CURRENTS

April 14, 2008

Currents--University of Rochester newspaper

Research Roundup

Satisfying life involves more than happiness

Researchers at the University have found that there is more to well-being than simply feeling happy. Being autonomous, having a sense of relatedness, and feeling competent are equally as important, say psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci. The findings were reported in the current issue of the Journal of Happiness Studies. Veronika Huta, a visiting professor form McGill University, also coauthored the paper.

Deci, the Gowen Professor in the Social Sciences, says happiness and well-being are used interchangeably in one, standard psychological approach to understanding well-being, known as the hedonic approach. The theory emphasizes doing what feels good, but Ryan, Huta, and Deci found that well-being is achieved through the process of living in a full and meaningful way and experiencing satisfaction with one’s life, even when it contains negative emotions, which of course we all sometimes feel. “We think this is a better way to achieve well-being,” Deci says. “A satisfying life has many components, not just positive feelings.”

Discovery opens new avenue in ALS research

By Tom Rickey

Tom_Rickey@urmc.rochester.edu

New findings made by a team of Medical Center neuroscientists may offer insights into the development of ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease. The team has discovered leaky blood vessels that lose their ability to protect the spinal cord from toxins may play a role in the onset of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). The results mark the first time that scientists have witnessed molecular changes occurring long before key nerve cells start dying.

Berislav Zlokovic

The unexpected finding opens up a new front in studies of ALS, a disease in which motor neurons in the spinal cord die off for unknown reasons, resulting in dramatically weakened muscles. Patients lose their strength, their ability to move or swallow, and eventually lose their ability even to breathe. Most patients live only a few years after diagnosis.

“We believe these changes contribute to or possibly initiate the onset of ALS,” says lead author Berislav Zlokovic, professor of neurosurgery and neurology and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative and Vascular Brain Disorders at the Medical Center. “It’s clear that these changes occur before the loss of neurons, and it’s well known that the types of changes we are seeing certainly injure or kill these types of cells, which are extremely sensitive to their biochemical environment.”

The findings, discovered by studying
mutant mice that have an inherited form of the disease, were made by a collaboration of Medical Center neuroscientists working together with ALS experts from the University of California at San Diego.

Zlokovic, a pioneer in learning how the body’s vascular system plays a role in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and ALS, first began doing research on the disease in 2004, when a former classmate from medical school who had been diagnosed with ALS and was looking for new treatments contacted him. By the time his friend died two years later, Zlokovic was well under way in studies investigating the possible role of the vascular system. During the last 15 years, Zlokovic has pioneered the view that the vascular system plays a central role in many neurodegenerative diseases.

Rare syndrome offers clues to heat stroke

A genetic disorder that can cause a fatal rise in body temperature in some patients undergoing general anesthesia may hold the key to a cure for heat stroke, according to research published in the April 4 edition of the journal Cell. Researchers from the Medical Center, the Baylor College of Medicine, and CeSI Centro Scienze dell’Invecchiamento Universit degli Studi G in Italy collaborated on the paper.

An inherited condition called malignant hyperthermia (MH), which occurs once in about 10,000 adult patients undergoing general anesthesia, and more frequently in children, causes reactions that alter the acid content of blood and tissues, increase heart rate, cause muscle rigidity, and trigger a rapid rise in body temperature up to 112° F. Kidney failure and potentially fatal heart arrhythmias can result in the worse cases. Researchers have uncovered findings that suggest MH may be caused by the same biochemical pathways as heat stroke. The most recent findings further suggest that antioxidants, like those currently being tested to protect the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients, may also protect those genetically prone to suffer heat stroke.

“Along with cardiac abnormalities, heat stroke is a major culprit in unexpected sudden deaths of otherwise fit, young athletes, and soldiers,” says study coauthor Robert Dirksen, associate professor of pharmacology and physiology. “With a better knowledge of these mechanisms, we can begin to better diagnose and treat both disorders, and hopefully, save some lives.”

The cultural consequences of globalization

University anthropologist Robert Foster's new book Coca-Globalization: Following Soft Drinks from New York to New Guinea explores globalization through a historical and anthropological study of how familiar products such as Coke and Pepsi became valued as more than mere commodities. Foster discusses the transnational operations of soft drink companies and, in particular, the marketing of soft drinks in Papua New Guinea, a country only recently opened up to the flow of brand-name consumer goods. Based on field observations and interviews, as well as archival and library research, the study provides insights into the cultural consequences and political prospects of globalization, including new forms of consumer citizenship and corporate social responsibility.

The economics of autism

New research suggests the average household with children with autism not only spends thousands of dollars toward educational, behavioral, and health care expenses each year, but also suffers from a lesser-known cost that hits them up front—a sizeable chunk of missed household income, perhaps as much as $6,200 annually.

The study, published in April’s edition of Pediatrics, paints a more detailed financial picture of how expensive life can become for parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

“To our knowledge, this is the first U.S. study that examines this front half of the ‘money in, money out’ equation,” says economist Guillermo Montes, the study’s lead author and a senior researcher at the Children’s Institute, a not-for-profit organization affiliated with the University, where he also serves as a faculty member in the division of general pediatrics.

The findings echoes conclusions from another nationally representative study Montes led in 2006: Fathers of autistic children were 9 percent less likely to report full-time employment compared to fathers of the non-autistic population. “The ripple effect, of course, is that this may be impoverishing some ASD-affected families in the long term. Less savings and less investment make it more difficult to retire comfortably or send children to college,” Montes adds.