Brain

As parts of us age, even the membrane bound nuclei , which house the genetic instructions for life that are "written" in our DNA, begin to show considerable wear and tear, suggests a new report in the January 23rd issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication. The nuclear pore complexes that normally act as gatekeepers--selectively importing and exporting the molecular ingredients for life to and from the nucleus--begin to break down and spring leaks.

La Jolla, CA—Like guards controlling access to a gated community, nuclear pore complexes are communication channels that regulate the passage of proteins and RNA to and from a cell's nucleus. Recent studies by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies offer new insights about the pores' lifespan and how their longevity affects their function.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have created a precise biosensor for detecting blood glucose and potentially many other biological molecules by using hollow structures called single-wall carbon nanotubes anchored to gold-coated "nanocubes."

The device resembles a tiny cube-shaped tetherball. Each tetherball is a sensor and is anchored to electronic circuitry by a nanotube, which acts as both a tether and ultrathin wire to conduct electrical signals, said Timothy Fisher, a Purdue University professor of mechanical engineering.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Engineers at Purdue and Stanford universities have created stretchable electrodes to study how cardiac muscle cells, neurons and other cells react to mechanical stresses from heart attacks, traumatic brain injuries and other diseases.

The devices are made by injecting a liquid alloy made of indium and gallium into thin microchannels between two sheets of a plastic polymer, said Babak Ziaie, a Purdue associate professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Cell cultures are grown on top of the new "stretchable cell culture platform."

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, January 22, 2009 – A growing body of evidence demonstrates that we can take steps to delay age-related cognitive decline, including in some cases that which accompanies Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published in the January 2009 issue of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

Researchers from the Peninsula Medical School, the University of Cambridge and the University of Michigan, have for the first time identified a relationship between Vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin", and cognitive impairment in a large-scale study of older people. The importance of these findings lies in the connection between cognitive function and dementia: people who have impaired cognitive function are more likely to develop dementia. The paper will appear in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Geriatric Psychology and Neurology.

Stockholm, Sweden — Current research suggests that inflammation increases the risk of plaque rupture in atherosclerosis. The related report by Ovchinnikova et al, "T cell activation leads to reduced collagen maturation in atherosclerotic plaques of ApoE-deficient- mice," appears in the February 2009 issue of The American Journal of Pathology.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Schizophrenia may blur the boundary between internal and external realities by overactivating a brain system that is involved in self-reflection, and thus causing an exaggerated focus on self, a new MIT and Harvard brain imaging study has found.

The traditional view of schizophrenia is that the disturbed thoughts, perceptions and emotions that characterize the disease are caused by disconnections among the brain regions that control these different functions.

Whether the soundtrack of your youth was doo-wop or disco, new wave or Nirvana, psychology research at Kansas State University shows that even just thinking about a particular song can evoke vivid memories of the past.

"We thought that actually hearing the song would bring back the most vivid memories," said Richard Harris, professor of psychology at K-State. "But in our study there wasn't a lot of difference in memory between those who heard the song and those who didn't. What we determined was happening is that you already know the song and you're hearing it in your mind."

COLUMBUS, Ohio – We all know that $1 is equal to 100 cents. But a new study suggests that, in some situations, people may behave as if 100 cents actually has more value.

That's because people may pay more attention to the size of the numbers involved than the actual economic value, according to the research.

"In some cases, money may just serve as a score – the higher number wins, regardless of the actual value," said John Opfer, co-author of the study and assistant professor of psychology at Ohio State University.

BOSTON, Mass. (Jan. 21, 2008)—Whether condoms or abstinence, most efforts to prevent sexually transmitted diseases have a common logic: keep the pathogen out of your body altogether. While this approach is certainly reasonable enough, it doesn't help the countless people worldwide who, for a number of reasons, are not in a position to control their sexual circumstances.

WASHINGTON – People who feel socially rejected are more likely to see others' actions as hostile and are more likely to behave in hurtful ways toward people they have never even met, according to a new study.

The findings may help explain why social exclusion is often linked to aggression – which sometimes boils over dramatically, as in the case of school shootings, for example.

An international team of researchers, with the participation of Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and CREAF, has achieved to resolve fundamental questions related to the behaviour of ants. Researchers discovered how some species that successfully invade large extensions of land have an unusual way of doing so: they cooperate with other colonies to form a supercolony. Researchers alert that a plague of this type of ant could turn into a global problem. The research, the first of its kind, has been published in the journal PLoS ONE.

Tampa, Fla. (Jan. 21, 2009) – Early attempts at islet cell transplantation to treat diabetes date to the nineteenth century, decades before the discovery of insulin in the 1930s. In recent years, research has focused on the anatomical sites best suited for hosting transplanted islet cells. Experimental sites have included the spleen, liver, peritoneal cavity, omentum, subcutaneous tissues and gastric submucosa. However, many transplant attempts at a variety of anatomical sites have failed because of a variety of complications.

BOCA RATON, FL (January 21, 2009) – For the brain to achieve its intricate functions such as perception, action, attention and decision making, neural regions have to work together yet still retain their specialized roles. Excess or lack of timely coordination between brain areas lies at the core of a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia, autism, Parkinson's disease, sleep disorders and depression. How the brain is coordinated is a complex and difficult problem in need of new theoretical insights as well as new methods of investigation.