Brain

Chimpanzees recognize their pals by using some of the same brain regions that switch on when humans register a familiar face, according to a report published online on December 18th in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication. The study—the first to examine brain activity in chimpanzees after they attempt to match fellow chimps' faces—offers new insight into the origin of face recognition in humans, the researchers said.

STANFORD, Calif. —The fabled laboratory mouse — from which we have learned so much about how the immune system works — can teach us only so much about how we humans get sick and what to do about it, says a leading researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Group-based treatment programs may effectively combat childhood obesity in rural communities, according to a new University of Florida study.

Children who participated in one of two group programs — family-based or parent-only — were less overweight compared with children in a control group. The findings appear in the December issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

The UF study is the first to assess the effectiveness of a child weight-management program in a real-world, community-based setting for families in rural areas.

When you first notice a door handle, your brain has already been hard at work. Your visual system first sees the handle, then it sends information to various parts of the brain, which go on to decipher out the details, such as color and the direction the handle is pointing. As the information about an object is sent further along the various brain pathways, more and more details are noticed—in that way, a simple door handle turns into a silver-plated-antique-style-door-handle-facing-right.

Prozac is regularly prescribed to ease the emotional pain of patients who are being treated for cancer. But can this common anti-depressant help to fight cancer itself?

Dr. Dan Peer of the Department of Cell Research and Immunology at Tel Aviv University is proving that it can. A study he and his colleagues recently completed validates that Prozac (chemical name fluoxetine) dramatically enhances the effectiveness of a widely used anti-cancer drug.

New Rochelle, NY, December 18, 2008—Medical acupuncture, which is acupuncture performed by a licensed physician trained at a conventional medical school, is being used increasingly for pain control. Richard Niemtzow, MD, PhD, MPH, Editor-in-Chief of Medical Acupuncture, a peer-reviewed journal (www.liebertpub.com/acu) and the official journal of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, is at the forefront of these efforts in the military.

TEMPE, Ariz. – Technology can do great things, but it also can be over sold as panacea for a host of social ills. A better use of technology can be gained if those who guide technology policy, and thus investment, are clear about how to apply it and know what to expect from their efforts.

Philadelphia, 18 December 2008 – The editors of Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation are pleased to announce a special supplement to the December issue, highlighting traumatic brain injury (TBI). Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (http://www.archives-pmr.org) is the official journal of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and is published by Elsevier.

The new issue of BMJ has what can only be considered another installment in their delightful December pranks. It's okay, we publish them anyway, because they're that darn funny. And they pay us.

Head banging increases the risk of head and neck injury, but the effects may be lessened with reduced head and neck motion, head banging to lower tempo songs or to every second beat, and using protective equipment such as neck braces, finds a study in the Christmas issue published on bmj.com today.

The public's concerns about costs and increased promiscuity among teenagers appear to be hindering use of a vaccine against the human papilloma virus (HPV) to prevent life-threatening diseases, according to a study by researchers at Yale School of Public Health.

ST. PAUL, Minn. – A new study shows that antidepressant drugs which only affect serotonin, often used as first choice treatments, may not be best for depression in people with Parkinson's disease. The new research is published in the December 17, 2008, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Depression affects up to 50 percent of people with Parkinson's disease.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University researchers found a mechanism that naturally shuts down cellulose production in plants, and learning how to keep that switch turned on may be key to enhancing biomass production for plant-based biofuels.

Nicholas Carpita, a professor of botany and plant pathology, said that small-interfering RNAs (siRNAs) play a normal role in plant development by shutting off genes involved in primary cell wall growth in order to begin development of thicker, secondary cell walls.

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have answered a central question in cancer biology: whether normal stem cells can give rise to tumors. Stem cells are immature cells that can renew themselves and give rise to mature differentiated cells that compose the range of body tissues. In recent years, researchers have developed evidence that cancers may arise from mutant forms of stem cells.

ALCOHOLICS struggling to keep off shots of the hard stuff over the festive season may want to consider an alternative shot: a monthly injection that keeps them off the booze.

Men consistently outperform women on spatial tasks, including mental rotation, which is the ability to identify how a 3-D object would appear if rotated in space. Now, a University of Iowa study shows a connection between this sex-linked ability and the structure of the parietal lobe, the brain region that controls this type of skill.