Brain

A genetic study of a fish that lives in the icy waters off Antarctica sheds light on the adaptations that enable it to survive in one of the harshest environments on the planet.

(To see an audio slide show on the fish, please go to: http://publicaffairs.illinois.edu/slideshows/Antarctic%5FNotothenioids/)

HANOVER, NH – Dartmouth researchers with the National Center for Disaster Mental Health Research are preparing to visit the Galveston, Texas area on their first field mission in early November to study the impact of Hurricane Ike, which hit in late September.

The NCDMHR, established last year with funding from the National Institutes of Health, aims to study long-term recovery from disasters, focusing on mental health. Hurricane Ike is the first opportunity to deploy the research teams, who will be on the ground in Galveston starting in early November.

ATHENS, Ohio (Oct. 16, 2008) — Paleontologists have long debated the function of the strange, bony crests on the heads of the duck-billed dinosaurs known as lambeosaurs. The structures contain incredibly long, convoluted nasal passages that loop up over the tops of their skulls.

BETHESDA, Md. (Oct. 16, 2008) − Eating too much fructose can induce leptin resistance, a condition that can easily lead to becoming overweight when combined with a high-fat, high-calorie diet, according to a new study with rats.

A blunt traumatic injury to the aorta, the body's main artery, is one of the leading causes of death following a vehicle crash. If it is not treated rapidly, the patient is at serious risk for artery rupture, which is nearly always fatal. Surgeons from the University of Maryland Medical Center have evaluated various treatments for this type of traumatic aortic injury, including a newer, less invasive procedure that enables them to fix the artery without making an incision. Their review appears in the October 16, 2008 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

New research has provided the first detailed look at the internal head skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae, the 375-million-year-old fossil animal that represents an important intermediate step in the evolutionary transition from fish to animals that walked on land.

Results of the study, published in this week's issue of the journal Nature, show that the transition from aquatic to terrestrial lifestyle involved complex changes not only to appendages (fins to limbs) but also to the internal head skeleton.

p>PHILADELPHIA—New research by scientists at The Academy of Natural Sciences provides the first detailed look at the internal head skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae, the 375-million-year-old fossil animal that represents an important intermediate step in the evolutionary transition from fish to animals that walked on land.

Newly exposed parts of Tiktaalik roseae--the intermediate fossil between fish and the first animals to walk out of water onto land 375 million years ago--are revealing how this major evolutionary event happened. A new study, published this week in Nature, provides a detailed look at the internal head skeleton of Tiktaalik roseae and reveals a key intermediate step in the transformation of the skull that accompanied the shift to life on land by our distant ancestors.

Researchers in a study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have demonstrated for the first time that a direct artificial connection from the brain to muscles can restore voluntary movement in monkeys whose arms have been temporarily anesthetized. The results may have promising implications for the quarter of a million Americans affected by spinal cord injuries and thousands of others with paralyzing neurological diseases, although clinical applications are years away.

JOSH VILLA was 26 and driving home after a drink with a friend on 28 August 2005 when his car mounted the kerb and flipped over. Villa was thrown through the windscreen, suffered massive head injuries and fell into a coma.

Almost a year later, there was little sign of improvement. "He would open his eyes, but he was not responsive to any external stimuli in his environment," says Theresa Pape of the US Department of Veterans Affairs in Chicago, who helped treat him.

In virtually all stores, consumers view products on display fixtures that are presumed to be of little consequence. Yet, suppose that you were shopping for a set of trendy new coffee mugs and noticed some on a nearby table or shelf. Would your evaluation of just how trendy the mugs are change depending on the display fixture's surface material -- the piece of glass or wood beneath the product? According to University of Minnesota researcher Joan Meyers--Levy, there is reason to believe so.

Ten years after graduation, high-school students who had been rated as conscientious and cooperative by their teachers were earning more than classmates who had similar test scores but fewer social skills, said a new University of Illinois study.

The study's findings challenge the idea that racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic gaps in educational attainment and earnings can be narrowed solely by emphasizing cognitive skills, said Christy Lleras, a University of Illinois assistant professor of human and community development.

MADISON, WI, October 14, 2008 -- The ability to estimate soil texture-by-feel is an important skill that students and registered soil scientists should learn.

Many soil properties depend largely on soil texture, and texture impacts most land-use decisions. Soil texture strongly influences the nutrient holding ability of a soil, the amount of water the soil can store, the amount of this water that is available to plants, how fast water moves through the soil, the effectiveness of soil in cleaning up waste water, the shrink-swell nature of soil, and many other properties.

A factor that helps optimize brain formation and function may also provide clues about whether patients suffering with schizophrenia are headed toward relapse, researchers say.

Over the next two- and one-half years, they are regularly measuring levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF, in the blood of patients with schizophrenia to see if the pattern of their rise and fall is a good indicator that patients are headed for trouble, say Medical College of Georgia researchers.

People with autism-related disorders are less likely to make irrational decisions, and are less influenced by gut instincts, according to research funded by the Wellcome Trust. The study adds to the growing body of research implicating altered emotional processing in autism.

Decision-making is a complex process, involving both intuition and analysis: analysis involves computation and more "rational" thought, but is slower; intuition, by contrast, is much faster, but less accurate, relying on heuristics, or "gut instincts".