Does perception equal reality? Try this quick optical illusion…

. At first glance, you prob­a­bly see the nice land­scape. Those branch­es and trees, the water, that cou­ple at the bot­tom right. Now, can you also see the baby? Tricky, isn’t it?! The image above con­tains some ambigu­ous con­tours, cre­at­ing the effect known as a sub­jec­tive or illu­so­ry con­tour. The con­tour of the baby is cre­at­ed by the…

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What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity, Learning and Dance

Dance. Is it mere­ly art?  Is it just recre­ation?  Think again. Dance is now being stud­ied as a path­way to enhance learn­ing.  And, sci­en­tists say, edu­ca­tors and par­ents should take note of the move­ment. Recent­ly at the annu­al meet­ing of the Soci­ety for Neu­ro­science annu­al meet­ing, more than 6,800 atten­dees paid rapt atten­tion to renowned choreographer…

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Personalized Medicine in Psychiatry: from DSM to brain-based RDoC, iSPOT‑D and biomarkers

(Edi­tor’s Note: this is Part 2 of the new 3‑part series writ­ten by Dr. Evian Gor­don draw­ing from his par­tic­i­pa­tion at the Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine World Con­gress on Jan­u­ary, 23, 2012 at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty.) Most Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine research in Psy­chi­a­try using mol­e­c­u­lar mea­sures alone have failed to repli­cate. Whilst dis­ap­point­ing, this is not sur­pris­ing, since 80%…

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Brain Games and Optical Illusions @ National Geographic

Sev­er­al Sharp­Brains friends rec­om­mend the recent 3‑part Nation­al Geo­graph­ic TV mini-series Brain Games focused on Per­cep­tion, Atten­tion and Mem­o­ry. You can learn about the series and exper­i­ment a good num­ber of visu­al illu­sions Here. You may also enjoy this arti­cle on Visu­al Illu­sions in Art and Sci­ence, and these clas­sic illu­sions from our own brain…

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Study: Cognitive Markers or Biomarkers to manage Cognitive Health across the Lifespan?

Pre­dict­ing Alzheimer’s Dis­ease More Accu­rate Through Cog­ni­tive Changes Than Bio­mark­ers (Med­ical News): “Mea­sur­ing peo­ple’s changes in cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties is a bet­ter pre­dic­tor of Alzheimer’s dis­ease than changes in bio­mark­ers, researchers from the Ben­i­to Men­ni Com­plex Assis­ten­cial en Salut Men­tal, Barcelona, Spain, report­ed in Archives of Gen­er­al Psy­chi­a­try, a JAMA jour­nal.” “The inves­ti­ga­tors used a range of…

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Top 10 Cognitive Health and Brain Fitness Books

Here you have The 10 Most Pop­u­lar Brain Fit­ness & Cog­ni­tive Health Books, based on book pur­chas­es by Sharp­Brains’ read­ers dur­ing 2008. Enjoy! 1. Brain Rules: 12 Prin­ci­ples for Sur­viv­ing and Thriv­ing at Work, Home, and School (Pear Press, March 2008) — Dr. John Med­i­na, Direc­tor of the Brain Cen­ter for Applied Learn­ing Research at Seat­tle Pacific…

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