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How physical exercise prevents dementia

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Common bodily train not solely enhances health but in addition has a optimistic affect on mind metabolism. Credit score: © Giorgio Pulcini / Fotolia Quite a few research have proven that bodily train appears helpful within the prevention of cognitive impairment and dementia in previous age. Now researchers at Goethe College Frankfurt have explored in one of many first research worldwide how train impacts mind metabolism. With a purpose to additional advance present state of information on the optimistic affect of bodily exercise on the mind, gerontologists and sports activities physicians at Goethe College Frankfurt have examined the results of standard train on mind metabolism and reminiscence of 60 individuals aged between 65 and 85 in a randomised managed trial. Their conclusion: common bodily train not solely enhances health but in addition has a optimistic affect on mind metabolism. Because the researchers report within the present su...
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Alcohol boosts recall of earlier learning, study suggests

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Having a glass of wine. Credit score: © WavebreakmediaMicro / Fotolia Consuming alcohol improves reminiscence for info realized earlier than the consuming episode started, new analysis suggests. Within the College of Exeter research, 88 social drinkers got a word-learning activity. Contributors have been then cut up in two teams at random and advised both to drink as a lot as they preferred (the common was 4 models) or to not drink in any respect. The following day, all of them did the identical activity once more -- and people who had drunk alcohol remembered extra of what that they had realized. The researchers are eager to emphasize that this restricted optimistic impact must be thought of alongside the well-established unfavourable results of extreme alcohol on reminiscence and psychological and bodily well being. "Our analysis not solely confirmed that those that drank alcohol did higher when repeating the word-learning activity,...
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Higher cognitive abilities linked to greater risk of stereotyping, new study finds

"Superior cognitive abilities are often associated with positive outcomes, such as academic achievement and social mobility," says David Lick, a postdoctoral researcher in New York University's Department of Psychology and the study's lead author. "However, our work shows that some cognitive abilities can have negative consequences -- specifically, that people who are adept at detecting patterns are especially quick to learn and apply social stereotypes." "The good news is we also found that these individuals are better able to diminish their stereotyping when presented with new patterns that challenge existing stereotypical associations," adds co-author Jonathan Freeman, an assistant professor in NYU's Department of Psychology and Center for Neural Science and whose lab Lick works in. The study, which appears in the  Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , also included Adam Alter, an associate professor in NYU's Stern School ...
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New brain death pathway in Alzheimer's disease

In a new study published today, Arizona State University-Banner Health neuroscientist Salvatore Oddo and his colleagues from Phoenix's Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) -- as well as the University of California, Irvine, and Mount Sinai in New York -- have identified a new way for brain cells to become fated to die during Alzheimer's diseases. The research team has found the first evidence that the activation of a biological pathway called necroptosis, which causes neuronal loss, is closely linked with Alzheimer's severity, cognitive decline and extreme loss of tissue and brain weight that are all advanced hallmarks of the disease. "We anticipate that our findings will spur a new area of Alzheimer's disease research focused on further detailing the role of necroptosis and developing new therapeutic strategies aimed at blocking it," said Oddo, the lead author of this study, and scientist at the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research...
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Long-term brain deficits in cardiac arrest survivors: Treatment?

Cardiac arrest is a common cause of brain injury. When the brain is deprived of oxygen, not only can cells die, but surviving cells can suffer damage resulting in long-term sensory dysfuntion in the cortex. The cerebral cortex is the outer covering of the brain -- the gray matter that covers hemispheres of the brain like a helmet. This is the part of the brain that receives sensory input, such as vision, hearing and touch, and areas of the cortex are also involved in more complex functions, such as memory, language, creativity, judgement and emotion. The research team studied the long-term impact of cardiac arrest on the cortex in a rat model. They measured sensory response and found that after oxygen deprivation, the sensory circuits in the cortex are less responsive with behavioral deficits. Their data suggest that cardiac arrest and resuscitation permanently affect cortical circuit function in survivors. "Our work characterizes the changes that occur in the sensory cortex...
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Brain stimulation may improve cognitive performance in people with schizophrenia

There is currently a lack of effective treatments and an urgent need for new interventions to address these problems in short-term memory and decision making, which are often severely impaired in people with schizophrenia. This can make it difficult for them to ade-quately plan, sustain necessary focus and attention, and remember information, which has a significant impact on day-to-day life. These so-called cognitive deficits are not addressed by current antipsychotic medications, which only treat more widely recognised symptoms such as delusions and hallucina-tions. Researchers are therefore increasingly looking towards novel interventions and 'neuromodulation' has emerged as a promising new technique that can physically alter and improve the brain's functioning. In the study, published in  Brain , the researchers set out to use one particular form of neuromodulation -- transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) -- to see if they could undo some of these cogniti...
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Feeling stressed during the workday? Playing video games may help

In their  Human Factors  article (now online), "Searching for Affective and Cognitive Restoration: Examining the Restorative Effects of Casual Video Game Play," Michael Rupp and coauthors used a computer-based task to induce cognitive fatigue in 66 participants, who were then given a five-minute rest break. During the break, participants either played a casual video game called Sushi Cat, participated in a guided relaxation activity, or sat quietly in the testing room without using a phone or computer. At various times throughout the experiment, the researchers measured participants' affect (e.g., stress level, mood ) and cognitive performance. Those who took a silent rest break reported that they felt less engaged with work and experienced worry as a result, whereas those who participated in the guided relaxation activity saw reductions in negative affect and distress. Only the video game players reported that they felt better after taking the break. Rupp, a docto...
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