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26 March 2011 | NewScientist | 21 WHETHER right or left-handed, people associate “good” with their dominant side. But if that displeases you, it can be changed. A team led by Daniel Casasanto at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, showed 13 people who had had strokes a cartoon character in between two squares, and told them that it “loves zebras and thinks they are good, but hates pandas and thinks they are bad”. They then asked them which square the character would put each animal in. All 13 people had once been right-handed, but eight had lost control of their right sides. Of these, seven said the zebra should go on the left side. The remaining five chose the right-hand square (Psychological Science, DOI: 10.1177/0956797611401755). Thumbs up for gene therapy GENE therapy for Parkinson’s disease has eased movement and proved safe in the first successful double-blind clinical trial. People with Parkinson’s produce too little of the brain chemical GABA, which leads to problems with motor skills. Andrew Feigin at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, New York, and colleagues gave 45 people with Parkinson’s either a sham injection or gene therapy. The gene therapy group had a virus injected into their brain carrying the gene for an enzyme that catalyses production of GABA. One, three and six months later the team measured the participants’ symptoms. Motor function in the gene therapy group had improved by 23 per cent on average, compared with 12.7 per cent in the other group (The Lancet Neurology, DOI: 10.1016/s1474-4422(11)70039-4). Look into my eyes to predict amputation risk A GLIMPSE in an eye might soon be enough to diagnose the nerve damage associated with diabetes. Up to 50 per cent of people with diabetes experience nerve damage, which in extreme cases leads to the loss of limb sensation, prompting the need for amputation. Nerve fibre damage is typically assessed through invasive tests, including nerve and tissue biopsies. Now Nathan Efron at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues have developed a non-invasive alternative. Diabetes affects peripheral nerves, but Efron SUREN MANVELYAN/ALAMY IN BRIEF Right-handers who think like lefties The team then asked 55 right- handed students to wear a heavy glove on one hand while trying to stand up dominoes. When they were then asked the panda/zebra question, the students were five times more likely to put the zebra in the box corresponding to their mobile hand. “If wearing a glove for a few minutes can reverse our decisions about what’s good and bad, maybe the mind is more malleable than we thought” says Casasanto. suspected that it might also leave a signature in the cornea – the most densely innervated tissue in the body. He has now shown this is true using a corneal confocal microscope: on average, the corneas of diabetic people with nerve damage have a lower density of nerve fibres, and nerves are shorter than in healthy controls. Efron’s team has developed a clinical test based on the findings. Team member Rayaz Malik at the University of Manchester, UK, developed software that compares images of the central cornea with those taken from diabetics with varying degrees of nerve damage. According to Efron, the test is now being used by several hospitals worldwide. The team presented the work last week at the Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology (APAO) Congress in Sydney, Australia. A CREATURE initially mistaken for an extinct tortoise has turned out to be a giant bunny that had tiny ears and couldn’t hop. The 5-million-year-old remains of Nuralagus rex were found on the Spanish island of Minorca by independent researcher Josep Quintana (Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, vol 31, p 1). At an estimated 12 kilograms, it was around 10 times the weight of wild Spanish rabbits today. N. rex lived alongside tortoises, bats and a large dormouse species, and in the absence of predators chose life in the slow lane. “If you don’t have natural enemies, why run?” asks Quintana. Gradually, its legs grew shorter, its ears shrank and its spine lost the curvature that helps rabbits hop. Monster bunny couldn’t hop
