A roundup of sev­eral excel­lent arti­cles this week:

Keep­ing Your Brain Fit (US News and World Report)

- “In a study of more than 2,800 peo­ple ages 65 or older, Har­vard researchers found that those with at least five social ties—church groups, social groups, reg­u­lar vis­its, or phone calls with fam­ily and friends—were less likely to suf­fer cog­ni­tive decline than those with no social ties.”

- “The work­ing hypoth­e­sis is that it has some­thing to do with stress man­age­ment,” says Mar­i­lyn Albert, a neu­ro­sci­en­tist at Johns Hop­kins and codi­rec­tor of the Alzheimer’s research cen­ter there. In ani­mal stud­ies, a pro­longed ele­va­tion in stress hor­mones dam­ages the hip­pocam­pus. Social engage­ment appears to boost people’s sense of con­trol, which affects their stress level. Cre­ative arts seem to be a highly promis­ing way to increase social engage­ment. George Wash­ing­ton University’s Cohen has found that elderly peo­ple who joined choirs also stepped up their other activ­i­ties dur­ing a 12-month period, while a non­sing­ing con­trol group dropped out of some activ­i­ties. The singers also reported fewer health prob­lems, while the con­trol group reported an increase.”

We Never For­get Any­thing (Any­more) (Pre­ven­tion Magazine)

- “Pro­cess­ing new infor­ma­tion when we’re anx­ious is tough; the stress itself is a dis­trac­tion. Fer­nan­dez taught Lau­rie this relax­ation trick: Close your eyes, touch your pinky fin­gers to your thumbs, and think about that healthy feel­ing after a good work­out. Take deep breaths and hold that thought for 30 sec­onds. Next, move your ring fin­gers to your thumbs and remem­ber a time when you felt loved for 30 sec­onds. For your mid­dle fin­gers, recall a car­ing ges­ture, and for your index fin­gers, imag­ine a beau­ti­ful place.”

- “After just a week of Sharp­Brains train­ing, I sur­prised myself: One Fri­day after­noon, a col­league wanted to show me a new part of the job. There were kids talk­ing, phones ringing–it was hard to focus. I took a moment to use the relax­ation tech­nique I learned. On Mon­day, I was able to com­plete a project with no extra help.”

Update (2/14): great 4-minute clip of a Today Show seg­ment based on the article.

Alzheimer’s Hat Draws Skep­ti­cism (ABC News)

- “Alzheimer’s researchers not affil­i­ated with the work say the chances that the hat would actu­ally work for human patients is remote at best.”

Study: Symp­toms of GIs’ brain injuries, PTSD can be con­fused (USA Today)

- “In response, the Army announced just days ago plans to expand efforts to iden­tify sol­diers who suf­fered con­cus­sions, screen­ing thou­sands for the wounds as they return from Iraq or Afghanistan to Army instal­la­tions across the country.”

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