Gizmorama - May 22, 2013

Good Morning,

According to one article below British researchers say that stimulation applied to a brain area known to be important for math ability has been shown to improve the ability to manipulate numbers. That's something I would definitely be interested in getting involved with. I'm horrible at math.

Learn about this and other interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Frogs once used for pregnancy tests said carriers of disease --*
SAN FRANCISCO - African frogs imported into the United States for early 20th century pregnancy tests carried a deadly disease that has decimated amphibians, researchers say. African clawed frogs have long been suspected of introducing Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, a fungus has led to the recent decline or extinction of 200 frog species worldwide, researchers at San Francisco State University said. From the 1930s to 1950s, thousands of African clawed frogs were exported across the world for scientific research, the pet trade, and for pregnancy tests since these frogs will ovulate when injected with a pregnant woman's urine. "We found that African clawed frogs that have been introduced in California are carrying this harmful fungus," SF State biologist Vance Vredenburg said. "This is the first evidence of the disease among introduced feral populations in the U.S., and it suggests these frogs may be responsible for introducing a devastating, non-native disease to amphibians in the United States." African clawed frogs are potentially potent carriers of the fungus because they can be infected for long periods of time without dying, allowing them to pass it on to more vulnerable species, he said in a university release Wednesday. "It's amazing that more than half a century after being brought to California, these frogs are still here, and they still carry this highly infectious disease," Vredenburg said. While the frogs' use, sale and transport are now highly regulated in California, the damage has been done, he said. "Now we need to be cautious about other introduced species," Vredenburg said. "There could be other animals out there that are carrying diseases that we don't even know about yet."


*-- Painless brain stimulation shown to improve mental math skills --*
OXFORD, England - Stimulation applied to a brain area known to be important for math ability has been shown to improve the ability to manipulate numbers, British researchers say. "With just five days of cognitive training and noninvasive, painless brain stimulation, we were able to bring about long-lasting improvements in cognitive and brain functions," Roi Cohen Kadosh of the University of Oxford reported in the journal Current Biology. While the researchers acknowledge no one knows exactly how the relatively new technique -- transcranial random noise stimulation -- works, they say the evidence suggests it allows the brain to work more efficiently by making neurons fire more synchronously. The technique improves mental arithmetic -- the ability to add, subtract or multiply a string of numbers in one's head, for example -- not just new number learning, the researchers said. Mental arithmetic is a more complex and challenging task, which more than 20 percent of people struggle with, they said. The stimulation technique could be of particular help to those suffering with neurodegenerative illness, stroke or learning difficulties, Cohen Kadosh said. "Math is a highly complex cognitive faculty that is based on a myriad of different abilities," he said. "If we can enhance mathematics, therefore, there is a good chance that we will be able to enhance simpler cognitive functions."

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