A brain region for addiction?

From physorg:

An animal study released Thursday bolsters the notion that drug cravings can be "switched off" by shutting down a key part of the brain, a finding that could have implications for treating addicts. Researchers have previously shown that damage to the insula can dramatically extinguish a smoker's need for nicotine.

The obvious next step is to see if this holds true for other addictions, such as as alcohol, overeating, and other drugs. Surprisingly, what researchers found in rat studies is that anesthetizing the insula also decreased unwanted medication side effects.

Chilean researchers have shown that temporarily "silencing" the insula suppresses cravings in drug-addicted rats and insulates them from the unpleasant side effects of medication, according to the study published in Science.

They hypothesize that this may be the brain region responsible for drug cravings, and that future treatments for addiction should target the insula.

High tech mousetrap, complete with laser beams and text messaging!

Those poor mice don't have a chance!

From TechDigest:

Like something out of James Bond's Q's laboratory, the high-tech Rodent Activated Detention and Riddance Unit (Radar unit, for us civvies), uses infrared beams and carbon dioxide to catch, and then gas the mice dead within 45 seconds. That's not all though, as when the little critter has floated off to mouse-heaven, a text message is sent to the homeowner's mobile, alerting them to the corpse residing in the unit.

No information on price, though the website says these are available now, on a custom order basis.

Nursing home for dogs, in Japan

For $800 (98,000 yen) a month, your retired doggie will get fortified food, around the clock veterinarian monitoring, and even a group of puppies hired to play with them to 'make your dog feel younger'.

The home will start with a 20 dog capacity.

From Associated Press.

RFID tagged aquarium fish, in Singapore

Life sounds more like a video game every day.

From engadget:

"Reportedly, the name and species (among other information) about the chipped marine animals are displayed on touchscreen displays whenever they swim by, which eliminates the old fashioned "match the picture with the fish" signs that still exist in other facilities. The project was set up over a three month period and set the venue back $19,600..."

GPS enabled doggie collar

I wonder if it's waterproof?

"...Sweden's 700,000 dog owners can soon keep better track of their doggy with the help of their mobile phone and a GPS receiver that is attached to the dog's collar. If an SMS message is sent to the GPS unit, it replies by sending an SMS or MMS message with text or a map image indicating where the dog is located."

Turns the collar into an electronic leash. Here's how:

"The GSP receiver contains a SIM card which is registered with Petlink and can be located using GSP navigation over the mobile network. The dog owner searches for his dog by sending an ordinary SMS message from his mobile to the dog's GPS receiver. The receiver responds by sending information about the dog's location either as a map image or text message. A dog owner can also decide how far the dog may be allowed to run freely, and when the dog has exceeded the set limit, the dog owner will receive an alarm on his mobile phone. Five mobile numbers can be connected to the dog's GPS receiver."

No pricing info yet.

http://www.cellular-news.com/story/23635.php

Prozac, now made especially for dogs

This seems pretty ridiculous. At least it comes in 'chewable, flavored tablets'. And since it's not for humans, they had to come up with a catchy new name: Reconcile (TM).

"Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) announced today it has received approval from the FDA to market Reconcile(TM) (fluoxetine hydrochloride), the first selective erotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) class of antidepressants approved by the FDA for treatment of canine separation anxiety in conjunction with behavior modification training. Reconcile(TM) is the first Lilly product approved by the FDA for dogs and is now available to U.S. veterinarians."

And why would we give prozac to dogs?

"Reconcile(TM) allows dogs to be more receptive to your training to help with anxiety. Canine separation anxiety is a prevalent and often misunderstood behavior problem, according to Connell. It amounts to undesirable behavior that occurs when the dog is left alone even for short periods of time. The resulting anxiety may cause the dog to engage in inappropriate behavior, such as destruction, excess vocalization and inappropriate elimination. Anorexia and depression also may be observed in some cases. "Your family veterinarian may recommend certain tests before diagnosing separation anxiety," Connell added. "Such tests are used to rule out other potential physiological causes of inappropriate behavior."For dogs affected by separation anxiety, Reconcile(TM) reduces inappropriate behaviors, minimizes the pet's distress and increases receptivity to a simple training plan called the BOND(TM) modification training plan."

That's right, the drug manufacturers have also bundled a doggie behavior modification program to go along with their prozac. I'm still in shock at the marketing genius/evilness.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=68990&nfid=rssfeeds

Hamster powered paper shredder

Cute and pointless. At least he makes his own cage confetti.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/04/11/meet-the-hamster-shredder/

Body clock disruption associated with bipolar mania

Mice were mutated to have a flawed 'Clock' gene, "which helps control the body's circadian rhythms: waking, sleeping and eating times as well as the maintenance of proper body temperature, heart and blood functions, and hormone levels."

This created manic mice:
"...the flawed Clock gene induced a manic state in mice that had a profile similar to that of humans suffering from bipolar disorder or manic depression, a condition during which a person cycles from deep depression to manic behavior.
The mutant mice showed increased response to reward stimuli in several hedonic scenarios. When trained that depressing a pedal would trigger an enjoyable electrical stimulation to the forebrain, the mice pressed it more frequently than their wild (unaltered) counterparts. They acted the same way when the reward was a sugar solution. In the presence of cocaine the mutant mice needed smaller doses than the normal mice to activate their reward circuits, indicating that they were hyperactive. McClung notes that manic people, who are prone to drug abuse, shopping sprees, compulsive gambling and other high-impulse behaviors, "tend to find rewarding things more rewarding" than others do. "

To prove it, they gave the mice lithium, which is still our gold standard for treating mania. After 10 days on lithium, the mice were already starting to revert to more normal behavior.

The hope is that someday we will be able to actually 'cure' bipolar disorder by fixing the flawed brain regions.

Here's how it worked for the mice: "...the scientists used a targeted virus to return a proper copy of Clock to cells in the ventral tegmental area, a midbrain region critical in the reward pathway involved in production of the pleasure system neurotransmitter dopamine. After the virus was introduced, the mutant mice began to act more like the control animals but were still a bit more hyper, McClung notes. "

How cool would that be? My job would be SO much easier.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=708AAAE6-E7F2-99DF-35D643E46E5A831D&ref=rss

Duh! Nicotine is addictive, even for squirrel monkeys

In the name of science, they are getting squirrel monkeys addicted to nicotine too.

"This study is the first of its kind to evaluate the motivational value of nicotine in experimentally naive monkeys. "

They found: "These results demonstrate that nicotine plays a critical role in maintaining smoking behaviour," said lead researcher Dr. Le Foll. "

Yes, the nicotine itself is what addicts people. Sure, there is the ritual involved with smoke breaks, such as oral gratification and chat breaks through the day, but for these monkeys, it's all about the nicotine.

"In these tests, the animals could voluntarily self-administer nicotine by pressing on a lever. Receiving nicotine was associated with distinctive environmental cues, to mimic the situation associated with tobacco smoke in humans. Whereas animals initially showed no preference for the active lever, over time a strong preference for the lever delivering nicotine developed. Animal subjects were motivated to press a lever up to 600 times to get a single injection of nicotine.
"This clearly demonstrates a high motivation to get nicotine that develops over time", said Dr. Le Foll. "

They say their goal is to find better drugs to treat tobacco dependence. So much for not getting exposed in the first place.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070227105219.htm

Rats are capable of metacognition too

This study challenges the idea that non-primates are also capable of metacognition, "reasoning or thinking about one's own thinking".
"The study involved what is called a "duration-discrimination" test--offering rats rewards for classifying a signal as either short or long. As in most such tests, the "right" answer led to a large food reward, while a "wrong" answer led to no reward at all. The twist, however, is that before taking the duration test, the rats were given the chance to decline the test completely. If they made that choice, they got a small reward anyway.
"If rats have knowledge about whether they know or don't know the answer to the test, we would expect them to decline most frequently on difficult tests," said Crystal. "They would also show the lowest accuracy on difficult tests that they can't decline. Our data showed both to be true, suggesting the rats have knowledge of their own cognitive states.""

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/03/070308121856.htm

If animals really do have the ability to "know what they don't know", it makes me wonder how much of our projections about their psyches may be plausible (like in all those cartoons we grew up watching). I suddenly have a craving to watch The Secret of NIMH again.

Remote controlled cyborg pigeons

These pigeons have brain implants.

"Scientists with the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center of east China's Shandong University of Science and Technology say they implanted micro electrodes in the brain of a pigeon so they can command it to fly right or left or up or down."

So much for homing pigeons. Now that they come with remote controls, these flying rats could actually be useful. Just think of all the disease you could spread to your enemies! :-P

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/02/cyborg_flying_r.html

Medical grade pigs being raised to help cure diabetes

Some background information about diabetes (from wikipedia):
There are 3 main types of diabetes. "Type 1 is usually due to autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic beta cells which produce insulin. Type 2 is characterized by tissue-wide insulin resistance and varies widely; it sometimes progresses to loss of beta cell function. Gestational diabetes is similar to type 2 diabetes, in that it involves insulin resistance. The hormones of pregnancy cause insulin resistance in those women genetically predisposed to developing this condition. Types 1 and 2 are incurable chronic conditions, but have been treatable since insulin became medically available in 1921. Gestational diabetes typically resolves with delivery."

http://www.SpringPointProject.org is an organization that is sponsoring a very special pig farm. "The 21,000 square-foot bio-secure building will be home to approximately 100 high-health, 'medical-grade' pigs. Pancreatic islet cells from those pathogen-free pigs will be used for transplantation into diabetes patients in clinical trials. "

Diabetes is a huge problem, with lots of nasty sequelae: "There are 20.8 million people in the United States, or 7 percent of the population, who have diabetes. Diabetes alone represents 11 percent of the nation's health care expenditure."

It's a long shot, but if it works, it will change the world.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070222181055.htm

D'oh! Genetic studies of mice are forgetting impact of environmental variables

Pretty ironic to have to remind scientists to take environmental factors into account when studying genetic components of various disorders.

"...a team of scientists at the University of Arizona says the genetic research community must control for the environment when conducting experiments, because it may well affect the results."

Scientists housed pairs of mice in a range of environments: "In some cases, they placed groups of four in small cages containing only bedding; in other cases, they put pairs in sprawling cages that were twice as large and furnished with an exercise wheel, a ladder and a plastic tube that the mice could crawl through. "

"Scientists found that the mice in the luxury accommodations spent an average of 40 percent of their time on their in-home exercise wheel and had significantly less fat tissue around their aortas and weighed up to 40 percent less than their compeers from the cramped quarters. When researchers viewed their aortas under microscopes, they found that they had nearly 80 percent fewer gaps than their packed-in pals. "

Bottom line: they suggest that future studies talk more about the housing conditions of their mice. As for the rest of us, it does make me wonder about the effects of population density, or just the condition/clutter level of one's abode.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=EA9DA3DC-E7F2-99DF-3FFF90CAF72CF307&ref=rss

Preemptive hugging in monkeys to avoid fights?

Sounds wacky, but:
"...spider monkeys in Mexico have been observed embracing to avoid gang violence. Hugging diffuses the tension when two bands of monkeys meet, say the British researchers who made the discovery. Without these calming embraces, the situation can escalate into aggression and even physical attacks, they report."

They sound very social: ""It's like the monkeys live in a small village where everyone knows each other," says Filippo Aureli of Liverpool John Moores University. "You wake up and eat breakfast with one group, such as a family, then move into different subgroups such as work, or school, and go to lunch with another group.""

The researchers' hypothesis: "The embrace could be a way of testing the bond between monkeys, as it exposes vulnerable parts of the body to attack," suggests Aureli. Monkeys do not hug members of their own groups, suggesting that embraces do not just reflect general levels of affection."

Regardless, the monkey pic is adorable, and I'm always happy to find more data supporting the positive effects of physical contact with other beings.

http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070219/full/070219-3.html