fMRI Scanning Salmon - Seriously.

Back in 2009, a crack team of neuroscientists led by Craig Bennett (blog) famously put a dead fish into an MRI scanner and showed it some pictures.



They found some blobs of activation - when they used an inappropriately lenient statistical method. Their point, of course, was to draw attention to the fact that you really shouldn't use that method for fMRI. You can read the whole paper here. The Atlantic Salmon who heroically volunteered for the study was no more than a prop. In fact, I believe he ended up getting eaten.

But now, a Japanese team have just published a serious paper which actually used fMRI to measure brain activity in some salmon: Olfactory Responses to Natal Stream Water in Sockeye Salmon by BOLD fMRI.

How do you scan a fish? Well, like this:

A total of 6 fish were scanned. The salmon were immobilized by adding an anaesthetic (eugenol) and a muscle relaxant (gallamine) to their tank of water. Then, they were carefully clamped into place to make sure they really wouldn't move, while a stream of oxygenated water was pumped through their tank.

Apart from that, it was pretty much a routine fMRI scan.

Why would you want to scan a fish? This is where the serious science comes in. Salmon are born in rivers but they swim out to live in the ocean once they reach maturity. However, they return to the river to breed. What's amazing is that salmon will return to the same river that they were born in - even if they have to travel thousands of miles to get there.

How they manage this is unclear, but the smell (or maybe taste) of the water from their birth river has long been known to be crucial at least once they've reached the right general area (see here for a good overview). Every river contains a unique mixture of chemicals, both natural and artificial (pollutants). Salmon seem to be attracted to whatever chemicals were present in the water when they were young.

In this study, the fMRI revealed that relative to pure water, home-stream water activated a part of the salmon's telencephalon - the most "advanced" part (in humans, it constitutes the vast majority of the brain; in fish, it's tiny). By contrast, a control scent (the amino acid L-serine) did not activate this area, even though the concentration of L-serine was far higher than that of anything in the home-stream water. How this happens is unclear, but further studies of the identified telencephalon area ought to shed more light on it.

So fishMRI is clearly a fast-developing area of neuroscience. In fact, as this graph shows, it's enjoying exponential growth and, if current trends continue, could become almost as popular as scanning people...

Link: Also blogged at NeuroDojo.

Bandoh H, Kida I, & Ueda H (2011). Olfactory Responses to Natal Stream Water in Sockeye Salmon by BOLD fMRI. PloS one, 6 (1) PMID: 21264223

fMRI Scanning Salmon - Seriously.

Back in 2009, a crack team of neuroscientists led by Craig Bennett (blog) famously put a dead fish into an MRI scanner and showed it some pictures.



They found some blobs of activation - when they used an inappropriately lenient statistical method. Their point, of course, was to draw attention to the fact that you really shouldn't use that method for fMRI. You can read the whole paper here. The Atlantic Salmon who heroically volunteered for the study was no more than a prop. In fact, I believe he ended up getting eaten.

But now, a Japanese team have just published a serious paper which actually used fMRI to measure brain activity in some salmon: Olfactory Responses to Natal Stream Water in Sockeye Salmon by BOLD fMRI.

How do you scan a fish? Well, like this:

A total of 6 fish were scanned. The salmon were immobilized by adding an anaesthetic (eugenol) and a muscle relaxant (gallamine) to their tank of water. Then, they were carefully clamped into place to make sure they really wouldn't move, while a stream of oxygenated water was pumped through their tank.

Apart from that, it was pretty much a routine fMRI scan.

Why would you want to scan a fish? This is where the serious science comes in. Salmon are born in rivers but they swim out to live in the ocean once they reach maturity. However, they return to the river to breed. What's amazing is that salmon will return to the same river that they were born in - even if they have to travel thousands of miles to get there.

How they manage this is unclear, but the smell (or maybe taste) of the water from their birth river has long been known to be crucial at least once they've reached the right general area (see here for a good overview). Every river contains a unique mixture of chemicals, both natural and artificial (pollutants). Salmon seem to be attracted to whatever chemicals were present in the water when they were young.

In this study, the fMRI revealed that relative to pure water, home-stream water activated a part of the salmon's telencephalon - the most "advanced" part (in humans, it constitutes the vast majority of the brain; in fish, it's tiny). By contrast, a control scent (the amino acid L-serine) did not activate this area, even though the concentration of L-serine was far higher than that of anything in the home-stream water. How this happens is unclear, but further studies of the identified telencephalon area ought to shed more light on it.

So fishMRI is clearly a fast-developing area of neuroscience. In fact, as this graph shows, it's enjoying exponential growth and, if current trends continue, could become almost as popular as scanning people...

Link: Also blogged at NeuroDojo.

Bandoh H, Kida I, & Ueda H (2011). Olfactory Responses to Natal Stream Water in Sockeye Salmon by BOLD fMRI. PloS one, 6 (1) PMID: 21264223

PENSAMENTO...

" A FELICIDADE É UMA VIAGEM E NÃO UM DESTINHO."

"NÃO HÁ MOMENTO PARA SER FELIZ DO QUE O AGORA. VIVA E CURTA O MOMENTO"

UM POQUINHO DA VIAGEM...

LAS VEGAS-NEVADA-
SUBIMOS NO ALTO DA MONTANHA-
BRINCAMOS COM A NEVE.
SIMPLESMENTE LINDO!!!!!

HOJE FICAMOS POR AQUI. LOGO POSTAREI MAIS.
POIS CONHECEMOS 08 CIDADES...MUITAS FOTOS.
CARINHOSAMENTE, DEIXO O MEU ABRAÇO A TODOS...

AGRADEÇO A SUA COMPANHIA!!!

Blog Coletivo-Uma Interação de Amigos-

MEUS MIMOS/SEUS PRESENTES- VOU TE ESPERAR POR LÁ.

Poetas-Um Voo Livre-

Sinal de Liberdade-uma expressão de sentimento-

RAZER

RAZERZONE

"Packing" Autistic Kids: A French Scandal

Back in the bad old days of autism they thought it was caused by "refrigerator mothers".


Well, right now, some psychiatrists have decided that the best treatment for autism is something not that far removed from sticking them in a refrigerator - literally. Enter "Le Packing", which is the target of an unprecedented consensus statement just out from a list of 18 big-name autism experts (available free here).

This alleged therapy consists of wrapping the patient (wearing only underclothes or naked in the case of young children) several times a week during weeks or months in towels soaked in cold water (10°C to 15°C). The individual is wrapped with blankets to help the body warm up in a process lasting 45 minutes, during which time the child or adolescent is accompanied by two to four staff persons.

The alleged goal of this technique is to “allow the child to rid him- or herself progressively of its pathological defense mechanisms against archaic anxieties,” by achieving “a greater perception and integration of the body, and a growing sense of containment.”

No, really. Frankly, they could have stopped there, because the description is condemnation enough, but they go on to write:

We have reached the consensus that practitioners and families around the world should consider this approach unethical. Furthermore, this “therapy” ignores current knowledge about autism spectrum disorders; goes against evidence-based practice...and, in our view, poses a risk of preventing these children and adolescents from accessing their basic human rights to health and education.

Le Packing, as the name suggests, originated in France, and its use seems to be confined to France and other French-speaking areas. This is the first I'd ever heard of it. Little has been written about it in English (though see this long article and this piece from 2007) so here's my loose translation of the the article on the French Wikipedia:

• Packing is used in children with autism, but also in others: psychotic adults (specifically when they're recovering from an acute psychotic episode), in the elderly, etc.
• It's intended to restore "awareness of the body image".
• It's extremely controversial. Well, duh.
• The technique was invented, in France, by a "controversial American psychiatrist" called M. A. Woodburry. It was intended for the treatment of severely autistic children and adolescents, especially those with severe behavioural problems such as self-harm, aggression, and refusal to eat.
• The patient is wrapped in towels covered in cold water: two towels for the torso, and one for each arm and leg. They're then additionally wrapped in a sheet and then blankets, over the towels. The cold water quickly warms up thanks to body heat: the child is never actually hypothermic.
• After this session, the child is "frictionné" (I guess this means massaged) and taken to their living quarters and offered a snack "in a friendly atmosphere".
• Le Packing is intended to recover a physical sense of their own body. It should be used as part of a wider package of care, and only with the consent of the patient's parents.
• The cold water is optional; some, e.g. a Dr A. Gillis, use warm water nowadays. The key point is the restraint, i.e. the fact that their attempts to move their body are restricted temporarily. Hence "le packing", huh.
  
• The scientific status of Le Packing is controversial. A group called "Léa pour Samy" say it should be banned, and replaced by the (much more orthodox) method of ABA. However, in 2007, authorities approved a randomized controlled trial led by a "Dr Goeb" of the CHU hospital in Lille.
• Critics accuse Le Packing of being an unethical, inhuman and degrading treatment, maybe even torture. There are allegations of cases in which the towels were much colder than 10°C, e.g. straight out of the freezer.
• There are also allegations of its use without parental consent. A Professor Pierre Delion, of the CHU in Lille, reportedly defended this in remarks to The Lancet "if a child is in danger following a road accident, you do not wait for the parents' agreement to give him a transfusion." But this is actually a misquote. In the Lancet piece, he was referring to the patient's consent and said parental consent was always sought.
  
• In 2009 a government minister told the French Senate that Le Packing should only be used under strictly controlled conditions according to a protocol - but others, e.g. the "Léa pour Samy" group, want it banned altogether.
  

This rather speaks for itself, but I'll say this. If someone is suffering these kinds of severe behavioural disturbances, the temptation to do something dramatic must be intense. Indeed, if someone's disturbed to the point of trying to mutilate themselves, or refusing to eat, almost by definition you're going to have to restrain them, either physically or with sedatives, temporarily. While Le Packing may be a French peculiarity, it's not like psychiatrists in other countries never resort to drastic measures.

Amaral D, Rogers SJ, Baron-Cohen S, Bourgeron T, Caffo E, Fombonne E, Fuentes J, Howlin P, Rutter M, Klin A, Volkmar F, Lord C, Minshew N, Nardocci F, Rizzolatti G, Russo S, Scifo R, & van der Gaag RJ (2011). Against le packing: a consensus statement. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 50 (2), 191-2 PMID: 21241956

"Packing" Autistic Kids: A French Scandal

Back in the bad old days of autism they thought it was caused by "refrigerator mothers".


Well, right now, some psychiatrists have decided that the best treatment for autism is something not that far removed from sticking them in a refrigerator - literally. Enter "Le Packing", which is the target of an unprecedented consensus statement just out from a list of 18 big-name autism experts (available free here).

This alleged therapy consists of wrapping the patient (wearing only underclothes or naked in the case of young children) several times a week during weeks or months in towels soaked in cold water (10°C to 15°C). The individual is wrapped with blankets to help the body warm up in a process lasting 45 minutes, during which time the child or adolescent is accompanied by two to four staff persons.

The alleged goal of this technique is to “allow the child to rid him- or herself progressively of its pathological defense mechanisms against archaic anxieties,” by achieving “a greater perception and integration of the body, and a growing sense of containment.”

No, really. Frankly, they could have stopped there, because the description is condemnation enough, but they go on to write:

We have reached the consensus that practitioners and families around the world should consider this approach unethical. Furthermore, this “therapy” ignores current knowledge about autism spectrum disorders; goes against evidence-based practice...and, in our view, poses a risk of preventing these children and adolescents from accessing their basic human rights to health and education.

Le Packing, as the name suggests, originated in France, and its use seems to be confined to France and other French-speaking areas. This is the first I'd ever heard of it. Little has been written about it in English (though see this long article and this piece from 2007) so here's my loose translation of the the article on the French Wikipedia:

• Packing is used in children with autism, but also in others: psychotic adults (specifically when they're recovering from an acute psychotic episode), in the elderly, etc.
• It's intended to restore "awareness of the body image".
• It's extremely controversial. Well, duh.
• The technique was invented, in France, by a "controversial American psychiatrist" called M. A. Woodburry. It was intended for the treatment of severely autistic children and adolescents, especially those with severe behavioural problems such as self-harm, aggression, and refusal to eat.
• The patient is wrapped in towels covered in cold water: two towels for the torso, and one for each arm and leg. They're then additionally wrapped in a sheet and then blankets, over the towels. The cold water quickly warms up thanks to body heat: the child is never actually hypothermic.
• After this session, the child is "frictionné" (I guess this means massaged) and taken to their living quarters and offered a snack "in a friendly atmosphere".
• Le Packing is intended to recover a physical sense of their own body. It should be used as part of a wider package of care, and only with the consent of the patient's parents.
• The cold water is optional; some, e.g. a Dr A. Gillis, use warm water nowadays. The key point is the restraint, i.e. the fact that their attempts to move their body are restricted temporarily. Hence "le packing", huh.
  
• The scientific status of Le Packing is controversial. A group called "Léa pour Samy" say it should be banned, and replaced by the (much more orthodox) method of ABA. However, in 2007, authorities approved a randomized controlled trial led by a "Dr Goeb" of the CHU hospital in Lille.
• Critics accuse Le Packing of being an unethical, inhuman and degrading treatment, maybe even torture. There are allegations of cases in which the towels were much colder than 10°C, e.g. straight out of the freezer.
• There are also allegations of its use without parental consent. A Professor Pierre Delion, of the CHU in Lille, reportedly defended this in remarks to The Lancet "if a child is in danger following a road accident, you do not wait for the parents' agreement to give him a transfusion." But this is actually a misquote. In the Lancet piece, he was referring to the patient's consent and said parental consent was always sought.
  
• In 2009 a government minister told the French Senate that Le Packing should only be used under strictly controlled conditions according to a protocol - but others, e.g. the "Léa pour Samy" group, want it banned altogether.
  

This rather speaks for itself, but I'll say this. If someone is suffering these kinds of severe behavioural disturbances, the temptation to do something dramatic must be intense. Indeed, if someone's disturbed to the point of trying to mutilate themselves, or refusing to eat, almost by definition you're going to have to restrain them, either physically or with sedatives, temporarily. While Le Packing may be a French peculiarity, it's not like psychiatrists in other countries never resort to drastic measures.

Amaral D, Rogers SJ, Baron-Cohen S, Bourgeron T, Caffo E, Fombonne E, Fuentes J, Howlin P, Rutter M, Klin A, Volkmar F, Lord C, Minshew N, Nardocci F, Rizzolatti G, Russo S, Scifo R, & van der Gaag RJ (2011). Against le packing: a consensus statement. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 50 (2), 191-2 PMID: 21241956

RETORNO AO BRASIL

JÁ RETORNEI NO DIA 17 DE JANEIRO. MAS NÃO PUDE VIR POSTAR.
ESTA SEMANA FOI DE ORGANIZAÇÃO PARTICULAR..
E NESTA SEXTA-FEIRA, EM FUNÇÃO DAS CHUVAS TIVEMOS QUE LEVANTAR TODOS OS MOVEIS DA MINHA CASA. A AGUA CHEGOU PRÓXIMO A PORTA DA MINHA CASA. ESTOU A DOIS DIAS ORGANIZANDO TODA A MUDANÇA DENTRO DE CASA.
AS ÁGUAS TOMARAM CONTA DE JARAGUA DO SUL...
UMA LOUCURA. MUITAS PESSOAS PERDERAM DE NOVO PRATICAMENTE TUDO...

QUERO TAMBÉM DEIXAR OS MEUS SENTIMENTOS A TODOS OS AMIGOS DO RIO DE JANEIRO PELA TRAGÉDIA CAUSADAS PELAS CHUVAS...MUITO TRISTE.
SANTA CATARINA ESTA EM ALERTA EM ALGUNS PONTOS.
TODOS OS DIAS CHOVE MUITO FORTE...

QUERIDOS AMIGOS ASSIM QUE EU PUDER VOU AGRADECER E VISITAR A TODOS. POIS ESTOU COM MUITA SAUDADES DE TODOS. MAS AGORA TENHO QUE ORGANIZAR TUDO POR AQUI...
MIL BEIJOS A TODOS. MUITAS SAUDADES...
UM ABRAÇO FORTE E UM BEIJO EM CADA CORAÇÃO...
CARINHOSAMENTE.
SANDRA