Gizmodo is reporting today about how White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski said he improved his performance though the daily use of a Nintendo video game. This reminded me of research I did while at Yale on similar visual testing on surgeons. We found back then that for both athletes, and surgeons (especially endoscopic surgeons) visual acuity correlated with performance and both could be improved with exercises.

First the report on the catcher and the video game. Gizmodo writes:

We were just about to stuff Nintendo’s Flash Focus vision game into the snake oil file when White Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski revealed he actually improved his hitting through daily use of the software. Like many of the White Sox batters last year, Pierzynski stunk, and to come around he played Flash Focus in the off season. Now, one week into the 2008 schedule, the hapless catcher has two home runs, a .529 average and a team-leading seven RBIs.

What is Flash Focus?: Flash Focus is a video game for the Nintendo DS. Basically it is a series of hand eye coordination exercises designed to improve overall visual acuity through vision “exercises”. A review of the game and screen shots are here.

The Concept of Optomeric Testing for Athletes and Surgeons: The idea behind optomic testing is two fold. First, there are innate differences in visual performance between people second, elite athletes perform significantly better on objective tests of visual performance and hand-eye coordination, and third, specific testing and exercises can identify areas of optical performance weakness and improve them- and performance.

A review of optometric testing in general for athletes can be read here:

The basic tests they mention are:

1. Visual acuity – right and left eye separately without an occluder
2. Stereopsis at distance – contour and random dot
3. Ocular dominance – independent of handedness
4. Letter contrast
5. Contrast sensitivity – at spatial frequencies known to be related to sport performance
6. Contrast sensitivity with glare
7. Reaction time
8. Reaction time with varying targets

Our experiments with surgeons- Some years ago whenI was at Yale My Partner David Olive and I conducted a lerge study of novice and expert endoscopic surgeons using the validated athletic optometric testing tools. We testing a very large group of trainees as well as experts at an international AAGL conference. We found similar patterns as with the athletes. Namely significant differerences existed between visual ability and eye hand coordination skills and these were related to measures of performance and skill. We also found that with exercise performance could improve.

‘Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together’ - Carl Zwanzig

My sci-fi writer wifeinthemachine being the creative type posted 2 funny videos - one is a mind-freak experiment where a couple of hundred people in NYC Grand Station simultaneously freeze and freak people out

the second is a song from India featured in the end credits of Inside Man that will get stuck in your brain- everyone loved the song but no one knew who or what it was.  Here it is- she calls it her writer muse-crack

Good old MSNBC is reporting a story today that heavy cell phone usage leads to lowered sperm counts in men. Before you throw them out the window there are some serious flaws with the study. They report: “In a study of 361 men seen at their infertility clinic, researchers at the Cleveland Clinic found an association between the patients’ cell phone use and their sperm quality.”

On average, the more hours the men spent on their cell phones each day, the lower their sperm count and the greater their percentage of abnormal sperm.

The study comes out of the Cleveland Clinic from a fertility group I know very well and was published in Fertility and Sterility. MSNBC is not correct that this is the first such study, there are in fact two others previously.

The authors write on the general risks of cell phone use that they “operate between 400 MHz and 2000 MHz frequency bands and emit radiofrequency electromagnetic waves (EMW). Reports of potential adverse effects of radiofrequency EMW on brain, heart, endocrine system, and DNA of humans and animals are widely reported in the literature.” If routine use has clear clinical risks remains unclear.

What the study shows: Cell phone users groups showed a decrease in sperm count, motility,viability, and normal morphology with the increase in daily use of cell phones.

Their Overall Results Data:

Why You Should Not Worry Yet: There are some significant problems with the study. First the differences seen may not be clinically relevant nor even lead to infertility. Second they relied on self-reporting of past usage of cell phones (hey bud - thanks for the sperm specimen- can you tell me how many minutes you used last month?). third, cell phones drastically differ in the radiation they emit so it does not make sense that the effect would not be brand specific. Also thanks to the inverse square law the radiation from the phone falls off by hte square of the distance to the organ. I do not know about you but when I speak on my cell phone I tend to keep my testicles a bit far from the phone.

The Biggest problem: The association does not mean causation. We have known for years that very prolonged sitting in a hot car, obesity, smoking, and possibly stress can adversely affect sperm numbers and function. I guarantee you that the guys talking on their cell phones for 4-6 hours a day are more likely in the car, yelling at the driver next to them with a cigarette hanging in the mouth and a big mac on the seat next to them then calmly doing yoga while sipping vitamin water and eating a salad.

Studies in animals have not shown any direct toxic effects.

Quote of the Day: In reviewing the limitations of the animal studies I would have guessed it was really hard to get the rats to talk on their cell phones for 4-6 hours a day. They are such busy little animals scurrying about looking for food all the time and their paws are so little to hold a blackberry. The authors however point out: “it is impractical to compare a rat model to humans because of its small testicular size, nonpendulous scrotum, and the fact that its testis can migrate.” No need to say any more…

New Podcast Projects:  The past two weeks have been a wild ride of fun and excitement!  I have two podcast projects undergoing the final edits prior to launcing.  The first is the docinthemachine podcast focusing on the new technology and medical breakthroughts of this blog.  The second, is a major new medical education project - still under wraps.  I’ve had some major breakthroughs in the development of both.  First, we have set up a trio of partnerships.  The first is with a professional audio studio that will be the home of the podcast recording and production.  In conjunction with this we have a pro Jazz musician and his band to provide some cool smooth jazz for the show.  My hi-tech upgrade to the studio was adding a digital hybrid the telos one to the setup.  (electronics note– if looking into this check out posts on mix-minus set-ups and this great site here for audio podcasting tips).  A digital hybrid processes POTS telephone signals splitting the callers into separate audio tracks allowing high quality recording of my upcoming phone interviews.  Just as exciting is a partnership with a major medical on-line site that will handle the hosting and outreach to the medical and lay communities.  I just back back from the studio where we were recording the last bit of audio and we’ll wrap up some more interviews tomorrow before the launch.  The response so far has been overwhelming from people in the medical and tech industries and from sponsors helping out with production costs.  More news to comeas we approach launch day!

For your enjoyment today - a collection of forward thinking docinthemachine posts about robotics and bionic humans.  Take a minute today to push your mind a decade into the future.  Ponder with me roboic amoeba rovers inthe body, bionic retinal implants, and humanoid androids. 

Finish the day with a post on the singularity and mind transfer into a computer. 

What makes a human human?  While you may think you know, the distinction is blurring as a result of medical technology advances.

The BBC is reoprting that a new geneticaly medified mosquito has been created that is relatively reistant to malaria. 

The study publsihed in PNAS reports

The approach exploits the fact that the health of infected mosquitoes is itself compromised by the parasite they spread. Insects that cannot be invaded by the parasite are therefore likely to be fitter and out-compete their disease-carrying counterparts.

BBC says;

The organism is passed to humans through the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. Each year it makes 300 million people ill and causes a million deaths worldwide.   Some 90% of cases are in sub-Saharan Africa, where a child dies of malaria every 30 seconds.

Before you spill all of your quinine out, the malaria variation tested was a rdent one and the researchers predict tit will be 10-20 years before GM mosq’s will be released into the wild.

Many people do not realize that the gene for sickle cell anemia functions in a similar fashion.  While deadly in its full disease form, the carrier state (or sickle cell trait) confers a relative immunity to malria and is likely the reason this genetic variation is so common in the Africal population.

While on the subject of GM mosquitos there have been frankencreatures and frankenpets before that have a fluorescent gene stuck into their genome.

The most famous is Glofish.  For more info - Here’s how the fluorescent glofish are made.  Nothing like genetic engineering to create cute pets.  Hey why not knock out growth hormone so you kitten never grows up!

Continuing in the Sunday Fun Posts from Fans in Japan.  This one is from the “Japan Culture Lab” on How to Eat Sushi- All the Japanese etiquette you need.  I went a good ways through it before realizing it was a spoof.  (The two guys in the videos are a comedy duo in Japan called “Ra-menzu” (Rahmens) ラーメンズ who also feature on the Mac vs. PC ads.

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Japanese TV and humor is unique in the world.  I spent some time in Yokahama and Tokyo teaching surgical technique to doctors there.  I remember watching game shows like one where  babys in walkers race through a maze but if they hit the sides their dad gets an electric shock.  This video is so fun because I remember being told “there are 50 ways to offend before you even begin your meal.” 

I also published with Japanese collegues the largest series of women ever undergoing repair of blocked tubes with tiny angioplasty catheters from the inside out.   (Hey I needed a medgadget hook for the post).   It was an honor to work with Professors Osada and Satoh from Nihon University School of Medicine in Tokyo.   

For all the DITM fans visiting here over the weekend, I wanted to give you a few fun posts. I have been having a lot of correspondence lately from researchers and technicians in Japan working on the concepts I write about (i’ll post the real Japanese medical technology posts next week). In a burst of research and link-exchange I was sent these strange clips.

First is a new species of octopus recently discovered that defends itself with a Batman Cape. As they write:

Most octopi squirt thick clouds of black ink to confuse predators. Tremoctopus, or blanket octopus (murasakidako in Japanese) when threatened, unfurls a giant sheet of webbing that trails behind like a cape. The webbing breaks apart rather easily when attacked — much like a lizard’s tail — and it gets wrapped around the predator’s face, giving the octopus a chance to flee.

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