Susan J. Jones-Brain Summaries

RESEARCH SUMMARIES

Newsweek, February 26, 2001

Doctors Daniel G. Amen, M. D., cautions that ADD is actually a huge category that is likely comprised of at least six different conditions. The several variants of the disorder require different treatments, says the author of the 1998 book, Change Your Brain, Change Your Life.

Usually, diagnoses of ADD are made on symptoms described. But in looking at brain function through the use of SPECT which measure brain blood-flow and activity patterns, more than 10,000 brain images have bee archived from brains of humans with behavioral problems. The ADD brain is unique, as there is decreased activity during attempts at concentration in the frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex where sustained attention, short term memory, and forethought are processed. When deviations in the pattern occur, traditional treatment is ineffective. The classifications made are these:

Type 1: Class ADD, with symptoms of distractibility, disorganization, hyperactivity, restlessness and impulsivity. It is manifested early in life and benefits from Adderall or Ritalin drugs. High protein diets also help.
Type 2: Inattentive ADD: where the primary symptoms of distractibility and disorganization occur with low energy and motivation. Usually diagnosed (if at all) later in life. More common in women, people are loften perceived as lazy or “spacey.” Treatment is the same as Type 1.
Type 3: Overfocused ADD: distractibility and disorganization are apparent, with cognitive inflexibility and difficulty shifting attention. Negative thoughts and behavior is common. They worry and hold grudges, and are often argumentative. More common in families with addiction or obsessive-compulsive tendencies, stimulants like Ritalin make the conditions worse. Treatment should include an antidepressant like Effexor or Prozac, combined with a stimulant and higher carbohydrate diet.
Type 4: Temporal-lobe ADD is marked by the primary ADD symptoms along with anxiety, memory problems, difficulty reading, and a “short fuse.” Often there is a history of a head injury, family learning or temper problems. Stimulants alone make these sufferers more irritable, so best treatment is an anti-seizure drug like neurontin, a stimulant and a high protein diet.
Type 5: Limbic ADD, which involves the primary ADD symptoms as well as mild sadness, low energy, low self-esteem, irritability, social isolation and poor appetite/sleep pattern. Stimulants alone increase moodiness and irritability, so treatment should include a stimulating antidepressant like Wellbutrin, with aerobic exercise and a balanced diet.
Type 6: Ring of Fire ADD, it includes the normal ADD symptoms and extremes in moodiness, anger outbursts, inflexibility, fast thoughts, and excessive talking. There is often a sensitivity to sounds and lights. Stimulants make the symptoms worse, and treatment should include anticonvulsants like Neurontin, along with Prozac and antipsychotic medication like Zyprexa. Aerobic exercise also helps.

Science News, Volume 159, January 20, 2001 Brain takes emotional sides for sexes In work reported in the January issue of NEUROBIOLOGY OF LEARNING AND MEMORY, men and women watching two films (one with fear-invoking material and one with neutral images) processed the emotional reactions in different brain locations.

Whereas women showed activity solely in the left brain side of the amygdala (center for emotional memory and negative emotion), men processed such exclusively in the right brain side amygdala. PET scans measured energy spent by the brains during the viewing, thus detecting the gender differences. Interestingly enough, the neuroscience team out of University of California, Irvine reported that the emotional reactions to each film and memory recall three weeks later did NOT differ between the sexes. Only processing location differed.

Nature, Volume 409, January 18, 2001, Self-recognition and the right hemisphere Higher apes (and humans) are the only animals capable of recognizing themselves in a reflection. Research done through Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has found that the right hemisphere of a human brain might be what allows for self-awareness. When parts of the brain were inactivated in right-handed (and thus left hemisphere language dominant) subjects, it was found that the anterior right hemisphere may be most important in detecting the self face. In a subsequent test of ten volunteers, it was revealed that “…motor-evoked potentials were significantly greater from the right hemisphere while subjects viewed pictures containing elements of their own face . . ..”

It is understood that patients with abnormalities in the right frontotemporal cortex may be cognitively detached from self. It is possible that this new work makes more evidence that a right-hemisphere network is the center to self-awareness and thus higher-order consciousness.

Science News, Volume 159, February 17, 2001

Hormone therapy may prove memorable Hormone replacement treatment, common amongst older women, may protect healthy women from verbal-memory losses that come with aging. There is no benefit apparent, however, in attention, visualization of items in space, nor memory of pictures and quantities.

The American Journal of Psychiatry in February tells of research on women from ages 51 – 89. Those undergoing hormone treatment outperform those with no hormone treatment in a study spanning six years and examining memory and thinking skills among 2000+ healthy females. There is still question as to the reliability of such data, as often women receiving hormone therapy are healthier and better educated than those who do not receive the treatment.

Science News, Volume 159, February 10, 2001 Statins Take on the Brain by John Travis Recent studies, as reported following examinations of two pharmaceutical drugs under the brand names of Lipitor and Zocor, indicate the possible link between cholesterol and development of Alzheimer’s disease. It is possible, according to Nathan S. Kline Institute for Dementia Research in New York, that statins could prevent or possibly treat Alzheimers disease in the future.

Ordinarily, statins are used to lower cholesterol whereby they bind to the enzymes involved in synthesizing cholesterol. People that die of coronary artery disease often have deposits of proteins, known as amyloids, much like the plaques that are characteristic of Alzheimers victims. There averages four times the amyloid in those with coronary artery disease than those free of heart disease.

Nature Reviews, Neuroscience, Volume 2, February, 2001, The hands that hold the keys There has long been the question as to whether the left hemisphere is the primary site for the processing of language because it is the site for linguistic pattern processing. In work done by Petitto, Zatorre and others at McGill University work with profoundly deaf using their sign language studied (through the use of PET scans) the areas of the brain activated for speech and sound. Activity was observed in the deaf in the left inferior frontal cortex when verbs were signed in response to a signed noun. Thus, it is possible that the left frontal cortex is used for higher order linguistic processing without a dependence on the presence of sound. Also, there was activity in the superior temporal gyrus – the planum temporale – when the deaf subjects viewed signs of meaningless part of signs that would be equivalent to phonetic units for the hearing. The planum temporale may not be dedicated to the processing of speech sounds as once believed: but might have a “…general role in processing abstract properties of language in multiple modalities.”

Interestingly, the auditory cortex within the superior temporal gyrus may reorganize in the absence of auditory input for the deaf, allowing them to respond to complex visual inputs and stimuli more efficiently. The indication in a general sense is that specialization for language is multi-modal.

Nature, Volume 409, January 11, 2001, Familiar faces The visual processing skill that allows us to recognize individual faces reliably and quickly could be due to the comparison of each face to a template that each person has. One theory reported in the Nature Neuroscience Journal #4, p89, theorizes that each person creates a “mental picture of the average face” with all other faces encountered being characterized through a comparison to it. In a study by Leopold, it was discovered that exposure to a specific face “…predisposes subjects to recognize a face with ‘opposite’ characteristics more readily.”

In a study soon to be reported in CIRCULATION, the researchers at the State University of New York (Buffalo) have calculated that about 1/4 of all nonfatal heart attacks occurring in people ages 18-45 are a results from cocaine use. The risk of heart attack soars shortly after using the drug, and users have a 7X greater likelihood of having a heart attack. Data used in the study came from a national survey of slightly over 10 thousand people, of which 532 were regular cocaine users.

The Times-Union, Jacksonville, FL January 25, 2001 Rats’ dreams are a-mazing In work done by Peterborough, Ontario and commented upon by Robert Stickgold of Harvard Medical School, it is reported that rats revisit the experiences in a maze that they had during that day. This is more evidence that, in fact, animals do dream. Sleeping rats’ brains fire in distinctive patterns that match the patterns of firing that occurs as they are learning to navigate a new maze. It has been accepted that animals go through sleep phase similar to humans, including REM sleep where dreaming occurs. This, as in humans, implies that sleep may indeed entrench new learning. As Stickgold says, “…the brain during sleep is reviewing its activity at least for the time immediately before sleep and …using that review to consolidate or integrate those memories into more useable forms.”

Newsweek January 29, 2001 Searching for the God Within by Sharon Begley
Using a SPECT (special brain-imaging machine) on a monk in the midst of meditation, Andrew Newberg of the University of Pennsylvania has found that the top rear portion of the human brain where sensory data is interwoven ceases to be activated during meditation. This hints at a full inward concentration, with the subject deletes sensory input from outside.

This work relates to the intermingling of science and religion. Already, neurologists have found a connection between temporal lobe epilepsy and a new interest in religion. It is during seizures involving that portion of the brain that gives them what is described as a religious experience. The new field is coined “neurotheology,” with some working in this area believing that the “…human brain has been genetically wired to encourage religious beliefs.” The Pennsylvania research team found that highly religious people in the midst of medication actually are absorbed into something beyond themselves, not a result of emotional fabrication or wishful thinking. Some or the work is written in the Eugene d’Aquili and Andrew Newberg piece, “Why God Won’t Go Away.” The neurotheology explores ritual behavior and the resulting brain state that lead to deep spiritual unity. They look at rhythms, chants, incantations, hymns and the like.

Nature Reviews, Neuroscience, Volume 2, February, 2001, Incentive memory There has long been confusion regarding the reward-related processes and how they influence actions that lead to the acquisition of a reward. In research with rats involving taste aversion, “…the gustatory cortex was found to encode taste features. The gustatory cortex is critical in incentive memory and …the link between reward and action is now becoming a tractable problem.”

Nature, Volume 409, January 18, 2001, Actions from thoughts This work, as reported by Miguel A. L. Nicolelis, explains the interfacing of brain currents and technology: notably, electronic and mechanical devices, that might restore sensory and motor functions for humans that have lost them. Such interfacing might eventually enhance the motor, cognitive and perceptual capabilities of an individual by “…revolutionizing the way we use computers and interact with remote environments.” Already, such interfacing exists in auditory prostheses. In that technology application, features of acoustic signals are converted into electrical patterns that are delivered through implanted electrodes to auditory nerve fibers. Thus, auditory information is delivered to the cochlea to mimic normal auditory processing. More than 30,000 deaf people have already had such devices implanted.

Science News, Volume 159, February, 2001 Depression shows family ties In a new study led y Peter Lewinsohn at the Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, family members of depressed adolescents showed significantly elevated rates of major depression and somewhat elevated rates of alcohol abuse. “Most family members who abused alcohol also exhibited depression.” This has been reported in the January ARCHIVES OF GENERAL PSYCHIATRY.

Family members of depression-free teenagers that have anxiety disorders demonstrate no increase in depression rates. These studies lend credence to earlier research that suggests that “…adolescent depression exists apart from other emotional disorders, often as a prelude to adult depression.” There is still no clear understanding as to how genetic and environmental factors play in the promotion of depression in family units.

Nature, Volume 409, January 25, 2001, A new code for axons The patterns of Robo proteins help neurons growing new connections navigate to their intended target. The work done in the King’s College of London deals with the crossing of the brain’s mid-line of the central nervous system by axons of a connecting neuron, forming commissures (connections between the two halves of the brain/body). It appears that there are perhaps twenty different longitudinal pathways once an axon crosses the mid line, with surface markers present for identification. Axons may use “adhesive surface cues” to determine which pathway to enter. Much work needs to be done to further discover the workings of the axons in finding appropriate pathways for new neural connections.

The Florida Times-Union February 8, 2001 Mental loss likely to be long-term after heart surgery In a study issued in the New England Journal of Medicine, it is reported in work led by Mark Newman at Duke University that neuropsychological tests given up to five years after coronary bypass surgery reveal a “significant decrease” in mental ability. Subjects are less able to remember facts, objects, concentrate, or carry on simultaneous activities.

42% of the patients showed a twenty percent decline in cognitive function, even when many “…appeared to be improving during the first six months after the surgery.” That is equivalent to the expected cognitive decline of people between 40 and 60 years of age.This is significantly more probable than chances of strokes in bypass patients.

Over half of all patients involved in the study displayed some “cognitive decline” when they left the hospital, but improved gradually to a 24% reduction in cognitive ability after six months. However, the numbers increased in cognitive dysfunction again at five years, to the reported 42%. Two of three patients with cognitive impairment immediately after bypass suffered a decline in mental abilities after the five year period. The patients who suffered no deficits after surgery rarely experienced deficits five years after.

Reasons for the decline among patients are not fully understood. One suspicion is that the heart-lung machine causes small strokes to bring about brain damage. But this has yet to be proven, and does not answer why the deterioration speeds up after five years. Another theory is that the stress of the procedure itself causes the decline: not in any way related to procedure.

Nature Reviews: Neuroscience, October 2000, Volume 1 mental disorders ADHD, a psychiatric condition that involves impulsiveness, excessive activity, and inattention may have a genetic “component.” Alterations in dopamine-mediated neurotransmission as well as serotonin receptor abnormalities.

In Time (February 12, 2001) Ritalin: Mom’s Little Helper deals with the recurring identification of adult women with this ADHD disorder. Whereas in the past, it was believed to occur primarily in male youths, females were often overlooked in identification since they were less likely to be disruptive as children in school. But among adults currently being diagnosed, 50-60% of them are women.