Prof. Yadin Dudai from the Weizman Institute in Israel breaks the boundaries of memory. He has already succeeded in erasing memories and can play around with the emotions they evoke. He examines children and knows they remember things differently to their parents. He looks at his computer and knows that one day he will able to connect it to his brain and download his memories. For the past is merely raw material. The key destination of our memory is actually in the future.

Is Memory the peak of brain activity?
All of the main brain activities involve memory. From writing poetry to watching a movie, falling in love or enjoying a walk. I think one of the implications of memory – being able to imagine – is the peak of brain activity.

“It is not necessarily a good thing to enhance memory. People who suffer from over-remembering find it hard to generalize. Nature makes us forget certain details so we can see the wood from the trees.”
Dudai admits that “most people who had their memory injured would be happy to improve it, but the laboratory currently focuses on memory-erasing. “We are interested in erasing emotionally painful memories which come up in cases of post-trauma (abuse, sexual assault, accident, war). These memories come up so powerfully, they make the person relive the experience so intensely, that it feels like going back to the primal experience.

“To be more accurate, we are not trying to erase the memory, but the emotion that accompanies it. I would like to remove the terror of a war victim every time they hear a door slammed, without erasing the memory of the combat. Since the discovery we have moved forward in understanding the mechanism and sensitivity of the memorial system.

“I believe that in the future our brains will interface directly with information technologies. It is already happening to a certain extent – when you are using a smart phone with an enhanced reality application. The brain is not directly connected to the system but apparently that is soon to come.”

Will it be like “The Matrix”, we can stop learning and simply download all the information into our brain?
“I do not think that will be possible, but I do believe in memorizing. Learning requires an information basis. It can change our learning process – schools will have to explain how use information and how to raise it to the surface, rather than teaching it.”

Computers make us remember more and less
“Technology is not only the future of memory. It also changes it significantly in the present. That is mainly relevant to working memory – a part of short-term memory enabling us to perform tasks Ad hoc. Working memory is comprised of a limited number of information units, therefore if you are distracted in the middle of performing a task, your performance will be compromised.”

How does multitasking affect working memory?
“Today there is no point in remembering phone numbers, addresses and dates. How will that affect us? I think some of our memory systems will experience less workload and others will have to face more demands. The workload of factual memory, for example, has indeed lessened as we Google the facts we once had to remember. However, the need to quickly adapt to procedures increased the workload on automatic memory – which enables us to perform tasks without thinking. If I, for instance, come into a new work place, where I have to use a new computer system which I have never worked before, it will put my memory under a lot of strain. Our children must be superb in learning and quickly implementing procedures of that kind. Who ever claims that computers are destroying our kids’ brains are mistaken. The computer simply gives them a work environment where demands of the neuro-system and cognition are different. They are less needed to know facts, but to quickly trace them and adapt to new work procedures which are constantly updated.

Working memory also suffers a lot of pressure nowadays. We become excellent in multi-tasking, especially children. It is wrong to think that is creates Attention Disorders. They just use their system’s capacity to do many things simultaneously, which put a lot of strain on working memory.”

They say Napoleon could perform seven tasks at once and that it indicates genius. Are we becoming smarter thanks to multi-tasking?
“I would say we are becoming more skilled. Assuming you succeed in performing a task, multi-tasking helps accomplishing assignments demanded by modern society. Even the most trivial demands have changed: Reading the signs in a train station while speaking on the phone is something people were not faced with 50 years ago.”

What is the capacity of human memory?
“It is very hard to evaluate. There are numerous studies and a lot of controversy about it. Estimations vary from a few thousands memory items to a few millions. Apparently experiential recollection is much smaller than we imagine, and it consists of only few thousands of experiences. The rest of the information is completed by us.”

Scientists have found that Botox can change the way you feel, not just by removing wrinkles but by tricking the brain into making you feel in higher spirits, too.
A new research by the US Association for Psychological Science indicates that the wrinkle-erasing treatment, which helps smoothing fine lines by paralyzing facial muscles, has also an effect on the brain.

The 40 participants of the study, done by researchers from the University of Wisconsin, were assessed before having Botox injections and after having them. The time of their reaction was recorded as they read a series of declarations out loud, recounting feelings from “angry” to “sad” to “happy.”

According to the study’s finds, subjects took longer to read the more “negative” passages after having Botox injections than before. This delay was small but acute because it points out that the brain was processing the negative emotion more slowly after the drug’s injection.

“Usually, the brain sends signals to the facial muscles to frown, and the extent of the frown would be sent back to the brain,” explained research leader Professor Arthur Glenberg. “But here, that loop is interrupted, and the intensity of the emotion and of our ability to understand it when expressed in language is disrupted.”

Read full article here
Photo by: djcodrin

A Dutch study has found that watching a celebrity wearing a pair of shoes alters a woman’s brain activity – even if she is not that keen on designer’s footwear.

The research team scanned the brains of 24 women as they looked at photos of celebrities and attractive non-famous women wearing certain shoes.

As celebrity endorsement is spreading wider in recent years the research concluded advertisers have picked up on a trend.

Encoding memories
When confronted with a celebrity, the team registered heightened activity in a certain part of the brain – the medial oribitofrontal cortex. The effect was different when pictures of an attractive non-celebrity were presented.

This activity associates the celebrity with the product in a part of the brain related to feeling affection. Moreover this link could be brought to mind quickly.

“The enhanced memory performance for items that were encoded in the context of a famous person cannot be explained by increased attractiveness of the celebrity or by a higher level of perceived expertise, but only by the persuasiveness of fame itself,” wrote lead author Mirre Stallen of Erasmus University.

However, the number of women saying they would purchase these shoes was similar among celebrity and non-celebrity photographs.

But the researchers insisted there could be a longer term impact, even if it was not expressed as an immediate desire to buy.

A future study will examine the influence of celebrities’ footwear on men.

Read Full Article Here
Photographer: br3akthru

A new researcher, held at The University of Nottingham is on the verge of a clinical breakthrough that will help achieving a better understanding of the exhausting condition of hearing loss.
The study is conducted through examining volunteers with hearing loss aged between 50 and 70 years old.

One in seven people in the UK suffers of Hearing loss. Although hearing aids are helpful, individuals with hearing loss still find it hard to understand what people are saying, especially in noisy environments.

Usually, the decline of hearing with age affects people between 50 and 70 years old. Sometimes hearing loss can be related to specific events, such as concerts, but other factors can also play a part in the decline of audibility.
The research project will use a new sound-based approach which involves a form of ‘brain training’ whereby the person with hearing loss uses a simple computer-based exercise to build up their aptitude to tell the difference between very similar sounds.

Read full article here
Photo by: Salvatore Vuono

A new study has found that both halves of the brain may disagree about how much they want something, and that motivation can happen in one side of the brain at a time.

As a previous study showed that motivation wasn’t necessarily conscious, and the brain could decide how much it wanted something without input from the conscious mind, the purpose of the new research was to find out if one side of the brain could be motivated at a time.

The researchers asked the participants of the test to focus on a cross in the middle of the computer screen.

Then a motivational coin (one euro or one cent) appeared on one side of the visual field.

The participants were only subliminally motivated when the coin appeared on the same side of the screen as hand holding the mouse.
For example, if the coin was on the right and they were squeezing with the right hand, they would tighten their squeeze for a euro than for a cent.

But if the coin appeared on the left and they were squeezing on the right, they wouldn’t squeeze any harder for a euro.

The conclusions of the research present a possibility for only one side of the brain, and thus one side of the body, to be motivated at a time.

Read full article here
Photographer: Salvatore Vuono

The benefits of sleep affect every area of our daily life. Most people do not realize just how much we actually NEED to sleep.

We all feel so much better after a good night’s sleep. Our thoughts are clearer, our reactions faster and our emotions are more stable.

There are many other, less obvious but just as important, benefits of sleep that you may not know about such as: Encouraging weight loss, helping emotional and developmental health and fortifying the connections between nerve cells in the brain, thus strengthening the ability to understand and remember experiences.

Don’t take sleep for granted – Read here about all the good things it can do for you and for your brain health.

During February-March 2010, MIND360 conducted a pilot session for the students of Reali high-school in Haifa, Israel. 40 participating students trained in a dedicated site, playing MIND360’s engaging brain training games as an enjoyable way to strengthen key cognitive functions, including memory, attention, executive functions, thinking/reasoning and visual perception of the students. MIND360 and the school’s mutual aim was to evaluate brain fitness technology contribution for improving the learning skills of students.

Methodology: in this 8 weeks pilot, assessment questionnaires were handed out to both students and teachers participating in the pilot. The students were asked to assess their scores in math, computer science and foreign language, motivation to learn and ability to focus in school. The teachers were asked to give their opinion about each student’s abilities, concentration and potential. After the benchmark setting, the same set of questionnaires was handed to both students and teachers in order to examine improvement in the students’ studies.

The students were given login access to the site’s brain games, and each week another brain trainer was added to the program. The program’s goal was to examine the student’s cognitive skills throughout and following their completion of the brain training program. The students’ progress was monitored and reported each week to the pilot manager.

While the brain games were released gradually according to the program stage, the best trainee of the week and the “Challenge” mechanism maintained the inherent students’ motivation. Also, the site was functioning as a mini social network where students could contact their classmates via email, and challenge each other to gain cognitive scores in the various games.

Pilot results: The results of the teachers’ questionnaires indicate a general 11% improvement in concentration, 17% improvement in the students’ persistence, 11% improvement in their relative scores as compared to the class. The student’s improvement was especially apparent in Computer science and Math. The students’ questionnaires indicate a 6% improvement in concentration and a 22% improvement in understanding.

These encouraging results support the theories relating to cognitive training and learning skills, relating to memory improvement and concentration improvement as a result of brain training – showing the value of incorporating brain training games into syllabus to improve student’s achievements. The students enjoy the learning experience and the opportunity to succeed in their studies, while the educators are able to follow the students’ progress and recommend a brain training program to maximize their achievements.

Based on this activity, the Reali school and MIND360 will conduct a larger scale pilot for the junior high students. In addition, a new pilot using MIND360’s brain training games will be evaluated for improving ADD/ADHD symptoms with ADHD diagnosed students.

A newly released study of the connection between cellphone use and brain health is raising more questions than answers to this controversial matter.

The report is called Interphone, a series of multi-national case-control studies to assess the possible health effects of exposure to radio frequency (RF) fields and whether mobile phone use increases the risk of cancer.

The study focused on tumours arising in the tissues most exposed to RF fields from mobile phones: glioma, meningioma, acoustic neurinoma and parotid gland tumours. In addition to a detailed history of mobile phone use, information was collected on a number of known and potential risk factors for these tumours.

The study results, published in The International Journal of Epidemiology, waited four years to be released, due to a disagreement between the researchers over how to present the results. The final paper shows no distinctive link between cellphone use and brain tumors. However, the investigators report that study participants with the highest level of cellphone use had a 40 percent higher risk for a type of brain tumor called a glioma. That risk, though, is discounted because of potential “biases and errors” that “prevent a causal interpretation,” said the investigators.

Read full article here

Avoid these 10 brain damaging habits to maintain a strong and healthy brain:

1. No breakfast
Skipping breakfast decreases blood sugar level, leading to an insufficient supply of nutrients to the brain, ultimately causing brain deterioration.

2 . Overeating
Overeating hardens of the brain arteries, hence weakening mental power.

3. Smoking
Smoking causes multiple brain shrinkage and may lead to Alzheimer disease.

4. High sugar consumption
Consuming large amounts of sugar disrupts the absorption of proteins and nutrients. The brain suffers malnutrition brain development is interrupted.

5. Air pollution
Effective brain functioning requires oxygen. Inhaling polluted air cuts down the supply of oxygen to the brain, reducing brain efficiency.

6 . Sleep deprivation
When we sleep our brain rests. Long term sleep deprivation accelerates the death of brain cells.

7. Head covered while sleeping
Covering the head while sleeping increases the level of carbon dioxide and lowers the level of oxygen that may cause to brain damage.

8. Straining your brain during illness
Working hard or studying during sickness may reduce the effectiveness of the brain as well as lead to brain damage.

9. Not engaging in thought-provoking activities
The best means to train our brain are thinking. Avoiding thought-provoking activities may cause brain shrinkage.

10. Keeping silent
Stimulating conversations will encourage brain efficiency.