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Mice Legs Longer With Batty Gene Regulation
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Results tagged “mice” from 60 Second Science
Mice Legs Longer With Batty Gene Regulation [podcast]
Aggression feels as good as sex, drugs, and rock and roll
Everyone gets a rise out of watching the 5 foot 8 receiver get jacked up by the 250 pound linebacker. Here's why 16 million viewers of Sunday Night football can't help but love watching the big hits.
The brain processes aggression as a reward, similar to the way it reacts to sex, food and drugs, according to new research.
In a series of experiments on mice, scientists discovered that mice will literally push the button willingly to introduce more aggression into their lives. Behaving just as they would for the good stuff.
"Aggression occurs among virtually all vertebrates and is necessary to get and keep important resources such as mates, territory and food,” says Craig Kennedy, professor of special education and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University. “We have found that the ‘reward pathway’ in the brain becomes engaged in response to an aggressive event and that dopamine is involved.”
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Scientists create very, very brave mice
Mice aren't afraid of cats because they're bigger, have sharper teeth, and are natural predators. While that would be reasonable, the real factor is a genetic hardwiring to be terrified at the scent of cats. Japanese scientists, in yet another effort to create super-creatures that will doom us all, have changed that. "Mice are naturally terrified of cats, and usually panic or flee at the smell of one. But mice with certain nasal cells removed through genetic engineering didn't display any fear," said Ko Kobayakawa who leads a research team at Tokyo University.
My cat just had the last bath he's ever getting.
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Feeling sad? Get moving!
Yale scientists have discovered that physical exercise enhances the activity of a gene called VGF, which has an antidepressant effect in mice.
Depression afflicts 16 percent of the U.S. population and carries an annual price tag of $83 billion. Pharmaceutical products currently used to treat depression help about 65 percent of patients but require anywhere from weeks to months to kick in.
Unlike common antidepressant drugs, VGF is already present in the brain, making it an attractive target for therapy, says senior author Ronald Duman, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at Yale School of Medicine.
Immune systems get tired, too
Apparently it's been known for some time that the immune system, specifically T cells (which are a kind of white blood cell), gets tired when fighting the same foe for a long time, such as HIV or Hepatitis.
New research is helping to nail down the way in which this happens.
