Original Research

Effects on mental states: A pilot Transcranial ultrasound (TUS) study

Stuart Hameroff et al

Anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona

known for his studies of consciousness

Double blind study on patients with chronic pain

• Improvement in subjective mood

• Subjects felt lighter & happier!

• Promising non invasive therapy for modulating mental states

• May benefit a number of neurological & psychiatric disorders

• That a bat can tell the difference between a fly in motion or at rest?

• That a fruit bat can determine which of two fruits is heavier by observing their movements in the wind?

• That a dolphin can see a tennis ball from 260 feetaway?

Did you know

Why is Biosonar superior?

• Biosonar animals send ultrasonic sounds called "pings“• The shape of the returning echoes, helps these animals

to "see" their surroundings• In milliseconds, the neurons in brain do a full-scale

analysis of their surroundings represented in 3-D, with little energy consumption

• It helps them to navigate or hunt for prey• Even with the aid of a super computer, which consumes

thousands of times more energy, we cannot produce such an accurate picture

• By understanding sonar animals, we can create ultrasound systems that will be able to render more accurate medical imaging"

-Intrator N, tel Aviv Univ, J. Acoustical Soc. America

Yoruba tribe, west Africa

Yoruba people happen to exhibit the highest twinningrate in the world

90-1000 Twins / 1000 live births

Ibeji twin figures

• Made of carved of wood, the figures embody the spirit of deceased twins

• Because twins bring great good luck to their parents, they are honored, both living and dead

• The parents lavish attention on surviving twins and on twin images

Cause?

• Their staple diet is Yam which contains phyto estrogens

• Genetic predisposition

• In-breeding

Mohammad umri, Allahabad, UP

• > 50 twins in population of a few 1000s

• Muslims as well as Hindus

In Kodinhi, a village in Malappuram district in Kerala

as of 2008, there were 220 twins in 2000 families

In 2008, of 300 births 15 (5%) were TwinsThe number of twins per thousand here is around 45 per 1000 births.

How HPRL causes Infertility has been a Mystery

• It is known that Prolactin inhibits GnRH, thereby decreasing ovarian function & causing infertility

• But receptors are not expressed by these GnRH neurons

• Hence the mechanism has not been understood so far

• Neurons situated upstream the GnRH neurons secrete neurohormone, Kisspeptin which is essential for GnRH & ovarian function

• HPRL inhibits kisspeptin & GnRH secretion & blocks Ovarian activity

• Administration of K restarts GnRH secretion & ovarian activity

-Young & Binart, J Clin Invest 2013

Pain after CS

• After Caesarean section, 300 women were randomized and studied

• Group P women were asked to rate their pain on a 0–10-point verbal numerical rating scale (VNRS), where '0' was 'no pain' and '10' was 'worst pain imaginable'.

• Group C women were asked to rate comfort on a 0–10-point VNRS, where '0' was 'no comfort' and '10' was 'most comfortable'.

• Conclusion: Asking about pain and pain scores after Caesarean section adversely affects patient reports of their postoperative experiences.

-A Randomized Trial: Chooi CSL et al, Br J Anaesth. 2013;110(5):780-787

England Approves “3-Parent Babies”

This technique requires taking only the healthy genetic material from the egg or embryo of a woman with defective mitochondria

This healthy DNA is instilled into a donor egg or embryo which is stripped of its key DNA but still retains its healthy mitochondria

Finally, the fertilized embryo is placed in the womb of the mother

This is excellent news for families with mitochondrial disease (heart disease, liver disease, loss of muscle co-ordination and other serious conditions like muscular dystrophy)

Women who carry these diseased genes will have more reproductive choice and the opportunity to have children free of mitochondrial disease

• Erica Nigrelli, a teacher at a High School in Missouri City, Texas, was 36 weeks pregnant when she fell unconscious in front of her class in May 2013

• Her heart stopped beating and her co-workers started CPR

• She was pronounced technically dead when she was rushed to the hospital

• An emergency postmortem C-section was performed to deliver a live baby

• Although she officially went through what was considered a post-mortem delivery, her heart started beating after she gave birth!

Both Erica and baby Elayna are doing fine

When fathers to be eat high fat diet…

When fathers eat a high-fat diet before conception of offspring, the male offspring has increased body weight after weaning and high body fat in midlife despite eating a low-fat diet finds a new study in mice

-Nowak VN- The Endocrine Society's 95th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, Feb 2013.

Sergio Canavero

Italian Neurosurgeon,Turin - Advanced Neuromodulation Group

HEad Anastomosis VENture

How to do heaven?

• severe the heads of two humans simultaneously using an "ultra-sharp blade“

• Cool and flush out the "recipient" head before attaching its new body with an advanced polymer "glue“ or by electrofusion

• The greatest technical hurdle so far has been the reconnection of the spinal cords

• “clean cut” is the key to spinal cord fusion• Proximally severed axons are ‘fused’ with their distal

counterparts exploiting the so-called fusogens/sealants which immediately reconstitute cell membranes damaged by mechanical injury,

-J Surg Neurol International

Head Transplant in Monkeys -1971

Implications

• Paraplegics with enough spinal cord left intact to allow for a head transplant could regain full use of a (donor) body

• Patients with muscular dystrophy could be given whole new lives

• Aside from the enormous technical challenges, the potential barrier is cost (at least $13 million)

Breaking News!

Birth of a Prince!

Summer Babies• Children born in June, July and August

face the so-called "birth-date effect“• They are statistically likely to perform less

well than their older classmates • These sunshine-month youngsters never

catch up with their older winterish peers • In a major overview, Cambridge concluded

that summer babies were "strongly disadvantaged“

• At the end of primary school the difference on average stands at 12%!

• An analysis of more than half a million GCSE candidates found a consistent pattern of summer-birthday teenagers performing less well across all subjects

• The chance of going to Oxford or Cambridge was 30% less for someone born in July

• The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that summer-born children should get extra exam marks!

• Many women are left with scars, stretch marks, and loose skin after giving birth

• women often try to hide these marks of motherhood

• But one photographer is on a mission to redefine the idea of the beautiful woman's body

• One day, Jade Beall - a new mother, went into her studio with her five-week-old baby and took a series of photos

• There were bumps and lumps that she had never had before her pregnancy

• But she posted the pictures on her blog - keen to share with others a side of motherhood that tends to be kept out of view

• The media is full of images of women's bodies. But not these kinds of bodies!