CAMH discovery identifies potential target for anti-craving medications

Scientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have identified a potential target for the development of anti-craving medications for people with addictions to stimulants such as methamphetamine.

The discovery centres on a brain receptor related to the chemical dopamine, which has a complex role in addictive behaviours.

Using brain scans and a novel chemical probe developed in CAMH's Research Imaging Centre, CAMH scientists found that the probe had high levels of binding to the dopamine D3 receptor in some people with methamphetamine addiction, compared with those who had no addiction. Higher levels of D3 were also linked to participants' reported motivation to take drugs.

"This is the first time, to our knowledge, that anyone has shown that D3 receptor levels are high in people with an active addiction to methamphetamine," says Dr. Isabelle Boileau, a scientist in the Research Imaging Centre, part of the new Campbell Family Research Institute at CAMH. Boileau led the study that appears in the January 25, 2012 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience.

Using positron emission tomography (PET), Boileau's team looked at D3 levels in 16 people who were dependent on methamphetamine. Participants abstained from methamphetamine use for 14 days prior to brain scans. Their results were compared with scans from 16 participants with no addiction. On a separate day after scanning, participants were given a low dose of amphetamine, and they had to report how much they wanted to use drugs.

D3 receptors appear to have a role in craving, but it is not fully established how they are related to drug-related behaviours. The new chemical probe developed at CAMH, called 11C-(+)-PHNO, binds to dopamine D3 receptors. This probe allows researchers to study D3 in people for the first time, using PET scans, in order to answer questions about its role in stimulant addiction.

Understanding the role of brain receptors in addiction has enabled researchers to develop treatment medications, such as nicotine replacement therapy for smoking. So far, therapeutic strategies for stimulant addiction have focused on increasing activity with D2 receptors, where binding levels have been low.

"We can now suggest that any therapeutic approach aimed at increasing activity with D2 receptors should consider being selective at targeting D2, and not increasing D3 levels," says Boileau. "Our finding also supports the idea that D3 should be considered another target for anti-craving medications."

Boileau is also looking at the role of D3 in different types of addictions, including cocaine and gambling.

Building on CAMH's record of innovation and discovery, the Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute will be accelerating discoveries in the areas of mood disorders, addictions, schizophrenia and cognitive impairment.

CAMH's Research Imaging Centre is the first of its kind in Canada where positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and imaging-genetics are dedicated to the study of mental illness and addictions.

This new discovery is an example of the innovative brain science at CAMH's new Research Imaging Centre, the first of its kind in Canada where positron emission tomography (PET), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and genetic imaging are dedicated to the study of mental illness and addictions.

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"CAMH discovery identifies potential target for anti-craving medications." January 25th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-camh-discovery-potential-anti-craving-medications.html

 

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New deep brain stimulation device shows promising results

(Medical Xpress) -- A multi-site study of a new deep brain stimulation device for people with Parkinson’s disease has found the device to provide benefits to patients, potentially paving the way for unprecedented competition in the area of neurostimulation technology.

The study, whose co-authors included George Mandybur, MD, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine and Mayfield Clinic neurosurgeon, and Fredy Revilla, MD, an associate professor of neurology and UC Health neurologist, was published Jan. 11, 2012, in the online edition of Lancet Neurology. Mandybur and Revilla are members of the James J. and Joan A. Gardner Center for Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders at the UC Neuroscience Institute, a specialty center within UC Health.

Principal investigator of the study was Michael Okun, MD, a neurologist and co-director of the Center for Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration at the University of Florida College of Medicine.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) devices stimulate the subthalamic nucleus deep within the brain. Deep brain stimulation surgery has been shown to reduce symptoms of Parkinson’s and to improve quality of life.

The Lancet Neurology study examined the new Libra and LibraXP devices, which are manufactured by St. Jude Medical. The devices provide a constant, fixed-dose current, in contrast to the voltage-controlled device by Medtronic, Inc., which features a variable current and is the only DBS device on the market.

Participants in the randomized, controlled trial whose stimulators were turned on shortly after surgery experienced an increase of four hours of "on time” (with minimal symptoms), three months into the study. These benefits were significantly greater—2.5 more hours of "on time”—than those experienced by participants in the control group, whose stimulators were not turned on until the three-month mark.

Mandybur, who implanted the devices in 12 study participants at UC Health University Hospital, said the constant-current device compares favorably with the FDA-approved voltage-controlled device currently in use.

"This is the first study to look at constant-current effectiveness in Parkinson’s disease,” Mandybur says. "The new device appeared to be every bit as effective as the voltage-controlled device, but we won’t know for sure until there is a head-to-head comparison in future clinical trials. The devices are not identical.”

The St. Jude Neuromodulation Division, which funded the study, has applied for and is awaiting approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the Libra and LibraXP neurostimulators, which are currently available in Europe, Latin America and Australia.

The study results likely signal the imminent arrival of a competitor into a market currently filled only by Medtronic. "It will stir competition and it will light fires under people to develop new technology,” Mandybur says. "The same thing happened in the area of spinal cord stimulators.”

Revilla predicts that the new constant-current option will inspire Medtronic to create a constant-current option as well. "With further study,” he adds, "we may be able to establish clearly the differences and similarities of these two technologies.” 

Researchers theorize that constant-current stimulation might provide more accurate control of the spread of the electrical field than voltage-controlled stimulation. "But fundamental differences are unlikely,” writes Jens Volkmann, MD, of University Hospital of Würzburg, Germany, in an accompanying editorial in Lancet Neurology.

Parkinson’s disease, which afflicts more than 1 million Americans, is a degenerative neurological disorder involving the death of dopamine-producing nerve cells deep within the brain. There is no cure for Parkinson’s at this time, and scientists do not yet know how to halt its progression. Recent studies have shown that neurostimulation may slow the progression of the disease.

Candidates for deep brain stimulation are those who respond well to dopamine but over time have developed intolerable side-effects (mainly dyskinesias) and short duration of benefit.

 "When a person with Parkinson's develops wide motor fluctuations, requiring frequent doses of medications, along with intolerable side effects, it is time for DBS surgery,” Revilla says. "But it is still a requirement that the patient experience some benefit from the medications, even if it is short-lived.”

Revilla praised the 15 institutions whose close collaboration resulted in a study "that we expect will allow us to have alternative options for programming deep brain stimulation in patients who don’t respond well to conventional medical treatments.”

The Gardner Center team enrolled 12 patients, the second-highest number of any of the participating centers. (The highest enrollment was 13.)

Mandybur has received honoraria from Medtronic, Inc. Revilla is a consultant for Lundbeck, Inc.

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"New deep brain stimulation device shows promising results." January 25th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-deep-brain-device-results.html

 

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Experiences are better when we know they're about to end

 

(Medical Xpress) -- People often view the "last" moments of an event positively simply because they signal the end of an experience, say University of Michigan researchers.

Even if the experience is painful or negative, but concludes on a pleasant note, people will consider the event a more positive experience, says Ed O'Brien, a graduate student in the U-M Department of Psychology.

"Endings are powerful," he said.

O'Brien and colleague Phoebe Ellsworth, the Frank Murphy Distinguished Professor of Law and Psychology, conducted a chocolate tasting experiment with 52 college students to test the theory.

Volunteers could sample five different Hershey's Kisses chocolates (milk, dark, crème, caramel and almond), but did not know in advance how many pieces they would eat or the type. Participants rated how much they enjoyed the chocolate and described each flavor so that the researchers could record the order in which the randomly pulled treats were eaten.

Volunteers were randomly assigned to the "next" or the "last" condition. In the "next" condition, the experimenter said, "Here is your next chocolate," before offering each chocolate, including the fifth.

For the "last" condition, the experimenter said, "Here is your last chocolate," before offering the fifth chocolate. These participants rated the fifth chocolate more enjoyable than volunteers in the "next" condition.

As predicted, participants who knew they were eating the final chocolate of a taste test enjoyed it more. In fact, when asked to pick their favorite chocolate, the majority of "last" participants chose the fifth—even though the flavor of the fifth was randomly chosen. They also rated the overall experience as more enjoyable than volunteers who thought they were just eating one more chocolate in a series.

O'Brien says these findings may have far-reaching implications. For example, the last book in a series or last speaker in a symposium may receive unwarranted praise simply because they are at the end of a series. The last job applicant may look more qualified.

More information: The findings appear in the current issue of Psychological Science

 

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"Experiences are better when we know they're about to end." January 25th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-theyre.html

 

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Being ignored hurts, even by a stranger

 

(Medical Xpress) -- Feeling like you’re part of the gang is crucial to the human experience. All people get stressed out when we’re left out. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, finds that a feeling of inclusion can come from something as simple as eye contact from a stranger.

Psychologists already know that humans have to feel connected to each other to be happy. A knitting circle, a church choir, or a friendly neighbor can all feed that need for connection. Eric D. Wesselmann of Purdue University wanted to know just how small a cue could help someone feel connected. He cowrote the study with Florencia D. Cardoso of the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata in Argentina, Samantha Slater of Ohio University, and Kipling D. Williams of Purdue. “Some of my coauthors have found, for example, that people have reported that they felt bothered sometimes even when a stranger hasn’t acknowledged them,” Wesselmann says. He and his authors came up with an experiment to test that.

The study was carried out with the cooperation of people on campus at Purdue University. A research assistant walked along a well-populated path, picked a subject, and either met that person’s eyes, met their eyes and smiled, or looked in the direction of the person’s eyes, but past them—past an ear, for example, “looking at them as if they were air,” Wesselmann says. When the assistant had passed the person, he or she gave a thumbs-up behind the back to indicate that another experimenter should stop that person. The second experimenter asked, “Within the last minute, how disconnected do you feel from others?”

People who had gotten eye contact from the research assistant, with or without a smile, felt less disconnected than people who had been looked at as if they weren’t there.

“These are people that you don’t know, just walking by you, but them looking at you or giving you the air gaze—looking through you—seemed to have at least momentary effect,” Wesselmann says. Other research has found that even being ostracized by a group you want nothing to do with, like the Ku Klux Klan, can make people feel left out, so it’s not surprising that being pointedly ignored can have the same effect. “What we find so interesting about this is that now we can further speak to the power of human social connection,” Wesselmann says. “It seems to be a very strong phenomenon.”

More information: http://www.psychol … ical_science

 

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"Being ignored hurts, even by a stranger." January 25th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-stranger.html

 

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Long-term effect of war on healthcare costs

(Medical Xpress) -- In the largest study of its kind, researchers have found that exposure to war and its effect on mental health are linked to a substantial increase in health care costs which remain high many years after the conflict.  

The research from King's College London Institute of Psychiatry, published in this month's PLoS ONE, suggests that costs remain especially high for those who stayed in the conflict zone compared to those who migrated. 

Researchers interviewed over 4,000 people who had experienced war around eight years previously in the former-Yugoslavia – these were mainly from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, FYR Macedonia, Serbia as well as refugees in Germany, Italy and the UK. 

The project team at the Institute of Psychiatry, Ramon Sabes-Figuera and Professor Paul McCrone, analysed the impact of individual characteristics such as age, sex, mental health status, and exposure to traumatic events before, during and after the wars, on the cost of services. 

In the Balkan countries, individual healthcare costs were increased by 63% if Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was present and 73% if mood disorders were present. In the West, costs were increased by 77% and 63% with the presence of other anxiety disorders (e.g. phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder) and mood disorders respectively.  

In the Balkans, those with more traumatic events were more likely to have used health services. However in Western countries, exposure to more traumatic events was not linked to an increase in service use.  Reasons for this are uncertain.

Mr Sabes-Figuera, lead author of the study at the IoP, says: ‘So far, little has been known about the costs of healthcare for those involved in or affected by war. Estimating these costs and identifying their predictors can help inform appropriate service planning in the regions directly affected by conflict, and in the areas that welcomed high numbers of refugees. Assessment of these costs becomes even more important in lower income countries with limited health care funds which are disproportionately affected by war.’

The authors conclude that focussing on the mental health impact of war is important for an economic perspective as well as a public health perspective. In planning local mental health services the presence of people affected by war and conflict needs to be taken into account and it should be recognised that economic effects can be prolonged. 

The study was funded by a grant from the European Commission and the principal investigator was Stefan Priebe from Queen Mary College London.

More information: For full paper: Sabes-Figuera, R. et al. ‘Long-term impact of war on healthcare costs: an eight country study’ PLoS ONE (January 2012) doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029603

 

Provided by King's College London

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Fear dementia? Your diet, weight more important than genes, experts say

Anyone who has a close relative with Alzheimer's shares the same worry: Am I next? However, a growing body of research indicates that our lifestyles - particularly what we eat and whether we're obese - play a greater role than our genes in determining our brain health as we age.

"For years, scientists thought that Alzheimer's was primarily genetic," said Gary Wenk, professor of neuroscience at Ohio State University. "We now believe that, while there's a genetic component, Alzheimer's is primarily a lifestyle disease."

People do carry genes, including APOE-4, that predispose them toward the disease, but whether they activate those genes depends heavily on their lifestyles, said Dr. Stuart Lipton, professor at Sanford-Burnham Research Institute, where he's scientific director of neuroscience, aging and stem-cell research.

"A myth exists that if the Alzheimer's gene is in your family, you're going to get it. But that only affects 1 percent of cases," Lipton said. "What matters most is how you superimpose your lifestyle on top of your genetic background."

A degenerative brain disorder that causes progressive loss of memory and intellectual and social skills, Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, affecting 5.4 million Americans, nearly half a million in Florida alone, according to the Alzheimer's Association. Though no cure exists, medications can slow progress.

Although Americans may have more control over whether they develop Alzheimer's than they thought, the primary risk factors are all on the rise.

"Looking at the rising rate of obesity, diabetes and metabolic syndrome, we're in a bad state of affairs," Lipton said.

Obesity is linked to Alzheimer's because it's a risk factor for diabetes, and diabetics have a two to three times greater risk of developing Alzheimer's, said Ira Goodman, a neurologist at Orlando Health. "We believe that's because their impaired ability to use or make insulin contributes to neurodegeneration" - in other words, brain breakdown.

Goodman, like other neuroscientists, recommends eating fewer carbohydrates, which keeps insulin levels down.

He cited a study out of the University of Cincinnati that found that carbohydrate restriction helped participants who had mild cognitive impairment regain mental function. Researchers divided the 23 participants into two groups. One group went on a typical diet consisting of 50 percent of calories from carbohydrates for six weeks. The other group went on a low-carbohydrate diet, where fewer than 10 percent of calories came from carbohydrates.

Afterward, cognitive function stayed about the same in the first group, while in the low-carb group, function improved, according to the 2010 study, published in the Neurobiology of Aging.

Brain experts also recommend a diet high in protein and rich in colorful fruits and vegetables. The latter are strong in polyphenols and anti-oxidants, which have proven to boost brain health.

Controlling stress is also important for optimizing brain function. Stress increases cortisol, a hormone, in the blood, which increases blood sugar, which increases insulin, Goodman said. The neuroscientist also does research at Compass Research in Orlando, where studies are under way looking for medications to prolong brain health and slow mental demise.

In a recent study at Yale, scientists found that stressful events appeared to cause gray matter - the brain tissue that contains dendrites, which transfer information between brain cells - to shrink. The cumulative effects of stress lead to cognitive impairment and probably to memory loss, said researcher Rajita Sinha, professor of psychiatry at Yale Medical School and director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Stress Center.

Yale researchers asked 103 healthy volunteers ages 18 to 48 to fill out questionnaires to quantify the amount of stress they'd had in their lives. Then participants underwent brain scans.

Subjects who had experienced recent stressful events, such as loss of a job, house or loved one, showed markedly lower amounts of gray matter in the prefrontal cortex, according to the study published in a recent issue of Society of Biological Psychiatry.

"The dendrites shrink with high levels of stress," Sinha said. "But all is not lost. The brain is dynamic and plastic. If the stress is dealt with in a healthy manner, dendrites grow back."

A healthful manner includes all the behaviors that help keep Alzheimer's at bay: keeping blood-sugar levels steady, exercising, building good personal relationships and engaging in positive activities, Sinha said.

Of course, another primary risk factor for Alzheimer's is getting older. Today, the chances of having Alzheimer's by the time a person reaches age 85 is 50 percent, Goodman said. That risk rises to 75 percent by age 100.

"Even if you do carry a genetic predisposition, lifestyle modifications in midlife can greatly reduce the risk and delay onset," Goodman said.

---

MORE WAYS TO WARD OFF ALZHEIMER'S

-Coffee drinkers and those who partake in a little wine each day also enjoy some protective benefits, said Gary Wenk, professor of neuroscience at Ohio State University, and author of "Your Brain on Food."

Long-term global studies have shown that those who consume five cups of coffee a day reduce their incidence of diabetes by 50 percent, and that protection increases as coffee consumption goes up.

-Other brain-healthy behaviors include keeping cholesterol levels, blood pressure and inflammation under control. "What's good for your heart is good for your brain," said Ira Goodman, a neurologist who conducts Alzheimer's studies at Compass Research in Orlando, Fla.

-Patients who've taken statins for years to control their cholesterol seem to have some protection, as do those who keep their blood pressure down, with or without medication, Wenk said.

-Large epidemiological studies have suggested that anti-inflammatory medications also help. "Those who developed arthritis early and began taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories were at lower risk of developing Alzheimer's," Wenk said.

-Exercising your body and your brain also proves protective. "The more you learn, the more synapses you make," Goodman said. "Brain degeneration involves the breaking down of synapses, so the more you have the longer the brain takes to break down. This is why we think people who are highly educated have a lower incidence of Alzheimer's."

-Socializing with friends and being active in your faith also help, researchers say.

(c)2012 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) 
Distributed by MCT Information Services

"Fear dementia? Your diet, weight more important than genes, experts say." January 26th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-dementia-diet-weight-important-genes.html

 

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New gene discovery provides clue to brain, eye and lymphatic development

 

Researchers have found a new gene that, when mutated, can lead to lymphoedema (swollen limbs) as part of a rare disorder that can also cause problems with eye and brain development. This is the fourth lymphoedema-related gene found by the same researchers in three years, and the first linked to the eyes and brain. They say it could lead to better diagnosis and treatment for lymphoedema, an area that has been poorly understood previously.

The new study has linked mutations in the gene KIF11 to Microcephaly-Lymphoedema-Chorioretinal Dyplasia (MLCRD), a very rare condition. Patients with this condition have a small head (microcephaly), lymphoedema (swollen limbs caused by problems with the lymphatic system) and eye problems called chorioretinopathy, which frequently result in night blindness. The lymphatic system is a crucial part of the body which is important for draining fluid and preventing swelling.

The study was led by a group at St George’s, University of London and published online in The American Journal of Human Genetics today (26 January). The St George’s team worked closely with the Biomedical Research Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London, Moorfields Eye Hospital, and a group at the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

The team carried out next generation sequencing of the human genome, initially in five patients with MLCRD recruited from the UK’s only specialist primary lymphoedema clinic, based at St George’s Hospital. A candidate gene was identified using this new technology, which was then confirmed by traditional sequencing in 24 further patients and their families.

Lead researcher Dr Pia Ostergaard said: “The small head and eye problems associated with MLCRD are present at birth and there are no treatments as yet. These findings will increase our understanding of MLCRD’s genetic cause and may help find a way to prevent it. Microcephaly is rare, but is associated with learning difficulties in children.”

The range and severity of symptoms varies greatly within MLCRD even among people with the same mutation and within the same family. The researchers believe there may be other contributing genetic or environmental factors that determine how people are affected. Further understanding of KIF11 and the protein it encodes, EG5, may shed light on the varying symptoms. EG5 is known to be important for the normal division of cells, but its role in the development of the brain, retina and lymphatic systems is not yet understood.

Dr Ostergaard said: “The really exciting thing here is that, by very careful examination and grouping of the patients in our specialist lymphoedema clinic, we have successfully identified four genes associated with lymphatic development in a very short space of time. This has already led to extensive work looking at the development and function of the lymphatic system, an area that has been overlooked for years and which scientists still know little about.”

Dr Ostergaard said that, in addition to the previous genes identified, this new finding may lead the way to better treatment of lymphoedema. Currently, swelling can be relieved by compression garments, bandaging or massage, but the increasing understanding of the condition should lead to drug treatment in the future.

She added: “The lymphatic system is not just important for draining fluid and preventing swelling. It is vital for the maintenance of the immune system and is linked to the spread of cancer, so continued focus of our research in this area could provide other scientists with the key to understand these other problems.”

More information: The American Journal of Human Genetics, 26 January 2012. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2011.12.018

 

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"New gene discovery provides clue to brain, eye and lymphatic development." January 26th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-gene-discovery-clue-brain-eye.html

 

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The ethics of brain boosting

A healthy adult volunteer takes part in a brain stimulation study. Photo: Roi Cohen Kadosh.

(Medical Xpress) -- The idea of a simple, cheap and widely available device that could boost brain function sounds too good to be true.

Yet promising results in the lab with emerging ‘brain stimulation’ techniques, though still very preliminary, have prompted Oxford neuroscientists to team up with leading ethicists at the University to consider the issues the new technology could raise. They spoke to Radio 4's Today program this morning.

Recent research in Oxford and elsewhere has shown that one type of brain stimulation in particular, called transcranial direct current stimulation or TDCS, can be used to improve language and maths abilities, memory, problem solving, attention, even movement.

Critically, this is not just helping to restore function in those with impaired abilities. TDCS can be used to enhance healthy people’s mental capacities. Indeed, most of the research so far has been carried out in healthy adults.

TDCS uses electrodes placed on the outside of the head to pass tiny currents across regions of the brain for 20 minutes or so. The currents of 1–2 mA make it easier for neurons in these brain regions to fire. It is thought that this enhances the making and strengthening of connections involved in learning and memory.

The technique is painless, all indications at the moment are that it is safe, and the effects can last over the long term.

Dr. Roi Cohen Kadosh, who has carried out brain stimulation studies at the Department of Experimental Psychology, very definitely has a vision for how TDCS could be used in the future: "I can see a time when people plug a simple device into an iPad so that their brain is stimulated when they are doing their homework, learning French or taking up the piano," he says.

The growing number of positive results in early-stage studies, led the neuroscientists Dr. Cohen Kadosh and Dr. Jacinta O’Shea to talk to Professor Neil Levy, Dr. Nick Shea and Professor Julian Savulescu in the Oxford Centre for Neuroethics about what ethical issues there may be in future widespread use of TDCS to boost abilities in healthy people.

The researchers outline the issues in a short paper in the journal Current Biology

 

 (pdf)

 

, and indicate the research that is now necessary to address some of the potential concerns.

"We ask: should we use brain stimulation to enhance cognition, and what are the risks?" explains Roi. "Our aim was to look at whether it gives rise to new ethical issues, issues that will increasingly need to be thought about in our field but also by policymakers and the public."

"This research cuts to core of humanity: the capacity to learn," says Professor Julian Savulescu. "The capacity to learn varies across people, across ages and with illness. This kind of technology enables people to get more out of the work they put into learning something." 
  
He adds: "This is a first step down the path of maximizing human potential. It is a very exciting development but we need to control the release of the genie. Although this looks like a simple external device, it acts by affecting the brain. That could have very good effects, but unpredictable side effects."

One of the most obvious uses of brain stimulation techniques is in children as an educational or learning aid. The researchers believe that their use in children would be warranted, and that we should begin research to understand how TDCS might be used in children.

Roi notes that: "Parents will often send their child to piano lessons or to football lessons, wanting them to do well." He considers that providing people with ways of fulfilling their potential is not a bad thing.

The researchers consider whether brain stimulation could be thought of as cheating, with the idea that we can get extra cognitive abilities for no effort. Here they offer a resounding ‘No’.

The technique seems to boost the learning process in conjunction with standard education or training. There is no free ride here – people still need to work at learning a new skill or language themselves. "It won’t be possible to go to sleep at night with the electrodes on, wake up the next day and pass all your exams," says Roi.

They also look at access to this technology, and will it further benefit the well off. But they suggest the TDCS kit is simple and cheap enough to be available to all in schools.

"This technology overcomes some standard objections to enhancement: It is not a set of cheat notes," says Julian. "You require effort and hard work to learn. It is just that you get more out of your effort. And because it is cheap, low tech, easily affordable, it could be widely available. This addresses the objection that it will introduce inequality and unfairness. It could be available and should be available to all, if it is safe and effective." 
  
The researchers’ concern is more that the technology is such that people could assemble all the components needed at home reasonably simply. Roi clearly says that this is not warranted yet with our limited current knowledge about the technique’s use: "The message should very much be 'Don’t try this at home'."

While there have been some ethical discussions in the past of using some drugs to boost concentration or attention, the researchers explain that TDCS is different and needs to be considered separately.

For example, drugs in general are prescribed for use by one person, ingested and taken internally, and with limits on dose. There are no such in-built limits with brain stimulation, and it may not feel as serious as taking a drug because it is an externally applied treatment – though its effects may be as strong.

"Once you have a brain stimulation device, you can use it as often as you want and there are no limits on who uses it," Roi points out.

But at the current time, most of the TDCS work that has been done is preliminary, small-scale and in the lab. There are no clear guidelines for its use as yet, as research is still establishing the optimal ways of using TDCS for different areas of cognition.

The researchers are concerned that in this gap, some people could step in to offer TDCS to vulnerable patients or parents desperate to advance their children before the technique is fully understood.

The researchers also identify a number of outstanding questions:

• Are there downsides to boosting capacity in one area of cognitive ability? Do other mental abilities lose out? 
• The developing brain in children is different to adults. With most research having been in adults, the use of TDCS in children becomes a pressing question. 
• And are the benefits seen in the lab clinically relevant: can TDCS lead to improvements that matter in normal daily life?

Julian says: "At this stage, we need more research to understand better the risks and benefits, in specific populations, in real life. Any regulation should prevent misuse and abuse, but facilitate good research. This kind of technology could be as important as the internet and computing. Those are external cognitive enhancements. This is basic fundamental cognitive enhancement." 
  
The researchers conclude the exciting potential of TDCS requires that this research be done and all these ethical questions considered.

"Enhancing cognitive abilities, or our ability to learn, is not a bad thing to do. There is no problem with that, as far as we see, as long as there are no side effects," says Roi.

"What is the ethical way forward? More research before deployment," says Julian. "It is promising but not proven at this stage."

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"The ethics of brain boosting." January 26th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-ethics-brain-boosting.html

 

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Survey suggests family history of psychiatric disorders shapes intellectual interests

A hallmark of the individual is the cultivation of personal interests, but for some people, their intellectual pursuits might actually be genetically predetermined. Survey results published by Princeton University researchers in the journal PLoS ONEsuggest that a family history of psychiatric conditions such as autism and depression could influence the subjects a person finds engaging.

Although preliminary, the findings provide a new look at the oft-studied link between psychiatric conditions and aptitude in the arts or sciences. While previous studies have explored this link by focusing on highly creative individuals or a person's occupation, the Princeton research indicates that the influence of familial neuropsychiatric traits on personal interests is apparently independent of a person's talent or career path, and could help form a person's basic preferences and personality.

Princeton researchers surveyed nearly 1,100 students from the University's Class of 2014 early in their freshman year to learn which major they would choose based on their intellectual interests. The students were then asked to indicate the incidence of mood disorders, substance abuse or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in their family, including parents, siblings and grandparents.

Students interested in pursuing a major in the humanities or social sciences were twice as likely to report that a family member had a mood disorder or a problem with substance abuse. Students with an interest in science and technical majors, on the other hand, were three times more likely to report a sibling with an ASD, a range of developmental disorders that includes autism and Asperger syndrome.

Senior researcher Sam Wang, an associate professor in Princeton's Department of Molecular Biology and the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, said that the survey — though not exhaustive nor based on direct clinical diagnoses — presents the idea that certain heritable psychiatric conditions are more closely linked to a person's intellectual interests than is currently supposed.

During the past several decades, Wang said, various researchers have found that, in certain people and their relatives, mood or behavior disorders are associated with a higher-than-average representation in careers related to writing and the humanities, while conditions related to autism exhibit a similar correlation with scientific and technical careers.

By focusing on poets, writers and scientists, however, those studies only include people who have advanced far in "artistic" or "scientific" pursuits and professions, potentially excluding a large group of people who have those interests but no particular aptitude or related career, Wang said. He and lead author Benjamin Campbell, a graduate student at Rockefeller University, selected incoming freshmen because the students are old enough to have defined interests, but are not yet on a set career path. (Princeton students do not declare a major until the end of sophomore year.)

"Until our work, evidence of a connection between neuropsychiatric disorders and artistic aptitude, for example, was based on surveying creative people, where creativity is usually defined in terms of occupation or proficiency in an artistic field," Wang said. "But what if there is a broader category of people associated with bipolar or depression, namely people who think that the arts are interesting? The students we surveyed are not all F. Scott Fitzgerald, but many more of them might like to read F. Scott Fitzgerald."

The Princeton research provides a new and "provocative" consideration that other scientists in this area can build upon, said Kay Redfield Jamison, a psychiatry and behavioral science professor at Johns Hopkins University and co-director of the university's Mood Disorders Center.

Jamison, who is well known for her research on bipolar disorder and her work on the artistic/mood disorder connection, said that while interests and choice of career are presumably related, Wang and Campbell present data suggesting that intellectual interests might also be independently shaped by psychiatric conditions, which provides the issue larger context.

In addition, the researchers focused on an age group that is not typically looked at specifically, but that is usually included in analyses that span various ages. Such a targeted approach lends the results a unique perspective, she said. Though the incidence of psychiatric conditions in the Princeton study was based on the students' own reporting and not definitive diagnoses, the rates Wang and Campbell found are not different from other populations, she noted.

"This is an additional way of looking at a complex problem that is very interesting," said Jamison, who played no role in the research project. "This work provides a piece of the puzzle in understanding why people go into particular occupations. In this field, it's important to do as many different kinds of studies as possible, and this is an interesting initial study with very interesting findings. It will provoke people to think about this question and it will provoke people to design other kinds of studies."

An implied connection between psychiatric conditions and a flair for art or science dates to at least Aristotle, who famously noted that those "eminent in philosophy, politics, poetry and the arts have all had tendencies toward melancholia."

Modern explorations of that relationship have examined the actual prevalence of people with neuropsychiatric disorders and their relatives in particular fields.

Among the most recent work, researchers at Sweden's Karolinska Institute reported in the British Journal of Psychiatry in November that of the 300,000 people studied, people with bipolar disorder, as well as their healthy parents and siblings, were more likely to have a "creative" job — including a field in the arts or sciences — than people with no familial history of the condition. Parents and siblings of people with schizophrenia also exhibited a greater tendency to have a creative job, though people with schizophrenia did not.

Various other studies in the past few decades have found a similar correlation between psychiatric disorders and "creativity," which is typically defined by a person's career or eminence in an artistic field such as writing or music. In their work, however, Wang and Campbell present those criteria as too narrow. They instead suggest that psychiatric disorders can predispose a person to a predilection for the subject matter independent of any concrete measure of creativity.

Jamison, in an editorial regarding the Karolinska study and published in the same journal issue, wrote that "having a creative occupation is not the same thing as being creative." Wang and Campbell approached their project from the inverse of that statement: Being creative does not necessarily mean a person has a creative occupation.

"A person is not just what they do for a living," Wang said. "I am a scientist, but not just a scientist. I'm also a guy who reads blogs, listens to jazz and likes to cook. In that same respect, I believe we have potentially broadened the original assertion of Aristotle by including not just the artistically creative, but a larger category — all people whose thought processes gravitate to the humanistic and artistic."

As past studies have, Wang and Campbell suggest a genetic basis for their results. The correlation with interests and psychiatric conditions they observed implies that a common genetic path could lead relatives in similar directions, but with some people developing psychiatric disorders while their kin only possess certain traits of those conditions. Those traits can manifest as preferences for and talents in certain areas, Wang said.

"Altogether, results of our study and those like it suggest that scientists should start thinking about the genetic roots of normal function as much as we discuss the genetic causes of abnormal function. This survey helps show that there might be common cause between the two," Wang said.

"Everyone has specific individual interests that result from experiences in life, but these interests arise from a genetic starting point," Wang said. "This doesn't mean that our genes determine our fate. It just means that our genes launch us down a path in life, leading most people to pursue specific interests and, in extreme cases, leading others toward psychiatric disorders."

More information: This study was published Jan. 26 in the journal PLoS ONE.

Provided by Princeton University

"Survey suggests family history of psychiatric disorders shapes intellectual interests." January 26th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-survey-family-history-psychiatric-disorders.html

 

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek