Brain network links cognition, motivation

Simply flashing a dollar-sign cue sparked immediate activation in a brain region that coordinates the interaction of cognitive control and motivational functions, effectively putting these areas on alert that there was money to be won in the challenge ahead, the study suggests.

Whether it’s sports, poker or the high-stakes world of business, there are those who always find a way to win when there’s money on the table.

Now, for the first time, psychology researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are unraveling the workings of a novel brain network that may explain how these “money players” manage to keep their heads in the game.

Findings suggest that a specific brain area helps people use the prospect of success to better prepare their thoughts and actions, thus increasing odds that a reward will be won.

The study, published Aug. 4 in the Journal of Neuroscience, identified a brain region about two inches above the left eyebrow that sprang into action whenever study participants were shown a dollar sign, a predetermined cue that a correct answer on the task at hand would result in a financial reward.

READ MORE

Two WUSTL graduate students traveled to Lake Constance in Germany this summer to meet with Nobel laureates.

Lindau Harbor, photographed by Chris Evans, a previous student attendee of the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting.

As scientific conferences go, the Lindau Meeting isn’t bad. The participants travel to Germany’s Lindau Island in Lake Constance at the foot of the Alps, where Nobel laureates have convened to inspire and enlighten them.



This summer, two Washington University students, Claire Cobley and Eric Feczko, were among the 75 American students selected by nationwide competition to attend the laureate’s gathering.


Cobley, a graduate student in the lab of Younan Xia, PhD, the James M. McKelvey Professor of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, is working on the development of nanoscale materials with medical applications.


Feczko, a graduate student in the neurosciences program, works with John Pruett, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry in the School of Medicine, on autism and face recognition.


The Lindau meeting dates from 1951, when two physicians convinced Count Lennart Bernadotte of Wisborg to support a meeting of Nobel laureates in the field of medicine.


This year, the 60th Lindau meeting, held June 27-July 2, was opened in the Inselhalle on Lindau Island by Countess Bettina Bernadotte, the count’s daughter. Fifty-nine Nobel laureates and 650 young scientists were in attendance.


During the meeting, the laureates lecture on topics of their choice in the mornings and participate in small-group discussions with the students in the afternoon. The evenings are devoted to dining and music.


Cobley says laureate Oliver Smithies, DPhilco-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, made a particular impression on her.


READ MORE

Immune system overreaction may enable recurrent urinary tract infections

In mice, an immune system overreaction to a urinary tract infection can leave the lining of the bladder pocked with clumps of inflammatory immune cells (in this image, the dark clump on the upper left). Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis showed that this can shift the balance in the bladder from a protective immune response that helps prevent infection to a damaging immune response that makes mice more vulnerable to recurrent infections.

The immune system may open the door to recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) by overdoing its response to an initial infection, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found.

Researchers showed in mice that severe inflammatory responses to an initial UTI cause bladder damage and allow infection to persist longer. After one to two weeks of infection, the bladder wall undergoes additional changes that leave mice more vulnerable to later infection. Suppressing the immune system during initial infection decreases these vulnerabilities, they reported Aug. 12 in PLoS Pathogens.


“We found markers in the mice that may one day help us identify patients vulnerable to recurrent infection and refine our treatment strategies,” says lead author Thomas J. Hannan, DVM, PhD. “There were infection-fighting elements in the immune responses of some mice that we may, for example, one day be able to trigger with vaccines for vulnerable patients.”

The research was conducted at the Center for Women's Infectious Disease Research at the School of Medicine.

READ MORE

Summer Undergraduate Research at DBBS

Aging and longevity tied to specific brain region in mice

A green stain lights up a protein tied to aging and shows that it is abundant in the hypothalamus region of mice brains.

Researchers watched two groups of mice, both nearing the end of a two-day fast. One group was quietly huddled together, but the other group was active and alert. The difference? The second set of mice had been engineered so their brains produced more SIRT1, a protein known to play a role in aging and longevity.


“This result surprised us,” says the study’s senior author Shin-ichiro Imai, MD, PhD, an expert in aging research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “It demonstrates that SIRT1 in the brain is tied into a mechanism that allows animals to survive when food is scarce. And this might be involved with the lifespan-increasing effect of low-calorie diets.”

Imai explains that the mice with increased brain SIRT1 have internal mechanisms that make them use energy more efficiently, which helps them move around in search of food even after a long fast. This increased energy-efficiency could help delay aging and extend lifespan.

The research findings are published in the July 28 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

Read More