There’s a lot of debate around the similarities and differences between humans and Neanderthals. Were Neanderthals truly a different species from humans, or a different type of the same species? Were they adaptive, cultural innovators like humans, or were they just the dumb cavemen often depicted? Their brains were big like ours… but did they [...]
Tags: brain evolution, brain function, brain shape, children, early humans, human evolution, neanderthal brain, scientific studies
Posted November 9, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Evolution of the Brain, Research studies
There are quite a few videos out there of little kids doing things at an extremely advanced level, given their age. Like this one, where a girl who’s not yet two years shows she knows the world map better than most adults, from Zimbabwe to Ecuador. (It’s pretty amazing.)
Tags: brain function, Brain plasticity, child geniuses, children, children's brains, intelligence, plasticity, video
Posted October 19, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Brain plasticity, Odds and Ends
Viewing television and playing video games each are associated with increased subsequent attention problems in childhood.
Tags: brain function, Brain plasticity, children, lifestyle, scientific studies, video games
Posted July 9, 2010 by Steven Aldrich under Neuroscience, Research studies
Caution, fellow urbanites: Your kids might not be getting enough quality dirt. It turns out that there’s organism commonly found in soil called Mycobacterium vaccae that might help cognitive health. In a recent study, mice exposed to this bacterium were significantly smarter and less anxiety-ridden than their bacteria-free friends. Dr. Dorothy Matthews presented these findings at the American Society of Microbiology [...]
Tags: children, dirt, dorothy matthews, mycobacterium, urban
Posted June 15, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Neuroscience, Research studies
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
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
Posit Science's corporate blog is the place where our employees share their thoughts about Posit Science and its products, brain fitness, breakthroughs in neuroscience, and any other topic they find interesting and relevant. 
