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Is Your iPhone Really Frying Your Brain? Five Things You Need To Know (Forbes):

“…since the announcement of the first iPhone ten years ago this week, concerns about devices turning their users into mindless drones seem to have reached a fever pitch. So is the internet really bad for your brain? Here’s what we know…”The average IQ of the population at large has been increasing every 10 years,” says Alvaro Fernandez, who runs Sharp Brains, an applied neuroscience company. “IQ is not the only thing that matters, but if something was very, very harmful for our brains, we would have already noticed it there.”

(but)

“We have to be very careful with children,” Alvaro concedes. “[Smart devices] can create an addiction if they are exposed too early. Adults also have to prevent constant distractions.”

To learn more:

• The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
• 20 Must-Know Facts To Harness Neuroplasticity And Improve Brain Health

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While sophisticated neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) provide a significant boost in our understanding of the brain — and research studies constantly reported all over the media — they are very costly. This makes it difficult to reach the mass scale required to conduct meaningful research and to improve the brain health care of millions if not billions of people around the globe.

Good news is, Read the rest of this entry »

Despite the increasing visual media we are increasingly exposed to, reading is still an important skill. Whether it is school textbooks, online newspapers or regular books, people still read, though not as much as they used to. One reason that many people don’t read much is that they don’t read well. For them, Read the rest of this entry »

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Brain Training Database: Treasure Trove for Preclinical Alzheimer’s Research? (Alzforum):

“Some researchers think brain games in general—which adapt to each user’s cognitive ability—may one day serve as cognitive diagnostics to Read the rest of this entry »

(Click on the image above to play with the “gigapan” NASA  built using 36,000 “selfies”)

NASA Releases Earth Day ‘Global Selfie’ Mosaic (press release):

“For Earth Day this year, NASA invited people around the world to step outside to take a “selfie” and share it with the world on social media. NASA released Thursday a new view of our home planet created entirely from those photos Read the rest of this entry »