PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

The neuroscience of holding it

Scientists are surprised to find an involuntary link in the brain between the pelvic floor and other muscles

2014-10-14
(Press-News.org) Wherever you are right now: squeeze your glutes. Feel that? You just also contracted your pelvic floor too, whether you wanted to or not.

Scientists studying the source of chronic abdominal and pelvic floor pain found an unexpected connection in the brain between the pelvic floor – the muscle responsible for, among other things, keeping you from peeing your pants – and various muscles throughout the body. They've found some evidence for a link as far away as the toes (try tapping a toe and see if you feel the clench), but the strongest link so far is with the glutes.

"We knew that pelvic floor muscles contract involuntarily in healthy people to make sure they don't accidently urinate, but we didn't know what part of the nervous system was doing this," said Jason Kutch, corresponding author on a study about the research and an assistant professor in the Division of Biokinesiology & Physical Therapy at the USC Ostrow School of Dentistry. "Now we know that there are specific brain regions controlling involuntary pelvic floor contraction."

Kutch collaborated with colleagues at USC Ostrow, the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and Loma Linda University on the research. Their findings were published on October 8 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The team used electromyographic recordings – which measure the activation of muscle tissue – to show that pelvic floor activation occurred in conjunction with the activation of certain muscles (like the glutes), but not others (like fingers).

They then used functional magnetic image resonance (fMRI) imaging to show that a specific part of the brain (the medial wall of the precentral gyrus – a part of the primary motor cortex) activates both when the pelvic floor contracts and when the glutes are squeezed – but not when fingers move.

"We hope that this vein of research will help us to find the causes of chronic pelvic floor pain, which disproportionately affect women, and may even yield information that could help people struggling with incontinence," Kutch said.

Broadly, the finding speaks to the interconnected nature of our bodies and brains, and all of the hard work going on in the pelvic floor muscles - without us even know it.

INFORMATION: This research was funded by the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research of the National Institutes of Health under award number T32 HD064578, as well as the USC Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy and the Loma Linda University Physical Therapy Department.


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Rediscovering Venus to find faraway earths

Rediscovering Venus to find faraway earths
2014-10-14
WASHINGTON, Oct. 14, 2014—Astronomers Chih-Hao Li and David Phillips of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics want to rediscover Venus—that familiar, nearby planet stargazers can see with the naked eye much of the year. Granted, humans first discovered Venus in ancient times. But Li and Phillips have something distinctly modern in mind. They plan to find the second planet again using a powerful new optical device installed on the Italian National Telescope that will measure Venus' precise gravitational pull on the sun. If they succeed, their first-of-its-kind ...

US college students eat their vegetables. Really?!

US college students eat their vegetables. Really?!
2014-10-14
U.S. college students do better than their counterparts in the United Kingdom when it comes to physical activity, a healthy diet and less smoking, according to new research published in the latest issue of the journal Education and Health. "Among U.S. students, we see greater consumption of fruits and vegetables, more participation in organized sports, and less smoking," said American University Prof. Stacey Snelling, a lead study author. "Participation in organized sports and exercise could reflect the more formal focus on physical activity at the college level that ...

Teachable moments about climate change

2014-10-14
First-hand experience of extreme weather often makes people change their minds about the realities of climate change. That's because people are simply more aware of an extreme weather event the closer they are to its core, and the more intense the incidence is. So says Peter Howe of Utah State University in the US, who led a study in Springer's journal Climatic Change Letters about people's ability to accurately recall living through extreme weather events. It also focused on how people's proximity to such events – the so-called "shadow of experience" – aids ...

New 'tree of life' traces evolution of a mysterious cotinga birds

2014-10-14
Ithaca, N.Y.—They are some of the brightest, loudest, oddest-looking, least-understood birds on the planet. Some have bulbous crests, long fleshy wattles, or Elvis-worthy pompadours in addition to electric blue, deep purple, or screaming orange feathers. But thanks to a comprehensive new evolutionary "tree of life" generated for the tropical cotinga family of South America, the door is now open to new discoveries about the more than 60 species in this amazingly diverse group of birds. "Our study provides comprehensive insight into how nearly all the cotinga species ...

Current models for predicting outcomes after mild traumatic brain injury perform poorly

Current models for predicting outcomes after mild traumatic brain injury perform poorly
2014-10-14
New Rochelle, NY, October 14, 2014—For the 5-15% of patients with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) who will have lingering physical, behavioral, or cognitive problems 3 to 6 months after their injury, identification of this at-risk population is essential for early intervention. Existing models used to predict poor outcomes after mTBI are unsatisfactory, according to a new study, and new, more relevant predictive factors are different than those used in cases of moderate or severe TBI, as described in the study published in Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed ...

New treatment designed to save more eyes from cancer

New treatment designed to save more eyes from cancer
2014-10-14
VIDEO: Some children with advanced retinoblastoma are not good candidates for conventional intraocular ophthalmic infusion therapy -- too often making removal of the eye the only viable treatment for saving their... Click here for more information. CINCINNATI – Doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center have developed a new technique for treating the eye cancer retinoblastoma to improve the odds for preventing eye loss, blindness or death in children with ...

NASA sees Hurricane Gonzalo head toward Bermuda

NASA sees Hurricane Gonzalo head toward Bermuda
2014-10-14
Tropical Storm Gonzalo intensified into a hurricane late on Monday, Oct. 14 and is expected to become a major hurricane as it moves toward Bermuda. NASA's Aqua satellite saw powerful thunderstorms within the center of the storm that were dropping heavy rainfall. At 5 pm EDT, on Oct. 13 Gonzalo had become a hurricane. At that time, the center of the storm was just 20 miles southeast of St. Martin. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted that maximum sustained winds had increased to near 75 mph (120 kph) and additional strengthening was forecast. Gonzalo continued moving ...

Discovery of the Benešov meteorites 20 years after the bolide event

2014-10-14
Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing the spectacular discovery of meteorite fragments 20 years after the corresponding bolide was seen in the skies of the Czech Republic. This discovery was made possible by reanalyzing the trajectory, which moved the impact line by 330 meters. Interestingly, the meteorites found on the ground are of different types, pointing to a parent asteroid of heterogeneous composition. Collisions of meter-sized meteoroids with the Earth's atmosphere are relatively rare, occurring about 40 times a year. They cause very spectacular events, known ...

Unique catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells synthesized in ordinary kitchen microwave oven

Unique catalysts for hydrogen fuel cells synthesized in ordinary kitchen microwave oven
2014-10-14
Swedish and Chinese researchers show how a unique nano-alloy composed of palladium nano-islands embedded in tungsten nanoparticles creates a new type of catalysts for highly efficient oxygen reduction, the most important reaction in hydrogen fuel cells. Their results are published in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The world's rapidly growing demand for energy and the requirement of sustainable energy production calls for an urgent change in today's fossil fuel based energy system. Research groups worldwide work intensively to develop novel advanced energy ...

Fires dot the Ukraine countryside

Fires dot the Ukraine countryside
2014-10-14
Numerous fires (marked with red dots) are burning in the Ukraine, likely as a result of regional agricultural practices. The body of water at the lower left of this true-color Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) image is the Sea of Azov. The Sea is bordered by Ukraine to the northwest, west and southwest and by Russia to the northeast, east, and southeast. To its left is the Black Sea. The location, widespread nature, and number of fires suggest that these fires were deliberately set to manage land. Farmers often use fire to return nutrients to the soil ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Are lifetimes of big appliances really shrinking?

Pink skies

Monkeys are world’s best yodellers - new research

Key differences between visual- and memory-led Alzheimer’s discovered

% weight loss targets in obesity management – is this the wrong objective?

An app can change how you see yourself at work

NYC speed cameras take six months to change driver behavior, effects vary by neighborhood, new study reveals

New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China

Even the richest Americans face shorter lifespans than their European counterparts, study finds

Novel genes linked to rare childhood diarrhea

New computer model reveals how Bronze Age Scandinavians could have crossed the sea

Novel point-of-care technology delivers accurate HIV results in minutes

Researchers reveal key brain differences to explain why Ritalin helps improve focus in some more than others

Study finds nearly five-fold increase in hospitalizations for common cause of stroke

Study reveals how alcohol abuse damages cognition

Medicinal cannabis is linked to long-term benefits in health-related quality of life

Microplastics detected in cat placentas and fetuses during early pregnancy

Ancient amphibians as big as alligators died in mass mortality event in Triassic Wyoming

Scientists uncover the first clear evidence of air sacs in the fossilized bones of alvarezsaurian dinosaurs: the "hollow bones" which help modern day birds to fly

Alcohol makes male flies sexy

TB patients globally often incur "catastrophic costs" of up to $11,329 USD, despite many countries offering free treatment, with predominant drivers of cost being hospitalization and loss of income

Study links teen girls’ screen time to sleep disruptions and depression

Scientists unveil starfish-inspired wearable tech for heart monitoring

Footprints reveal prehistoric Scottish lagoons were stomping grounds for giant Jurassic dinosaurs

AI effectively predicts dementia risk in American Indian/Alaska Native elders

First guideline on newborn screening for cystic fibrosis calls for changes in practice to improve outcomes

Existing international law can help secure peace and security in outer space, study shows

Pinning down the process of West Nile virus transmission

UTA-backed research tackles health challenges across ages

In pancreatic cancer, a race against time

[Press-News.org] The neuroscience of holding it
Scientists are surprised to find an involuntary link in the brain between the pelvic floor and other muscles