Brain

An international research consortium has discovered that many common genetic variants contribute to a person's risk of schizophrenia and explain at least a third of the risk of inheriting the disease, providing the first molecular evidence that this form of genetic variation is involved in schizophrenia. The researchers also found that many of these DNA variations also are involved in bipolar disorder but not in several non-psychiatric diseases.

STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have played a major role in an international effort that has shown, for the first time, that modern genetic technologies can solve the riddle of how gene variations lead to schizophrenia.

A trio of genome-wide studies – collectively the largest to date – has pinpointed a vast array of genetic variation that cumulatively may account for at least one third of the genetic risk for schizophrenia. One of the studies traced schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in part, to the same chromosomal neighborhoods.

The joint research, funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the UK MS Society as well as the National Institutes of Health and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, was conducted by scientists at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and University of Cambridge and was published today (01 July) in the journal Genes and Development.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — We swim in a sea of information, but filter out most of what we see and hear. A new analysis of data from dozens of studies sheds new light on how we choose what we do and do not hear. The study found that while people tend to avoid information that contradicts what they already think or believe, certain factors can cause them to seek out, or at least consider, other points of view.

Scientists have uncovered new evidence suggesting that damage to nerve cells in people with multiple sclerosis accumulates because the body's natural mechanism for repair of the nerve coating called "myelin" stalls out.

The study, published today, July 1, 2009, in the print edition of "Genes & Development," was conducted by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and University of Cambridge. The research was led by co-senior investigator David Rowitch, MD, PhD, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at UCSF.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA---The July issue of Ophthalmology, the journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, includes two studies that may influence clinical treatment of serious eye conditions. One study reports on silent cerebral infarcts (SCI) incidence and visual field loss in patients with normal-tension glaucoma; the other correlates inflammation biomarkers with corneal transplant rejection in herpes simplex patients.

Silent Cerebral Infarcts: Risk Factor for Visual Field Loss as Well as for Stroke?

LOS ANGELES (STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 12:01 A.M. EDT on JULY 1, 2009) – A specific biomarker, a protein released by dying tumor cells, has been identified as an effective tool in an animal model to gauge the response to a novel gene therapy treatment for glioblastoma mulitforme. The finding, reported in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, paves the way for a Phase 1 clinical trial expected to begin in late 2009.

We are all familiar with the fact that cognitive function declines as we get older. Moreover, recent studies have shown that the specific kind of daily activities we engage in during the course of our lives appears to influence the extent of this decline. A team of researchers from Technische Universität Berlin are studying how division of labour among honey bees affects their learning performance as they age. Surprisingly, they have found that, by switching their social role, aging honey bees can keep their learning ability intact or even improve it.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — We swim in a sea of information, but filter out most of what we see and hear. A new analysis of data from dozens of studies sheds new light on how we choose what we do and do not hear. The study found that while people tend to avoid information that contradicts what they already think or believe, certain factors can cause them to seek out, or at least consider, other points of view.

Stressed out, dude? Don't go to Vegas.

New research, to be published July 1 in the journal PLoS One, shows that men under stress may be more likely to take risks, correlating to such real-life behavior as gambling, smoking, unsafe sex and illegal drug use.

In contrast, stressed women moderate their behavior and may be less likely to make risky choices, the study found.

Washington, DC — An observer feels more empathy for someone in pain when that person is in the same social group, according to new research in the July 1 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. The study shows that perceiving others in pain activates a part of the brain associated with empathy and emotion more if the observer and the observed are the same race. The findings may show that unconscious prejudices against outside groups exist at a basic level.

A new neuropsychological memory test is helping to uncover how Parkinson's disease can alter people's ability to learn about the consequences of the choices they make. The test was developed by Dr. Mark Gluck, professor of neuroscience at the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University, Newark, working with co-researchers at Rutgers, New York University, and in Hungary.

Though many consider teaching math to young children to be unnecessary or inappropriate at this stage in their educational development, research shows that as early as infancy, children start to think about the world in mathematical ways -- a capacity that currently goes largely untapped in the nation's preschools. In addition, studies have linked early success in math to later success in both math and reading.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — A front portion of the brain that handles tasks like decision-making also helps decipher different phonetic sounds, according to new Brown University research.

This section of the brain — the left inferior frontal sulcus — treats different pronunciations of the same speech sound (such as a 'd' sound) the same way.

In determining this, scientists have solved a mystery.