Einstein’s brain on display in London

Slices of Albert Einstein's brain are on display at the Wellcome trusts new 'Brains' exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London from Mar. 29- June 17. The exhibition includes slices of Einstein's brain, 3000 year old trepanned skulls, ancient Egyptian mummified brains and brains in jars. Fun!

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 27: Slices of Albert Einstein's brain (bottom right) are displayed at the Wellcome trusts new 'Brains' exhibition at the Wellcome Collection on March 27, 2012 in London, England. The exhibit makes up part of the Wellcome Collection's major new exhibition, 'Brains' which includes slices of Einstein's brain, 3000 year old trepanned skulls, ancient Egyptian mummified brains and brains in jars, and opens to the public from March 29 June 17, 2012. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

REFILE - CORRECTING EINSTEIN'S FIRST NAME A specimen of Nobel physicist Albert Einstein's brain is seen in a glass slide at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London March 27, 2012. We've pickled it, dessicated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination. With samples of Albert Einstein's preserved brain on slides, and specimens from other famous and infamous heads such as the English mathematician Charles Babbage and notorious mass murderer William Burke, an exhibition opening in London this week is seeking to tap into that intrigue. The exhibition Brains: The Mind As Matter runs from March 29 to June 17. REUTERS/Chris Helgren (BRITAIN - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY HEALTH)

Albert Einstein in an undated photo courtesy of the Library of Congress. REUTERS/Handout

A plaster phrenological model of a head, showing different parts of the brain, is seen at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London March 27, 2012. We've pickled it, dessicated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination. With samples of Albert Einstein's preserved brain on slides, and specimens from other famous and infamous heads such as the English mathematician Charles Babbage and notorious mass murderer William Burke, an exhibition opening in London this week is seeking to tap into that intrigue. The exhibition Brains: The Mind As Matter runs from March 29 to June 17. REUTERS/Chris Helgren (BRITAIN - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY HEALTH)

A human skull with evidence of brain surgery is seen at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London March 27, 2012. We've pickled it, dessicated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination.With samples of Albert Einstein's preserved brain on slides, and specimens from other famous and infamous heads such as the English mathematician Charles Babbage and notorious mass murderer William Burke, an exhibition opening in London this week is seeking to tap into that intrigue. The exhibition Brains: The Mind As Matter runs from March 29 to June 17. REUTERS/Chris Helgren (BRITAIN - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY HEALTH)

An anatomical model of a human head is seen at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London March 27, 2012. We've pickled it, dessicated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination.With samples of Albert Einstein's preserved brain on slides, and specimens from other famous and infamous heads such as the English mathematician Charles Babbage and notorious mass murderer William Burke, an exhibition opening in London this week is seeking to tap into that intrigue. The exhibition Brains: The Mind As Matter runs from March 29 to June 17. REUTERS/Chris Helgren (BRITAIN - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY HEALTH)

Diseased brains mounted in acrylic are seen at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London March 27, 2012. We've pickled it, dessicated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination.With samples of Albert Einstein's preserved brain on slides, and specimens from other famous and infamous heads such as the English mathematician Charles Babbage and notorious mass murderer William Burke, an exhibition opening in London this week is seeking to tap into that intrigue. The exhibition Brains: The Mind As Matter runs from March 29 to June 17. REUTERS/Chris Helgren (BRITAIN - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY HEALTH)

A skull saw produced in 1941 from a 1803 design by surgeon William Hey is seen at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London March 27, 2012. We've pickled it, dessicated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination. With samples of Albert Einstein's preserved brain on slides, and specimens from other famous and infamous heads such as the English mathematician Charles Babbage and notorious mass murderer William Burke, an exhibition opening in London this week is seeking to tap into that intrigue. The exhibition Brains: The Mind As Matter runs from March 29 to June 17. REUTERS/Chris Helgren (BRITAIN - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY HEALTH)

A laser-etched lead crystal glass artwork by Katherine Dowson entitled Memory of a Brain Malformation is seen at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London March 27, 2012. We've pickled it, dessicated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination.With samples of Albert Einstein's preserved brain on slides, and specimens from other famous and infamous heads such as the English mathematician Charles Babbage and notorious mass murderer William Burke, an exhibition opening in London this week is seeking to tap into that intrigue. The exhibition Brains: The Mind As Matter runs from March 29 to June 17. REUTERS/Chris Helgren (BRITAIN - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY HEALTH)

A visitor passes the projection of a brain at an exhibition at the Wellcome Collection in London March 27, 2012. We've pickled it, dessicated it, drilled it, mummified it, chopped it and sliced it over centuries, yet as the most complex entity in the known universe, the human brain remains a mysterious fascination.With samples of Albert Einstein's preserved brain on slides, and specimens from other famous and infamous heads such as the English mathematician Charles Babbage and notorious mass murderer William Burke, an exhibition opening in London this week is seeking to tap into that intrigue. The exhibition Brains: The Mind As Matter runs from March 29 to June 17. REUTERS/Chris Helgren (BRITAIN - Tags: SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY SOCIETY HEALTH)

Biologists identify a key enzyme involved in protecting nerves from degeneration

- A new animal model of nerve injury has brought to light a critical role of an enzyme called Nmnat in nerve fiber maintenance and neuroprotection. Understanding biological pathways involved in maintaining healthy nerves and clearing away damaged ones may offer scientists targets for drugs to mitigate neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's and Parkinson's, as well as aid in situations of acute nerve damage, such as spinal cord injury.

University of Pennsylvanian biologists developed the model in the adult fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster.

"We are using the basic power of the fly to learn about how neurons are damaged in acute injury situations," said Nancy Bonini, senior author of the research and a professor in the Department of Biology at Penn. "Our work indicates that Nmnat may be key."

The research was published in Current Biology. First author on the study is postdoctoral researcher Yanshan Fang, with additional contributions from postdoctoral researcher Lorena Soares and research technicians Xiuyin Teng and Melissa Geary, all of Penn's Department of Biology.

When a nerve suffers an acute injury -- as might be caused by a penetrating wound, for example, or a broken bone that damages nearby tissues -- the long projection of the nerve cell, called the axon, can become injured and degenerate. The process by which it disintegrates is known as Wallerian or Wallerian-like degeneration and is an active, orderly process.

Though this function of eliminating damaged nerve cells is crucial, biologists do not have a clear understanding of all of the molecular signaling pathways that govern the process.

Bonini's lab has previously focused on chronic neurodegenerative diseases but made this foray into acute nerve injury to determine if mechanistic overlaps exist between acute axon injury and chronic neurodegeneration. They first searched for an appropriate nerve tract to target and identified the wing of adult flies as a prime option.

The fly wing is not only translucent and a site of lengthy nerve fibers that can be easily observed, but it can also be cut to cause injury without killing the fly. That way, the researchers can follow the animal's response to nerve injury for weeks.

Using various reagents to manipulate the fly's genetic traits, the team confirmed that the cut wing nerve underwent Wallerian degeneration. They then tested versions of Nmnat and another protein called WldS, all of which had previously been shown to protect nerves from degeneration, to see if any of these might stop the process. All significantly delayed neurodegeneration. Even a form of Nmnat that hadn't worked in other animal models suppressed degeneration, although to a lesser extent.

"That indicates that our assay is really sensitive," Bonini said. "This sensitivity could help us identify genes that have moderate although important functionality at protecting against nerve degeneration."

Their investigations into the wing nerve also showed that the degenerating axon "died back," fragmenting first from the axon terminals, the side farthest from the nerve cell body—a pattern similar to what has been seen in other disorders.

Doing more genetic tinkering, the researchers showed that when the animal's own Nmnat was depleted, the nerves fragmented in the same way as if the axon was physically cut. And when Nmnat and the other "rescue" proteins were added back to these genetically modified flies, they were able to block degeneration, highlighting that Nmnat is critical to maintaining healthy axons.

In a final set of experiments, the biologists sought to narrow where in the nerve cells Nmnat might be working. They focused on mitochondria, the powerhouses of cells. When they created a genetic line of flies that blocked mitochondria from entering the axon fibers, the nerve tract degenerated, again, in a dying-back fashion. Yet now WldS and Nmnat failed to prevent axon degeneration, suggesting that those proteins may act on and require the presence of axonal mitochondria to maintain healthy nerves in normal flies.

Flipping that scenario around, they looked to see what happened to the mitochondria of flies upon nerve injury. When they cut the wing nerve axons, the mitochondria rapidly disappeared. Yet they can largely preserve the mitochrondria by increasing expression of Nmnat.

Their results, taken together with the findings of other studies, suggest that Nmnat may stabilize mitochondria in some way in order to keep axons in a healthy state.

"We have some hope that these proteins or their activity may someday serve as drug targets or could provide the foundation for a therapeutic advance," Bonini said. "But right now, my hope is that the power of the fly model will open up a lot of new directions of research and new pathways that could be targets for development in the future."

Provided by University of Pennsylvania

"Biologists identify a key enzyme involved in protecting nerves from degeneration." March 30th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-biologists-key-enzyme-involved-nerves.html

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Study supports using virtual environment to teach mind/body techniques

A small study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers found that online virtual communities may be an effective way to train patients in meditation and other mind/body techniques. The ability to learn and practice approaches that elicit the relaxation response – a state of deep rest that has been shown to alleviate stress-related symptoms – in a virtual environment could help surmount several barriers that can restrict participation.

"Our finding that a medical intervention – in this case teaching a mind/body approach that includes the relaxation response – can be delivered via a virtual environment is important because these environments are are richer and more rewarding than simply using interactive web sites," says Daniel Hoch, MD, PhD, of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at MGH (http://www.massgeneral.org/bhi/), corresponding author of the report appearing in the open-access journal PLoS One.

Hoch explains that, while practices that elicit the relaxation response have been shown to benefit individuals with a wide variety of health problems, the traditional way of teaching these practices – face-to-face meetings over several weeks – can present significant difficulties for patients, particularly those with limited mobility. In addition, individuals who are uncomfortable with group programs may prefer the anonymity of a virtual educational setting. While Internet-based programs have been used for mental health screening and support programs, Hoch and his colleagues were not aware of any prior efforts to systematically study a virtual mind-body intervention.

To test whether delivering such a program through a virtual environment was feasible, the research team chose Second Life, a three-dimensional "virtual world" in which users interact by means of online avatars that can communicate basic body language and emotional states. Several patient support groups, including groups for individuals with neurologic disorders, have established Second Life communities to share information and experiences. To adapt traditional face-to-face teaching methods to a virtual environment, Hoch brought experienced Benson-Henry clinicians together with experts in applications of Second Life to design the program.

Because learning to use Second Life can be challenging, the study only enrolled healthy individuals who had experience in the virtual environment. Participants enrolled in groups of up to 10 individuals and participated in twice-weekly virtual meetings led by an experienced Benson-Henry clinician. The clinician taught different methods of eliciting the relaxation response, guided participants through their practice, answered questions and discussed the participants' experiences. Group members were asked to elicit the relaxation response for at least 20 minutes each day – either in front of the computer with their avatar in the Second Life virtual teaching area or in another quiet setting – and received audio and video files and other supporting information. Before and after the eight weeks of online sessions, participants completed standard questionnaires assessing stress and other psychological symptoms.

The full study was completed by 24 individuals in three groups, all receiving the same training program. Although the small size of the study made it difficult to arrive at statistically significant results, overall participants showed reductions in depression- and anxiety-related symptoms. They also reported being very satisfied with the virtual environment, and several commented that they could not have taken part without the online option. Although most admitted that a face-to-face teaching environment would be even better, they also noted that the time required to travel to in-person meetings would have presented difficulties.

"Several participants have let us know, several months later, that they continue to use techniques they learned in these sessions to reduce stress in their everyday lives," Hoch says. "The Second Life technology is changing rapidly and its creators have scaled back their interest in educational and clinical activities, so we're now hoping to explore the ability to have secure patient interactions in web-browser-based environments. One of the applications that I feel holds a great deal of promise is using this approach to help patients with post-traumatic stress, so I'm hopeful we'll have the opportunity to try that in the near future."

"Social networks and online communities represent an important element of support, information and motivation for many patients," adds Joseph Kvedar, MD, director of the Center for Connected Health (http://www.connected-health.org/), Partners HealthCare, and a co-author of the PLoS Onereport. "Connected health strategies are creating new opportunities to deliver quality care, for patients and providers to communicate effectively and help motivate and educate patients to stay on track with their treatment plan."

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"Study supports using virtual environment to teach mind/body techniques." March 30th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-virtual-environment-mindbody-techniques.html

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NIH study finds women spend longer in labor now than 50 years ago

Women take longer to give birth today than did women 50 years ago, according to an analysis of nearly 140,000 deliveries conducted by researchers at the National Institutes of Health. The researchers could not identify all of the factors that accounted for the increase, but concluded that the change is likely due to changes in delivery room practice.

The study authors called for further research to determine whether modern delivery practices are contributing to the increase in labor duration.

The researchers compared data on deliveries in the early 1960s to data gathered in the early 2000s. They found that the first stage of labor had increased by 2.6 hours for first-time mothers. For women who had previously given birth, this early stage of labor took two hours longer in recent years than for women in the 1960s. The first stage of labor is the stage during which the cervix dilates, before active pushing begins.

Infants born in the contemporary group also were born five days earlier, on average, than were those born in the 1960s, and tended to weigh more. The women in the contemporary group tended to weigh more than did those who delivered in the 1960s. For the contemporary group, the average body mass index before pregnancy was 24.9, compared with 23 for the earlier generation. Body mass index is a measure of body fat based on height and weight. At the time they gave birth, the mothers in the contemporary group were about four years older, on average, than those in the group who gave birth in the 1960s.

"Older mothers tend to take longer to give birth than do younger mothers," said the study's lead author, S. Katherine Laughon, M.D., of the Epidemiology Branch of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). "But when we take maternal age into account, it doesn't completely explain the difference in labor times."

Among the change in delivery practice the researchers found was an increase in the use of epidural anesthesia, the injection of pain killers into the spinal fluid, to decrease the pain of labor. For the contemporary group, epidural injections were used in more than half of recent deliveries, compared with 4 percent of deliveries in the 1960s. The study authors noted that epidural anesthesia is known to increase delivery time, but said it doesn't account for all of the increase.

Doctors in the early 2000s also administered the hormone oxytocin more frequently (in 31 percent of deliveries, compared with 12 percent in the 1960s), the researchers found. Oxytocin is given to speed up labor, often when contractions seem to have slowed. Its use should be expected to shorten labor times, Dr. Laughon explained.

"Without it, labor might even be longer in current obstetrics than what we found," she said.

Their analysis was published online in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The study compared data from nearly 40,000 deliveries between 1959 and 1966 with records of almost 100,000 deliveries that took place in 2002 through 2008. Data from the recent deliveries were collected through the NICHD-supported Consortium on Safe Labor.

Dr. Laughon conducted the study with D. Ware Branch, M.D., of Intermountain Healthcare and the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City; Jun Zhang, Ph.D., M.D., with the NICHD at the time of the study and now with the Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, China; and Julie Beaver, M.S., formerly with the NICHD.

Other differences between the two groups reflect changes in later stage delivery practices. For example, in 1960s-era deliveries the use of episiotomy (surgical incision to enlarge the vaginal opening during delivery), and the use of forceps, surgical instruments used to extract the baby from the birth canal, was notably more common.

In current practice, doctors may intervene when labor fails to progress. This could happen if the dilation of the cervix slows or the active phase of labor stops for several hours, Dr. Laughon explained. In these cases, intervention can include administering oxytocin or performing a cesarean delivery.

In fact, the study found that the rate of cesarean delivery was four times higher today than it was 50 years ago (12 percent vs. 3 percent).

The authors note that while their study does not identify all the factors contributing to longer delivery times, the findings do indicate that current delivery practices may need to be re-evaluated.

The women in the contemporary cohort had an average pre-pregnancy BMI of 24.9. A BMI of 25 is considered overweight. Overweight and obesity raise the risk of pregnancy complications for mother and baby. Women who are overweight or obese and who would like to become pregnant should speak with their health care provider about losing weight before becoming pregnant.

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"NIH study finds women spend longer in labor now than 50 years ago." March 30th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-nih-women-longer-labor-years.html

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The link between fast food and depression confirmed

According to a recent study headed by scientists from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the University of Granada, eating commercial baked goods (fairy cakes, croissants, doughnuts, etc.) and fast food (hamburgers, hotdogs and pizza) is linked to depression.

Published in the Public Health Nutrition journal, the results reveal that consumers of fast food, compared to those who eat little or none, are 51% more likely to develop depression.

Furthermore, a dose-response relationship was observed. In other words this means that "the more fast food you consume, the greater the risk of depression," explains Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, lead author of the study, to SINC.

The study demonstrates that those participants who eat the most fast food and commercial baked goods are more likely to be single, less active and have poor dietary habits, which include eating less fruit, nuts, fish, vegetables and olive oil. Smoking and working more than 45 hours per week are other prevalent characteristics of this group.

A long-term study

With regard to the consumption of commercial baked goods, the results are equally conclusive. "Even eating small quantities is linked to a significantly higher chance of developing depression," as the university researcher from the Canary Islands points out.

The study sample belonged to the SUN Project (University of Navarra Diet and Lifestyle Tracking Program). It consisted of 8,964 participants that had never been diagnosed with depression or taken antidepressants. They were assessed for an average of six months, and 493 were diagnosed with depression or started to take antidepressants.

This new data supports the results of the SUN project in 2011, which were published in the PLoS One journal. The project recorded 657 new cases of depression out of the 12,059 people analysed over more than six months. A 42% increase in the risk associated with fast food was found, which is lower than that found in the current study.

Sánchez-Villegas concludes that "although more studies are necessary, the intake of this type of food should be controlled because of its implications on both health (obesity, cardiovascular diseases) and mental well-being."

The impact of diet on mental health

Depression affects 121 million people worldwide. This figure makes it one of the main global causes of disability-adjusted life year. Further still, in countries with low and medium income it is the leading cause.

However, little is known about the role that diet plays in developing depressive disorders. Previous studies suggest that certain nutrients have a preventative role. These include group B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids and olive oil. Furthermore, a healthy diet such as that enjoyed in the Mediterranean has been linked to a lower risk of developing depression.

More information: Almudena Sánchez-Villegas, Estefanía Toledo, Jokin de Irala, Miguel Ruiz-Canela, Jorge Pla-Vidal and Miguel A Martínez-González. "Fast-food and commercial baked goods consumption and the risk of depression". Public Health Nutrition: page 1 of 9doi:10.1017/S1368980011001856

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"The link between fast food and depression confirmed." March 30th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-link-fast-food-depression.html

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Human attention to a particular portion of an image alters the way the brain processes visual cortex responses to that i

Figure 1: A schematic diagram of the contrast discrimination task, showing the focal cue trial (top row) and the distributed cue trial (bottom row). The contrast within the top right circle increases from the first interval (second column) to the second interval (fourth column). The third column is the interstimulus interval. Credit: Reproduced, with permission, from Ref. 1 © 2011 Elsevier Inc.

Our ability to ignore some, but not other stimuli, allows us to focus our attention and improve our performance on a specific task. The ability to respond to visual stimuli during a visual task hinges on altered brain processing of responses within the visual cortex at the back of the brain, where visual information is first received from the eyes. How this occurs was recently demonstrated by an international team of researchers led by Justin Gardner at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Wako, Japan.

In a contrast discrimination task, the researchers showed three observers a stimulus of a group of four circles, each containing grey and white bars that created stripes of different contrasts (Fig. 1). After a short pause, the researchers showed the circles again, but the contrast within one of the circles was different. The observers were instructed to choose which group of circles contained the higher contrast.

In ’focal cue trials’, an arrow directed the observers’ attention to a particular circle. In ‘distributed cue’ trials’, four arrows directed their attention diffusely, across all four circles. Gardner and colleagues found that the observers’ performance was better in the focal cue trials. 

Using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner, the research team was able to map the precise location within the visual cortex that was activated by the visual information within each of the four circles. During the contrast discrimination task, Gardner and colleagues could therefore measure the observers’ visual cortex activity elicited by the stimuli. In this way, they could correlate brain activity in the visual cortex with the observers’ attention and their choice of contrasting circles.

Visual cortex responses tended to be largest when the observers were paying attention to a particular target circle, and smallest when they were ignoring a circle. The researchers determined that the largest visual cortex responses to the stimuli guided the eventual choice of each observer, leading to enhanced performance on the visual task. 

“We used computational modeling to test various hypotheses about how attention affects brain processing of visual information to improve behavioral performance,” explains Gardner. “We concluded that the observers’ attention causes their brains to select the largest cortical response to guide contrast choice, since we found that an ‘efficient selection’ model best explained the behavioral and fMRI data,” he says.

If the findings extend to other senses, such as hearing, researchers may begin to understand how humans make sense of a perceptually cluttered world.

More information: Pestilli, F., et al. Attentional enhancement via selection and pooling of early sensory responses in human visual cortex. Neuron72, 832–846 (2011). 

Provided by RIKEN

"Human attention to a particular portion of an image alters the way the brain processes visual cortex responses to that i." March 30th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-human-attention-portion-image-brain.html

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Ancient flying reptile found

CHINESE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

The shape of the new flying species' skull suggests the pterosaur hunted fish. Image: Wang Xiaolin Chinese palaeontologists have described a new pterosaur from the Early Cretaceous Period. The pterosaur was found in the Western Liaoning region of China and reveals rare clues about how pterosaurs of the period lived.  Although palaeontologists have greatly increased the pterosaur diversity in the last decades, particularly due to discoveries made in western Liaoning, very little is known regarding the distribution and lives of the pterosaurs.   An international team led by Dr Wang Xiaolin from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, described the new pterosaur,Guidraco venator. Its name means 'Dragon Ghost Hunter' - 'Gui' means ghost in Chinese, 'Draco' is dragon in Latin and 'Venator' is Latin for hunter. The remains were found in the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation, western Lianing, and add significantly to the knowledge of pterosaur distribution. They also enhance the diversity of cranial anatomy found in those flying creatures, the researchers report in the April 2012 issue of the journal of Naturwissenschaften. A skull with most elements articulated or in close association and the anterior portion of a neck was unearthed from the Early Cretaceous Jiufotang Formation, Sihedang, Lingyuan City, western Liaoning, China. The skull is 380 mm long (measured between the tip of the premaxillae and the posterior margin of the squamosal), with the rostrum (length: 205 mm) occupying 54% of the cranial length. Guidraco has a nasoantorbital fenestra, a typical trait of the Pterodactyloidea. It has an unusual upward-directed frontal crest and large rostral teeth, some of which surpass the margins of the skull and lower jaw when occluded.  It differs from the pteranodontoid Istiodactylidae and the Pteranodontidae by features such as the dentition and the shape of the nasoantobital fenestra. A frontal crest is present in pteranodontids but, in all cases, differs from that of Guidraco. The cranial morphology clearly indicates that Guidraco is closely related to a rare taxon, Ludodactylus, from the Brazilian Crato Formation of Araripe Basin, with whom it shares the rounded ventral margin of the orbit and an extensive frontal crest.  The main differences found in the Chinese taxon that justifies the separation at a generic level are the more inclined rostral teeth, the direction and position of the frontal crest, the absence of a spike-like lacrimal process, the comparatively smaller nasoantorbital fenestra, and the more constricted ventral portion of lower temporal fenestra. Luddodactylus was reported to bear a dentary crest, but none could be found in Guidraco. "Our overall knowledge regarding the distribution of those volant vertebrates is still very limited compared to other Mesozoic reptiles such as nonavian dinosaurs. In particular, the paucity of the African record, where most specimens are rather incomplete, hampers a more comprehensive knowledge of the pterosaur evolutionary history.   "Nonetheless, there have been suggestions that several of the main Early Cretaceous pterodactyloid clades may have originated in Asia such as the Anhangueridae and the Tapejaridae. The occurrence of Guidraco is consistent with that hypothesis”, said study coauthor Alexander W. A. Kellner, professor at the Laboratory of Systematics and Taphonomy of Fossil Vertebrates, Department of Geology and Paleontology, Museu Nacional Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Brazil. "Several cranial elements such as the frontal and the premaxillae are unfused suggesting that this was a subadult animal at time of death”, said Xiaolin, lead author and project designer.  “The association of the new specimen with coprolites and the cranial morphology suggest thatGuidraco venator preyed on fish”. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Neuroscientists work to helps soldiers break camouflage

Researchers Jay Hegde and Xing Chen are using functional MRI to look at the brains of study participants learning how to break camouflage in order to help identify soldiers who will be good at it and identify better ways to teach it. Credit: Phil Jones, GHSU Photographer

Researchers want to help the Army better camouflage its soldiers and break the enemy's efforts to hide.

"We want to make our camouflage unbreakable and we want to break the camouflage of the enemy," said Dr. Jay Hegde, neuroscientist in the Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Health Sciences University.

Hegde and GHSU Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Xing Chen are using a relatively simple technique they developed to teach civilian volunteers to break camouflage. They flash a series of camouflage pictures on a computer screen, providing about a half second after each to spot, for instance, a face in a sea of mushrooms. A green light signals a correct answer and a red light signals an incorrect answer. The computer-generated images include distractions to make the difficult task even more challenging.

They are finding that an hour of daily training in as little as two weeks results in proficiency for 60 percent of the mostly college and graduate school students who have signed up for their training. The Army's current approach is taking soldiers into battlefield situations to hone these skills.

As part of a three-year grant from the Office of Army Research, the researchers want to determine which parts of the brain light up when trained snipers break camouflage.

"We need to figure out how the expert camouflage-breakers do it," Hegde said. "We want to figure out what parts of the brain are most responsive when people break camouflage and, a related experiment is what part of the brain changes its response when people learn to break camouflage." Their techniques include functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure blood flow activity as an indicator of brain cell activity.

Figuring out which parts of the brain are involved could give the Army and others a better way to identify future first-rate snipers and objectively assess instructional efforts.

"If you are the Dean of the Army Sniper Corps and want to develop top-notch snipers, you don't want to spend a year training them before giving up on half of them," Hegde said. A brain scan could help signal whose relevant areas are well developed and, consequently, have natural skill.

Early evidence points toward two regions of the temporal lobe, found on either side of the brain and known to have a role in speech and vision. A region called the fusiform gyrus – which plays a role in facial recognition and lights up when people become experts at recognizing various objects, such as a particular bird species – may be important in breaking camouflage as well.

Hegde suspects that expertise at breaking camouflage stems from the fusiform gyrus in combination with some other area(s) of the brain. And, because good recognition skills don't typically translate from one area to another, he also suspects that the parts of the brain involved vary with the object of their attention. For example, the ability to easily recognize the make and model of a car doesn't guarantee skill at breaking camouflage and Hegde notes that some military snipers aren't good at game-hunting.

Vision happens when light enters the retina where photoreceptor cells turn it into signals that are interpreted by the brain. "If there is a whole lot of light falling on them, they send a lot of signals, beep, beep, beep," he said in rapid succession. "If there is a little bit of light they fire slowly." The brain connects the dots to form a familiar face or landscape. Camouflage complicates the task – the difference between recognizing a mountain goat against a clear blue sky and finding a moth among a pile of fall leaves.

"Here is the beautiful thing that we are finding out: if you know what you are looking for, the next time you can break the camouflage of the moth. Without knowing what you are looking for, the picture also is ambiguous," Hegde said.

Provided by Georgia Health Sciences University

"Neuroscientists work to helps soldiers break camouflage." March 30th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-neuroscientists-soldiers-camouflage.html

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Robert Karl Stonjek

CDC study forges link between depression and sleep apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea and other symptoms of OSA are associated with probable major depression, regardless of factors like weight, age, sex or race, according to a new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There was no link between depression and snoring.

"Snorting, gasping or stopping breathing while asleep was associated with nearly all depression symptoms, including feeling hopeless and feeling like a failure," said Anne G. Wheaton, PhD, lead author of the study. "We expected persons with sleep-disordered breathing to report trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, or feeling tired and having little energy, but not the other symptoms."

The study, appearing in the April issue of the journal SLEEP, is the first nationally representative sampling to examine this relationship, surveying 9,714 American adults. Previous studies have focused on smaller samples of specific populations, such as people suffering from obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), depression or other health conditions.

Wheaton, an epidemiologist with CDC, said the likelihood of depression increased with the reported frequency of snorting and/or instances when breathing stopped in the study. She suggested screening for these disorders in the presence of the other could help address the high prevalence and underdiagnosis of sleep apnea and depression, especially if sleepiness is a chief complaint.

Snorting, gasping and pauses in breathing during sleep are all signs of OSA, a common form of sleep-disordered breathing. Six percent of men and 3 percent of women in the study reported having physician-diagnosed sleep apnea. OSA occurs when the muscles relax during sleep, causing soft tissue in the back of the throat to collapse and block the upper airway.

More information: "Sleep Disordered Breathing and Depression among U.S. Adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2005-2008," SLEEP.

Provided by American Academy of Sleep Medicine

"CDC study forges link between depression and sleep apnea." March 30th, 2012. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-cdc-forges-link-depression-apnea.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek

How honey heals: study

INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH LIMITED

Comvita, the New Zealand-based global exporter of natural health and beauty products, and collaborators have identified key compounds in honey that stimulate the immune system, paving the way for a range of new wound-healing products. The ground-breaking research, carried out at Industrial Research Ltd (IRL), Plant & Food Research and Massey University, found that different varieties of New Zealand honey appear to trigger different immune responses.   IRL's role was to provide its world-class expertise in the extraction, analysis, and purification of complex molecules that play an important role in biological systems. Comvita’s Chief Technology Officer Dr Ralf Schlothauer says the research provides the tools for understanding why honey stimulates healing of stalled wounds. “We know a lot about the anti-microbial properties of manuka honey but had much less scientific information about the immune system-related effects of honey in wound healing. “The findings suggest there could be a number of honeys to consider if you want to stimulate the immune system. Ultimately, it might mean we produce medical honey products that are specifically tailored for certain treatments or that we select a range of honeys for their particular properties to include in a specific blend.” Headquartered in Paengaroa in the Bay of Plenty, Comvita is the world’s largest manufacturer and marketer of Manuka honey and produces natural health products for the wound care, health care, personal care and functional foods markets. It also produces Medihoney™ wound care products that are sold through a global licensing deal with US-based Derma Sciences. Prior to the latest work, Dr Schlothauer says published research had shown there were big carbohydrate molecules in honey that stimulated immune cells but their structure had not been analysed. Comvita put two students, Swapna Gannabathula and Gregor Steinhorn, onto the task and their discoveries eventually led the company to Crown Research Institute IRL. “We started separating the molecule but were puzzled about what it was. Initially we thought it was a glycan and sought appropriate analysis but they put us on to Dr Ian Sims in the Carbohydrate Chemistry group at IRL, who is a leading expert in analysing complex molecules that play an important role in biological systems,” says Dr Schlothauer. IRL has one of only three laboratories world-wide with the capability and expertise required to carry out complex research into the extraction, purification and analysis of oligo- and poly-saccharides, and glycoconjugates. Dr Sims began his work with small-scale analyses that were conducted on Manuka, Kanuka and Clover honeys. Starting with five grams of honey, separation of high molecular weight polymers from small sugars yielded just a few milligrams of sample for analysis.  After Dr Sims completed an initial, detailed analysis of the sugars Gregor Steinhorn, who now works full-time for Comvita, spent many hours purifying buckets of honey and identified its exact nature under the supervision of Dr Sims and Dr Alistair Carr (Massey University). Comvita is determining the commercial value of this discovery and has a range of new products under development. The findings from the research have been published in Food Chemistry, an international, peer-reviewed publication that reports on the chemistry and biochemistry of foods and raw materials. Dr Schlothauer says the next challenge is to better understand how and why honey promotes healing, with Comvita planning to do more research with the University of Auckland and IRL. “The work is helping us ensure there is much better information about natural medicines,” says Dr Schlothauer. "We need to be able to talk about the immune relevance of honey and have proof of its scientific efficacy to ensure natural medicines can sit alongside conventional health products.” Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

IoP Neuroscientists develop new 'Brain' App

Image taken from the 'Brain' Study Room

A team of neuroscientists from the Institute of Psychiatry (IoP) at King’s College London have developed a digital atlas of the human brain for iPad. The ‘Brain’ App is the first of its kind, and is based on cutting edge neuro-imaging research from the NatBrainLab at the IoP. 

Dr. Marco Catani, Head of the NatBrainLab who led the development of the App with Dr. Flavio Dell’Acqua and Dr. Michel Thiebaut de Schotten, said: “For 10 years our lab has pioneered the use of highly advanced neuro-imaging techniques. This is the first time that imaging methods usually only applied to research have been used in an educational App. It’s very exciting to see our work transformed into such an accessible, fun and beautiful tool.”

Two types of scans were used to develop the content of ‘Brain’ – results from an MRI scan reveal the structural properties of the brain, and images from a Diffusion Tractography scan allow the user to identify connections in the brain. 

The App is split into two virtual rooms. The Dissection Room allows the user to play with a 3D human brain, select individual structures and ‘pull’ them apart to visualize their anatomical features. The Study Room then offers a more thorough explanation of functional aspects and their relationship to neurological and psychiatric disorders. 

Dr. Catani adds: “The interactive nature of our App really allows you to explore the depths of the neural network and appreciate the complexity of the human brain. Because the content is based directly on research, the finished product is an accurate reflection of the real thing.”

Image taken from the 'Brain' Dissection Room

Dr. Catani and his team are now working towards developing the next version of the App. By integrating scans from several different brains into the programme, they hope to be able to offer the user the chance to see directly how the brain develops from childhood to old age and the direct effect of different age-related disorders on the brain.

The App is currently being used by Dr. Catani and his colleagues to teach MSc students neuroscience.

More information: Marco Catani and Michel Thiebaut de Schotten are also due to publish the ‘Atlas of Human Brain Connections’ in May 2012, for more information, please visit the Oxford University Press website

Provided by King's College London

"IoP Neuroscientists develop new 'Brain' App." March 30th, 2012.http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-iop-neuroscientists-brain-app.html

Posted by
Robert Karl Stonjek