Deep brain stimulation treats depression

US medical researchers say they are studying the use of deep brain stimulation to offer hope to people suffering from a variety of disorders.

The technique can ease symptoms of depression, epilepsy, obsessive-compulsive disorder, headaches, chronic pain and stroke that have not responded well to other treatments, according to new and increasing research.

"Deep brain stimulation" - a surgical process that uses implanted electrodes to stimulate specific parts of the brain affected by a disorder - has already improved the lives of tens of thousands of people with motor disorders, including Parkinson's disease and tremors. The FDA approved the treatment for these conditions several years ago.

“The brain controls the body, so if you can control the brain then you can control the body,” said Dr. Roy Bakay, professor of neurosurgery at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Bakay was one of about 60 researchers involved in the first large, randomized Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) study on epilepsy. "The very promising results are being published in a medical journal later this year," Bakay added.

“Participants in the study who received deep brain stimulation showed a significant reduction in seizures,” Bakay said. All of the participants suffered from refractory epilepsy, a form of the condition that does not respond well to anti-seizure medications. The treatment targeted the brain's anterior thalamus, part of a limbic circuit that incorporates a lot of epileptic processes.

The two medical device companies behind the deep brain stimulation technology - Medtronic, Inc., and St. Jude Medical, Inc. - fund a large percentage of multiple ongoing DBS studies.

Further research is necessary before DBS could be considered a clinically useful treatment for treatment-resistant depression. There are also important ethical considerations, since DBS treatment first requires potentially risky brain surgery.

Mind aerobics: 'You have to keep your brain in tune with your body'

Every Thursday at 3 p.m., 10 to 15 of The Oaks residents get together in their recreation room to practice “Mind Aerobics.” What is that?

It’s exercising your brain for things you can’t remember, a quote you heard on TV, the time you’re due at a meeting and so forth.

“It stretches your creative thinking,” Linda Biswell, director of The Oaks Campus Life, says. She learned about the course through her work, then studied more available material and set up the class.

Last week, as soon as the 12 women and three men had gathered around two big tables pulled together, Linda got things started: “Alright, exercise one. Let’s do our breathing. Keep in mind that of every breath we take, 20 percent of the oxygen goes to our brains and warms them up. We’ll breathe in for four counts, hold it for seven, then breathe out for eight counts and repeat four times.”

The men and women silently followed her lead. After the last exhale, they mumbled reactions among themselves.

Your name; fruit or veggie

Linda moved immediately into the first exercise, a true brain activator requiring quick-fire answers.

“As your turn comes, each of you will call out your first name, then the name of a food that starts with the same letter. For instance, I’ll call ‘Linda Lettuce.’ Then, Eileen Milberg, here on my right, will give her first name and a food, also both names every person before her has spoken. It helps if you repeat them silently as we move along.”

“I’ll never remember a single one,” several people said. Linda started with her name, then Eileen added “Eileen Egg.” Then came “Sarah Salad” (last name, Symmes). The next lady hesitated a moment before adding, “Doris Dark Chocolate” (Bonnette).

Giggles started all around the table. Next, when a man hesitated trying to recall the first three, then blurted out, “Sam Squash” (Wood), laughter broke out. They laughed harder upon hearing “Barbara Baloney” (Mitchum), followed by “Judy Jello” (Shroads) and “Doreeta Doughnuts” (Pigott).

“Wouldn’t kids love this game?” someone commented, then laughed out again at the call of “Yolanda Yam.”

The group next moved into a crossword puzzle in which every square already had one letter.

”Study it and find the name of a famous person,” Linda explained.

The contestants worked silently except for mumbles.

“I’ve already got a Bruce and a Helen. Could that be Helen of Troy?” someone asked.

“I can’t find any last names, either,” another complained.

“It has to be the first and the last name,” the leader said firmly.

Five more minutes of trials and errors passed before three came up with Mary Pickford at the same time.

“Wrong,” they were told. “It isn’t spelled ‘Mary Pickboard.’”

Two minutes later, someone called out, “Merryl Streep,” and the contest ended.

Doodle Contest
Linda, who didn’t let any one of these exercises last more than 10 minutes, moved immediately to one of the favorites, the “Doodle Contest.” Passing out sheets of paper and pens, she instructed them to make a “doodle,” anything round, square – but no more than half finished. They did, then passed their sheets to the person next to them, who was told to draw the doodle into “something recognizable, anything at all.”

When finished, they held up their art to interpret.

“I got a girl with hands, so I drew on big thumbs,” said one lady artist.

The man next to her said, “I got a dog, so I added a dog house.”

Another noted, “I had an outline of what looked like a sick man, so I put him in a cowboy suit and drew a horse under his legs.”

For the last puzzle, Linda handed out a crossword and gave them only five minutes. Only one player solved it all. Then Linda distributed their homework for next week.

“There won’t be any excuse for not finishing and bringing this back,” she announced. “Study the three slots, two syllables each, and try to write one in the little center circle and link the other syllables to the front and back to form words.”

A full room of lively conversation accompanied the departure. Marian Youorski, director of wellness who had sat in on the class, said, “These mental exercises are a perfect companion to our physical strength training, which includes walking and swimming. To attain the best of health, you have to keep your brain in tune with your body.”

Obviously, the puzzle participants agre

New brain scan better at detecting early Alzheimers

WASHINGTON (AFP) -– A new kind of brain scan seems to be better at detecting early signs of change related to the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

The scan, called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), could prove important to earlier detection and in turn better treatment.

“As better medicines for Alzheimer's disease become available, it will be important to identify people at high risk for the disease as early and accurately as possible so treatment can be most effective,” said Norbert Schuff of the University of California San Francisco, who wrote an editorial about the study.

The DTI-MRI, more sensitive than traditional MRI for detecting changes in brain chemistry, allows for mapping fiber tracts that connect brain regions.

Researchers looked at 67 healthy people in Rome aged 20-80.

“Our findings show this type of brain scan appears to be a better way to measure how healthy the brain is in people who are experiencing memory loss. This might help doctors when trying to differentiate between normal aging and diseases like Alzheimer's,” said author Giovanni Carlesimo, PhD, with Tor Vergata University in Rome.

“DTI, along with MRI, could serve as an important tool in understanding how and why a person experiences memory decline,” he added

An estimated 37 million people worldwide, including 5.3 million in the United States, live with dementia, with Alzheimer's disease causing the majority of cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

With the aging of populations, this figure is projected to increase rapidly over the next 20 years.

Can Certain Foods 'Arouse' Your Brain?

Wendy Wessler, who is divorced and lives on New York's Long Island, lost 150 pounds after gastric bypass surgery, but the weight is creeping back. She says she just can't understand why she can't say no to food.


The ingredients in some fast food could trick the brain into overeating."If I am upset or I am really stressed out, I just think I am going to get home to get a bag of chips," Wessler told "Good Morning America." "I just keep telling myself I should know better. I should be stronger, just as a person [says], 'You are intelligent, you shouldn't be doing this. This is not grown up behavior. This is child behavior."

Contrary to her opinion, Wessler's behavior is fairly common among adults, affecting an estimated 70 million Americans, according to former FDA commissioner Dr. David Kessler. Kessler too has struggled throughout his life with food compulsion.

In Kessler's new book, "The End of Overeating," he describes how the part of the brain the amygdale, which is the area of the brain that controls our desires, can affect overeating.

Let's unlock secrets of the brain

Bangalore: By the end of 2010, over 100 million people in India will be over 60 years of age. They would be vulnerable to a host of ailments including brain disorders.


There is an urgent need for research to understand causes, prevention and cure. Padma Shri awardee Vijayalakshmi Ravindranath, head of the Centre for Neurosciences, Indian Institute of Science talks about initiatives that are imperative to improving mental health care.

Women scientists and awards
It’s very rare for women scientists to be honoured. There are a lot of doubts about whether women have the energy and ability to head important institutions and departments of science. But it is possible if you are a hard worker and persevere. The problems before women scientists are the same all over the world as science is very demanding. There are bound to be differences between problems men and women face. The two are different nature and the way they think is also not alike.

Brain research needs attention
One third of the diseases in this world are caused by brain disorders. Most disorders don’t have any cure. We only give symptomatic relief without curing the disorder. This is true in the case of depression, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and similar disorders that carry social stigma. The burden of brain disorders is enormous. But what’s worse is that our health policies don’t give them enough importance. That’s the reason I’m deeply concerned about brain disorders. In India, a large number of children have autism and other developmental disabilities; adults suffer from epilepsy. There are also a host of disorders that affect us as we grow older. So, from birth to death, brain disorders contribute a lot to our uneasiness. There is such a great need to understand why these diseases are caused and what can we do to prevent and cure them. However, there’s not much public awareness on brain disorders. We need people to show more interest in brain research; funding should facilitate the same.

Sowing seeds of interest
As part of our efforts to get students interested in science, we conduct summer training programmes that are attended by thousands of students. We also do a brain awareness week for students and lay-people. Students are amazed when we talk about the brain and its abilities. Many of them come up to us at the end of the session and say that they genuinely have an interest to pursue science as their career. Scientists like us are always inspired by young people.

Training teachers is important
Today, science is progressing rapidly. Even we at the IISc have a tough time keeping abreast with it despite having cutting edge technology at our disposal. And if it’s hard for us, one can imagine how difficult it must be for a college teacher to upgrade lessons. Hence, giving them continuing-education courses helps a great deal. Even though science academies in the country are doing their best, much more has to be done. The country would require at least 7,000 university science teachers in the coming future; the biggest question we ask ourselves everyday is where are those people are going to come from? One solution would be to get back Indian scientists and professionals from abroad and another would be rapidly building capacity. That is difficult because it takes a good decade to build capacity.

More old-age homes
In India, by the end of 2010, there are going to be 100 million people over the age of 60. Lifespan has considerably increased and quite understandably, there will be a definite percentage of them who will develop neuro-degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and Alzheimers. It’s a pretty disturbing scenario because on the one hand, people are living longer and on the other, the joint-family system has disintegrated. Soon, it’ll be old couples living alone. And there’s not going to be any kind of private or public healthcare for these people. Their disorders are incurable and there’s lack of numbers in terms of physicians, home-stays and day-care centres. Families will not be able to keep their parents at home, how much ever they love them because they will be too sick to be treated at home. Today, we have hospitals and homes, but no nursing homes to take ‘long-term care’ of these people.

Parental pressure should ease up
Parents look at only one thing — how quickly the child can earn a lot of money and how they can become financially secure. Even Homi Baba’s dad wanted him to become an engineer but he had to fight it and do what he wanted. Parents put undue pressure on their children and carry unlimited expectations from them. Parental love is unconditional: you have to love your child for what he is and not what you want him to become. As economic situations improve, I think that more parents will be open to the idea of letting their kids nurture their interests. They will perhaps realise that it’s important for children to be happy rather than successful.

Let’s course-correct
Initiatives in the field of science have taken off successfully. Funding for many projects has tripled in the last seven years. Even funding for educational institutions has gone up great deal. And so far, the path has been smooth. One has to understand that it is hard to implement things. As long as we have the good sense to course-correct and move ahead with lesser mistakes, it’s going to be successful.

Magnesium Supplement Helps Boost Brainpower

Increasing magnesium intake may be a valid 

strategy to enhance cognitive abilities. (Credit:

iStockphoto/Vasiliy Yakobchuk)                   

                                                                               

ScienceDaily (Jan. 27, 2010) — New research finds that an increase in brain magnesium improves learning and memory in young and old rats. The study, published in the January 28th issue of the journal Neuron, suggests that increasing magnesium intake may be a valid strategy to enhance cognitive abilities and supports speculation that inadequate levels of magnesium impair cognitive function, leading to faster deterioration of memory in aging humans.

Diet can have a significant impact on cognitive capacity. Identification of dietary factors which have a positive influence on synapses, the sites of communication between neurons, might help to enhance learning and memory and prevent their decline with age and disease. Professor Guosong Liu, Director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China, led a study examining whether increased levels of one such dietary supplement, magnesium, boosts brain power.

"Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of many tissues in the body, including the brain and, in an earlier study, we demonstrated that magnesium promoted synaptic plasticity in cultured brain cells," explains Dr. Liu. "Therefore it was tempting to take our studies a step further and investigate whether an increase in brain magnesium levels enhanced cognitive function in animals."

Because it is difficult to boost brain magnesium levels with traditional oral supplements, Dr. Liu and colleagues developed a new magnesium compound, magnesium-L-threonate (MgT) that could significantly increase magnesium in the brain via dietary supplementation. They used MgT to increase magnesium in rats of different ages and then looked for behavioral and cellular changes associated with memory.

"We found that increased brain magnesium enhanced many different forms of learning and memory in both young and aged rats," says Dr. Liu. A close examination of cellular changes associated with memory revealed an increase in the number of functional synapses, activation of key signaling molecules and an enhancement of short- and long-term synaptic processes that are crucial for learning and memory.

The authors note that the control rats in this study had a normal diet which is widely accepted to contain a sufficient amount of magnesium, and that the observed effects were due to elevation of magnesium to levels higher than provided by a normal diet.

"Our findings suggest that elevating brain magnesium content via increasing magnesium intake might be a useful new strategy to enhance cognitive abilities," explains Dr. Liu. "Moreover, half the population of industrialized countries has a magnesium deficit, which increases with aging. This may very well contribute to age-dependent memory decline; increasing magnesium intake might prevent or reduce such decline."

Cure for brain diseases closer as adult skin cells turned into nerves

DEBORAH SMITH SCIENCE EDITOR

January 28, 2010 - 11:15AM

SKIN cells have been converted directly into brain cells in the lab for the first time.

A new technique avoids the usual first step in which adult cells must be switched back to an embryonic-like state before they can be redirected into different types of tissue.

Scientists said the research, carried out with mice cells, demonstrated the surprising versatility of adult cells. If it is replicated with human cells, it could aid medical research and treatment of degenerative brain and nerve diseases.

Marius Wernig, of Stanford University, said his team achieved the feat by adding three genes to the skin cells using a virus.

The result, within a week, was fully functional nerve cells, or neurons, that could communicate and make connections with other nerve cells. "They can do all the principal things that neurons in the brain can do," said Dr Wernig, whose study is published in the journal Nature. "We were surprised by both the timing and the efficiency [of conversion]."

John Rasko, head of cell and molecular therapies at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, said the new approach was an important advance, because it might avoid one of the most feared side effects of using embryonic, or embryonic-like, stem cells to treat people – the development of cancer.

"It is hoped that these new cells might have applications in drug discovery and in therapies for neurological diseases including Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury. But much work remains to be done before these promises can be realised in the clinic," Professor Rasko said.

Andrew Laslett, a CSIRO stem cell researcher, also stressed that safety testing needed to be carried out before its potential could be judged. But the fact skin cells could be converted to brain cells was scientifically fascinating, Dr Laslett said: "What they've done goes against all the biology I learnt [at university]."

Boost brain power and memory

Memory involves the ability to store, retain and retrieve information, experiences and skills. The brain is responsible for memory and there are certain chemicals in the brain that are important to memory.

Many people are interested in improving memory such as students who are constantly preparing for examinations, adults struggling with memory lapses and older persons who dread diseases that affect memory (such as Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia).

The quality of diet affects the health and function of the brain including memory. The foods I highlight here are available in Jamaica and are relatively cheap, especially in these times of recession.

1. A good breakfast is important. This should include adequate amounts of carbohydrates (carbs). Carbs appear to play a greater role than fats and proteins in improving long-term memory. Breakfast should include some complex carbs such as potatoes, yams, bananas, whole grain bread, fruits and vegetables. Avoid simple sugars such as cakes, doughnuts, biscuits and milk shakes for breakfast.

2. Antioxidants are important. The body produces chemicals called free radicals that cause the build-up of plaque in blood vessels, blocking them like a hose and decreasing blood supply to the brain. Free radicals also destroy brain cells. Antioxidants will mop up the free radicals and, therefore, improve brain function.

Fruits and vegetables are rich in antioxidants, especially those plants with bright colours such as spinach, sorrel, beet, red peppers and berries such as cranberries, blackberries, strawberries and raspberries. Jamaicans are among the greatest consumers of cranberries in the world. Interestingly, cranberries are grown here and blackberries and raspberries grow wild in the colder parts of Jamaica.

3. B vitamins. This includes vitamin B12, B6 and folic acid. These play an important role in memory function so ensure that you get adequate amounts of them. Some B vitamins such as folic acid are linked to Alzheimer's disease. Vegetarians should be reminded that B12 is mainly found in meat, poultry and fish, so they may want to consider a supplement. Although the body can store B12 for many years, a deficiency of this vitamin may cause long-term damage to the brain cells.

4. Fish oil is great. Grandma was right again - foods rich in fish oil may help improve brain function. This is so because omega fatty acids are major components of the brain's grey matter. Fish oil contains omega-3 fatty acid which is a safe form of fat. Too much saturated fat or trans-fatty acid affects the brain and memory.

5. Zinc is important. This is an important nutrient that is found in parts of the brain important for learning and memory.

6. What about supplements? Many persons have become hooked on supplements. I am often surprised at the way some people have converted their homes into pharmacies. Less is more. All that is necessary is a good supplement that supplies 100 per cent of recommended dietary requirements.

Adults over 65 should consider supplements which include vitamins B6, C, D, E and folic acid, along with minerals such as iron, zinc and selenium as these may improve brain function. Vitamins C and E reduce the risk of developing small strokes and Alzheimer's disease.

Dr Wendel Abel is a consultant psychiatrist and head, Section of Psychiatry, Dept. Of Community Health and Psychiatry, University of the West Indies, 977-1108

Video game success may be in the mind, study finds

These are the parts which are in play

If you find video games a struggle, it could be to do with the size of certain parts of your brain, a study suggests.

US researchers found they could predict how well an amateur player might perform on a game by measuring the volume of key sections of the brain.
Writing in the journal Cerebral Cortex, they suggest their findings could have wider implications for understanding the differences in learning rates.
There is broad acceptance of a link between brain size and intelligence.
However it remains a complicated picture. Within the animal kingdom some smaller brains appear superior to many larger ones: the monkey's compared with the horse, for instance, or the human and the elephant.
But there are certain parts of the brain which can be disproportionately larger, and this may explain some differences in cognitive ability - between individuals as well as species.
A multi-disciplinary team from the University of Illinois, the University of Pittsburgh and Massachusetts Institute of Technology recruited 39 adults - 10 men, 29 women - who had spent less than three hours each week playing video games in the previous two years.
They then had to play one of two versions of a specially developed game. One required them to focus exclusively on achieving a single goal, the other involved shifting priorities.
Playing power
MRI scans showed participants with a larger nucleus accumbens, which is part of the brain's reward centre, outperformed others in the first few hours, perhaps due to the "sense of achievement and the emotional reward" accompanying achievement in the earliest stages of learning, the team speculated.
But those players who ultimately performed best on the game in which priorities changed had larger sections deep in the centre of the brain, known as the caudate and putamen.

No matter what your brain size is it's what you do with it that counts Timothy Bates University of Edinburgh

"This makes sense, because these areas have been linked to learning procedures and new skills, as well as adapting to changing environments. These people could do a number of things at once. Think of it like driving a car, as well as looking at the road, you're tampering with your GPS, and talking to your passengers," says Prof Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois.
"The great thing about using a video game rather than methodical cognitive tests is that it brings us a step closer to the real world and the challenges people face."
In total, the team calculated that nearly a quarter of the difference in performance could be predicted by measuring the volume of the brain.
Keep trying
The findings should not however be used to support a determinist view of the world in which everyone simply had to accept the brain they were born with, nor as paving the way for a brave new world in which people's brains were regularly measured to predict their ability, Prof Kramer said.
"It has been shown that some parts of the brain are fairly plastic - they can change and develop. The more we learn about these structures and function the more we can understand the circuits that promote memory and learning. That can have educational benefits but also implications for an ageing population where dementia is an issue."
Timothy Bates, a professor of psychology at the University of Edinburgh, said the study's findings fitted with increasingly prevailing views about brain size and cognitive ability.
"But that's no excuse for saying I'm not going to bother doing my homework. The person born with the large brain can easily be outstripped by someone with a smaller brain. No matter what your brain size is, it's what you do with it that counts. Just remember the hare and the tortoise."

Mental health experts help volunteers in Haiti

However, relief agency workers can suffer the same psychological trauma as the people they are helping. And they often ignore these feelings in the face of the work at hand.(CNN) -- For people in the business of coming to the rescue, it's easy to lose sight of their own mental health as they work around the clock to help those desperately in need. The intensity of being dispatched to a mass emergency can cause volunteers to develop problems that include sleep disorders, social withdrawal, substance abuse, anxiety and difficulty trusting people. They may try to lose themselves in their work, even if that work is what's stressing them. Aid organizations in Haiti know about this phenomenon, called vicarious trauma, and they're preparing for it. After the first week on the ground, volunteers for CARE are showing signs of the trauma, said Wills Moore, director of human resources business partnerships for CARE. He has been getting reports from people who are either really unemotional or really emotional all the time, which could be signs of vicarious trauma.

"People might either shut down emotionally or get very sensitive emotionally and cry at the drop of a hat," said Laurie Anne Pearlman, former president of the Trauma Research, Education, and Training Institute Inc. and author of several books about vicarious trauma. "The hallmark of both direct and indirect or vicarious trauma is disrupted spirituality, a loss of meaning or hope."
Many people on the staff at CARE are going through trauma, and some have lost relatives, said Rigo Giron, associate vice president for strategic initiatives at CARE.
"It's a hard place for them because they are committed to provide relief, but at the same time they need to recover from the trauma they face. They're very stressed," he said. "They're very traumatized. It's hard for them to overcome that."
Mental health specialists with the American Red Cross are primarily in Haiti to work with earthquake victims, but are also looking out for fellow volunteers, said Jonathan Aiken, spokesman for the Red Cross.
The University of Miami's Project Medishare also is coordinating the travel of mental health professionals to Haiti beginning next week to help quake victims, but also to assist other aid workers if needed, a representative said.
Disaster and emergency workers often get an adrenaline rush that powers them to work without rest. That, combined with a strict ethic of working as much as possible, is "a recipe for trouble" for both the helpers and the people they're serving, Pearlman said.
"After we're overworked for a certain amount of time, as we all know, our brains don't work as well, and we're not making such good judgments, we're not making such good decisions, and then pretty soon you're on the list of people who need to be taken care of, rather than the list of people who can help," she said.
It helps to have people encouraging volunteers to take breaks now and then, although it's also hard for the workers amid the disaster relief to heed that message, she said.
This is the kind of advice that Moore said he received before his departure for Haiti on Wednesday. A staff psychologist told him to try to make himself take breaks while doing earthquake relief -- for instance, exercising, reading or otherwise getting away from the situation briefly. Journaling and communicating with family and friends are also "good, almost cathartic ways" of coping, Moore said.
Aid workers and volunteers who have psychiatric histories, major life stresses or traumas of their own are more vulnerable to trauma in Haiti, and may need more help, Pearlman said. A personal trauma history in itself is not a bad thing -- and people in the trauma field are more likely to have one -- but it's a problem when they haven't worked through it, she said.
There are ways relief agencies can help: If an organization has policies restricting the number of hours before a break, or before leaving the disaster site altogether, that can help, she said.
"It's hard to say, 'Well, look, everybody, I see that you folks don't have food or water, but I need to go rest for a few hours,' " she said. "But it's very important to do it."

Nigerians in Diaspora, brain-power for development, says Maduekwe

Chief Ojo Maduekwe, minister of foreign affairs has said that Nigerians living abrode would become the brain-power for rapid and social transformation in the 21st century.
Maduekwe made the statement at the Diaspora Celebration Day in London on Wednesday.
He said that since the restoration of democracy in Nigeria, the challenges before successive governments had been how to effectively leverage the skills, expertise and huge potential of Nigerians.
``In doing this, however, we must not seek to diminish their continued contributions to growth and development of their host countries.
``Among the Nigerian Diaspora are highly qualified doctors, engineers, solicitors, advocates and sundry professionals.
``They are making tremendous contribution to the economic and social development of the United Kingdom, statistics do tell the story,’’ he said.
Maduekwe noted that often times, host countries had unfairly treated Nigerians in spite, of tremendous boost to the economic and social development in those countries.
``In as much as Nigerians abroad make great contributions to host countries, they can make even greater contribution to their home country.
``Already the contribution of Nigerians to the investment funds through strategic remittance is well acknowledged by the government and the World Bank.
``In 2007, Nigerians abrode contributed about $251 billion to developing economies worldwide.
``Also the Managing director Of the World Bank, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has estimated that Nigerians can add about N40 billion dollars to the Nigerian economy through remittances,’’ he said.
Maduekwe noted that those who were migrating to foreign countries were those who had the incentives and ability to challenge the institutional deterioration in their countries of domicile.
``Remittance alone cannot compensate for your absence from Nigeria; we need to engage your intelligence and political energy to build a better country.
``Given your share numbers there is obvious need to be engaging in the democratic process, including voting.
``I believe we can do a lot more to tap into the immense resources of Nigerians, especially your talented and skilled Diaspora in the United Kingdom.
``For this to be effective however, we need to redesign and fine tune the structure of this engagement back at home and determine how strategic partners and friends such as the United kingdom can assist in making this possible,’’he added. 

Ideology and the Human Brain

Upon reading this BBC report...

US researchers found they could predict how well an amateur player might perform on a game by measuring the volume of key sections of the brain.

Writing in the journal Cerebral Cortex, they suggest their findings could have wider implications for understanding the differences in learning rates.

There is broad acceptance of a link between brain size and intelligence.

...Upon reading this report, I thought of Boskop Man. Who can such a person be? To begin with, he is extinct—he no longer walks the earth. But he once did, and today his remains are either controversial or obscure. Everyone knows about Mr. Neanderthal; few know of this Mr. Boskop. Why? One, Boskop came from black Africa; two, he had an unusually huge brain; and three, the first two (black Africa/big brain) are not supposed to go together.

It's easy for humans to deal with hominids (Neanderthals and others along those lines) that had smaller brains than us, but it is difficult to accept the fact that the world has seen hominids—particular African hominids—who had more brains than we do. From Big Brain, a book by Gary Lynch and Richard Granger:

In the autumn of 1913, two farmers were arguing about hominid skull fragments they had uncovered while digging a drainage ditch. The location was Boskop, a small town about 200 miles inland from the east coast of South Africa.

These Afrikaner farmers, to their lasting credit, had the presence of mind to notice that there was something distinctly odd about the bones. They brought the find to Frederick W. Fitz Simons, director of the Port Elizabeth Museum, in a small town at the tip of South Africa. The scientific community of South Africa was small, and before long the skull came to the attention of S. H. Haughton, one of the country’s few formally trained paleontologists. He reported his findings at a 1915 meeting of the Royal Society of South Africa. “The cranial capacity must have been very large,” he said, and “calculation by the method of Broca gives a minimum figure of 1,832 cc [cubic centimeters].” The Boskop skull, it would seem, housed a brain perhaps 25 percent or more larger than our own.

The idea that giant-brained people were not so long ago walking the dusty plains of South Africa was sufficiently shocking to draw in the luminaries back in England.

Later in the book:

[P]eople do not easily escape from the idea of progress. We’re drawn to the idea that we are the end point, the pinnacle not only of the hominids but of all animal life.

Boskops argue otherwise. They say that humans with big brains, and perhaps great intelligence, occupied a substantial piece of southern Africa in the not very distant past, and that they eventually gave way to smaller-brained, possibly less advanced Homo sapiens—that is, ourselves.

Lynch and Granger speculate that the enormous Boskop brain ("[Their] brain size is about 30 percent larger than our own—that is, a 1,750-cc brain to our average of 1,350 cc... that leads to an increase in the prefrontal cortex of a staggering 53 percent") gave them a deeper, dreamier, and wider experience of the world.

While your own prefrontal area might link a sequence of visual material to form an episodic memory, the Boskop may have added additional material from sounds, smells, and so on. Where your memory of a walk down a Parisian street may include the mental visual image of the street vendor, the bistro, and the charming little church, the Boskop may also have had the music coming from the bistro, the conversations from other strollers, and the peculiar window over the door of the church. Alas, if only the Boskop had had the chance to stroll a Parisian boulevard!

And that is the problem. They had no civilization to express/exploit their dreams and imaginings. They lived around 10,000 years ago, but the only civilization suitable for their gifts of memory and processing (Greece) did not appear until 2000 years ago. But imagine if in our world (our information age) there was race of people who could do this with their minds:

We internally activate many thoughts at once, but we can retrieve only one at a time. Could the Boskop brain have achieved the ability to retrieve one memory while effortlessly processing others in the background, a split-screen effect enabling far more power of attention?

A brain with a split-screen affect!

Boskop’s greater brains and extended internal representations may have made it easier for them to accurately predict and interpret the world, to match their internal representations with real external events.

Perhaps, though, it also made the Boskops excessively internal and self-reflective. With their perhaps astonishing insights, they may have become a species of dreamers with an internal mental life literally beyond anything we can imagine.

The beautiful ones have already been born.

Big Brain Better For Gaming

It’s Medical Friday here on TSA with our report that video games give you rickets and now we find that the size of your brain may determine exactly how good you are at Burn Zombie Burn. Here comes the science bit:

A team from the University of Illinois, the University of Pittsburgh and Massachusetts Institute of Technology ran a test on 10 men, 29 women who had spent less than three hours each week playing video games in the previous two years. For the test they had to play two versions of a game, one version required them to reach an exclusive goal; the second version had shifting priorities and multiple tasks.

The volunteers all had MRI scans which showed that those with a larger nucleus accumbens outperformed the others in the first few hours of the test. The nucleus accumbens is the brains ‘award centre’ so they suggest this group performed well to starts due to the “sense of achievement and the emotional reward” – on other words, they were trophy whores. Those plays who performed best overall had larger sections of caudate and putamen.

“This makes sense, because these areas have been linked to learning procedures and new skills, as well as adapting to changing environments. These people could do a number of things at once. Think of it like driving a car, as well as looking at the road, you’re tampering with your GPS, and talking to your passengers,” says Prof Arthur Kramer of the University of Illinois.

“The great thing about using a video game rather than methodical cognitive tests is that it brings us a step closer to the real world and the challenges people face.”

The team calculated that those with the larger brains were around a quarter better at games than their small craniumed friends. Well done to all scientist involved for discovering that those people with more ‘thinking stuff’ in the head can ‘think better’. Coming next on Medical Friday @ TSA, a report from Sweden where scientist have discovered that blind people are not going to benefit from 3D gaming.

Running Boosts Brainpower

Going for a Jog Builds Brain Cells, Study Finds

Jan. 19, 2010 -- Running may do more than improve your cardiovascular fitness and overall physique. It might actually make you smarter.

Scientists reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences say that running has a profound impact on the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory. Adult mice that voluntarily used running wheels increased their number of brain cells and performed better at spatial learning tests than non-exercising mice, they discovered.

Spatial learning refers to the ability to navigate through or discriminate between the unfamiliar -- such as telling the difference between two patterns, or finding your way around a new city. Spatial memory refers to how you remember the location or layout of the objects in the space around you. You record spatial memories after processing key sensory information, such as what you see and hear. Animals use spatial memory to remember where their food bowl is located. Mice, for example, learn this by scrambling through a maze to find the food at the end.

In the latest spatial learning experiment, researchers learned that the running mice were better able to tell the difference between the locations of two adjacent identical stimuli. This ability was closely linked to an increase in new brain cell growth in the hippocampus. Ongoing mice experiments have repeatedly shown that running boosts the number of new brain cells in this area. Until the late 1990s, neuroscientists believed that we did not grow new brain cells after birth.

Today, mounting evidence continues to reveal that exercise triggers significant physiological and structural changes in the brain that are beneficial to cognitive function.

SOURCES: Creer, D.J. PNAS Early Edition.

News release, PNAS News Office.

Brain Cancer Types, Causes, & Pictures

Brain Cancer Types

Cancer of the brain are abnormal growths of cells in the brain.

• Although such growths are popularly called brain tumors, not all brain tumors are cancer. Cancer is a term reserved for malignant tumors.
• Malignant tumors grow and spread aggressively, overpowering healthy cells by taking their space, blood, and nutrients. (Like all cells of the body, tumor cells need blood and nutrients to survive.)
• Tumors that do not spread aggressively are called benign.
• In general, a benign tumor is less serious than a malignant tumor. But a benign tumor can still cause many problems in the brain.

Primary Brain Cancers

The brain is made up of many different types of cells.

• Some brain cancers occur when one type of cell transforms from its normal characteristics. Once transformed, the cells grow and multiply in abnormal ways.
• As these abnormal cells grow, they become a mass, or tumor.
• Brain tumors that result from this transformation and abnormal growth of brain cells are called primary brain tumors because they originate in the brain.
• The most common primary brain tumors are gliomas, meningiomas, pituitary adenomas, vestibular schwannomas, and primitive neuroectodermal tumors (medulloblastomas). The term glioma includes astrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, ependymomas, and choroid plexus papillomas.
• Most of these are named after the part of the brain or the type of brain cell from which they arise.

Metastatic Brain Cancer

Metastatic brain tumors are made of cancerous cells from a tumor elsewhere in the body. The cells spread to the brain from another tumor in a process called metastasis. About 25% of tumors elsewhere in the body metastasize to the brain.

In the United States, brain tumors affect about 1 of every 5000 people.

Brain Cancer Causes

As with tumors elsewhere in the body, the exact cause of most brain tumors is unknown. Genetic factors, various environmental toxins, radiation, and cigarettesmoking have all been linked to cancers of the brain, but in most cases, no clear cause can be shown.

The following factors have been proposed as possible risk factors for primary brain tumors. Whether these factors actually increase your risk of a brain tumor is not known for sure.

• Radiation to the head
• Certain inherited conditions
• HIV infection

Brain Cancer Pictures

MRI Brain Cancer Picture: Side view section through the brain of a young girl. The white arrow shows a brain tumor that involves the brainstem.

MRI Brain Cancer Picture: Cross-section (image taken from the top of the head down) of a brain tumor in a young girl. The white arrow shows the tumor.