Clever teenagers of today are not as bright as kids in the class of 1976, according to researchers. Skip related content
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Class of 76 'cleverer' than kids of today
The intellect of even the brainiest 14-year-olds has deteriorated dramatically over the decades despite an increase in the number of pupils achieving top grades in exams.
Their cognitive abilities are level with those of 12-year-olds in 1976, the study found.
Researchers at King's College London compared the mental agility of 800 bright 13 and 14-year-olds with similar tests carried out some three decades ago.
The Oregonator (Orygunator) is the simplest realistic model of the chemical dynamics of the oscillatory (Zhabotinsky, 1991; Gray and Scott, 1991; Epstein and Pojman, 1998) Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. It was devised by Field and Noyes (1974) working at the University of Oregon and is composed of five coupled elementary chemical stoichiometries. This network is obtained by reduction of the complex chemical mechanism of the BZ reaction suggested by Field, Korös and Noyes (1974) and referred to as the FKN mechanism. Reduction is accomplished by application of standard methods of chemical kinetics, especially the rate-determining-step approximation (Espenson, 1995).
UCLA study identifies mechanism behind mind-body connection
Explains how chronic emotional stress ages the immune system
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Chromosomes (stained blue) end in protective caps called telomeres (stained yellow) that are shorter in the elderly -- and in persons suffering chronic stress. A new UCLA study suggests cortisol...
Every cell contains a tiny clock called a telomere, which shortens each time the cell divides. Short telomeres are linked to a range of human diseases, including HIV, osteoporosis, heart disease and aging. Previous studies show that an enzyme within the cell, called telomerase, keeps immune cells young by preserving their telomere length and ability to continue dividing.
The search for more effective treatments of MDD and other depressive disorders has fostered exploration of the physiologic role of dopamine in depression.2,7 Fairly recently, dopamine was first implicated in the etiology and treatment of depression.8 Evidence from clinical investigations support the finding that depressed patients have reduced cerebrospinal levels of homovanillic acid (HVA), the major metabolite of dopamine in the central nervous system. Neuroimaging studies of medication-free depressed patients have found decreased ligand binding to the dopamine transporter and increased dopamine binding potential in the caudate and putamen, a finding consistent with the interpretation that depressed subjects have a functional deficiency of synaptic dopamine.9
Animal behavioral models also find an association of depressive behaviors with altered dopamine functioning of the mesolimbic pathway.2,10 Animals exhibiting “learned helplessness” behavior show dopamine depletion in the caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens, which can be prevented by pretreatment with a dopamine agonist. In the “forced swim test,” another animal model of depression, the immobility of animals can be reversed by administration of the DNRI nomifensine as well as by tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs). Dopamine D2/D3 antagonists block the beneficial effects of these antidepressants in this behavioral model. Several animal models of depression have consistently found altered dopamine pathways associated with depressive behaviors.
Several antidepressants possess direct dopaminergic activity as part of their pharmacologic profile. For example, MAOIs significantly increase brain concentrations of three major monoamine neurotransmitters—norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine. This may account for their accepted efficacy across a spectrum of depressive and anxiety disorders.11 MAOIs have fallen into relative disuse due to concerns about drug-drug interactions and tyramine-associated hypertensive episodes. A transdermal formulation of the MAOI selegiline is available and offers a greater margin of safety than oral MAOIs because it spares gastrointestinal monoamine oxidase (MAO)-A and has fewer dietary restrictions.11 Because selegiline exhibits relative selectivity for the MAO-B form of the enzyme, it is possible that, at antidepressant doses, the drug exerts more profound dopaminergic effects than other agents.
While superior to placebo treatment in well-controlled trials, SSRIs frequently fail to render depressed patients symptom free. Partial response may reflect failure of an antidepressant to pharmacologically enhance more than a single monoamine neurotransmitter system. The role of both dopamine and norepinephrine neuronal systems in depressive disorders is the focus of intense study. Several antidepressants affecting all three major monoamine neurotransmitters are currently under investigation. The question of how SSRI or SNRI drugs alter or fail to alter dopamine neuronal systems has not been answered.2 Dual-acting antidepressants and use of augmentation strategies that directly enhance dopamine signaling are treatment options with potential for improving remission rates. PP
Yes, television is enjoyable! In modern world, TV is one of the main sources of entertainment. Watching television is an experience shared by the vast majority of children and adults. It is convenient, inexpensive, available, and attractive.
It may be hard to believe that watching TV can damage our health, especially the health of kids, and disturb daily life, but there are many reasons that this is true. A number of studies have demonstrated negative effects of long TV hours.
i) Your tax money is paying for all of this research.
ii) The scientists themselves do almost all of the work in putting the paper together, including the refereeing (all at no cost to the journal.)
iii) With Latex, just about anyone can produce publication ready MS's that look professionally typeset. Scientists no longer require a publication house to typeset their papers.
iv) It is in the best interests of the scientists to publish their work in an open format such that anyone can download the PDF's for free. That gives the work the maximum possible exposure.
v) Some journals already have open access- e.g. The Brazilian Journal of Physics.
vi) The existing copyright limits are horrendous. A paper only becomes public property 70 years after the death of the authors. How does that benefit anyone?
vii) Why should (e.g.) a cancer patient be forced to fork out 45 dollars for a paper detailing the results of a clinical trial for a drug she's taking?
viii) Is it any wonder that the public is so ignorant of science, when they're denied access to the original source material used by all scientists?
"We studied around 600 proteins that are found in mammalian synapses and were surprised to find that only 50 percent of these are also found in invertebrate synapses, and about 25 percent are in single-cell animals, which obviously don't have a brain."
Synapses are the junctions between nerves where electrical signals from one cell are transferred through a series of biochemical switches to the next. However, synapses are not simply soldered joints, but mini-processors that give the nervous systems the property of learning and memory.
Remarkably, the study shows that some of the proteins involved in synapse signalling and learning and memory are found in yeast, where they act to respond to signals from their environment, such as stress due to limited food or temperature change.
Ongoing study continues to show that extra sleep improves athletic performance
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Getting extra sleep over an extended period of time improves athletic performance, mood and alertness, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Monday at the SLEEP 2008 22nd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS) in Baltimore, Md.
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Participants in this ongoing study were five healthy students on the Stanford University men's and women's swimming teams. For the first two weeks of the study, the students maintained their usual sleep-wake pattern. The athletes then extended their sleep to 10 hours per day for six to seven weeks.
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Athletic performance was assessed after each regularly scheduled swim practice. After obtaining extra sleep, athletes swam a 15-meter meter sprint 0.51 seconds faster, reacted 0.15 seconds quicker off the blocks, improved turn time by 0.10 seconds and increased kick strokes by 5.0 kicks.
"These results begin to elucidate the importance of sleep on athletic performance and, more specifically, how sleep is a significant factor in achieving peak athletic performance," said lead author Cheri Mah of the Stanford Sleep Disorders Clinic and Research Laboratory. "While this study focuses specifically on collegiate swimmers, it agrees with data from my other studies of different sports and suggests that athletes across all sports can greatly benefit from extra sleep and gain the additional competitive edge to perform at their highest level."
New study: Coffee drinkers have slightly lower death rates than people who do not drink coffee
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A new study published today in Annals of Internal Medicine has good news for coffee drinkers: Regular coffee drinking (up to 6 cups per day) is not associated with increased deaths in either men or women. In fact, both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee consumption is associated with a somewhat smaller rate of death from heart disease.
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"Coffee consumption has been linked to various beneficial and detrimental health effects, but data on its relation with death were lacking," says Esther Lopez-Garcia, PhD, the study's lead author. "Coffee consumption was not associated with a higher risk of mortality in middle-aged men and women. The possibility of a modest benefit of coffee consumption on heart disease, cancer, and other causes of death needs to be further investigated."
Women consuming two to three cups of caffeinated coffee per day had a 25 percent lower risk of death from heart disease during the follow-up period (which lasted from 1980 to 2004 and involved 84,214 women) as compared with non-consumers, and an 18 percent lower risk of death caused by something other than cancer or heart disease as compared with non-consumers during follow-up. For men, this level of consumption was associated with neither a higher nor a lower risk of death during the follow-up period (which lasted from 1986 to 2004 and involved 41,736 men).
Transdermal Patch Could Herald Renewed Popularity for MAOIs
Jim Rosack
Monoamine oxidase inhibitors may be poised for a comeback, thanks to a novel way of administering the often troublesome, but effective, antidepressants.
Administering the selective monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI)selegiline through a transdermal patch could be an effectiveand safe alternative in antidepressant therapy, if early researchis replicated.
J. Alexander Bodkin, M.D., an assistant professor of psychiatryat Harvard Medical School and research psychiatrist at McLeanHospital, reported in the November American Journal of Psychiatrythat transdermal selegiline at a dose equivalent to 20 mg perday was an effective and well-tolerated antidepressant therapy.
The study reported, the first of four clinical trials involvingthe transdermal patch, was funded by Somerset Pharmaceuticals,which is developing the product under the trade name EmSam.An application in May 2001 to the Food and Drug Administrationfor approval of the transdermal product was ultimately deemedby the FDA to be not approvable. Company officials hope to reapplyin the first half of next year with more complete efficacy andsafety data, a company source said.
The selegiline transdermal system is a monoamine oxidase inhibitorthat was recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administrationfor the treatment of major depressive disorder. The currentstudy was conducted during the selegiline transdermal systemdevelopment program to characterize the single-dose pharmacokineticsand absolute bioavailability of selegiline administered by the6-mg/24-h selegiline transdermal system in healthy volunteers.Selegiline transdermal system results were compared with thoseobtained after a single 10-mg oral dose of selegiline HCl. Theselegiline pharmacokinetics differed greatly between the 2 routesof administration. Transdermal selegiline administration reducedmetabolism and produced a high, sustained plasma selegilineconcentration over the dosing period, with an absolute bioavailabilityof 73%. By contrast, oral dosing produced a sharp plasma selegilinepeak that occurred within 1 hour and declined rapidly, withan absolute bioavailability of 4%. The data provide the basisfor therapeutic advantages of the selegiline transdermal systemin administering antidepressant doses of selegiline.
A psychology researcher has controversially claimed that stupidity is causally linked to how likely people are to believe in God.
University of Ulster professor Richard Lynn will draw the conclusion in new research due to be published in the journal Intelligence, the Times Higher Education Supplement reports.
Lynn and his two co-authors argue that average IQ is an excellent predictor of what proportion of the population are true believers, across 137 countries. They also cite surveys of the US Academy of Sciences and UK Royal Academy showing single-digit rates of religious belief among academics.
That professional skeptics don't believe in a creator is perhaps not all that surprising. Lynn argues, however, that it is their intelligence that directly gives rise to the boffinated classes' non-God-bothering tendencies. He said: "Why should fewer academics believe in God than the general population? I believe it is simply a matter of the IQ. Academics have higher IQs than the general population."
Lynn pointed out that most children do believe in God, but as their intelligence develops they tend to have doubts or reject religion. Similarly, as average IQ in Western societies increased through the 20th century, so did rates of atheism, he said.
The researchers' claims of a direct causal link have drawn criticism from others in intelligence research, who argue their conclusions are too simplistic. London Metropolitan University's Dr David Hardman said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt intuitions."
Next week: exclusive Reg research reveals the link between obesity and love of cake. ®
A major evolutionary innovation has unfurled right in front of researchers' eyes. It's the first time evolution has been caught in the act of making such a rare and complex new trait.
OBJECTIVE: The authors investigated the efficacy and safetyof transdermal selegiline in adult outpatients with major depressivedisorder. METHOD: Following a 1-week placebo lead-in, 177 adultoutpatients with major depressive disorder were randomly assignedto receive transdermal selegiline (20 mg applied once dailyby means of a 20-cm2 patch) (N=89) or placebo (N=88) for 6 weeks.The patients followed a tyramine-restricted diet during themedication trial and for 2 weeks after completion of treatment.Response to medication or placebo was measured by using the17-item and 28-item versions of the Hamilton Depression RatingScale, the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale,and the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) severity and improvementmeasures. RESULTS: Greater improvement was observed after 6weeks in patients treated with transdermal selegiline than inthose given placebo according to all measures. A statisticallysignificant difference between drug and placebo was seen inHamilton depression scale and Montgomery-Åsberg DepressionRating Scale scores as early as week 1 of treatment. There wereno differences in the adverse event profile of the patientsgiven selegiline and those given placebo with the exceptionof application-site reactions, which were more common with theselegiline transdermal system. No orthostatic hypotensive orhypertensive reactions were observed. CONCLUSIONS: Transdermalselegiline (20 mg applied once daily by means of a 20-cm2 patch)administered for 6 weeks was an effective and well-toleratedtreatment for adult outpatients with major depression. The typicalside effects commonly seen with traditional monoamine oxidaseinhibitor antidepressants were not observed.
If antioxidant supplement labels are to be believed, you should stop reading this article and gobble down some pills: Spurred by the rising sales of antioxidant supplements, Pom Wonderful, makers of pomegranate juice, now makes an antioxidant supplement that they claim has "extraordinary health benefits."
This proclamation is echoed by numerous health supplement ads in health food stores and on the Internet. For instance, Source Naturals Resveratrol advises on the General Nutrition Centers Web site that taking antioxidants "…may help prevent free-radical damage throughout the body and provide protective support to the cardiovascular system.*" Problem solved. Except a bit of a buzz-kill is delivered by the asterisked footnote: "These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease."
Separately from Sirtris’s investigations, a research team led by Tomas A. Prolla and Richard Weindruch, of the University of Wisconsin, reports in the journal PLoS One on Wednesday that resveratrol may be effective in mice and people in much lower doses than previously thought necessary. In earlier studies, like Dr. Auwerx’s of mice on treadmills, the animals were fed such large amounts of resveratrol that to gain equivalent dosages people would have to drink more than 100 bottles of red wine a day.
The Wisconsin scientists used a dose on mice equivalent to just 35 bottles a day. But red wine contains many other resveratrol-like compounds that may also be beneficial. Taking these into account, as well as mice’s higher metabolic rate, a mere four, five-ounce glasses of wine “starts getting close” to the amount of resveratrol they found effective, Dr. Weindruch said.
