Science News - December 31, 2011

could be produced for kidney dialysis or heart bypass surgery (SN: 2/26/11, p. 11).

Ketamine explained The anesthetic ketamine fights depression by quickly boosting levels of a brain compound that has been linked to the condition (SN: 7/16/11, p. 17).

Rerouted for feeling Amputees whose sense of touch was rerouted from their missing limbs view their prosthetics as part of the body (SN: 2/26/11, p. 10).

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Preterm aftereffects Infants born prematurely face a higher risk of dying in early adulthood than babies born at full term, scientists report. The higher mortality risk also shows up when the babies are preschool age (SN Online: 9/20/11).

Apnea-dementia link A study of women 65 and older finds that those with seriously disordered breathing have an increased risk of developing mild cognitive impairment or dementia in subsequent years (SN: 9/10/11, p. 16).

likelihood of breast cancer among healthy women at risk of developing the disease (SN: 7/2/11, p. 16).

Supermemory People who can remember every day of their lives in detail have more bulk in certain brain regions, one of which has been linked to obsessive-compulsive disorder (SN: 12/3/11, p. 9).

Hypnosis confirmed A glassy gaze that jumps around in bizarre patterns may be a foolproof sign of a hypnotic trance (above), researchers report (SN: 12/17/11, p. 10).

Two brain slots Like side-by-side computer RAM cards, the left and the right hemispheres of the brain store information separately, helping explain why people can remember only a handful of objects at one time (SN: 7/30/11, p. 10).

Immune booster calms An immune protein once pursued as a treatment to rev up the body’s defenses, interleukin- 2, may be able to halt or reverse aberrant immune reactions where standard treatments have failed (SN Online: 11/30/11).

Breast cancer drug A drug called exemestane, which inhibits the manufacture of estrogen, can lower the

Between the ears The high-pitched ringing, squealing, hissing, clicking, roaring, buzzing or whistling in the ears that can drive tinnitus sufferers crazy may be a by-product of the brain turning up the volume to cope with subtle hearing loss (SN: 11/5/11, p. 14).

No fear here A rare genetic disease that destroyed a middle-aged woman’s amygdala (red at left) made her immune to fear, researchers find (SN: 1/15/11, p. 14).

Sifting through autism’s tangled web

Each person with an autism spectrum disorder has a dif-
ferent disease, yet some commonalities exist, a flurry
of studies reveals (SN: 8/13/11, p. 20). Though the
finds don’t point to a clear cause or a cure, they
inch researchers closer to a deeper understand-
ing of the baffling disorders.

By sifting through genetic differences in a large group of children, researchers find numerous changes that could contribute to autism spectrum disorder (SN Online: 6/8/11).

Screening more than 1,000 families, including
parents and unaffected siblings, reveals dupli-
cated and missing portions of DNA. Such changes may
account for 5 to 8 percent of autism cases.

Other research has focused on gene and protein activity in a person with autism. Hundreds of genes behave differently in the brains of people with autism (SN: 6/18/11, p. 5), and many of these genes are involved in nerve cell communication. Proteins that govern nerve cell behavior are probably important for the disorders too: Scientists have discovered new relationships between some key autism-related proteins and over 500 other proteins.

Although this laundry list of biochemical changes seems dauntingly complex, the results still represent a flood of progress in trying to understand autism, says child psychiatrist and geneticist Matthew State of Yale University School of Medicine. “These are all, in their own way, making a chink in the armor.” — Laura Sanders