A twice-daily dose of insulin, sprayed deep in the nose for easy transit to the brain, may slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new pilot study. The researchers gave 104 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease or pre-Alzheimer’s cognitive impairment one of three nasal sprays for four months. One group of patients got a nasal spray with a moderate dose of insulin twice a day, one group got a higher dose, and the third got a squirt of saline solution, as a placebo. The memory, cognitive abilities, and day-to-day functioning of patients given insulin stayed constant or improved slightly—particularly for those given the moderate dose of insulin rather than the high dose—while the abilities and memory of patients given the placebo declined.
Archive for the ‘Mind & Brain’ Category
Insulin Spray May Stave Off Alzheimer’s, Preliminary Study Suggests
Fatherhood Lowers Men’s Testosterone, But the Causes Remain Murky
If having kids has made you feel like less of a party animal, men, you now have some science backing you up. A new study following men from their single salad days through the early years of their children’s lives found that fathers had a steeper decline in testosterone levels than men who remained single and childless. Though previous studies had indicated that fathers had lower testosterone, this is the first study to look at men before and after fatherhood, showing that it’s not just that lower-testosterone males are more likely to become dads. (In fact, this study shows the opposite—it’s the hormone-pumped guys who are more likely to settle down with a partner and have kids.)
But testosterone declines naturally with age, and stress is known to contribute to cellular aging. Is the accelerated decline because zero sleep, frayed nerves, and other byproducts of procreating are making men old before their time? That’s a question for next time—this study doesn’t address the decline’s cause.
Image courtesy of edenpictures / flickr
How to Make a Transparent Mouse with a Few Simple Ingredients
On the left: A mouse embryo preserved in para-formaldehyde. On the right: A mouse embryo soaked in Scale for two weeks.
What’s the News: The trouble with brains, organs, and tissues in general, from a biologist’s perspective, is that they scatter light like nobody’s business. Shine a light into there to start snapping pictures of cells with your microscope, and bam, all those proteins and macromolecules bounce it around and turn everything to static before you’ve gotten more than a millimeter below the surface. Scientists at RIKEN in Japan, however, have just published a special recipe for a substance that makes tissue as transparent as Jell-O, making unprecedentedly deep imaging possible.
Is Culture Behind Men’s Better Spatial Reasoning?
What’s the News: In the long-running debate over the differences between men and women, one mental skill has emerged as being perhaps more biologically rooted than any other: the ability to solve problems involving physical spaces, shapes, or forms. Many studies have concluded that men simply seem to have an inherent advantage in this area. But a new study of two tribes in Northern India is suggesting that the gender gap we see in spatial skills may be partially due to culture rather than raw biology. This finding may affect the way researchers look at gender differences, but it will surely not settle the question, considering that it’s one study of a small group of people living in one limited environment.
Confirmed: Kids of Older Dads At High Risk of Mental Illness. But Why?
Children of older mothers, scientists have long known, are at higher risk for certain genetic disorders such as Down syndrome. But the father’s age is matters, too. As a father’s age increases, research shows, so does his child’s risk of mental illness, schizophrenia and autism in particular. In Scientific American, Nicole Grey explores the link between a father’s age and his child’s health, as well as the tricky questions about what mechanisms are behind the that link: genes, epigenetic changes, environment, or some combination of the three.
A Brainy New Chip Could Make Computers More Like Humans
One of IBM’s prototype cognitive computing chips
What’s the News: Researchers at IBM have developed a new “cognitive computing” microchip inspired by the brain’s computational tricks. These new chips, the researchers say, could make processors that are more powerful and more efficient than today’s computers—and better at the flexible learning and responses that are a struggle for current AI systems but a breeze for the human brain.
Why Do the Innocent Confess?
In the justice system, a confession is often treated as proof of guilt—and yet, a surprising number of people confess to crimes they didn’t commit. In its latest issue, the Economist reviews recent research showing just how frequently innocent people ‘fess up, and what factors lead them to do it.
When an experimenter falsely accused subjects of crashing a computer, 25% of them confessed even though they’d done nothing wrong, one study found. If the accusation was corroborated by a (lying) eyewitness, that number jumped to 80%. (more…)
A Mental Abacus Lets Math Whizzes Bypass Language
What’s the News: Most of us need everyone to stop talking when we perform mental math. But for children trained to do math visually with a “mental abacus,” verbal disturbances roll off their backs, prompting psychologists to posit that unlike the rest of us, they aren’t routing their calculations through words.
Could Next-Gen Drugs Turn Off Genes in the Brain?
Current drugs for conditions from depression to Parkinson’s work by changing levels of chemicals in the brain—an imprecise method that can have a wide range of unintended effects. But a new study suggests it could be possible to make drugs that work by turning off genes instead, getting at, for instance, a specific receptor in a particular part of the brain.
People With Dyslexia Have Difficulty Not Just Reading Words, But Recognizing Voices
What’s the News: While most people think of dyslexia as primarily a problem with reading, people with dyslexia seem to have trouble processing the spoken language, as well. A new study published last week Science found that people with dyslexia have a harder time recognizing voices than other people do.
Dice Help Scientists Get Honest Answers to Touchy Questions
New tools for conservation?
What’s the News: Maybe it’s you—or maybe it’s the dice. A technique that relies on concealing individual transgressions while revealing greater truths is letting biologists get to the bottom of South African farmers’ killing of leopards.
Human Brains Shrink As They Age, Perhaps From the Weight of Years
What’s the News: The human brains, capable as it is of amazing mental feats, comes with a downside: it shrinks as we get older, contributing to memory loss, reduced inhibitions, and the other cognitive dysfunctions of age. But even chimpanzees, our closest living relatives, don’t suffer this sort of brain loss, according to a study published online yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. This unusual shrinkage of the human brain, the researchers say, may be a result of our long lifespan. (more…)
Baby Parrots Learn Their Names From Their Parents
Parrot communication in the wild from Karl Berg on Vimeo.
What’s the News: Parrots, those irrepressible mimics of the animal world, are some of the few creatures known to have individual names: each bird has its own signature call that others use when addressing it and that the bird uses itself in avian “conversation.” Scientists have long wondered where these calls come from. Now, a new study of wild parrots shows that even before chicks can “talk,” their parents have provided them with a moniker, which they will tweak and then use throughout their lives.
Psychiatrists Who Accepted Millions of Dollars from Drug Companies Now Face Restrictions
What’s the News: Three child psychiatrists at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School who pioneered the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in young children failed to disclose that they had accepted millions in fees from drugs companies, Mass General’s investigation, which concluded Friday, has found. The three are now barred from participating in non-research activities sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry for a year, among other restrictions.
Those Graphic New Cigarette Labels Won’t Help, Psychology Says
What’s the News: Starting in September 2012, the FDA will require every pack of cigarettes sold in the US to be emblazoned with a large, text-and-image health warning, similar to the labels already seen in Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil, and several other countries. The FDA unveiled the nine label designs earlier this week; several are quite graphic, including photos of cancerous lungs and lips and a man exhaling smoke through his tracheotomy hole.
These graphic images, however, may not be an effective way to get smokers to quit, or deter new smokers from starting. Several neuroscience and psychology studies show that these fear tactics have little effect—and may at times do more harm than good.
