I have a bad habit of losing my earrings, keys, retainers, and most recently, my class ring. When I saw the title of this article, "Lost your keys? Your cat? The brain can rapidly mobilize a search party" I had to click on because just a couple of days ago, I lost my class ring
A research team at UC Berkeley, led by Tolga Cukur, demonstrated how the brain functions in switching from one task to another. They concluded that the brain is much more dynamic than previously thought. It "rapidly reallocates resources based on behavioral demands, and optimizing our performance by increasing the precision with which we can perform relevant tasks".
In this study, an fMRI was used to measure the brain activity in patients as they searched for either people or vehicles in movie clips. The study showed through the fMRI images that when searching for a person, most of the brain was used. When searching for a vehicle, most of the cortex was used.
These findings help explain why it is difficult to multitask, since the brain optimizes its performance and engages most of the cortex in that one task. This also helps provide insight into what is happening inside the brain in someone with ADHD. Another reason this article intrigued me is because my little sister has ADHD and has the most difficult time focusing when she has more than one thing to do and it also takes her a very long time to switch between tasks. I would be interested in learning more about how these findings related to people with ADHD and other attention disorders.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130421153844.htm
Friday, October 24, 2014
Aerobic exercise improves memory in people with MS
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease that affects the brain and spinal cord and disrupts the flow of information between the two. Basically, the body's immune system attacks its own tissue. My favorite math teacher in high school married a woman with MS and it definitely took a toll on him, which showed in class from time to time.
In MS patients, atrophy of the hippocampus affects about 50% of patients, which is linked to deficits in memory. Unfortunately, there are no known treatments for this disease as of yet. This article discusses how aerobic exercise might be an effective way to improve memory in MS patients.
A team of researchers in Neuropsychology & Neuroscience at Kessler Foundation conducted a study on two MS patients who were randomly assigned to aerobic and non-aerobic exercise conditions. The procedure consisted of 30 minute workout sessions, 3 times a week, for 3 months. Before assessments were taken for comparison before the treatment and follow up assessments were taken afterwards for comparison. The data was measured by MRIs, fMRIs, and memory assessments. The study concluded that aerobic exercise resulted in a 16.5% hippocampal volume and a 53.7% increase in memory as compared to non-aerobic exercises which showed minimal changes in memory.
In my opinion, these findings are significant. However, the study was only conducted on two MS patients, so future studies need to be done to confirm these findings. Also, aerobic exercise can be done almost anywhere at anytime and is a self-administered treatment so there is no harm in MS patients trying aerobic exercise to increase their memory!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131101125506.htm
In MS patients, atrophy of the hippocampus affects about 50% of patients, which is linked to deficits in memory. Unfortunately, there are no known treatments for this disease as of yet. This article discusses how aerobic exercise might be an effective way to improve memory in MS patients.
A team of researchers in Neuropsychology & Neuroscience at Kessler Foundation conducted a study on two MS patients who were randomly assigned to aerobic and non-aerobic exercise conditions. The procedure consisted of 30 minute workout sessions, 3 times a week, for 3 months. Before assessments were taken for comparison before the treatment and follow up assessments were taken afterwards for comparison. The data was measured by MRIs, fMRIs, and memory assessments. The study concluded that aerobic exercise resulted in a 16.5% hippocampal volume and a 53.7% increase in memory as compared to non-aerobic exercises which showed minimal changes in memory.
In my opinion, these findings are significant. However, the study was only conducted on two MS patients, so future studies need to be done to confirm these findings. Also, aerobic exercise can be done almost anywhere at anytime and is a self-administered treatment so there is no harm in MS patients trying aerobic exercise to increase their memory!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/11/131101125506.htm
Thursday, October 16, 2014
The Human-Pet Relationship
A dog is a man's best friend. For me there isn’t a truer
statement in the world. My two dogs are my favorite part of coming home, waking up every day and everything else. Dogs
can be relaxing, they can bring happiness, and they can be downright great
companions.
A group of researchers wanted to study the relationship
between mothers and their children versus the relationship between humans and
their pets. They took a group of mothers that had a child between the ages of 2
and 10 and also had a pet dog in the house for at least two years. There were a
total of two sessions. In the first session, the researchers collected data
from the mothers at their houses through surveys and questionnaires. During this first session at the home, the
researchers also took a picture of both the dog and the child. In the second
session, the mothers were brought to a medical center where they underwent an
fMRI. In the fMRI they were shown images of their children and their pets in
rotation along with pictures of random children and dogs. The fMRI allowed the
researchers to study activation of different parts of the brain.
Out of 16 mothers, 14 of the mother’s data were viable.
Areas of the brain that are known to be important in emotion, social
interaction, reward and visual processing all reacted with increased activation
when the mothers were shown pictures of their own children and dogs as
expected. The substantia nigra is important in bond formation and was activated
with the pictures of the mother’s own child. The fusiform gyrus, important in
facial recognition, was activated more in the mother’s own dog’s picture rather
than their own child.
I found the most surprising part of the study was that the
part of the brain responsible for facial recognition (the fusiform gyrus) was
activated more by the owner’s dog than the mother’s child. The researchers
hypothesized that the reason for this was that humans rely more on visual cues
from dogs and rely more on verbal cues from their children when trying to
recognize them.
The study was so small that the experiment needs to be repeated on a larger scale to have a significant finding or impact.
Source:
The study was so small that the experiment needs to be repeated on a larger scale to have a significant finding or impact.
Source:
http://neurosciencenews.com/neuroimaging-human-pet-relationship-fmri-1390/
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Coffee and the Brain
Coffee hasn’t always been a necessary part of my diet. I started drinking it in
college and ever since only drink it for taste and not to stay awake or because
I feel like I need the caffeine. I personally don’t feel like when I drink it I
get much of a jolt of energy from it…which makes me feel kind of gypped!
A study done by Jay Hosking in the UBC’s Department of
Psychology hypothesized that the effects of stimulants such as caffeine
actually cause “workers with higher motivation levels to slack off”. They took
rats and put them into two categories. There were “slacker” rats that dodged
challenges and didn’t focus on their challenges, which were mostly food
motivated. Then there were “worker” rats that were just the opposite. They
would focus on the tasks in front of them.
The most interesting part is that the slacker rats that got
the stimulants worked a lot harder, whereas the rats that were considered
worker rats, (more motivated people in real life) actually had an opposite
effect when given the stimulants. The stimulants on worker rats caused them to
be less motivated. Although the study doesn’t know exactly what brain
mechanisms were used, it shows that greater attention may need to be taken to
the type of motivation a person has when treating a person for certain
diseases.
The findings were sort of surprising to me because I would
have expected that the highly motivated worker rats would have become even more
motivated by using a stimulant, almost like over energized. It isn’t surprising
that the slacker rats became more productive though because it seems like
giving them a stimulant should increase motivation. I thought this was a very
interesting take on caffeine and stimulant use in the brain. I wish they had
more information on the biological aspects of what may be causing the
difference between the slacker rats and the worker rats because there wasn’t
much explanation as to why there was a difference when they were given the
stimulants.
Source:
http://neurosciencenews.com/coffee-stimulants-high-achievers-slack-off/
Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Brain's GPS Findings Could Help Us Build Better Cities
As you may or may not know, the Nobel Prize for physiology/medicine was given Monday morning to three scientists who have uncovered the "GPS" aspect of our brains that helps us find our way through the surrounding environment, identifying where we are, where we've been and how to get back there again. John O' Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Evard Moser solved the age old question "how does the brain create a map of the space surrounding us and how can we navigate our way through a complex environment?" O'Keefe discovered the place in space, while the Mosers found the coordinates.
In 1971, O' Keefe discovered that certain nerve cells were activated in rats every time the animals passed by a particular location in a room. For example, when the rats were in one corner, certain cells in their brains activated; when they were in a different part of the room, other cells lit up. O'Keefe coined the term "place cells" to describe these activated cells and research since then has suggested that humans have these "place cells" as well. They help us construct mental maps of space, recognizing the difference between your desk and your peer's. In 2005, the Mosers added to this the discovery of "grid cells" that also allow us to determine our position in the world and navigate through it. The amazing part of it all is that this inner navigational work happens without any conscious effort.
Their findings not only shed some light on diseases such as Alzheimer's (which robs people of their spatial memory), but can also lead to new ideas as to how we design spaces more effectively. The evolving science of your "GPS" could help create buildings, transportation networks, etc. that aren't so confusing or help us understand why places we've already built are. How interesting would it be to have a major where you specialize in the psychology behind urban planning?
With all of the buzz going on about who had won the Nobel Prize, it was a very enlightening read to see exactly what their research was that had earned them this amazing accomplishment. What made this article even more interesting was how it applied these findings to other applications other than mental health. The only negative thing about this situation was that they had to split the prize money; luckily the Mosers are married!
--Sources--
Article link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/06/the-brain-science-that-just-won-a-nobel-prize-could-help-us-build-better-cities/
In 1971, O' Keefe discovered that certain nerve cells were activated in rats every time the animals passed by a particular location in a room. For example, when the rats were in one corner, certain cells in their brains activated; when they were in a different part of the room, other cells lit up. O'Keefe coined the term "place cells" to describe these activated cells and research since then has suggested that humans have these "place cells" as well. They help us construct mental maps of space, recognizing the difference between your desk and your peer's. In 2005, the Mosers added to this the discovery of "grid cells" that also allow us to determine our position in the world and navigate through it. The amazing part of it all is that this inner navigational work happens without any conscious effort.
Their findings not only shed some light on diseases such as Alzheimer's (which robs people of their spatial memory), but can also lead to new ideas as to how we design spaces more effectively. The evolving science of your "GPS" could help create buildings, transportation networks, etc. that aren't so confusing or help us understand why places we've already built are. How interesting would it be to have a major where you specialize in the psychology behind urban planning?
With all of the buzz going on about who had won the Nobel Prize, it was a very enlightening read to see exactly what their research was that had earned them this amazing accomplishment. What made this article even more interesting was how it applied these findings to other applications other than mental health. The only negative thing about this situation was that they had to split the prize money; luckily the Mosers are married!
--Sources--
Article link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/10/06/the-brain-science-that-just-won-a-nobel-prize-could-help-us-build-better-cities/
Can Smoking Weed Really Protect Your Brain?
When it comes to the legalization of marijuana, there are those who oppose it and those who are all for it. Despite my personal opinion that it should not be legalized, I've always believed that with the increasing legalization of marijuana should come public awareness of the effects of marijuana (the good, the bad and the ugly).
This article caught my attention due to the fact that it highlighted one of the positive side effects of smoking marijuana (which challenges my negative beliefs held towards this drug). Researchers from the L.A. Biomedical Research Institute studied 446 patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and found that those who smoked weed were less likely to die than those who "just said no." Only 2.4% of the patients who had THC in their system lost their lives, compared with the 11.5% that had tested negative.
A separate study at Hebrew University in Israel also supported this idea that pot could potentially mitigate brain injuries. Researchers discovered that mice that had survived a major head trauma had higher levels of 2-Arachodonoyl (cannabinoid compound EXTREMELY similar to THC that's produced in the brains of many animals) than mice that didn't. It was theorized that the mice produced 2-Arachodonoyl as a natural response to protect the brain from further injury. They then administered the compound to the mice and found that it did actually reduce brain injuries among the rodents.
It's believed that 2-Arachnodonyl works in three ways: it reduces the buildup of toxic chemical glutamate, decreases the amount of free radicals and the chemical TNF (causes inflammation), and increases blood flow to the brain.
So is pot the new helmet when it comes to TBIs? Although 2.4% versus 11.5% is significant, I believe it still does not make smoking marijuana worthwhile, regardless of the possibility that it can protect your brain. Research on marijuana has only started to become major the past 20 years and a lot of the research conducted on this topic is still not definite due to the fact that it has become a fairly recent issue. The chronic effects are becoming clearer, but some areas definitely need more work. I believe that as more time passes and more research is conducted, it will make the pros/cons of this drug a little more clear.
--Sources--
Article link: http://www.vocativ.com/culture/science/marijuana-health-benefits/
--Additional Information--
In case you're also interested in reading about the effects of marijuana, here is an article link discussing what we know so far through research: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/10/07/what-20-years-of-research-has-taught-us-about-the-chronic-effects-of-marijuana/
This article caught my attention due to the fact that it highlighted one of the positive side effects of smoking marijuana (which challenges my negative beliefs held towards this drug). Researchers from the L.A. Biomedical Research Institute studied 446 patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and found that those who smoked weed were less likely to die than those who "just said no." Only 2.4% of the patients who had THC in their system lost their lives, compared with the 11.5% that had tested negative.
A separate study at Hebrew University in Israel also supported this idea that pot could potentially mitigate brain injuries. Researchers discovered that mice that had survived a major head trauma had higher levels of 2-Arachodonoyl (cannabinoid compound EXTREMELY similar to THC that's produced in the brains of many animals) than mice that didn't. It was theorized that the mice produced 2-Arachodonoyl as a natural response to protect the brain from further injury. They then administered the compound to the mice and found that it did actually reduce brain injuries among the rodents.
It's believed that 2-Arachnodonyl works in three ways: it reduces the buildup of toxic chemical glutamate, decreases the amount of free radicals and the chemical TNF (causes inflammation), and increases blood flow to the brain.
So is pot the new helmet when it comes to TBIs? Although 2.4% versus 11.5% is significant, I believe it still does not make smoking marijuana worthwhile, regardless of the possibility that it can protect your brain. Research on marijuana has only started to become major the past 20 years and a lot of the research conducted on this topic is still not definite due to the fact that it has become a fairly recent issue. The chronic effects are becoming clearer, but some areas definitely need more work. I believe that as more time passes and more research is conducted, it will make the pros/cons of this drug a little more clear.
--Sources--
Article link: http://www.vocativ.com/culture/science/marijuana-health-benefits/
--Additional Information--
In case you're also interested in reading about the effects of marijuana, here is an article link discussing what we know so far through research: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2014/10/07/what-20-years-of-research-has-taught-us-about-the-chronic-effects-of-marijuana/
Just Another Reason To Workout
Pizza or salad...pizza or salad... the internal struggle is very real. We know one would be much healthier for us but the temptation can be too much sometimes. In a country where overeating is common and McDonalds can be found on every corner, we hear a lot about how important exercise is not only for your physique but also for your mental health. I mean it makes sense that the healthier you are overall, the better your attitude will be and the easier it will be to learn.
New data is constantly being produced to tell us about how many times we should exercise per week and the amount of time we should be getting active. But from my experience, it's mostly concerning cardio. You should be getting at least 30 minutes of cardio 4 times a week in order to maintain...blah blah blah. I never payed too much attention to these things because they're all so similar and frankly I think frequency of workouts is very dependent on the individual. That's why I was interested when I stumbled upon the article "Lift Weights, Improve Your Memory". I don't think I'd ever read or heard anything about how weight lifting could help you beyond tightening and enlarging those muscles.
Not only did the study aim to prove that there were other ways to help your brain through exercise in ways other than cardio, it also showed that even a little bit can make a difference. The study involved a very minimal weight lifting exercise in order to prove that hours a week are not necessary to see a change. Lisa Weinberg, the Georgia Tech graduate student who led the project stated “Our study indicates that people don’t have to dedicate large amounts of time to give their brain a boost.”
Along with weightlifting, the study concluded that similar exercises such as squats could be done to see similar results. These exercises were targeted to elicit responses of short term stress. According to the article "research has linked memory enhancements to acute stress responses, usually from psychological stressors such as public speaking." Nobody likes to be stressed out but perhaps a little bit of it is good for us after all.
The article proved to be a very interesting read, however I am pretty skeptical on drawing conclusions from data that changed from 50 to 60% recall. That doesn't seem to be enough information for me to confidently accept what they are trying to prove.
The link for the article can be found here:
http://neurosciencenews.com/memory-exercise-neuroscience-1384/
New data is constantly being produced to tell us about how many times we should exercise per week and the amount of time we should be getting active. But from my experience, it's mostly concerning cardio. You should be getting at least 30 minutes of cardio 4 times a week in order to maintain...blah blah blah. I never payed too much attention to these things because they're all so similar and frankly I think frequency of workouts is very dependent on the individual. That's why I was interested when I stumbled upon the article "Lift Weights, Improve Your Memory". I don't think I'd ever read or heard anything about how weight lifting could help you beyond tightening and enlarging those muscles.
For the study, the participants were given 90 photos to observe, but not told to memorize, on a computer screen. The pictures were evenly distributed between positive, negative, and neutral images. Everyone then sat at a leg extension resistance exercise machine. Half of participants were asked to extend and contract each leg at their personal maximum effort 50 times. The control group sat in the chair and allowed the machine and the experimenter to move their legs. Throughout the process, each participant’s blood pressure and heart rate were monitored. After 48 hours, the participants returned to the lab and were presented with a series of 180 pictures. 90 of the pictures were originals and 90 of them were completely new photos. When asked to recall which ones were seen earlier, the control group recalled about 50 percent of the photos from the first session. Those who exercised remembered about 60 percent.
Along with weightlifting, the study concluded that similar exercises such as squats could be done to see similar results. These exercises were targeted to elicit responses of short term stress. According to the article "research has linked memory enhancements to acute stress responses, usually from psychological stressors such as public speaking." Nobody likes to be stressed out but perhaps a little bit of it is good for us after all.
The article proved to be a very interesting read, however I am pretty skeptical on drawing conclusions from data that changed from 50 to 60% recall. That doesn't seem to be enough information for me to confidently accept what they are trying to prove.
The link for the article can be found here:
http://neurosciencenews.com/memory-exercise-neuroscience-1384/
Monday, October 6, 2014
Be More Curious
After googling for a bit, I came across an article called "How Curiosity Changes the Brain to Enhance Learning." Being college students, I'm sure we're all interested in figuring out how to "enhance our learning." I mean that couldn't hurt on test day.... Everyone knows that people will remember more about what they are actually interested in. That's why classes that are interesting to us are generally not as painful to study for and easier to do well in. However, this study wanted to take it one step further...
For the experiment, the participants were first asked to rate their curiosity levels of given trivia questions. They were then later asked trivia questions that they were interested in and ones that they were not, but before they could answer, were shown neutral/unrelated faces. Afterwards they were given a memory test for facial recognition and a memory test for the trivia. As expected the results showed that the more curious one was about a particular trivia question, the more likely they were to remember the answer. But... who cares, right? Those results showed what we already knew. The study was designed to test more than that though. Because of the neutral faces placed within the trivia questions, the researchers were also able to see that once the curiosity was aroused, an individual could be better at learning entirely unrelated information. In other words, the people that were given trivia they actually cared about remembered more of the random faces they were shown. The people that were shown trivia that they didn't care about were less likely to remember the trivia as well as the faces that they were shown.
They were also able to see a correlation between curiosity/interest level and the reward system in the brain as well as increased activity in the hippocampus, a part of the brain related to memory. The article states, "Understanding the relationship between motivation and memory could therefore stimulate new efforts to improve memory in the healthy elderly and to develop new approaches for treating patients with disorders that affect memory."
The research sounds very interesting and maybe in the future could be used to change teaching styles. I mean what teacher wouldn't want their students to learn more simply by making them interested in the original material? If they could harness the students' curiosity about something they are naturally motivated to learn then maybe they could be more engaged in what really matters...the applied learning outside of the classroom.
I'd be interested in seeing the actual data for the experiment and perhaps some variations of the study in order to determine the validity of what they're suggesting. But from my standpoint, the results sound pretty darn good.
The link to the article can be found here:
http://neurosciencenews.com/curiosity-memory-learning-neuroscience-1388/
For the experiment, the participants were first asked to rate their curiosity levels of given trivia questions. They were then later asked trivia questions that they were interested in and ones that they were not, but before they could answer, were shown neutral/unrelated faces. Afterwards they were given a memory test for facial recognition and a memory test for the trivia. As expected the results showed that the more curious one was about a particular trivia question, the more likely they were to remember the answer. But... who cares, right? Those results showed what we already knew. The study was designed to test more than that though. Because of the neutral faces placed within the trivia questions, the researchers were also able to see that once the curiosity was aroused, an individual could be better at learning entirely unrelated information. In other words, the people that were given trivia they actually cared about remembered more of the random faces they were shown. The people that were shown trivia that they didn't care about were less likely to remember the trivia as well as the faces that they were shown.
They were also able to see a correlation between curiosity/interest level and the reward system in the brain as well as increased activity in the hippocampus, a part of the brain related to memory. The article states, "Understanding the relationship between motivation and memory could therefore stimulate new efforts to improve memory in the healthy elderly and to develop new approaches for treating patients with disorders that affect memory."
The research sounds very interesting and maybe in the future could be used to change teaching styles. I mean what teacher wouldn't want their students to learn more simply by making them interested in the original material? If they could harness the students' curiosity about something they are naturally motivated to learn then maybe they could be more engaged in what really matters...the applied learning outside of the classroom.
I'd be interested in seeing the actual data for the experiment and perhaps some variations of the study in order to determine the validity of what they're suggesting. But from my standpoint, the results sound pretty darn good.
The link to the article can be found here:
http://neurosciencenews.com/curiosity-memory-learning-neuroscience-1388/
Sunday, October 5, 2014
Research from the Subject's Perspective
I had never participated in a psychological study before Monday, Sept. 22. I signed up on SONA for the study "Approaches to Performance", conducted by Michael Wusik. The purpose of the experiment is to study the effects of music on spatial reasoning performance. Participants are randomly assigned to a group based on the level of distracting music ranging from 0 to 10, I was assigned to group number 8, extremely distracting.
I wasn't sure what I was gong to be doing when I got there, I thought it might involve doing some physical movement that required fine skills and then trying to do it with that annoying music. It turned out to be much cooler than that, it consisted of solving puzzles without sound and then trying to solve them with distracting sounds. The puzzles were 2d shapes that I had to trace without lifting the pencil or retracing the line. It was quite fun, I hadn't done a problem like that in years, and much less multiple of them. It was a challenge, but it's a very interesting puzzle to solve. At the end of the first set I was told what my spatial intelligence percentile is, so that was an interesting way of finding out.
Then came the most dazed I've ever been, sound that I can only describe as an alarm clock stuck on the most annoying tone. That went on for about 15 minutes, and even though I tried hard to concentrate, many times I lost my train of thought. My ears were ringing, and I felt like a thousand bees were flying in my brain. The sound waves seemed to aggregate in my brain and produce the sort of confusion one would feel with a firecracker exploding next to the ear. After the 15 minutes, the sound was turned off and I had to answer logical word problems. When I left the study I felt very groggy so it wasn't a very good idea to go to the study right before a test, but I don't think it affected my performance.
I'm glad I participated in the study, and it was a very fascinating experience, solving puzzles, and fighting against extreme distraction. I look forward to participating in more research studies and writing about my experiences.
I wasn't sure what I was gong to be doing when I got there, I thought it might involve doing some physical movement that required fine skills and then trying to do it with that annoying music. It turned out to be much cooler than that, it consisted of solving puzzles without sound and then trying to solve them with distracting sounds. The puzzles were 2d shapes that I had to trace without lifting the pencil or retracing the line. It was quite fun, I hadn't done a problem like that in years, and much less multiple of them. It was a challenge, but it's a very interesting puzzle to solve. At the end of the first set I was told what my spatial intelligence percentile is, so that was an interesting way of finding out.
Then came the most dazed I've ever been, sound that I can only describe as an alarm clock stuck on the most annoying tone. That went on for about 15 minutes, and even though I tried hard to concentrate, many times I lost my train of thought. My ears were ringing, and I felt like a thousand bees were flying in my brain. The sound waves seemed to aggregate in my brain and produce the sort of confusion one would feel with a firecracker exploding next to the ear. After the 15 minutes, the sound was turned off and I had to answer logical word problems. When I left the study I felt very groggy so it wasn't a very good idea to go to the study right before a test, but I don't think it affected my performance.
I'm glad I participated in the study, and it was a very fascinating experience, solving puzzles, and fighting against extreme distraction. I look forward to participating in more research studies and writing about my experiences.
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