Briefs
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 10, 2003 9:00 p.m.
Internet study finds increased household usage
The Internet ranks as the most widely-used information source,
higher than all other media including television and newspapers
according to Year Three of the UCLA Internet Report. The report,
which studied Internet usage patterns in American households, found
that more than 70 percent of Americans who use the Internet now
consider online technology to be their most important source of
information. The study also found that 52 percent of new Internet
users (less than one year online) believe that the Internet is very
important or extremely important as an information source. Despite
the Internet’s popularity, television still remains the most
important source of entertainment. Slightly more than 56 percent of
Internet users ranked television as very important or extremely
important, followed by books (50 percent), radio (48.9 percent),
magazines (26.5 percent), the Internet (25 percent), and newspapers
(22.8 percent). To see the complete UCLA Internet Report, visit:
http://ccp.ucla.edu/pages/internet-report.asp.
Effects of Alzheimer’s shown in video
UCLA and the University of Queensland (Australia) have developed
the world’s first three-dimensional video maps showing how
Alzheimer’s disease systematically engulfs the brains of living
patients. The videos show the sequential destruction of brain areas
that control memory function, emotion, inhibition and sensation.
The videos also show how the disease doesn’t affect small
brain regions which control vision and other functions which
Alzheimer’s patients often still have. The technique uses
magnetic resonance imaging brain scans, which detects very fine
changes in patients’ brains. The implications of this imaging
method could help speed diagnosis and intervention, as well as the
development of new therapies. The researchers found that
Alzheimer’s patients lost an average of 5.3 percent of their gray
matter per year, while healthy elderly volunteers lost only 0.9
percent of their brain tissue annually. Alzheimer’s afflicts 10
percent of people older than 65. The neuroscientists’
findings appear in the Feb. 1 edition of the peer-reviewed Journal
of Neuroscience. Briefs compiled from Daily Bruin wire reports and
staff.
