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Memory Impairment Associated With Sound Processing Disorder
Mild memory impairment may be associated with central auditory processing dysfunction, or difficulty hearing in complex situations with competing noise, such as hearing a single conversation amid several other conversations, according to a new article.
Even Toddlers Get It: Data 'Chunks' Are Easier To Remember
Which is easier to remember: 4432879960 or 443-297-9960? The latter, of course. Adults seem to know automatically, in fact, that long strings of numbers are more easily recalled when divided into smaller "bite-sized chunks," which is why we break up our telephone and Social Security numbers in this way. Children as young as 14 months can -- and do -- use a "chunking" strategy (akin to breaking up a phone number or Social Security number into small chunks) to assist their working memories.
Language Without Numbers: Amazonian Tribe Has No Word To Express 'One,' Other Numbers
An Amazonian language with only 300 speakers has no word to express the concept of "one" or any other specific number, according to a new study from an MIT-led team.
Scientists Learn How Food Affects The Brain: Omega 3 Especially Important
In addition to helping protect us from heart disease and cancer, a balanced diet and regular exercise can also protect the brain, and ward off mental disorders. Changes in diet are a viable strategy for enhancing cognitive abilities, protecting the brain from damage, and counteracting the effects of aging, according to a professor of neurosurgery and physiological science, who has spent years studying the effects of food and exercise on the brain.
Brain Cells Related To Fear Identified, Paving The Way For More Effective Treatment Of Post-Traumatic Stress And Other Anxiety Disorders
Potentially paving the way for more effective treatments of anxiety disorders, a recent Nature report has identified a critical component of the amygdala's neural network normally involved in the extinction, or elimination, of fear memories.
Art Therapy Useful To Treat Mental Disease
Art therapy or therapy through art, a current started in the middle of the 20th century, uses visual arts with therapeutic purposes. It is based on the idea that visual representations, objectified through plastic material, contribute to the construction of a meaning of the psychic conflicts, and favour its resolution.
Men And Women With History Of Concussion Mend Differently, Study Finds
Female soccer players and soccer players who have had a previous concussion recuperate differently from males or players without a history of concussion, new research shows. The study found that prior history of concussion and gender account for significant differences in test results following the injury. Because of these differences, the authors urge physicians and coaches to take an individualized approach to treating concussion patients.
Cocktail Therapy For Alzheimer's Disease? Works for Gerbils
A dietary cocktail that includes a type of omega-3 fatty acid can improve memory and learning in gerbils, according to a new study that points to a possible beverage-based treatment for Alzheimer's and other brain diseases.
Brain Noise Is Good: New Study Overturns Notion That Brain Noise Quiets Down With Maturity
Canadian scientists have shown that a noisy brain is a healthy brain. "Brain noise" is a term that has been used by neuroscientists to describe random brain activity that is not important to mental function. Intuitive notions of brain-behavior relationships would suggest that this brain noise quiets down as children mature into adults and become more efficient and consistent in their cognitive processing. But new research overturns this notion.
Calpain Inhibitors Never Forget: Improving Memory In Alzheimer's Disease Mice
Overactivation of proteins known as calpains, which are involved in memory formation, has been linked to Alzheimer disease. Researchers have now shown that two different drugs that inhibit calpains can improve memory in a mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, leading them to suggest drugs that target calpains might stop or slow down the memory loss that occurs as Alzheimer's disease progresses.
Intuition Can Be Explained
Intuition, or tacit knowledge, is difficult to measure, so it is often denigrated. A new dissertation in education research shows that there is a neurobiological explanation for how experience-based knowledge is created. "Skate where the puck´s going, not where it´s been" (Wayne Gretsky).
Low Levels Of Good Cholesterol Linked To Memory Loss, Dementia Risk
Low levels of good cholesterol are associated with diminished memory by age 60. Researchers encourage physicians to monitor levels of good cholesterol.
Multiple Vaccinations Have Not Caused Ill Health In UK Soldiers In Iraq
Multiple vaccinations have not been a cause of ill health in UK service personnel deployed to Iraq, according to a new study. The report says "recall bias" is to blame, when people link a perception of ill health with their memory of having had multiple vaccinations.
What It's Like To Be A Bat: Vocal Sonar Does More Than Locate Objects; It Cues Memory And Assists Flight
Not many people think about what it's like to be a bat, but for those who do, it's enlightening and potentially groundbreaking for understanding aspects of the human brain and nervous system.
Mixed Feelings Not Remembered As Well As Happy Or Sad Ones
Imagine you're about to step onto a rollercoaster at an amusement park. You are filled with apprehension and joy, mixed emotions that last beyond the dizzying ride. How will you remember the experience? New research shows people tend to underestimate the intensity of their recalled feelings if those feelings were mixed, as opposed to purely happy or sad.
Seniors With Type 2 Diabetes May Experience Memory Declines Immediately After Eating Unhealthy Meal
Adults with type 2 diabetes who eat unhealthy, high-fat meals may experience memory declines immediately afterward, but this can be offset by taking antioxidant vitamins with the meal, according to new research from Baycrest.
Toxic Key To Alzheimer’s Disease Memory Loss Identified
Using new scientific techniques, scientists have unlocked the cascade of molecular events that lead to Alzheimer's disease. The scientific findings published in Nature Medicine suggest a potential new target for the development of drug therapies to fight the irreversible and degenerative disease which affects some 29.8 million people worldwide.
Marine Snail Study Leads To New Insights Into Long-term Memory
Cellular neuroscientists are providing new insights into the mechanisms that underlie long-term memory -- research with the potential to treat long-term memory disorders.
Alcohol Abuse Can Damage The Brain By Decreasing Insulin And Insulin-like Growth Factor Receptors
Too much alcohol can cause permanent brain damage, such as Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, which is largely related to thiamine deficiency. Previous animal studies have shown that alcohol can also cause brain injury and degeneration by inhibiting insulin and insulin-like growth factor. A new study using postmortem human brain tissue has found that chronic alcohol abuse can decrease levels of genes needed for brain cells to respond to insulin/IGF, leading to neurodegeneration similar to that caused by Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Drug Reverses Mental Retardation Caused By Genetic Disorder; Hope For Correcting How Autism Disrupts Brain
A new UCLA study shows that the FDA-approved drug rapamycin reverses mental retardation in mice with a genetic disease called tuberous sclerosis complex. Because half of TSC patients also suffer from autism, the findings offer a possible mechanism for addressing learning disorders due to autism.
Memory Loss Linked To Poor Diet, Study Suggests
Loss of memory with advanced age is a significant problem within most societies, and appears particularly severe in advanced industrialized nations. A less visible and often ignored problem comes from a food supply high in cholesterol and saturated fat, which has led to high obesity rates particularly in the United States.
Group Therapy May Help Memory
Investigators are reporting a new method of improving memory disturbances in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. Patients with memory complaints, but without objective cognitive impairment, suffer considerably in their daily lives, as they experience frequent lapses of memory and attention leading to embarrassment, anxiety, reported occupational shortcomings and often the fear of dementia.
New Research On Octopuses Sheds Light On Memory
Research on octopuses has shed new light on how our brains store and recall memory. Why octopuses? Octopuses and other related creatures, known as cephalopods, are considered to be the most intelligent invertebrates because they have relatively large brains and they can be trained for various learning and memory tasks.
Hot Flashes Under-reported, And Linked To Forgetfulness
Women in midlife under-report the number of hot flashes that they experience by more than 40 percent, and these hot flashes are linked to poor verbal memory, according to a new study.
Transfer Of Learning Traced To Areas Of The Brain
Practice makes perfect, but a question that still remains a mystery is why it is so difficult to transfer learning from a trained to an untrained task? Why are we no better at remembering faces when we have been training our memory for words? Scientists now show in the journal Science that the answer lies in the brain areas activated by each task.
New Way To Reduce Neuronal Loss In Brain Of A Person With Alzheimer's Disease
Neuroscientists have discovered a new way to reduce neuronal loss in the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease. Memory loss in people with Alzheimer's disease can be attributed to several factors.
Memory Loss Linked To Common Sleep Disorder
Got memory problems? If you suffer from obstructive sleep apnea, your brain could be to blame. Researchers have discovered that people with sleep apnea show tissue loss in brain regions that help store memory. The findings emphasize the importance of early detection of the disorder, which afflicts an estimated 20 million Americans. Sleep apnea occurs when a blocked airway repeatedly halts the sleeper's breathing, resulting in loud bursts of snoring and chronic daytime fatigue. Memory loss and difficulty focusing are also common complaints. Prior studies have linked the disorder to a higher risk of stroke, heart disease and diabetes.
Who Shalt Not Kill? Brain Power Leads To Level-headedness When Faced With Moral Dilemmas
Should a sergeant sacrifice a wounded private on the battlefield in order to save the rest of his troops? Is euthanasia acceptable if it prevents needless suffering? Many of us will have to face some sort of extreme moral choice such as these at least once in our life. A new study in Psychological Science explores how people understand morality and make decisions on moral issues.
Midlife Smokers May Have Worse Memory Than Non-smokers
Smoking appears to be associated with increased risk of poor memory among middle-age adults, according to a new article. The results are important because individuals with cognitive impairment in midlife may progress to dementia at a faster rate.
New Hope For Rheumatoid Arthritis Sufferers: B Cells As Promising New Therapeutic Targets
B cells, precursors of autoantibody-secreting cells, have emerged as promising new therapeutic targets in autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis.
Plastic Brain Outsmarts Experts: Training Can Increase Fluid Intelligence, Once Thought To Be Fixed At Birth
Can human beings rev up their intelligence quotients, or are they stuck with IQs set by their genes at birth? Until recently, nature seemed to be the clear winner over nurture. But new research suggests that at least one aspect of a person's IQ can be improved by training a certain type of memory.
Exposure Therapy May Help Prevent Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Exposure-based therapy, in which recent trauma survivors are instructed to relive the troubling event, may be effective in preventing the progression from acute stress disorder to post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a report in the June issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Are Panic And Inability To Express Emotions Related?
Investigators have explored the inability to express emotions (alexithymia) in panic disorder in an article in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. In patients with panic disorder (PD), the difficulty to identify and manage emotional experience might contribute to the enduring vulnerability to panic attacks. Such a difficulty might reflect a dysfunction of fronto-temporo-limbic circuits. The present study was designed to test the hypothesis that drug-free patients with PD, as compared with healthy subjects (HS), show a higher prevalence of alexithymia, greater difficulty in emotional stimuli processing and poorer performance on neuropsychological tests exploring the activity of fronto-temporo-limbic circuits.
Memory In Honeybees: What The Right And Left Antenna Tell The Left And Right Brain
The idea that all vertebrate species, even nonhuman ones without any linguistic skills, have an asymmetric brain seems to be finally accepted. Now brain lateralization has been extended beyond the class Vertebrata. Insects, with their nervous system so different from that of vertebrates, are also "lateralized."
Long-term Cannabis Users May Have Structural Brain Abnormalities
Long-term, heavy cannabis use may be associated with structural abnormalities in areas of the brain known as the hippocampus and amygdala, according to a new article in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Living Fossils Have Long- And Short-term Memory Despite Lacking Brain Structures Of Modern Cephalopods
Nautilus, the ancient living ancestors of modern cephalopods, have both long and short-term memory, despite lacking the brain structures that modern cephalopods evolved for long-term memory.
Active Social Life May Delay Memory Loss Among US Elderly Population
In a new study, Harvard School of Public Health researchers found evidence that elderly people in the US who have an active social life may have a slower rate of memory decline.
When Your Memories Can No Longer Be Trusted
You went to a wedding yesterday. The service was beautiful, the food and drink flowed and there was dancing all night. But people tell you that you are in hospital, that you have been in hospital for weeks, and that you didn't go to a wedding yesterday at all. The experience of false memories like this following neurological damage is known as confabulation. The reasons why patients experience false memories such as these has largely remained a mystery.
Vaccine Triggers Immune Response, Prevents Alzheimer's In Mice
A new vaccine prevents the development of Alzheimer's disease-like pathology in mice without causing inflammation or significant side effects. Vaccinated mice generated an immune response to the protein known as amyloid-beta peptide, which accumulates in what are called "amyloid plaques" in brains of people with Alzheimer's. The vaccinated mice demonstrated normal learning skills and functioning memory in spite of being genetically designed to develop an aggressive form of the disease.
Green Tea Compounds Beat Obstructive Sleep Apnea-related Brain Deficits, Study Shows
Chemicals found in green tea may be able to stave off the cognitive deficits that occur with obstructive sleep apnea, according to a new study in the Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Electric Shocks Can Cause Neurologic And Neuropsychological Symptoms
Researchers have shown that an electric shock ranging from 120 to 52,000 volts can cause neurologic and neuropsychological symptoms in humans. Following an electrical injury, some patients may show various emotional and behavioral aftereffects, such as memory loss and symptoms of depression.
Discovery Of Cell Linked To Learning And Memory
Neuroscientists have discovered a fundamental component of the process that regulates memory formation. The discovery explains, for the first time, how new nerve cells form in an area of the brain associated with learning and memory -- which is known to deteriorate in people with stroke and dementia.
Distinct Treatment Needed: Tourette's And Obsessive-compulsive Disorder
While 30 to 50 percent of people with Gilles de la Tourette Syndrome are also affected with obsessive compulsive disorder, both illnesses might have a distinct neurocognitive profile, according to a new study in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry.
Phantoms In The Brain: Pain After Amputation
Losing a limb can be a traumatic experience and, in some cases, emotional and physical pain can linger for years. To better understand the phenomenon, dubbed "phantom limb syndrome," a graduate student is inviting amputees to come forward and share their experiences for a major study.
Multiple Sclerosis Can Affect Children's IQ, Thinking Skills
Multiple sclerosis typically starts in young adulthood, but about five percent of cases start in childhood or the teen years. Children with MS are at risk to exhibit low IQ scores and problems with memory, attention and other thinking skills, according to a new study in Neurology.
Why Emotional Memories Of Traumatic Life Events Are So Persistent
Emotional memories of traumatic life events such as accidents, war experiences or serious illnesses are stored in a particularly robust way by the brain. This renders effective treatment very difficult. Researchers have now successfully tracked down the molecular bases of these strong, very persistent memories.
New Target For Alzheimer's Disease Identified
In a new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers have determined in mouse models that modulating the activity of enkephalin peptides in the brain might reduce the cognitive deficits seen in Alzheimer's disease.
Brain-training To Improve Memory Boosts Fluid Intelligence
Brain-training efforts designed to improve working memory can also boost scores in general problem-solving ability and improve fluid intelligence, according to new research. Many psychologists believe general intelligence can be separated into "fluid" and "crystalline" components. Fluid intelligence --- considered one of the most important factors in learning --- applies to all problems while crystallized intelligence consists of skills useful for specific tasks.