Darach Watson receives Lundbeck Research Prize

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31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Gertie Skaarup
skaarup@nbi.dk
45-35-32-53-20
University of Copenhagen - Niels Bohr Institute

Darach Watson has been awarded the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists for his outstanding and innovative research in astrophysics, where he has developed a groundbreaking method for measuring distances in the cosmos using the light from distant quasars. The result was selected by Physics World as one of the year's most important breakthroughs in physics.

Darach Watson is from Ireland and received his PhD from University College in Dublin. He came to Denmark in 2003 and has been a core member of the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen since 2005. He is a leading expert in X-ray astronomy and has played a key role in the important developments in the research of supernovae (exploding massive stars) and gamma-ray bursts (violent outbursts of gamma radiation.

"His research style is original and inventive and by combining different techniques and ideas, he creates new knowledge," explains Jens Hjorth, professor and head of the Danish National Research Foundation's Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute.

New groundbreaking methods

Darach Watson has broken new ground in several areas. In 2006, he developed a new method to study the properties of cosmic dust. The method is now one of the most advanced for studying the detailed properties of cosmic dust in distant galaxies.
In 2011, he made his most important discovery to date. He developed a new method for measuring long distances in space using the light from quasars (active black holes). Again, it was ability to think differently, innovatively and originally that gave him the idea.

"During a lecture, as one of my colleagues was talking about quasars, I suddenly got the idea that if the brightness of the quasar was related to the size of the gas cloud surrounding it and if you could measure the size of this cloud, you could calculate the distance to the quasar," explains Darach Watson. The idea proved to be brilliant. He explains that quasars have many advantages. They are common throughout the universe and they are stable sources that do not fade and disappear after a short time like supernovae. They are also extremely luminous and can be observed at much greater distances than other sources for distance measurement. Most important, he points out, is that the measurements can be very accurate.

History Chemistry Physics - Astrophysics

But what was it exactly that led him to astrophysics?

"I always knew I wanted to do a PhD. My father was a professor of Irish and Dean of the Faculty of Celtic Studies and my mother had a PhD in history. I was interested in many topics and when I was in my last year of secondary school, I talked with my mother about what I should choose to study at university: chemistry or history. She said I could always become a professional research scientist and an amateur historian, but it was almost impossible to be an amateur scientist. I followed her advice and chose chemistry. Halfway through my studies, I discovered what really excited me were the physical processes; what the elements could do and what the physical mechanism was. At the same time, I looked at the curriculum for physics superfluidity, high-energy particle physics, relativity theory and gravity, superconductivity, plasmas and I thought it sounded incredibly exciting. So I switched to physics. When I had to decide what to do my PhD on, I discovered that astrophysics was the most interesting branch of physics," explains Darach Watson.

Enthusiastic research

Suddenly, he got a chance to work with gamma-ray bursts explosions of massive stars, the most violent explosions in the universe since the Big Bang and he jumped at the opportunity. They managed to obtain the first high-quality X-ray spectrum of a gamma-ray burst and discovered the signature of a supernovae in that spectrum. He can still remember the walk home after the discovery, "I was so elated," he explains. It is this excitement that is still the driving force for his research in astrophysics. But history has not been forgotten.

"What I find peculiar is that my love for and interest in history has crept into my science. My research is related to the history of the universe on a large scale: how it was formed and evolved, how stars and galaxies develop over time and how we ended up where we are now," says Darach Watson thoughtfully and welcomes the recognition his research has now received with the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists.

###

For more information contact:

Darach Watson, Associate professor, Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, +45 3532-5994, darach@dark-cosmology.dk

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

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Contact: Gertie Skaarup
skaarup@nbi.dk
45-35-32-53-20
University of Copenhagen - Niels Bohr Institute

Darach Watson has been awarded the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists for his outstanding and innovative research in astrophysics, where he has developed a groundbreaking method for measuring distances in the cosmos using the light from distant quasars. The result was selected by Physics World as one of the year's most important breakthroughs in physics.

Darach Watson is from Ireland and received his PhD from University College in Dublin. He came to Denmark in 2003 and has been a core member of the Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen since 2005. He is a leading expert in X-ray astronomy and has played a key role in the important developments in the research of supernovae (exploding massive stars) and gamma-ray bursts (violent outbursts of gamma radiation.

"His research style is original and inventive and by combining different techniques and ideas, he creates new knowledge," explains Jens Hjorth, professor and head of the Danish National Research Foundation's Dark Cosmology Centre at the Niels Bohr Institute.

New groundbreaking methods

Darach Watson has broken new ground in several areas. In 2006, he developed a new method to study the properties of cosmic dust. The method is now one of the most advanced for studying the detailed properties of cosmic dust in distant galaxies.
In 2011, he made his most important discovery to date. He developed a new method for measuring long distances in space using the light from quasars (active black holes). Again, it was ability to think differently, innovatively and originally that gave him the idea.

"During a lecture, as one of my colleagues was talking about quasars, I suddenly got the idea that if the brightness of the quasar was related to the size of the gas cloud surrounding it and if you could measure the size of this cloud, you could calculate the distance to the quasar," explains Darach Watson. The idea proved to be brilliant. He explains that quasars have many advantages. They are common throughout the universe and they are stable sources that do not fade and disappear after a short time like supernovae. They are also extremely luminous and can be observed at much greater distances than other sources for distance measurement. Most important, he points out, is that the measurements can be very accurate.

History Chemistry Physics - Astrophysics

But what was it exactly that led him to astrophysics?

"I always knew I wanted to do a PhD. My father was a professor of Irish and Dean of the Faculty of Celtic Studies and my mother had a PhD in history. I was interested in many topics and when I was in my last year of secondary school, I talked with my mother about what I should choose to study at university: chemistry or history. She said I could always become a professional research scientist and an amateur historian, but it was almost impossible to be an amateur scientist. I followed her advice and chose chemistry. Halfway through my studies, I discovered what really excited me were the physical processes; what the elements could do and what the physical mechanism was. At the same time, I looked at the curriculum for physics superfluidity, high-energy particle physics, relativity theory and gravity, superconductivity, plasmas and I thought it sounded incredibly exciting. So I switched to physics. When I had to decide what to do my PhD on, I discovered that astrophysics was the most interesting branch of physics," explains Darach Watson.

Enthusiastic research

Suddenly, he got a chance to work with gamma-ray bursts explosions of massive stars, the most violent explosions in the universe since the Big Bang and he jumped at the opportunity. They managed to obtain the first high-quality X-ray spectrum of a gamma-ray burst and discovered the signature of a supernovae in that spectrum. He can still remember the walk home after the discovery, "I was so elated," he explains. It is this excitement that is still the driving force for his research in astrophysics. But history has not been forgotten.

"What I find peculiar is that my love for and interest in history has crept into my science. My research is related to the history of the universe on a large scale: how it was formed and evolved, how stars and galaxies develop over time and how we ended up where we are now," says Darach Watson thoughtfully and welcomes the recognition his research has now received with the Lundbeck Foundation Research Prize for Young Scientists.

###

For more information contact:

Darach Watson, Associate professor, Dark Cosmology Centre, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, +45 3532-5994, darach@dark-cosmology.dk

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/uoc--dwr102413.php
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Researcher: Nazi Gestapo chief died in Berlin

FILE - Undated b/w file picture of former German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller. For decades there were alleged sightings of Mueller in Cuba, Argentina and elsewhere. But Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center, said Thursday Oct. 31, 2013 he’s uncovered evidence Mueller didn’t make it out of Berlin. He says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that Mueller died and was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP-Photo,File)

FILE - Undated b/w file picture of former German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller. For decades there were alleged sightings of Mueller in Cuba, Argentina and elsewhere. But Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center, said Thursday Oct. 31, 2013 he’s uncovered evidence Mueller didn’t make it out of Berlin. He says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that Mueller died and was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP-Photo,File)

A sculpture by German artist Will Lammert is pictured at the entrance to a Jewish cemetery and memorial in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in this Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

A sculpture by German artist Will Lammert is pictured at the entrance to a Jewish cemetery and memorial in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in this Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

A star of David is attached on a wall at the entrance to a jewish cemetery and memorial in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

A star of David behind a sculpture by German artist Will Lammert is pictured at the entrance to a Jewish cemetery and memorial in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Johannes Tuchel, director of Berlin’s German Resistance Memorial Center says several documents, including a 1945 death certificate and a grave digger’s testimony to police in 1963, make it “clear-cut” to him that German Gestapo head Heinrich Mueller was buried near the Luftwaffe headquarters in the final days of the war. He says Mueller was later disinterred and buried with thousands others in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn)

BERLIN (AP) — It was one of the great remaining mysteries surrounding the final days of World War II — what happened to Heinrich Mueller, the head of the Gestapo secret police and the highest-ranking Nazi never to have been captured or located.

But a leading German researcher said Thursday he has uncovered historical documents indicating Mueller never made it more than a few hundred meters (yards) from Hitler's bunker in downtown Berlin and was eventually buried in a common grave in a Jewish cemetery destroyed by the Nazis.

Though Mueller's body hasn't been found, Johannes Tuchel, the director of Berlin's German Resistance Memorial Center, said the evidence he uncovered is "clear-cut."

He said that, according to a death certificate he found, Mueller died in the final days of the war in 1945 near the Luftwaffe headquarters.

Tuchel said other evidence shows that about three months after the end of the war Mueller's body was found by a work crew cleaning up corpses and buried along with about 3,000 others in a communal grave on the site of a Jewish cemetery that the SS had destroyed in 1943.

The documents show "with near certainty" that Mueller was buried in August 1945 in the garden of the Luftwaffe headquarters, then brought to the Jewish cemetery on Grosse Hamburger Strasse, said Tuchel, whose story was first reported by Bild newspaper.

Mueller, who was an SS Gruppenfuehrer — roughly equivalent to a major general — was sought for decades after the war by investigators around the world, including Israel's Mossad, the U.S. Office of Special Investigations, and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Tuchel said he had no explanation for why they hadn't come up with the same information. "That is a part of the puzzle I can't answer," he said.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center's top Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, sounded a note of caution, saying only DNA evidence could prove Mueller was buried in Berlin.

"The Nazis who wanted to escape very often took measures to create false documents faking their death," he said in a telephone interview from London. "I would be very wary of reports like that without forensic evidence."

He cited the case of Aribert Heim, a Mauthausen concentration camp doctor who allegedly died in Cairo in 1992.

"Heim was buried, according to his son, in a mass grave for poor people in Cairo, and it's a perfect story because it's impossible to verify," Zuroff said.

It's not yet known whether any efforts will be made to find Mueller's bones in Berlin.

According to the Berlin Jewish Community's website, the cemetery included the grave of philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and was destroyed by the SS in 1943, when they built trenches through the area. At war's end, it was used to bury bombing victims and other war casualties that littered the German capital.

Tuchel came across the documents when researching an incident in which Mueller ordered the execution of 18 resistance members at the end of the war. In addition to a December 1945 death certificate for Mueller, Tuchel said he has evidence that the identity papers and medals were later turned over to military authorities to return to his family.

And in 1963 — when authorities were looking into a rumor that Mueller had been buried in West Berlin's Neukoelln district — a gravedigger told police in testimony Tuchel found that he had buried Mueller in the former Jewish cemetery, and had matched his identity papers to the face of the body.

Tuchel said the man did not give any indication as to Mueller's cause of death.

According to an article in the Holocaust and Genocide Studies journal in 2001, the gravedigger's story was known but could never be checked out because the graves were on the other side of the Berlin Wall.

Though there were persistent alleged sightings of Mueller in the decades after the war, including in Czechoslovakia, Cuba and Argentina, experts have always maintained that he most likely died in Berlin at the war's end.

That was the fate of Hitler's private secretary Martin Bormann, who was thought to have escaped the capital until his bones were unearthed during construction in 1972 in downtown Berlin. DNA tests in 1998 confirmed they were his.

Zuroff said that, if the information on Mueller does turn out to be true, it would be a "comforting thought" that Mueller — who attended the notorious 1942 Wannsee Conference in which plans were coordinated for the genocide of the European Jews — didn't escape.

"This is the biggest fish that got away," Zuroff said.

Still, if his final resting place is a Jewish cemetery, Zuroff said it would be "absolutely horrifying."

"It's the last place on earth where he should be buried," said Zuroff. "If this is ever verified, they'd better move very quickly to make sure it doesn't become a shrine for neo-Nazis."

___

AP Investigative Researcher Randy Herschaft contributed to this report from New York

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-31-Germany-Gestapo%20Head/id-f754b4cc1926456596215ec5f28bc054
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Our Fear of Snakes May Be an Evolutionary Tic

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Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long. Tornado Kills at Least Five in Oklahoma. Very long title. Long long long.

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How to Build a Fame Monster

The following is excerpted from Blockbusters: Hit-Making, Risk-Taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment, by Anita Elberse, published by Henry Holt & Co.

Standing backstage at Boston’s sold-out TD Garden in March 2011 during Lady Gaga’s smash-hit tour, the Monster Ball, her manager, Troy Carter, paused a moment to take it all in. “It is amazing how far we have come in such a short time,” he said.

After emerging on the pop-music scene in 2008—touring as a supporting act for New Kids on the Block, a boy band beyond its glory years—Lady Gaga broke through in early 2009, when her singles “Just Dance” and “Poker Face” topped international charts. She rapidly became one of the biggest names in entertainment, sweeping up Grammys and Video Music Awards and selling tens of millions of singles. In 2011, Forbes ranked her first on its Celebrity 100 list, ahead of Oprah Winfrey.

As is the case with most “overnight successes,” Gaga’s ascent had been a long time in the making. In the early days of her career, through a relentless touring schedule—for months on end, she put on seven to eight shows a week, sometimes performing three times per night, in clubs around the U.S. and Canada—Gaga had built a fan base with a strong core. “We wanted to build her fan base from the ground up,” Carter said. “Once the audience feels they own something, they are going to run with it, and do the work for you.” She relied heavily on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to spread word of mouth and strengthen her connection with her fans—her ”little monsters,” as she called them. She turned out to be extraordinarily skilled at doing so: By 2011, Gaga was the most popular living person on Facebook and the most followed person on Twitter.

Given her extraordinary success with a grassroots approach to launching her music, one might have assumed that Gaga, Carter, and her label, Interscope, would stick with such a strategy in 2011 for her third album, Born This Way. Yet the Born This Way launch compared more to “a movie blockbuster in the summer months, like Avatar,” as Interscope’s vice chairman Steve Berman put it. “With an artist of Gaga’s caliber,” Carter said, “reaching full potential means doing things on an enormous scale.” He knew that the launch he had in mind would have to go beyond traditional music-distribution channels and would test the limits of what a record label—even one the size of Universal Music Group—could afford. Carter and his team likewise pursued a blockbuster strategy for Gaga's forthcoming record, ARTPOP, due Nov. 11.

Most leading entertainment businesses operate on such a blockbuster model: making risky bets on the development of a select few products, then increasing the stakes by investing a great deal of money in distributing and promoting those products as widely as possible, all with an eye toward opening as big as they can. Companies often set marketing budgets at high levels well before they know how those products will be received in the marketplace. But what’s the rationale? Why would the team behind Lady Gaga want to move away from a word-of-mouth-driven launch that worked so well for them in the past? With Gaga’s new album likely to sell like hot cakes, wouldn’t record label executives prefer to save on any unnecessary marketing expenditures?

Launching entertainment products—albums, movies, television shows, video games, books—using what marketers call a “limited” or “grass-roots” release strategy has undeniable advantages. The basic idea is to gradually discover what level of marketing spending is most appropriate. It is all about being as efficient as possible with the available resources. For a movie, for example, a limited-release strategy generally means that it debuts on only a few screens in major cities, and is supported with print and online advertisements in those regions. The goal is to attract not the largest but rather the right audience to the product, in the hopes that those early customers will in turn spread positive word of mouth and help draw in new audiences. Only if the product takes off—or shows some signs of being on the verge of taking off—will the producer gradually increase the distribution coverage or intensity and support the product with more advertising to further enhance growth. The principle is to spend sizable amounts of money on the marketing of only those products that are worth it—those that truly have a chance of success in the marketplace.

Lady Gaga’s first recordings were released in this fashion. When her first single, “Just Dance,” was released in April 2008, gaining traction proved difficult. “We could not get it played on pop radio,” Carter recalled. “Mainstream radio stations told us it was too much of a dance song for them.” Bobby Campbell, chief marketing officer at Carter’s management firm Atom Factory, agreed: “Dance music simply was not on the air in Top 40 radio.”

So Carter relied on an intense schedule of live performances targeted at communities that seemed especially receptive to her music. “The gay community seemed to stick to her, and that resonated with her personally, so gay clubs were a natural fit to start the work,” Campbell said. “It was about finding different groups: the gay community, the dance community, the club-going community, the fashion community, the art community, and developing those into a larger pool of Gaga fans. So when Interscope made some headway with radio later on, we had this really strong core of fans who had been following her for months, and who felt they were part of the reason why she was successful.”

Jimmy Iovine, Interscope’s chairman, talks about capitalizing on “sparks”: The idea is that if an entertainment product resonates with audiences in a given market, that market can, with the right kind of support, become a launching pad for a wider rollout.

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Kessler Foundation MS study correlates fMR with negative effect of warmer weather on cognitive status

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

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Contact: Carolann Murphy
cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org
973-324-8382
Kessler Foundation

MS researchers link fMRI findings with cognitive declines during warmer outdoor temperatures; Results have implications for patients and researchers, according to Leavitt et al

WEST ORANGE, N.J. October 30, 2013. Kessler Foundation scientists correlated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings with the negative impact of outdoor temperature on cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study, "Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with task-related increased BOLD activation in patients with multiple sclerosis," released by Brain Imaging & Behavior as epub ahead of print, corroborates the group's previous study that established that people with MS performed worse on processing speed and memory tasks during warmer outdoor temperatures versus during cooler outdoor temperatures. "Increased MS disease activity during warmer months is a recent discovery. Now, this work is the first report of brain activation associated with outdoor temperature in MS. This finding is novel and important for persons with MS who are shown to have worse cognition during warmer weather," said Victoria M. Leavitt, Ph.D., research scientist at Kessler Foundation and principal investigator for the study, funded by the National MS Society.

Kessler Foundation researchers previously demonstrated that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) demonstrate worse cognition on warmer days. (Leavitt VM, Sumowski JF, Chiaravalloti N, DeLuca J. Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with worse cognitive status in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2012 Mar 27;78(13):964-8). The purpose of the current study was to identify the neurophysiological basis for worse cognition. "Here, we examined the neurophysiology underlying this temperature-cognition relationship, said Dr. Leavitt. "The association between task-related BOLD fMRI activation and outdoor temperature was investigated in 28 MS patients who demonstrated worse cognitive function on warmer days. In MS patients, warmer outdoor temperature was associated with greater BOLD activation during performance of a simple sustained attention task. The brain areas that showed greater activation on warmer days were regions typically activated by MS patients during task performance: the frontal, dorsolateral, prefrontal and parietal cortex. The relationship between outdoor temperature and cerebral activation was absent in healthy controls. Increased brain activation required by MS patients on warmer days to perform a simple task may signify neural inefficiency."

Kessler Foundation co-investigators are Glenn Wylie, D.Phil., associate director of Neuroscience Research and the Center for Neuroimaging Research @ Kessler Foundation, Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., Director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, John DeLuca, Ph.D., Vice President for Research & Training, and James F. Sumowski, Ph.D., research scientist. All also have faculty appointments at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

According to Dr. Sumowski, "The significant effect of warmer weather on cognition should be considered when designing and conducting clinical trials. This information might assist clinicians in choosing clinical treatment, and help researchers develop effective strategies for coping with the negative effects of weather-related effects on cognition that impact independence, education, employment and activities of daily living."

###

About MS Research at Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation's cognitive rehabilitation research in MS is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, NJ Commission of Brain Injury Research, Consortium of MS Centers, and Kessler Foundation. Under the leadership of Dr. DeLuca and Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, scientists have made important contributions to the knowledge of cognitive decline in MS. Clinical studies span new learning, memory, executive function, attention and processing speed, emotional processing and cognitive fatigue. Research tools include innovative applications of neuroimaging, iPADs, and virtual reality. Among recent findings are the benefits of cognitive reserve; correlation between cognitive performance and outdoor temperatures; the efficacy of short-term cognitive rehabilitation using modified story technique; and the correlation between memory improvement and cerebral activation on fMRI.

About Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation is the largest public charity in the field of disability. Kessler Foundation Research Center advances care through rehabilitation research conducted in six specialized laboratories.. Research focuses on improving function and quality of life for persons with injuries of the spinal cord and brain, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic neurological conditions. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant making funds promising programs across the nation.

KesslerFoundation.org

facebook.com/KesslerFoundation

http://twitter.com/#!/KesslerFdn

Carolann Murphy, PA
973.324.8382
CMurphy@KesslerFoundation.org

Lauren Scrivo
973.324.8384/973.768.6583 (cell)
LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Oct-2013

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Contact: Carolann Murphy
cmurphy@kesslerfoundation.org
973-324-8382
Kessler Foundation

MS researchers link fMRI findings with cognitive declines during warmer outdoor temperatures; Results have implications for patients and researchers, according to Leavitt et al

WEST ORANGE, N.J. October 30, 2013. Kessler Foundation scientists correlated functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) findings with the negative impact of outdoor temperature on cognitive functioning in multiple sclerosis (MS). This study, "Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with task-related increased BOLD activation in patients with multiple sclerosis," released by Brain Imaging & Behavior as epub ahead of print, corroborates the group's previous study that established that people with MS performed worse on processing speed and memory tasks during warmer outdoor temperatures versus during cooler outdoor temperatures. "Increased MS disease activity during warmer months is a recent discovery. Now, this work is the first report of brain activation associated with outdoor temperature in MS. This finding is novel and important for persons with MS who are shown to have worse cognition during warmer weather," said Victoria M. Leavitt, Ph.D., research scientist at Kessler Foundation and principal investigator for the study, funded by the National MS Society.

Kessler Foundation researchers previously demonstrated that patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) demonstrate worse cognition on warmer days. (Leavitt VM, Sumowski JF, Chiaravalloti N, DeLuca J. Warmer outdoor temperature is associated with worse cognitive status in multiple sclerosis. Neurology. 2012 Mar 27;78(13):964-8). The purpose of the current study was to identify the neurophysiological basis for worse cognition. "Here, we examined the neurophysiology underlying this temperature-cognition relationship, said Dr. Leavitt. "The association between task-related BOLD fMRI activation and outdoor temperature was investigated in 28 MS patients who demonstrated worse cognitive function on warmer days. In MS patients, warmer outdoor temperature was associated with greater BOLD activation during performance of a simple sustained attention task. The brain areas that showed greater activation on warmer days were regions typically activated by MS patients during task performance: the frontal, dorsolateral, prefrontal and parietal cortex. The relationship between outdoor temperature and cerebral activation was absent in healthy controls. Increased brain activation required by MS patients on warmer days to perform a simple task may signify neural inefficiency."

Kessler Foundation co-investigators are Glenn Wylie, D.Phil., associate director of Neuroscience Research and the Center for Neuroimaging Research @ Kessler Foundation, Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., Director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, John DeLuca, Ph.D., Vice President for Research & Training, and James F. Sumowski, Ph.D., research scientist. All also have faculty appointments at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School.

According to Dr. Sumowski, "The significant effect of warmer weather on cognition should be considered when designing and conducting clinical trials. This information might assist clinicians in choosing clinical treatment, and help researchers develop effective strategies for coping with the negative effects of weather-related effects on cognition that impact independence, education, employment and activities of daily living."

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About MS Research at Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation's cognitive rehabilitation research in MS is funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, National MS Society, NJ Commission of Brain Injury Research, Consortium of MS Centers, and Kessler Foundation. Under the leadership of Dr. DeLuca and Nancy Chiaravalloti, Ph.D., director of Neuropsychology & Neuroscience Research, scientists have made important contributions to the knowledge of cognitive decline in MS. Clinical studies span new learning, memory, executive function, attention and processing speed, emotional processing and cognitive fatigue. Research tools include innovative applications of neuroimaging, iPADs, and virtual reality. Among recent findings are the benefits of cognitive reserve; correlation between cognitive performance and outdoor temperatures; the efficacy of short-term cognitive rehabilitation using modified story technique; and the correlation between memory improvement and cerebral activation on fMRI.

About Kessler Foundation

Kessler Foundation is the largest public charity in the field of disability. Kessler Foundation Research Center advances care through rehabilitation research conducted in six specialized laboratories.. Research focuses on improving function and quality of life for persons with injuries of the spinal cord and brain, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic neurological conditions. Kessler Foundation Program Center fosters new approaches to the persistently high rates of unemployment among people disabled by injury or disease. Targeted grant making funds promising programs across the nation.

KesslerFoundation.org

facebook.com/KesslerFoundation

http://twitter.com/#!/KesslerFdn

Carolann Murphy, PA
973.324.8382
CMurphy@KesslerFoundation.org

Lauren Scrivo
973.324.8384/973.768.6583 (cell)
LScrivo@KesslerFoundation.org

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Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/kf-kfm103013.php
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