Category: research

UGA psychology research may lead to earlier, better diagnosis of dementia, Alzheimer’s

By JESSICA LUTON

jluton@uga.edu

New research from UGA’s department of psychology may one day lead to a better biomarker for earlier detection of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), the leading predictor of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in older adults.

With nearly 36 million people estimated to have dementia currently, and that number expected to double every 20 years, finding and identifying dementia earlier shows promise for interventions in the future. 

Psychology professor and Bio-Imaging Research Center director Stephen Miller, along with former graduate student Carlos Faraco, used fMRI brain scans—scans that give researchers not only a visual picture of the structure of the brain but also information about blood flow within the brain—to test the working memory of adults with normal healthy adult brains against those showing signs of mild cognitive impairment. The research was recently published in the journal Neuropsychologia.

While researchers have looked at stored memory in dementia research, working memory is a relatively new area of research in the fMRI research realm. 

Initial results from the fMRI study show hyperactivity in the lateral temporal lobes, the area of the brain associated with working memory. Hyperactivity here means that the brain is exerting more energy to complete a task, which may be a biomarker for developing dementia.

To test working memory, Miller and his research partners tested both older adults with MCI and older adults with normal functioning brains using a series of complex working memory tasks. They tasked participants with using working memory in two tasks—clicking on the correct color dot and remembering a sequence of letters—with one working memory task interrupting the next. At the end of the tasks, participants then had to recall information from those tasks.

Researchers then used scans to examine brain activity when participants were completing working memory tasks and at the end when participants were recalling information.

The findings could lead to better biomarkers for dementia, as other studies using fMRI scans testing stored memory are more difficult to read due to their placement next to sinus air passages that often makes imagery blurry.

The complete journal article is available at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393213002601

A diversity of invaluable faculty expertise was reported on or quoted in a variety media over the last month. A few examples of this crucial element of university public service:

Associate professor of chemistry Jason Locklin teamed up with an area high school student to create an app to help students study organic chemistry

The Red & Black reported on work by asssitant research scientist Zhu-Hong Li of biochemistry and molecular biology and professor of cellular biology Silvia Moreno for a novel treament of toxoplasmosis

International sorghum research effort led by Regents professor of genetics Andrew Paterson was reported widely

Associate professor of history Stephen Mihm writes in his regular column on Bloomberg.com of the history of efforts to limit artificial fats in the American diet

Gwinnett Daily Post featured a program set up by Georgia Athletic Association Professor of geography J. Marshall Shepherd that allows fourth-graders to video conference with scientists

Spalding Distinguished Research Professor of history James Cobb quoted in a Gainesville Times article on the legacy of JFK 50 years later

Professor emeritus of sociology Barry Schwartz quoted on the subject Lincoln's Gettsyburg Address – Aiken (SC) Standard

New research on diagnosing dementia by professor of psychology L. Stephen Miller was reported in the Atlanta Business Chronicle and on WABE 90.1 FM

Nice article going around this week on one of the Willson Center Faculty Research Clusters projects focused on the behemoth that is the local musical traditions of Athens, GA:

The Athens Music Project will take into account the city's variety of African-American musical traditions, both secular and religious; its growing jazz scene; bluegrass and other folk music traditions; the Latin American/Latino musical community; new music and conceptual sound art; as well as Athens' historic role in both classical music and musical theater.

The cluster will be designed to take in contributions from a range of sources. Associated projects currently underway include a study of early music education in Athens by Stephanie Tingler, associate professor of music; a project by music graduate student Mary Helen Hoque focusing on George Davis, an African-American bandleader who formed the city's first civic band during Reconstruction; and research on John Vaughan, an early-20th century hymn composer whose Athens publishing house distributed music nationally, by Kevin Kelly, the Hodgson School's music librarian.

"Part of what we're doing is setting up an infrastructure to facilitate other people doing research," Thomas said, "whether that's our students, or whether it's people, both in the university and the community who already are doing that kind of work in a little vacuum so that we can give them a resonating space to share and showcase what they're doing.

There is much to unpack here, though Kidula and Thomas are scholars who have a taste for such heavy lifting, humanities-wise. Ambitious, unwieldy projects can often be difficult to wade into, but the richness of Athens music deserves the attention of our best ethnographers, which it will have in Kidula and Thomas. Congratulations to the Willson Center for inspiring our faculty, paving the way for wider and better understanding of our world.

Image: Co-directors of the Athens Music Project, Jean Kidula, left, and Susan Thomas.  Photo by Jason Thrasher.

Regents Professor Andrew Paterson, a joint-appointment between the Franklin College and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is director of the the Plant Genome Mapping Laboratory. His lab does some of the heavy lifting in moving our society toward a bio-based economy, balancing increased food security with expanded bioenergy supplies while mitigating the challenges of a looming worldwide water crisis. He is the subject of this week's UGA Today feature, Focus on the Faculty:

What are your favorite courses and why?
I team-teach a course in genome evolution (PBIO/GENE 4510/6510) with my colleague Jim Leebens-Mack in the plant biology department. We combine a few conventional lectures with many intriguing student-led discussions of new findings in genomics research.
What interests you about your field?
I was trained as a conventional plant breeder but have been fortunate to participate in genome sequencing to reveal the entire genetic blueprint(s) of most of the crops that I study. Their unique attributes make crop plants valuable both commercially and as botanical models, thus linking increased fundamental knowledge to improving human lives. Genome sequences empower many new opportunities to improve plants to better suit human needs while also reducing environmental impacts of agriculture. I am excited about pursuing these opportunities. Our planet needs—and genomics may play a major role in—a new “Green Revolution” toward a more bio-based economy, balancing increased food security with expanded bioenergy supplies while mitigating the challenges of a looming worldwide water crisis.

Read the whole thing.

Researchers in the department of cellular biology have discovered that a combination of two commonly prescribed drugs used to treat high cholesterol and osteoporosis may serve as the foundation of a new treatment for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic infection caused by the protozoan Toxoplasma gondii.

Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite capable of infecting nearly all warm-blooded animals. While healthy human adults usually suffer no lasting ill effects from infection, it can be harmful or fatal to unborn fetuses or those with weakened immune systems.

"For many years, therapies for toxoplasmosis have focused on drugs that target only the parasite," said Silvia Moreno, senior author of the article and professor of cellular biology in UGA's Franklin College of Arts and Sciences. "But in this paper, we show how we can hit the parasite with two drugs simultaneously, one that affects body chemistry in the host and one that affects the parasite."

The UGA researchers discovered that a combination of the cholesterol lowering drug atorvastatin and osteoporosis medication zoledronic acid, both more commonly known by their respective trade names, Lipitor and Zometa, produce changes in the mammalian host and in the parasite that ultimately block parasite replication and spread of the infection.

Interesting new study authored by Dorothy Fragaszy in the department of psychology and several collaborating authors from around the world:

A new study from a group of researchers, led by University of Georgia behavioral scientist Dorothy Fragaszy, reports that artifacts—objects similar to the ball or shovel—are an important component in technical learning by nonhuman species. The study, published Oct. 7 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, documents the work of two groups of researchers investigating cases of habitual tool use in wild chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys.

The two groups of researchers discovered they were working along parallel lines and observing similar findings. They organized the data from the separate species together in a special issue of the journal.

Tool use in wild animals has long been an area of broad interest among the scientific community. The researchers focused on the use of durable tools and artifacts, especially among younger individuals, to conclude that experience with tools and the opportunity to use them have an enduring impact on the development of traditional technologies in nonhumans.

Fragaszy has spent a great deal of her career studying capuchin monkeys, establishing a wide authority of expertise in behavioral science. When she discovered that a different group studying a different species had established very similar results, the two groups used each other's work to further solidify their findings. This is strong, fundamental science, and the larger group authoring this particular study has accomplished important work on an elusive aspect of human development. Fragaszy, in the final quote in the press release:

"When the circumstances support it, and we think artifacts are an important part of these supporting circumstances, then cognitively less complex individuals-species that don't have language, that don't have explicit teaching, that don't have human forms of culture-they also can acquire and maintain complicated, technical traditions."

Image: Capuchin monkey high above a plain in Brazil, courtesy of D. Fragaszy.

Congratulations to marine sciences professor Merryl Alber, who takes over as director of the Marine Institute at Sapelo Island today:

[Alber] succeeds marine sciences professor William Miller, who served as UGAMI director from 2004 to 2013 and helped to enhance UGAMI's capabilities despite a series of challenging cuts to its state budget. He will continue his research on chemical reactions of ocean and sunlight, and their potential role in removing carbon from the deep sea.
The appointment of Alber reflects a renewed focus on the pristine marine laboratory as a field station that supports world-class research and education in coastal ecosystems. UGAMI's international reputation, dating back to the 1950s, is based on groundbreaking ecological research by scientists from UGA and beyond. 

An undeveloped barrier island on Georgia's coast, Sapelo is a national treasure as well as a unique living laboratory for long-term ecological research projects. Our oceans have so many stories to tell us - about both the past and the future - and on Sapelo, Franklin College research scientists enjoy access to that narrative arc that is quite unlike any other.

For more on the UGAMI, visit ugami.uga.edu

Image: an estuary on Sapelo, Georgia's 4th largest barrier island.

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Science rolls out its fifth assessment report this week, Athletic Association Professor and president of the American Meteorological Society J. Marshall Shepherd weighs in on the need for common sense on climate change:

For me, the hat with the ball from the IPCC report is that it continues to affirm that our planet is warming, and humans are a significant contributor to the warming.

Andrew Dessler, professor and author of "Introduction to Modern Climate Change," noted in a recent phone conversation the remarkable consistency in the main conclusions of every previous IPCC report. The analysis also provides measured thoughts on implications for the frequency and intensity of certain extreme weather events.

Extreme weather and climate directly affect many aspects of society, including public health, agriculture and national security. Navy Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command, has noted that climate change is the biggest new threat to Pacific security.
Greenland adapts to climate change Greenland adapts to climate change

Recently, an elderly man from my church said, "Doc, what's going on? The weather is different." For a public increasingly inquisitive about what they see around them, it is important to be aware of the distracting hats whizzing around and to keep your eye on the hat with the ball.

Many recent discussions have focused on "uncertainty." Yes, topics of uncertainty exist in climate science as in any science, but this does not render the science unusable. Most readers would take an umbrella or expect rain if the weather forecast called for a 95% or greater chance of rain. How silly would it sound to say, "Don't bother getting an umbrella because there is 5% uncertainty in that forecast"?

Our thanks to Dr. Shepherd and others for their willingness to weigh in on this important issue - easily the most important issue of our day. UGA is committed to the work of its research scientists, whose work is critical to the mission of the university.

A note to media: reporters who wish to contact Shepherd or other UGA research scientists on the subject of the new IPCC report should contact the Franklin College communications office at aflurry@uga.edu or 706.542.3331.

For the second time in two months,  a group of UGA researchers have received significant grant support from the NIH to study and experiment on the sugar molecules known as glycans:

[The researchers] have received a five-year $7.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to help better understand one of the most fundamental building blocks of life.

By Jessica Luton

jluton@uga.edu

A University of Georgia historian was featured on the TLC show “Who do you think you are?” earlier this month.

A recent Ph.D. recipient, Joshua Haynes currently teaches four classes in American History and Native American history, but this summer he had a chance to help Trisha Yearwood sort out her family history and discover why her family ended up in Eatonton, Georgia.

Along the way, Haynes learned some new lingo and gained a tremendous amount of respect for Yearwood, he said.

“I totally respected her intellect. She was very sharp, very quick on the uptake,” said Haynes. “We had two days’ worth of conversations and by the end of it, I had tremendous respect for her.  I get the sense that with her intelligence and charisma, she probably would have been successful at whatever she wanted to do.”

Yearwood’s relatives came to the United States from England, and lived in an area that bordered Creek territory.  Haynes’ specialty, Creek border conflicts, helped Yearwood learn just what it must have been like for her relatives to live in an area of conflict.

If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, check out the full episode at:http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/who-do-you-think-you-are/videos/trisha-yearwood.htm

For more information on the UGA history department, please visit www.history.uga.edu.