Phantom noises, that mimic ringing in the ears associated with tinnitus, can be experienced by people with normal hearing in quiet situations, according to new research published in the January 2008 edition of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.

The Brazilian study, which consisted of 66 people with normal hearing and no tinnitus, found that among subjects placed in a quiet environment where they were asked to focus on their hearing senses, 68 percent experienced phantom ringing noises similar to that of tinnitus.

According to Temple University’s Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active.

“One’s lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness,” said Maselko, an assistant professor of public health and co-author of the study, which appears in the January issue of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

Conversely, men who stopped being religiously active were less likely to suffer major depression when compared to men who had always been religiously active.

LONDON, December 31 /PRNewswire/ -- A new survey from Red Kooga shows a trend towards doing more rather than giving things up for the New Year.

Typical resolutions like giving up smoking and junk food are being replaced by resolutions to learn new skills, take up more hobbies and be more active.

Over half of the 2,546 people surveyed (56%) are vowing to do more exercise in 2008 - this is up from 43% of people in 2007. This time last year people were more likely to be trying to give up smoking (16% in 2007 down to 13% for 2008), possibly due to the impending ban.

Cells keep a close watch over the transcriptome – the totality of all parts of the genome that are expressed in any given cell at any given time. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the University of Missouri-Kansas City teamed up to peel back another layer of transcriptional regulation and gain new insight into how genomes work.

Converting the “genetic blueprint” into molecular building blocks requires two basic processes: transcription, which copies the information from DNA into RNA transcripts and takes place in the cell’s nucleus, and translation, where the RNA serves as a template to manufacture proteins outside the nucleus.

This is one of those good-fat–bad-fat stories for your holiday reading.

Ma et al. examined the lipid regulation of an ApoE/low-density lipoprotein receptor, the neuronal sortilin-related receptor (SorLA or LR11).

LR11 can reduce â-amyloid production by guiding APP in recycling Golgi and early endosome pathways, thus trafficking APP away from â- and ã-secretase. Polymorphisms that reduce LR11 expression also have been associated with increased Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk.

The authors report that the essential omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) increases LR11 in a neuronal cell line and in primary neurons. DHA also increased LR11 in membrane fractions from aged normal mice and in transgenic mice that overexpressed APP.

An article in the Journal of Neuroscience by Sam A. Deadwyler, Linda Porrino, Jerome M. Siegel, and Robert E. Hampson might appeal to the beleaguered hospital intern or the college student during finals week - anyone who has to combat sleep deprivation or who just wants to stay awake for a long time.

The loss of the hypothalamic neurons that produce orexin-A causes narcolepsy, and the administration of orexin-A produces arousal and increased attention.

This week, Deadwyler et al. provide further evidence that orexin-A can counteract the effects of sleep deprivation. Adult rhesus monkeys were sleep deprived for 30–36 h using a combination of videos, music, treats, gentle rattling of their cages, and constant supervision by laboratory personnel.