Can music therapy treat dementia ?

Posted on November 23, 2020 by | 1 comment

Have you ever heard a Drake or Rihanna song? Many people would likely say that they have. Music is an art that people across the world listen to daily and while some listen to it for enjoyment, it also provides many health benefits such as reducing stress, anxiety, and improving your mood. But, these are things that you probably already knew about music. Research nowadays has been focusing on how music can be implemented in treating patients. A recent study published by Dr. Hei Long Lam in 2020 found that music therapy can be an effective method in improving the lives of patients that have dementia.

Dementia is a commonly increasing syndrome, which currently does not have a cure. It is also a general term used for the loss of memory, language, and other thinking abilities. Dementia is caused by damage to brain cells and this damage goes on to interfere with the ability of brain cells to communicate with each other which ultimately leads to an array of problems. Alzheimer’s is the most common type of dementia which is the damage and degradation of the hippocampus (a part of the brain which is essential for memory formation). People who have dementia usually have a difficult time communicating, recalling information and worse of all this condition is progressive, so it will get worse over time.

Image: University of Queensland/google. This image shows how a normal brain compares to a brain with severe Alzheimer’s. As seen in the image the hippocampus has almost completely disappeared.

Dr. Lam found that music therapy can help dementia patients better recall memories, enhance verbal fluency, and dramatically reduces the patients’ depression and anxiety.

In this video, it is seen that elderly people with dementia are able to successfully recall memories and string together many sentences after listening to music 

The reasons for how music is able to such things have been researched extensively by many people. These researchers found that there are two main qualities of music that allow for these results in the patients. Firstly, the music evokes emotions and this can bring back memories. If music is paired with everyday activities there is a chance that dementia patients will recall the memory of how to do the activity. Secondly, as stated in the video above, music is processed and stored in many parts of the brain so musical appreciation is one of the last remaining abilities in a dementia patient. So even for a late-stage dementia patient, playing music is an excellent way of reaching beyond the disease and connecting with the patient.

Music therapy is a great non-pharmaceutical method that can improve many aspects of a dementia patient’s life. Despite these great findings published in the research article, they state that they have only scratched the surface of the relationship between music and dementia. Ultimately they stated that more clinical trials must be done to fully understand the therapeutic value of music therapy.

-Harman Sandhu

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication

Tagged , ,

Scientists have Discovered a Cure for Cancer

Posted on November 22, 2020 by | Leave a comment

You have probably seen many articles with similar titles to this one throughout your lifetime, however as you probably know we do not have a cure for cancer. So what were these cures and why is there such a large disconnect between published research and subsequent mainstream articles published on the topic. I recently came across an article from the BBC titled Immune discovery ‘may treat all cancer’ while the title is not directly claiming that a cure was found, it does make the reader think that we might have a treatment which could help cure all types of cancers. When reading through the article the author talks about how scientists found a type of immune cell which can be modified so that it can detect and kill multiple types of cancer cells while leaving normal cells intact. If we look at the original research article we will find that the researchers genetically modified human immune cells so that they would have an extra receptor that could recognize and kill multiple types of human cancer cells while not affecting non-cancer cells. The video below gives an overview on how scientists are trying to use the immune system to fight cancer, note that the study above uses CAR-T therapy (video taken with Creative Common License).

From this we can see that the author of the BBC article is not lying to their readers, and the author goes even further to state at the end of this article that “the research has been tested only in animals and on cells in the laboratory, and more safety checks would be needed before human trials could start.” This statement is normally the root cause for disconnect between the scientific publications and mainstream articles for two main reasons. First not all mainstream articles will include this information leading the reader to assume that treatment is almost ready or it will be included at the end of the article so that readers who do not complete the article will have a false understanding of how close the treatment is to being used in humans. The second reason I believe there is a disconnect is due to the level of knowledge the general public has about cancer research compared to someone who has experience in the field. Someone with experience will know that cancer research in petri dishes and animal subjects differs heavily for cancer research in humans. For example the mice used in this study had been modified in such a way so that none of the mouse’s original immune system was functional and only the modified human immune cell was functional. Cancer research also takes a long time so if this treatment was approved for human testing today, it would take around 10-15 years before it could be approved as an actual treatment. From this I hope the next time you see a “cure for cancer,” you remember the comic below and check to see how far along in the research stages this treatment is.

This image was taken from: xkcd with Creative Commons License

 

Leave a comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged , ,

Study Suggests Video Games Can Improve Your Mental Health

Posted on November 16, 2020 by | 4 comments

A person playing on a Nintendo Switch. Image: Mister Mister / Pexels

With people staying indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many will socially connect through video games. A new timely study by Oxford University, using actual gameplay data for the first time, suggests playing video games can be beneficial for your mental health.

The study, which focused on popular games such as Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons, as well as Electronic Art’s Plants vs Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, found that experiences of social connection with others through play may contribute to people’s wellbeing.  In other words, those who enjoyed playing were more likely to report positive wellbeing.

Crucially, the study is the first of its kind. Rather than asking players how much they play, it uses industry data on actual playtime. This let the Oxford University study team link psychological questionnaires along with true records of time spent playing games. This is important since in the past, studies tended to focus on self-reported time playing, which has been found by the study to be weakly correlated with reality.

“Without objective data from games companies, those proposing advice to parents or policymakers have done so without the benefit of a robust evidence base,” said Professor Andrew Przybylski, Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and lead-author of the study.

Przybylski said, “this is about bringing games into the fold of psychology research that’s not a dumpster fire,” allowing us to explain and understand video games a leisure activity.

People smiling while playing video games. Image: cotton bro / Pexels

The researchers were surprised by how little data gaming companies actually had about their players — but also how little hard data had been used by previous studies for the potential harms and benefits of gaming.

The study explored the link between objective game time and well-being, examining the association between directly measured behaviour and subjective mental health. It also explored the roles of player experiences, specifically how feelings of autonomy, relatedness, competence, enjoyment and feeling pressured to play related to well-being.

In the study, 3,274 players were asked to complete a survey designed by the researchers to measure well-being, self-reported play, and motivational experiences during play. The survey findings were combined with objective behavioural data for the survey participants, collected by the video game companies.

Looking Ahead

The researchers hope the study will introduce a higher standard of evidence to discussions about the concept of video game addiction, or digital harms in general.

“You have really respected, important bodies, like the World Health Organization and the NHS, allocating attention and resources to something that there’s literally no good data on. And it’s shocking to me, the reputational risk that everyone’s taking, given the stakes. For them to turn around and be like, ‘hey, this thing that 95% of teenagers do? Yeah, that’s addictive, no, we don’t have any data,’ that makes no sense,” Przybylski said.

While the findings indicate an increase in wellbeing through playing video games, this may not be the case if research continues for more games where behavior deemed as toxic may be found.

 

– Amrit Jagpal

4 Comments

Posted in Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged , ,

HOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS MAKING HURRICANES SCARIER

Posted on November 16, 2020 by | 1 comment

The Greatest Storm on Earth

When thinking about powerful natural events on Earth, one might think of raging tornadoes, or blizzards that can shut down cities, but the power of a hurricane is so immense, that they can release up to 10000 nuclear bombs worth of energy of the course of their lives. The power of these natural storms is so great, they are sometimes even visible to Earth even from other planets in our solar system, take the Great Red Spot of Jupiter for example. On Earth, generally hurricanes start to develop in areas of high humidity and relatively warm surface water temperatures, mixed with faint winds. This is why “hurricane season” is generally in the summer and early fall in the northern hemisphere. Hurricanes are devastating to the terrain and any infrastructure caught in their path, and as such is an important issue for people who live in areas known that are likely for hurricanes to hit. The video below from National Geographic goes over some of the specifics when it comes to how a hurricane is made, for further info on the topic.

Hurricane Decay

Eventually, when hurricanes hit land they will slowly start to decay, as the moisture from warm ocean subsides, the hurricane has nothing fueling it, as hurricanes require moisture and heat to continue on. After being cut off from the ocean, the decrease in moisture level also contributes to an simultaneous decrease in the hurricanes intensity.

In the scientific literature, there are already studies looking at how climate change affects hurricanes, and particularly how climate change affects the intensification of some tropical cyclones, but until recently, the question of how the intensity decay was being affected by climate change remained unanswered.

A hurricane at the start of hurricane season / Taken from Flickr user militarymark2007

The Findings

Recently, researchers Lin Li and Pinaki Chakraborty of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have determined through an analysis of historical climate data, alongside computer simulations, that climate change is contributing to the slower decay of hurricanes after landfall. By checking through the hurricane intensity data gathered over the last 50 years in the North Atlantic, they found that “hurricane decay has slowed… in direct proportion to a… rise in the sea surface temperature”. Looking back to the late 1960’s, an average hurricane then would lose around three quarters of it’s intensity a day after it made landfall, whereas an average hurricane now would only lose around half of it’s intensity a day after making landfall. By using computer simulations, they determined that the higher sea surface temperatures are causing the slower decay rate, as the moisture level is now also higher, alongside the amount of heat to fuel the hurricanes ‘engine’, leading to a longer and stronger hurricane after landfall.

Looking Ahead

As we look forward, strategies to mitigate climate change and reduce global warming might become top priorities in a world with an ever increasing climate, and unfortunately now, with even stronger hurricanes.

Hurricane as seen from the ISS by Astronaut Ed Lu. By Image courtesy of Mike Trenchard, Earth Sciences & Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center. – http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=12140, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=625449

 

– Mehdi Mesbahnejad

1 Comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged , , ,

Altruism Gene

Posted on November 16, 2020 by | 3 comments

Why do people show signs of altruistic (selfless/unselfish) behaviour such as donating money to a homeless person on the street, or even helping someone with their homework? You might be thinking that people are displaying these signs of empathy and generosity, simply because they care about the health of others, and believe that they should treat others the way in which they wanted to be treated. This general understanding is flawed because it provides no evidence to why some people may act selflessly, while others are only concerned about their own well-being. In order to fit the missing pieces necessary to complete the puzzle, we must take into consideration the possibility of there being an Altruism Gene. This gene variation can alter the way in which human beings undergo various tasks on a day-to-day basis.

Monkeys grooming one another is a form of altruism by Muhammad Mahdi Karim

There exist one prevalent theory that explains the evolution of altruism through natural selection. The principle of inclusive fitness, or the amount of offspring equivalents that an organism supports, was defined by W.D. Hamilton in 1964. Hamilton demonstrated that it is beneficial for these organisms to attempt to raise the fitness of other members of the population in order to pass on their genes. This is known as kin selection, and applies mainly to organisms that are genetically related. Hamilton’s Rule declares that a gene controlling altruism will only spread in a population if:

c < rb

where c is the reproductive cost to the organism displaying altruistic behaviour, r represents how closely related the altruist is to the recipient (since the recipient is more likely to share the altruism gene if it is more closely related to the altruist), and b is the degree to which the altruistic act benefits the recipient.

In a recent German study, researchers sampled DNA from 101 individuals and looked at the COMT gene, which is linked to positive emotions and possibly altruistic acts. The gene has 3 variations: Val/Val, Met/Met, and Val/Met. The researchers gave the participants a certain amount of money and told them that they could anonymously donate to a charity. They discovered that those participants with the Val/Val and Val/Met variations donated twice as much as those with the Met/Met version of the gene. This study demonstrated the link between altruism and a specific gene for the first time. 

Percentage of money donated to an impoverished child in Peru based on the COMT gene variation by Martin Reuter, et al.

Scientists have only scratched the surface in this field of study, as they believe that there are many altruism-related genes that are yet to be found. Thus, this evolutionary puzzle will require much more time until it is completed, and I believe that these findings will help us gain further insight on the nature of human beings.

– Yoshinao Matsubara

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science Communication

Tagged , , , ,

The Future of Antarctica

Posted on November 15, 2020 by | Leave a comment

In September 2019, the Amery Ice Shelf in Antarctica produced its biggest iceberg, which beat the record 50 years ago. The massive iceberg named D-28  covers an area of 1,636 sq km, which is slightly more than half of the Metro Vancouver area. It is about 210 m thick and contains 315 billion-tonne of ice.

Iceberg D-28 breaks away from the Amery Ice Shelf. Credit: ESA

 The cause of iceberg D-28 calving?

As a matter of fact, global warming, caused by greenhouse-gasses emission, has contributed to ice melting around the world. It is interesting to note that the calving of D-28 was a part of the normal cycle of ice shelves.

Firstly, glacier gradually moves toward the ocean by its own weight. As the glacier flow, the friction with the bedrock and surface melting thinning the ice sheets and form ice shelves, which are the arm of the ice sheet. Moreover, the warm circumpolar deep water flows in and melts the ice under the ice shelf that weakening its strength. Thus, the plane of ice starts splitting and shedding into icebergs.

Formation of icebergs. Credit: Calvin Pan

Climatic impacts of the iceberg

Melting icebergs influence both global sea levels and ocean salinity. If iceberg D-28 completely melted, researchers projected that sea volume would increase by 2.6 % compared to the volume of saltwater that was displaced. Annually, the global sea level is rising by about 3 mm, whereas the melting of D-28 only accounts for 0.049 mm of increase per year. As such, an individual iceberg would not dramatically raise the sea level. In considering the ocean salinity, indeed, the melted ice would dilute the salt concentration in the ocean and decline its salinity. This process usually occurs at lower latitudes when the iceberg melts. Nevertheless, at higher latitudes (eg, near where the iceberg breaks off), seawater is frozen by nearby icebergs, and its freezing process increases the salinity. The stabilizing influence on ocean salinity promotes the convection and circulation of oceanic currents.

Will climate change alter the Antarctic landscape?

Yes, climate change will accelerate the loss of Antarctic glaciers due to various reasons. For example, warmer sea, higher air temperatures, and higher sea levels fasten the natural cycle of ice shelves. Watch this short video made by Vox to understand the association between glaciers loss and climate change using the example of Thwaites Glacier, as well as possible consequences.

A study has proposed that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions could possibly mitigate the rate of change in Antarctica. Losing antarctic ice will not only raise the sea level but also threaten wildlife and food security because of more frequent extreme weather. Before dealing with an irreversible change in Antarctica, we must start thinking of how we can save the Antarctic ecosystem.

-Calvin Pan

Leave a comment

Posted in Issues in Science, Science in the News

Tagged , , , ,

The Secret Behind the Microorganism That Survived in Space for a Year

Posted on November 15, 2020 by | 2 comments

Have you ever thought there are extraterrestrial life? Or have you ever imagined the possibility of humans reaching planets outside of the Earth to live? Recently,  a microorganism that might be a key to the questions above have been investigated and it is Deinococcus radiodurans (D.raiodurans).

Panspermia Hypothesis

Panspermia hypothesis comes from greek word pan meaning all, and sperm meaning seed, hypothesizing that the life on Earth originated from “seeds” of lives being transported into Earth from space. However, in order to support this, there has to an evidence of organism that can tolerate extreme conditions such as radiation and temperature, of outer space.

File:Panspermie.svg - Wikimedia Commons

Panspermia hypothesis – Microorganism from outer space into the Earth by Silver Spoon Sokpop

Discovery of D.radiodurans

Discovery of D.radiodurans date back to 1956. A researcher named Arthur W.Anderson attempted sterilizing canned food with gamma radiation. However, he found out that the food was still spoiled, indicating survival of bacteria even in high radiation. This bacteria that survived was D.radiodurans. The intensity of radiation is measured unit Gray(Gy). 5 Gy of radiation kills humans, 200-800 Gy kills E.coli, but D.radiodurans was able to survive under 5000 Gy of radiation. Radiations damage cells by breaking DNA apart, but D.radiodurans has multiple features that helps recovery in this process. First is that it has multiple copies of genome, unlike many others that usually only have one. This allows D.radiodurans to use its multiple genomes has “back-up” to recover its destroyed genome. Second is that it has recovery proteins that repairs the damage in DNA much faster than repair proteins in other organisms. Lastly, D.radiodurans has manganese to protect itself from oxidative damage done by radiation and nitric oxide to facilitate cell growth after DNA repair.

File:DraNramp membrane.png - Wikimedia Commons

Protein Structure Image of D.rdiodurans by Samuel.P. Berry

D.radiodurans in Space

With ability of D.radiodurans to withstand harsh conditions known, scientists decided to test whether it can survive in space as well. Therefore, D.radiodurans  was exposed to space environment outside of International Space Station (ISS) for a year. The result was truly shocking. About 10% of the sample D.radiodurans survived without any morphological damage. Instead, survived D.radiodurans samples had multiple vessels on its surface, had their repair mechanism triggered, and increased abundance of mRNA and proteins responsible for rapair, regulation, and transportation functions in the cell. This showed that D.radiodurans was able to adapt to harsh conditions of the space for its survival.

File:ISS International Space Station.png - Wikimedia Commons

Image of ISS in Space by Blobbie244

Significance of this Finding

Going back to the discussion about the “seeds” in panspermia hypothesis, D.radiodurans became strong candidate for the organism that can serve as “seed” in the theory. Not only that it supports the hypothesis about the origin of the lives on Earth, it also suggests some future applications. That is, terraformation. Terraformation, or terraforming is known as process of changing any celestial body (such as other planets or moon) into habitable envrionment for human beings. Many scientist believe sending microorganisms that can survive in conditions of the target planet will be starting steps of terraformation. Therefore, D.radioduran, being able to survive in environment of Mars, is now one of the most promising candidate for starting agent of Mars terraformation.

File:Terraforming Mars transition horizontal.jpg

Mars Terraformation Steps Imaged by Daein Ballard

– Tae Hyung Kim

 

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science

Tagged , , ,

Can Vitamin D protect you from COVID-19?

Posted on November 9, 2020 by | 1 comment

Vitamin D is often seen as the “cure-all” for several reasons, and has since caught the attention of several researchers in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, according to several recent studies, researchers claim that there is not enough evidence to recommend the use of vitamin D supplements to prevent or treat COVID-19.

Why did researchers think that Vitamin D could help?

Vitamin D is obtained from sunlight or diet, and is naturally produced in the human body. Deficiencies in vitamin D are common, affecting one third of Canadians, and can result in many negative symptoms such as fatigue, muscle pain, and even depression. Vitamin D is known to play an important role in the immune system as it helps strengthen immunity in your body, protecting you from infections.

The sun’s energy turns a chemical in your skin into vitamin D3, which is carried to your liver & kidneys to transform it to the vitamin D used in your immune system to defend you from infections. Source: Health Harvard

In a study conducted in Spain, researchers have found that 82% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients had a deficiency in vitamin D, however, many specialists questioned whether this is due to a direct correlation between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 severity, or if other factors come to play.

What we know now:

The study conducted by researchers in a hospital in Spain in March of 2020, found that although there was a higher prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients hospitalized with COVID-19, there was no relationship between vitamin D concentrations or deficiency and the severity of the disease, such as the need for ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, or even death.

Furthermore, another study claims that the factors associated with COVID‐19 deaths, such as old age, ethnicity, obesity, diabetes, and hypertension (high blood pressure), overlap with the risks associated with vitamin D deficiency.  This study discusses how healthier people are likely to spend more time outdoors (exposing themselves to sunlight, gaining more vitamin D) and eat healthier, compared to less healthy individuals, explaining this overlap. This makes it difficult for researchers to know whether the severity of the disease is directly impacted by vitamin D deficiency, or from other factors that overlap.

Should you start/stop taking Vitamin D supplements?

Taking vitamin D supplements is generally viewed as safe by health authorities. However, specialists advice to not take doses above the doses recommended to you by your doctor, as higher doses can lead to kidney stones.

Watch this short video to listen to what different specialists have to say about the use of vitamin D supplements in response to COVID-19:

Despite the lack of evidence to support that vitamin D could help treat/prevent COVID-19, vitamin D deficiencies should still be treated. Consider talking to your doctor if you have a vitamin D deficiency about whether vitamin D taking supplements might be right for you.

Looking Ahead

Until there is conclusive evidence on whether vitamin D has an effect on COVID-19, as Tim Caulfield, Canada Research Chair in Health Law, said in the video above, “we have to be open-minded… and we’ve got to try stuff”, in regards to future research regarding COVID-19.

 

– Sarah Ghoul

1 Comment

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

Tagged , ,