On her back in a dark tube, Blair Smith held still as a scanner combed her brain with magnetic waves. Words flashed by her eyes: tack, vase, hope, glow, vague, cade.

The 11-year-old had been told to press the button in her right hand if the word was real, the button in her left if it was nonsense. The answer itself was less important than the map the scanner would make of which areas of Blair’s brain lighted up when she struggled with a word.

The aim of the study, said Laurie Cutting, director of the Education and Brain Research Program at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, is to understand the neurological differences among students who are skilled readers, those who have difficulties and those with diagnosed learning disabilities.

If neuroscientists can pinpoint which parts of the brain are activated when a reader puzzles over an unknown word, they may eventually help teachers tailor reading instruction for individuals.

That is only the beginning. Many educators hunger for scientific data to help them structure their lessons, and neuroscience is beginning to offer them broad guidance about what works best.

One of the most startling recent revelations in neuroscience has been that the brain’s structure is much more flexible (a concept called neuroplasticity) than was previously thought; this understanding may help teachers find ways to train the brain to better solve math problems or understand a book.

“There’s an awful lot that neuroscience can begin to tell us in broad strokes that’s relevant for education and that ultimately 10 or 20 years downstream can provide us with prescriptive information,” said Robert Pianta, dean of the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education.

“I think we’re looking at a period of five years of very rich territory for investigation here.”

Complex conditions

Brain research already is opening the way to help teachers detect and address complex conditions — such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, dyslexia and its mathematical cousin, dyscalculia — that defy blood tests and other simple medical diagnostics.

Cognitive scientists are developing a theory of “micro-development” that could turn some lesson plans upside down. Studies have found that, on a minute-to-minute basis, children and adults learn in fits and starts, often going backward. That could indicate that students should be allowed to grope their way to understanding — for instance, by being asked to power up a light bulb using a battery and a strand of wire before having the theory of electricity explained to them.

How the brain functions remains deeply mysterious, with studies seeming to unfold at a glacial pace. One expert noted that it took decades for researchers, examining data from brain and behavioral studies and other sources, to confirm the belief of many educators that focusing on phonics helps youngsters who struggle with reading.

Still, top educational institutions have recently shown new interest in the link between brain activity and education. Harvard University founded its mind, brain and education degree program in 2002. Johns Hopkins University this year briefed the Maryland State Board of Education on a neuro-education initiative that aims to “explore how current findings have application to educational practice.”

Better ways of teaching

A study published in the journal Nature last month reported a link between a primitive, intuitive sense of the size of numbers and performance in math classes, a finding that could lead to ways to identify young students who may have trouble with math and develop better ways of teaching them. Advocates of expanding pre-kindergarten classes point to studies that show the importance of early education in molding young minds.

Pianta, of the Curry School, said neuroscience has also influenced the education of autistic students.

“Twenty years ago, you might have seen an intervention that was far more oriented toward trying to get those kids to be affectionate, let’s say. Or the therapist in that case would be promoting physical contact with kids who didn’t like physical contact,” Pianta said. “Now we would look at that (response) as sort of saying this kid’s behavior is a result of their brain’s ability to process social, emotional information. You would structure your interactions with an autistic child so as not to overwhelm their capacity to process that information.”

Kurt Fischer, director of Harvard’s mind, brain and education master’s degree program, warned that many educational theories claim to be based on science but are not.

“One of the major problems we face is that there are a whole lot of things that claim to be ‘brain-based education’ that are nonsense,” he said. “One of them is the belief that boys and girls have totally different brains and learn totally differently. That’s not what the evidence shows. Not at all. The other is kind of a rigid idea of sensitive periods: that after a certain age you can’t learn a foreign language. You’ve also heard that there are left-brained and right-brained people. Total nonsense, unless they’ve had their left or right hemisphere removed. All of us use all our brains.”

Craving information

Another example Fischer cited is the widely held but dubious notion that listening to Bach in the bassinet will make babies smarter. Still, Fischer said, the popularity of such ideas shows that educators and the public crave scientific backing for classroom innovations.

At Kennedy Krieger, Cutting gave a nifty copy of her brain scan to Blair, her young research subject. The research team prepared Blair’s identical twin sister to go inside the tube for a new round of scans. They are both perfectly good readers, but the data from their studies might help others.

“Creepy but cool at the same time,” said Blair, an aspiring veterinarian. “It’s good because you help other kids.”

Source: Monterey County Herald, CA
http://www.montereyherald.com/health/ci_10913995

We now have new evidence, after the publication of a study in Human Reproduction, that women who are severely depressed during pregnancy are at much higher risk of giving birth prematurely.

The recent report is one of a handful of scientific studies to document the association between maternal depression and premature birth. But it’s the most important to date because of its size and the large, representative group of women sampled.

Previous research suggests that 9 to 12 percent of women become clinically depressed during pregnancy. The question, of course, is why a mother’s mental state would affect the timing of a birth.

No one knows for sure. But experts speculate that depression affects a woman’s neuroendocrine system, which in turn affects the hormones circulating in her body, which in turn affects the functioning of the placenta that nourishes the infant.

“To sustain a healthy pregnancy, normal placental function is essential,” said Dr. De-Kun Li, a reproductive and perinatology epidemiologist at Kaiser Permanente in Northern California and lead author of the report. “Potentially, depression can lead to malfunction of the placenta,” he suggested.

Indeed, there is increasing evidence that something along these lines occurs with women who experience stress during pregnancy.

Dr. Diane Ashton, deputy medical director for the March of Dimes, notes that stress can alter a woman’s immune function, leading to “increased susceptibility to intra-amniotic infection or inflammation.” Research studies indicate these infections may play an important role in pre-term births.

Also, Ashton says, maternal stress can jump-start the production of “fight or flight” hormones like cortisol, which in turn can prematurely activate placental hormones that can set off a cascade of events leading to premature birth.

Even if a baby is born full term, being bathed in cortisol in utero can affect fetal brain development, research shows.

Dr. Laura Miller, director of the women’s mental health program at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center, said research shows that children of stressed-out pregnant women can be affected at least to age 10.

These children often have hyper-reactive responses, physiologically and emotionally, and have “greater difficulty dealing with stress,” she says. Also, infants of stressed mothers can be “more irritable and difficult to soothe” and demonstrate “poorer growth and increased risk of infection,” she notes.

As for maternal depression, it may operate through similar mechanisms – by altering similar hormones and producing similar physiological responses – or it may not. The research necessary to clarify what’s happening hasn’t yet been done.

We don’t know, either, if it makes a difference at what point during a pregnancy a mom becomes depressed (the Human Reproduction report studied only moms who reported depressed symptoms in the first trimester) or how long the depression lasts.

Miller suggests the take-home message for moms is “depression during pregnancy can be prevented, and if a woman suspects she might be at risk she really should strongly consider pre-conception counseling.”

Factors that can put women at risk include previous bouts of depression and a family history of maternal depression.

For women who are considering pregnancy but have concerns about mental health, there are several therapeutic options, including psychotherapy, strengthening social supports, and medication, Miller notes. For those who become depressed during pregnancy, these options remain, but the profile of potential benefits and risks differs, depending on the type of depression a woman has and other factors.

Since surveys show that most ob/gyns don’t feel comfortable treating depression, it’s important to find a medical expert who is prepared to help. Be honest about what you’re feeling and ask your ob/gyn directly if she’s the right person to offer assistance.

Among the questions that Miller suggests: “Have you had experience treating depression during a pregnancy?” “Do you have special training in working with pregnant women who are depressed?” “Do you refer people with these kinds of problems to a psychiatrist – and, if so, can I get a referral?”

Source: Chicago Tribune, United States
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/triage/2008/10/depression-and.html

A major puzzle for neurobiologists is how the brain can modify one microscopic connection, or synapse, at a time in a brain cell and not affect the thousands of other connections nearby. Plasticity, the ability of the brain to precisely rearrange the connections between its nerve cells, is the framework for learning and forming memories.

Duke University Medical Center researchers have identified a missing-link molecule that helps to explain the process of plasticity and could lead to targeted therapies.

The discovery of a molecule that moves new receptors to the synapse so that the neuron (nerve cell) can respond more strongly helps to explain several observations about plasticity, said Michael Ehlers, MD, PhD, a Duke professor of neurobiology and senior author of the study published in the Oct. 31 issue of Cell. “This may be a general delivery system in the brain and in other types of cells, and could have significance for all cell signaling.”

Ehlers said this could be a general way for all cells to locally modify their membranes with receptors, a process critical for many activities — cell signaling, tumor formation and tissue development.

“Part of plasticity involves getting receptors to the synaptic connections of nerve cells,” Ehlers said. “The movement of neurotransmitter (chemical) receptors occurs through little packages that deliver molecules to the synapse when new memories form. What we have discovered is the molecular motor that moves these packages when synapses are active.”

When neurons fire at the same time, their connections strengthen and a person can associate certain features. “Once you have heard someone’s name, seen his face, where he was standing, all these features can be bound into a unified packet of information — a percept — and at a very cellular level this occurs by strengthening synaptic connections between co-active neurons,” said Ehlers, who is also a Howard Hughes Medical Investigator.

To learn and make new associations, the brain alters the strengths of the synapses’ electrical inputs onto cells that compute these features. Scientists studied the hippocampus, where memories form, but this machinery could operate in other brain areas.

“One of earliest changes in Alzheimer’s disease is synapse dysfunction, so this molecule might be a new target for that disease,” he said. “Abnormal movement of receptors may be implicated in brain development, in autism.” He said the molecule potentially is involved “in the abnormal electrical activity of epilepsy and the overactive brain pathways of addiction.”

In a series of biochemistry and microscopic imaging experiments, Ehlers and colleagues found that the myosin Vb (five-b) molecule in hippocampal neurons responded to a flow of calcium ions from the synaptic space by popping up and into action. One end of the myosin is attached to meshlike actin filaments so it can “walk” to the end of the nerve cells where receptors are. On its other end, it tows an endosome, a packet that contains new receptors.

“These endosomes are like little memories waiting to happen,” Ehlers said. “They are reservoirs of neurotransmitter receptors that brain cells deploy to add more receptors to a particular synapse. More receptors equals stronger synapses.”

Electrical impulses cause one nerve cell to dump its neurotransmitter, in this case, glutamate, into the small space between neurons (the synapse), which activates neurotransmitter receptors on the receiving side. These are ion channels that open in response to neurotransmitter and generate the electrical impulse.

When the scientists blocked myosin in single cells, this stopped the addition of new receptors and prevented electrical impulses from getting stronger, showing that myosin is essential to enhancing nerve cell connections.

“This is a very basic cellular mechanism of brain plasticity. It is likely fundamental to brain development and disease,” Ehlers said. “The myosin Vb molecule gives us a new way to think about designing therapies for treating memory loss, psychiatric disease and brain development.”

Source: eMaxHealth.com, NC
http://www.emaxhealth.com/2/85/26047/scientists-identify-machinery-helps-make-memories.html

The Internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing this is an evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order.

Small, however, argues that the people who will come out on top in the next generation will be those with a mixture of technological and social skills.

“We’re seeing an evolutionary change. The people in the next generation who are really going to have the edge are the ones who master the technological skills and also face-to-face skills,” Small told Reuters in a telephone interview.

“They will know when the best response to an email or Instant Message is to talk rather than sit and continue to email.”

In his newly released fourth book iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind, Small looks at how technology has altered the way young minds develop, function and interpret information.

Small, the director of the Memory & Aging Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior and the Center on Aging at UCLA, said the brain was very sensitive to the changes in the environment such as those brought by technology.

He said a study of 24 adults as they used the Web found that experienced Internet users showed double the activity in areas of the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning as Internet beginners.

“The brain is very specialized in its circuitry and if you repeat mental tasks over and over it will strengthen certain neural circuits and ignore others,” said Small.

“We are changing the environment. The average young person now spends nine hours a day exposing their brain to technology. Evolution is an advancement from moment to moment and what we are seeing is technology affecting our evolution.”

Small said this multi-tasking could cause problems.

He said the tech-savvy generation, whom he calls “digital natives,” are always scanning for the next bit of new information which can create stress and even damage neural networks.

“There is also the big problem of neglecting human contact skills and losing the ability to read emotional expressions and body language,” he said.

“But you can take steps to address this. It means taking time to cut back on technology, like having a family dinner, to find a balance. It is important to understand how technology is affecting our lives and our brains and take control of it.”

Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSTRE49Q34A20081027?sp=true

Human evolution is grinding to a halt because of a shortage of older fathers in the West, according to a leading genetics expert.

Fathers over the age of 35 are more likely to pass on mutations, according to Professor Steve Jones, of University College London.

Speaking today at a UCL lecture entitled “Human evolution is over” Professor Jones will argue that there were three components to evolution – natural selection, mutation and random change. “Quite unexpectedly, we have dropped the human mutation rate because of a change in reproductive patterns,” Professor Jones told The Times.

“Human social change often changes our genetic future,” he said, citing marriage patterns and contraception as examples. Although chemicals and radioactive pollution could alter genetics, one of the most important mutation triggers is advanced age in men.

This is because cell divisions in males increase with age. “Every time there is a cell division, there is a chance of a mistake, a mutation, an error,” he said. “For a 29-year old father [the mean age of reproduction in the West] there are around 300 divisions between the sperm that made him and the one he passes on – each one with an opportunity to make mistakes.

“For a 50-year-old father, the figure is well over a thousand. A drop in the number of older fathers will thus have a major effect on the rate of mutation.”

Professor Jones added: “In the old days, you would find one powerful man having hundreds of children.” He cites the fecund Moulay Ismail of Morocco, who died in the 18th century, and is reputed to have fathered 888 children. To achieve this feat, Ismail is thought to have copulated with an average of about 1.2 women a day over 60 years.

Another factor is the weakening of natural selection. “In ancient times half our children would have died by the age of 20. Now, in the Western world, 98 per cent of them are surviving to 21.”

Decreasing randomness is another contributing factor. “Humans are 10,000 times more common than we should be, according to the rules of the animal kingdom, and we have agriculture to thank for that. Without farming, the world population would probably have reached half a million by now – about the size of the population of Glasgow.

“Small populations which are isolated can evolve at random as genes are accidentally lost. World-wide, all populations are becoming connected and the opportunity for random change is dwindling. History is made in bed, but nowadays the beds are getting closer together. We are mixing into a glo-bal mass, and the future is brown.”

Source: Times Online
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4894696.ece

Although school has been back for less than a month, it is likely that many children are already experiencing frustration and confusion in math class. Research at The University of Western Ontario in London, Canada could change the way we view math difficulties and how we assist children who face those problems.

Daniel Ansari is an assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Western. He is using brain imaging to understand how children develop math skills, and what kind of brain development is associated with those skills.

Research shows that many children who experience mathematical difficulties have developmental dyscalculia – a syndrome that is similar to dyslexia, a learning disability that affects a child’s ability to read. Children with dyscalculia often have difficulty understanding numerical quantity. For example, they find it difficult to connect abstract symbols, such as a number, to the numerical magnitude it represents.

“Research shows that many children have both dyslexia and dyscalculia. We are now exploring further the question of exactly what brain differences exist between those who have just math problems and those who have both math and reading difficulties,” says Ansari.

Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of children with math difficulties, Ansari says that it becomes clear that children with developmental dyscalculia show atypical activation patterns in a part of the brain called the parietal cortex.

This research holds tremendous promise for people who, in the past, had simply accepted that they are ‘not good at math.’ Understanding the causes and brain correlates of dyscalculia may help to design remediation tools to improve the lives of children and adults with the syndrome.

A report of this research is forthcoming in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

“We have some cultural biases in North America around math skills,” says Ansari. “We think that people who are good at math must be exceptionally intelligent, and even more dismaying and damaging, we have an attitude that being bad at math is socially acceptable. People who would never dream of telling others they are unable to read, will proclaim publicly they flunked math.”

Ansari says that math skills are hugely important to life success and children who suffer math difficulties may avoid careers that, with help, might be a great fit for them.

An article by Ansari entitled “The Brain Goes to School: Strengthening the Education-Neuroscience Connection,” will be published in the upcoming Education Canada, the magazine of the Canadian Education Association. In the article Ansari says technological advances such as fMRI have provided unprecedented insights into the working of the human brain.

“A teacher who understands brain structure and function will be better equipped to interpret children’s behaviours, their strengths and weaknesses, from a scientific point of view, and this will in turn influence how they teach,” says Ansari.

Source: Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080924151007.htm

Researchers from UNCG and the FPG Child Development Institute at UNC Chapel Hill are starting a novel study of the effects of musical instrument instruction on young children’s development.

The study will examine whether violin instruction using the Suzuki Method improves children’s early thinking skills through changes in brain activity. The lead investigators are Dr. Susan Calkins, professor of human development and family studies at UNCG, and Dr. Michael Willoughby, research scientist at the FPG Child Development Institute.

Running until the end of this academic year, the study will be the first of its kind to test the idea that experiences such as musical instrument instruction contribute specifically to brain development in preschool-aged children. “Previous research has focused on the effects of music exposure,” Calkins said. “We believe it may be musical instruction that enhances cognitive development through brain changes.”

The process of learning a musical instrument can be thought of as a complicated, multi-step problem that requires children to focus their attention on multiple tasks at once, store steps in working memory and inhibit the urge to play familiar patterns as they learn new ones. Calkins and Willoughby theorize that this kind of cognitive experience contributes to the learning of new behavioral skills and supports new neural pathways that support such skills.

Calkins and Willoughby will enroll 100 4-year-olds in the study, referred to as iMod (Impact of Music on Development). Fifty of the participating children will be randomly assigned to receive free music instruction through the Music Academy of North Carolina, which is located in Greensboro, while another 50 will be assigned to a parent-led activity group.

Both groups of children will be asked to come to UNCG for electroencephalography (EEG) evaluations at the start and end of the study, and will be reimbursed $50 at each visit for their participation. Greensboro-area families interested in enrolling children in the study can contact the researchers at iMod@uncg.edu or (336) 256-8546.

The research is funded by a $125,000 grant from the National Association of Music Merchants and conducted with the support of the Music Academy of North Carolina in Greensboro and Artley Violins in Gibsonville.

Source: UNCG University News, NC
http://www.uncg.edu/ure/news/stories/2008/aug/calkins082108.html

The United States is not making the grade.

The 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) shows the United States ranks 12th of 25 countries among eighth graders in math and science skills. In the No. 1 and No. 2 spots: Singapore and the Republic of Korea.

“There is a critical need right now in this country to do research on math. We need to identify the skills that children need to improve upon, and hone in on factors that can predict development. We really want to answer the question, ‘Why do some children succeed at math and others do not?’ There is an epidemic when it comes to children who just don’t have basic math skills,” said Steven A. Hecht, Ph.D., associate professor of pediatrics in the Children’s Learning Institute (CLI) at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

“CLI is expanding its math intervention program through satellite clinics that can offer extra small group tutorials. We also want to address needs at the elementary and middle schools levels. Right now, CLI’s math initiative only involves students in pre-kindergarten,” said Susan Landry, Ph.D., director of the Children’s Learning Institute and Michael Matthew Knight Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

According to Landry, if children can be reached when they first begin struggling with math, a better educational foundation can be built. “We don’t want them just thinking ‘math is not my subject.’ We want to give them ways to succeed, so they can be anything they want to be. CLI uses only research-proven interventions that can help them pursue their dreams,” she said.

Hecht said the CLI group wants to find the most sensitive ways to measure math difficulties to identify early on what areas of math might require additional instruction.

To better understand how the brain processes mathematics, experts are using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetoencephalography (MEG). “We are studying the entire brain to obtain more information on how it responds to mathematics,” said Andrew C. Papanicolaou, Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and director of the Center for Clinical Neurosciences in CLI at the UT Medical School at Houston. “We are seeking more funding from the National Institutes of Health to further this study.”

In the future, those scans may be able to be used to correctly diagnosis individuals who are having trouble processing math, Papanicolaou said. Imaging could also be used to see if interventions are working.

CLI, which is in the Department of Pediatrics at the medical school, currently uses one-on-one testing to determine a child’s math ability. Once a learning disability is detected, interventions can be implemented to help the child succeed.

“I believe that most people do not realize how important it is to foster a love of science and math in our young people today. With special activities and interventions in these areas, we can grab their interest and entice these future leaders into careers in medicine and other areas of science, where there is so much need,” said Judianne Kellaway, M.D., the Stephen A. Lasher Professor in Ophthalmology and assistant dean for admissions at the medical school.

CLI is developing math satellite clinics, which would bring extra assistance into Houston Independent School District schools. The clinics are scheduled to open by next year. “If we could provide that extra help and encouragement, it could go a long way to improving our children’s math skills not only at the state level, but also nationally and internationally,” Hecht said.

According to Kellaway, the medical school is also responding through its students. “In the last two years, our medical students have designed and implemented several elementary science programs. We have tripled our outreach to high school students and are initiating elementary and middle school programs,” she said.

Hecht said math and science skills are vital for national security and American businesses. “The National Science Foundation has reported that most graduate students who are obtaining advanced training in engineering departments are not U.S. citizens,” he said. “How are we going to remain a world leader in designing and building new space exploration technology? Right now, we are also relying on other countries to fill positions in American businesses that thrive in the math and science industry. If we want to stay competitive, we need action now.”

Source: Newswise
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/543136/

Joint Attention and Social Competence, or what a baby pointing at a toy says about well-behaved toddlers

One of the key components of “normal” child development is social competence. We expect kids to become gradually better at behaving respectfully towards peers, to comply with requests made by others, to understand the thoughts of others, to play together with kids and adults, to sustain attention, and to be motivated to learn. But what makes the difference between a child who becomes socially competent and one who doesn’t? Obviously there are some risk factors, such as whether they have autism, whether both parents are present in the household, and the education and poverty level of the family. But some kids who seem to have all the advantages still have trouble getting along with others. Why?

Some studies have found that at-risk babies show some early warning signs that are associated with later poor social competence. It’s possible, for example, to measure several dimensions of “joint attention.” Take a look at this old picture of Jim and Nora playing with their kitchen set (…) Aside from the fact that they’re absolutely adorable, you can see that Jim is reaching for some utensils and Nora is following his reach and looking at the same thing. This is an example of Nora responding to joint attention. (I should add that it’s not the best example because the classic case would have Jim pointing, not touching an object — but it’s the best I could find right now, flying cross-country at 30,000 feet.)

From Jim’s perspective, he’s initiating joint attention — directing Nora’s attention to an object he’s interested in. (Again, not the best example of this since it’s not clear Jim wants to direct Nora’s attention to the object.) A third type of joint attention is initiating behavior requests, such as when an infant points to an object out of her reach in order to “ask” an adult to get it for her.

You might think that these different types of joint attention are all just manifestations of the the same phenomenon, but studies of at-risk children have found that different aspects of joint attention are associated with later social competence in different ways — which brings us back to our original question. Do typically developing kids also show the same warning signs in infancy?

Amy Vaughan Van Hecke and eight other researchers tracked 52 children from age 12 months until they were 30 months old. Initially the infants sat at a table on their parent’s lap. An experimenter across the table had a basket of toys. The experimenter spent 20 minutes systematically playing with the toys and pointing at objects in different parts of the room in ways that were designed to provide opportunities for the baby to demonstrate each type of joint attention.

The researchers then contacted tested each child again with different measures at 15 months old, 24 months old, and 30 months old. Their results matched the earlier studies of at-risk infants: there was no general relationship between joint attention and later communication skills or social competence. Instead, different types of joint attention predicted different results at different ages. For example, babies who had exceptionally high ability to initiate behavior requests at 12 months were more likely to be difficult to soothe at 15 months, but also more likely to understand more words at 24 months. Initiating behavior requests had no significant correlation with social competence at 30 months. But those who had high-level ability to initiate joint attention at 12 months, like Jim in the picture, were likely to be better able to express themselves in language at 24 months (but not comprehend more words). And this ability was the only joint attention skill that correlated significantly with social competence at 30 months.

So while there’s a clear relationship between some joint attention skills and social competence, it’s also clear that some joint attention skills are better than others. What this study doesn’t show is what causes joint attention skills themselves. Are we born with these skills, or do we learn them in early infancy?

It’s also important to note that even high-level initiation of joint attention at 12 months isn’t a perfect predictor of social competence at 30 months. Many babies who aren’t pointing to things at 12 months still end up being socially competent.

Source: ScienceBlogs
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/07/joint_attention_and_social_com.php

Neuroscientists at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory found that a previously unsuspected set of genes links nature and nurture during a crucial period of brain development.

The results, reported in the July 8 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could lead to treatments for autism and other disorders thought to be tied to brain changes that occur when the developing brain is very susceptible to inputs from the outside world. Nature–in the form of genes–and nurture–in the form of environmental influences–are fundamentally intertwined during this period.

“Our work points to how a disorder can be genetic and yet be dependent on the environment,” said co-author Mriganka Sur, Sherman Fairchild Professor of Neuroscience at the Picower Institute and chair of MIT’s brain and cognitive sciences department. “Many genes require activity to be expressed and make their assigned proteins. They alter their expression when activity is altered. Thus, we reveal an important mechanism of brain development that should open up a window into the mechanisms and treatment of brain disorders such as autism.”

In the brain, some genes are only expressed, or turned on, in response to stimulus from the outside world. Like a panel of switches that turn lights on and off, genes that don’t receive electricity don’t “turn on” and express their particular proteins.

Sur and colleagues found a set of novel genes–including a calcium sensor called cardiac Troponin C, or cTropC–particularly sensitive to a critical period of development. The lack of proteins from these genes during a key phase of development could be one of the culprits in developing autism.

Researchers have long investigated the molecular mechanisms involved in monocular deprivation–when one eye is deprived of sight during a critical period of brain development, that eye becomes permanently blind, even after it is uncovered. This phenomenon is considered an important model for brain development because synapses for the covered eye–deprived of environmental stimulus, or what Sur calls “nurture”–shrivel up or get reassigned to other uses.

Sur and his colleagues looked at which genes are expressed, and which are not, when this phenomenon occurs. They hoped to pin down the correlation between nature–meaning the genes–and the external environment, or nurture. By identifying which genes are particularly apt to switch their expression patterns in response to “nurture,” the researchers potentially narrowed down the ones that may be implicated in developmental disorders.

Researchers believe autism spectrum disorders are tied to brain changes that occur during critical periods of development. Different but overlapping critical periods are thought to exist for various cognitive functions affected in autism, such as language and social behaviors.

“Autism is a strongly genetic disorder: genes set up risk factors but by themselves simply make proteins,” Sur said. “Genes work together with other influences. In the case of autism, these influences are unknown but could be molecules made by other genes or chemicals from the environment.”

If scientists understood how genes changed in response to environmental influences during this crucial developmental period, they might be able to one day prevent or reverse the changes.

In addition to Sur, authors are Alvin W. Lyckman, a former MIT postdoctoral associate now at Tufts University; MIT brain and cognitive sciences graduate students Sam H. Horng and Cortina L. McCurry; Picower Institute postdoctoral fellows Daniela Tropea and Audra Van Wart and colleagues from other institutions.

This work is supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Simons Foundation.

Source: Science Daily
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717211651.htm