My daughters Kristin and Karen have been wonderful research collaborators over the years. One colleague quipped ,”If I knew how reliable a stats and communication person would be, I would have spawned some year’s ago!”
Here is what I am reading today:
“The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is forging ahead with a four-year plan to build a sophisticated memory stimulator, as part of President Barack Obama’s $100 million initiative to better understand the human brain.
The science has never been done before, and raises ethical questions about whether the human mind should be manipulated in the name of staving off war injuries or managing the aging brain.”
“The study was carried out by Christian Scharinger and Ulrich Rabl, under the supervision of Lukas Pezawas at the Department of Biological Psychiatry, University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the MedUni Vienna, in collaboration with groups from the special research division SFB-35 and other institutions at the MedUni Vienna, as well as international cooperation partners (Technical University of Dresden, Central Institute for Mental Health, Mannheim). Alongside other colleagues from the University Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, the MedUni Vienna’s Centre of Excellence for High Field MR, Clinical Institute of Laboratory Medicine and Institute of Pharmacology were also involved in the study.”
“”When we made detailed comparisons, we found that about a third of people with AgCC would meet diagnostic criteria for an autism spectrum disorder in terms of their current symptoms,” says Paul, who was the founding president of the National Organization for Disorders of the Corpus Callosum.
The research was done in the laboratory of Ralph Adolphs, Bren Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and professor of biology at Caltech and a coauthor of the study. The team looked at a range of different tasks performed by both sets of patients. Some of the exercises that involved certain social behaviors were videotaped and analyzed by the researchers to assess for autism. The team also gave the individuals questionnaires to fill out that measured factors like intelligence and social functioning.”
“Based solely on genetic markers, GPS could place individuals within their country of origin 83% of the time. Half of the subjects were pinpointed within 87 km of their reported point of origin. For instance, all female subjects from the mountain commune of San Basilio, Sardinia, were placed in their original village (inset).”
“Dr Rob Waterland of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, who conducted the epigenetic analyses said: “We selected these gene regions because our earlier studies in mice had shown that establishment of DNA methylation at metastable epialleles is particularly sensitive to maternal nutrition in early pregnancy.”
The authors note that their study was limited by including only one blood sampling point during early pregnancy, but estimates of pre-conception nutrient concentrations were calculated using results from non-pregnant women sampled throughout a whole calendar year. The authors also plan to increase the sample size in further studies.”
“Simpson and colleagues describe the monkeys as being more communicative when they saw the caregivers, that is, making facial gestures more frequently after receiving oxytocin than they did after receiving the saline. The monkeys were more likely to engage in lip smacking than tongue protrusion, but were more likely still to engage in either of these gestures after oxytocin than after the saline. Although on average monkeys exposed to oxytocin gestured more than after exposure to saline, there were differences in the frequency of gesturing among the individual monkeys. Monkeys who were more likely than their peers to gesture at caregivers in the first week of life (which the researchers termed strong imitators) gestured more frequently after oxytocin than did peers who were not as likely to gesture in the first week.”
22 Comments
s_carrico · May 2, 2014 at 7:47 pm
I think the idea for manipulating the hippocampus by inserting a ‘memory chip’ into the brain is fascinating. I never knew that kind of technology was even in the realm of possibility. Though I agree that there are substantial risks to a procedure like this, I think the benefits for Alzheimer patients especially, would be phenomenal. Having worked with people with Alzheimer’s in the past, I understand the frustration of not being able to remember something as simple as what a spoon is for. This technology could drastically improve the lives of those suffering from the disease and their family members!
madelinelasell · May 4, 2014 at 5:24 pm
Re: the influence of a mother’s diet
I find it so interesting that all cells in any given individual maintain the same DNA sequence while still differentiating into specific tissues with the help of various epigenetic mechanisms. Undoubtedly, appropriate differentiation of these cells calls for specific optimal conditions. That said, I completely agree in saying that a mother’s diet before and throughout pregnancy plays a huge role in the success of fetal tissue differentiation. With adequate nutrition, a mother can supply her fetus with an optimal environment to develop in. As a nutrition student, I’ve had the opportunity to take a course titled “Maternal and Child Nutrition” in which I learned about how a balanced diet (inclusive of proper amounts of folic acid, calcium, and iron) is essential during pregnancy. We did not touch on the specific mechanisms through which these nutrients allow for appropriate cell differentiation, so reading about DNA methylation in this article helped me to see specifically how nutrition is a major component of epigenetics. I now understand that one’s nutritional status can significantly affect the process of DNA methylation, and, therefore, how certain genes will be expressed in the body to form functional tissues and organs.
oliviaeinbund · May 4, 2014 at 8:13 pm
Mother’s Diet: This study seemed to be thoroughly conducted; however, it was an isolated environment. I think further studies would be very useful for this topic especially with increased sample size as the article points out. I think knowing more about pregnancy and how diet affects children has both positive and negative effects. For one, it could really benefit the health of the children. On the other side, a mother may manipulate her diet in order to achieve specific desired outcomes which may not work.
oliviaeinbund · May 4, 2014 at 8:16 pm
Blood Test For Depression: A test for depression has advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, it could help determine an accurate diagnosis as depression is commonly misdiagnosed. However, a depression test may increase the use of a medical model for treatment. It has been proven that both medication and talk therapy together treat depression best, so a blood test determining depression may cause people to think medicating will cure them of some sort of disease.
shanpolley · May 5, 2014 at 11:00 am
implanted memories: I think this technology, if correctly made, could be an incredible step forward in not just the lives of soldiers but of all of society suffering from memory loss. I think it’s great that research is being supported, funded, and done to understand memory in the brain, however I think it will be incredibly controversial if the chip becomes valid, as being able to create or remove memories is a big power to have. However I think the pros greatly outweigh the cons, and am interested to see where this technology goes in the new few months!
hillarycho · May 5, 2014 at 8:04 pm
Oxytocin and Social behavior: I found this article interesting. It cool to see that the young rheesus monkeys were more social in response to the addition of oxytocin into their body. This could be a solution for children with mental diseases that cause social implicaitons; however, oxytocin doesn’t give off the same response to every person. So it may not work on some children, and another potentially discouraging thing I see about this study is that children will not be able to act like themselves. They’ll have this medicine under their belt that will make them more social and would maybe build a dependence on the medicine before they go out and interact with people.
hillarycho · May 5, 2014 at 8:12 pm
A genetic App: The concept for this app is well-intended, but I’m not sure how well the app can actually determine where you’re from. I don’t fully understand the admixture concept, like how can they determine which country you immigrated from just from your DNA sequence. And how they created an algorithm from the admixture concept. Maybe if they explained it a little better I’d be a little more on board with the idea.
hillarycho · May 5, 2014 at 8:15 pm
A Genetic App: The idea of this app is well-intended, however I don’t know how well this app will be able to work. What really confused me was the admixture concept because how will they be able to know where you immigrated from based on just your DNA sequence. And how are they able to create an admixture algorithm based on this information? Maybe if they explained it a little better in the article I’d be a little more on board with the idea.
tawells · May 5, 2014 at 9:55 pm
Re: Oxytocin and Social Behavior
This research conducted on rhesus monkeys could have several implications for their human cousins, namely possible treatment for autism as the article mentioned. I found this experiment to be fascinating in that it examined oxytocin’s effect not only as a biological process but also in relation to social learning. In other words, this research incorporates the interaction between the effects in social behavior by the monkeys and the manipulation of facial gestures by human caregivers serving as models. The experiment also reveals the extent to which oxytocin functions in the body, participating in labor, parent bonding, and now developmental skills.
shanpolley · May 6, 2014 at 12:09 pm
blood test for depression: as someone interesting in a medical profession, I think it’s amazing what medical advances are continuously being made. Being able to test for depression would be a huge step forward in correctly diagnosing those who are depressed, as well as helping children of depressed parents become aware of their risk of depression in terms of heritability. (It is still being researched whether or not depression is heritable and/or based around environmental factors, although in my opinion the research points to it being heritable). However I agree with oliviaeinbund in that being able to medically diagnose depression may also cause an increase in medical solutions to depression (drugs) instead of other forms of treatment.
rgroppe · May 6, 2014 at 3:39 pm
Blood Test for Depression:
This article sheds light on an alternative diagnosis for depression. This mental disorder which affects many people, has been linked with serotonin re uptake. Researchers have now said that serotonin in the blood works similarly as the brain. I wonder what effect the environment and one’s genetic predisposition has on the serotonin transporters in the blood. This study is very interesting to me since I know that depression is a very common mental disorder.
rgroppe · May 6, 2014 at 3:47 pm
implanted memories:
I think this study is very interesting. This study takes a look at implanting neurons that could potentially restore declarative memories. This discovery could improve the memories of those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and soldiers whose injuries in combat have caused them to lose their memories. I think this is so fascinating because there has never been a way to retrieve old declarative memories once they have been lost.
lmhenderson · May 7, 2014 at 4:01 pm
Blood Test for Depression: I find it really interesting to use a blood test to determine depression. It had never occurred to me that this could be a possible way to diagnose someone. I feel that this can be helpful in a way to help identify depression since it can be commonly misdiagnosed or the severity may be misunderstood. Although the serotonin uptake in blood and the depression network function together, I still think that the use of therapy can also help contribute to this new form of testing for depression. By using both the blood tests and therapy, I think there will be less errors regarding the level of severity and common misdiagnoses for depression.
lmhenderson · May 7, 2014 at 4:23 pm
Implanted Memories: I think that it is a great scientific improvement if this implant will actually work. I feel like this could benefit those with severe memory loss and their families in many ways but I do wonder about what memories will be completely forgotten and what memories will be able to come back. Will memories of them in battle be remembered and could it possibly cause PTSD once they are given this implant? It says these declarative memories will be put back into place but it would be interesting to see if the person with the implant recollects the memories that they want to and declines to remember the ones that were not wanted to be remembered.
nfreche · May 8, 2014 at 7:32 pm
I enjoyed this article because I was able to incorporate nutrition facts that I have acquired from my science based and nutrition classes I have taken here. Maternal diet is not only important for the mother, but also for the child she plans to have. A well balanced diet should begin before conception for optimal health and prevention of birth defects such as neural tube defects, anemia, infections, and brain development. This article mentions that nutrients folate, vitamins B2, B6, and B12, choline and methionine are necessary for the addition of methyl groups. It is interesting that this is so because these specific nutrients also are responsible for preventing neural tube defects and help regulate gene function and brain development. Although familiar with this information, I now understand one way that these nutrients can influence gene function through an epigenetic technique: methylation.
tawells · May 9, 2014 at 4:54 pm
Re: Mother’s Diet
This article provides even more evidence as to just how important a mother’s diet is for the development of her child. Not only does it affect the child’s genes, but it also affects how they are expressed. I have to wonder though, is an “optimal diet for mothers-to-be that would prevent defects in the methylation process” as simple as it sounds? Is there a truly universal ingredient for genetic success? More research would be needed before this sort of claim can be made.
tawells · May 13, 2014 at 6:08 pm
Re: Implanted Memories
Although the idea of a memory chip to restore memory functions in the brain back to normal in Alzheimer’s patients and wounded soldiers is ground-breaking in science and technology, I have to agree that there are some ethical considerations at stake here. In regards to Alzheimer’s patients, is this benefit worth tampering with a person’s identity? Also, is it just for the ability to restore desired memories and erase undesired ones to be available only to certain individuals? Finally, this is yet another example of the trade-off in medicine between keeping someone alive and letting nature take its course, not to mention the cost involved in doing so.
krtomase · May 16, 2014 at 9:12 pm
Blood Test for Depression: I am not sure how I feel about the possibility of detecting depression through a blood test. There are definitely some positives and negatives to this discovery. On the positive side, it would be very helpful for doctors to be able to appropriately diagnose patients with depression and detect it early on. On the negative side, however, as mentioned earlier, I feel like people would try to opt out of therapy and just take medication once they are diagnosed. People might not make the effort to talk to a therapist and try to understand why they feel the way they do. It’s better for individuals to have to think through their emotions and self reflect rather than simply taking a blood test to find out if they are depressed. As long as the blood test is used in addition to therapy, then it would be very beneficial for both doctors and patients.
krtomase · May 16, 2014 at 10:45 pm
Implanted Memories: The ability to restore declarative memories through the use of a memory chip is an incredible advancement in science and technology, and this could be extremely beneficial for those suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and injuries from war. I am shocked that this could be made possible. However, I am concerned for ethical reasons and do not like the idea of manipulating the brain in such a way. I do not think it should be okay to have such control over the brain. Although, I can’t imagine how frustrating it may be to not remember simple facts, so it is definitely something that must be carefully considered. I’m interested in seeing what will happen in the future for this memory chip.
christinahenning · May 18, 2014 at 10:48 am
blood test for depression: By now having the abilities to test for a mental health disorder through a blood test is fascinating and shows how far we have come with technology. Working as a Community Advisor in the residence halls I have had to deal with situations of people with depression, etc. and I think it could be an advantage to test through a blood test for depression, especially if it could tell us how severe their depression is. There is a negative side effect I could see by testing for depression in this way. If someone thought they had depression but their blood did not verify they had depression could cause a grey area/ Regardless of what their blood says people should always be able to get help if they have feelings of depression, despite their blood result.
nfreche · June 6, 2014 at 7:02 pm
Are Strawberries the real Super fruit?
July 10, 2012
As we all know, fruits and vegetables are essential to one’s diet in order to maintain a healthy weight and to keep healthy. Strawberries are known to be high in vitamin C, fiber, antioxidants, and more. This article reveals that strawberries are capable of activating a protein in our body called Nrf2. Nrf2 increases antioxidants and other protective measures. This article also mentions other benefits that strawberries provide such as prevention of heart disease and diabetes. All of these factors led the article to classify strawberries as a super fruit. Although strawberries are delicious and proven to be quite nutritious, a conscious foodie should keep in mind that there is not a single food that will provide all the nutrition benefits one’s body needs. Keep in mind to always have variety in your diet for optimal health.
nfreche · June 6, 2014 at 7:03 pm
Are Americans ready to solve the Obesity issue?
August 2012
This article notes a poll that I found rather interesting. 64% of Americans believe that overeating, lack of exercise, and too much screen time are the main contributors to obesity. Although personal factors do play a role, only 16% recognized that environmental factors such as the access and availability of healthy and junk food. Personal decisions are difficult to make when one’s environment persuades for unhealthy choices. From my maternal and child nutrition class I learned that the average child spends 7.5 hours in front of a screen, that is, TV, computer, games, etc. Not only does screen time reduce the time for other rigorous activities, it also provides advertisements that are mostly related to junk food. I believe that Americans are able to solve the obesity issue. I think parents must start at home by decreasing screen time, increasing physical activity, and incorporating their child with food served. Parents must also sacrifice their own time by preparing more homemade meals and choosing to eat meals as a family. There are many more ways that people can come to healthy weight, these are just a few ideas that could help.