Brain

WASHINGTON – People who have a sibling with a mental illness are more likely to suffer episodes of depression at some point in their lives, say researchers who analyzed four decades of data.

Additionally, they found people with a sibling with low IQ are more likely to live near that brother or sister – but be somewhat emotionally detached from that sibling.

The findings were reported in the December issue of the Journal of Family Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association.

Troy, N.Y. – Fads have been a staple of American pop culture for decades, from spandex in the 1980s to skinny jeans today. But while going from fad to flop may seem like the result of fickle consumers, a new study suggests that this is exactly what should be expected for a highly efficient, rationally evolved animal.

UCB today announced findings from new studies of the once-daily antiepileptic drug (AED) Keppra XR™ (levetiracetam) extended-release tablets comparing tolerability vs. levetiracetam immediate release and reporting on additional dosing schedules. The data were among five studies that were presented at the 62nd annual meeting of the American Epilepsy Society in Seattle.

Keppra XR was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in September 2008 for use as adjunctive treatment for people with partial-onset seizures who are 16 years of age and older.

Men tend to perform better than women at tasks that require rotating an object mentally, studies have indicated. Now, developmental psychologists at Pitzer College and UCLA have discovered that this type of spatial skill is present in infancy and can be found in boys as young as 5 months old.

While women tend to be stronger verbally than men, many studies have shown that adult men have an advantage in the ability to imagine complex objects visually and to mentally rotate them. Does this advantage go back to infancy?

Striped bass in the San Francisco Estuary are contaminated beforebirth with a toxic mix of pesticides, industrial chemicals and flameretardants that their mothers acquire from estuary waters and foodsources and pass on to their eggs, say UC Davis researchers.

Using new analytical techniques, the researchers found that offspringof estuary fish had underdeveloped brains, inadequate energy suppliesand dysfunctional livers. They grew slower and were smaller thanoffspring of hatchery fish raised in clean water.

More than a century after Ivan Pavlov's dog was conditioned to salivate when it heard the sound of a tone prior to receiving food, scientists have found neurons that are critical to how people and animals learn from experience.

Using a new imaging technique called Arc catFISH, researchers from the University of Washington have visualized individual neurons in the amygdalas of rat brains that are activated when the animals are given an associative learning task.

Participants in clinical trials report being satisfied with personalized, accurate communication of results by study investigators soon after the study findings are released publicly, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

[Seattle] (December 8, 2008) – Leading epilepsy specialists met today at the American Epilepsy Society annual meeting in Seattle to unveil a recently published consensus report that proposes minimum standards of care for diagnosing, treating and monitoring epilepsy. Primary among these is the need for a detailed medical history, neurological examination, discussions with caregivers and diagnostic tests to make a diagnosis, as well as the need to weigh seizure control, side effects and long-term safety when making treatment decisions.

Have you ever wondered why it seems like the littlest things make people angry? Why a glance at the wrong person or a spilled glass of water can lead to a fist fight or worse? University of Minnesota researcher Vladas Griskevicius has three words to explain why people may be evolutionarily inclined to make a mountain out of molehill: aggression, status and sex.

The label used to identify a disease – whether it is common language or medical terminology – can influence how serious people think the condition is, according to new research from McMaster University, the second part of a larger study on how people understand and interpret disease.

The study, published online in the journal Public Library of Science: ONE, examined many recently medicalized disorders. For example, impotence is now widely known as erectile dysfunction; excessive sweatiness is also known as hyperhidrosis.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Breast cancer patients who have a poor relationship with their spouse may face a more difficult road to recovery than would other women, according to a new study.

Researchers found that, over five years, patients in distressed marriages had higher levels of stress, less physical activity, slower recovery and more symptoms and signs of illness than did similar patients who reported good marriages.

PROVIDENCE, RI – Severely obese patients who have lost significant amounts of weight by changing their diet and exercise habits may be as successful in keeping the weight off long-term as those individuals who lost weight after bariatric surgery, according to a new study published online by the International Journal of Obesity.

ATHENS, Ohio (Dec. 8, 2008) — Paleontologists have long known that dinosaurs had tiny brains, but they had no idea the beasts were such airheads.

A new study by Ohio University researchers Lawrence Witmer and Ryan Ridgely found that dinosaurs had more air cavities in their heads than expected. By using CT scans, the scientists were able to develop 3-D images of the dinosaur skulls that show a clearer picture of the physiology of the airways.

Washington, DC – Public opinion surveys report that the small fraction of people who know about nanotechnology have a favorable view of it. This finding has led many to assume that the public at large will respond favorably to nanotechnology applications as popular awareness grows, education expands and commercialization increases.

A drug commonly used to treat epilepsy could help clear the plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at the University of Leeds. The plaques are known to lead to the progressive death of nerve cells in the brain linked to many forms of dementia.