Genes for learning, remembering and forgetting

Certain genes and proteins that promote growth and development of embryos also play a surprising role in sending chemical signals that help adults learn, remember, forget and perhaps become addicted, University of Utah biologists have discovered.  "We found that these molecules and signaling pathways [named Wnt] do not retire after development of the organism, but have a new and surprising role in the adult. They are called back to action to change the properties of the nervous system in response to experience," says biology Professor Andres Villu Maricq, senior author of the new study in the March 30 issue of the journal Cell.  The study was performed in C. elegans -- the millimeter-long roundworm or nematode -- which has a...

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'Backpacking' bacteria help ferry nano-medicines inside humans

To the ranks of horses, donkeys, camels and other animals that have served humanity as pack animals or beasts of burden, scientists are now enlisting bacteria to ferry nano-medicine cargos throughout the human body. They reported on progress in developing these "backpacking" bacteria -- so small that a million would fit on the head of a pin -- in San Diego on March 29 at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).  Bacterial cells could deliver diagnostics, therapeutics or sensors to where they are needed most in the body ]Credit:Sean Parsons, ACS] "Cargo-carrying bacteria may be an answer to a major roadblock in using nano-medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat disease," David H. Gracias,...

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Genetic regulators hijacked by avian and swine flu viruses identified

Researchers at the University of British Columbia have identified a number of tiny but powerful "genetic regulators" that are hijacked by avian and swine flu viruses during human infection.  This is an illustration showing the influenza A virus, host cell, and cellular microRNAs [Credit: Professor Francois Jean, University of British Columbia] The discovery, published this week in the Journal of Virology, could reveal new targets for broad-spectrum antivirals to combat current – and perhaps future – strains of influenza A viruses.  The study is the first to compare the role played by human microRNAs – small molecules that control the expression of multiple genes – in the life cycle of two viruses of continued concern to public...

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With you in the room bacteria counts spike by about 37 million bacteria per hour

A person's mere presence in a room can add 37 million bacteria to the air every hour -- material largely left behind by previous occupants and stirred up from the floor -- according to new research by Yale University engineers.  Rendering of bacteria. A person's mere presence in a room can add 37 million bacteria to the air every hour -- material largely left behind by previous occupants and stirred up from the floor -- according to new research by Yale University engineers [Credit: © Jezper/Fotolia] "We live in this microbial soup, and a big ingredient is our own microorganisms," said Jordan Peccia, associate professor of environmental engineering at Yale and the principal investigator of a study recently published online in the...

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Placenta on toast? Could we derive benefits from ingesting afterbirth?

Almost all non-human mammals eat placenta for good reasons. Are we missing something? A paper by neuroscientists at the University at Buffalo and Buffalo State College suggests that ingestion of components of afterbirth or placenta -- placentophagia -- may offer benefits to human mothers and perhaps to non-mothers and males.  They say this possibility does not warrant the wholesale ingestion of afterbirth, for some very good reasons, but that it deserves further study.  Mark Kristal, PhD, professor of psychology and neuroscience at UB, directs the graduate program in behavioral neuroscience, and has studied placentophagia for more than 40 years. He is recognized as a principle expert in the field.  Kristal's article "Placentophagia...

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Study shows people know more than they think they do

The process of melding individuals into effective, problem-solving groups should involve empowering individuals to realize they have important ideas to share.  Group of Utah business students involved in problem solving exercise [Credit: David Eccles School of Business] Dr. Bryan Bonner, an associate professor at the University of Utah's David Eccles School of Business, believes the first step to building successful organizations is deceptively simple: self-realization by each participant of his or her unique knowledge and experience.  Bonner co-authored "Leveraging Member Expertise to Improve Knowledge Transfer and Demonstrability in Groups" with Dr. Michael Baumann, an associate professor of Psychology at the University of...

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Dare you protest against God?

Is it OK to protest God's actions—or inactions? This was the key question behind recent studies led by Case Western Reserve University psychologist Julie Exline.  Many people report having a relationship with God, similar to those relationships in marriage, parenting or friendship. Exline and colleagues found that being assertive with God could actually strengthen that perceived bond and one's faith.  They report their findings in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality's article, "Anger, Exit and Assertion: Do People See Protest toward God as Morally Acceptable?"  Using Internet surveys, the research focused on two groups: 358 undergraduates at a research university and 471 participants from a broad-based...

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Computer system identifies liars

Inspired by the work of psychologists who study the human face for clues that someone is telling a high-stakes lie, UB computer scientists are exploring whether machines can also read the visual cues that give away deceit.  In a study of 40 cases, a computer correctly identified liars more than 80 percent of the time, a better rate than humans with the naked eye typically achieve in lie-detection exercises [Credit: Science Photo Library] Results so far are promising: In a study of 40 videotaped conversations, an automated system that analyzed eye movements correctly identified whether interview subjects were lying or telling the truth 82.5 percent of the time.  That's a better accuracy rate than expert human interrogators typically...

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Bone marrow stem cells can improve heart function

A research network led by a Mayo Clinic physician found that stem cells derived from heart failure patients' own bone marrow and injected into their hearts improved the function of the left ventricle, the heart's pumping chamber. Researchers also found that certain types of the stem cells were associated with the largest improvement and warrant further study.  The results were presented March 26 at the 2012 American College of Cardiology Meeting in Chicago. They will also be published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  This Phase II clinical trial, designed to test this strategy to improve cardiac function, is an extension of earlier efforts in Brazil in which a smaller number of patients received fewer...

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Dental plaque bacteria may trigger blood clots

Oral bacteria that escape into the bloodstream are able to cause blood clots and trigger life-threatening endocarditis. Further research could lead to new drugs to tackle infective heart disease, say scientists presenting their work at the Society for General Microbiology's Spring Conference in Dublin this week.  Streptococcus gordonii is a normal inhabitant of the mouth and contributes to plaque that forms on the surface of teeth. If these bacteria enter into the blood stream through bleeding gums they can start to wreak havoc by masquerading as human proteins.  Researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and the University of Bristol have discovered that S. gordonii is able to produce a molecule on its...

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Do animals have reflective minds?

According to one of the leading scholars in the field, there is an emerging consensus among scientists that animals share functional parallels with humans' conscious metacognition -- that is, our ability to reflect on our own mental processes and guide and optimize them.  Scientists concur that when it comes to this Old World macaque: monkey see, monkey do, monkey think about what monkey do, monkey maybe do something else [Credit: University at Buffalo] In two new contributions to this influential field of comparative psychology, David Smith, PhD, of the University at Buffalo and his fellow researchers report on continuing advances in this domain.  Smith is a professor in the Department of Psychology at UB, and a member of the...

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Suppressing feelings of compassion makes people feel less moral

It's normal to not always act on your sense of compassion -- for example, by walking past a beggar on the street without giving them any money. Maybe you want to save your money or avoid engaging with a homeless person. But even if suppressing compassion avoids these costs, it may carry a personal cost of its own, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. After people suppress compassionate feelings, an experiment shows, they lose a bit of their commitment to morality.  Normally, people assume that ignoring their compassionate feeling doesn't have any cost -- that you can just suppress your sympathy and walk on. But Daryl Cameron and Keith Payne of the University...

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In recognizing faces, the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts

How do we recognize a face? To date, most research has answered "holistically": We look at all the features -- eyes, nose, mouth -- simultaneously and, perceiving the relationships among them, gain an advantage over taking in each feature individually. Now a new study overturns this theory. The researchers -- Jason M. Gold and Patrick J. Mundy of the Indiana University and Bosco S. Tjan of the University of Southern California -- found that people's performance in recognizing a whole face is no better than their performance with each individual feature shown alone. "Surprisingly, the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts," says Gold.  How do we recognize a face? [Credit: © olly / Fotolia] The findings appear in the journal...

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Happiness is not in the jeans

You may throw on an outfit without much thought in the morning, but your choice is strongly affected by your mood. And the item of casual wear in almost everyone's wardrobe -- denim jeans -- is what most people wear when depressed, new research from psychologists at the University of Hertfordshire reveals.  Denim jeans is what most people wear when feeling depressed [Credit: © art_zzz / Fotolia] A study conducted by Professor Karen Pine, co-author of "Flex: Do Something Different, found that what a woman chooses to wear is heavily dependent upon her emotional state."* One hundred women were asked what they wore when feeling depressed and more than half of them said jeans. Only a third would wear jeans when feeling happy. In a low...

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Women happier in relationships when men feel their pain

Men like to know when their wife or girlfriend is happy while women really want the man in their life to know when they are upset, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.  The study involved a diverse sample of couples and found that men's and women's perceptions of their significant other's empathy, and their abilities to tell when the other is happy or upset, are linked to relationship satisfaction in distinctive ways, according to the article published online in the Journal of Family Psychology.  "It could be that for women, seeing that their male partner is upset reflects some degree of the man's investment and emotional engagement in the relationship, even during difficult times. This...

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Are rich people more unethical?

Since the economic implosion of 2008, the news has been littered with accounts of questionable behavior in boardrooms, corner offices, and other gold-plated spaces. What's not clear from the headlines, however, is whether white-collar criminals like Bernard Madoff are bad apples or extreme examples of a widespread trend.  A new study may offer a clue to answering that question: A series of experiments conducted by psychologists at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that people who are socially and financially better-off are more likely to lie, cheat, and otherwise behave unethically compared to individuals who occupy lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder.  "Elevated wealth status seems to make you want even more,...

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