frontal-lobe

Large neuroimaging study finds social isolation to be an early indicator of increased dementia risk

by

Why do we get a buzz from being in large groups at fes­ti­vals, jubilees and oth­er pub­lic events? Accord­ing to the social brain hypoth­e­sis, it’s because the human brain specif­i­cal­ly evolved to sup­port social inter­ac­tions. Stud­ies have shown that belong­ing to a group can lead to improved well­be­ing and increased sat­is­fac­tion with life.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly though, many peo­ple are lone­ly or social­ly iso­lat­ed. [Read more…] about Large neu­roimag­ing study finds social iso­la­tion to be an ear­ly indi­ca­tor of increased demen­tia risk

Executive Functions in Health and Disease: New book to help integrate Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology

by

__________

Neu­ro­science used to be the monop­oly of a few elite uni­ver­si­ties locat­ed in a hand­ful of coun­tries. Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy used to be a quaint niche dis­ci­pline rel­a­tive­ly uncon­nect­ed to the larg­er world of neu­ro­science and con­tent in its meth­ods with paper-and-pen­cil tests. [Read more…] about Exec­u­tive Func­tions in Health and Dis­ease: New book to help inte­grate Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science and Neuropsychology

Study identifies brain circuits enabling four-year-olds to “put themselves in other people’s shoes”

by

Thanks to a crit­i­cal fibre con­nec­tion in the brain (green), four-year-old kids can start to under­stand what oth­er peo­ple think. Cour­tesy of Max Planck Institute.

—–

A remark­able mile­stone occurs in chil­dren around their fourth birth­days: They learn that oth­er peo­ple can have dif­fer­ent thoughts than they do. A recent study is the first to exam­ine the spe­cif­ic brain changes asso­ci­at­ed with this devel­op­men­tal break­through. [Read more…] about Study iden­ti­fies brain cir­cuits enabling four-year-olds to “put them­selves in oth­er people’s shoes”

Next: Smell tests to help detect brain injury and neurodegenerative ailments

by

smell_systemSmell Tests Could One Day Reveal Head Trau­ma and Neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive Dis­ease (Sci­en­tif­ic American):

“Name that smell—if you can’t, it could be an indi­ca­tor of a prob­lem some­where in your brain. New research sug­gests that scratch-and-sniff smell tests could become [Read more…] about Next: Smell tests to help detect brain injury and neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive ailments

Study: Structural brain differences due to childhood poverty may account for 20% of the academic achievement gap

by

Brain_MRI_children

.

Brain scans reveal how pover­ty hurts chil­dren’s brains (Bloomberg):

“Grow­ing up poor has long been linked to low­er aca­d­e­m­ic test scores. And there’s now mount­ing evi­dence that it’s part­ly because kids can suf­fer real phys­i­cal con­se­quences from low fam­i­ly incomes, includ­ing brains that are less equipped to learn. [Read more…] about Study: Struc­tur­al brain dif­fer­ences due to child­hood pover­ty may account for 20% of the aca­d­e­m­ic achieve­ment gap

How Einstein’s brain helps study intelligence and lifelong neuroplasticity

by

brain_Einstein

.

The strange after­life of Ein­stein’s brain (BBC News):

“Ein­stein’s death 60 years ago was just the start of a strange jour­ney for the most prized part of his anato­my, his brain. Stored in jars and on slides, it is still inspir­ing awe and schol­ar­ly research…

Har­vey had over­seen the divi­sion of the brain into 240 blocks, and cre­at­ed 12 sets of 200 slides con­tain­ing tis­sue sam­ples [Read more…] about How Einstein’s brain helps study intel­li­gence and life­long neuroplasticity