Dormivigilia

I heart science nerds. If Lady Gaga ran a lab, this is what it would look like, and how, accurately enough, the lab personnel would behave. And now you will forever have this song stuck in your head.

Rah rah rah……..

Montegraphia may not yet realize my secondary motive for buying him a subscription to Discover magazine for Christmas (i.e. double-dipping; i.e. I also wanted to read it), but he does know that I’m enamored by the latest issue; there’s a wonderfully written article by Carl Zimmer (per usual) dissecting the “athlete” brain. Jocks, myself included, have habituated to the nicknames “meathead,” “dumb jock,” and “muscle brains,” but recent progress in neuroscience has debunked such stereotyping by suggesting that athletes, to exhaust a coaches’ adage, are the masters of mind over matter. When completing a procedural task that necessitates fine-tune motor control and/or hand-eye coordination , athletes have greater focus and subsequently better performance all while expending less brain energy. These superior mental attributes of intense focus (and subsequent better performance) concomitant with reduced energy expenditure were determined through a greater presence of high-frequency alpha waves  and reduced oxygen uptake, measured through electrophysiology and a functional magnetic resonance imaging device, respectively. Even more interesting, this level of high performance combined with energy conservation is positively associated with athletic expertise; professional athletes have the greatest “mind over matter.”

I would provide you with the article, per usual, but I was unable to locate it online. Therefore, you may have to “double-dip” from your friend or just buy it, sorry. To avoid hate mail, Carl chose a unanimous (excluding Red Sox fans) talented athlete, Derek Jeter, instead of an equally talented, but damned athlete who was voted most likely not to speak at upcoming graduation commencements.

Here is one of the papers highlighted in Carl Zimmer’s article, though; it describes a transcranial magnetic stimulation sensor placed over the motor cortex which assists in motor memory retention and recall. The designers of this device at Johns Hopkins and Zimmer (myself too) anticipate that this device will be soon be regulated in use by the USOC, IOC, and other governing sports institutions. My pole vaulters would certainly benefit from this technology, since success in the event is dependent upon muscle memory and body kinesthetics more than juice.

Galea, J., & Celnik, P. (2009). Brain Polarization Enhances the Formation and Retention of Motor Memories Journal of Neurophysiology, 102 (1), 294-301 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00184.2009

I unfortunately did not find the featured article/accompanying picture in this week’s Journal of Neuroscience as interesting as this one: Nuture versus Nature: Long-Term Impact of Forced Right-Handedness on Structure of Pericentral Cortexand Basal Ganglia  by a collaborative group of European neuroscientists. I immediately sent this article to my uncle, who was coerced by his mother to be left-handed, stating that is would make my uncle “unique and well-liked” (I doubt that there is any scientific literature to support this claim). Regardless, these researchers observed that though humans are innately endowed with a handedness originating from a greater distribution of cortical matter within either the right (left-handers) or left (right-handers) premotor cortex, lying near the central sulcus, this unequal distribution can be modified after birth through deliberate practice, and leads to either an equal contribution of both left and right premotor areas (ambidextrous), or a cortical imbalance that favors the other hand. I’m not certain whether handedness is inherited, though I imagine genes that guide embryonic cortical development have some role, but at least this information is good for future parenting (i.e. parents like me who aspire to have children that are professional football players ).

Stefan Klo¨ppel, Jean-Francois Mangin, Anna Vongerichten, Richard S. J. Frackowiak,and Hartwig R. Siebner (2010). Nuture versus Nature: Long-Term Impact of Forced Right-Handedness on Structure of Pericentral Cortexand Basal Ganglia Journal of Neuroscience, 30 (9), 3271-3275 : 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4394-09.2010

Tis the season to March Madness per the Journal of Neuroscience. Today during Neuro Journal Club, I presented a paper in which Duke researchers localized brain centers involved with recalling passes, shots, rebounds, and penalties of an emotionally-salient basketball game. The study was published by Duke University (and possibly funded by Coach K, since the results were favorable for Duke fans), in which avid, loyal basketball fans of Duke and UNC were asked to recall the outcome of a particular shot (hit or miss) and rate his/her accuracy. After rigorous questioning used to select the most knowledgeable fans of which excluded women (not intentionally), the lucky participants watched a game in the presence of other like-minded fans (excluding alcohol and accompanying hor’d oeuvres) and then underwent fMRI testing to determine which centers of the brain were highly activated during recall of game plays. Not surprisingly, areas of the frontal cortex regulating attention (anterior cingulate cortex, dorsolateral cortex) and memory consolidation/recall (medial temporal lobe) were highly active, but surprisingly, premotor planning areas (the basal ganglia) were equally and in some cases, more active! Additionally, though the Duke fans had faster recall than the UNC fans, the activation intensity within these particular brain areas did not differ between the Blue devil and Tarheel wannabes. From these results, it appears that the premotor cortex accompanies or may even be necessary for the recall of procedural or episodic memories with dominant movement. I know studies in the past have found high activation in these same premotor areas in baseball and football players who rehearse pitches and plays before the game, which may also elucidate gender-specific differences in fan-based statistical and game play recall found in this study. Perhaps these premotor planning areas are more highly activated during a game in males vs. females given a group of both genders equivocally knowledgeable in fan-based statistics and game plays and/or perhaps watching the game with a group of people (as done in the study) further enhances memory consolidation because it increases the likelihood of celebratory gestures (but hopefully no party fowls and/or tabling flipping, Justin!) which of course would activate premotor planning areas? Regardless, I love when my two favorite past times, neuroscience and sports, are concomitantly studied.

In other sports news, I did a sprint workout yesterday with three rookies in the NFL. They may have kicked my ass, but hopefully, my brains won’t look like theirs within the next twenty years (here’s a link the article published in The New Yorker illustrating the massive amount of neurodegeneration (pathologically, a premature state of Alzheimer’s) progressing in most current and past NFL players, due to impactful collisons.

Botzung, A., Rubin, D., Miles, A., Cabeza, R., & LaBar, K. (2010). Mental Hoop Diaries: Emotional Memories of a College Basketball Game in Rival Fans Journal of Neuroscience, 30 (6), 2130-2137 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2481-09.2010

It is rare for one to see an empirical article in a moderately-impactful journal, such as SLEEP, that solely reports about one case study (let alone have multiple affiliations……). I can overlook the extremely small sample size, however, because this study may help my lab elucidate a reciprocal relationship between sleep/wake and reward centers of the brain and related serotonergic and dopaminergic neurosystems.

In this report, a patient with significantly depleted levels of circulating serotonin and dopamine in the brain, which was facilitated by a genetic deficiency in sepiapterin reductase (an enzyme necessary for the synthesis of the amino acids responsible for making serotonin and dopamine (tryptophan and tyrosine), suffered from multiple physiological and subsequent behavioral ailments, including hypersomnia (over-sleeping), hyperphagia (over-eating), impaired cognition/attention, depressed melatonin secretion, and ultradian sleep/wake rhythms (more than one sleep/wake rhythm in a 24 hour period (day)). Following treatment with 5-hydroxytryptophan, which is a serotonin/melatonin precursor, the patient’s sleep/wake rhythms became more consolidated, over-eating decreased, melatonin profiles were normalized, and serotonin levels rose. Of all the rescuing effects of 5-hydroxytryptophan, it is most fascinating that over-eating, a behavior clearly indicative of altered dopaminergic/other neurosystems in reward areas, was mitigated. For addicts (independent of type: drugs, sex, food, gambling, etc), 5-hydroxytryptophan may not only reduce craving, but may also effectively reduce relapse risk, since assiduous disruptions of sleep/wake predict relapse risk.

This picture, adopted from the paper, shows the overlapping biochemical pathways leading to serotonin, dopamine, and melatonin synthesis.

Smaranda Leu-Semenescu; Isabelle Arnulf; Caroline Decaix; Fathi Moussa; Fabienne Clot; Camille Boniol; Yvan Touitou; Richard Levy; Marie Vidailhet; Emmanuel Roze (2010). Sleep and Rhythm Consequences of a Genetically Induced Loss of Serotonin SLEEP, 33 (3), 307-314

For psychiatric disorders, the quantity and quality of treatment is always a concern. Some doctors argue drugs only, others advocate cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT; or less common forms of psychotherapy), while another school insists a balance of psychiatry and psychotherapy. In addition, some common pharmacological therapeutics, such as antidepressants, are utilized to treat a wide spectrum of psychiatric disorders, ranging from depression, substance abuse and eating disorders, to Internet/technology-facilitated syndromes, such as social anxiety disorder.

The history of this conundrum, what to treat and how, is reviewed by Gary Greenberg in this week’s New Yorker. Greenberg even details the history of some common psychiatric drugs, such as anxiolytics (anxio=anxiety; lytic= to break), which became highly stigmatized in the 1970s, after notable cases of abuse by Hollywood moguls, and were subsequently and euphemistically re-named “antidepressants.”

This is the accompanying picture to this week’s Journal of Neuroscience. fMRI was utilized to verify that the inferior parietal lobule is highly activated while retrieving studied but not novel episodic memories. The article is fascinating, but the picture would have been even cooler if it mimicked a stereogram (i.e Magic Eye).

Yeah right. This is the disclaimer posted front and center on the official website of Drank. A new gas station-retail beverage that is the antithesis of Red Bull: it removes your wings…..or at least that’s the claim. I first encountered this beverage last Friday night at a gas station, actually the mecca of all gas stations (Quik Tip) per Midwesterners. While oogling over the 32 varieties of carbonated beverages on tap for the price of 89 cents and assuring myself that’s why the Midwest has a BMI (Body Mass Index) conundrum, I was ,mid-thought, informed by the station attendant about a newer drink in stock……in case I wanted to fall asleep. Here it is.

Immediately, this skeptic (i.e. me) scanned through the ingredients to identify the proverbial Morpheus, and I found it. Melatonin was listed second to the bottom. Given its ordinal position in a plethora of ingredients, I highly doubt that there is enough dosage of this melatonin to even put a mouse to sleep, in addition to that most people are “non-responders” to melatonin. I’m betting (99%) this is a placebo effect. With the rare chance that there is an observational effect (i.e. someone does feel sleepy and “calmed and relaxed”) it’s dangerous, then for this drink to lie within the heap/row of surrounding energy drinks. Energy drinks are easily distinguishable from their lackluster 1950’s soda pop cans because of the ever-increasing retro, flashy designs presented on each, and this Drank is no exception  (except for the classic decal of Red Bull). It’s relatively facile, moreover, for the rare melatonin responder to haphazardly mistake this drink for an energy drink and subsequently fall asleep at the wheel…and that never ends well.

I was originally planning to conduct an experiment, testing the drink’s efficacy, myself, but I’m not enthused about contributing to this organization and yet another pop culture figment of pseudoscience.

Today we had another job candidate seminar for the joint Biological Science/Psychology tenure-track faculty hire (and I still can’t resist the university food services cookies….I’ll have more tomorrow…..). The candidate, Dr. Patrick McGowan, was from the Douglas Institute at McGill University. He studies epigenetic  (environmental and genetic interactions) contributions to suicide risk in humans and to stress resiliency in rodents. Regarding his human research, his neuronal locus of interest is the hippocampus, obtained from a brain bank, of males who committed suicide and were additionally abused/neglected during childhood (test group). His control group was males who died of natural (heart attack) or tragic (car accident) causes and were not abused/neglected during childhood. Upon analysis of these brains using microarrays, McGowan found hyper DNA methylation in the victims who committed suicide and were previously abused. In follow-up experiments, McGowan and colleagues discovered that this DNA methylation association with suicide was specific for abused/neglected males, as suicidal males who were not abused/neglected did not possess this extent of DNA methylation. Therefore, upon further advancements in genetic/neurotechnology, we may soon be able to identify markers of DNA methylation that infer suicide risk, particularly in individuals who have a history of physical, emotional, sexual abuse/neglect.

As for McGowan’s rodent studies which investigated epigenetic contributions to stress resiliency (or lack thereof), he specifically focused on early-life maternal care. There is an extensive amount of rodent literature showing that anxious, ambivalent, and neglectful mothers (usually identified by low frequencies of licking young, which provides the litter with nourishment) have young that are less resilient to stress later in life. Knowing this, McGowan et al. illustrated that these low-licked offspring, whether raised by their biological or adopted low-licking mothers, had reduced expression of glucocorticoid receptors, which is positively correlated with physiological stress, and hyper DNA methylation at specific gene loci.

Here’s Dr. McGowan’s recent paper in Nature Neuroscience. Really cool work

He also mentioned that diet may influence the onset/severity of DNA methylation. Broccoli is one anti-methylation (and antioxidant) food. No wonder why I had the craving for broccoli and cavatelli (heavy pasta bathed in EVOO, garlic, fresh Parmaesan (emphasis on fresh) cheese,
and broccoli).

And…..his presentation was certainly NOT one of these……this video is hilarious but sadly true……

McGowan, P., Sasaki, A., D’Alessio, A., Dymov, S., Labonté, B., Szyf, M., Turecki, G., & Meaney, M. (2009). Epigenetic regulation of the glucocorticoid receptor in human brain associates with childhood abuse Nature Neuroscience, 12 (3), 342-348 DOI: 10.1038/nn.2270

Remember in third grade when you were asked to construct a bookshelf-size model of the solar system using $20.00 in supplies from the craft store?

Last year, The New York Times asked scientists and visual artists to design their own science/engineering project. Here are the winning entries. The grand prize winner was Dwayne Godwin and Jorge Cham, who is the illustrator of the PhD Comics, which is bookmarked on most graduate students’ web browsers for therapeutic purposes.