Knowledge Update

​Tokyo, Dec 17 (IANS) Japanese scientists have in a breakthrough developed a new technique that can manipulate people's brain activity to boosts their self-confidence, a finding that opens the potential treatments for conditions such as post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD) and phobias.

The new technique called 'Decoded Neurofeedback' identifies brain activity linked to confidence and then amplifies it to a high confidence state.

For patients with PTSD and Alzheimer's disease self confidence is an important aspect, which is often complicated by patients thinking negatively of their own capacities. 

In the study, using this technique, participants' brains were scanned to monitor and detect the occurrence of specific complex patterns of activity corresponding to high confidence states, while they performed a simple perceptual task. 

Whenever the pattern of high confidence was detected, participants received a small monetary reward.

This experiment allowed researchers to directly boost one's own confidence unconsciously, i.e. participants were unaware that such manipulation took place. 

Importantly, the effect could be reversed, as confidence could also be decreased.

"By continuously pairing the occurrence of the highly confident state with a reward - a small amount of money - in real-time, we were able to do just that: when participants had to rate their confidence in the perceptual task at the end of the training, their were consistently more confident," Aurelio Cortese from the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International in Kyoto, Japan. 

The study was published in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

London, Dec 17 (IANS) In a finding that could put an end to the use of medication in the treatment of social anxiety disorder, researchers have shown that structured talk therapy or cognitive alone has the potential to cure social phobia.

In treating patients with social anxiety disorder, cognitive therapy on its own has a much better effect over the long term than just drugs or a combination of the two, said the study.

"This is the most effective treatment ever for this patient group. Treatment of mental illness often isn't as effective as treating a bone fracture, but here we've shown that treatment of psychiatric disorders can be equally effective," said lead researcher Hans Nordahl, Professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

Social anxiety is not a diagnosis, but a symptom that a lot of people struggle with. For example, talking or being funny on command in front of a large audience can trigger this symptom.

Until now, a combination of cognitive therapy and medication was thought to be the most effective treatment for these patients. 

In this study involving over 100 patients -- published in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics -- nearly 85 per cent of the study participants significantly improved or became completely healthy using only cognitive therapy.

"A lot of doctors and hospitals combine medications - like the famous "happy pill" - with talk therapy when they treat this patient group. It works well in patients with depressive disorders, but it actually has the opposite effect in individuals with social anxiety disorders. Not many health care professionals are aware of this," Nordahl noted.

"Happy pills," like selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), may have strong physical side effects. 

The researchers noted that when patients have been on medications for some time and want to reduce them, the bodily feelings associated with social phobia, like shivering, flushing and dizziness in social situations tend to return. 

Patients often end up in a state of acute social anxiety again.

"The medication camouflages a very important patient discovery: that by learning effective techniques, they have the ability to handle their anxiety themselves," Nordahl said.

​New York, Dec 17 (IANS) Antiretroviral drugs have been life-changing therapies for HIV patients, but they can have significant side effects including neuronal degeneration, which can be manifested as forgetfulness, confusion and behavioural and motor changes, says a study.

Certain protease inhibitors, among the most effective HIV drugs, lead to the production of the peptide beta amyloid, often associated with Alzheimer's disease, the study found.

"Protease inhibitors are very effective antiviral therapies, but they do have inherent toxicities," said senior author on the study Kelly Jordan-Sciutto, Professor at University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine in the US.

The drugs prompt an increase in levels of the enzyme that cleaves the amyloid precursor protein, APP, to produce beta amyloid, which is responsible for the damage to neurons.

Notably, inhibiting that enzyme, called BACE1, protected human and rodent brain cells from harm, suggesting that targetting this mechanism with a new drug could minimise damage to neurons in patients on antiretroviral therapies.

"Our findings may cause us to rethink how we're using these drugs and even consider developing an adjunctive therapy to reduce some of these negative effects," Jordan-Sciutto noted.

To determine whether and how neuronal damage arises from drug treatment and to ascertain the enzyme BACE1's role, the team investigated the effects of protease inhibitors in two animal models, then probed the mechanism of action in cells in culture.

The findings appeared in the American Journal of Pathology.

​London, Dec 16 (IANS) US tech giant Microsoft has teamed up with traffic, navigation and mapping products company TomTom to bring enterprise-grade location-based services to Microsofts Azure Cloud platform.

​Beijing, Dec 16 (IANS) Chinese yuan weakened against the US dollar on Friday for the third-straight day Friday after the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) raised the benchmark interest rate for the first time this year, Xinhua news agency reported.

​Toronto, Dec 16 (IANS) Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry and TCL Communication Technology Holdings Limited on Friday entered into a long-term licensing agreement that will provide acceleration to BlackBerry's transition into a security software and services company. Under the terms, BlackBerry will license its security software and service suite, as well as related brand assets, to TCL Communication who will design, manufacture, sell and provide customer support for BlackBerry-branded mobile devices. "This agreement with TCL Communication represents a key step in our strategy to focus on putting the 'smart in the phone' by providing state-of-the-art security and device software on a platform that mobile users prefer and are comfortable with," said Ralph Pini, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager, Mobility Solutions, BlackBerry, in a statement. TCL Communication will be the exclusive global manufacturer and distributor for all BlackBerry-branded smartphones with the exception of the following countries -- India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia. "At TCL Communication, we are committed to creating the best portfolio solutions, while ensuring the quality support to consumers and enterprise users who trust the integrity of the BlackBerry device and the brand's security leadership, coupled with the Android platform," added Nicolas Zibell, CEO, TCL Communication. The partnership with TCL Communication is BlackBerry's first global licensing agreement and expands on its existing relationship, which led to the introduction of the DTEK50 and DTEK60 handsets on Android. Additional information on the product roadmap and availability of devices will be available in coming months, the company said. After failing to revive its smartphone business despite several efforts, BlackBerry, earlier this year, announced it will cease internal hardware development and will focus on software and services.

​Jakarta, Dec 16 (IANS) Indonesia's famous tour destination, the resort island of Bali, has been picked by prominent US travelling reviewer website TripAdvisor as the most popular year-end destination.

The latest international recognition for Bali has made Indonesia's Tourism Minister Arief Yahya upbeat about meeting the target for number of foreign visitors this year -- initially set at 12 million, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.

The Indonesian government is now developing 10 new tour destinations across the nation, dubbed as New Bali, which are expected to compare with Bali in terms of attracting tourists.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has previously pledged to improve budget allocation up to five times higher to further boost tourism sector which has been declared as the nation's core business.

Bali offers diverse tourism attractions comprising adventure, underwater activities, tourism sports, cultural and traditional events and beautiful beaches.

​New York, Dec 16 (IANS) Brains of children who are clinically depressed react less robustly to success and rewards as compared to other children who are not depressed.

The study showed that when a child, as young as four years old, does not seem to be excited by rewards, such as toys and gifts, it may be a sign that the child is depressed or prone to depression.

Decreased ability to enjoy activities and play, remain persistently sad, irritable or less motivated, who feel excessively guilty about wrongdoing and those who experience changes in sleep and appetite also may be at risk.

"The pleasure we derive from rewards -- such as toys and gifts -- motivates us to succeed and seek more rewards. Dampening the process early in development is a serious concern because it may carry over to how a person will approach rewarding tasks later in life," said Joan L. Luby, Director of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, US.

For the research, the team involved 84 children aged between three and seven, who played a computer game that involved choosing between two doors shown on the screen.

The electrical activity in their brains were measured using an electroencephalogram machine (EEG).

While the brains of clinically depressed children responded similarly to those of non-depressed children when points were lost, the response when the correct door was chosen was blunted.

The EEG results showed that their brains did not react as robustly from the pleasurable event of choosing the correct door on the screen.

"The study may show us how the brain processes emotions in young children with depression," Luby said.

The study was published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

New York, Dec 16 (IANS) Eating good-tasting food such as chocolate chip cookies, potato chips and sweetened condensed milk may not drive long-term overeating and cause obesity, a study has found.

The research using a mouse model suggests desirable taste in and of itself does not lead to weight gain.

"Most people think that good-tasting food causes obesity but that is not the case. Good taste determines what we choose to eat, but not how much we eat over the long-term," said Michael Tordoff, psychologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center -- a non-profit scientific institute in Pennsylvania, US.

To assess the role of taste in driving overeating and weight gain, three groups of mice received one of the three diets for six weeks: One group was fed plain chow, one group was fed chow with added sucralose and one group was fed chow with added mineral oil. 

At the end of this period, the groups fed the sweet or oily chow were no heavier or fatter than were the animals fed the plain chow.

Additional tests revealed that even after six weeks, the animals still highly preferred the taste-enhanced diets, demonstrating the persistent strong appeal of both sweet and oily tastes.

"Even though we gave mice delicious diets over a prolonged period, they did not gain excess weight. People say that 'if a food is good-tasting it must be bad for you', but our findings suggest this is not the case. It should be possible to create foods that are both healthy and good-tasting," Tordoff said.

The findings are published online in the journal Physiology & Behavior.

​London, Dec 16 (IANS) Imagine your child controlling toys with his/her brain while you get busy with home chores. According to researchers from the University of Warwick in Britain, next generation toys controlled with the power of thoughts can become must have gifts in the near future.

Led by Professor Christopher James, the team has developed a technology which allows electronic devices to be activated using electrical impulses from brain waves, by connecting our thoughts to computerised systems.

The research connects the human mind with electronic devices and sensors in headsets receive brain waves and feed them into electrical circuits.

As a result, remote-controlled cars and toy robots could be activated with kids' levels of concentration like thinking of his/her favourite colour or stroking your dog.

Instead of a hand-held controller, the headset is used to create a brain-computer interface. This activity is then processed by a computer, amplified and fed into the electrical circuit of the electronic toy.

"While brain-computer interfaces already exist, their functionality has been quite limited. New research is making the headsets now read cleaner and stronger signals than ever before - this means stronger links to the toy, game or action thus making it a very immersive experience," James explained in a university statement.

The exciting bit is what comes next -- how long before we start unlocking the front door or answering the phone through brain-computer interfaces, the researchers noted.