I couldn’t resist sharing with you a piece from NPR’s health blog called “Why Bacon Is a Gateway Meat for Vegetarians.” And it involves the brain… so read on! According to Johan Lundstrom from the Monell Chemical Senses Center, bacon has a very fundamental appeal for humans. First, Lundstrom explains that the high fat and [...]
Tags: bacon, behavior, breakfast, emotional response, human evolution, sense of smell
Posted January 31, 2011 by Sharon Delman under Memory, Neuroscience, Research studies
Recently we noticed a lot of traffic to our informative page about autobiographical memory. We quickly realized this was a consequence a recent episode of 60 Minutes–a fascinating program called “Endless Memory”. The episode profiles six people, including Taxi actress Marilu Henner, who can remember literally everything about their lives. Their talent has been labeled [...]
Tags: 60 minutes, autobiographical memory, memory types, superior autobiographical memory
Posted December 21, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Brain plasticity, Memory, Neuroscience, Research studies
Over the last 20 years, the number of people in the U.S. who are 100 years old or older has tripled–meaning that now, nearly 100,000 Americans have been alive for a century or more. I have really been enjoying an interactive feature from the New York Times called “Secrets of the Centenarians – Life Before, [...]
Tags: aging, blue zones, brain healthy eating, centenarians, Dan Buettner, healthy aging, healthy lifestyle, improve memory
Posted October 20, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Alzheimer's disease, Benefits of Brain Fitness, Memory, Research studies
I happened across this video of Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic man whose ability to remember incredible detail and draw it with near perfection is extraordinary. If he flies in a helicopter over a city just once, he can recreate the city perfectly in a drawing. The buildings have the right number of columns and windows. [...]
Tags: amazing, art, autism, brain function, savant, Stephen Wiltshire, video
Posted September 1, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Autism, Memory
Do you ever read about a study that’s received a million dollar grant and think, “Who would spend a million dollars to study THAT? And what kind of scientists would want to spend their time on it?” That’s what I first thought when I heard about research on sea slug brains. I couldn’t figure out [...]
Tags: Aplysia californica, brain function, Eric Kandel, Memory, scientific studies, sea slugs
Posted August 17, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Evolution of the Brain, Memory, Neuroscience, Research studies