Julian Treasure is a sound and listening expert who thinks that the world is “losing its listening”- with the unfortunate consequence of losing out on human interaction and communication. While Treasure acknowledges that as someone who “lives to listen” he is probably in the minority, he believes that “every person needs to listen consciously to live fully.” This short lecture from Treasure offers a thought-provoking way to look at listening that might change your perspective!

We’ve previously written on this blog about the importance of sleep and noted some interesting ways that lack of sleep can affect your waking self. New research piles on yet another reason you need to get those zzzzzs – getting a good night’s sleep, without interruption, is key for forming memories.

This study differs from previous sleep studies, as it doesn’t focus on total hours of sleep per night but rather the continuity of the sleep. In this recent study from Stanford, scientists found that mice with severely interrupted sleep failed to form memories. For mice, 2 minutes of sleep was needed to form memories, but mice typically only sleep a few minutes at a time. For fruit flies, the magic number is 30 minutes. Researchers suggest that humans would likely need much more time and are planning future studies in this area of study.

You can read more about the study at Science News.

With all the bad news in the world, this is a terrifically enthusiastic and uplifting talk about research on the positive effects of smiling. Ron Gutman talks about how smiling is a “superpower” and discusses a body of work including some very interesting research. In one example, he notes that based on the smiles in old yearbooks and baseball cards, researchers were able to predict happiness, health, and even lifespan. He also notes that scientific fact proves that from your brain’s perspective, just one smile is worth 2,000 bars of chocolate or a $25,000 windfall!

If this video doesn’t make you smile, I don’t know what will… enjoy.

Ed. Note: To coincide with Independence Day celebrations, we’re offering an educational 4-part series “Saluting our Soldiers.” We’re taking a closer look at the mental health issues facing today’s soldiers and veterans—and sharing the latest research news affecting military personnel.

Overview: The brain of an active duty soldier experiences a heavy cognitive load. Because combat situations may include things like instantaneous switching between rest and action, extended periods of wakefulness and vigilance, and unpredictable situations that require lightning-fast reaction time and on-the-spot decision-making, the brain has to work double-time to keep up.

Focus: Vision: Military pilots need to have good vision, but many also undergo training to give their visual processing a boost. It’s important that pilots tune up their peripheral vision, so they can see as much of what’s around them as possible. Drivers can also benefit from expanded peripheral vision, or field of view. Learn how one type of field of view training works.

Continue reading "Saluting our Soldiers Series: Part 4 – Cognition and Combat" »

Ed. Note: To coincide with Independence Day celebrations, we’re offering an educational 4-part series “Saluting our Soldiers.” We’re taking a closer look at the mental health issues facing today’s soldiers and veterans—and sharing the latest research news affecting military personnel.

Overview: Recent findings presented at the annual “Brain at War” conference showed that living with untreated PTSD can have long-term effects on the brain and the body—including a higher risk of heart disease, a smaller hippocampus, and a two-fold increase in dementia risk. PTSD wasn’t recognized by the American Psychiatric Association until 1980—meaning that veterans who served in conflicts prior to that time face vastly different challenges than soldiers serving today. Besides PTSD, brain injuries, exposure to toxic chemicals, and other mental health issues pose unique challenges for multiple generations of veterans. Of course, the spouses and family members of veterans are affected as well.

Continue reading "Saluting our Soldiers Series: Part 3 – Mental Health & Older Veterans" »

Ed. Note: To coincide with Independence Day celebrations, we’re offering an educational 4-part series “Saluting our Soldiers.” We’re taking a closer look at the mental health issues facing today’s soldiers and veterans—and sharing the latest research news affecting military personnel.

Overview: Official military figures report that about 115,000 troops have experienced a traumatic brain injury since the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan began, but most experts agree that number is underreported. In about 15-20% of those brain injuries, symptoms persist for 6 months or longer. Each injury affects the brain differently, but common symptoms of TBI include headaches, ringing in the ears, blurred vision, dizziness, trouble with memory or concentration, a short temper, and problems sleeping. In severe cases, symptoms can include memory loss, loss of motor function, loss of hearing or vision, and loss of cognitive functions.

Continue reading "Saluting our Soldiers Series: Part 2 – TBI, The “Signature Injury” of a Generation" »

Ed. Note: To coincide with Independence Day celebrations, we’re offering an educational 4-part series “Saluting our Soldiers.” We’re taking a closer look at the mental health issues facing today’s soldiers and veterans—and sharing the latest research news affecting military personnel.

Overview: A recent analysis found that the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) rate among troops serving in Iraq may be as high as 35%. Even more conservative estimates, which cite a 20% PTSD rate, are sobering. Common symptoms include trouble sleeping or concentrating, feeling detached from people, apathy, irritability, hyper-vigilance, flashbacks, nightmares, or inability to concentrate, but they vary depending on the person and the trauma. It can take weeks, months, or even years for PTSD to appear following a traumatic event or period. 

Continue reading "Saluting our Soldiers Series: Part 1 – Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)" »

We’ve written about the high incidence of debilitating concussions related to sports like football and ice hockey on this blog before. We could easily write about other sports that can injure your head, like boxing or skiing. Many people debate what the best way to deal with sports-related brain injuries might be. One of the biggest problems is the inadequacy of real-time knowledge about the severity of the injury, which can lead to reinjury and worse outcomes for the affected player.

A few interesting products are being bandied about to try and solve this problem. A newly designed chin strap promises to measure impact and indicate probability of concussion with a colored LED light, but many are skeptical that the chin is a good predictor of brain impact. And researchers at the Cleveland Clinic have been busy making prototypes of athletic mouth guards that do roughly the same thing, albeit in a more sophisticated manner. While this field is obviously still in its infancy, it’s interesting to see innovators putting their minds to this problem and coming up with creative approaches to try and solve it.

Daniel Tammet is a self-described high functioning autistic savant with a mastery of language. This incredibly talented and interesting man has synesthesia that affects his perception of language, numbers and colors, so that all three are deeply intertwined. His synesthesia allows him to perceive the world in a phenomenally interesting way.

Daniel Tammet gave a TED talk about his perception and his life, which I’ve posted below. This fantastic video reminds me of another excellent TED talk given by Temple Grandin–who often says “the world needs all kinds of minds.” Surely our world is better off with the unique gifts that Tammet and Grandin share with us through their work and their advocacy. Enjoy.

I recently read an interesting article on CNN about all of the ways that spending too much time online can affect the brain. As a webmaster by trade, I certainly spend a lot of my days and nights on the internet. Is it all turning my brain to mush?

Some interesting findings reported in the article include:

Clifford Nass, a social psychologist at Stanford, says studies show multitasking on the Internet can make you forget how to read human emotions. When he showed online multitaskers pictures of faces, they had a hard time identifying the emotions they were showing.

Uh oh. That doesn’t sound too good. I would definitely like to be able to read the emotions of my friends and family.

Over time, and with enough Internet usage, the structure of our brains can actually physically change, according to a new study. Researchers in China did MRIs on the brains of 18 college students who spent about 10 hours a day online. Compared with a control group who spent less than two hours a day online, these students had less gray matter, the thinking part of the brain.

Continue reading "Does Too Much Time Online Turn Your Brain to Mush?" »