Our eyes take in a lot of information from the world, but limitations in brain processing means that we can only pay attention to a small portion of it. As a consequence we often fail to notice important information that is clearly in our field of view because our attention is focused elsewhere. One compelling [...]

Many people think that eating nuts is good for your brain. This is true, but not all nuts are created equally. There is great variation in the health benefits to be found in different types of nuts, especially from a brain health perspective. Walnuts are the top nut for brain health. They have a significantly [...]

This week, we learned that Brain Plasticity Inc. (BPI), a new “technology incubator”, has received $3.65 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct research on software-based programs. They have been awarded $3 million to work on creating and testing a cognitive program for people with schizophrenia, as well as $650,000 for people [...]

Studying and actively listening to music develops the brain in ways that help beyond just enjoying music.

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 [...]

Improving the speed and accuracy of processing what you see is gaining traction thanks to insurance carriers and increasing public awareness.

It may sound like science fiction, but researchers at Northwestern say they can use EEG (a type of brain wave imaging) to “read” a potential terrorist’s mind and uncover details of a terrorist plot. I’m having trouble deciding if this is a promising step forward in the fight against terrorism, or an invasion of the one of [...]

A major effort to find biomarkers that identify serious head injury is underway

A new study has untangled the connection between depression and dementia, providing clear evidence that depression is a risk factor for dementia. Prior to this finding, it was unclear to researchers whether depression increased the risk of developing dementia or if dementia led to increased depression. Researchers screened nearly 1,000 participants and found 125 who [...]

This weekend, I read a fascinating article in Wired magazine about stress and your health. (The article isn’t online yet, but the author of the article, Jonah Lehrer, has pieces of the article on his blog.) {UPDATE: the article is posted on the Wired website now.} Lehrer talked to primatologist Robert Sapolsky about stress in [...]