A. MRI Scanners Offer Scientists New Insight into the Human Brain
Narrator: This is Science Today. Researchers interested in understanding the intricacies of the human brain – such as differences in the circuitry of male and female brains – are getting a boost from studies made possible by super fast, specific MRI scanners.
Brizendine: They are going to be able to look at tinier and tinier versions of areas and circuits in real time.
Narrator: Dr. Louann Brizendine, a clinical psychologist at the University of California , San Francisco , who wrote a book called ‘The Female Brain', says there were aspects of the female brain that researchers did not know about until using such sophisticated MRI scanners.
Brizendine: What we're discovering is female brains do a few things differently than males. We, for one thing, use both hemispheres in our brain. So, people that do rehab in stroke centers know that females are able to recover from stroke faster than males because they have a spare part for some things –language and emotional memory.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
B.
Researchers Monitor Toxic Algae
Narrator: This is Science Today. One of the most pressing issues of ocean health is a naturally occurring phenomenon in which toxin-producing marine phytoplankton cause harmful algal blooms. Ocean scientist Mary Silver of the University of California , Santa Cruz , says the concern is when organisms eat the toxic algae; the toxins can move from the marine food web and accumulate in shellfish that may be harvested for human consumption.
Silver: So our job here is to identify them, know what the toxin levels are and then we work with the state health department and we also measure these toxins as they enter shellfish. So we coordinate our findings with those of the public health department. And just about every part of the developed world has monitoring programs to detect this when it gets into shellfish.
Narrator: Silver stresses that in almost all cases, these phytoplankton are not harmful to swimmers or surfers.
Silver: At low levels, they're not a problem, so it's entirely a dose problem.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
C.
An Immune Cell's Role in Atherosclerosis
Narrator: This is Science Today. Atherosclerosis is a process in which deposits of cholesterol, fatty substances and cellular waste products build up in the inner lining of an artery. The build-up itself is called plaque, which can restrict blood flow and cause a heart attack. Dr. Christopher Glass, a professor of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of California , San Diego , describes how the macrophage – a cell that normally plays a role in immunity – is a key cell in the development of the disease.
Glass: The macrophages are entering the artery wall and they're accumulating cholesterol and that makes what we call a macrophage foam cell. It's basically a fat macrophage – it's chock full of cholesterol. And that's kind of the hallmark of the early stages of atherosclerosis.
Narrator: Glass has been working to identify some of the molecular mechanisms that cause the disease to occur, in the hopes of pinpointing targets for new types of therapies.
Glass: One of the goals for the pharmaceutical industry is to continuously develop better classes of drugs that are more specific, more effective and have fewer side effects.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
D.
Developing a Fitness Center for the Brain
Narrator: This is Science Today. Active brains are healthier brains. In fact, keeping our brains in a state of continuous learning as we age improves its plasticity, or the ability to change. Mike Merzenich, a member of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California , San Francisco is working on developing plasticity-based mental and physical training programs for the brain.
Merzenich: What we do, you can think of it as being a little bit like going to the gym where nothing in the gym is natural. But what you have in a gym are tools that are designed to make progressive increase of your fitness in all the dimensions in which you need to be. All the things you need to work on to be really fit in a holistic way. We tried to create those for your brain and we call it a brain fitness center.
Narrator: The therapeutic software programs Merzenich is working on are in clinical trial and involve normal aging populations, as well as those with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease patients. For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
E. The Two Different Types of Stroke
Narrator: This is Science Today. Stroke, which is commonly referred to as a brain attack, is the single leading cause of adult disability in the United States and it's the third leading cause of death. Dr. David Liebeskind, an associate neurology director at the UCLA Stroke Center , says there are two different types of stroke.
Liebeskind: There is what we call an ischemic stroke, where blood flow is cut off to the brain and this most of what we talk about when we refer to ‘brain attack', but there are also hemorrhagic strokes, where there's actually bleeding that takes place in the brain. These two types of strokes are taken care of in very different ways, but both require very prompt treatment with the patients coming ideally to the emergency room as fast as possible.
Narrator: The UCLA Stroke Center has been a leader in multiple areas of stroke care, including technological innovation and neurosurgery.
Liebeskind: The treatment of acute stroke has also been developed here by a technological innovation called the MERCI device. This is the first device that has been FDA cleared for use in acute ischemic stroke, so this is a groundbreaking event.
Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.
