UC Science Today

Does being bilingual make you smarter, or even healthier? Neuroscientist Fumiko Hoeft of the University of California, San Francisco says this question has stirred up a great deal of debate. To get some answers, Hoeft is turning to language immersion programs at elementary schools to see what is the impact of bilingualism on a child’s cognitive development.

"We’re studying a number of Spanish/English bilingual children, and Chinese/English bilingual children….going into this program and learning two languages at the same time, and how that impacts the brain."

While some researchers say bilingualism may delay the onset of dementia by 10 years, others say there are no advantages. The kids Hoeft will study start speaking a second language in kindergarten 80 percent of the time. Once they become fourth graders, they switch to spending half their time speaking English.

"And they believe that by teaching it this way, then they are more likely to be fluent bilinguals."

Hoeft’s large-scale neuroimaging bilingualism study is being conducted at UCSF’s Laboratory for Educational NeuroScience.

Studies on a family with a rare sleep disorder have strengthened the genetic tie between sleep and depression. The family carried the condition known as Familial Advanced Sleep Phase, or FASP. Researcher Louis Ptacek of the University of California, San Francisco says FASP causes people to chronically fall asleep and wake up early.

"We began this work focused exclusively on the circadian phenotype, the morning lark, or FASP phenotype."

But three members of the family with FASP also had seasonal affective disorder, and carried a gene mutation that appeared to link their depression to their sleep schedules.

"For all the work in drosophila and fungi and mice, what we understand about circadian clock genetics is not accounting for even one half of FASP. So, these families then provide a huge resource for identifying novel clock genes."

Does being bilingual make you smarter, or even healthier? Neuroscientist Fumiko Hoeft of the University of California, San Francisco says this question has stirred up a great deal of debate. To get some answers, Hoeft is turning to language immersion programs at elementary schools to see what is the impact of bilingualism on a child’s cognitive development.

"We’re studying a number of Spanish/English bilingual children, and Chinese/English bilingual children….going into this program and learning two languages at the same time, and how that impacts the brain."

While some researchers say bilingualism may delay the onset of dementia by 10 years, others say there are no advantages. The kids Hoeft will study start speaking a second language in kindergarten 80 percent of the time. Once they become fourth graders, they switch to spending half their time speaking English.

"And they believe that by teaching it this way, then they are more likely to be fluent bilinguals."

Hoeft’s large-scale neuroimaging bilingualism study is being conducted at UCSF’s Laboratory for Educational NeuroScience.

Why do some people develop Alzheimer’s disease and other do not? UCLA researchers have found a possible answer. Study leader Karen Gylys says they analyzed cryopreserved human tissue samples from cognitively normal patients and those with dementia. This was to get a snapshot of the synapse – that’s the brain’s point of communication between two neurons.

"Hopefully, if we understand what’s happening in synapses, we can understand better how to protect synapses because it’s when the synapses go that the cognitive deficits appear."

In their samples, Gylys and her colleagues looked at one measure in particular – amyloid beta oligomers. These are clumps of amyloid beta protein before they become actual plaques. Patients with early stage dementia had high levels of oligomers.

"Somehow there’s a threshold level of synaptic oligomers that once it’s crossed, that’s when you start getting dementia symptoms. What that suggests is that if you’re able to keep your level of synaptic oligomers low, then maybe you can escape the symptoms."

Why do some people develop Alzheimer’s disease and other do not? UCLA researchers have found a possible answer. Study leader Karen Gylys says they analyzed cryopreserved human tissue samples from cognitively normal patients and those with dementia. This was to get a snapshot of the synapse – that’s the brain’s point of communication between two neurons.

"Hopefully, if we understand what’s happening in synapses, we can understand better how to protect synapses because it’s when the synapses go that the cognitive deficits appear."

In their samples, Gylys and her colleagues looked at one measure in particular – amyloid beta oligomers. These are clumps of amyloid beta protein before they become actual plaques. Patients with early stage dementia had high levels of oligomers.

"Somehow there’s a threshold level of synaptic oligomers that once it’s crossed, that’s when you start getting dementia symptoms. What that suggests is that if you’re able to keep your level of synaptic oligomers low, then maybe you can escape the symptoms."

Why do some people develop Alzheimer’s disease and other do not? UCLA researchers have found a possible answer. Study leader Karen Gylys says they analyzed cryopreserved human tissue samples from cognitively normal patients and those with dementia. This was to get a snapshot of the synapse – that’s the brain’s point of communication between two neurons.

"Hopefully, if we understand what’s happening in synapses, we can understand better how to protect synapses because it’s when the synapses go that the cognitive deficits appear."

In their samples, Gylys and her colleagues looked at one measure in particular – amyloid beta oligomers. These are clumps of amyloid beta protein before they become actual plaques. Patients with early stage dementia had high levels of oligomers.

"Somehow there’s a threshold level of synaptic oligomers that once it’s crossed, that’s when you start getting dementia symptoms. What that suggests is that if you’re able to keep your level of synaptic oligomers low, then maybe you can escape the symptoms."

A new smartphone app called MyShake designed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is creating a global seismic network that is expanding by the day. Graduate student Qingkai Kong says the new Android app is a crowd sourcing project to improve the speed and accuracy of current earthquake detection.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

"If there’s an earthquake occurring, somewhere in the world… the phones nearby will first detect it, and then they will send the trigger message back to our server, and we will see, like a cluster of triggers from the phones nearby the center of the earthquake, both in time and place."

The current version of the app runs 24 hours a day and provides interactive features like a map of past historical earthquakes and a list of items needed to prepare for a quake, such as an emergency kit.

"We hope that in the future, with everyone’s help, we will have a public earthquake early warning system from these smartphones."

A new smartphone app called MyShake designed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is creating a global seismic network that is expanding by the day. Graduate student Qingkai Kong says the new Android app is a crowd sourcing project to improve the speed and accuracy of current earthquake detection.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

"If there’s an earthquake occurring, somewhere in the world… the phones nearby will first detect it, and then they will send the trigger message back to our server, and we will see, like a cluster of triggers from the phones nearby the center of the earthquake, both in time and place."

The current version of the app runs 24 hours a day and provides interactive features like a map of past historical earthquakes and a list of items needed to prepare for a quake, such as an emergency kit.

"We hope that in the future, with everyone’s help, we will have a public earthquake early warning system from these smartphones."

A new smartphone app called MyShake designed by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley is creating a global seismic network that is expanding by the day. Graduate student Qingkai Kong says the new Android app is a crowd sourcing project to improve the speed and accuracy of current earthquake detection.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

"If there’s an earthquake occurring, somewhere in the world… the phones nearby will first detect it, and then they will send the trigger message back to our server, and we will see, like a cluster of triggers from the phones nearby the center of the earthquake, both in time and place."

The current version of the app runs 24 hours a day and provides interactive features like a map of past historical earthquakes and a list of items needed to prepare for a quake, such as an emergency kit.

"We hope that in the future, with everyone’s help, we will have a public earthquake early warning system from these smartphones."

Autism is five times more common in boys than girls, and a recent study at the University of California, San Francisco suggests a possible explanation for what’s called the Female Protective Effect. Using zebrafish carrying a gene known to lead to autism in humans, researcher Matthew State found that estrogens, an important hormone in females, reversed autism-like behavior.

"From our genetic studies, we’ve identified that genetic changes that lead to autism in girls, as a general proposition, are more numerous and carry larger effects than they do in boys. And what that suggests is that you need more of a disturbance in girls, in order to get the same outcome as you do in boys. If you knew what the protective factor was, you would understand not only something about the biology of autism, but you would also understand something about the biology of resilience to autism risk."

State hopes these insights will eventually lead to ways to treat or prevent autism.