on your location in the gradient. Importantly, this intricate chemical dance is entirely reproducible - it is the reason your brain looks like mine.
The previous iteration of Distributed Neuron consisted of essentially random placement and a semi-random connection system (through the use of simple “chemical” attractants). This system left a lot to be desired. Results were unpredictable each iteration due to the inherent random nature. Gross anatomy was difficult to develop because neuron placement was random and fixed. Once a neuron was placed, it was permanent. The connection system allowed minor segregation by influencing the direction and distance neurites could travel. It was, in my opinion, too little of an affect to be worthwhile.
Enter the newest revision. Again, neurons are placed into a three-dimensional environment. Each neuron is a 1×1x1 cube. Initial placement is fixed and predictable. This iteration, instead of immediately growing neurites for connections, enters a “migration” phase. Each neuron has a base migration value that defines how far and in what direction it travels. Chemo-emitters are strewn about the three-dimensional space. As neurons migrate, they may change their differentiation pattern according to what chemo-emitters are nearby. This differentiation change affects the base migration properties, altering migration direction. Importantly, no randomness is involved so the results are identical each time.
In this way, neurons not only migrate to different positions but also change their cell fate depending on their location. The non-random nature makes testing/analysis easy because the results are identical from one run to the next. Small variations in the placement and quantity of chemo-emitters can drastically alter the gross anatomy of the network, providing an infinite supply of variations.
There are still pieces I would like to iron out, but for now, the system works very well and can produce some interesting results. Here is one such sample network, from two different views. It consists of 10,000 neurons and has already performed its “migration” phase.
Colors indicate different cell “types”. This particular network has 4 cell types (red, magenta, blue, and one lonely green). As you can see, the network formed a thick magenta sheet. Pressed against this are two separate sheets, one blue and one red. It should be noted that the initial placement of neurons was actually in the bottom-right corner of the screen, meaning the neurons migrated top-left. It should also be known that initial placement was in a small cube, which proceeded to flatten and elongate into a sheet.
Click for big.
posted at: 22:44 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Infant Memory Works From Very Early
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What psychologists have done, though, is examine the emergence of memory in our first few years with a series of now classic experiments. If memories really can be laid down early in life then it is certainly possible in theory for adults to remember very early experiences.
Getting a kick out of kicking
One classic experiment, devised by Professor Carolyn Rovee-Collier (now at Rutgers University) and colleagues in the 1960s, provides us an insight into what infants can remember. This method has produced some great evidence about how and when infants' memories develops.
In their experiment, Rovee and Rovee (1969) had infants of between 9 and 12 weeks lay comfortably in their cribs at home looking up at a mobile covered with brightly coloured wooden figures.
The more the little kids kick, the more of a kick they get from the mobile.A cord was then attached to their foot connecting it to the mobile. This meant that if the infants kicked out the mobile would move. And, if they kicked out hard, the wooden figures would bump into each other and make a pleasant knocking sound. The more the little kids kick, the more of a kick they get from the mobile.
If you're starting to get a whiff of Pavlov and his salivating dog then you're on the right lines. This experiment is all about seeing if an infant can be conditioned to kick their foot to make the mobile move. Researchers first measure infants' baseline levels of kicking (with mobile unattached), then compare this to kicking that produces an exciting response (wow, the mobile is moving!).
What Rovee and Rovee (1969) found was that even infants as young as 8 weeks old could learn the association between kicking and the mobile movement. This learning was still evident over a 45-55 minutes period.
Early memories
While this initial finding is fairly modest, the use of this procedure has led to all sorts of new findings about infants' memories. For example, subsequent studies have later substituted a different mobile for the original to see if the infants can spot the difference, thereby testing whether or not they really remember.
In one experiment infants only 8-weeks-old were trained with the mobile over a period of 3 days for 9 minutes each day. Twenty-four hours later the infants only kicked at above their baseline levels when the same mobile was above their heads. This showed they remembered the particular mobile they had been trained with and not just any old mobile. It was an especially exciting finding because it had previously been thought that long-term memory (and 24 hours is long-term for psychologists) didn't emerge until as late as 8 or 9 months.
Our memory systems actually work quite well from very early on.Because of this experiment and others like it, we now know much more about infant memory. Our memory systems actually work quite well from very early on. Infants' memories also seems to work in much the same way as adult memories - it's just that infant memories are much more fragile.
Carolyn Rovee-Collier argues it is doubtful whether infantile amnesia really exists (Rovee-Collier, 1999). It certainly appears our brains can lay down long-term memories even in the first year of life. The reason it is unusual to retain memories from that time into adulthood is probably because of the limited capacity of our early memory systems and the intervening years during which we inevitably forget.
[Image credit: dolanh]
References
Rovee, C. K., & Rovee, D. T. (1969). Conjugate Reinforcement of Infant Exploratory Behavior. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 8, 33-39.
Rovee-Collier, C. (1999). The Development of Infant Memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 8(3), 80-85.
posted at: 22:38 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
In Which I Hate A Wonder Drug
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Schering-Plough has had its share of troubles over the years, but the company has also seen itself saved by some pretty unlikely compounds. Vytorin (ezetimibe) is the example I’ve spoken about here, and if the drug doesn’t seem like a savior at the moment, well, you have to keep in mind that it was the biggest thing for them since Claritin went off-patent ten years ago.
Now there’s another one potentially coming up. Expectations are building for a thrombin receptor antagonist compound, SCH 530348. And I have a history with this one, too: while the labs down one hallway from me were discovering ezetimibe, down the other hallway they were laying the foundation for this one. There’s a big difference, though, in the way I saw the two.
This thrombin antagonist is an unlikely drug for several reasons. For one thing, its structure is not the sort of thing most medicinal chemists would go out of their way to make. But there’s a good reason for that: to a first approximation, it wasn’t made with medicinal chemistry in mind. 530348 is based on a natural product called himbacine, whose fame, such as it is, rests on its properties as a semi-selective muscarinic antagonist. And that’s how Schering-Plough got interested in this class of compounds; thrombin had nothing to do with it.
At the time (early to mid 1990s) the company had a team working on Alzheimer’s disease, and I’ll go ahead and mention again that I was one of the people involved. (Five minutes on SciFinder would tell you that, anyway). We were quite interested in selective muscarinic antagonists, particularly for the m2 subtype, and himbacine was at the time one of the more selective compounds with that profile. So one of the group leaders at the company, Sam Chackalamannil, decided to synthesize it and do some SAR around the structure.
That was no small undertaking. Himbacine’s not one of the most complex natural products by any means, but it’s no stroll to the beach, either, especially when compared to the usual sorts of drug structures. It took a lot of time, a lot of ingenuity, and (most importantly) a lot of effort to do it. And I. . .well, I thought this was a terrible idea.
I really did. By the time himbacine itself got made, the project team had muscarinic compounds that were more selective and more potent (and a lot easier to make, to boot). I would listen to Chackalamannil’s people presenting their long, difficult routes during meetings, and I’d sit there imagining the company going slowly bankrupt if everyone adopted this approach, the revenue slowly sinking as the number of JACS communications rose. I couldn’t see the point, and although I don’t think I ever quite had the nerve to say so to Chackalamannil himself (hi, Sam!), I said it to plenty of other people.
So, is it time for me to eat crow? Well, one plateful, at least. Some of the himbacine analogs hit in the high-throughput screen for thrombin activity, to everyone’s surprise, and some further compounds (now shed of their muscarinic activity) were even better. The drug discovery effort culminated in 530548, which now might be about to benefit a huge number of people and make the company a ton of money, if everything goes well.
Of course, if these things hadn’t hit in the thrombin assay, I could have remained secure in my opinion. After all, they were never worth very much as muscarinics, as far as I know. (Of course, our muscarinic compounds, in the end, never were worth very much as Alzheimer’s drugs, which is something to keep in mind). So that’s the question: how likely is it for molecules like this to work? It’s very hard to answer that, but given this data point, I guess the answer is “at least a little more likely than I thought”. The very fact that they didn’t look like most other things in the screening deck was probably in their favor. I still think that these compounds were a long shot, but this is a business that lives on long shots. This one came through, and congratulations to everyone involved.
posted at: 22:37 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
Fri, 09 May 2008
Related Links
Gold Nanoparticles In Cancer Cell Detection
Nanomedicine
Nano-BioEngineering -Biomarker Discovery & medical Diagnostics
posted at: 01:45 | path: /sci/bio/neuro | permanent link to this entry
