Tag: Brain Fitness

Green tea is said to have many positive effects on health. Now researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland are reporting the first evidence that green tea extract enhances cognitive functions, in particular the working memory. The findings, published in April 2014 in the journal Psychopharmacology, suggest promising clinical implications for the treatment of cognitive impairments in psychiatric disorders such as dementia.   

By Andrea Warshaw Wernick

I often find that I try to do too much at one time, which leaves little time to focus on one particular task that really needs to be accomplished. If you find yourself unable to focus on one task, here are some tips to help you take a deep breath and declutter your mind of all the other things you have going on so that you can really dive into that important project. You’ll finally be able to cross it off your to-do list once and for-all:

A mentally demanding job may seem stressful but data from the University of Michigan Health and Retirement Study show that you’re probably doing you brain a favor in the long run. 

Researchers have made a discovery that may make age-related memory loss a thing of the past.

The drug can’t be used by humans yet, but scientists from the University of Florida are developing compounds that could eventually help adults who have memory trouble but are not suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia.

Do you remember that sound bite you heard on the radio this morning? The name of the person you met socially yesterday? The grocery items your spouse asked you to pick up? Chances are the answer is no, according to a study done at the University of Iowa that showed there is truth to the old adage “in on ear and out the other”. The team reports in a paper published February 2014 in the journal PLoS ONE that we don't remember things we hear nearly as well as things we see or touch.

By Deane Alban

Last year over $1 billion was spent on brain training programs, making this an exploding new industry. But do brain training programs live up to the hype? Are they worth the time and money spent? Do the benefits gained translate to better overall brain function?

The capacity of the working memory is better explained by the quality of memories we can store than by their number, according to research done at New York University and published in the journal Psychological Review.   

Having a slow reaction time can be fatal: a new study shows that people who have that in midlife increase their risk of death 15 years later.

The findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Researchers from University College London and the University of Edinburgh looked at statistics from more than 5,000 participants (age 20 to 59). The figures were collected from the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES-III) in the US.

Inflammation has long been linked to disorders of memory such as Alzheimer's disease. Severe infections can also impair cognitive function in healthy elderly individuals. Now new research done at Brighton and Sussex Medical School in the UK and published in the journal Biological Psychiatry not only helps explain why inflammation impairs memory but could spur the development of new drugs targeting the immune system to treat dementia.

Although the brain becomes smaller with age, the shrinkage seems to be fast-tracked in older adults with hearing loss, according to the results of a study by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging. The findings add to a growing list of health consequences associated with hearing loss, including increased risk of dementia, falls, hospitalizations, and diminished physical and mental health overall.

If your husband is absent-minded and forgets your wedding anniversary or the name of your new neighbor, don't worry. You’re not the only one with a forgetful man in the house, according to a Norwegian study published in the journal BMC Psychology.

A new imaging technique lets people to “watch” their own brain activity in real time and control or adjust function in pre-determined brain regions. The study from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro, McGill University, and the McGill University Health Centre was published in the journal NeuroImage. It’s the first to demonstrate that magnetoencephalography (MEG) can be used as a potential therapeutic tool to control and train specific targeted brain regions.

Older brains are slow due to greater experience rather than cognitive decline, according to astudy led by Dr. Michael Ramscar of the University of Tuebingen in Germany and published in the journal Topics in Cognitive Science. The researchers found that aging brains may take longer to process ever increasing amounts of knowledge and that this phenomenon has often been misidentified as declining capacity.

The benefits of mental-sharpness exercises for older adults can last for as long as ten years, according to new research.

The research, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, found that even after a decade, participants who underwent cognitive training had less difficulty in performing everyday tasks.

Known as Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly, or ACTIVE, the study is the first to establish that link, according to Frederick W. Unverzagt, Ph.D., professor at Indiana University School of Medicine.

The old adage notwithstanding, practice doesn’t make perfect unless you do it the correct way — especially when it comes to learning quickly. That’s the finding of research done at the University of Sheffield in the UK and The New York Times Research and Development Lab. The study was published in the journal Psychological Science.  

Mannotriose, the main component of the Chinese herb Rehmannia, can improve learning and memory. This effect happens because mannotriose protects neurons in the hippocampal region of the brain from injury caused by high- concentrations of corticosterone, or cortisol, the “stress hormone” that impacts emotional memories and long-term memory. That’s the finding of Dr. Lina Zhang and colleagues from Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Do online exercises, games, software, and apps designed to “train your brain” really work? University of Oregon psychologists say, yes, but "there's a catch."

The catch, according to Elliot T. Berkman, a professor in the Department of Psychology and lead author on a study published in the January 1st 2014 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, is that training for a particular task does heighten performance, but that advantage doesn't necessarily carry over to a new challenge.