All week I’ve been posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. This is the last TED talk I’ll post for now- I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed them and learned from watching them. We’ll be sure to check the videos for TED 2010, which just concluded, and post any interesting neuroscience-related ones we find. Since [...]
Tags: Helen Fisher, love, MRI, TED
Posted February 14, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends
This week I’m posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. In this talk from TED 2008, Christopher DeCharms discusses an innovative way to use MRI technology to look at brain activity in real time, which can help people learn to control chronic pain without drugs or surgery. Enjoy!
Tags: christopher decharms, pain, TED, video
Posted February 13, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies
This week I’m posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. In this talk from TED 2008, brain researcher Jill Bolte Taylor tells an incredible story about studying her own stroke and long recovery process from the inside out. Enjoy!
Tags: Jill Bolte Taylor, stroke, TED
Posted February 12, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends
This week I’m posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. In this talk from TED 2007, Dr. Vilayanur Ramachandran tells us what brain damage can reveal about the connection between your gray matter and your mind, using three fascinating delusions as examples. Enjoy!
Tags: brain damage, capgras syndrome, phantom limb, TED, Vilayanur Ramachandran
Posted February 11, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies
Pathological and problem gambling are major problems in the U.S. today. According to a ClearLead article, “…about 2.5 million adults in America are pathological gamblers and another 3 million of them should be considered problem gamblers; 15 million adults are at a risk for problem gambling and about 148 million are low-risk gamblers.” Problem gambling [...]
Tags: amygdala, gambling, gambling addiction, pathological gambling, problem gambling, risk behavior
Posted February 10, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies
This week I’m posting a favorite brain-related TED video each day. In this eye-opening 4 minute talk from TED 2008, biochemist Gregory Petsko argues that between now and 2050, we’ll see an epidemic of neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, as the world’s population ages.
Tags: aging, Alzheimer's, gregory petsko, TED
Posted February 10, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Neuroscience, Odds and Ends
For all of us here at Posit Science and, I would imagine, to most of the people who follow the neuroscience behind brain training, the concept of brain plasticity is extremely liberating. The old guard notion of a “hard-wired” brain with little capability of changing beyond puberty has given way to a complete rethinking of [...]
Tags: children, kids, social network, susan greenfield, technology, video games
Posted February 9, 2010 by Cyrus Hedayati under Brain exercise, Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Research studies
This week something really neat is happening in Long Beach, California. It’s the annual TED Conference- a meeting of some of the world’s great minds of science, technology, design, and entertainment. While not all of us are able to attend the very exclusive TED Conference, we can all benefit from the wonderful videos they post [...]
Tags: michael merzenich, TED
Posted February 9, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Brain exercise, Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies
Learning a new skill, like juggling a soccer ball, takes focus and practice … what new skill have you tried recently to push your mind?
Tags: challenge, children, kids, soccer, sports
Posted February 8, 2010 by Steven Aldrich under Brain exercise, Brain plasticity, Physical exercise, Processing speed
Recently Dr. Jerri Edwards of the University of South Florida published a paper showing that older adults who cease driving have higher mortality rates.1 You might think this can be easily explained by the fact that unhealthy people are more likely to cease driving. However, Dr. Edwards used an analytical method to take into account [...]
Tags: depression, Driving, driving cessation, health care, isolation, jerri edwards, mortality
Posted February 4, 2010 by Peter Delahunt under Benefits of Brain Fitness, Brain exercise, DriveSharp, Driving, InSight, Neuroscience, Research studies