Under A Cloud: Darkness Linked To 'Brain Drain' In Depressed People

ScienceDaily (July 29, 2009) — A lack of sunlight is associated with reduced cognitive function among depressed people. Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health used weather data from NASA satellites to measure sunlight exposure across the United States and linked this information to the prevalence of cognitive impairment in depressed people.

Shia Kent, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, led a team of US researchers who used cross-sectional data from 14,474 people in the NIH-NINDS-funded REGARDS study, a longitudinal study investigating stroke incidence and risk factors, to study associations between depression, cognitive function and sunlight.

He said: "We found that among participants with depression, low exposure to sunlight was associated with a significantly higher predicted probability of cognitive impairment. This relationship remained significant after adjustment for season. This new finding that weather may not only affect mood, but also cognition, has significant implications for the treatment of depression, particularly seasonal affective disorder."

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Close Caregiver Relationship May Slow Alzheimer's Decline

ScienceDaily (July 23, 2009) — A study led by Johns Hopkins and Utah State University researchers suggests that a particularly close relationship with caregivers may give people with Alzheimer's disease a marked edge over those without one in retaining mind and brain function over time. The beneficial effect of emotional intimacy that the researchers saw among participants was on par with some drugs used to treat the disease.

A report on the study, believed to be the first to show that the patient-caregiver relationship may directly influence progression of Alzheimer's disease, is published in the September 2009 The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences and currently available online.

"We've shown that the benefits of having a close caregiver, especially a spouse, may mean the difference between someone with AD staying at home or going to a nursing facility," says Constantine Lyketsos, M.D., M.H.S., the Elizabeth Plank Althouse Professor in Alzheimer's Disease Research and director of the Johns Hopkins Memory and Alzheimer's Treatment Center.

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Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Associated With Higher Alzheimer's, Dementia Risk

ScienceDaily (July 24, 2009) — Though discoveries about Alzheimer's disease risk factors are often in the news, adults do not know about the relationship between Alzheimer's disease risk and heart health, nor that physical activity can be protective against dementia, according to new research reported at the Alzheimer's Association 2009 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease (ICAD 2009) in Vienna.

An additional study reported at ICAD 2009 shows higher Alzheimer's risk in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

"Your brain plays a critical role in almost everything you do: thinking, feeling, remembering, working, and playing – even sleeping," said Maria Carrillo, PhD, Director of Medical & Scientific Relations at the Alzheimer's Association. "The good news is that we now know there's a lot you can do to help keep your brain healthier as you age. These steps might also reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease or another dementia."

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Study will delve into oral health, memory link

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The National Institutes of Health has awarded $1.3 million to an interdisciplinary team that will investigate how people's oral health might affect their memory, and vice versa.

Dr. Bei Wu, a gerontologist at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, will lead the research, which will examine existing national and regional studies of thousands of people.

Research has already established a strong association between oral health and heart disease, stroke and diabetes, as well as Alzheimer's disease. Yet there has been little study of how the state of an older person's teeth and gums relates to their mental function, Dr. Richard Crout, who is participating in the new study, noted in an interview with Reuters Health. Nevertheless, he added, it's becoming increasingly clear that "to have overall good general health you need to have good oral health."

By Anne Harding

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Stop And Smell The Flowers -- The Scent Really Can Soothe Stres

Rich lavender field in Provence, France. Scientists in Japan are reporting the first scientific evidence that inhaling certain fragrances alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels. (Credit: iStockphoto/Andreas Karelias)

ScienceDaily (July 23, 2009) — Feeling stressed? Then try savoring the scent of lemon, mango, lavender, or other fragrant plants. Scientists in Japan are reporting the first scientific evidence that inhaling certain fragrances alter gene activity and blood chemistry in ways that can reduce stress levels.

In the new study, Akio Nakamura and colleagues note that people have inhaled the scent of certain plants since ancient times to help reduce stress, fight inflammation and depression, and induce sleep. Aromatherapy, the use of fragrant plant oils to improve mood and health, has become a popular form of alternative medicine today. And linalool is one of the most widely used substances to soothe away emotional stress. Until now, however, linalool's exact effects on the body have been a deep mystery.

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Potential New Drug Target For Diabetes And Alzheimer's Disease

A single dose of Humanin near-normalizes diabetic levels of glucose in a rat model for type 2 diabetes mellitus. (Credit: Albert Einstein College of Medicine)

ScienceDaily (July 23, 2009) — A cellular protein that may prevent nerve cells from dying also helps to improve insulin action and lower blood glucose levels, according to a study by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in collaboration with scientists at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The study, which focuses on diabetic rodents, appears this month in PLoS One and is the first to show a role in glucose metabolism for humanin, a small protein (peptide). The researchers also demonstrated that humanin resembles the peptide leptin by acting on the brain to influence glucose metabolism.

Humanin is found in mitochondria — structures that populate the cytoplasm of cells and provide them with energy. The peptide was first detected in brain nerve cells in 2001, and subsequent studies suggest that it protects nerve cells from death associated with Alzheimer's and other brain disease.

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A single dose of Humanin near-normalizes diabetic levels of glucose in a rat model for type 2 diabetes mellitus. (Credit: Albert Einstein College of Medicine)

Chemicals Found In Fruit And Vegetables Offer Dementia Hope

ScienceDaily (July 19, 2009) — A group of chemicals found in many fruits and vegetables, as well as tea, cocoa and red wine, could protect the brain from Alzheimer’s disease, a dementia expert will tell scientists at a conference July 11.

Speaking at the British Pharmacological Society’s Summer Meeting in Edinburgh, Dr Robert Williams will argue that, while much more research needs to be done, there is mounting evidence that certain flavonoids – chemicals found in plants and food derived from plants – might provide therapeutic benefit for Alzheimer’s sufferers.

“There have been some intriguing epidemiological studies that the consumption of flavonoid-rich vegetables, fruit juices and red wine delays the onset of the disease,” says Dr Williams, a Biochemist working at Kings College London. “These reports, while not as powerful as controlled, randomised clinical trials, have encouraged a number of research groups, including our own, to investigate the biology of flavonoids in more detail.”

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Calendar of Workshops

7/23/2009
10:00 am - 1:00 pm
Individualized Education Program (IEP) Workshop
Lexington County Library
5440 Augusta Road
Lexington, SC 29072
Tanya M. Inabinet, PRO-Parents of SC
Region 2, Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-800-759-4776 or (803) 772-5688

7/25/2009
10:30 am - 12:30 pm
*Transitioning Into Special Education Workshop
Marathon Church
315 Roe Road
Greenville, SC
Heather Watson-Kelley, PRO-Parents of SC
South Carolina Special Kids
Project Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-800-759-4776 or (803) 772-5688

7/28/2009
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Section 504 Workshop
Oconee DDSN
116 South Cove Road
Seneca, SC
Susan Bruce, PRO-Parents of SC
Region 3, Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-800-759-4776 or (803) 772-5688

8/03/2009
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
*Is Your Child a Target of Bullying? Workshop
Bamberg DSS Office
374 Log Branch Road
Bamberg, SC
Kim Preston, PRO-Parents of SC
Foster Parent Project - Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-866-863-1512

8/08/2009
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
*Individualized Education Program (IEP) Workshop
New Berkeley Restaurant
Highway 52
Moncks Corner, SC
Kim Preston, PRO-Parents of SC
Foster Parent Project - Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-866-863-1512

8/08/2009
2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
*ADD / ADHD Workshop
Grace Fellowship Church
2427 Midland Park Road
North Charleston, SC
Kim Preston, PRO-Parents of SC
South Carolina Special Kids Project
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-866-863-1512

8/11/2009
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
*Is Your Child a Target of Bullying? Workshop
Horry DSS Office
1951 Industrial Park Road
Conway, SC
Kim Preston, PRO-Parents of SC
Foster Parent Project - Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-866-863-1512

8/13/2009
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
*Individualized Education Program (IEP) Workshop
Chester DSS Office
115 Reedy Street
Chester, SC
Heather Watson-Kelley, PRO-Parents of SC
South Carolina Special Kids
Project Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-800-759-4776 or (803) 772-5688

8/18/2009
10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Communication Workshop
SCYAP
3815 Montague Avenue
North Charleston, SC 29418
Gayle Munn, PRO-Parents of SC
Region 1, Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-800-759-4776 or (803) 772-5688

8/20/2009
5:30 pm - 7:00 pm
*Transitioning Into Special Education Workshop
Lees Body Shop (Union FPA)
1572 Furman L. Fendley, Highway 176
Union, SC
Heather Watson-Kelley, PRO-Parents of SC
South Carolina Special Kids
Project Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-800-759-4776 or (803) 772-5688

8/20/2009
7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
*Transitioning Into Special Education Workshop
Saxe Gotha Presbyterian Church
5503 Sunset Blvd
Lexington, SC
Kim Preston, PRO-Parents of SC
Foster Parent Project - Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-866-863-1512

8/25/2009
9:00 am – 4:00 pm
Tourette Syndrome Conference – Susan Conners
S.C. State Museum
301 Gervais Street
Columbia, SC
Fee: $20.00
* Must Register to Attend. Scholarships Available *
Heather Watson-Kelley, PRO-Parents of SC
South Carolina Special Kids
Project Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-800-759-4776 or (803) 772-5688

8/25/2009
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
*Communicating with Your Child’s School Workshop
(This Workshop is Presented Via the Internet and Conference Call)
Call PRO-Parents of SC to Register
** E-Mail Address and Phone Required **
Kim Preston, PRO-Parents of SC
Foster Parent Project - Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-866-863-1512

8/26/2009
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Positive Behavioral Interventions (PBI) Workshop
Clarendon County DDSN
312 Pine Street
Manning, SC
Gayle Munn, PRO-Parents of SC
Region 1, Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-800-759-4776 or (803) 772-5688

8/27/2009
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm
*Is Your Child a Target of Bullying? Workshop
Clarendon DSS Office
3 South Church Street
Manning, SC
Kim Preston, PRO-Parents of SC
Foster Parent Project - Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-866-863-1512

8/31/2009
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
*ADD / ADHD Workshop
Child Enrichment Center
Lee & Bartdale Blvd
Spartanburg, SC
Kim Preston, PRO-Parents of SC
Foster Parent Project - Education Coordinator
For More Information or To Register Call:
1-866-863-1512

To view the website, please click on the link above.

The Sounds Of Learning: Studying The Impact Of Music On Children With Autism

ScienceDaily (July 21, 2009) — In June 2009, researchers reported that archaeologists in Germany had discovered a 35,000-year-old flute made of bird bone. It represented, one newspaper said, "the earliest known flowering of music-making in Stone Age culture." And we have been tapping our toes, humming along, singing and dancing ever since.

The power of music affects all of us and has long appealed to our emotions. It is for this reason that UCLA researchers are using music to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), for whom understanding emotions is a very difficult task. This inability robs them of the chance to communicate effectively and make friends and can often lead to social isolation and loneliness.

Thanks to a grant from the NAMM Foundation, the trade association of the international music products association, Istvan Molnar-Szakacs, a researcher at the UCLA Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity and member of the of the Help Group–UCLA Autism Research Alliance, and colleagues have developed a music education program designed to help children with ASD better understand emotions and learn to recognize emotions in others.

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Childhood Adversity May Affect Processing In The Brain's Reward Pathways

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — New research shows that childhood adversity is associated with diminished neural activity in brain regions implicated in the anticipation of possible rewards.

Scientists at Harvard University used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor brain activity as participants played a game involving cues that predicted monetary rewards and penalties.

"We found that, in comparison to community controls, young adults who had experienced childhood adversity showed weaker responses to reward-predicting cues in left hemisphere regions of the basal ganglia, a part of the brain that is important for orchestrating goal-directed actions," says Diego Pizzagalli, the John and Ruth Hazel Associate Professor of the Social Sciences in the Department of Psychology at Harvard.

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Social Reasoning And Brain Development Are Linked In Preschoolers

ScienceDaily (July 15, 2009) — New research at Queen's University shows that the way preschool children understand false beliefs can be linked to particular aspects of brain development. This landmark research may aid in understanding developmental disorders such as autism.

One of the most important ways that preschool children develop socially is by learning how to understand others people's thoughts and feelings. As they mature, most children discover that people's thoughts and feelings about the world and the way the world really is may not agree.

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Alzheimer's Risk: Would You Want To Know?

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have shown that disclosing genetic risk information to adult children of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) who request this information does not result in significant short-term psychological distress. The report from the REVEAL Study*, which appears in the July 16 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is the first randomized trial to disclose to participants whether or not they carried the ε4 variant of the APOE gene, a variant that has been found to increase the risk of developing AD.

The study demonstrated that test-related distress was reduced among those who learned that they were APOE ε4 negative, and was only transiently increased among those who learned they were APOE ε4 positive. The study also showed that persons with high levels of emotional distress before undergoing genetic testing were more likely to have emotional difficulties after disclosure.

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Asperger Syndrome, Autism, And Empathy: Study Links 27 Genes

ScienceDaily (July 16, 2009) — Scientists from the University of Cambridge have identified 27 genes that are associated with either Asperger Syndrome (AS) and/or autistic traits and/or empathy. The research will be published July 16 in the journal Autism Research. This is the first candidate gene study of its kind.

The research was led by Dr Bhismadev Chakrabarti and Professor Simon Baron-Cohen from the Autism Research Centre in Cambridge. 68 genes were chosen either because they were known to play a role in neural growth, social behaviour, or sex steroid hormones (e.g. testosterone and estrogen). The latter group of genes was included because AS occurs far more often in males than females, and because previous research from the Cambridge team has shown that foetal testosterone levels are associated with autistic traits and empathy in typically developing children.

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