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Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 11:06:45 -0400
Reply-To: Spinal Cord Injury Peer Net <scipin-l(AT)health.state.ny.us>
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X-From: Maxim Bily <imax(AT)ODYSSEE.NET>
Subject: Shuttle rat race may help Alzheimer's patients
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Shuttle rat race may help Alzheimer's patients
By Steven Young
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., (Reuters) - Rats wired to record brain
activity raced around a twisted track aboard the space shuttle
Columbia Monday in an experiment that could help Alzheimer's
patients.
``We are trying to reverse-engineer the most complex
structure in the known universe,'' said Bruce McNaughton, a
psychologist from the University of Arizona. ``We're interested
in the mechanism by which the brain generates internal mental
maps of the world.''
In McNaughton's experiment, four male rats -- their claws
clinging to velcro in the absence of gravity -- were to find
their way around two tracks in Columbia's neurological
laboratory.
Tiny wires, thinner than a human hair, were surgically
implanted in each rat's hippocampus, the part of the brain
though to be responsible for the sense of location. By studying
cell activity in the hippocampus, deep in the center of the
brain, scientists hope to learn how well the brain keeps track
of location without the aid of gravity.
``By understanding the basic biology of how this system
works, it will give us the understanding we need to tell what is
going wrong in this system when it breaks down in normal aging
or Alzheimer's disease,'' McNaughton told a news conference.
''Having that knowledge is a critical prequisite to any kind of
interventions that would be helpful.''
The rat's first track is known as the ``Escher Staircase,''
after M.C. Escher's famous drawing of a never-ending stairway.
The 6-foot-long, three-dimensional track makes three 90-degree
twists to return to its starting point.
Recordings from the brain implants should allow scientists
to determine whether the rats recognize that they are back where
they started.
A second track, known as the magic carpet, can be flipped to
disorient the rat.
McNaughton said the rats are do not feel any pain from the
brain implants and actually appear to enjoy their role in the
investigation.
``Normally they find the excursions around these tracks to
be kind of a break in their long day in the cage,'' he said.
The rat track experiment is one of 26 being flown aboard
Columbia as part of a $99 million experiment to probe the inner
workings of the human brain and nervous system
Columbia is due to spend 16-17 days aloft, making it one of
the longest U.S. space shuttle missions.
^REUTERS(AT)
-- Maksim (Max) Bilymail to: imax(AT)odyssee.net
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