Binging Babies

It is hard to deny that United States culture is heavily influenced by consumption of controlled substances, especially alcohol. This influence becomes particularly concerning when it involves youth. But I am not going to get into the obvious effects of media on alcohol consumption and the negative effects alcohol consumption has on society at large. While these are important topics to be discussed, I would like to highlight some neurobiological studies showing the dysregulation of hormones and increase of neuroimmune danger signals caused by high levels of alcohol consumption. Understanding the extent of drinking, especially binge drinking (characterized by a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher), is vital to developing effective alcohol related policies regarding youth.

This semester I had the opportunity to hear Dr. Magdalena Szymanska share her research about binge drinking effects on the brains hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, which is important in the response to stress. In preliminary studies Dr. Szymanska showed that rat corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH), arginine vasopressin (AVP), and corticosterone (CORT) levels were altered in rats exposed to binge levels of ethanol (the chemical in alcohol that causes intoxication). Her subsequent research showed that dysregulation of theses hormones persists into adulthood (Szymanska 2011). In some of her even more recent research she has produced evidence that binge levels of alcohol consumption during adolescence can cause genetic changes that are passed down to rats children. Since the HPA axis has been shown to be important in the regulation of stress, research like Dr. Szymanska’s is important to help understand how alcohol induced dysregulation of hormones and modification of gene expression effect psychological disorders.

In 2012 Dr. Ryan Vetreno and Dr. Fulton Crews published a study that examined the effects of adolescent alcohol consumption (again in rats) on increased neuroinflammation and cognitive performance. Vetreno and Crews randomly assigned rats to either a test group that received intragastric ethanol or a control group that received intragastric injections of water. Then the effects of alcohol consumption were evaluated using immunohistochemistry and Barnes maze spatial and reverse learning assessment. Immunohistochemistry along with polymerase chain reaction is a biological lab technique used to quantify the amount of expression of a gene. In this study it was used to look at HMGB1, a molecular signal of neuroinflammation. Vetreno and Crews found that alcohol consumption caused increased levels of HMGB1 (aka the “danger signal”) in adult rat prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain that is important for cognitive functions). The Barnes maze was used to assess the correlation between cognitive deficits and increased gene expression of prefrontal cortex “danger signals”. Ventro and Crews found that while the ability of rats to form spatial memories was not impaired, their ability to unlearn and replace the formed spatial memories was impaired (they had impaired reverse learning abilities). This group of experiments helps us to understand how prefrontal cortex biological changes due to alcohol consumption relates to deficits cognitive abilities.

These are just two studies of many that help us understand how molecular and genetic changes in the brain due to adolescent alcohol consumption correlate to different psychological deficits. There is a lot more work that needs to be done to really understand how the adolescent brain is affected by alcohol and how those effects can be reversed. Personally, I hope that research findings like these can be adapted to serve as effective deterrents to keep youth from consuming large amounts of alcohol.

Articles:

Przybycien-Szymanska MM, Mott NN, Paul CR, Gillespie RA, Pak TR (2011) Binge-Pattern Alcohol Exposure during Puberty Induces Long-Term Changesin HPA Axis Reactivity. PLoS ONE 6(4): e18350. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0018350

Ventro RP, Crews FT (2012) Adolescent Binge Drinking Increases Expression of the Danger Singnal Agonist HMGB1 and Toll-Like Receptors in the Adult Prefrontal Cortex. Neuroscience 226: 475-488.

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." -Gandhi

Arthur Kramer, the director at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, came to talk about what the effects of exercising can have on your brain and body. I was very excited to hear Dr. Kramer speak because I heard that the topic was about how exercising can help improve your brain. We've all heard of the stats on what exercising can do, but even I was unsure about the specific effects exercising can have on the brain. I just know the common response, "Exercise is good for you!" but could never scientifically explain why. Dr. Kramer began to explain how exercising, even walking everyday, can have a significant long-term effect on someone's mental health. He continued to go into detail about his studies and data that he's collected. I wish I could explain and share everything I learned from him, but I'm going to focus on when he mentioned the link between exercising and Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer's disease is characterized by plaques and tangles, abnormal clusters of proteins that form in the brain. These proteins are made up of pieces called beta-amyloid. Beta-amyloid is then what form the plaques in the brain of an Alzheimer's patient. These clumps of beta-amyloid are what is thought to block the signaling at synapses between neurons. Dr. Kramer talked about the experiment with mice testing whether or not exercise would have an effect on the production of beta-amyloid. Once the mice were put on a track wheel, the number of beta-amyloid reduced. Even though this was tested on mice, this seems to be a pretty reassuring discovery that exercising can help reduce the chances of forming beta-amyloid clumps, reducing the chances of Alzheimer's disease. Art Kramer spoke of many other experiments that showed how exercising reduced the chances of developing Parkinson's disease or Multiple Sclerosis. His talk was very inspiring and motivating to push people even more to exercise. By knowing the science behind the long-term effects of exercising, I am beyond motivated to get back to a regular work out schedule and also motivating my family and friends to work out. Exercise doesn't necessarily need to be running 6 miles, lifting large weights, or P90X, but can instead start off as walking everyday or swimming some laps a few days a week. Depending on someone's fitness level, the amount of exercise they do can vary and there is nothing wrong with starting off at a comfortable exercise routine. Anyone can work up to achieving a higher fitness level. It is better to start exercising, even if that means starting off small because it's better than doing nothing at all.

Huntington's Just Want to Lay Down

Exercise! Wow the one shot cure

Dr. Kramer’s lecture raved about the benefits of exercise in aging and as a way to help delay and even prevent the onset of mental disorders and cognitive degenerative diseases in some cases. I thought that these finding were amazing and immediately felt the need to get up and get moving, keeping the body healthy to keep the mind well lubricated so to speak. However what really caught my attention was not the benefits that exercise provided but the one exception to this almost perfect treatment. Very briefly Dr. Kramer mentioned that exercise helps virtually everything except for Huntington’s disease. It wasn’t hard to then ask why and what makes Huntington disease so special.

So what is Huntington’s Disease?

            Huntington's disease is caused by a defect on chromosome 4 that causes a part of DNA, called a CAG repeat, to occur many more times than it is supposed to. As individuals with this disease have children the abnormal replicates become increasingly abundant. Normally, this section of DNA is repeated 10 to 28 times but in persons with Huntington's disease, it is repeated 36 to 120 times and with each added replication the chances of developing this disease earlier in live rises. (PubMed 2011) What makes it particularly devastating is the fact that these replicated sequences can seriously mutate and denature proteins and as a result lead to disorders like paranoia, hallucinations, uncontrolled body movements (jerking, twitching and eye spasms) and dementia in some cases.

So how does exercise affect it?

            In a study published in 2010 researchers looked at the effects of exercise on rats with Huntington’s disease, what they found was interesting. They concluded that “exercise impaired motor performance and reduced striatal volume and age of disease onset in a HD mouse model. In addition, total lifespan, progressive weight loss, hyperglycemia, reduced neurogenesis, deficits in immature neuronal morphology; intra-nuclear inclusions, decreased GCL volume and impaired cognitive performance were not changed by exercise.” (Potter et al. 2010) So not only was exercise unable to prevent the onset of HD it actually induced its onset earlier in the rat’s life. A similar study done by Renoir et al. in 2012 looked at the effects of exercise on depressed rats with HD and found similar results, the rats that showed increase activity levels were seen to perform poorly on Morrison’s water maze and also shown increase motor disorders measured by the number of missteps that the rats made.

But why?

I have no idea, it could be a number of things but perhaps the increased metabolism rates of active individuals not only speeds up bodily functions but accelerates abnormal replications of the CAG sequence found in Huntington’s Disease and as a result causes the disease to occur earlier in the organisms life. There isn't a lot of new research that is published yet but I feel in the coming years that this topic might become really hot really fast.   

Work Cited

Board, A.D.A.M. Editorial. "PubMed: Huntington's Disease." Huntington's Disease. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 30 Apr. 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001775/>.

Potter, Michelle C., Chunyan Yuan, Conwell Ottenritter, Mohamed Mughal, and Henriette Van Praag. "Abstract." National Center for Biotechnology Information. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 07 Dec. 2010. Web. 06 Dec. 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2998194/>.

Renoir, Thibault, Terence YC Pang, Michelle S. Zajac, Grace Chan, Xin Du, Leah Leang, Caroline Chevarin, Laurence Lanfumey, and Anthony J. Hannan. "Treatment of Depressive-like Behaviour in Huntington's Disease Mice by Chronic Sertraline and Exercise." Treatment of Depressive-like Behaviour in Huntington's Disease Mice by Chronic Sertraline and Exercise (2012): n. pag. Mar. 2012. Web. 6 Dec. 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3372723/>.

Exercise and the Hippocampus

Dr. Art Kramer presented his research on the cognitive effects of exercise on November 30th to a rapt audience, myself included. There are plenty of reasons to exercise: increased cardiovascular endurance, stress reduction, and overall body appearance and tone. But, it can be easy to fall off the exercise bandwagon sometimes. I try to workout a maximum of five days a week; sometimes I only make it to 2 or 3 days, and I sometimes I get too stressed with school and validate skipping the gym entirely. For me, it's easy to rationalize not exercising to strengthen my heart because I'm 21 and don't really need to think about that. School often takes precedence. However, what if exercising and working your body helped with school in the long run?

Dr. Kramer discussed how exercise can improve connectionism and aging, and how exercise can also improve cognitive functioning in children. High-fit children were less distracted by music when they were in the simulated street crossing and had way better decision making skills. These are very clear and apparent reasons to get up and exercise, even when you're stressed! The subject of exercise and the brain is actually what first spurred my fascination with neuroscience a few years ago. I remember reading a paper about how the old adage "The brain cells you're born with are the only ones you've got" was actually false, and how research was found neurogenesis and new cell production in the hippocampi of rats who ran regularly. This really got my attention, and is something that I am interested in researching with adults and depression. Most doctors recommend exercise for depressed patients, but this is definitely an area that could use more exploring in terms of the actual neurological affect of exercise on the brain and why it improves depressive patients functioning.

If exercise improves hippocampal volume and thus aging and emotional coping, everyone should really get the recommended amounts of exercise for their own sake. However, working out and being healthy can be confusing sometimes because there's so many options, and so many conflicting ideas for what kind of exercise is the most beneficial for each person. In a study by Kirk Erickson and colleagues (including Dr. Kramer as well!), the researchers attempted to elucidate exactly this. They compared individuals who either took place in an exercise condition with moderate-intensity aerobic exercise or in a toning and stretching condition. They found that the aerobic exercise increased hippocampal volume by 2% and increased associated BDNF levels (Brain derived neurotrophic factor, a nerve growth factor) (Erickson et al. 2010). Hippocampal shrinkage is associated in aging, so this has huge implications for aging and Alzheimer's prevention!

References:
Erickson, K. et al. (2010). Exercise training increases size of hippocampus and improves memory, PNAS, 108(7), 3017-3022.

Exercise and Alzheimer's

On November 20, 2013, Dr. Art Kramer from the University of Illinois came and spoke about the effects of physical activity on the brain and cognition. He spoke of research done on high and low fit children and an experiment of a stimulated street crossing, similar to Frogger. The high and low fit children did about the same at first, but when they were distracted by music, the high fit children were making better decisions about when to cross.

I found it very interesting that there was a difference between this children and it make me wonder about the effect of exercise in preventing or delaying degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Dr. Kramer touched on it for a minute about how it might be able to set the clock back, but I decided to look further into it. According to the Mayo Clinic, physical exercise is currently the most effective way to prevent Alzheimer's. (Lunde, 2008) There is evidence of this in a study done at the University of Chicago with mice that have been bred to develop the brain plaque that can cause Alzheimer's. Only some of the mice were allowed to exercise and those that were had 50-80% less plaque than the mice that were not allowed to exercise. The exercising mice had less plaque because they produced more of an enzyme that prevents the plaque. (Lunde, 2008)

In conclusion, if you did not have enough of a reason to exercise before, this should get you to the gym very quickly.

Lunde, A. (2008, March 25). Preventing alzheimer's: Exercise still best bet. Retrieved from   
          http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alzheimers/MY00002

Art Kramer: An even better reason to exercise (as if we really needed another)

I attended Art Kramer's talk with two of my close friends. By the time we left the event, we had made a pact to be exercise buddies during the upcoming semester. We'll see how well that plan holds up, but it got me thinking: why was Art Kramer's presentation so much more motivating than the MILLIONS of other reasons that there are to exercise regularly? The fact that exercising is good for us has really never been disputed, unless you're injured nothing but good can come of it. However, we often think of the benefits as being purely aesthetic and physical. Sure, it's great to feel good, look good, and stay physically healthy into old age, all of these are extremely desirable benefits. However, I would argue that, especially as we age, we are much more attached to our mental acuity than to our physical well-being. Physical decline is uncomfortable and inconvenient, mental decline is debilitating. On a certain level we ARE our minds; to lose mental capability is essentially to lose a part of ourselves. People seem to have a much easier time coming to terms with the physical losses of aging. Can't play a sport that you used to enjoy anymore? It's a bummer, but after all I am getting older. Can't find your car keys or remember the name of a distant acquaintance? That's it, it's over, the dementia is here. So, Kramer's studies give us a special sense of hope. Something that is usually never associated with mental preservation has suddenly become an option, even when mental faculties seem to be on the way out. The study that Kramer presented about the effect of exercise in patients that already had Alzheimer's, MS and Parkinson's was probably the most impressive to me. It's easy to believe that exercise could have a positive effect in people who still have a healthy brain, but when it can improve or help lessen the effect on already diseased brains you know that it is rather powerful. What did I take away from this talk? It's never too late to improve your mind and exercise really does help everything.

Can Exercise Make You Smarter?

The Art Kramer talk was one of the most influential talks I have ever attended. Kramer emphasized a point that everyone has heard at least once in their lifetime, exercise is great for you. Kramer presented this argument with many studies and experiments and quite frankly, even with my busy schedule he got me to go to the gym. He gave various examples about how exercising allows the brain to shrink less in areas that become smaller with age and that exercise can even turn the elderly into incredible athletes. He gave the example of Olga Kotelko, a 94 year old female who started exercising at age 75 and has won 26 world records and was named a world class field athlete. Kramer has become an expert in this field of study and through many years of research he has proven that aerobic physical activity increases neurotransmitters in the brain and therefore there are more neuronal connections that trigger better functional connectivity in the brain. This also leads to the phenomenon that aerobic physical activity can help decrease diseases that involve a decline in cognition, like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The whole presentation presented the benefits that come with exercise, such as decreases in anxiety and depression and increases in one’s well-being and self-esteem. Overall, Art Kramer was able to support his original opening statement about the flexibility of your brain, you either use it or lose it.

Exercise and the Brain

Senile. When you hear this word the next reasonable step is to visualize an elderly person. As one ages, the loss of mental faculties is the most well-known characteristic. This outcome was thought to be inevitable before researches found an easy way to slow and reverse this process. Art Kramer of Beckman Institute for advanced Science and Technology discovered the positive effect of exercise on the brain. It is known that increase in physical activity will decrease the risk of diabetes, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, and many other diseases. However, what has now been discovered is that the degrading of cognition can be slowed down by performing simple physical workouts. Dr. Kramer and his lab have tested older adults that have significant improvement in brain function and test much better on cognition experiments. Even more recently, scientists have now discovered that exercise promotes neurogenesis. What was once believed that humans could not grow new neurons has evolved to new belief of “ brain cell growth through exercise”.  Even more exciting is that they may be able to create a pill to promote brain development. A certain part of the brain that is stimulated by neurogenesis is the hippocampal area. Through endurance exercise, scientists have discovered that a protein called FNDC₅ is released into the bloodstream. When this protein reaches the brain another protein, Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor(BDNF), is also releases, which promotes nerve growth and reconnection of synapses. The hope is that scientist will be able to capture the protein that directly stimulates neural cell growth and offer to Parkinson and Alzheimer patients.  Even though, it has been seen to increase hippocampal growth in mice, researchers are still studying these effects and looking forward to the release of this drug to degenerative disease patients. Even if a person does not have these specific diseases, the idea of neurogenesis and slowing the aging of your brain should encourage you to turn off the tv and break a sweat.

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2013/10/13/how-exercise-makes-your-brain-grow/ 

Biotechnology in Animals

At the Neuroscience Banquet Emily Anthes came and spoke about her book Frankenstein's Cat: Cuddling Up to Biotech's Brave New Beasts. Most of the experiments that she talked about took place with animals and what stuck out to me was at the end of the talk when she talked about being pre-science and pro-animal. It made me think, how can people be so against testing on animals when it has brought such good things to the human race? Things like cures for diseases and vaccinations. It has even done things for veterinary medicine.

Since there are many animal activists that are against any kind of animal testing or anything they believe violates an animal's rights, I wanted to see what the benefits were for the animals. Since Frankenstein's Cat was about animals and biotechnology I focused on that when researching. We as humans have been using selective breeders for a long time. This is how we currently have so many breeds of dogs which are actually the most diverse species in the world (Anthes, 2013). Although there are some things that are bad for the animals, there are also benefits to selective breeding. One example is improving resistance to disease (BBC, 2013). This should be like music to an animal activists ears. Being a dog owner myself, I can say that I am happy that the selective breeding of dogs has helped create animals that can maybe be with us longer than they would have otherwise. Also, selective breeding can "remove characteristics that can cause injury" (BBC, 2013).

Therefore, I believe that some animal activists need to take a closer look at what some of this animal testing and selective breeding can do for animals and for people. It is the only way we can continue to progress in the medical and biotechnology world.

Anthes, E. (2013). Frankenstein's cat: Cuddling up to biotech's brave new beasts. (1st ed., p. 5). New   
          York: Scientific American/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
BBC. (2013). Ethics guide: Biotechnology. Retrieved from  
          http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/biotechnology_1.shtml

Kramer & Mammen on Exercise

Professor Arthur Kramer from university of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana gave a lecture at Loyola University Chicago on November 20^th on his research done on the effects of physical activity and exercise on the brain and cognition.  With his years of research he has found that aerobic if strongly associated with better functional connectivity in the brain.  This is due to increased brain plasticity caused by exercise.  Therefore, aerobic exercise can help decrease diseases that result in a decline in cognition, such as the progression of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.   It also helps increase brain volumes in regions which normally decrease in volume with age, such as the hippocampus.  Kramer also mentioned how benefits lie in decreases of anxiety and depression, and increases in self-esteem, which are all innately advantages to one’s well-being.

Science Daily further explored this phenomenon by studying an experiment done by PhD candidate George Mammen.  Mammen published a review in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine when he found that moderate exercise can prevent depressive episodes.  This study stands out from the rest because it was the first longitudinal study that actually looked at exercise and mental health changes in the same individuals over the course of 26 years.  Mammen notes that genetic factors do play a large role, but we can influence those factors and their effects by controlling other aspects of our lives, such as physical exercise.  We need to consider exercise as a preventive measure so we can wean our society off prescription medicines.  For example, if a person has a long standing family history of depression in older age, they can be encouraged to exercise moderately starting a young age in order to prevent the onset of depressive episodes.

1.       George Mammen, Guy Faulkner. Physical Activity and the Prevention of Depression. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2013; 45 (5): 649 DOI:10.1016/j.amepre.2013.08.001

2.       University of Toronto (2013, October 28). Moderate exercise not only treats, but prevents depression. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 30, 2013, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2013/10/131028163003.htm

Art Kramer Talk

I really enjoyed the Art Kramer Talk. It basically emphasized the point that we've all heard countless times from our parents and elders: that exercise is good for you. Kramer showed how much it's good for you, and how exercise affects the brain directly. One aspect that really caught my attention was his demonstration of how exercise affects the ability to multitask. It's interesting how children who are fit are also able to do multitasking better than those children who did very little exercise. He proved this with the video of the treadmill experiment where a fit child is able to cross the road while talking on the cell phone, but if a less fit child does the same, it would not work.  The most interesting part of the talk was the part about Olga Kotelko, who woman over 90 years who is still a Canadian track athlete. At such an age she can actively run and compete in races. Her exercise increases neurotransmitters in the brain and allows greater neuronal connections, which in turn causes her activeness in sports. Exercising allows the brain to shrink less as you age.