New edition of Encephalon, the selection of recent blog posts on brain & mind topics, this time hosted by Mike at Ionian Enchantment. Enjoy Encephalon’s #75 edition!

A new edition is out, this time hosted by David at Neuronarrative. Visit Encephalon #74 edition if you have an appetite for great brain & mind blogging, and some time to relax and enjoy!

Welcome to the 61st edition of Encephalon, the blog carnival that offers some of the best neuroscience and psychology blog posts every other week.

We do have an excellent set of articles today. covering much ground. Enjoy the reading:

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Neuroscience and Society

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Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurocognitive Health Read the rest of this entry »

Mike hosts a great new edition of Encephalon neuroscience & psychology blog carnival, available here: #59 edition.

Fyi, Kim at Change of Shift will publish the next edition of MetaCarnival next Monday, December 1st.

Welcome to the first edition of MetaCarnival: a Carnival of Carnivals (announced here), the new, monthly, and interdisciplinary gathering of blogs and blog carnivals.

Let’s picture all participants in the shadow of an expansive sycamore tree, conducting a lively Q&A lunch discussion.

General Advice

Q: What would you recommend to live as long as possible, and as healthy as possible?
- Hourglass (biology of aging): Try Not To Stab Yourself Repeatedly. Or smoke. Or eat that much fast food…you get the idea.  “The vast majority of people are quite comfortable engaging in habits that cause great harm to the old person they will one day be, cutting off years or even decades of health.”

Q: Can blogging help, too?
- I and the Bird (birds): Indeed. Just read about these life-changing moments in the Kenyan highlands, brought together spontaneously as a collaboration between researchers, conservationists, bloggers. And, yes, birds.

Sports (Well… Brain and Sports)

Q: Tell me something interesting about athletes and “The Zone”.
- Encephalon (neuroscience and psychology): why don’t we review this recent study on the Momentum Chain in Sports. You can conduct your own mini experiment while watching TV: watch the reactions of the players and the teams right after “precipitating events” to see if they actually lead to game-changing moments.

Medicine

Q: Should patients be patient?.
- SurgeXperiences (surgical experiences): Patience in indeed a virtue, especially Read the rest of this entry »

If you want to discover some great neuroscience and psychology blogs, check out Encephalon blog carnival’s 53rd edition, this time hosted in Africa for the first time!

A couple of quick notes about our blog:

1- We have just added a Search box to allow you easily find content in our 600+ article archive. Take a look at the top of the right sidebar, and let us know if you have any feedback! Btw, feel free to say Thank You to our reader Luc…whose feedback gave a new impetus to this Search option.

2-  You will also find a button named BOOKMARK at the bottom of all blog posts, including this one. This allows you to easily submit blog posts to the social media sites where you have accounts: Facebook, Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Del.ic.ious, you name it. We appreciate your help in letting more people know about our articles and teasers!

As always, any feedback is welcome.

Chris hosts a superb edition of Encephalon, presenting the articles as an engaging and pretty comprehensive Q&A session. If you want to read the answers, to the questions below, by some of the best neuroscience and psychology bloggers, simply visit Encephalon 52: Q&A.

Q: What is the relationship between neurogenesis and depression?

Q: For that matter, is there a relationship between depression and diabetes?

Q: What is the molecular basis of bipolar disorder?

Q: Can brain stimulation make you a better driver? Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of great blog carnival editions (collections of blog posts around specific topics):

- Encephalon: neuroscience and psychology.

- Grand Rounds: health and medicine. 

And a good Radar Roundup of brain-related news. Note: our estimate for the whole market in 2007 is $225m, not $110m; and the Consumer Segment (mostly Nintendo Brain Age/ Academy, but not all) accounts for $80m.

 

You have survived the 2007 shopping and eating season. Congratulations! Now it’s time to shift gears and focus on 2008…whether you write down some New Year resolutions or contemplate some things that you want to let go of from last year and set intentions and goals for this year – as is a friend’s tradition on the winter solstice.

To summarize the key findings of the last 20 years of neuroscience research on how to “exercise our brains”, there are three things that we can strive for: novelty, variety and challenge. If we do these three things, we will build new connections in our brains, be mindful and pay attention to our environment, improve cognitive abilities such as pattern-recognition, and in general contribute to our lifelong brain health.

With these three principles of brain health in mind – novelty, variety and challenge – let me suggest a few potential New Years resolutions, perhaps some unexpected, that will help you make 2008 a year of Brain Fitness: Read the rest of this entry »