Chasing the “Aha” of puzzle solving We have all chased the “Aha” moment that occurs when coming up with a solution to the problem and felt how good it feels, how satisfying it is. But research indicates that our brain starts changing state even before we engage in a problem, as if we are preparing…
Weekend's Better Brain Health Breakfast
Weekend’s Better Brain Health Breakfast # 6
by Ward Plunet • • 1 Comment
Lasting Love One of the most important things for our brain health are good social relationships, and this obviously includes our love interest. In last week’s better brain breakfast edition I discussed how love can hurt. This week on a happier note there is a new report that suggests that love can last, even in…
Uncategorized
Want to double your brain’s processing ability?
by Ward Plunet • • 1 Comment
Image via Wikipedia It is simple: become an expert at something. Okay, I know it sounds like a joke, or like I was trying to sell you something, but new neuroscience research indicates that expert chess players (grand masters) literally double their processing power by using both sides of their brain to solve a problem,…
aging, cognitive function
What could account for our middle age peak in cognitive function: wiring?
by Ward Plunet • • 3 Comments
Youth myth It is a common myth in our culture that we peak for everything in 20’s. But interestingly there are components of our brain that do not fully mature until middle age. Last week I posted about how for many cognitive functions including verbal memory, inductive reasoning, spatial reasoning, and verbal ability the peak…
Weekend's Better Brain Health Breakfast
Weekend Better Brain Breakfast # 5
by Ward Plunet • • 1 Comment
Meditation may help addiction Over at Integratedneuroscience they have an interesting post about the growing body of research and practical tips on how you could use meditation to help with addiction: …the mindfulness that accompanies meditation has shown to be more effective than behavioral strategies that encouraged avoiding thoughts of substance use. Such thoughts inevitably…
aging, brain health, longevity
How much cognitive ability do we lose over time as we age?
by Ward Plunet • • 2 Comments
Yesterday you learned after the age of 25 you lose 2 grams of your brain mass per year. That means at the age of 80 you have loss about 7.5 % of your brain mass. The question is how does this affect our cognitive ability? Like much of scientific research there are some conflicting results.…
brain health
How much of your brain mass do you lose each year?
by Ward Plunet • • 1 Comment
Image via Wikipedia If you want optimum brain health you obviously want to preserve as much of your brain as possible as you age. At birth your brain weighs in at about 400 grams (g) and grows to 1,200 g by the time you reach 6 years old. After that it grows more slowly until…
Weekend's Better Brain Health Breakfast
Weekend’s Better Brain Health Breakfast # 4
by Ward Plunet • • 1 Comment
Hoping everyone had a great holiday season and looking forward to an successful 2011. Many of us traveled during the holiday season and this post points to new research showing the negative affect on brains of continued jet lag in an animal model. A list of a few of the findings below indicate this is…
bioinformatics, information, Uncategorized
I am my connectome – aren’t I?
by Ward Plunet • • 1 Comment
The connectome simply put is the wiring diagram of your brain. But this is not so simple to obtain due the incredible complexity of the human brain. I wrote previously in the last couple weeks of new research that indicates that one human brain has more ‘switches’ than all the computers in the world. Work…
Uncategorized
Born to be empathetic / sympathetic: mirror neurons – what is next?
by Ward Plunet • • 1 Comment
During this holiday season we tend to be even more empathetic and compassionate than usual, so I think taking a deeper look at empathy would be interesting as we go through the season. Here is a very good video that provides a narration and engaging hand drawn visuals to explain mirror neurons and how humans…