News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...l visual area (MT) Cook et al. Two highly-trained monkeys performed a motion detection task under two different attentional states. For cells that had robust responses to the motion stimulus, attention modulated the response function without a shift in the time or shape of the response. Thus their results s...Scientists fear new Ebola outbreak may explain sudden gorilla disappearance
...reat apes, which have already proven successful in monkeys and are showing greater promise in humans. If Ebola outbreak is confirmed, immediately warn all people living in the area to avoid handling dead animals. Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a severe, often-fatal disease that affects humans and non-huma...Critically endangered monkey species plummets more than 50 percent since 1994
...ands also threaten the species. Surprisingly, the monkeys are more likely to be killed within protected areas, since they are more densely forested and poachers are more difficult to spot. Since unprotected areas in northern Vietnam tend to have less wildlife, poachers often avoid them and regard them as le...New understanding of the machinery of flinching
...uced neuronal activity. They then recorded how the monkeys responded to a mild puff of air to the face. The researchers found that the activating drugs enhanced the flinch response--which included a squint, a blink, lifting of the upper lip, flattening of the ears, and a protective arm and shoulder movement....Brain's reward circuitry revealed in procrastinating primates
...nvolved in reward learning. Without the gene, the monkeys lost their sense of balance between reward and the...rmation in the simian work ethic. Like many of us, monkeys normally slack off initially in working toward a distant goal. They work more efficiently make fewe...Biologists deciphering complex lemur scent language
...s knew that more evolutionarily advanced New World monkeys communicate using scent marking. But there was evi...the higher primates — including the Old World monkeys and apes -- aren't particularly olfactorily equipped. They use more visual communications in their s...Size does matter when choosing a mate
...ls from gorillas living on the rainforest floor to monkeys living high up in the canopy too." Shorebirds, gulls and auks are the ideal group to test theories explaining Rensch's rule as the body mass of male shorebirds ranges from 59 per cent to 169 per cent of female body mass, encompassing nearly the entir...Researchers find that color perception is not innate, but acquired after birth
...development of the color constancy. He raised baby monkeys for nearly a year in a separate room where the ill...c lights. After extensive training afterwards, the monkeys were able to perform color matching tasks, but their judgment of color similarity was quite differen...Triple-vaccine strategy stimulates strong HIV-specific immune response in monkeys
...d the University of Pennsylvania report success in monkeys of an innovative triple-vaccine strategy aimed at creating an effective anti-HIV vaccine regimen. In a test of the new approach, the scientists sought to maximize the immune response to a truncated HIV gene called Gag and succeeded in dramatically st...Animal research suggests plant estrogens in soy do not increase breast cancer risk
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Research in monkeys suggests that a diet high in the natural plant est...uterine cancer risk in postmenopausal monkeys. The monkeys ate one of three diets for three years: soy that didn't contain isoflavones, soy with the isoflavone...Monkey business: Studies show tiny callimicos have unusual characteristics
...w findings from the first long-term studies of the monkeys in the wild seem to indicate that this is not the ...t Urbana-Champaign. "Callimicos have been mystery monkeys of South American because they are difficult to observe in the wild," she said. The animals are a...Synthetic hormone used in contraceptives and HRT produces negative effects in monkey studies
...amining aggression, anxiety and sexual activity in monkeys that receive the estrogen/MPA regimen for 21 days, the standard cycle for women who take contraceptives. "Dr. Pazol's Yerkes-based animal studies provide a critical link to better understanding of HRT and its behavioral-related effects," ...In male monkeys, too much soy has adverse effects
...eficial to women in a variety of ways, research in monkeys suggests that it could have an adverse effect on t... The study was done over 15 months with adult male monkeys who were divided into three groups and fed different amounts and types of protein. One group had abo...Experimental smallpox DNA vaccine protects primates from lethal monkeypox
... were divided into four groups. One contained two monkeys vaccinated with the human smallpox vaccine, Dryvax. Another consisted of two monkeys vaccinated with a smallpox DNA vaccine containing just one gene, called L1R. A third contained thre......the human brain, if you see a feature in Old World monkeys and New World monkeys and several other primates, then it probably exists in humans as well." The paper's first author is...Young chimpanzees show sex differences in learning
...eys," explained Lonsdorf. "Mature males often hunt monkeys up in the trees, but females are almost always either pregnant or burdened with a clinging infant. This makes hunting difficult. But termites are a rich source of protein and fat. Females can fish for termites and watch their offspring at the same ti...Proven method of bone analysis may clarify human origins
... claim that morphological data from great apes and monkeys are not faithful guides to phylogeny, because it has been very difficult to derive the molecularly derived phylogenies," Kimbel said. "But here we've done that in a very quantifiable way." The method, Kimbel points out, is particularly important bec...Primate viruses transmitted to people through bushmeat
People in Central Africa who hunt monkeys and great apes are routinely being infected by ret...naturally exposed to mandrills, gorillas and other monkeys and apes," said Donald S. Burke, MD, co-author of the study and a professor of International Health ...Experimental smallpox vaccine protects against monkeypox in nonhuman primates
...In the study, investigators divided 24 cynomolgous monkeys into four groups. Group 1 received two injections...months after the last immunization, each of the 24 monkeys was challenged by intravenous injection of monkeypox virus. The unvaccinated animals became ill or ...Dana-Farber scientists discover natural blocker of HIV-1 virus
...r Institute have identified a protein in Old World monkeys that blocks infection by the human immunodeficienc...fficiently prevents HIV-1 from infecting Old World monkeys (baboons, macaques, and mangabeys from Africa and Asia) and is a hurdle to making models of human A...