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First-year medical students arrived last month for STANFORD orientation. Page 4 INSIDE Volume 7, No. 16MEDICINE September 14, 2015 Published by the Office of Communication & Public Affairs Scientists home in on origin of Study: Math anxiety relieved in children human, chimp facial differences who get tutoring © 2015 MESA ScHUmacHER By Krista Conger By Erin Digitale The face of a chimpanzee is decidedly Anxiety about doing math different from that of a human, despite problems can be relieved with a the fact that the apes are our nearest rela- one-on-one math tutoring pro- tive in the primate tree. Now researchers gram, according to a new study at the School of Medicine have begun to from the School of Medicine. The pinpoint how those structural differences tutoring fixed abnormal responses could arise in two species with nearly in the brain’s fear circuits. identical genetic backgrounds. The study, published Sept. 9 in The key lies in how genes involved in The Journal of Neuroscience, is the facial development and human facial di- first to document an effective treat- versity are regulated — how much, when ment for math anxiety in children. and where the genes are expressed— “The most exciting aspect of our rather than dissimilarities among the findings is that cognitive tutoring genes themselves. In particular, the re- not only improves performance, searchers found that chimps and humans but is also anxiety-reducing,” said express different levels of proteins known the study’s senior author, Vinod to control facial development, including Menon, PhD, professor of psychia- some involved in jaw and nose length try and behavioral sciences. “It was and skin pigmentation. surprising that we could, in fact, “We are trying to understand the get remediation of math anxiety.” regulatory changes in our DNA that oc- Even if they are good at math, curred during recent evolution and make many children feel anxious about us different from the great apes,” said Jo- doing math problems. For some, anna Wysocka, PhD, associate professor the anxiety persists throughout of developmental biology and of chemi- life, discouraging them from pur- cal and systems biology. “In particular, suing advanced math and science we are interested in craniofacial struc- classes as well as careers that rely on tures, which have undergone a number mathematical expertise. Yet almost of adaptations in head shape, eye place- no attention has been paid to how ment and facial structure that allow us See MATH, page 7 to house larger brains, walk upright and WAVEBREAKMEDIA / SHUTTERSTocK even use our larynx for complex speech.” The researchers coined the term “cel- lular anthropology” to explain how some Although chimps and humans have almost identical genomes, their genes make different amounts of steps of early primate development can proteins known to control facial development, including some involved in jaw and nose length. be mimicked in a dish, and thus used to study gene-expression changes that can The role of enhancer regions ences in the way proteins bind to these shed light on our recent evolutionary enhancer regions during development past. For their comparison, the research- could explain morphological differences A study describing the research was ers focused on areas of DNA known as between humans and chimpanzees. published online Sept. 10 in Cell. Grad- enhancer regions in human and chim- “We wanted to look at how the activ- uate student Sara Prescott is the lead panzee genomes. These regions contain ity of these enhancer regions may have author. Wysocka and senior research sci- chemical tags and proteins bound to the changed during recent evolution,” said entist Tomasz Swigut, PhD, share senior DNA that control when, where and how Wysocka. “Many recent studies have authorship of the study. nearby genes are expressed. Prescott and shown that changes in the DNA se- her colleagues wondered whether differ- quences of enhancers See FACE, page 6 Using star power to teach Trail gets hotter in hunt for cause of ALS Indian kids about HIV/AIDS By Krista Conger KOYA979 / SHUTTERSTocK By Ruthann Richter A defect in how proteins are transported inside cells may be at least partially responsible for some At Zilla Parishad High School in the south Indian metropo- symptoms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ac- lis of Hyderabad, more than 100 students in blue and white cording to a study by researchers at the School of uniforms sit cross-legged on the stone floor, faces gleaming and Medicine. eyes riveted on an animated video featuring Nagarjuna, a re- The researchers found that cells with a mutation vered star of south Indian cinema. associated with the disease were hampered in their The video, featuring an avatar of the handsome, musta- ability to move proteins into and out of the nucleus, chioed actor, doesn’t aim to entertain but to teach the students a cell’s command center. The findings are among some basics about HIV/AIDS that the first to open a window into the molecular causes could help protect their health and pos- of the deadly condition. sibly save their lives. Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS is a A mutation linked to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis interferes “I never knew HIV existed,” one progressive neuromuscular disorder. Although it’s with the transport of proteins in and out of a cell’s nucleus. 13-year-old student, Dharana, said unknown what causes many cases of the disease, a after viewing the 22-minute video. “I genetic stutter in a region of DNA called C9orf72 ALS or FTD. learned a lot. Now I have an awareness. has been associated with the development of both “Healthy people have two to five repeats of this I want to go to the hospital before mar- ALS and another related neurodegenerative disorder six-nucleotide pattern,” said Aaron Gitler, PhD, as- riage and have my groom get an HIV called frontotemporal dementia. In this region, the sociate professor of genetics. “But in some people, test.” DNA sequence is made up of a six-nucleotide pat- this region is expanded into hundreds or thousands Piya Sorcar Though India See AIDS, page 6 tern, which repeats abnormally in some people with of copies. This muta- See ALS, page 7 Girls and boys with autism differ in behavior, brain structure By Erin Digitale with high-functioning forms of autism in the United had less-severe repetitive and restricted behaviors. “This States, he said. replication provides the strongest evidence to date for Girls with autism display less repetitive and restricted Repetitive and restricted behavior is perhaps the gender differences in a core phenotypic feature of au- behavior than boys do, according to a study by research- most widely recognized of the three core features of au- tism,” Menon said. ers at the School of Medicine. tism. It can show up as a child’s preoccupation with a Brain-structure differences The study also found that brain differences between narrow interest, inflexibility about routines or repetitive boys and girls with autism help explain this discrepancy. motions such as hand-flapping. The other core features The brain-scan analysis revealed several gender dif- The study, which was published online Sept. 3 in of autism are social and communication deficits. ferences in brain structure between typically develop- Molecular Autism, gives the best evidence to date that More boys with high-functioning autism ing boys and girls, consistent with the findings of earlier boys and girls exhibit the developmental disorder studies. differently. Among children diagnosed with the high-function- Children with autism, however, had a dissimilar “We wanted to know which specific clinical mani- ing form of autism, boys outnumber girls by four to set of gender differences in their brains — specifi- festations of autism show significant gender differences, one. Scientists were interested in comparing the expres- cally, in the motor cortex, supplementary motor area and whether patterns in the brain’s gray matter could sion of core features of the disorder between sexes be- and a portion of the cerebellum. These regions affect explain behavioral differences,” said the study’s senior cause they have long suspected girls with autism may motor function and planning of motor activity. The author, Vinod Menon, PhD, professor of psychiatry display symptoms differently, causing them to be un- researchers noted that many repetitive behaviors, such and behavioral sciences. Knowledge of the difference derdiagnosed or making it harder for them to get the as hand-flapping, have a motor component. The study could help clinicians better recognize and treat autism most appropriate treatment. demonstrated that patterns of gray matter in these mo- in both sexes, he added. “Understanding this is really “Autism has primarily been studied from the view- tor regions could accurately distinguish girls from boys quite crucial clinically.” point of boys with the disorder,” said Menon, who with autism, Supekar said. The researchers found that “We found strong evidence for gender differences in holds the Rachael L. and Walter F. Nichols, MD, Pro- parts of the motor system that contributed to individual autism,” said postdoctoral scholar Kaustubh Supekar, fessorship. “Understanding gender differences can help scores for repetitive and restricted behaviors were differ- PhD, the study’s lead author. The researchers used two in identifying the behavioral skills that are most impor- ent in boys and girls. large, public databases to examine nearly 800 children tant to remediate in girls vis-a-vis boys.” “Girls and boys with autism differ in their clinical The study examined the severity of autism symptoms and neurobiological characteristics, and their brains are ALTANAKA / SHUTTERSTocK in 128 girls and 614 boys registered with the National patterned in ways that contribute differently to behav- Database for Autism Research.