Use it or Lose it!

Anecdotal reports for the past several years have strongly suggested that brain aerobic exercises could help to retard the onset of some mental symptoms of aging. Researched confirmation of this has been slow in coming, but bit by bit evidence is mounting. A recent study by scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), is one of the first to measure both mental performance and changes in neural activity caused by a cognitive training program. In the study, healthy older participants trained on a computer game designed to boost visual perception. After ten hours of training, they not only improved their perceptual abilities significantly, but also increased the accuracy of their visual working memory by about ten percent – bringing them up to the level of younger adults. Working memory is the ability to hold information in mind for brief periods. It is essential to accomplish immediate tasks, such as engaging in conversation with several people.

http://www.kurzweilai.net/brain-fitness-program-study-reveals-visual-memory-improvement-in-older-adults

Cancer related cognitive dysfunction

Study results presented at the Third AACR Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities included mention that people with a history of cancer have a 40 percent greater likelihood of experiencing memory problems that interfere with daily functioning, compared with those who have not had cancer. After all the back-and-forth discussion, it appears that cancer-related memory issues can be related to treatment, such as chemotherapy, radiation, and hormone therapies, or to the tumor biology itself, which could change brain chemistry and neurobehavioral function. This makes it all the more important that individuals who experience an episode of cancer take careful steps to keep their brain as healthy and functional as possible.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101003081703.htm

ADHD - Genetic Brain Disorder

Researchers believe they have found direct evidence that AHDH or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder is a genetic condition. The child of a parent with ADHD is more likely to have the condition than a child of a parent without ADHD. And if one child of a set of identical twins has ADHD, the other twin has a 75% chance of having ADHD. Children with ADHD were more likely to have small DNA segments duplicated or missing as compared with controls. Researchers found significant overlap between these segments, or copy number variations (CNVs), and those linked to autism and schizophrenia. This type of genetic variation is found to be more common in brain disorders. The most significant overlap of segments, or copy number variations (CNVs), with ADHD and Autism was found at a particular region on chromosome 16. Current conclusions: ADHD is likely caused by a number of genetic changes, including CNVs, interacting with as yet unidentified environmental factors; ADHD is better considered as a neurodevelopmental disorder like autism rather than as a behavioral problem.(Study is First to Find Direct Evidence That ADHD is a Genetic Disorder.)

http://www.docguide.com/news/content.nsf/news/852576140048867C852577AD006D7489?Open&id=48DDE4A73E09A969852568880078C249&count=10)

Sports' Brain Injuries

Ouch. New studies about football and head injuries are positively frightening. According to a study of three Division I college teams sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (published in the Journal of Athletic Training), college players sustain more total hits to the head in practices than in games. More research: Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, found that a college football player participates in about 12 practices for every game played during the full year. No other N.C.A.A.-sponsored sport had a ratio higher than 4 to 1. The risk of all the head trauma? Chronic traumatic encephalopathy. You or a loved one DO want to avoid this!! Check out the article.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/sports/17concussions.html?_r=1

Neurons - Differ like Snowflakes

First we hear that your brain is as unique as your fingerprints. Now we hear that much like snowflakes, no two neurons are exactly alike. "But it's not the size or shape that sets one neuron apart from another, it's the way it responds to incoming stimuli." According to researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, this diversity is critical to overall brain function and essential in how neurons process complex stimuli and code information. Estimates say that the human brain alone has upwards of 100 billion neurons, and that the brain itself is considered to be one of the most sophisticated computers that exists. Now researchers say every neurons (chip?) is unique? Check out the report for yourself.


Crhttp://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2010-08/cmu-ndm082610.php#

Michelangelo - Anatomist and Painter

R. Douglas Fields, PhD, is Chief of the Nervous System Development and Plasticity Section at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the journal Neuron Glia Biology and author of "The Other Brain," about glial cells in the brain that do not communicate using electricity but that support neurons. In the Scientific American (May 27, 2010) an article by Fields is entitled, "Michelangelo's secret message in the Sistine Chapel: A juxtaposition of God and the human brain." You may enjoy reading about Michelangelo and "his hidden anatomical illustrations" that have been found—painted on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (notably, sketches of brain anatomy.)

http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=michelangelos-secret-message-in-the-2010-05-26&sc=MND_20100628

Images from "Concealed Neuroanatomy in Michelangelo’s Separation of Light From Darkness in the Sistine Chapel," by Ian Suk and Rafael J. Tamargo in Neurosurgery, Vol. 66, No. 5, pp. 851-861.

Plasticity of Human Brain

Research University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) of commercial brain fitness program from Posit Science Corporation: practising simple visual tasks can improve the accuracy of short-term, or “working” visual memory. Folowing 10 hours of training, participants improved their perceptual abilities significantly (e.g., increased the accuracy of visual working memory by about 10 %) bringing them up to the level of younger adults. psychiatry at UCSF. Findings help to confirm that perceptual improvements with simple discrimination training can transfer to improved working memory in older adults, and that this increase in memory accuracy is linked to changes at the neural level. That is very good news!

http://www.kurzweilai.net/brain-fitness-program-study-reveals-visual-memory-improvement-in-older-adults?utm_source=KurzweilAI+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=33d0f9f11f-UA-946742-1&utm_medium=email