Эффекты разных психоактивных веществ на уровне синапсов

Простенько, но со вкусом.
http://faculty.plattsburgh.edu/donald.slish/DA.html

Т-щи учёные, с Наступающим!

Ёлочка на чашке Петри. Из грибов. Из тумблера).

Допамин в свежих научных новостях

Я очень люблю допамин. Да и как можно его не любить, если именно это чудесное вещество отвечает за нашу мотивацию, удовольствие и другие приятности? В этом блоге достаточно много постов посвящены этому нейромедиатору, поэтому сейчас я хочу поделиться ссылкой на свежайшую статью из авторитетного источника, в которой раскрываются какие-то интересные и не известные до этого, сведения о допамине.

Сообщение на http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/osum-ans120111.php гласит, что допамин может быть крайне полезен при лечении опухолей. Оказывается, этот катехоламин способен увеличить эффективность действия противораковых препаратов и радиотерапии! Допамин улучшает приток крови к опухолям и таким образом повышает концентрацию действующих веществ именно в месте потребности, так же увеличивается уровень насыщения этих участков кислородом, что так же способствует борьбе с опухолью. Такие результаты были получены на животных моделях рака груди и кишечника.

1 из 5 американцев сидит на психоактивных лекарствах

Оптимистичненько так. Называется, сделай сам - настроение? - а зачем, ведь есть таблетки, которые создадут любое настроение.
Вот такой интересный материал на http://blisstree.com/feel/1-in-5-americans-on-mental-health-drugs-overmedicating-817/ советую вам почитать для размышлений:

Almost half of all Americans take at least one prescription drug, and now a new report tells us that more than 20% of us take at least one medication to treat a mental health problem–a number that is up 22% since 2001. It’s an alarming trend for sure, and has us wondering: Are all of these drugs really necessary, or are Americans over-medicated?
Granted, mental health disorders are a serious illness which require serious treatment. According to the statistics released by Medco Health Solutions, more than a quarter of us suffer from mental health problems which have us taking antidepressants, antipsychotics, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs or anti‐anxiety treatments every year. And women are far more likely to take a drug to treat a mental health condition than men with those over 45 showing the highest use.
And yet, the World Health Organization says this doesn’t necessarily mean that we are over-medicated.
So what does it mean? Are more Americans just getting diagnosed with depression, anxiety or other mental health disorders? Are these conditions becoming more prevalent? Or, are doctors simply taking the easy way out and prescribing more drugs than necessary without exploring other alternate treatments first for less severe cases?
In Charles Barber’s Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation, the New York Times stated that he makes a case for Americans being “vastly overmedicated for often relatively minor mental health concerns”. There is also the theory to the sharp rise in mental health medications: We are asking for them. TheNY Times also suggested that we are a self-drugging society in many respects. We are often too quick to pop pills when something doesn’t feel quite right. Many of us use alcohol to numb feelings of stress, anxiety and depression. It was even suggested that some Americans are taking mental health medications for “ficticious concerns”. For that, we can point a finger to all of the marketing and advertising that the drug companies are doing (over $5 billion a year) that suggest we may have a problem (even though we thought we were fine until we saw their commercial telling us how depressed we are).
In a recent Blisstree post, I talked about the fact that some doctors think depression could actually be good for usbecause it forces us to face our issues and dissect exactly what is happening in our lives and in our head. Because of this, some doctors still think that other mental health treatments like talk therapy should be explored first because putting a pharmaceutical bandage over our depression or anxiety can often preclude us from uncovering our source of true happiness. Other experts have also suggested that a healthy diet, stress-reduction and even yoga can help bring us back to a positive mental state.
Tell us what you think. Are Americans too quick to take mental health medications?

Я ещё и там

И кстати, уважаемые. Большой и тёплый велкам на http://my.science.ua/my/OlgaMaslova/. Любезно согласилась там периодически радовать народ околобиологическими вкусняшками.  Ресурс вообще молодой, но создан с очень альтруистично-эпистемологическим задумом. Надеюсь, все молодые (и не очень) блоговеды "из оттуда" сделают его реально стоящим и крутым. Чего нам (да и вам) и желаю. :)

Про мужчин и восприимчивость к алкоголю

Читаем:

Alcohol is one of the most commonly abused substances, and men are up to twice as likely to develop alcoholism as women. Until now, the underlying biology contributing to this difference in vulnerability has remained unclear. A new study published in Biological Psychiatry reveals that dopamine may be an important factor.
Researchers from Columbia and Yale studied male and female college-age social drinkers in a laboratory test of alcohol consumption. After consuming an alcoholic or non-alcoholic drink, each participant underwent a specialized positron emission tomography (PET) scan, an imaging technique that can measure the amount of alcohol-induced dopamine release.
Dopamine has multiple functions in the brain, but is important in this context because of its pleasurable effects when it is released by rewarding experiences, such as sex or drugs. Despite similar consumptions of alcohol, the men had greater dopamine release than women. This increase was found in the ventral striatum, an area in the brain strongly associated with pleasure, reinforcement and addiction formation.
"In men, increased dopamine release also had a stronger association with subjective positive effects of alcohol intoxication," explained Dr. Nina Urban, corresponding author for this study. "This may contribute to the initial reinforcing properties of alcohol and the risk for habit formation." Dr. Anissa Abi-Dargham, senior author on this project, notes that "another important observation from this study is the decline in alcohol-induced dopamine release with repeated heavy drinking episodes. This may be one of the hallmarks of developing tolerance or transitioning into habit."
These findings indicate that the ability of alcohol to stimulate dopamine release may play an important and complex role in its rewarding effects and abuse liability in humans. This identification of an in vivo neurochemical mechanism that could help explain the sex difference in alcoholism is an exciting step forward in alcoholism research.
Source : Elsevier

http://www.molecularstation.com/forum/science-news-views/83485-why-men-more-susceptible-alcoholism.html 

Паразит мозг не съест, но химию его изменит...

Сто лет не обновляла этот бложик, пардон.
Вот вам забавная новость. На английском, ага, как обычно.
Некоторые паразиты (токсоплазма, например) в мозгу могут феерически изменять выработку допамина.

Brain parasite directly alters brain chemistry

A research group from the University of Leeds has shown that infection by the brain parasite Toxoplasma gondii, found in 10-20 per cent of the UK's population, directly affects the production of dopamine, a key chemical messenger in the brain.

Their findings are the first to demonstrate that a parasite found in the brain of mammals can affect dopamine levels.

Whilst the work has been carried out with rodents, lead investigator Dr Glenn McConkey of the University's Faculty of Biological Sciences, believes that the findings could ultimately shed new light on treating human neurological disorders that are dopamine-related such as schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and Parkinson's disease.

This research may explain how these parasites, remarkably, manipulate rodents' behaviour for their own advantage. Infected mice and rats lose their innate fear of cats, increasing the chances of being caught and eaten, which enables the parasite to return to its main host to complete its life cycle.

In this study, funded by the Stanley Medical Research Institute and Dunhill Medical Trust, the research team found that the parasite causes production and release of many times the normal amount of dopamine in infected brain cells.

Dopamine is a natural chemical which relays messages in the brain controlling aspects of movement, cognition and behaviour. It helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centres and regulates emotional responses such as fear. The presence of a certain kind of dopamine receptor is also associated with sensation-seeking, whereas dopamine deficiency in humans results in Parkinson's disease.

These findings build on earlier studies in which Dr McConkey's group found that the parasite actually encodes the enzyme for producing dopamine in its genome.

"Based on these analyses, it was clear that T. gondii can orchestrate a significant increase in dopamine production in neural cells," says Dr McConkey.

"Humans are accidental hosts to T. gondii and the parasite could end up anywhere in the brain, so human symptoms of toxoplasmosis infection may depend on where parasite ends up. This may explain the observed statistical link between incidences of schizophrenia and toxoplasmosis infection."

Dr McConkey says his next experiments will investigate how the parasite enzyme triggers dopamine production and how this may change behaviour.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uol-bpd110411.php

Комикс про Кюри

Мария Кюри очень знает толк в гениальности!
Картинка кликабельна.

Новый фон научных заметок

Опять некоторые изменения в дизайне. Не знаю, долго ли я выдержу такой весёлый фон, но пока что мне он показался весьма настроенческим и подходящим под научный контент блога. Надеюсь, успешность проекта от этого только возрастёт!
Оставайтесь на связи, дорогие почемучки и любители научных новостей! :)

Женщины с поликистозом яичников более восприимчивы к бисфенолу А

Последние исследования указывают на зависимость между вредом, наносимым таким распространённым веществом как бисфенол А и наличием у женщин синдрома поликистоза яичников (очень популярного гинекологического заболевания). Статья с http://scienceblog.com/41751/women-with-polycystic-ovary-syndrome-may-be-more-vulnerable-to-bpa:

Chevy Chase, MD — A recent study accepted for publication in The EndocrineSociety’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism(JCEM), found higher Bisphenol A (BPA) levels in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) compared to controls. Furthermore, researchers found a statistically significant positive association between male sex hormones and BPA in these women suggesting a potential role of BPA in ovarian dysfunction.BPA is a very common industrial compound used in food and drink packaging, plastic consumer products and dental materials. PCOS is the most common endocrine disorder of women of reproductive age and is characterized by excessive secretion of androgens which are masculinization-promoting hormones. The syndrome raises the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, infertility and heart disease.“Our research shows that BPA may be more harmful to women with hormonal and fertility imbalances like those found in PCOS,” said Evanthia Diamanti-Kandarakis, MD, PhD, study co-author and professor at the University of Athens Medical School in Greece. “These women should be alert to the potential risks and take care of themselves by avoiding excessive every-day consumption of food or drink from plastic containers.”In this study, researchers divided 71 women with PCOS and 100 healthy female control subjects into subgroups matchedby age and body composition. Blood levels of BPA were nearly 60 percent higher in lean women with PCOS and more than 30 percent higher in obese women with the syndrome when compared to controls. Additionally, as BPAlevels increased, so did concentrations of the male sex hormone testosterone and androstenedione, a steroid hormone that converts to testosterone.
“Excessive secretion of androgens, as seen in PCOS, interfere with BPA detoxification by the liver, leading to accumulation of blood levels of BPA,” said Diamanti-Kandarakis. “BPA also affects androgen metabolism, creating a vicious circle between androgens and BPA.”Other researchers working on the study include: Eleni Kandaraki of Huddersfield Royal Infirmary Hospital in West Yorkshire, United Kingdom; Antonis Chatzigeorgiou, Sarantis Livadas, Eleni Palioura, Frangiscos Economou, Michael Koutsilieris and Sotiria Palimeri of National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece; and Dimitrios Panidis of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece.The article, “Endocrine disruptors and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS): Elevated serum levels of Bisphenol A in women with PCOS,” appears in the March 2011 issue ofJCEM.Founded in 1916, The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest, largest and most active organization devoted to research on hormones and the clinical practice of endocrinology. Today, The Endocrine Society’s membership consists of over 14,000 scientists, physicians, educators,nurses and students in more than 100 countries. Society members represent all basic, applied and clinical interests in endocrinology. The Endocrine Society is based in Chevy Chase, Maryland. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endo-society.org.

Прощай, Прозак, Привет, Микроб!

В сфере поиска новых эффективных антидепрессантов - революция. Вероятно, что состав микрофлоры кишечника может влиять на ментальное состояние достаточно сильно. Поэтому приём правильных пробиотиков, в определённом смысле, сможет снизить потре6ность в традиционных антидепрессантах.
Читаем подробнее статью Elizabeth Nolan Brown на http://blisstree.com/feel/goodbye-prozac-hello-microbial-bacteria/:

Probiotics are the good-for-you bacteria found in things such as yogurt and kombucha (plus in myriad dietary supplement forms) and alleged to help with digestion, immune-system functioning, stomach issues, diarrhea, lactose intolerance and irritable bowel syndrome. Mark Lyte, a professor at Texas Tech University interested in the intersection of microbiology and neuroscience, thinks neurochemicals (such as serotonin) delivered directly to the gut via probiotics could help not just with gastrointestinal health but also psychological well-being.

Lyte’s theory, which was published in the July issues of BioEssays, has yet to be tested in humans. In a commentary in the same issue of BioEssays, though, Dr. Gregor Reid of the University of Western Ontario says the idea is supported by studies. “Could this mean that adjunct treatment for people suffering from certain types of mental health problems is a fecal transplant? Food for thought,” writes Reid (scientist humor!). Research on mice has shown microbial bacteria can produce and respond to neurochemicals, and that the connection between gut microbes and the nervous system provides “a viable route for influencing neurological function.”

Ресвератрол - источник полезностей в красном вине

О пользе красного вина написано достаточно много. Вот - очередные новости о весьма интересном компоненте - ресвератроле, который скорее всего обладает канцеропротекторными свойствами:

FANCY receiving the heart protecting abilities of red wine without having to drink a glass every day? Soon you may be able to, thanks to the synthesis of chemicals derived from resveratrol, the molecule believed to give wine its protective powers. The chemicals have the potential to fight many diseases, including cancer.

Plants make a huge variety of chemicals, called polyphenols, from resveratrol to protect themselves against invaders, particularly fungi. But they only make tiny amounts of each chemical, making it extremely difficult for scientists to isolate and utilise them. The unstable nature of resveratrol has also hindered attempts at building new compounds from the chemical itself.

Scott Snyder at Columbia University in New York and his team have found a way around this: building polyphenols from compounds that resemble, but are subtly different to, resveratrol. These differences make the process much easier. Using these alternative starting materials, they have made dozens of natural polyphenols, including vaticanol C, which is known to kill cancer cells (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature10197).

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028185.300-red-wines-heart-health-chemical-unlocked-at-last.html

Хроническое употребление кетамина разрушает клетки мочевого пузыря

Chronic ketamine use kills bladder cells - health - 15 June 2011 - New Scientist - статейка о новом исследовании о вреде кетамина, который раньше массово использовали для наркоза, а совсем недавно предлагали использовать как антидепрессант даже для лечения детей (в минимальных дозах). Внезапно оказалось, что это вещество способно необратимо изменять состояние клеток мочевого пузыря.

У жестоких людей сильнее развита мезолимбическая область

Век живи - век учись. Оказывается, различия в поведении людей (например, степень жестокости) может выражаться в банальных морфофизиологических параметрах. Так, у жестоких людей, согласно результатам сканирования мозга, оказались значительно сильнее развиты мезолимбические участи головного мозга. Также, более жестокие люди, по статистике, имеют больше серого вещества. Читаем:

Brain Scans Show Violent People Have Bigger Mesolimbic Areas

Бисфенол-А - очередные новости

Недавно у нас работе было сооружено нечто из одного из самых источающих бисфенол-А материалов. Удалось уговорить снести ту штуковину, только показав кучу литературы о вреде и коварстве бисфенола-А. Однако, работы весьма противоречивы и достаточное количество авторов утверждает, что вред не так уж и выражен.
И вот очередное сообщение:

Neuropharmacology. 2011 May 5. [Epub ahead of print]

Sex-specific influence of exposure to bisphenol-A between adolescence and young adulthood on mouse behaviors.

Xu X, Tian D, Hong X, Chen L, Xie L.

Source

Chemistry and Life Sciences College, Zhejiang Normal University, 688# Yinbin Road, Jinhua 321004, PR China; Psychology Research Center, Zhejiang Normal University, PR China.

Abstract

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is one of the most common environmental endocrine disrupters and has a wide range of effects on central nervous system. Adolescence is another important developmental period besides the early critical prenatal and neonatal periods. In the present study, we exposed mice to BPA (40, 400 μg/kg/d) between adolescence and young adulthood for 8 weeks and investigated its effects on the non-reproductive behaviors. In open field tests, rearing and grooming sex differences were abolished by BPA exposure. In the elevated plus maze test, the number of open arm entries, the time spent in open arms, and the number of unprotected head dips in the center area were reduced in males but increased in females by BPA at 40 or 400 μg/kg/d, thus eliminating or reversing sex differences in these behaviors. In the Morris water maze task, exposure to BPA at 40 μg/kg/d significantly extended the average escape pathlength to the hidden platform in males, but no significant influence was found in females; thus, the sex differences in spatial learning and memory were abolished. In the step-down test, the latency to step down from the platform 24 h after receiving a footshock was shortened by BPA exposure in males but not in females; thus, a sex difference was induced in passive avoidance memory in mice. These results suggest that long-term exposure to low levels of BPA between adolescence and young adulthood alters characteristic differences in certain non-reproductive behaviors of males and females, including exploration, anxiety, spatial learning and memory, and passive avoidance memory, although no obvious changes were found in the serum hormone levels or in the weights of reproductive organs.

Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

PMID:

 

21570416

 

[PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

Заставь голову варить лучше!

Советики - как заставить мозг работать эффективней:

1. Time it right
Most older people think more clearly in the morning; most younger people, in the afternoon. Work out when your own best 'thinking time' is and set it aside it for your most challenging brain work.

2. Get a good education - but don't overdo it
Psychologist Dean Keith Simonton says that too much specialised higher education can damage your ability to think creatively. 'You don't become a great novelist by getting a PhD in creative writing.'

3. Listen to Confucius
Writing things down is the number one memory aid used by memory researchers themselves. As the Chinese proverb puts it, the weakest ink lasts longer than the best memory.

4. Kick start your day
Research shows that the amount of caffeine in a cup of coffee can help you concentrate. But if you're prone to anxiety, you're probably better off avoiding it.

5. Anchor new memories to established ones
'Think of your existing memory as a scaffold upon which to fit new information,' says cognitive researcher Denise Park. 'Don't isolate new information. Always relate it to something.'

6. Practise, practise, practise
Learning and repeatedly practising new skills appears to change the brain's internal organisation. A study showed that periodic training sessions helped volunteers in their 70s perform better in cognitive and memory tasks than they had when they were seven years younger. 'Practice really helps,' says psychologist Len Giambra. 'A well-practised older person will be faster than an unpractised younger person.'

7. Give your ideas a chance
Many of us are rewarded for our abilities to rapidly evaluate facts and make quick decisions. Creativity demands a much more leisurely and playful approach - a willingness to give 'absurd' ideas a chance.

8. Pick a stimulating profession and an intelligent partner
Intriguing studies from Poland suggest that people whose careers demand they exercise their intellect are more likely to sustain high levels of mental performance during their lives. Marrying someone intelligent may also provide you with ongoing stimulation.

9. Expose yourself to multiple experiences
Creativity often boils down to the ability to adapt solutions from one aspect of life to another. Velcro for instance, was inspired by burrs that stick to your clothing. The 'ring-pull' top on cans was originally based on the way a banana is peeled.

10. Learn from Leonardo
In his book, How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, author Michael Gelb offers several brain-enriching strategies that worked for the ultimate Renaissance man. Among them: learning to juggle and drawing with your non-writing hand.

Найдено у http://silabus-rpp.blogspot.com/2010/07/10-ways-to-think-better.html

by: Mendim

Клетки кожи могут думать?

Феерические новости - клетки кожи генерируют сигналы и очень странно себя ведут. Подробный анализ этого интереснейшего предположения предлагаю рассмотреть, спасибо Dr. Jeffrey H. Toney, который написал статью у себя в блоге http://scienceblogs.com/deanscorner/2011/05/could_skin_cells_think.php:

Figure 4: Synaptic responses of HFF-iN cells.

There seems to be a brain-centric theme emerging this week in groundbreaking science. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have reported in Nature the first example of transforming human skin cells into functional nerve cells. Could skin cells someday be able to "think"? Could they be used to create a biological computer or in regenerative medicine?

How did they do it? Excerpted, and revised for clarity, from their Abstract: {my comments in italics}


Somatic cell nuclear transfer, cell fusion, or expression of lineage-specific factors have been shown to induce cell-fate changes in a variety of cell types. We recently observed that forced expression of a combination of three transcription factors {factors that affect how genes become expressed} can efficiently convert mouse fibroblasts into functional induced neuronal (iN) cells13. Here we show that the same three factors can generate functional neurons from human pluripotent stem cells as early as 6 days after transgene activation. Importantly, the vast majority of human iN cells were able to generate action potentials and many matured to receive synaptic contacts when co-cultured with primary mouse cortical neurons. Our data demonstrate that non-neural human somatic cells, as well as pluripotent stem cells, can be converted directly into neurons by lineage-determining transcription factors. These methods may facilitate robust generation of patient-specific human neurons for in vitro disease modelling or future applications in regenerative medicine.

Their conclusions:

In this report, we have identified a combination of transcription factors that are capable of converting human fibroblasts directly into neurons. Like mouse iN cells13 and neurons derived from ES cells19, 20, 21 and iPS cells22, 23, the human iN cells seem relatively immature, as indicated by their slightly depolarized membrane potentials and the relatively low-amplitude synaptic responses. Compared to mouse iN cells, human iN cells required longer culture periods to develop synaptic activity. Future studies will be necessary to thoroughly optimize conditions for human iN cell generation and maturation, which would facilitate applications of this method for the study of human neuronal development and disease.

This is, yet another, amazing example of a creative use of biological techniques to generate something thought to be impossible in the past - transforming a common skin cell into a functioning neuron!

Обновился дизайн блога

Дорогие читатели, обратите внимание - старый порядком надоевший тяжёлый фиолетовый дизайн превращён в нечто более воздушное. Надеюсь, вам тоже нравится! :)

Антидепрессанты и диабет

Привычные антидепрессанты в некоторых комбинациях приводят к развитию диабета! Читаем подробнее на:

Common drug combo increases diabetes risk - health - 26 May 2011 - New Scientist

Юмороват с функциями

Баян, да. Но хороший:

Плацебо-новости

Статья из журнала http://scienceblog.com/ о Плацебо :
They may be uncomfortable talking about it, but it’s definitely going on.
A recent survey, led by McGill Psychiatry Professor and Senior Lady Davis Institute Researcher Amir Raz, reports that one in five respondents – physicians and psychiatrists in Canadian medical schools – have administered or prescribed a placebo. Moreover, an even higher proportion of psychiatrists (more than 35 per cent) reported prescribing subtherapeutic doses of medication (that is, doses that are below, sometimes considerably below, the minimal recommended therapeutic level) to treat their patients.
Prescribing pseudoplacebos – that is treatments that are active in principle, but that are unlikely to be effective for the condition being treated, e.g., using vitamins to treat chronic insomnia – is more widespread than we may have thought according to the survey. Dr. Raz and his colleagues suggest that this may be because physicians have shown themselves to be more prepared to prescribe biochemically active materials even though at lower doses than might be effective.

The survey, which was also designed to explore attitudes toward placebo use, found that the majority of responding psychiatrists (more than 60 per cent) believe that placebos can have therapeutic effects. This is a significantly higher proportion than for other medical practitioners. “Psychiatrists seem to place more value in the influence placebos wield on the mind and body,” says Raz. Only 2 per cent of those psychiatrists believe that placebos have no clinical benefit at all.
Raz’s own interest in placebos grew out of his work in three very different areas: his explorations into how people’s physiology is influenced by their expectations of what is about to happen, his work on deception; and the time he spent as a former magician. Together, these three separate areas of experience have led Raz to explore what remains an uncomfortable hinterland of medical practice for many practitioners – the use of placebos in medicine.
“While most physicians probably appreciate the clinical merits of placebos, limited guidelines and scientific knowledge, as well as ethical considerations, impede open discussion about the best way we may want re-introduce placebos into the medical milieu,” says Raz. He adds, “This survey provides a valuable starting point for further investigations into Canadian physicians’ attitudes towards and use of placebos.”
http://scienceblog.com/45325/the-power-of-placebos/ 

Допаминово-серотониновые новости :)

Пабмед принёс новую пачку статей о допаминергической и серотонинергической системах:

Neuropharmacology. 2011 Apr 12.
Enhanced effects of amphetamine but reduced effects of the hallucinogen, 5-MeO-DMT, on locomotor activity in 5-HT(1A) receptor knockout mice: Implications for schizophrenia.

van den Buuse M, Ruimschotel E, Martin S, Risbrough VB, Halberstadt AL.

Behavioural Neuroscience Laboratory, Mental Health Research Institute, Parkville, Melbourne, Australia; Department of Pharmacology, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Neuropharmacology. 2011 Apr 15.
Possible involvement of serotonin 5-HT2 receptor in the regulation of feeding behavior through the histaminergic system.

Murotani T, Ishizuka T, Isogawa Y, Karashima M, Yamatodani A.

Department of Medical Science and Technology, Division of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University, 1-7 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.

Neuropharmacology. 2011 Apr 17.
Differential effects of cocaine and MDMA self-administration on cortical serotonin transporter availability in monkeys.

Gould RW, Gage HD, Banks ML, Blaylock BL, Czoty PW, Nader MA.

Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, United States.

Neuropharmacology. 2011 Apr 19.
Dopamine-related drugs act presynaptically to potentiate GABA(A) receptor currents in VTA dopamine neurons.

Michaeli A, Yaka R.

Institute for Drug Research, School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.

Neuropharmacology. 2011 Apr 7.
High concentrations of MDMA ('ecstasy') and its metabolite MDA inhibit calcium influx and depolarization-evoked vesicular dopamine release in PC12 cells.

Hondebrink L, Meulenbelt J, Meijer M, van den Berg M, Westerink RH.

Neurotoxicology Research Group, Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.177, NL-3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands; National Poisons Information Centre (NVIC), National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), P.O. Box 1, NL-3720 BA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.

Кое-что новое о парацетамоле

Ацетаминофен, он же - парацетамол, при передозировке может приводить к разным последствиям. Этот, казалось бы безопасный и популярный препарат может способствовать развитию заболеваний печени.

Acetaminophen Overdose May Be Painkiller Confusion

Всё кажется сексуальным, если человек в определённом настроении

Забавные выводы о степени возбуждённости и восприятия эротического контекста:

Maybe our culture-deprived society needs to get out of the house and experience more art. A new study suggests that women find Georgia O’Keefe paintings “erotic” during their menstrual cycle, which is pretty much a no-brainer, considering O’Keefe’s flower paintings are infamous for their uncanny resemblance to female genitalia. According to researcher Jeffrey Rudski, a psychologist at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, who published the study in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, participants were more likely to use sexual terms to describe O’Keeffe’s art in the days leading up to and including ovulation. After ovulation, the paintings appeared less suggestive. By Georg(ia), put down that O’Keefe-reefer, and get a grip. O’Keefe is no more erotic than Michaelangelo’s David. But when you’re experiencing raging hormones from hell during your menstrual cycle, trust me, everything is erotic.
I wouldn’t classify myself as someone with an abnormally large sex drive, but I have the same “appetite,” if you will, as the next red-blooded gal. And when my body begins to pump out the hormones faster than a teenage boy, everything I look at with remotely suggestive-imagery becomes erotic. National Geographic photo spreads, Ken dolls, football games (men with massive shoulders patting each others’ bottoms! HAWT), hard-boiled eggs, tall glasses of milk, even perps in handcuffs being shoved into a cop cruiser. Don’t ask me why, but my cheeks get redder than a Red Delicious orchard on harvest day.
So what exactly is this study trying to prove? I don’t actually see a benefit to singling out O’Keefe’s work as particularly erotic. They’re just flowers. Whether O’Keefe intended them to look like va-jay-jay’s is up for debate, but surely the purpose of art is to ask questions, provoke thought, and take you on an emotional journey. If that journey is toward SexyTown, so be it, but this study feels like old news retold with a new twist.
If you want erotic imagery, we have this nifty invention called The Internets where saucy Jpegs and naughty AVIs can be viewed at your leisure. Leave O’Keefe and her flowering lady-bits alone.

Post from: BlissTree
Newsflash: Everything Looks Erotic When You're Horny

Передозировки лекарствами

Оказывается, в США существует проблема, выходящая на уровень эпидемии.
Подробнее об этом в статье: Narcotic pain relief drug overdose deaths a national epidemic  

О том, как в мозгу генерируется музыка!

Creativity and the Brain: Learning From Jazz Musicians and Rappers

Category: Nifty Fifty
Posted on: April 1, 2011 10:00 AM, by Joanna Pool


How does the brain create and perceive music? More specifically, what goes on inside the heads of musicians when they're in the groove composing a song or improvising with their instruments or voice? These questions have long intrigued researcher Charles Limb, and to find answers he's turned to studying the brains of some likely individuals: jazz musicians and rap artists.

In this quest, Charles brings some interesting credentials. He's an auditory surgeon by training, specializing in a surgery called cochlear implantation - a way to help deaf people hear again. He currently practices at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore where he is Associate Professor of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery. Charles is also a musician, playing the sax, piano and bass, and serves on the faculty of Johns Hopkins' Peabody Conservatory of Music.

Says Charles: "I feel really lucky to be able to combine all of these passions in searching for a better understanding of how the mind perceives complex auditory stimuli such as music, and what parts of the brain are involved in musicians when they are deep in the process of creating and improvising."

In conducting his research, he uses functional brain imaging (fMRI) -- a technique that can measure the changes in blood flow within the brain, indicating neural activity -- to study musicians' brain regions as they improvise music on a small keyboard. For the past decade, he's been working with jazz piano players, revealing astonishing new data about the way the brain creates art.

His research has also recently branched into a new genre: hip-hop. Although originally
more of a jazz and classical music fan, Charles became increasingly intrigued by hip-hop's raw, grassroots characteristics the more he heard the music. He also soon realized striking similarities between jazz and rap which he found relevant for his study.

Read more about Charles here.

Watch a bit about studying how the brain reacts to creative situations. What activities do you think would be interesting to understand how the brain works during those activities?

Статья с http://scienceblogs.com/usasciencefestival/2011/04/creativity_and_the_brain_learn.php там же можно посмотреть видео

О лечении пристрастия к кокаину

Радикальный метод - прямое влияние на мозг:

Статья опубликована в  http://blog.the-scientist.com/2011/02/15/cocaine/ By Cathryn Denney

It’s clearly no longer just the drug of the young, rich and trendy: a decrease in street value over the years has led to a marked rise in usage and availability of cocaine, and it’s an ever-present favourite with the media. The BBC news website alone has dozens of cocaine-related news results since the beginning of the year (who knew the Highland Games were such a rave!).

The short lived euphoric effects of cocaine and subsequent come down lead to a physical and psychological addiction that cause a user to increase their frequency of intake. Using rats that could self-administer cocaine, Christelle Baunez and colleagues at the French National Center for Scientific Research looked at the effects of lesions in the subthalamic nucleus (STN) on addiction.
Following on from earlier work demonstrating that deep brain stimulation of the STN can reduce motivation of rats to work to get the drug¹, but increase motivation to work for food, they tested the hypothesis that lesions in the STN could prevent an escalation in cocaine intake. As described in a poster presented at the Neuroscience 2010 meeting, they found that treated rats decreased the number of times they helped themselves to cocaine, but with no ill effects on memory or locomotion.
“This has potential implications for the treatment of addicts,” suggests F1000 Section Head Trevor W. Robins of the University of Cambridge, in his evaluation of the poster. Baunez adds, “Before translating it to human addicts, the best thing will be to test the effects of STN inactivation in monkeys, which is one of our plans for the future.”

Феерическое видео о "двойном рождении" кенгуру

Слабонервным, конечно, лучше отвернуться, но ценители смогут в миллионный раз удивиться мудрости природы

Can't Dance? Blame GABA, Not ABBA

Can't Dance? Blame GABA, Not ABBA

Очень интересная статья, объясняющая неспособность людей к точному повторению танцевальных движений, через призму ГАМК-сигналинга.
Оказывается, высокие уровни этого нейромедиатора свойственны людям у которых хорошо развита как мелкая моторика, так и способность воспроизводить движения танца.

О влюблённом мозге и поцелуях

С наступлением весны! Предлагаю почитать тематические статейки:
О биологическом подходе к поцелуям - http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2011/02/the_science_of_kissing.php 
Об особенностях мозга влюблённого человека - http://blisstree.com/feel/the-brain-in-love-infographic/ 

Ряд новых идей о шизофрении

Эта неделя оказалась урожайной на новости о генезе шизофрении.


Например, появились вот такие замечательные статьи:

GABAergic interneuron origin of schizophrenia pathophysiology. Nakazawa K, Zsiros V, Jiang Z, Nakao K, Kolata S, Zhang S, Belforte JE.

The viral theory of schizophrenia revisited: Abnormal placental gene expression and structural changes with lack of evidence for H1N1 viral presence in placentae or brains of exposed offspring from infected mice. Fatemi SH, Folsom TD, Rooney RJ, Mori S, Kornfield TE, Reutiman TJ, Kneeland RE, Liesch SB, Hua K, Hsu J, Patel DH.

Schizophrenia and tobacco smoking comorbidity: nAChR agonists in the treatment of schizophrenia-associated cognitive deficits. D'Souza MS, Markou A.

Contributions of the d-serine pathway to schizophrenia. Labrie V, Wong AH, Roder JC.

Behavioral and neurochemical consequences of cortical oxidative stress on parvalbumin-interneuron maturation in rodent models of schizophrenia. Powell SB, Sejnowski TJ, Behrens MM.

Adenosine hypothesis of schizophrenia - opportunities for pharmacotherapy. Boison D, Singer P, Shen HY, Feldon J, Yee BK.

Наслаждайтесь :)

1001 посетитель :)

Кое-что новенькое о культивировании стволовых клеток

Статейка о том, как взрослые стволовые клетки выращивали в специальных гидрогелях и подвергали всяческим физическим и химическим влияниям http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-11/uoc--bpa111610.php

О возможности культивирования плюрипотентных клеток в определённых условиях http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-12/uoia-ssp121510.php 

Антипсихотики в США

PRESCRIPTIONS for antipsychotic drugs have more than doubled in the US over the past 15 years, often given for conditions for which there is scant evidence they work.

Expensive antipsychotics were originally approved to treat schizophrenia. They are now also prescribed for conditions including anxiety disorders and dementia, even though the Food and Drug Administration has not approved these off-label uses. The side effects of such drugs can include diabetes, weight gain and an increased risk of heart disease.

Caleb Alexander at the University of Chicago and colleagues analysed the results of a survey of visits to doctors between 1995 and 2008. In the sample population, the prescriptions of antipsychotics went from 6.2 million in 1995 to 16.7 million in 2006 and fell to 14.3 million in 2008. Off-label prescriptions also doubled during this time (Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, DOI: 10.1002/pds.2082).

Alexander points to ways to combat the trend, such as reducing heavy drug marketing and raising awareness of off-label prescribing.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927952.500-antipsychotic-drug-prescriptions-triple-in-the-us.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news