sure, this treatment will be used on the mentally ill, but how long will it be before everyone is forced to take it to compete for jobs? or keep up in school?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Procrastinating monkeys were turned into workaholics using a gene treatment to block a key brain compound, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday.
Blocking cells from receiving dopamine made the monkeys work harder at a task -- and they were better at it, too, the U.S. government researchers found.
Dr. Barry Richmond and colleagues at the National Institute of Mental Health used a new genetic technique to block the D2 gene.
"The gene makes a receptor for a key brain messenger chemical, dopamine," Richmond said in a statement. Dopamine is a message carrying chemical associated with rewards, movement and a variety of other important functions.
"The gene knockdown triggered a remarkable transformation in the simian work ethic. Like many of us, monkeys normally slack off initially in working toward a distant goal," he added.
For their study, Richmond and colleague used seven rhesus monkeys. They had to push a lever in response to visual cues on a projection screen, and got a drop of water as a reward.
"They work more efficiently -- make fewer errors -- as they get closer to being rewarded. But without the dopamine receptor, they consistently stayed on-task and made few errors, because they could no longer learn to use visual cues to predict how their work was going to get them a reward."
Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Richmond and colleagues said they were trying to figure out how D2 is involved in a type of learning.
Humans and monkeys both use this learning, which involves looking at how much work there is, visually, and deciding how long it will take to complete it.
Monkeys and humans both tend to wait until the last possible minute to finish up the work, and become very adept at estimating how long they have.
Molecular geneticist Edward Ginns created a DNA antisense agent that tricked brain cells into turning off their D2 receptors -- which are molecular doorways used by dopamine to get into cells.
Antisense involves making a kind of mirror image molecule that looks like a strand of DNA and works to block a gene's action.
Although some employers might take a distinct interest in the work, the NIMH team said they are hoping to understand mental illness.
"In this case, it's worth noting that the ability to associate work with reward is disturbed in mental disorders, including schizophrenia, mood disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder, so our finding of the pivotal role played by this gene and circuit may be of clinical interest," Richmond said.
"For example, people who are depressed often feel nothing is worth the work. People with obsessive-compulsive disorder work incessantly; even when they get rewarded they feel they must repeat the task. In mania, people will work feverishly for rewards that aren't worth the trouble to most of us."
sure, this treatment will be used on the mentally ill, but how long will it be before everyone is forced to take it to compete for jobs? or keep up in school?
how did i know that when i clicked on this thread
it would be another copy/paste job?
<font size="4" face="Tempus Sans ITC, Tahoma">yeah... cuz thats SO different than how it is todayOriginally posted by Fibonacci:
sure, this treatment will be used on the mentally ill, but how long will it be before everyone is forced to take it to compete for jobs? or keep up in school?
i disagree, there is nothing right now that requires you to take something, to increase your mental capability to compete for a job....
the only thing you can do to increase your chances of getting a job, would be to change your skin color to a minority.
i honestly thought the same thing when i read that, about in the future, it being a requirement to take this "drug" to be able to keep up with the genetically altered individuals.
i don't like it
<font size="4" face="Tempus Sans ITC, Tahoma">you mean other than taking standardized tests....Originally posted by GravyTrain:
i disagree, there is nothing right now that requires you to take something, to increase your mental capability to compete for a job....
not exactly a mind or body altering drug is it
i heard a report on npr yesterday about some new tests done on mice. scientists were able, by supressing certain protiens and hormones, to make one set of mice into the equivalent of marathon runners without any training, and another set that couldn't gain weight. the reporter said that this could lead to a solution of america's growing weight problem.
now if they would only make some soma, we would be set.
<font size="4" face="Tempus Sans ITC, Tahoma">you mean other than taking standardized tests....</font><hr /></blockquote><font size="4" face="Tempus Sans ITC, Tahoma">i missed this post, and no, that's not the same, the standardized tests do not increase your intelligence, they are "supposed" to measure your intelligence level, which I believe is a bunch of crap.Originally posted by shatzy:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Tempus Sans ITC, Tahoma">quote:</font><hr /><font size="4" face="Tempus Sans ITC, Tahoma">Originally posted by GravyTrain:
i disagree, there is nothing right now that requires you to take something, to increase your mental capability to compete for a job....
SIDE RANT: STANDARDIZED TESTS ARE NOT RACIST!!!!!!
I volunteer.
part of me wants to go into a post defending my
stance on standarized tests and how i think it
is applicable to the conversation...
but the other part of me is just too lazy. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
i know thats a real disappointment, eh
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