| TONY MALKOVIC, SCIENCENETWORK WA |
 Researchers have found a substitute for insulin to help treat diabetes orally. Image: Alyssum/iStockphoto A team of researchers at Curtin University have found a substitute for insulin to help treat diabetes orally. Over 10 years, Professor Erik Helmerhorst and his colleagues looked at millions of compounds on pharmaceutical databases to try to emulate the molecular map of insulin. “On a computer, in silico, we searched three million compound structures for their ability to fit that map,” explains Professor Helmerhorst. In short, they found one, and are developing it as part of their dream to ‘take the needle out of diabetes’. “Our innovation is the development of a new chemical entity, a small drug molecule we have discovered and developed, that can be taken orally as a tablet to replace insulin per se,” said Professor Helmerhorst. Professor Helmerhorst outlined his team’s quest at the Univation 2011 conference in Perth. The annual conference showcases research from four WA universities, with the aim of getting further backing from investors and commercialisation experts. The research, undertaken with Epichem, has the ability to revolutionise the treatment of diabetes, which is a growing worldwide problem. Professor Helmerhorst said there was a niche market for their drug molecule to target Type 2 diabetics to help delay to the onset of insulin dependency. He said 95 per cent of diabetics have Type 2 diabetes, who last year spend some $10 billion a year on insulin. “The reality is that nearly one-third of Type 2 diabetics will end up needing insulin therapy at some stage,” he said. He said the insulin substitute would appeal to people who were averse to taking insulin via injections or by pumps. Like all the technologies showcased at Univation 2011, the Curtin researchers were seeking funding and investor backing to help develop their technologies to the next level. And it appears they might be on the right track. “We’ve had a lot of interest already, including a Chinese and UK group interested in the technology,” Professor Helmerhorst said. “Just today, I’ve had two or three people come up to me and say they’d like to speak to us further.” Univation 2011 focused on technology presentations from four main categories: greentech, ICT, life sciences and the resources sector. It featured work from researchers and start-up companies from Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here. |
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Oral drug replaces insulin
Exclusive Love
 “When Krishna and Balarama were crawling about Vrajabhumi, They were enchanted by the sound of ankle bells. Thus They sometimes followed other people, who would enjoy the crawling of Krishna and Balarama and exclaim, ‘Oh, see how Krishna and Balarama are crawling!’ Upon hearing this, Krishna and Balarama could understand that these were not Their mothers They were following, and They would return to Their actual mothers.” (ShrilaPrabhupada, Shrimad Bhagavatam, 10.8.22 Purport)The difficulty in worshiping something that is seemingly inanimate is that there is no immediate recognition of the attention offered. Whether we sit in quiet meditation and worship the entity we know to be God or stare at the archa-vigraha, or deity manifestation, which has the Supreme Lord’s features more fully drawn out, there isn’t a visible response to our dedicated efforts, something to indicate that the beneficiary recognizes the attention. If we think of our beloved friends and family members when they are not in our presence, they have no idea that we are trying to connect with them. If this is true of dealings with worldly entities, how can someone we can’t even really see hear our prayers and recognize our devotion to Him? To clear the doubts, that worshipable figure in question descends to earth every now and then and shows everyone that not only is He listening, but He very much appreciates the most heartfelt devotional sentiments. How do we know that God can come to earth? If He is all-pervading, if He is so powerful, how can there ever be a moment when He is not on this planet? The distinctions can be likened to the way specific energies diffuse their influence. If we start a business, we don’t necessarily have to go to the office to have our influence recognized. Our decisions, the people we hire as workers, and the establishment infrastructure we create are always present, thereby acting as extensions of our original effort. The Supreme Lord is more powerful than we are, so His extensions have much more potency. He is present within every atom and also within every living being. This presence is not easily recognized; therefore it is considered formless, or bereft of attributes, according to our vision. But we know that just because we can’t see in a dark room, it doesn’t mean that there is nothing there. Similarly, just because we can’t recognize the nirguna feature dispersed across the creation, including in the spiritual sky, it doesn’t mean that the all-pervading witness is absent.
 To give a glimpse into His transcendental features, to show what it means to be a worshipable figure and to reveal just how much He recognizes devotional efforts, the seemingly invisible entity becomes visible during various descents to earth. His impersonal feature, the one which we either cannot recognize immediately or think is devoid of spiritual influence, is coupled with His personal feature, which consists of spiritual attributes that are identifiable and not limited in their abilities.Since the Supreme Lord is the most attractive entity, the Sanskrit word Krishna is used to address Him. This word is considered the best fit for the supreme divine being, who is addressed by many names across the plethora of spiritual traditions in place around the world. Even those opposed to spirituality have a name for Krishna. They refer to the Supreme Lord as “death” or “nature”. As these forces are considered bereft of intelligence, operating under a perceived randomness, the benefit of the spiritual attributes of the Personality they actually represent is not gained. Krishna descends to earth in forms which are considered saguna to the conditioned eye. Saguna means with qualities, or attributes, and through these forms the living entities can actually see God. The trained eye sees Krishna’s influence everywhere, but since this training is difficult to follow and accept, the distinctions between nirguna and saguna are made, though there is really no difference between the two. Nirguna can be likened to the numeral representation of a specific number, while saguna is the written out version, the word that represents the numeral. Both are equivalent in value, but the numeral can be easily misidentified, not understood through a quick glance. With the written out version, there is practically no chance for mistake. Therefore saguna worship is always superior, as it greatly reduces the chances for the living entity to mistakenly think that they are God or that the Supreme Lord is bereft of a spiritual form.  Shri Krishna descended to earth five thousand years ago and showed off His transcendental features. Normally the Lord comes as an avatara, which can be likened to a saguna manifestation that is an expansion of the original Personality of Godhead. With Krishna’s appearance, however, the original Personality comes to earth and shows off His spiritual attributes. He assumes a body that looks ordinary, but the effect He has on others reveals that He is not conditioned in the same way that others are.Is this done as a magic trick then? Why give the appearance of being ordinary if you’re not? Why not just show up and tell everyone that you’re God? For starters, part of being God means that you never have to support your position through declarations of supremacy. Only those who are challenged in their authority and not secure in their position require constant praise and veneration to feel like they mean something. The Supreme Lord accepts heartfelt sentiments rooted in the desire to remain connected with Him. The desire for this connection is ideally sourced in attraction to the transcendental features of the Supreme Personality. If we force someone to love us based on the threat of punishment, how can we enjoy the resulting association? In these instances, if the coercion wasn’t there, the person associating with us would be doing something else. The sincere souls worship God constantly. They may only know Him as being nirguna; hence they will meditate on the abstract concept of God, praying but not necessarily knowing what the worshipable entity’s position is. Then there are those who know of the Supreme Lord and His transcendental features, worshiping His deity manifestation andchanting His names found in sacred mantras like, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. In either case, there is no guarantee that the personality being worshiped is being pleased. How do we know that Krishna hears us and that He is pleased with our efforts?  To reveal the image of who is being worshiped by those attached to the nirguna feature and to settle the doubts relating to whether or not He hears the prayers of the saguna worshipers, Krishna takes part in specific pastimes that teach so many lessons. Even as a small baby crawling on the sacred earth ofVrindavana, He can teach so much. After His initial descent, Krishna grew up in the farm community of Vrindavana, where He and His elder brother Balarama, who is the servitor God, the closest associate to the Supreme Lord in the spiritual sky, were raised on the love of the mothers, who were known as gopis.Vrindavana was a community that survived on cow protection, so there were many cows around. The residents lived in the mode of pure goodness, which meant that their activities were not material. Through their love for God, they harbored affection for one another and took even their neighbors to be close family members. Balarama accepted Mother Rohini as a foster mother and Krishna Mother Yashoda. That Krishna and Balarama were God and His immediate expansion was not known to the residents. They were naturally drawn to the qualities of the two boys. The two glorious mothers would tie bells around the children’s ankles when they reached the age that they started to crawl. Thus Krishna and Balarama would move about on the dirt where the many cows had walked over. When they would crawl, their ankle bells would make noise, which would delight the hearts of the residents. Sometimes the other mothers in the community would be so thrilled by the sight that they would remark on how Krishna and Balarama were crawling. Hearing this, the two boys would crawl towards the women, but when they saw that they weren’t Yashoda and Rohini, they would become afraid and turn the other way.  Now, isn’t this a little mean? Why were they afraid of these other women, especially when they loved God so much? It was their enthusiasm that made them call out to the young children, so why would Krishna and Balarama reject them so abruptly? Witnessing a sincere display of affection is so heartwarming for a human being, giving justification for having eyes. The displays of affection from a child are the most sincere because children are considered innocent, not mature enough to harbor ulterior motives. Since Krishna and Balarama turned away to find their real mothers, it showed everyone just how much they loved Yashoda and Rohini. There was no insult taken by the women; rather, they were so touched by how much attachment the young children had towards those who took care of them.Yashoda and Rohini had no other business in life except tending to their little bundles of joy. Though they didn’t neglect their household duties, the two mothers remained in perfect yoga by singing of the glories of their children. Mother Yashoda would compose songs about Krishna’s activities and then sing them while doing routine work like churning butter. A good parent essentially worships their child through offerings of love. When you make funny faces at your son or daughter, you hope to see some reaction. If they show that they are pleased with the attention you show them, you feel as if your efforts are worth it. Krishna and Balarama showed that the love their mothers offered was accepted and fully appreciated. The boys could not speak, nor could they even walk, yet they managed to somehow affirm their mothers’ commitment anyway. By showing that they were looking for their mothers when they heard different sounds, they revealed their transcendental attachment. The Supreme Lord thus hears every prayer offered to Him and accepts every kind of authorized service performed in His honor. Just as the devotee remains attached to Him, Krishna seeks out the devotee and always stays by their side.  Even if Krishna is not personally present before us, if we can’t recognize His influence, He still hears our prayers and can remain attached to us. He proved this many times during His short stay on this earth. Once Krishna grew up and had to leave Vrindavana for Mathura, the gopis had to spend their days separated from their beloved. They would have to worship Him in separation, but the auspicious results were the same. By remaining in their minds, Krishna showed that He was pleased with their devotion. The proof that our devotional efforts are fruitful comes in the form of Krishna’s association, which can arrive through simply chanting His name or looking at His form. Not only will the devoted soul who makes bhakti-yoga, ordevotional service, their way of life gain that association, but Krishna will be so pleased that He will guide the sincere soul from within, telling them how to behave so that the divine association remains with them in every circumstance.In Closing: The sound of ankle bells so delightful to hear, The movements of two young crawling boys they steer. From their movements happiness mothers found, Krishna and Balarama then followed the talking sound. Became afraid when they looked up from the ground, Not their mothers, thus they suddenly turned around. Looked for Rohini and Yashoda did the bell shakers, Emblems of motherly affection, best caretakers. Seeing love for their mothers, women offended were not, To see recognition of affection from Krishna they got. Every sincere prayer offered the Lord does hear, Though we may not see Him, in bhakti nothing to fear.  |
Assessing Sin
 “Though all of these unsuspecting wives of Ravana were seen by me, my mind has not been disturbed even a little.” (Hanuman, Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 11.40)kāmam dṛṣṭvā mayā sarvā viśvastā rāvaṇa striyaḥ || na tu me manasaḥ kimcid vaikṛtyam upapadyate | Despite the best efforts taken to safeguard against grievously transgressing the established codes of conduct, there are times when there is just no way out of committing sinful acts. Though the pious never seek such opportunities, when they find themselves in the wrong situations, they keep their minds steady, thus showing that what would be considered sin under normal circumstances actually maintains the path of virtue for them. Shri Hanuman found himself in this type of situation while roaming through the royal palaces in Lanka. He was searching for a missing princess, and since he didn’t know what she looked like, he had to place his gaze upon many beautiful women, who did not suspect that other men would be looking at them.  The unscrupulous “Peeping Tom” is considered a pervert, a person bereft of morals who takes delight in looking at other women while they are changing clothes or wearing next to nothing. Such an act is a violation of privacy and also sinful by any standard estimation. After all, the women don’t know that others are looking at them, and if they did, they wouldn’t show off what the peeper was looking for. Shri Hanuman, for his part, had no desire to look at any of these women. His eyes were fixed on a search mission, to find a beautiful princess who had been taken away from the side of her husband. If he had to risk committing even the most sinful act to find this beloved woman, the mother of the universe, the wife of Lord Rama, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Hanuman would not hesitate in moving forward.Despite his staunch faith in the mission presented to him, which was to find Sita’s whereabouts and return that information to Rama and the monkeys living in the Kishkindha forest, Hanuman still shows from the above referenced verse from the Ramayana that he is very conscious of piety and sin. The righteous always try to stay on the path of dharma, which as a word can mean religiosity or the general law codes of spirituality aimed at maintaining the essential characteristic of the soul. The soul has intrinsic properties which are not reflected in the features of the outer coverings assumed. An animal may take to activities that human beings would never consider adopting, and a human being may take up sinful activities, but the soul itself is always pure. The soul is knowledgeable, eternal, blissful and most importantly, a servant of God. Following dharma brings the soul’s properties to the forefront, which at the same time curbs the influence of the external senses that inhibit the free flow of transcendental love. Therefore, when determining whether an activity falls under sin or piety, the resultant effect of the act should be juxtaposed with the ultimate mission in life, that of becoming purely God conscious by the time of death. One who knows the properties of the soul, how it never takes birth and never dies, how it remains in existence throughout the various changes of the body, including the complete change at the time of death, can never commit sin. Even if they were to kill someone else, since they know dharma and abide by it, since they know that the soul never dies, they don’t actually kill.
 This point was stressed by Lord Krishna, the Supreme Godhead and non-different form of Lord Rama, around five thousand years ago on the Battlefield of Kurukshetra. On the eve of a great war, the leading fighter for the Pandavas, the side Krishna favored, became hesitant to fight. It was expected that Arjuna, known for his excellent fighting prowess, would dominate the other side in battle. The Kurus, the opposing army, previously unjustly usurped a kingdom that belonged to the Pandavas. Therefore Arjuna had every right to fight fiercely for securing a victorious outcome.Yet he was a little hesitant. He understood that the primary fruit of victory would be a kingdom, something he didn’t want very badly. Moreover, he didn’t want to have to kill his cousins, teacher, and elder family members fighting for the opposing army to gain that kingdom. He rather would have seen them remain alive, while he lived a life of destitution, begging for food. Such sentiments revealed Arjuna’s kind character, but Krishna did not consider this display of affection to be very wise. Who was correct, Krishna or Arjuna? While the sentiments were indeed noble, Arjuna’s behavior was actually against piety. How can killing others be considered pious? Lord Krishna settled these doubts in Arjuna’s mind by reminding him of the eternal existence of the soul and how no one actually ever dies. If no one dies, then why the need to kill or fight in a war? While the soul never dies, it can get placed into up to 8,400,000 different body types that roam the phenomenal world. For the human species, there are occupational duties tied to the qualities of the body type assumed at the time of birth. Arjuna was part of the warrior class, so his duty was to uphold righteousness in the face of even the strongest opposition. The Kurus had violated piety by wrongly taking a kingdom; therefore it was Arjuna’s duty to punish them, to remedy the situation.  Arjuna’s hesitancy to fight rooted in concern for the bodily welfare of the opposing members indicated a temporary lack of God consciousness. While he was worried for their wellbeing, he had no reason to be. Whether he fought or not, the souls of the fighting members would always remain in existence. But if Arjuna didn’t fight, he would not only be shirking his obligations to society, but he would also be giving in to ignorance and illusion borne of contact with material nature. As Krishna’s friend, Arjuna was above all this. Krishna persuaded him into fighting on religious grounds, on performing his duties with detachment, not being concerned with the result. Since he fought valiantly and under the proper mindset, even his killing was in line with piety.Hanuman was in a similar circumstance. Just as Arjuna was ordered to fight by Krishna, Hanuman was given the task of finding Sita by Rama Himself. Many years prior to Krishna and Arjuna’s talk on that famous day on the battlefield, the same Supreme Lord came to earth in the guise of a warrior prince. His wife, not surprisingly, was the most beautiful woman in the world, the embodiment of chastity and virtue, Sita Devi. The most foolish miscreant, a person operating completely under the bodily consciousness, desired to have Sita so much that he stole her away from Rama through a ruse while the couple was living in the forest of Dandaka. Rather than find Sita herself, Rama allowed others to take up the search, giving them a chance to directly offer service to the Supreme Lord, whom everyone is searching after. The ignorant man looks for God through his sensual enjoyments, the king through his power and kingdom, the yogi through his meditation, the mental speculator through his study of Vedanta, and the fruitive worker through his hard labor. But only the bhaktas know where God is, and once they find Him they never give up His service. The first part of Hanuman’s journey involved many hurdles and obstacles, but very few questions relating to piety and sin. He had to strike a female Rakshasa once, which he felt bad over, but she was blocking his way into Lanka, the enemy territory where Ravana had taken Sita. Hanuman’s search for Sita in Lanka was when things got tricky. When Hanuman roamed through Ravana’s majestic palace, he saw things no one in this world has ever seen. There were so many beautiful women, all elegantly dressed and enjoying various amorous pastimes. Since he entered the palace at night, Hanuman saw that the women were in garbs conducive to enjoying conjugal affairs. Some of them were so drunk that they had passed out in different places, with some using musical instruments for their pillows.  Hanuman even saw Ravana in the palace, passed out from a night of hard drinking. Being privy to such impure sights, Hanuman considered his avowed deference to dharma. Just as Arjuna was beyond sin because Krishna was always with him, Hanuman never had a chance of getting off the path of virtue, for he kept Rama and His mission always within his heart. Nevertheless, Hanuman felt bad for having seen women that weren’t his wife dressed in such a way.Though initially feeling remorse, Hanuman stopped for a moment and thought the matter over. From the above referenced verse we see that he realized that even though he saw such beautiful women, his mind had not been altered. Rather, he was even more focused on finding Sita. This one incident reveals so much about the nature of piety and sin. Sinful activities are labeled as such because of the effect they have on the consciousness, which is the determining factor of the future fortunes of the soul. The consciousness of the living entity at the time of death is measured by higher authorities, who then determine what type of body is given in the next life. If the mind is always thinking about women, wine, eating meat, or gambling, the next birth will involve a life where such delights are readily available. These enjoyments are not in line with the soul’s properties, for that is why they are referred to as maya, or that which is not personally God. The soul is eternally a servant of God, so whatever steps can be taken to reawaken that dormant consciousness and keep it in an active state represent piety, and anything which keeps the cloud of nescience firmly hovering around the otherwise pure consciousness gets tagged as sin. Does this mean that we can risk seeing naked women and drinking wine as long as our mind doesn’t get affected? Can we just kill anyone we want to if we are happy about it later on? The rules and regulations are put into place for a reason. Sinful acts are enumerated so that we know which activities will be most detrimental on our progressive march towards a purified consciousness. Therefore the four regulative principles of avoiding meat eating, gambling, intoxication and illicit sex should be followed, for addiction to any of these behaviors equates to a declared allegiance to maya. Surrender to maya brings negative consequences too many to count.  As far as piety goes, no practice is more recommended than the chanting of the holy names, “Hare Krishna Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Rama Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare”. More effective than working, studying high philosophy, and even sitting in yoga postures for hours on end, the chanting of the holy names directly tackles the conditioned consciousness and gradually brings it to the spiritual realm. The secret in chanting is that hearing takes place as well. We may study the differences between matter and spirit and what really goes into sin and piety, but it is much easier to absorb these concepts when we hear the holy name or about devotee’s experiences and thoughts. Hearing about Hanuman’s consciousness in Lanka and how it wasn’t affected after unwittingly gazing upon a scene out of a brothel is very heartwarming and can only help in the purification of consciousness.Piety brings one closer to God, and there can be nothing more pious than thinking about Hanuman and hearing about his wonderful activities. Irrespective of the engagement, sin can never touch Hanuman. Nevertheless, he is always concerned about pleasing Rama and remaining in the proper mindset. For this concern his glories and worthiness of worship never diminish. His dedication to Rama and pleasing Him would eventually lead him to Sita, a woman whose vision purifies the heart, for she is directly associated with Rama. Devotees like Hanuman always prefer to envision Sita and Rama together, and because of the risks he took and the bravery he showed, Hanuman played a pivotal role in reuniting them. Ever since that time they have taken up residence in his heart and in the hearts of countless other devotees. Sin can never touch he who realizes the presence of the divine couple and hears and chants their names at all hours of the day. In Closing: Sleeping wives of Ravana Hanuman gazed upon, Knew that normally such an act is wrong. Yet what could he do, Sita Devi had to see, Which meant eyes must move, even on those asleep. Yet from path of righteousness he never swerves, Even seeing other women not his mind disturbs. What looked like sin really was not, Path of righteousness he always trots. Gambling, meat eating, illicit sex are sin’s primary host But effect on the mind is what really matters most. From changing of mind every behavior do you assess, If making you forget God, that shortcoming do you address. Just chant the holy name to avoid taking chances, Sweet felicity for him who upon God’s face glances. |
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Brain parasite directly alters brain chemistry
A research group from the University of Leeds has shown that infection by the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in 10-20 per cent of the UK's population, directly affects the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the brain.
Their findings are the first to demonstrate that a parasite found in the brain of mammals can affect dopamine levels.
Whilst the work has been carried out with rodents, lead investigator Dr Glenn McConkey of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences, believes that the findings could ultimately shed new light on treating human neurological disorders that are dopamine-related such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Parkinson's disease.
This research may explain how these parasites, remarkably, manipulate rodents' behaviour for their own advantage. Infected mice and rats lose their innate fear of cats, increasing the chances of being caught and eaten, which enables the parasite to return to its main host to complete its life cycle.
In this study, funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute and Dunhill Medical Trust, the research team found that the parasite causes production and release of many times the normal amount of dopamine in infected brain cells.
Dopamine is a natural chemical which relays messages in the brain controlling aspects of movement, cognition and behaviour. It helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centres and regulates emotional responses such as fear. The presence of a certain kind of dopamine receptor is also associated with sensation-seeking, whereas dopamine deficiency in humans results in Parkinson's disease.
These findings build on earlier studies in which Dr McConkey's group found that the parasite actually encodes the enzyme for producing dopamine in its genome.
"Based on these analyses, it was clear that T. gondii can orchestrate a significant increase in dopamine production in neural cells," says Dr McConkey.
"Humans are accidental hosts to T. gondii and the parasite could end up anywhere in the brain, so human symptoms of toxoplasmosis infection may depend on where parasite ends up. This may explain the observed statistical link between incidences of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis infection."
Dr McConkey says his next experiments will investigate how the parasite enzyme triggers dopamine production and how this may change behaviour.
Provided by University of Leeds
"Brain parasite directly alters brain chemistry." November 4th, 2011. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-brain-parasite-chemistry.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
Unconscious language learning
Looking up in a dictionary. Credit: Tanakawho on flickr
When linguists talk about unconscious or implicit language learning, they don’t mean learning while you sleep. Rather, they are talking about one of the most intriguing of all mental phenomena: the ability to learn the complex and subtle regularities that underlie a language without even realising.
For children, such ‘implicit’ language learning seems to happen spontaneously in the first few years of life; yet, in adulthood, learning a second language is generally far from effortless and has varied success.
So marked is the difference between first- and second-language learning – at least when it takes the form of classroom learning – it might suggest that implicit learning makes no significant contribution to learning a second language. Or it may indicate that typical foreign language teaching doesn’t take full advantage of the process.
The challenge that faces linguists is how to test whether implicit learning is taking place. How can you differentiate between a person consciously recognising a certain pattern or rule in the language they are learning and the same person unconsciously knowing that something sounds right simply because their brain has judged it to be right?
The new approach to solving the puzzle taken by Dr. John Williams at the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics and his collaborator, Dr. Janny Leung from the University of Hong Kong, has been to invent an artificial language. Participants were tested to see whether they correctly acquired, over periods as short as one hour, an understanding of patterns embedded within the artificial language.
An example of their technique is to teach participants four novel forms of the word ‘the’ (gi, ro, ul and ne), telling them that the forms encode a certain meaningful dimension (e.g. gi and ro should be used for describing near objects, ul and ne for far objects). The aim is to see if the participants can spontaneously pick up a correlation with another, hidden, meaning (e.g. that gi and ul should be used with animate nouns and ro and ne with inanimate nouns). The novel forms are embedded in English phrases such as ‘I was terrified when I turned around and saw gi lion right behind me’.
Do they pick up on the concealed pattern when tested? “The answer is yes,” said Dr. Williams, whose research was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. “We found significantly above-chance selection of sentence constructions that were ‘grammatically correct’ according to the hidden pattern. Yet, the participants had no awareness of what they had learned or how. Moreover, we were able to show learning of the same material by native speakers of two typologically very different languages, English and Cantonese.”
Interestingly, picking up the hidden pattern unconsciously doesn’t always happen – if, for instance, the hidden pattern is linguistically unnatural, such as a correlation with whether an object makes a sound or not. “One explanation could be that certain patterns are more accessible to language learning processes than others. Perhaps our brains are built equipped to expect certain patterns, or perhaps they process some patterns better than others,” he added.
The research provides a window onto unconscious learning processes in the mind and highlights an important element that has practical implications for language teaching. In each test, the learner’s attention was directed to the part of the sentence that contained the hidden pattern. By directing attention, it seems that other elements of the sentence construction are picked up unconsciously.
“In a teaching situation, merely teaching the rules of a language may not be the only answer,” explained Dr. Williams. “Instead, using tasks that focus attention on the relevant grammatical forms in language could help learners access unconscious learning pathways in the brain. This would greatly enhance the speed of acquisition of a second language.”
Provided by University of Cambridge
"Unconscious language learning." November 4th, 2011. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-unconscious-language.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
How we create false memories: Assessing memory performance in older adults
A new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, published online October 26 addresses the influence of age-related stereotypes on memory performance and memory errors in older adults.
Ayanna Thomas, assistant professor of psychology and director of the Cognitive Aging and Memory Lab at Tufts University, and co-author Stacey J. Dubois, a former graduate student at Tufts, set out to investigate how implicitly held negative stereotypes about aging could influence memory performance in older adults.
Thomas and Dubois presented a group of older and younger adults with a list of semantically related words. A sample list participants would be presented with would be words associated with “sleep,” such as “bed,” “rest,” “awake,” “tired” and “night”. Though the word “sleep” itself was not actually presented, both the older and younger adults falsely indicated that they thought it had been included in the list, older adults more so than younger adults.
“Older adults are more likely to falsely recall these unrepresented words than younger adults. We investigated whether we could reduce this age-difference in false memory susceptibility by reducing the influence of negative stereotypes of aging,” said Thomas.
According to Thomas and Dubois, older adults may implicitly believe that their memory is impaired because of their age. To test this theory, Thomas and Dubois informed a certain group of participants (which included both older and younger adults) that their memory would be tested and that it was typical for older adults to do much more poorly on memory tests than younger adults. Another group of participants were told to identify words that had already been presented and the memory part of this test was deemphasized. Those participants were led to believe that this was more of a language based test than a memory test.
Thomas and Dubois found that older adults who were told they would perform as well as younger adults were less likely to demonstrate false memory susceptibility than older adults who were informed about age differences in memory performance before testing.
“This study is particularly relevant today as the population of older adults in the United States and around the world increases,” said Thomas. “As medical science has progressed to combat biological illness, psychological science must also progress to combat cognitive deficits.”
Thomas plans to continue her research in finding ways to improve older adult memory performance when learning new information and retrieving information.
More information: http://www.psychol … ical_science
Provided by American Psychiatric Association
"How we create false memories: Assessing memory performance in older adults." November 4th, 2011. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-false-memories-memory-older-adults.html
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
Monkeys with larger friend networks have more gray matter
New research in the UK on rhesus macaque monkeys has found for the first time that if they live in larger groups they develop more gray matter in parts of the brain involved in processing information on social interactions.
The researchers, led by Jerome Sallet of Oxford University, said the results of the new study bear some similarities to research by other groups working with humans, that related brain size to the extent of social interactions. These studies include recent work that suggested a link between the volume of some regions of the brain and the number of online friends people have in social networking sites such as Facebook.
The new study observed 23 macaques in a number of groups of different sizes. The monkeys were kept in their groups for an average of over a year, and a minimum of two months. One monkey was alone in its cage, but in all the other groups, which had from two to seven individuals, a heirarchy developed in which an individual's rank depended on the monkey's ability to form successful social interactions, such as friendships and partnerships.
The study used magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to compare the brains of the monkeys, and the results showed that in the temporal areas of the brain associated with social interaction skills, around a five percent increase in the volume of gray matter was found for each additional group member. The regions of the brain that increased in volume included the temporal pole, temporal cortex, and the inferior and rostral temporal gyri.
The researchers also compared the brains of male monkeys at various levels in the dominance-based heirarchy and found a number of brain areas, particularly the prefrontal cortex and inferior temporal sulcus, were enlarged in males of higher rank.
The research demonstrated that the social networks caused the changes in the brain (rather than enlarged brain areas influencing position in the social network, or the size of the network) because the scientists manipulated the size and makeup of the groups over a period of several months, and observed the changes in the brains of the monkeys.
Earlier research has shown that the brain shows plasticity, which means it can change in volume in different regions in response to environmental changes or acquisition of new skills or knowledge. Research had not previously shown brain plasticity in relation to social networking skills.
The paper was published in the journal Science on 4th November.
© 2011 PhysOrg.com
"Monkeys with larger friend networks have more gray matter." November 4th, 2011. http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-monkeys-larger-friend-networks-gray.html
Comment:
OK, next time a rhesus wants to friend me on Facebook I'll say yes ~ his/her grey matter depends on it!!!
OK, next time a rhesus wants to friend me on Facebook I'll say yes ~ his/her grey matter depends on it!!!
Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek
Robert Karl Stonjek
Embryonic signal drives pancreatic cancer and offers a way to kill it
Pancreatic cancer is a particularly challenging one to beat; it has a tendency to spread and harbors cancer stem cells that stubbornly resist conventional approaches to therapy. Now, researchers reporting in the November issue of Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press publication, have evidence to suggest there is a way to kill off those cancer stem cells. The target is a self-renewal pathway known for its role not in cancer but in embryonic stem cells.
“I don’t think the cancer stem cells have any direct link to embryonic development, rather they are using this developmental pathway for their uncontrolled self-renewal capacity,” said Christopher Heeschen of the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid. “This pathway is completely inactive in adult tissue. We’ve checked many tissues and there is zero – no detectable expression at all.”
The so-called Nodal/Activin pathway’s embryonic ties and absence from other tissues present a real opportunity. It suggests you could target the molecular pathway without harming other adult cells. Heeschen’s team has now shown that approach to therapy does seem to work in mice.
They first demonstrated the important role of the Nodal/Activin pathway in cancer stem cells derived from human pancreatic cancer. When that signal was blocked, normally resistant pancreatic cancer stem cells became sensitive to chemotherapy.
The researchers then moved on to experiments in mice with established tumors seeded from human cancer cells. Treatment of those animals with the pathway inhibitor plus standard chemotherapy eliminated those stem cells.
“The dual combination therapy worked strikingly well,” Heeschen said. “The mice responded with 100 percent survival after 100 days.” That’s compared to mice not receiving the therapy, which bore large tumors and died within 40 days of implantation.
That two-part treatment wasn’t enough to tackle pancreatic cancer when intact tumor tissue was implanted into mice as opposed to just cancer cells, the researchers found. Heeschen says that’s because those cells were nestled within a supportive “stroma.” That protective tissue delivered the Activin signal and prevented the drug combination from reaching the cells.
To get around that, Heeschen and his colleagues added a third ingredient to therapy, an inhibitor intended to target the stroma. The three-pronged approach translated into long-term, progression-free survival for the mice.
Interestingly, Heeschen says the animals’ tumors didn’t show signs of shrinking even as they were defeated. “They were more or less dead tissue. They were senescent with no cancer stem cells – just sitting there,” he said.
Those tissues apparently had no ability to form new tumors. The findings suggest that tumor regression isn’t always the key thing to look for. It also shows that drugs designed to target cancer stem cells alone are promising, but only in combination with other drugs.
“The concept that you can hit cancer stem cells and tumors will melt away must be abandoned,” Heeschen said. “You have to treat the entire cancer – the stroma, cancer stem cells and differentiated cells – as a complex. ”
Heeschen says there are hints that this embryonic pathway might have important roles in other forms of cancer, including breast, lung and colorectal cancers. That’s something they will now test in further studies.
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-Pancreatic Cancer Research News
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