Autism Genes that control Early Learning

Autism is a mental disorder where the people have trouble with communication, doing things repeatedly, and it causes antisocial behavior. Every year 150 babies are born with autism in the United States.
The Children's Hospital Boston has scientists who discovered six more genes. They hadn't been linked to autism in the past. The things wrong with them were usually due to deletion, mainly of the genes that help in smooth connections. These genes help to create a tight and smooth connection between nerves in the brain. These genes also deal with learning and responses to the world/environment.
This discovery shows that with an early diagnosis of autism followed by treatment can improve the affects of autism. They use behavioral therapy and enriched environments for learning at a young age in hopes to strengthen the connections in the brain. The mutations damage the connections in the brain during a crucial age of development. Since only part of the gene is deleted, not all of the DNA, it's possible that some of the function can be regained. It has been shown that children with autism improve when they are put in places where repetitive learning happens. This trains the neurons not missing to pick up the slack from the deleted neurons.



This article gives hope to families who have a baby diagnosed with autism. There isn't a cure for autism, so anything that would improve the situation would do wonders for a family. This article hits home for me. I have an eighteen year old autistic sister. She functions pretty well, but still is hard to manage at times. She has gotten semi worse as she grew older. This article makes me wonder how she would be different if she had received treatment when she was first diagnosed. Would it have helped her or done nothing? I will never know how it would be if she was different. God had some other plan for her, me, and my family.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=autism-genes-that-control

Postpartum Depression Affects More than Just Mothers

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=misery-in-motherhood

My Summary:
Postpartum Depression is a condition that plagues women worldwide. While the cause is not fully known, some experts believe that Postpartum Depression is possibly caused by the dramatic hormone fluctuations that occur in a woman after delivery. Whatever the cause, Postpartum Depression can weaken the natural bond between a mother and her child. Studies suggest that a weak bond between mother and child can cause the child to be more passive, insecure and socially inhibited; although in most cases a child’s intellectual development is not affected. Because of this, Psychologists and Psychiatrists focus on strengthening the bond between mother and child when treating Postpartum Depression.
In general, women seem to be most susceptible to depression in their reproductive years. Consequently rates of the disorder are higher in women ages twenty-five to forty-five. New data states that the incidence of depression rises modestly after giving birth. Patricia Dietz of the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated that 10.4 percent of mother had been depressed in the nine months following childbirth and 8.7 percent of women had been depressed in the nine months before pregnancy as well as 6.9 percent during pregnancy. This data suggests that a previous occurrence of depression may be the biggest risk factor in acquiring the illness postpartum.
Of course the hormonal change that occurs after pregnancy does not fully explain postpartum depression. The demands of motherhood may also play a role in the illness. Many women feel exhausted from the lack of sleep and can become overwhelmed by child care duties. But the consequences of depression reach beyond the mother and affect the child. If a mother is overwhelmed by depression it prevents her from properly caring for her child; causing her not to perceive her child’s cries, smiles, gestures and other attempts to communicate with her. Ergo infants of depressed mothers look at their mothers less often and show fewer signs of positive emotion than do babies of mentally healthy moms.
Studies show that infants develop essential social skills in months two through six, building relationships with their mothers as well as other people. A child of a depressed mom may be at risk for social phobia which can be disastrous for their social development. While postpartum gloom does not usually have a long-lasting affect on a child’s development it impairs the child’s ability to bond with its mother and others.
Because of the fear of being judged by family members and others in society, many women shy away from getting treatment for their Postpartum Depression. Many new mothers require medication or Psychotherapy. The newest kind of treatment is that which also involves the child. Psychotherapy involves video intervention therapy which helps mothers to correctly perceive their infant’s behavior by recording and analyzing it. Video intervention therapy also helps mothers to feel better about their actions.
Most mothers can take steps to ease the emotional burden of having a child by asking for help from family and friends. It also helps mothers to sleep more, spend time with their spouse and getting out of the house can also help a depressed mother to not put pressure on herself. Usually mothers who receive adequate treatment recover completely within two months of starting treatment. Some mothers even emerge from their depression with a new sense of clarity and zest for life.
My Opinion: I believe that this article sheds some much needed light on a disease that is often frowned upon in today’s society, especially among Christians. When most people think of Postpartum Depression they think only of the mother. I never really thought about how it could affect the child. I think that many people frown on the illness because of all of the bad press it gets in the news with depressed mothers harming their children and such. This article allowed me to understand the reasons why a mother may become depressed and the alternatives mothers have to combat their depression. I feel a little more enlightened on the subject of Postpartum Depression and will be less inclined to judge it.

When Sleep becomes Violent

Summary:
Normally, we cycle through two stages of sleep throughout the night: REM and NREM. REM sleep stands for rapid eye movement, and NREM is non-rapid eye movement sleep. We do most of our dreaming during REM sleep, and although we are moving in our dreams, our real bodies are basically paralyzed, a condition known as atonia. Only our eyes move, darting around as if watching the scenes from our mind. Even though our bodies lie motionless, our minds are just active as if we were awake.
In NREM sleep, an EEG--electroencephalogram--will show decreased brain activity.
There is, nevertheless, a condition called parasomnia which occurs between wakefulness and deep sleep in NREM sleep, and produces those famous activities such as sleep walking and talking. If one is woken from the former, he or she will be confused and disoriented, which is why people are advised not to wake them. The person will also not be able to recall their dream in the slightest amount.
There is a step beyond parasomnias, however: RBD, or REM sleep behavior disorder. When a person has this, he will literally act out his dream, as in the case of one man who dreamed he was playing baseball again. In his dream, saw the ball coming at him, and reached out for it. Next thing he knew was he was on the floor next to his bed and had nearly put his hand through the wall. Doctors usually connect this disorder with a degenerative neurological condition.
Although simply acting out the dream is not the whole story. People also tend to display Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde type behavior—they may be kind in the waking world but say profanities and be belligerent in the sleeping one. In fact, this is usually the case with people diagnosed with RBD.
A polysomnogram, a test that employs sensors placed over muscles, is used to show if movements are interrupting the normal REM sleep stage. In the case of the man who dreamed of playing baseball, doctors discovered through the test that he did in fact have RBD. While there is no known cure for this disorder, doctors do know how it happens and have medication for it, a drug similar to Valium by the name of clonazepam.

Response:

I thought it interesting when I saw the title of this article, because I did not know one could be so violent while asleep. Sure, I thought, people toss around in bed, but to hit someone, all because of a dream was a different story (the wife of the baseball man in the article had actual bruises from him striking out at her.) It is comforting to know that there is a known cause for RBD and a drug for it, so that people with the disorder will not have to hear the words, “We don’t know what’s wrong with you.” Although it will be a hard road, I am sure researchers will be able to discover a cure for REM sleep behavior disorder.

Brain, Heal Thyself

In our bodies, organs have their own stem cells that replace injured and dead cells. But according to the conventional wisdom, the brain doesn't have stem cells. Instead, nature gives us need replacement. Nevertheless, the conventional wisdom on brain stem cell is changing these day. Samuel Weiss and other researchers maded mouse brain cells act like stem cells in the experiment. The result is that it can be possible to get cell in brain to act like stem cells for only one day. In 1992, Evan Snyder and his colleagues had removed stemlike cells from the newborn mice' brain. Snyder said that his manipulated cells meet the requirements of true stem cell. They can reproduce and maintain themselves, and they can give rise to all the major cell types in the brain. The marked cells had indeed differentiated in to neurons and other brain cells. After differentiating, the cell stopped dividing, just like normal brain cells because of some innate brain signal that dampens division. Snyder had found that his implanted cells could repair some kinds of brain damage. The cells get injured easily when the oxygen supply is cut off. Normal mature brain cells lost the ability to respond to brain signals, or the signals may have been suppressed. Snyder and his colleagues used stem cells to gene therapy. They put a gene into the cells that codes for an enzyme missing. The enzyme breaks down a cellular waste product in brain. The waste accumulates if there is no enzyme and it causing severe mental retardation and death. Snyder found the genetically enginered cells began producing the enzyme at levels thought to be sufficient to alleviate symptoms of the disease. The stem cells might naturally tend to spread and produce their crucial enzyme throughout the damaged brain. Weiss injection of egf into mouse brains spurred the growth of new neurons. These cells spread into regions near the subependmal layer and the striatum. This is so improtant because in people with Huntington's disease, neurons in this region die. The gap between experiments with mice and human cell therapy for brain damage is huge. Snyder and Weiss' experiment show us the human brain has the protenial to repair itself, and brain may have stem cells.


http://discovermagazine.com/1996/aug/brainhealthyself847/?searchterm=brain heal thyself

The Inner Savant

http://discovermagazine.com/2002/feb/featsavant/?searchterm=the%20inner%20savant

Summery

An autistic savant is a rare condition marked by severe mental and social deficits but also a mysterious talent that appears spontaneously usually before the age of six. Autism is thought to occur during early brain development when neurons connect at random causing problems in the cerebellum with processing information and movement. Problems also occur in the limbic region which causes problems with processing experiences and emotions. When autistic children see an object they do not see the object as a whole, but rather the individual parts that make up the object.

Only one out of every ten autistic child is considered to be a savant. There are many different kinds of savant some can play a song on the piano perfectly after hearing it only once, some can multiply massive numbers together in a matter of seconds, some are artistic , and some are calendar savants and when they are given a date they can tell you what day of the week it fell on. A savant named Nadia at the age of three could draw an amazing picture of a horse from memory. When she went to draw it she did not start with the basic shape, but the details of the horse like his hoofs and mane and then drew the basic shape to connect all of the details together. This show that she saw not just a picture of a horse, but all of the components that make up the picture of the horse.

Allan Snyder, a physicist in Australia suggests that everyone has the capacity to obtain savant like skills, but we are unable to access them. When people who are not autistic see an object they just see the object as a whole and not all of the different components that make it up. Some people have been able to obtain savant like skills only under certain conditions. People who have frontotemporal dementia, a degenerative brain disease, which usually hits people who are around fifties or sixties, are able show savant like qualities in the areas of music and art. Even though they gain these new talents their disease makes them lose their ability to speak, read, and write. The only thing that they have in common with savants besides the ability is the decrease in blood flow and slowed neuronal firing in the left temporal lobe.

One reason why savants have these amazing abilities is because they process things differently and they see things differently. If a child who is not autistic is told to copy a picture of an optical allusion they would get frustrated and would be unable to draw it. An artistic savant would look at the picture and see the individual components that make up the picture. Sometimes artist who are having a hard time drawing an object will look at it upside down so that the do not see the object any more, but rather the components that make up the object, kind of like how a savant sees an object. People who are autistic have a single-minded drive. They can do the same thing over and over without getting bored. So those who are savants are able to practice there ability without getting bored, but getting better at what they do.

An autistic researcher did an experiment on seventeen people to see if they could perform savantlike tasks. The researchers inhibited their neural activity in the frontotemporal area. Only five out of the seventeen people improved in there tasks, but not at a savantlike level. This can expected because savants have repetitive practice of their skill. Researchers hope that one day that there will be a device that could help people tap into their creative abilities that they do not have access to.

Response

I think that the abilities that savants have are amazing, some of them can’t even tie their shoes, but can play a song on the piano after only hearing it once. One of the savants that I found most interesting was a boy who could stand in a room that is full of speakers and find were the sweat spot, the spot where the sound from different sources hits both of your ears at the same time, is. I also thought that it was amazing that researchers could get savant like responses from people who are not autistic. I think it is interesting that some day they want to make a device that could give great creative abilities to people who are not savants.

From Noisy Eyeballs to Regulating Information Flow in the Brain.

R. Douglas Fields is a Neuroscientist that found out a lot about his area of study by studying a disfunction of his own brain. His disfunction was that he literally had noisy eyeballs. The problem, despite the fact that this was not normal, was that he was the only one who could hear his eyes move. The Neuroscientist was lucky to know a professor who had insight the scientist's problem. His problem was that his nucleus accumbens were smaller then normal. Now the nucleus accumbens are like the fliter of sensory input for the brain. With sound it helps fliter to what a person whats to hear and pay attention too. So for example, when your on a basketball court for your team you can still very clearly make out the coaches voice despite numerous more equally as loud voices. Or another example is when you talk on a cell phone in a nosy enviorment but you still only hear the person your talking too. This "zoneing out" of what you dont want to hear is credited to the nucleus accumbens. When this is smaller it cant block out all the sounds, so therefore unwanted noise is heard. Even interal bodly noises such as the noise of muscles pulling on the eyeball. A key component of the nucleus accumbens is serotonin which modulate's its activity. Moreover the Neuroscientist published his story and got many email replies back from people with similar, sometimes more sereve cases of his disfunction. In particular one person sent him an article from a scientific magazine that was inspired for the scientists own article. This article suggested sulfites were the problem. This hypothothis came about given the fact that sulfites, which are used as preservities for food, block enzymes that are very similar to the enzymes that are key in the production of serotonin. Therefore sulfites could impair the production of serotonion thus hurting the nucleus accumbens. But at this time this is only a possible theory. More scientific research is needed to find out more.

I thought this article was very intresting. Learning about the nucleus accumbens was fascinating as I never knew that our "zoneing out" of noses was actually a function of the brain that could be impared. I cant imagine not being able to block things out. It is also intresting to hear that we can hear many bodly noises but our nucleus accumbens just block the noises out.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=noisy-eyeballs-regulating-information-brain

Does Exercise Really Make You Healthier?

Many people workout for various reasons such as: to lose weight, become healthier, or just to become more active. Mostly everyone has worked out sometime in their life, but when we workout do we ever think how it is affecting the body? How exercise can not only make us stonger, but help prevent us from various diseases? Most people when they workout don't think of these things. While some people think exercise makes you healthier, others think there is no purpose to exercising. This article shows some benefits to exercising. Exercise is good for the heart and blood vessels. Exercising lowers the risk for heart disease in many ways. When a person exercises, their heart is pumping faster casing more blood to be forced through the arteries. This forceful pumping causes changes in the autonomic nervous system that controls the contraction of the heart. Thus leads to lower resting heart rates which in return lowers the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Exercise also heightens the cardiovascular health by decreasing the plasma triglycerides, fatty molecules in the
blood that are associated with plaque build-up in the arteries. Exercise reduces low-density lipoprotein, bad cholesterol, and increases the amounts of high-density lipoprotein, good cholesterol, which occurs as less artery clogging. Exercise also lessens the risks to some cancers. Physical activity affects your body weight, said Albanes a researcher. Leaner people have lower circulating levels of insulin. People who are overweight develop insulin-resistance where the cells no longer respond to glucose, a primary energy source. When this happens, the pancreas produces great amoutns to try to absorb more glucose, causing higher levels of insulin which can be connected to some forms of cancer like colon cancer. Exercising also builds strong bones. Laying on the couch all day is making your bones not work, and your bones
not working are more open to fractures. Bones become stronger when more weight is forced on them causing the muscles to contract more to exert force on this particular area of your body. Exercising also wards off type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes is where your body isn't producing
enough insulin so other tissues can't absorb glucose from the blood cauing nerve and blood vessel damage. Physical activity reverses this affect. Exercising causes the muscle to contract which heighten the production of an enzyme called adenosine momophosphate-activated kinase (AMPK) which promotes the breakdown of the fats with the cell glucose transporters. Finally exercising promotes weight loss. Exercising causes calories to be burned which loses weight. You can't just exercise to see these results though. You have to learm to eat a balanced diet on a regular basis. working out causes us to be physically and potentially mentally stronger.
I think this article was well written and explained each benefit of exercising well. It explained how each thing/benefit worked by using the inside of the body and the heart and blood blow from exercising. I think this article was really cool and jumped out to me. Playing basketball is exercising on a regular basis, and i never thought that it could prevent certain types of cancer and diabetes. It's amazing to see how working out regularly can help increase your health
and stenghten your body. Each part of the human body has a specific purpose and exercising help make it do it's job regularly. It's been shown that someone who exercises regularly can live up to 7 years longer than a couch potato. It's amazing to see how exercise can really affect you mentally and physically.

Fact or Fiction? Babies Exposed to Classical Music End Up Smarter

The Mozart effect invokes the image of a pregnant woman playing classical music over her belly in hopes to improve her unborn child’s intelligence. In one study scientist used thirty-six college-aged kids to perform several spatial reasoning tasks after listening to one of Mozart’s relaxing sonatas. One of these tasks was to determine what a paper ,that had been folded several times and then cut, might look like when unfolded. The students that had listened to Mozart displayed a significant improvement in their performance by eight to nine spatial IQ points.

In sixteen studies related to the Mozart effect, it shows the only task that showed significant improvment was the paper-folding task. One scientist attributes it to the natural variability a person experiences between two test settings.

Scientist, Rauscher, doesn’t see how the two are connected saying, “I think parents are very desperate to give their own children every single enhancement that they can.” On the other hand, others still argue for the power of music saying that music has tremendous organizational quality to the brain. Some physicians use music therapy to aid children with dyslexia, ADD, and autism because they believe that music that is not very emotional or rhythmic can modulate mood and alleviate stress. They also believe it improves our ability to be intelligent. In Georgia and Florida, daycare centers went as far as to required classical music to be played while the children slept.

Rather than passively listening to music, Rauscher advices putting instuments into childrens hands to improve cognitive abilities. Phychologist Chabris goes even further to say that just playing the symphonies of a long-dead Austrian composer takes away from beneficial interaction that may be truly beneficial for the children.



http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-babies-ex



Response:

I had always heard that listening to classical music can improve our intellegent. After thinking about it, I do not think it is true, but I do believe that playing an intrument can. Since I am in band, I know that to play music you must actively think about what each notes is, how it will sound, and how to play it. When it comes down to it, I believe it is being the type of parent that would play the music for their child. The type of parent that would care enough to try. I guess you could say, it really is the thought that counts.

Existing Drug Reverses a Form of Mental Retardation in Mice

Researchers report that if a study on mice holds true, a drug used for a completely different purpose could be used to treat a kind mental retardation linked to autism.

A medication, used by doctors for patients whose bodies may reject new organs in their bodies due to transplants, is used by scientists learning disorders by the name of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) in mice. This disease is a rare genetic disorder that causes tumors, seizures, sores, and learning issues in 50,000 people in the US and 1,000,000 people in the whole world.

Half of everyone with TSC have autism, and 1 in 5 suffer from mental retardation. A neurobiologist, Alcinco Silva, says that the hope is that this medication (rapamycin) can be used to treat learning issues and short-term memory problems in all kinds of autism as well.

Silva and coworkers removed a copy of the gene TSC2 from mice (if both are removed the mice die short after birth) to have them be born with TSC. When both genes are there, in both mice and humans, the make proteins that aid innerve connections that help the brain learn.

The mice with TSC had issues in various learning tests. In the mice "learning and memory are disrupted just like they [are] affected in most patients with TSC," says Silva.

Their reason for using rapamycin, says Silva, is that it regulates the same proteins the TSC gene does, just in different parts of the body. When they tried the medication on animals 3-6 months old (far into adulthood for mice) it leveled the defferences between TSC and regular mice in as short as 3 days.

"What was surprising is that we could give rapamycin to adult mice and reverse their condition," says Silva. "We did not know...that this drug would be equally effective for the learning disabilities" because it is for tissue rejection.

For transplant patients rapamycin cost aroun $1,000 a month. It suppresses the immune system, thus the following side effects come about: impaired wound healing, infections, mouth sores, and skin cancer (rare instances).

SIlva also says that thye have "early, positive signs" from the mice models that rapamycin can help treat kidnye tumors, skin lesions, and the other effects associated with TSC. A director of a TSC Clinic, David Franz, has reported that the medicine reduced kidney and brain tumors in small clinical trials he has conducted.

Scientists were also able to reverse mantal retardation in mice suffering from fragile X syndrome and Rett syndrome. Put together and these results suggest that researchers are finding the brains malfunctions causing autism and thus might find a way to reverse them.

These studies "suggest that we're about to have a paradigm shift in how we look at developmental disorders, like autism," Silva explains.Silve believes these learning disabilities can be eliminated by altering the brain's biochemistry, so the illnesses should no longer be seen as something a person is born with.

Franz agrees that this medication can modify TSC, but thinks that Silva is over-estimating it insaying that it will work for all autism sufferers. Franz says, "You might make them better, but I don't think you're going to normalize them."

At the University of Cambridge in England, the next step, being clinical trials of rapamycin in human TSC sufferers, is already underway.


My Response:

I always thought that mental retardation was permanent and that there was no chance of reversing it. I am glad to say that this article totally changes this thought. This gives new hope to possibly "curing" mental retardation and autism. This research could lead to a way of making the mentally disabled have a possibility of fully living independent lives. This could be a bit of an exageration..but this research and experimentation definately opens a whole new world of possibilities for brain malfunctions and learning diasabilities.


http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=existing-drug-reverses-a

Simple Salves for Severe Brain Injuries

Summary

Imagine that you or a loved one is involved in a car crash, and the impact produced a severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). The extent of the damage is unknown at this point, but there is unconsciousness and lasting brain damage. Wouldn't you want doctors in the intensive care unit (ICU) to be able to treat you right away? Well, scientists and doctors are coming close to that with new healing methods. This article discusses how the "simple salves for traumatic brain injuries" work and what they do to the brain.

After a sever TBI, blood vessels can bleed into the brain, raising the pressure inside the skull. These vessels may even dilate to feed oxygen-starved brain, regions, increasing the brain volume which increases the pressure. This pressure build-up may even cause the brain to be pushed through the only available hole, at the base of the skull, crushing the brain stem and killing the patient. The doctors must slow metabolism and thereby reduce the brain's demand for oxygen rich blood. A new technique doctors are using is called hypothermia therapy. This is when doctors inject chilled saline or cover a patient with a blanket that circulates cool water, "quieting" the brain by lowering the patient's body temperature. The cooling acts as a "brake" on cellular metabolism. A 2007 analysis by the Brain Trauma Foundation suggested that hypothermia therapy had little or no effect on the survival rate of TBI victims, but it did improve their mental capacity and responsiveness.

Another concern to TBI victims is the release of biological poisons that ooze out of ruptured neurons and cause serious problems on neighboring cells. You can monitor the chemical imbalances by performing an analysis on extracted fluid from inside the skull. But doctors want to prevent the release of these toxins. Biomedical engineer Richard Borgens of Purdue University and his colleagues are developing a method that repairs cell membranes using polyethylene glycol, which is bicycle tire sealant. They did tests on brain-injured rats and found that the rats that received injections of polyethylene glycol navigated mazes more proficiently than ones that didn't receive the injection. Scientists do not know if the same thing will happen in humans, but they hope it will.

Doctors hope that advances in intensive care for TBI victims will reduce the long term effects of their brain injury. New discoveries, that will only occur through more research, will improve the lives of brain injury victims each year.

My Response

This article game me a little bit of an idea of how difficult and stressful a brain surgeon's line of work is. There's so much they must be concerned with. The new potential healings discussed in the article are quite fascinating. The fact that bicycle tire sealant can be used as a method for repairing damaged cell membranes is remarkable. I really enjoyed reading about this article. It was well written and easy to understand. I look forward to seeing what progress is made in the treatment of traumatic brain injury victims.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=simple-salves

Touch DNA

Summery

The touch DNA method was discovered in the past five years. The method acquired the name “touch DNA,” because of the fact that it examines skin cells left behind on various objects, weapons, and victims the assailants touched at the crime scene.

The method of touch DNA has drastically improved the number of items of evidence that can be used in DNA detection. In the 1980s, to be able to perform a DNA analysis, forensic investigators had to have a blood or semen stain approximately the size of a quarter. In the 1990s the size of the sample needed dropped to about the size of a dime; after that they just needed a sample big enough to see, “if you can see it, you can analysis it.” With the touch DNA method you don’t have to be able to see the sample; it only requires seven or eight cells from the outermost layer of skin.

Here is how the DNA touch method works:

1) First, investigators recover cells from the crime scene by swabbing objects, victims, articles of
clothing, and other things that were or may have been touched by the assailants.

2) Next, a process called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, is used to generate several copies of
the genes.

3) Then scientists add in fluorescent compounds which then attach themselves to thirteen
specific locations on the DNA resulting in a very specific genetic portrait of that person.

The entirety of the process takes a few days.

The thirteen specific locations, to which the copied genes that are mixed with the fluorescent compounds, were intentionally chosen because they vary greatly from person to person and to not give away specific information like race, genetic diseases, gender, or personal health. The reason behind this being: authorities don’t want individuals’ personal health information to be used for law-enforcement purposes, like interrogations. The chances of two people having the same DNA profiles are extremely small.

My Response: I think it’s very beneficial that the touch DNA method only requires seven or eight skin cells as opposed to the methods in the 1980s and 1990, which required a sample of blood or semen the size of a quarter and later a dime. In some cases blood or semen may not be present at the scene of the crime. God made each of us differently; we all have our different DNA’s for example and this can be used to help fight crime. It’s just neat to see another reason/aspect as to why God made us all unique and different; clearly this is not the only reason why God gave us all our own DNA, but it is just gives us a little more insight to the human body and why God designed it the way he did.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=experts-touch-dna-jonbenet-ramsey

Hannah Eastwood

Can a Walk a Day Keep Alzheimer's Away?

Alzheimers is a horrible disease that many people are at risk of. five million people have Alzeimers disease and ten million boomers are at risk for memory problems. Although medicine seems to always be the answer, scientists have found a non-medical way that could reduce risk factors for dementia, which is a form of Alzheimers. That non-medical way is to exercise. Studies show that adults who are more active in their lifestyles have a lower risk of dementia. Some of the activities that were tested were; swimming, walking, and ballroom dancing. Nicola Lautenschlager at the University of Western Australia studied 170 older people. Sixty percent of the people had a condition that seemed to be the beforehand of Alzheimers. The study went on for six months.
The study consisted of three fifty minutes of some sort of exercise each week. The study divided people into two groups. One group consisted of people who were already doing fifty minutes of exercise per week. The other group had people who were informed about health education. The group who had the people who were already exercising were asked to exercise for an additional fifty minutes per week for this study. By the end of the six months, the exercisers improved on an a long-term measure of cognitive abilities. The group of people who had a little bit of cognitive also improved. Aerobic exercise seemed to improve establishable cognitive abilities. The exercisers maintained a ten percent vantage on the cognitive scores and had less of a decline in memory measure a year after the study was over.This study is very important because it shows how exercise can benefit cognition in older adults with memory problems within an 18 month range. Although this test may seem to show that exercise can help reduce dementia, the effect size shown was too small for a persom to notice a change.

I thought this article was very imspiring. Scientists trying to find a way to postpone Alzheimers without using medicine shows that people don't always have to realize on medicine. I think that trying something other then the same thing (medicine) would get more people to really start thinking about their health and what can happen. I feel like this article is a good way to make people realize they should start exercising. Not only is it healthy for them, it could also save their memory. I am interested to see if they can actually get a better result if they double or triple the size of the groups.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fitness-and-the-brain

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=fitness-and-the-brain

Set in Our Ways: Why Change is So Hard

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=set-in-our-ways&print=true

Many people dream of doing something adventurous when they reach around the age of 20. They are often very willing to experience new things. When a person is past the early 20's, however, hia openness to change becomes less, and he tends to be more resistant. This often happens with any cultural background. Even though people become more resistant to change as they age, many still say they want change. Although this is the case, they typically won't make it happen. Researchers believe that this may partially be caused by unrealistic expectations and a numerous amount of responsibilities.
Openness to new experiences is one personality trait of the "Big Five", according to psychologists. Extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism are the others. Although there is disagreement about the amount of change of these personality traits in adulthood, most research agrees that openness decreases. A survey that evaluated the Big Five traits in people ages 21 to 60 was taken by more than 130,000 people. The results suggested that while women begin adulthood less open to new experiences than men, men often decline in openness quicker than women in their 30's.
Even though 30 is often associated with this change, it happens gradually over the coarse of many years. Almost everyone experiences this change, no matter the individual's personality. One can get an idea of how open he might become by looking at his childhood. A study done by psychologist Richard W. Robins showed that children who are very adventurous will continue to try new experiences as adults.
Psychologist and personality researcher Rainer Riemann suggests that adults from every culture face similiar loads and expectations. These include marriage, an occupation, and often children. Such responsibilities take devotion and regulation, and they may hinder a change in personality. At this stage of life, new experiences might be exciting, but they would likely bring insecurity. Brain researcher Gerhard Roth states that the brain constantly tries to form habits which bring pleasure as well as a sense of comfort and safety.
According to psychologist Brent W. Roberts, young adulthood is when most personality changes occur. Minor ones may take place past the age of 30, but one's personality becomes increasingly sound until the age of 60, which is about when most people have completed their lifetime commitments, such as a career and raising children. This allows them to again open their minds to new experiences.
WHen people look to accomplish major changes in their lives, they often fail. Psychologists Janet Polivy and C. Peter Herman have named it "false hope syndrome". People often attempt making changes in their lives, yet they don't get anywhere, many times because their expectations are too high. Trying to accomplish too much too fast will set anyone up for failure. The key is to make reasonable goals and understand the difficulty of the challenge.

My Response:
This article brought up some points that really made me think about how much I accept change and how the people I know accept change. I tend to agree with what the article says about how young adults seem to seek adventure while older people who have settled down have done exactly that - settled down. But I, personally, think that sometimes it's hard for people to change, because they associate what they do with who they are. That's what people expect of them because "that's who they are". But I think we can encourage each other to help people achieve their goals. It's easier for anyone to take one step at a time when someone is beside him, cheering him on.

Are Immune System Molecules Brain-Builders---And Destroyers?

Summary

A group of scientists from Stanford University, about five years ago, wanted to see how the developing of the brain starts the last set of synapses. A synapse is when cells in the nervous system converse with each other and with cells that are not of the nervous system. When the scientists tried to find the genes involved, they found something they did not expect: they found a gene, C1q, which is a protein important for the immune system.

Before this, it was believed that the brain had no immune cells. Scientists have discovered that these molecules exist and that they have an important role there. Experts say that these findings help show they way the brain works and why disorders such as autism and Alzheimer's disease occur and that this could help find new therapies to treat them.

Lisa Boulanger, a neurobiologist, says that the body is constantly under immune surveillance. The surveillance is not as quick in the brain, that is why it was thought that there were no immune cells in the brain.

A team from Harvard University ran a procedure to find genes controlled by neuron firing and they unexpectedly found a gene that is critical for the immune system to recognize pathogens that are invading. Studies showed that the immune proteins functioned differently in the brain than they did on the body. The proteins in the brain control the signals that are sent between neurons instead of looking for germs.

Other research that was done has shown that immune molecules are important to keep the brain working correctly. During childhood, unnecessary connections are slowly removed and that production of C1q climaxes at that time.

Scientists have discovered that C1q seems to be a connection between synapse loss and glaucoma. Also, scientists believe that the immune proteins are so important that if something disrupts them, it could cause autism and schizophrenia. Scientists have also discovered that if a pregnant woman is exposed to a virus it is more likely that the child could develop one of these disorders. They think that the immune molecules that are in the brain may be the cause.

Recently, Boulanger found that if the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I molecules are decreased in both the bodies and brains of mice, symptoms of autism and schizophrenia occurred. She is now trying to see if this is the same in humans by checking bodily fluid samples of autistic and schizophrenic patients to check the MHC class I levels. If this research holds up it could help with the development of drug treatment for these disabilities and understanding the cause of them.

Basically, by determining the relationship between the immune molecules and diseases of brain degeneration and damage, this could help find new way to treat the diseases.

My Response

I think it's really interesting how immune cells have a totally different function in the brain than in the rest of the body. I also think it's interesting that scientists have found out that these could be what causes certain diseases and disabilities. I am glad that by researching this, scientists can try to find treatments for the diseases. I think it is amazing that God has made our bodies so complex and detailed. I also think that it is amazing that scientists can find out so much about us and our bodies and that they can find out how diseases are caused and how to treat them. Our technology keeps getting better and will help the scientists in their research and they will be able to find out even more things.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=are-immune-system-molecules-build-brains

Autism epidemic?

Recently it has been discovered that every 1 in 166 children are diagnosed with autism. Originally it was 1 in 2500. It has been called an epidemic and many wondered what had caused it to rise so dramatically. Many have blamed vaccines that may have had small traces of mercury. However the way of diagnosing autism has changed quite a bit. Origianally a child had to have all 6 of 6 symptoms to be diagnosed, where now one can be diagnosed if they have 8 of the 16 symptoms. This has probably helped to raise the amount of those diagnosed, and also the awareness of autism has greatened which would also help doctors to recognize someone with autism much easier. It is most likely the number of those with autism hasn't changed, but rather that developements in science have increased our awareness of autism and therefore we more are diagnosed so the figures have changed. So if it has raised it is probable that it hasn't raised as much as we think.

My opinion of this article:
This article was well written to keep one informed but also to keep one interested. It helps to lessen the worries about a possible epidemic, and brings a logical and objective view on it's subject. The writer did well in staying away from rumors and basing his writing on facts. This article does it's purpose well in giving it's message without pointing fingers at vaccines and antibiotics and instead follows the history of diagnosing autism. This article is a good one to read and is worth the reader's time.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=is-there-really-an-autism-epidemic

blockbuster

Blockbuster

Herceptin is a drug that is used for breast cancer. It shrinks the size of the tumor which makes it easier to control and allows some of the patients to live longer. It also stops the outside of the cancer cells to stop growing so that the cells don’t divide uncontrollably. It has only been used on twenty to twenty-five percent of woman who have breast cancer. It hasn’t been proven that this drug is useful on other cancers. A scientist from Health and Science University in Oregon named Adelman, is studying a new protein that he believes can be the cure for breast cancer. Adelman is also studying a chemical compound that has characteristics of this new protein. This protein is called the HER2 protein. It’s a small piece of the receptor component that comes through the cell’s domain. They say that when the cell that uses the HER2 protein needs a protein, it turns a gene into RNA and cuts out copies of DNA segments that are not used. Cancer cells sometimes have more cell-surface receptors than normal cells. Normally a cell uses a chemical signal to get a message to start replication, but since a decoy imitation of this receptor is involved the transmission of the chemical signal is set off. So scientists are testing a large amount of solid tumors to explore many methods of inhibiting receptors. Many drugs for beast cancer that are supposed to shrink the size of the tumor react negatively to herceptin. Scientists have studied different treatments for breast cancer for a long time. They hope to start chemical trial on mice to test the protein’s interaction with many receptors.
This article explains how herceptin affects other drugs and the depth of the problem with it not working with other drugs or proteins. It tells the science behind cancer treatment and how and why many solid tumors were tested and why some failed.

Strange but True: Less Sleep Means More Dreams

Sleep, what Shakespeare would describe as "Nature's soft nurse," can quickly turn into nature's curse when messed with. One may think that the deprivation of sleep is no big deal, but in fact sleep deprivation can quickly turn back to bite you. Many people who sleep well after a long period of sleep deprivation declare that they experience dreams that are very vivid and feel terrifyingly real. " I imagine that's what it’s like when you're on heroine," Eva Salem said after experiencing a vivid dream of a crocodile attack after being sleep deprived for many months. Neurologist Mark Mahowald addressed this new discovery by stating, "When someone is sleep deprived we see greater sleep intensity, meaning greater brain activity during sleep; dreaming is defiantly increased and likely more vivid." This response to sleep deprivation is referred to as REM rebound.

REM stands for "rapid eye movement," a state of the sleep cycle in which our brain activity closely resembles that of being conscious. During the REM state of sleep our mind begins to experience what we might refer to as dreaming. Over the course of an average life span, a human being will spend about twenty-seven years dreaming. REM is one of five states that make up the sleep cycle. The first four states are called the four stages of non-REM. Each of the four states of non-REM generate an individual brain frequency. The first phase of the sleep cycle is identified by the state the body is in when it’s in-between sleeping and being awake. During this stage many people will experience a feeling of falling. The second phase of the sleep cycle is identified as the stage where the brain begins to slow with the exception of a few short bursts of activity. The third and fourth state of the sleep cycle is when the body changes into slow-wave sleep. During the third and fourth phase is identified by the bodies severe decrease heart and breathing rates. Finally after the four non-REM stages end, the REM stage can begin.

Throughout an average night of sleep the body will repeat the sleep cycle about five times. The cycle lasts about ninety minutes in all, however during the first cycle of the night REM will only last around a total of five minutes. As the night goes on, the total amount of time spent in REM will increase. Most often before waking we have experienced a forty-minute phase of REM. Because the brain gives most of its priority to slow-wave sleep (non-REM), REM is the stage that is reduced or lost when we become sleep deprived for a night. Scientist have proven that losing thirty minutes of REM one night can cause a thirty-five percent increase in REM the next night. Not only that, but subjects participating in the REM research stated that when they laid down to sleep, having about twenty-five minutes of REM from the night before, they experienced extremely vivid dreams.

No one is really sure why the body and the brain must make up for lost time spent in REM. Is it really that important? There are some very puzzling discoveries made by scientists researching REM. For example, some of the larger brained mammals, such as dolphins and whales, do not have a REM stage in their sleep cycle. However, studies show that when rats are deprived of the REM phase for four weeks, they die of a cause still unknown. Babies, both in and out of the womb, spend seventy-five percent of their time asleep in the REM phase. People who are using alcohol, nicotine, antidepressants, and blood pressure medicine, all lose time in the REM phase. Although the importance of REM is not scientifically proven, there are a few theories. Various theories put forward the idea of REM regulating neurotransmitter levels, and body temperature. Some Psychologists even believe that dream vividness has nothing to do with the deprivation of REM, but rather all our dreams are related to our anxiety level. There is however evidence that dreaming assists us process and soak in memories.

My Response:

I myself, having experienced very vivid dreams, found this article extremely intriguing. I never had any idea how important each phase of the sleep cycle was to our bodies. Although it does not apply to humans, death of the rats deprived of REM was shocking. I can’t help but wonder what the complete purpose of REM and our dreams is. I defiantly think that more research should be done in this area. In my opinion it seems like an open possibility that increasing REM could cure many mental diseases such as post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, memory problems, or stress in general. Even if there is no curing involved, I would love for the mystery and meaning behind dreams and REM to be solved. It is altogether fascinating to me and probably many others.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=strange-but-true-less-sleep-means-more-dreams

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=what-causes-insomnia&SID=mail&sc=emailfriend

Summary

What causes insomnia?

Insomnia is the chronic inability to fall asleep or to enjoy uninterrupted sleep. Sadly a larger proportion of people suffer from this. some research shows that sleep patterns, and behaviors from certain attitudes leave some people with the higher chance of having insomnia.

Symptons are difficulty falling asleep, waking a lot during the night, waking up to early and not being able to get back to sleep, or waking up feeling unrefreshed. Some of factors the factors with insomnia in the National Sleep Foundation survey included being female, being widowed or single, having a low education level, low income, unemployment, smoking, life stress, physical health problems, and pain or activity limitation. Also in some cases insomnia does increase with age.

Many people with insomnia believe that they are not getting enough sleep, when most people are likely are getting a sufficient amount. Insomniacs tend to stay in bed longer and sleep during the day bekieving that being in bed more will get them to sleep more. Really they are underestimating the amount of sleep they get each night, thinking it is less than it really is. So insomnia is really caused by the attempt to get more sleep than needed. If an insomniac believes thay need eight hours sleep when really it's six hours, that leaves them with two hours of wakefulness. The attitudes of insomniacs is the cause for most because they believe that with an insufficient amount of sleep thier day will not run smoothly. If they feel then that the night before they didn't get enough sleep their attitude, mood, and behavior might be different that day.

There is good news, cognitive-behavioral therapy can change insomniacs attitude toward sleep. They can practice good "sleep hygiene," it includes paying attention to the effects on sleep of environmental factors such as noise, light, and temperature; avoiding behaviors that can lead to conditioned insomnia such as reading or watching TV in bed; avoiding alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, or certain medications before bedtime; and paying attention to the timing of exercise, snacks, and bedtime itself. Shortening sleep time might also help. In the end these treatments seem to help more than certain medications.

Conclusion: I find it really intersting that it's the attitudes and certain other behaviors that cause insomnia. I originally thought that it would've been some chemical reaction in the brain that caused insomnia. Also it seems that more people, than I thought, suffer from insomnia and other sleep related problems. It was surprising to find that behavioral therapy helps more than medications . Simple things such as not reading or watching TV can help an insomniac get more sleep.