Scientific American - Mind & Brain

How Fructose Impairs the Memory

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST

Americans consume more fructose than ever before, yet concerns remain that the sugar, used to sweeten beverages and processed foods, poses health risks. In animals, fructose-rich diets increase the production of fat and promote resistance to the energy-regulating hormone insulin. New research suggests that memory suffers as well, at least in rats.

Neuroscientist Marise B. Parent of Georgia State University and her colleagues fed 11 adolescent rats a diet in which fructose supplied 60 percent of the calories. For 10 other rats, cornstarch took the place of the sweetener. The scientists trained the rats to find a submerged platform in a pool, with the help of surrounding cues.

[More]

MIND Reviews: A Healthy Mind

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST

Healthy Mindswww.wliw.org/healthyminds

[More]

Genetic Link For Perfect Pitch?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:00:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

We might think perfect pitch is an innate talent. Well, a study in the American Journal of Human Genetics is providing some evidence for that.

[More]

Do Brain Trainer Games and Software Work?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST

The market for brain-training software continues to grow, but evidence of the programs’ ability to boost memory or intelligence in a broadly applicable way (rather than simply making people better at the task they are practicing) remains scarce. New studies offer a tantalizing suggestion that certain programs may work--but the bulk of the research is murky.

Neuroscientist Peter Snyder of Brown University reviewed nearly 20 software studies and concluded that, as a group, they were underwhelming. They are marred by flaws that induce confounding factors, such as a lack of control groups and follow-up, Snyder warns. More than a third of those he reviewed were too shoddy even to include in the analysis he printed early this year in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia. “You’d be surprised at what gets published,” he says. Although some products claimed to treat dementia, Snyder did not find any evidence to back such claims.

[More]

Band of Bots Don't Play Musical Instruments--They Are the Instruments

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:00:00 EST

GuitarBot couldn't keep a tune. "It's too high at the top, and too low at the bottom," Michael Hearst complained as he hopped onto the platform, giving the tuning knob a hopeful quarter-turn. But when he climbed down again and hit a button on his keyboard, the mechanical bridge slid back up the track, thumbing a note before wailing off-pitch once again.

[More]

Pedophiles, Hebephiles, and Ephebophiles, Oh My: Erotic Age Orientation

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:00:00 EST

Michael Jackson probably wasn’t a pedophile--at least, not in the strict, biological sense of the word. It’s a morally loaded term, pedophile, that has become synonymous with the very basest of evils. (In fact it’s hard to even say it aloud without cringing, isn’t it?) But according to sex researchers, it’s also a grossly misused term. [More]

Fit Body, Fit Mind? Your Workout Makes You Smarter

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:05:00 EST

As everybody knows, if you do not work out, your muscles get flaccid. What most people don’t realize, however, is that your brain also stays in better shape when you exercise. And not just challenging your noggin by, for example, learning a new language, doing difficult crosswords or taking on other intellectually stimulating tasks. As researchers are finding, physical exercise is critical to vigorous mental health, too.

Surprised? Although the idea of exercising cognitive machinery by performing mentally demanding activities--popularly termed the “use it or lose it” hypothesis--is better known, a review of dozens of studies shows that maintaining a mental edge requires more than that. Other things you do--including participating in activities that make you think, getting regular exercise, staying socially engaged and even having a positive attitude--have a meaningful influence on how effective your cognitive functioning will be in old age.

[More]

Pump Your Brain--And Other Stories from MIND

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:00:00 EST

Cognitive-enhancement drugs have been in the headlines a great deal lately--they stoke your gray matter, enabling greater focus and attention for longer periods of time, users say. But their long-term effects are uncertain and unknown, on both brain and body. In the meantime, there’s something you can do that helps both areas but that doesn’t have any known mental health risks. As study after study has shown, simple physical activity not only builds your physique and cardiovascular health: it also helps to sharpen the wetware in your skull and thwarts mental decline as you advance in years. Check out our feature story, “Fit Body, Fit Mind?” by psychologist Christopher Hertzog and his colleagues. You’ll be glad you did.

A different kind of brain performance question is explored in “Do ADHD Drugs Take a Toll on the Brain?” Of course, drugs that treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder have provided enormous benefits for many thousands of patients, and nobody should make any decisions about their suitability without consulting a professional. But the article, by Edmund S. Higgins, discusses evidence that raises concerns about the long-term consequences of such medications. Understanding about the related brain mechanisms will grow with further research, and we expect that such medicines ultimately could be improved in the future. Naturally, Scientific American Mind applauds all such efforts to provide better mental health for everyone.

[More]

Calendar: Mind events in July and August

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:59:00 EST

JULY

9 On this day in 1934, Canadian scientist Herbert Jasper of Brown University made the first electrical tracing from a human brain. Jasper, considered to be one of the founders of modern neuroscience, pioneered the use of the electroencephalogram (EEG) to study electrical activity associated with fundamental brain functions such as consciousness and learning. He and his collaborator, neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield, also elucidated the mechanism underlying epilepsy and invented a highly successful procedure to treat seizures. Their work has contributed largely to our understanding of functional anatomy and lateralization of the human brain.

[More]

What Skepticism Reveals about Science

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:00:00 EST

In a 1997 episode of The Simpsons entitled “The Springfield Files”--a parody of X-Files in which Homer has an alien encounter in the woods (after imbibing 10 bottles of Red Tick Beer)--Leonard Nimoy voices the intro as he once did for his post-Spock run on the television mystery series In Search of...: “The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It’s all lies. But they’re entertaining lies, and in the end isn’t that the real truth? The answer is no.”

No cubed. The postmodernist belief in the relativism of truth, coupled to the clicker culture of mass media where attention spans are measured in New York minutes, leaves us with a bewildering array of truth claims packaged in infotainment units. It must be true--I saw it on television, at the movies, on the Internet. The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, That’s Incredible, The Sixth Sense, Poltergeist, Loose Change, Zeitgeist the Movie. Mysteries, magic, myths and monsters. The occult and the supernatural. Conspiracies and cabals. The face on Mars and aliens on Earth. Bigfoot and Loch Ness. ESP and PSI. UFOs and ETIs. JFK, RFK and MLK--alphabet conspiracies. Altered states and hypnotic regression. Remote viewing and astroprojection. Ouija boards and Tarot cards. Astrology and palm reading. Acupuncture and chiropractic. Repressed memories and false memories. Talking to the dead and listening to your inner child. Such claims are an obfuscating amalgam of theory and conjecture, reality and fantasy, nonfiction and science fiction. Cue dramatic music. Darken the backdrop. Cast a shaft of light across the host’s face. The truth is out there. I want to believe.

[More]

Take two video games and call me in the morning

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:00:00 EST

Parents often complain that their children are spending increasing amounts of time playing computer-based video games. Kids get together and just sit in front of a computer or a television with a gaming console, and they do not talk to each. They just watch the screen, which is probably damaging to their eye sight. They don’t get out enough and do not get enough exercise. Etc.

[More]

Women Better Than Men with a Hammer

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:00:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

We might think women are not as adept as men at wielding heavy tools, like say, hammers, according to popular stereotypes.

[More]

Genetic Protection against Sleep Deprivation

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:05:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

Numerous studies have shown that lack of sleep hurts--it can lead to weight gain, diseases, and of course weakened cognitive functioning. But a bad night’s sleep doesn’t hurt everyone equally. Unlike me, some people can think clearly no matter what. A study published June 24th in The Journal of Neuroscience helps explain why. [More]

Dreaming of Nonsense: The Evolutionary Enigma of Dream Content

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:00:00 EST

Friday, June 19, 2:12 a.m.: Loading up the trunk of my car with clothes hangers when approached by two transients… try to engage them in good-natured conversation about the benefits of wooden clothes hangers over metal ones, but they make me uneasy, say they want to go out to get a drink but I’ve got to go. In a city somewhere… looks like a post-apocalyptic Saint Louis.

Saturday, June 20, 4:47 a.m.: Was just now trying to return my dead grandmother’s cane to her. Took elevator to her apartment… meant to go to the 8th floor, but elevator lurched up to the 18th floor, swung around violently then shot back down. Could hear voices in the corridors outside elevator shaft…. a mother yelling at her child. Grandma then became my other grandma, also deceased, yet in a nursing home; doctors say she’s doing fine.

[More]

Being More Infantile May Have Led to Bigger Brains

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EST

For decades scientists have noted that mature humans physically resemble immature chimps--we, too, have small jaws, flat faces and sparse body hair. The retention of juvenile features, called neoteny in evolutionary biology, is especially apparent in domesticated animals--thanks to human preferences, many dog breeds have puppy features such as floppy ears, short snouts and large eyes. Now genetic evidence suggests that neoteny could help explain why humans are so radically different from chimpanzees, even though both species share most of the same genes and split apart only about six million years ago, a short time in evolutionary terms.

In animals, neoteny comes about because of delays in development, points out molecular biologist Philipp Khaitovich of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. For instance, humans sexually mature roughly five years after chimps do, and our teeth erupt later. “Changes in the timing of development are some of the most powerful mechanisms evolution can use to remodel organisms, with very few molecular events required,” he explains.

[More]

Heart Beat: Music May Help Keep Your Cardiovascular System in Tune

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:00:00 EST

Music may calm the savage beast or, at least, make the workday seem shorter. A new study now adds cardiovascular health to the list of music's potential benefits, suggesting it can directly trigger physiological changes that modulate blood pressure, heart rate and respiration. [More]

Presented By:

The 411 on credit monitoring services

There are many Credit monitoring services available today that can help you manage and protect your credit. These services often include daily reviews of your credit data, email alerts when something changes on your credit reports, analysis tools, identity theft insurance and other perks. Prices for credit monitoring programs can vary widely: some are included for free with other services and others can cost you more than $160 a year.

Additional Resources
Proactive identity theft protection with Lifelock
Monitor your credit score to track improvement and spot identity theft red flags

Ads by Pheedo

Stone Age jams: Humans playing the flute for at least 35,000 years, no word yet on sax

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:10:00 EST

Carved flutes dating back some 35,000 years were discovered during a dig last summer at an upper Paleolithic site in southwestern Germany, making them among--if not the--oldest documented musical instruments, reports a study published today in Nature (Scientific American is part of the Nature Publishing Group). [More]

Fish Capable of Judgment Calls

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:28:08 EST

[The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]

There’s plenty of evidence that animals learn from one another. But until now, it was thought that only humans make judgment calls, such as “that woman seems to be finding more food than that other guy, and she’s eating more than I am, so I’ll follow her.” This ability to selectively follow such cues shows sophisticated social learning.

[More]

Evolutionary Origins of Your Right and Left Brain

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:00:00 EST

The left hemisphere of the human brain controls language, arguably our greatest mental attribute. It also controls the remarkable dexterity of the human right hand. The right hemisphere is dominant in the control of, among other things, our sense of how objects interrelate in space. Forty years ago the broad scientific consensus held that, in addition to language, right-handedness and the specialization of just one side of the brain for processing spatial relations occur in humans alone. Other animals, it was thought, have no hemispheric specializations of any kind.

Those beliefs fit well with the view that people have a special evolutionary status. Biologists and behavioral scientists generally agreed that right-handedness evolved in our hominid ancestors as they learned to build and use tools, about 2.5 million years ago. Right-handedness was also thought to underlie speech. Perhaps, as the story went, the left hemisphere simply added sign language to its repertoire of skilled manual actions and then converted it to speech. Or perhaps the left brain’s capacity for controlling manual action extended to controlling the vocal apparatus for speech. In either case, speech and language evolved from a relatively recent manual talent for toolmaking. The right hemisphere, meanwhile, was thought to have evolved by default into a center for processing spatial relations, after the left hemisphere became specialized for handedness.

[More]

Presented By:

Review your Credits Reports Once a Year

Under FCRA laws, you are allowed to request your credit reports from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion once every 12 months. It is good practice to
check your credit reports and credit score every 3-6 months. Also, checking your credit reports before a a big purchase helps you spot potential dangers.

Additional Resources:
Proactive identity theft protection with Lifelock
Monitor your credit score to track improvement and spot identity theft red flags

Ads by Pheedo

Low Brainer: Ancient Skull Shows Early Primates Didn't Need Big Brains

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EST

Compared with other mammals, primates--from lemurs to humans--have huge brains. But scientists still don't know exactly why--or even when--our brains ballooned. A new study, published yesterday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, postulates that even without big brains, early primates were able to do a lot of primatelike things--a finding that calls into question many of the prevailing evolutionary theories. [More]