Taking Breaks Help Improve Memory
Razi Berry Many of us have experienced the following: the day before an exam, we try to cram a huge amount of information into our brain. But just as quickly as we acquired it, the knowledge we have painstakingly gained is gone again. The good news is that we can counteract this forgetting. With expanded […]
Memory Effects of Long-Term Cannabis
Razi Berry Even before the pandemic made Zoom ubiquitous, Washington State University researchers were using the video conferencing app to research a type of cannabis that is understudied: the kind people actually use. For the study, published in Scientific Reports, researchers observed cannabis users over Zoom as they smoked high-potency cannabis flower or vaped concentrates […]
Memory Helps Us Make ‘In the Moment’ Decisions
Razi Berry Scientists have long known the brain’s hippocampus is crucial for long-term memory. Now a new Northwestern Medicine study has found the hippocampus also plays a role in short-term memory and helps guide decision-making. The findings shed light on how the hippocampus contributes to memory and exploration, potentially leading to therapies that restore hippocampal […]
Brain Exercises to Help Kids with Math Skills
Razi Berry Young children who practice visual working memory and reasoning tasks improve their math skills more than children who focus on spatial rotation exercises, according to a large study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings support the notion that training spatial cognition can enhance academic performance and that when it comes […]
Why Do Smells Make You Remember
Razi Berry A new Northwestern Medicine paper is the first to identify a neural basis for how the brain enables odors to so powerfully elicit those memories. The paper shows unique connectivity between the hippocampus — the seat of memory in the brain — and olfactory areas in humans. This new research suggests a neurobiological […]
Sleep is Crucial to Memory
Razi Berry When you slip into sleep, it’s easy to imagine that your brain shuts down, but University of Michigan research suggests that groups of neurons activated during prior learning keep humming, tattooing memories into your brain. U-M researchers have been studying how memories associated with a specific sensory event are formed and stored in […]
Afternoon Napping for Better Brain Health
Razi Berry Taking a regular afternoon nap may be linked to better mental agility, suggests research published in the online journal General Psychiatry. It seems to be associated with better locational awareness, verbal fluency, and working memory, the findings indicate. Longer life expectancy and the associated neurodegenerative changes that accompany it, raise the prospect of […]
How do you Rate at Recognizing Faces?
Razi Berry While in Paris in the 1990s, Georgie briefly watched a professional photographer taking pictures of kids playing in a small park near Les Halles and thought nothing of it. Ten years later she was having breakfast in Australia’s Byron Bay backpackers and asked the man next to her whether he was a photographer […]
Positive Mindset Can Slow Memory Loss Later in Life
Razi Berry We may wish some memories could last a lifetime, but many physical and emotional factors can negatively impact our ability to retain information throughout life. A new study published in the journal Psychological Science found that people who feel enthusiastic and cheerful — what psychologists call “positive affect” — are less likely to […]
Common Medications Could Contribute to Alzheimer’s
Razi Berry A team of scientists, led by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, report that a class of drugs used for a broad array of conditions, from allergies and colds to hypertension and urinary incontinence, may be associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline, particularly in older adults at […]