The Big Easy Serves Up a Feast To Visiting Neuroscientists

摘要

From 25 to 30 October, New Orleans was host td 24,000 neuroscientists at the 27th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. With more than 14,000 presentations, the offerings were as rich as a New Orleans gumbo, spiced with new tidbits about topics ranging from prion proteins to Gulf War syndrome. At the close of the 1991 Persian Gulf War, thousands of soldiers returned home appar- ently healthy, but reporting subtle problems ranging from muscle aches and fatigue tp learning deficits or confusion. The U.S. government has officially attributed die collection of symptoms, known as Gulf War syndrome, to wartime stress, but that conclusion remains contentious. Many veterans, and a few researchers, point to another suspect: exposure to organophos-phates (OPs), ingredients of chemical weapons end insecticides that were present in the Gulf.