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 172,036 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

We compared the efficacy of artificial and natural selection processes in purging the genetic load of perpetually small populations. We subjected replicate lines of the housefly (Musca domestica L.), recently derived from the wild, to artificial selection for increased mating propensity (i.e., the proportion of male-female pairs initiating copulation within 30 min) in efforts to cull out the inbreeding depression effects of long-term small population size (as determined by a selection protocol for increased assortative mating). We also maintained parallel non-selection lines for assessing the spontaneous purge of genetic load due to inbreeding alone. We thus evaluated the fitness of artificially and 'naturally' purging populations held at census sizes of 40 individuals over the course of 18 generations. We found that the artificially selected lines had significant increases in mating propensity (up to 46% higher from the beginning of the protocol) followed by reversed selection responses back to the initial levels, resulting in non-significant heritabilities. Nevertheless, the 'naturally' selected lines had significantly lower fitness overall (a 28% reduction from the beginning of the protocol), although lower effective population sizes could have contributed to this effect. We conclude that artificial selection bolstered fitness, but only in the short-term, because the inadvertent fixation of extant genetic load later resulted in pleiotropic fitness declines. Still, the short-term advantage of the selection protocol likely contributed to the success of the speciation experiment since our recently-derived housefly populations are particularly vulnerable to inbreeding depression effects on mating behavior.
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PMID:Reversed selection responses in small populations of the housefly (Musca domestica L.). 1685 Feb 8

There are an estimated 2 million traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) each year in the United States, making the yearly incidence eight times greater than that of breast cancer and 34 times greater than HIV/AIDS. Still, it remains a "silent epidemic" because TBI results in persistent neurobehavioral impairment, without necessarily imparting a physical scar. The present review is a comparative analysis of TBI research, both basic and applied, outlining the evidence that at least one component of the brain's innate response to insult (e.g., post-traumatic neural depression) is sufficiently well understood to be the target of additional clinical studies and therapeutic strategy development.
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PMID:Post-traumatic neural depression and neurobehavioral recovery after brain injury. 1692 79

Cognitive and behavioral impairments are common in patients with epilepsy. Multiple factors may contribute to these difficulties; among them is antiepileptic drug (AED) treatment. We examined the short-term impact of two new add-on AEDs, pregabalin (PGB) and levetiracetam (LEV), on cognition and psychiatric states in 20 adult patients with medically refractory partial epilepsy, before and shortly after add-on titration. According to an open, prospective comparative trial, add-on PGB was titrated to 300 mg and add-on LEV to 1000 mg in 10 patients each. Patients were assessed before (T1) and 2 weeks after (T2) addition of the AED. During the trial, seizure frequency did not change significantly in either group. With PGB, patients manifested partly significant impairments in episodic memory of verbal and visual information. Psychiatric states were unchanged. With LEV treatment, we saw improvements in visual short-term memory performance and psychiatric states (i.e., interpersonal sensibility, depression, and anxiety). The comparison between PGB and LEV revealed a trend toward higher anxiety scores and higher variability in hostility scores with PGB that was significantly different from the trend with LEV. No significant differences were apparent in all other neuropsychological and psychiatric parameters investigated. This short-term study suggests that add-on LEV has a favorable neuropsychological and psychiatric impact. The negative neuropsychological effects of PGB may reflect temporary effects under titration. Still, the results did not confirm the promising effects on psychiatric comorbidity that have been emphasized by other reports.
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PMID:Neuropsychological and psychiatric impact of add-on titration of pregabalin versus levetiracetam: a comparative short-term study. 1694 44

Spontaneous synchronized bursts seem to play a key role in brain functions such as learning and memory. Still controversial is the characterization of spontaneous synchronized bursts in neuronal networks after learning training, whether depression or promotion. By taking advantages of the main features of the microelectrode array (MEA) technology (i.e. multisite recordings, stable and long-term coupling with the biological preparation), we analyzed changes of spontaneous synchronized bursts in cultured hippocampal neuronal networks after learning training. And for this purpose, a learning model at networking level on MEA system was constructed, and analysis of spontaneous synchronized burst activity modulation was presented. Preliminary results show that, the number of burst was increased by 154%, burst duration was increased by 35%, and the number of spikes per burst was increased by 124%, while interburst interval decreased by 44% with learning. In particular, correlation and synchrony of neuronal activities in networks were enhanced by 51% and 36%, respectively, with learning. In contrast, dynamic properties of neuronal networks were not changed much when the network was under "non-learning" condition. These results indicate that firing, association and synchrony of spontaneous bursts in neuronal networks were promoted by learning. Furthermore, from these observations, we are encouraged to think of a more engineered system based on in vitro hippocampal neurons, as a novel sensitive system for electrophysiological evaluations.
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PMID:Characterization of synchronized bursts in cultured hippocampal neuronal networks with learning training on microelectrode arrays. 1724 Jan 34

In 2004, there were approximately 44 million men and women in the United States who were providing unpaid care to a family member, friend, or neighbor; these caregivers represented an estimated 22.9 million households (21% of all U.S. households). The 1-year economic value of this unpaid labor force was recently estimated to be 306 billion dollars. Caregiving is an important issue for women, as they represent 61% of those providing care and 65% of those receiving care. Women caregivers tend to fare worse than men, reporting higher levels of symptoms tied to depression and anxiety and lower levels of subjective well-being, life satisfaction, and physical health. In addition, the care that women provide is not without cost to them in terms of their financial future. Still, despite the burden, most caregivers consider providing care to family and friends a rewarding experience.
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PMID:Supportive care needs of Americans: a major issue for women as both recipients and providers. 1767 48

Intrusive autobiographical memories of negative past events are a clinical feature common to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Recent investigations provide increasing evidence that shared cognitive processes are linked to the maintenance of intrusive memories in both conditions. Still absent from the existing literature, however, is a systematic examination of the basic content and defining characteristics of intrusive memories in depression. This study sought to: (i) outline the content and features of intrusive memories in depression, and (ii) investigate whether intrusion characteristics linked to the persistence of intrusive memories in PTSD are also characteristic of intrusive memories in depression. A sample of undergraduate students (n=250) were interviewed and assessed for the presence of an intrusive memory in the past week, and completed a battery of measures that indexed cognitive and affective responses to the memory. Consistent with prediction, intrusive memories contained high levels of sensory experience and were marked by a sense of "nowness". In accord with studies with PTSD samples, sensory features accounted for unique variance in the prediction of depression severity, over and above that accounted for by intrusion frequency. This pattern of findings was replicated in a dysphoric (BDI-II>or=12) sub-sample of participants. Our results underscore the value of drawing on theoretical conceptualisations and empirical findings from the post-traumatic stress literature to extend our understanding of intrusive memories in depression.
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PMID:An investigation of the cognitive and experiential features of intrusive memories in depression. 1803 25

While there are reports about depression in mothers caring for ventilator-dependent children in the home, little is known about the children's own perspective of living with a machine. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to obtain the first-person perspective of 11 children, ranging in age from 7 to 12 years, who were ventilator-dependent for a minimum of eight hours each day. The children's experience was contextualized by Others, both human caregiver-others and the mechanical-other. Because of the constant presence of these Others, the child is never alone. Three interrelated themes emerged against this contextual ground: "Can/Can't," "Normal/Different," and "I'm Still a Person!" These children exist as an outcome of extraordinary success in health care technology. Their needs, and those of their caregivers, challenge traditional nursing thought. Mental health nurses should be an ongoing part of the care team for these children and their families.
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PMID:Living with a machine: the experience of the child who is ventilator dependent. 1829 24

A significant proportion of patients with depressive disorders suffer from chronic conditions. The DSM-IV recognizes several forms of chronic depression. Chronic depressions differ from nonchronic major depressive disorder (MDD) on many clinical, psychosocial, and familial variables. However, less support exists for current distinctions between the various forms of chronic depression. Antidepressant medications and at least some forms of psychotherapy are efficacious in treating chronic depression, and the combination of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy appears to be superior to either monotherapy alone. Still, chronic depression is often inadequately treated, and many patients fail to respond or continue to experience residual symptoms after treatment. An important direction for future research is to elucidate the multiple pathways to chronic depression and to tailor treatments to specific etiopathogenetic subgroups.
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PMID:Chronic depression: update on classification and treatment. 1898 Jul 28

Athletes have traditionally been considered greater risk takers than their peers. Some research suggests that athletic participation is associated with increased risk behaviors in males but may be protective in females. Still there is significant intersport variability, and some "nonathlete" risk behaviors exceed those of athletes. Motor vehicle accidents, sensation-seeking behaviors that contribute to unintentional injury and violence, alcohol, illicit drug and tobacco use, sexual misadventure, unhealthy dietary habits, and physical inactivity and obesity are major health risk considerations. There is new focus upon the negative health-related consequences of other risk behaviors such as gambling, sleep apnea and obesity, inappropriate medication, energy drink or contaminated supplement use, and depression/suicide. While it is important to look at the prevalence of "risk behaviors in sport," our cautions regarding these behaviors need to be shared with all youth regardless of athletic disposition.
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PMID:Risk behaviors in high school and college sport. 1900 60

In acute depression a high prevalence of deficits in learning and memory performance has been reported. Still, it is unclear whether these cognitive deficits are present after remission of clinical symptoms of depression. The present study compared 20 inpatients recently remitted from severe major depressive disorder (MDD) with 20 healthy matched control participants on two sequence learning tasks: a modified serial reaction-time task (SRT) for implicit learning, which is sensitive to subcortical and frontal impairments, and a serial generation task (SGT) for explicit learning. As compared with performance in healthy controls, implicit and explicit learning were not impaired in recently remitted inpatients with depression. Intentional acquisition of new information was related to the severity of depressive symptoms as patients with higher scores on Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI) showed poorer explicit learning. In contrast to findings in acute depression, our results suggest a normal degree of learning in remitted depression; these findings are consistent with unimpaired fronto-striatal functioning. However, although not statistically significant, patients remitted from melancholic MDD revealed poorer implicit learning performance compared with patients remitted from non--melancholic MDD. Longitudinal studies in patients with melancholic vs. non-melancholic MDD are needed to investigate the course of cognitive functioning during the recovery from MDD.
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PMID:Implicit and explicit procedural learning in patients recently remitted from severe major depression. 1959 64


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