There's more to studying than simply memorization and practice. It turns out that your diet also plays a pivotal role in recalling key bits of information, while keeping you energized and focused in the process. We're not talking about those scam-ridden supplements that promise a boost in brain power, but simple natural foods such as milk, nuts, seeds, rice, and oats.
The nutrients found in these items help your study efforts by releasing natural memory enhancers called CCKs ( cholecystokinin). When CCK crosses the blood-brain barrier, it acts as a neurotransmitter associated with memory. Studies have shown that learning and memory processes are severely damaged (in rats) that genetically do not respond to the presence of CCK. And in people ...
In a recent study, scientists delivered a molecule called FKBP1b into the central memory station found in the brain of aging rats. Upon administrating the molecule, hundreds of formally active genes were reactivated, in a pattern that closely resembles those of younger, more mentally agile rats than aged ones. As a result, the rats showed enhanced learning and appeared to reverse memory shortfalls when tackling a maze. These findings suggest that the mental rustiness which accompanies aging happens because the amount of this one molecule goes down; a follow up study is currently in the works to see why that is.
A cognitive neuroscientist explains that the biological reason the image 'moves' is because the V5 (middle temporal visual area) part of your brain – devoted to motion processing – activates or fires due to the V4 part of your brain – devoted to colour and shape – becomes overstimulated.
In fact, V4 neurons are saturated so much that the resting firing frequency of middle temporal neurons is interpreted as an actual sensory signal. The effect of this illusion strictly depends on several factors, namely on the receptive field sizes (the illusion changes as a function of viewing distance), V4 preference for spirals and spheres, and the middle temporal involvement in 3D and stereopsis. It is a very complex interaction, that rarely lead to suc ...
According to a recent study published in the medical journal, Radiology, it was found that among amateur players who headed a similar number of balls, women had more signs of microscopic damage in their brains’ white matter than men.
From 2013 to 2016, 49 men and 49 women from amateur teams were subjects to a study that compared male and female players who headed the ball a similar number of times over the past year. For men, that median estimate was 487 headers. Women had an estimated median of 469 headers.
Using a special MRI technique known as diffusion tensor imaging, researchers identified brain regions with changes in white matter in both sexes, but that more women that men had spots that showed signs of microscopic damage.
Approximately 10% of the world population is left-handed. What causes this anomaly?
While there are several theories that try to explain this trait -- such as the positioning of the baby during the final trimester, hormone exposure during pregnancy, or epigenetic factors -- the most consistent and hardwired explanation boils down to plain old genetics. In other words, the reason you're right-handed or left-handed is because it's written in your DNA.
Research suggests that handedness displays a complex inheritance pattern. For example, if both parents of a child are left-handed, there is a 26% chance of that child being left-handed. A large study of twins from 25,732 families also indicated that the heritability of handedness is roughly 24%.
In fact, thinking and summer don't really mix. Yet we don't want to return to school feeling like a lower-IQ version of Keanu Reeves. How to strike a balance?
I'm sure you've all had that feeling before: You bust out the first assignment of the new school year, you sit down and grab a pencil, you put that pencil to the paper and you... stare. Gaze. Daydream. Sniffle?
"Dude, how is this stuff even remotely difficult?" you say. "It was a piece of cake four months ago."
Yeah, then that whole summer thing got in the way. Funny how cruel overexposure to sunlight, fireworks, burnt hot dogs and fried Twinkies can be.
Four months off is enough time to forget a semester. Six months will erase a year. And as I found out l ...
Why studying for large chunks of time can be counter-productive
We’ve all had those days where no matter what good fortune comes our way in the morning or afternoon, we still walk around with a slight furrow in our brow knowing that a night chock-full of homework and studying awaits. It’s like a Utah Jazz fan watching the wildly entertaining 1997 NBA Finals on ESPN Classic – he or she might enjoy it for awhile, but in the back of their mind they know the Michael Jordan buzz saw is coming to ruin their hopes and dreams. (Too young to remember? That's fine, you get the point...)
Alright, so maybe Michael Jordan draining threes isn’t exactly the same as laboring through endless schoolwork. I have an attachment to sports analogies so bear with ...
Aside from claiming the title of the largest animal known to have ever lived, the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) possesses a heart big enough to house a human. The heart of an average sized blue whale weighs 180 kg (400 lb) and is also the largest known in any animal.
During the first seven months of its life, a blue whale calf drinks approximately 380 litres (100 US gal) of milk every day. Blue whale calves gain weight quickly, as much as 90 kilograms (200 lb) every 24 hours. Even at birth, they weigh up to 2,700 kilograms (6,000 lb) - the same as a fully grown hippopotamus.
Blue whales have proportionally small brains, only about 6.92 kilograms (15.26 lb), about 0.007% of its body weight, although with a highly convoluted cerebral cor ...
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) is a recreational, psychedelic drug that alter awareness of the surroundings, perceptions, and feelings, as well as sensations and images that seem real though they are not.
LSD works by binding primarily to the dopamine receptors and adrenal receptors in the brain. It also binds to most of the serotonin receptors. The binding process is believed to overstimulate the natural neurotransmission process, activating the receptors and altering thought and perceptions.
Though medical researchers have not scientifically proven how this process alters consciousness, they are certain about the binding process which links hallucinogenic chemicals to receptors and disrupts neurotransmission between receptors and parts of ...
While a baby's experiences and memories are vital to his/her development, most of us can't remember what we did before our third birthday. Why is that?
It may be that as babies we just don't have the necessary mental equipment to store and organize memories properly, a hypothesis strengthened by the famous case of Henry Molaison. Molaison was unable to remember any new events that happened to him after a faulty brain operation. Though he still had temporary short-term memory and could learn new skills, he couldn't retain information for long.
We know that neurons continue to be added to our brains in our early years, and it's possible that when this building process has finished, memories can start to form.
According to a study published in the medical journal eLife, researchers found that specific combinations of gut bacteria produce substances that affect myelin content and cause social avoidance behaviors in mice.
Researchers transferred fecal bacteria from the gut of depressed mice to genetically distinct mice exhibiting non-depressed behavior. The study showed that the transfer of microbiota was sufficient to induce social withdrawal behaviors and change the expression of myelin genes and myelin content in the brains of the recipient mice.
In an effort to define the mechanism of gut-brain communication, researchers identified bacterial communities associated with increased levels of cresol, a substance that has the ability to pass the bloo ...
For the first time, scientists have discovered a link between heavy marijuana use and reduced dopamine production. Just so you know, dopamine is the hormone/neurotransmitter that is released during any kind of satisfaction - it's the same hormone that is released in your brain when you eat chocolate. In a recent study, lower dopamine release was found in the striatum - a region of the brain that is involved in working memory, impulsive behavior, and attention, in addition to subregions involved in associative and sensorimotor learning, and in the globus pallidus. Previous studies have shown that addiction to other drugs of abuse, such as cocaine and heroin, have similar effects on dopamine release, but such evidence for cannabis was mis ...
After a broken neck left him quadriplegic, Ian Burkhart was told he would never be able to use his hands. Now he can grasp a bottle and pick up a credit card by using a computer plugged directly into his brain. Special software is able to decode his thoughts and convert them into electrical signals in his hand, bypassing the damaged nerves in his spine. Now Ian has regained an amazing degree of control over his hand, each movement stimulated by his own thoughts.
There’s an innovative new light technology that's trying to change the way people think about "artificial light." In Italian company called CoeLux has developed a new light source that recreates the look of sunlight through a skylight so well that it can trick both human brains and cameras.
It’s a high tech LED skylight that’s designed to provide "sunlight" for interior spaces cut off from the outdoors. One of the main ideas behind it is that to create realistic sunlight, you can’t just simulate the sun… you need to recreate the atmosphere as well.
The scientists who invented the light figured out how to use a thin coating of nanoparticles to accurately simulate sunlight through Earth’s atmosphere and the effect known as Rayleigh scattering ...
A landmark study, based on genetic analysis of nearly 65,000 people, has revealed that a person's risk of schizophrenia is increased if they inherit specific variants in a gene related to "synaptic pruning" - the elimination of connections between neurons. The findings represent the first time that the origin of this devastating psychiatric disease has been causally linked to specific gene variants and a biological process. They also help explain decades-old observations: synaptic pruning is particularly active during adolescence, which is the typical period of onset for schizophrenia symptoms, and brains of schizophrenic patients tend to show fewer connections between neurons. The gene, called component 4 (C4), plays a well-known role in t ...
