Will Shares

Observatory - People Hear With Their Skin as Well as Their Ears, Study Says - NYTimes.com

The syllables included “pa” and “ta,” which produce a brief puff from the mouth when spoken, and “ba” and “da,” which don’t produce puffs. They found that when listeners heard “ba” or “da” while a puff of air was blown onto their skin, they perceived the sound as “pa” or “ta.”

“What’s so persuasive about this particular effect,” he added, “is that people are picking up on this information that they don’t know they are using.” That supports the idea that integrating different sensory cues is innate.

Behind the Autism Statistics

givemesomethingtoread:

The CDC now says that 1 in 100 Americans has autism. But is the epidemic real? It turns out that many children with other developmental problems are being given autism diagnoses just to get them state funding.

Another great excerpt:

In 1987, the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) began broadening the definition of autism to include not only children for whom socialization is impossible, but also those with varying levels of ability to interact and function. What was once a devastating affliction known simply as “autism” evolved into a “spectrum” of disorders, encompassing everything from profound impairment to far milder challenges. Naturally, this more expansive definition of autism partly explains the exponential increase in diagnoses in recent years.

Basics - A Molecule of Motivation, Dopamine Excels at Its Task - NYTimes.com

Lack of sleep may play role in Alzheimer's

thx @mocost

“lack of sleep suppresses hippocampal neurogenesis, and the hippocampus normally degenerates first in Alzheimer’s”

The World’s Most Reviled Genius | Print Article | Newsweek.com

According to him, tumors are created not by the accumulation of individual mutations, but by wholesale changes in the structure and arrangement of a cell’s chromosomes. “It’s the difference between changing a couple of words in a sentence and ripping the entire set of encyclopedias apart,” he says. The upheaval is so great that a tumor effectively constitutes a new species—one that grows like a parasite inside its host. Duesberg says that characterizing these upheavals is the best way to understand how cancer begins. Two decades into his scientific exile, some scientists think he might actually be on to something. Something big enough to change the way we look at cancer. The defining trait of any given species—the thing that distinguishes it from all other species—is not so much its genetic code as its karyotype: the number and size of chromosomes into which that code is organized. Humans and cats and worms all share numerous genes in common, but each has a different karyotype: cats have a total of 38 chromosomes, worms 12. And with a few rare exceptions, humans have two copies each of 23 different chromosomes. Cells that deviate significantly from this blueprint—by making five copies of one chromosome, for example, or only one copy of another—usually die pretty quickly. But sometimes, Duesberg says, a cell will chance upon a new karyotype that doesn’t kill it. These cells are called aneuploid, and they tend to grow and divide in rapid and unstable fashion. Eventually, he says, they evolve into something that can grow uncontrollably anywhere in the body. It turns out that almost all solid tumors are aneuploid, and this little-examined fact may have implications for the way some cancers are diagnosed and treated. For example, the karyotypes of prostate and cervical tumors can be used to predict whether a given lesion is likely to become malignant, and thus help determine whether surgery is warranted. Swedish doctors are beginning to make use of this information, but aneuploidy receives little attention in the U.S., where the vast majority of funding still goes toward oncogene research. Part of the problem may be entrenched viewpoints that hinder innovation. But another problem may be Duesberg himself.

Blind 7-Year-Old Boy Sees With His Ears

To “see” the world around him, he clicks his tongue on the roof of his mouth and listens to the echo that bounces back. From the sound, he can make out the location, depth and shape of objects around him, allowing him to navigate even unfamiliar areas. Echolocation Used by Small Percentage of Blind Population Though it’s estimated that only about 5 to 10 percent of the blind population now uses a sonar-type approach, the Murrays and others hope it could someday become as common as the widely-adopted white cane.

Bold is mine, cuz to me, that’s amazing…

Understanding the Anxious Mind - NYTimes.com

pretty cool research; study looks at 4 month old babies that are distressed by anything new and terms them “high reactors.”

At 15, about two-thirds of those who had been high-reactors in infancy behaved pretty much like everybody else. …
[still for some,] There exists a kind of sub-rosa anxiety, a secret stash of worries that continue to plague a subset of high-reactive people no matter how well they function outwardly. They cannot quite outrun their own natures: consciously or unconsciously, they remain the same uneasy people they were when they were little.

I liked this study because it demonstrated that you can literally be born with anxiety - which I didn’t know….

Virus Linked To Chronic Fatigue Syndrome : NPR

Too much testosterone disrupts family life (New Scientist)

A man’s spit may indicate what kind of father and husband he is. In polygamous societies, men with high levels of testosterone in their saliva are more likely to take several wives and give their children less attention, compared to those with less of the sex hormone coursing through their bodies.

The new study of rural Senegalese villagers adds to previous work underscoring testosterone’s critical role in a mating and parenting.

High testosterone levels have been linked to increased sexual activity, infidelity and marital conflict. However, after men become fathers, their bodies typically pump out less of the hormone.

“This is good for us, so we can adapt to social challenges very quickly,” says Alexandra Alvergne, an anthropologist at the University of Montpellier, France, and the University of Sheffield, UK, who led the new study.

“I think the evidence is piling up” that testosterone affects mating and parenting in humans, says Peter Ellison, an anthropologist at Harvard University.

Genetics plays some role in determining how much testosterone men produce, but culture, fatherhood and other factors tinker with its levels over a lifetime.

“If you have a young child – a young baby – that you’re at times responsible for, it would be really good to lower your testosterone. Not only are you less likely to forget the child and pursue some other mating opportunity but your temper may be lowered,” Ellison says.

While it isn’t clear exactly how fatherhood tempers testosterone levels, Ellison and others believe that paternal behaviour feeds into the endocrine system to crank down its natural levels.

In cultures where men aren’t expected to be outstanding fathers and are constantly on the lookout for potential mates, testosterone levels tend to stay high, Ellison says. “It’s not that polygynists somehow have different genes that make them polygynists.”

Journal reference: Hormones and Behavior, DOI: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2009.07.013

thanks psychotherapy

The Science of Zits and Acne

it is not just in puberty that androgens are released in large numbers, but also during menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. Your skin contains glands known as sebaceous glands that secrete sebum or skin oil, to the surface of the skin. Sebaceous glands are situated over the majority of your body, although not so much on the feet and hands. They are most numerous on the back, chin and forehead, and also around the genitals and inside the ear. Although most of these glands open onto hair follicles, some open onto the surface of the skin.
when androgens stimulate the sebaceous glands and expand the pores in your skin so that more sebum is secreted, the triglycerides it contains are broken down into free fatty acids by bacterial enzymes known as lipases. These become impacted, and the pores can become blocked and infected by bacteria. This initiates the immune response with accompanying inflammation and leukocyte activity which generates the pus of whiteheads, or zits.
Inflammation can be reduced by essential fatty acids such as omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

BBC | We're all mutants, say scientists

Each of us has about 150 mutations that are totally unique to us - no one else in the world has them.

What Britney Spears Can Reveal About Alzheimer's Disease - TIME

It turns out that when people who are at highest risk of Alzheimer’s try to recognize a famous name, their brains activate in very different ways from those of people who aren’t at risk. And scientists can actually see this difference using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI.

Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why.

Pills are advertised in such a way that a certain response is expected from those who take it, enhancing the placebo effect. How to best understand this and stop it?

why would the placebo effect seem to be getting stronger worldwide? Part of the answer may be found in the drug industry’s own success in marketing its products.
—-
US scientists had found that a drug called naloxone blocks the pain-relieving power of placebo treatments. The brain produces its own analgesic compounds called opioids, released under conditions of stress, and naloxone blocks the action of these natural painkillers and their synthetic analogs.
Placebo-activated opioids, for example, not only relieve pain; they also modulate heart rate and respiration. The neurotransmitter dopamine, when released by placebo treatment, helps improve motor function in Parkinson’s patients. Mechanisms like these can elevate mood, sharpen cognitive ability, alleviate digestive disorders, relieve insomnia, and limit the secretion of stress-related hormones like insulin and cortisol.
—
In a study last year, Harvard Medical School researcher Ted Kaptchuk devised a clever strategy for testing his volunteers’ response to varying levels of therapeutic ritual. The study focused on irritable bowel syndrome, a painful disorder that costs more than $40 billion a year worldwide to treat. First the volunteers were placed randomly in one of three groups. One group was simply put on a waiting list; researchers know that some patients get better just because they sign up for a trial. Another group received placebo treatment from a clinician who declined to engage in small talk. Volunteers in the third group got the same sham treatment from a clinician who asked them questions about symptoms, outlined the causes of IBS, and displayed optimism about their condition.
Not surprisingly, the health of those in the third group improved most. In fact, just by participating in the trial, volunteers in this high-interaction group got as much relief as did people taking the two leading prescription drugs for IBS. And the benefits of their bogus treatment persisted for weeks afterward, contrary to the belief—widespread in the pharmaceutical industry—that the placebo response is short-lived.
Studies like this open the door to hybrid treatment strategies that exploit the placebo effect to make real drugs safer and more effective.
—
pill colors:
the color of a tablet can boost the effectiveness even of genuine meds—or help convince a patient that a placebo is a potent remedy

Yellow pills
make the most effective antidepressants, like little doses of pharmaceutical sunshine.

Red pills
can give you a more stimulating kick. Wake up, Neo.

The color green
reduces anxiety, adding more chill to the pill.

White tablets—
particularly those labeled “antacid”—are superior for soothing ulcers, even when they contain nothing but lactose.

More is better,
scientists say. Placebos taken four times a day deliver greater relief than those taken twice daily.

Branding matters.
Placebos stamped or packaged with widely recognized trademarks are more effective than “generic” placebos.

Clever names
can add a placebo boost to the physiological punch in real drugs. Viagra implies both vitality and an unstoppable Niagara of sexy.
—-
Benedetti has helped design a protocol for minimizing volunteers’ expectations that he calls “open/hidden.” In standard trials, the act of taking a pill or receiving an injection activates the placebo response. In open/hidden trials, drugs and placebos are given to some test subjects in the usual way and to others at random intervals through an IV line controlled by a concealed computer. Drugs that work only when the patient knows they’re being administered are placebos themselves.

It’s sad that the placebo effect is preventing potentially useful drugs from reaching the market. Some of the ideas suggested and implied by this article are interesting - as a way to prevent that from continuing to happen.