NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS NEWSLETTER
Volume 8, Issue 2 (February, 2004)

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Welcome to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter.

Here is what you will find in this issue:

1. What's New on the Neuroscience for Kids Web Site
2. Neuroscience for Kids Site of the Month
3. Neuroscience for Kids Writing Contest
4. Super Bowl, Super Headache
5. Brain Awareness Week
6. Summer Science Camps
7. Time Perception and Body Temperature
8. Media Alert
9. Treasure Trove of Brain Trivia
10. Support Neuroscience for Kids
11. How to Stop Your Subscription
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1. WHAT'S NEW ON THE NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS SITE

Neuroscience for Kids had several new additions in January. Here are some of them:

A. January Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter was archived
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/news81.html
B. US Government Takes Steps to Protect Food Supply from BSE
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/bsen.html
C. Did West Nile Virus Conquer Alexander the Great?
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/alexg.html
D. Neuroscience in the News 2003 Archive
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/inthenews03.html

In January, 8 new figures were added and 42 pages were modified.
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2. NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS "SITE OF THE MONTH"

The Neuroscience for Kids "Site of the Month" for February is the "Nature Reviews Neuroscience archive" at:

http://www.nature.com/nrn/archive/

The archives contain a display of the journal's cover art. Every journal cover has a drawing or photograph that somehow incorporates a brain. Artists and photographers have been extremely creative with their work. For example, the November 2003 cover has a photograph of a brain-shaped boulder and the July 2002 cover has a brain-shaped crop circle. Can you see "magic-eye" images? If you can, try the December 2003 issue! Unfortunately, the web site does not provide much information about each drawing or photograph. In addition to the cover art, some articles from each issue of the journal are available for free.
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3. NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS WRITING CONTEST

The NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS WRITING CONTEST is now closed! Many creative poems were submitted by students from several countries. Judging has begun and the results will be announced soon.
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4. SUPER BOWL, SUPER HEADACHE

The National Football League (NFL) championship game, the Super Bowl, will be played on February 1, 2004. If you watch the game, look for long passes, elegant catches and speedy running. You might also watch the bone-crushing tackles. You might just see a player get a concussion!

The American Academy of Neurology defines a concussion as a "trauma-induced alteration in mental status that may or may not involve loss of consciousness." In other words, a concussion does not require a person to lose consciousness.

Researchers have just published their findings about the causes and consequences of concussions in the NFL. Between 1996 and 2001, there were 0.41 concussions per NFL game (787 total concussions). Quarterbacks had the highest risk of having a concussion, followed by wide receivers, tight ends and defensive backs. Most (67%) of the concussions occurred when a player was hit by the helmet of another player. The most common symptoms of players who had concussions were headaches (55%), dizziness (41.8%) and blurred vision (16.3%). Only 9.3% of the players with concussions lost consciousness and 2.4% were hospitalized.

Reference: Pellman, E.J., Powell, J.W., Viano, D.C., Casson, I.R., Tucker, A.M., Feuer, H., Lovell, M., Waeckerle, J.F. and Robertson, D.W. Concussion in professional football: epidemiological features of game injuries and review of the literature--part 3. Neurosurgery. 54:81-94, 2004.
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5. BRAIN AWARENESS WEEK 2004

Brain Awareness Week (BAW) is next month! I hope you have plans. It's not be too late to find a neuroscientist to visit your class. Visit the SfN web site to find a neuroscientist near you:

http://www.sfn.org/index.cfm?pagename=neuroscientistTeacherPartners

Here at the University of Washington, 300 students will attend the 7th annual BAW Open House. The Open House will feature hands-on, interactive exhibits sponsored by researchers and staff from various university departments and organizations. If you would like to share what you did during BAW, send me (e-mail: chudler@u.washington.edu) a summary of your activities and I will try to include it in a future issue of the Neuroscience for Kids newsletter.

Even if you cannot organize a brain fair or a classroom visit by a neuroscientist, you can still participate in BAW with some lessons about the brain and nervous system. Neuroscience for Kids has some "brainy" ideas for a day, a week or a whole month:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/baw1.html
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/act.html

In celebration of BAW, send a "brainy" postcard to a friend or family member. See:

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/post/baw1.html
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6. SUMMER SCIENCE CAMPS

It's not too early to make plans for summer. Interested in a science camp or summer research experience? Check the outreach programs at a college or university near you. Here are examples of a few programs from around the country:

Summer Enrichment Program
University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA

Summer Youth Programs
University of Washington, Seattle, WA
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7. TIME PERCEPTION AND BODY TEMPERATURE

Have you had the flu this season? Did you have a fever? You may have felt terrible, but you also had the opportunity to test your internal body clock. That's what Hudson Hoagland did when his wife had the flu in 1933. Hoagland asked his sick wife to count to 60 at a rate of one per second. He used a stopwatch to measure how long it took his wife to count to 60 and he measured his wife's temperature. When Mrs. Hoagland's temperature was high, she counted to 60 FASTER than when her temperature was low. In other words, time seemed to go faster when she had a fever.

Although it's possible that some factor associated with Mrs. Hoagland's illness other than her fever caused her altered perception of time, other scientists have performed similar experiments and confirmed Hoagland's original work. These data suggest that our internal body clock is linked to our body temperature.

Reference:
Hoagland, H., The physiological control of judgements of duration: evidence for a chemical clock. J. General Psychology, 9:267-287, 1933.
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8. MEDIA ALERT

A. "How Now, Mad Cow?" by Cathy Booth Thomas in Time magazine (January 12, 2004).

B. Several articles in Newsweek magazine (January 19, 2004).
i. "Now, Reduce Your Risk of Alzheimer's"
ii. "Starve Your Way to Health"
iii. "You Will Start to Feel Very Sleepy..."
iv. "An Irrepressible Idea"

C. "The Good News About Prions" by Nancy Shute in US News and World Report (January 19, 2004).

D. "Mind over Machine" by Carl Zimmer in Popular Science (February, 2004) discusses how thoughts may be able to control machines across great distances. "Mental Muscles of Steel" by McKenzie Funk, an article to "boost science smarts" is also in this issue.

E. "The Addicted Brain" by Eric J. Nestler and Robert C. Malenka in Scientific Amercian (March, 2004).

F. "Hope for Alzheimer's," by Sanjay Gupta, and "Depression Drugs for Kids: How Safe?" in Time magazine (February 2, 2004).
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9. THE TREASURE TROVE OF BRAIN TRIVIA

A. The area of the brain known as the hippocampus is sometimes called "Ammon's horn." Ammon is a character from Egyptian mythology who had a ram's head and large curved horns similar to the shape of the hippocampus.

B. Morphine, the analgesic (pain reliever) drug from the opium poppy, is named after the Greek god of dreams, Morpheus. Morpheus was the son of the Greek god named Somnus.

C. Eight hours in a smoky bar breathing second-hand smoke is the equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes. (Source: "The Secondhand Smoking Gun," by Rosemary Ellis, The New York Times, October 15, 2003.)

D. Neurophysiologist and Nobel prize winner (1932) Edgar Douglas Adrian was an expert fencer and mountaineer.

E. Cerebral oxygen consumption is 3.5 ml/100g of brain/minute or 49 ml/minute for a whole brain. The energy consumption of the brain is equal to that of a 20 W light bulb. (Source: Aminoff, J. and Daroff, R.B. Encyclopedia of the Neurological Sciences, Amsterdam: Academic Press, 2003.)
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10. SUPPORT NEUROSCIENCE FOR KIDS

To insure that Neuroscience for Kids stays available, we need your help. If you would like to contribute to the funding of Neuroscience for Kids, please download one of the forms below. Simply print out the page, fill out the form, and mail it to the address listed. All contributions are tax deductible (subject to IRS regulations).

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/pdf/help.pdf

or

http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/helpform.html
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11. HOW TO STOP RECEIVING THIS NEWSLETTER

To remove yourself from this mailing list and stop your subscription to the Neuroscience for Kids Newsletter, send e-mail to Dr. Eric H. Chudler at: chudler@u.washington.edu
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Your comments and suggestions about this newsletter and the "Neuroscience for Kids" web site are always welcome. If there are any special topics that you would like to see on the web site, just let me know.

Eric

Eric H. Chudler, Ph.D.
(e-mail: chudler@u.washington.edu)
(URL: http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/neurok.html)

"Neuroscience for Kids" is supported by a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center of Research Resources.