Research-based information on Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health, authored by Alvaro Fernandez and over 10 Expert Contributors.
(Hat tip: Boing Boing)
The CIA has posted the full text of one of its guidebooks, "Psychology of Intelligence Analysis", published in 1999 by the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence.
Haven't had time to play with it yet, but these quotes sound fascinating:
Quick update: 2 very interesting news, 2 excellent blog carnivals.
1) Forget Brain Age: Researchers Develop Software That Makes You Smarter (Wired). Thanks Senia!
- "In a limited trial, he and his team were able to make 34 test subjects significantly better at answering IQ test questions after training them on a completely separate memory task"
Some great new editions of our favorite blog carnivals:
- Encephalon, Forthy-Third Edition: the best of recent neuroscience and psychology blog posts.
- Grand Rounds Volume 4, Number 30: superb overview of the health & medicine blogosphere.
- Carnival of HR #31: great resources for Human Resources professionals.
Last year, Jeffrey Gonce, a Psychology teacher at Red Land High School (West Shore School District, PA) asked his students to "complete a project describing a recent brain (or genetic) study that affects behavior." The students could opt to post their articles online, and Jeffrey was kind enough to send us a link to read the results. We enjoyed reading them all, and published in our blog this beautiful essay, titled "Tis better to give than receive", written by Alexandra, which was subsequently included in a number of neuroscience an psychology blogs. Earlier this year we highlighted this piece on Musical training as mental exercise for cognitive performance, written by Megan.
This quarter, Jeffrey also sent us his students' essays, and we are going to recognize and publish this great essay by high school student Kristin H.
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Alzheimer's Disease
-- By Kristin H.
Alzheimer's is a disease which causes people, generally of an older age, to lose memory and forget how to accomplish simple tasks. Dementia is the disease which Alzheimer's is a part and about four million Americans were diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 1999, a number which is expected to grow (Altman 8-9). Dementia is an unspecific brain disease commonly associated with memory loss and another serious brain dysfunction. Dementia is an incurable disease ("Dementia"). A new drug treatment that replaces the enzyme missing in an Alzheimer's brain may be able to cure Alzheimer's disease in it's late stages (Coghlan).
(hat tip: Mind Hacks).
Please try this experiment, conceived by Simons and Chabris for their now classic study, and now packaged in a nicer video production. You will watch a brief video clip showing two teams, and your challenge is to count the TOTAL number of times that the basketballs change hands.
Click Here to view the Basketball Experiment clip.
You can read about the fascinating results here, and read the full study on sustained inattentional blindness (PDF).
Credit for pic: Haines World
We are proud to announce that SharpBrains has joined the soon-to-be-launched Scientific American Partner Network. This won't change anything in our day-to-day operations.
Also, please visit us tomorrow Monday to read a superb article on Sleep and the Brain by Shannon Moffett, author of the superb book The Three Pound Enigma: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock its Mysteries. Moffett recently appeared on the PBS special The Brain Fitness Program, which aired nationwide on PBS.
Have a nice Sunday!
What stresses you out ?
Whatever it is, how you respond to it may have more consequences than you think. Let me show you how.
Recapping from last months article (see Stress and Neural Wreckage: Part of the Brain Plasticity Puzzle)...our bodies are a complex balancing act between systems working full time to keep us alive and well. Any change which threatens this balance can be referred to as stress. Cortisol, a key component of the stress response, does an excellent job of allowing us to adapt to most stressors which last more than a couple of minutes. However, having to endure a high stressor for longer than about 30 minutes to an hour negatively impacts the brain in various ways.
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.
Some great blog carnivals this week; visit them if you want to read good blog posts on the following topics:
- Update 1: great edition of the Philosophers’ Carnival.
- Update 2: Encephalon #40: all topics neuroscience and psychology.
- Grand Rounds last week and this week: on health and medicine.
- Carnival of Education #160: on educational issues.
- Carnival of Mathematics #27.: great collection of math-related resources.
What were you doing on August 26th, 2006? That day, Mo, the blogger behind ScienceBlogs' Neurophilosophy, launched the Encephalon blog carnival to present, every other week, a selection of the best neuroscience and psychology blog posts on brain and mind.
It has been one of the most stimulating blog carnivals ever since, and we are honored to continue the tradition. Today we are proud to announce...
A neuroscience blog carnival- Second Continue Reading »
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