5.21.2013
Vitamin B - Alzheimer's Prevention?
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Elderly people could stave off Alzheimer's disease by taking Vitamin B supplements because they reduce brain shrinkage associated with the disease by up to 90 per cent, a study suggests.
Consuming vitamins B6, B12 and folic acid can lower levels of homocysteine, an amino acid linked to shrinkage of the brain in conditions like Alzheimer's disease.
Previous studies had shown that patients with mild cognitive impairment, a precursor to Alzheimer's, suffered 50 per cent less brain shrinkage overall if they took vitamin B supplements.
But the new study of 156 patients, by researchers from Oxford University, found that the shrinkage was in fact reduced by 90 per cent in particular areas of the brain which are most vulnerable in Alzheimer's patients.
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, suggest that the vitamins could be even more protective than previously realised.
Dr. David Smith, who led the study, said: "Our work shows that a key part of the disease process that leads to Alzheimer’s disease, the atrophy of specific brain regions, might be modified by a safe and simple intervention."
Labels: dr-david-smith, oxford-university, proceedings-of-the-national-academy-of-sciences-journal, vitamin-B-supplements
// posted by neurofuture11:20 AM permanent link
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5.18.2013
Can Addicting Casual Games Make You Smarter?
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Put away your crossword puzzles and head to your favorite casual gaming ap.
Salon has a piece on whether or not casual games can influence cognition. By now, and referencing a 2010 study at East Carolina University, the evidence appears to be mounting that they can.
Salon has a piece on whether or not casual games can influence cognition. By now, and referencing a 2010 study at East Carolina University, the evidence appears to be mounting that they can.
Labels: bejeweled, cognitive-gaming, dots, jared-keller, salon
// posted by neurofuture1:38 PM permanent link
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5.17.2013
Why Stress Can Be a Good Thing
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Chronic stress makes people more susceptible to cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. It can accelerate aging and hurt cognitive function.
In other words, living under a constant cloud of stress can do a lot of damage.
But temporary bursts of moderate stress may, in fact, be good for you, research is starting to show. Several recent studies from Bay Area scientists have found that a short, sharp spike in nerves – even just the anxiety of a pending math test – can actually have protective, positive biological effects.
“It’s really the way Mother Nature intended us to use our stress responses,” said Firdaus Dhabhar, an associate professor of psychiatry at Stanford.
Most of the research about stress has looked at chronic stress. But researchers say it is logical that some stress is beneficial. Exercise is a stressor, for example, and its benefits are well known. And our basic fight-or-flight instincts – another common form of acute stress – help us survive.
But scientists are just beginning to tease apart what exactly the benefits of short-term stress are and what is occurring on the molecular and cellular levels.
Dhabhar has found that when a temporary stressor – even the natural anxiety before a medical procedure – is coupled with an event that triggers an immune response, such as a surgery or vaccine injection, then the immune response is enhanced.
“The stress can come from any source,” Dhabhar said.
In one study from 2009, Dhabhar and other researchers found that people undergoing knee surgery whose moderate stress levels before the operation activated immune cells recovered faster and more completely in the first year than patients who had lower immune responses.
A study published in March by a team of UCSF and Stanford researchers found that a bit of stress neutralized some of the harmful molecules that build up in cells and protected cells from what is known as oxidative damage.
The study examined a group of women under chronic stress from taking care of a spouse or parent with dementia, and compared them to women with low levels of stress. The participants had to talk about themselves and perform math in front of a group of people who intentionally did not give them a warm reception.
Overall, the added strain caused greater cellular damage in the chronically stressed women than in the control group of non-stressed women. But among women in the group who had low stress to begin with, those who felt the most anxious about the test beforehand saw “significantly reduced levels of oxidative damage” in their cells, according to the study.
“Our best guess is that we may see certain types of mild stress can up-regulate antioxidant defenses, and now we are hoping to follow up to see if this is indeed the case,” said Kirstin Aschbacher, an assistant professor of psychiatry at UCSF and an author of the study.
Some of the acute stress research is limited by the fact that the studies often are performed in animals, primarily because the field is still very new. Still, researchers hope that the findings gleaned from the animal models will be able to be reproduced in studies with human participants.
A UC Berkeley study published last month, for example, showed that brief periods of stress can enhance mental performance in rats.
In the study, the rats were immobilized for a few hours, which temporarily elevated levels of the stress hormone corticosterone, the rat version of the human hormone cortisol. Researchers found that the increase in corticosterone induced stem cells to generate new nerve cells in the brain’s hippocampus, an area associated with memory.
It took two weeks for the new nerve cells to mature, but once they did, the rats performed better on a memory test than they had on the same test before they were stressed.
The new nerve cells “were part of the neuronal network,” said Daniela Kaufer, an associate professor of neuroscience at UC Berkeley. “We could show they were specifically activated.”
One focus of future research will be looking at how to maximize the effects of those short bursts of stress, Dhabhar said.
Scientists have wondered if manipulating stress hormone levels or putting someone through a psychological test could spark the same health benefits seen after naturally stressful situations.
And while experts said that finding ways to reduce overall stress and the duration of it is a vital determinant of health, there are likely more benefits to be discovered about a little stress here and there.
“Not all stress is bad – there’s no need to get stressed about stress,” Dhabhar said. “Admittedly, it’s easier said than done.”
Labels: firdaus-dhabhar, stanford-university, ucsf
// posted by neurofuture9:05 AM permanent link
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5.15.2013
Computer Games May Help Reverse Brain Aging
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Senior citizens, put down the crossword puzzles and start playing computer games.
A new government study finds that cognitive-training computer games can reverse aging in the brain.
One game called Double Decision forces users to find matching road sign icons amid a series of increasing distractions on the screen.
While the NIH study showed older people's memories improved, as did their reasoning and visual processing skills, doctors who work with senior citizens say there isn't enough research yet to show computer games will help people with their everyday lives, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The study appeared in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
On a related note, The Wall Street Journal says the AARP now offers discounts for certain games based on proven benefits.
Cognitive Labs games have been featured in the Journal of Psychiatric Research as well as other academic publications.
Labels: double-decision, journal-of-the-american-geriatrics-society, senior-citizens, wsj
// posted by neurofuture10:26 AM permanent link
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5.14.2013
Intelligence May Not Reside in the Frontal Lobe
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The frontal lobes are not disproportionately larger compared to other regions of the brain, suggesting other areas of the brain may play a role in humans’ unique cognitive abilities, according to new research published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Researchers from Durham University and Reading University compared the size of the frontal lobes – regions of a mammal’s brain that are located at the front of each cerebral hemisphere – in both people and other animal species in what they are calling “the most accurate and conclusive study of this area of the brain” to date.
They discovered it is not large enough to be solely responsible for our species’ intelligence, and that other areas of the brain (such as the cerebellum) also played a role in the expansion of human intelligence. Furthermore, the study authors assert these other regions could play surprisingly important roles, not just in cognitive ability but also in related medical disorders such as autism and dyslexia.
“Probably the most widespread assumption about how the human brain evolved is that size increase was concentrated in the frontal lobes,” lead author Professor Robert Barton of the Durham University Department of Anthropology, said in a statement.
“It has been thought that frontal lobe expansion was particularly crucial to the development of modern human behavior, thought and language, and that it is our bulging frontal lobes that truly make us human. We show that this is untrue: human frontal lobes are exactly the size expected for a non-human brain scaled up to human size,” he added. “This means that areas traditionally considered to be more primitive were just as important during our evolution.”
Those other areas, Barton said, should start receiving more attention from scientists, as there is already some evidence linking damage to the cerebellum with autism and dyslexia.
Furthermore, he and his colleagues believe several of an individual’s most complex abilities are carried out using extensive neurological networks that link several different parts of the brain. They report the structure of those networks – not the size of any one specific brain region – is likely what is most essential in cognitive function.
Past research had attempted to determine whether or not a human’s frontal lobes are disproportionately larger compared to their size in apes, monkeys and other primates. However, Barton’s team said the results of those studies have been largely inconsistent due to the their methods and measurements.
The UK researchers looked at data sets from previous human and animal studies using phylogenetic methods. These methods, which focus on studying evolutionary relationships between organisms, produced results that were consistent throughout all of their data.
They said they used a new method which looked at the speed with which evolutionary changes occurred, and found the frontal lobes did not evolve particularly fast in the human line once it split from the chimpanzee lineage. Their research was funded by the Leverhulme Trust, which distributes grants for educational and research purposes.
Labels: durham-university, frontal-lobe, reading-university, robert-barton
// posted by neurofuture9:59 AM permanent link
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5.13.2013
Omega 3 and Cognitive Impairment
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New research shows that taking Omega 3 may reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases by reducing oxidative stress, says the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry.
Labels: journal-of-nutritional-biochemistry, malaysia
// posted by neurofuture10:31 AM permanent link
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Researchers Find Brain Area Involved in Emotional Self-Control
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Different areas of the brain are activated when we choose to suppress an emotion, compared to when we are instructed to suppress an emotion, according a new study.
Researchers from the University College London Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Ghent University scanned the brains of healthy participants and found that key brain systems were activated when choosing to suppress an emotion.
“This result shows that emotional self-control involves a quite different brain system from simply being told how to respond emotionally,” said lead author Dr. Simone Kuhn of Ghent University.
In previous studies, participants were instructed to feel or suppress an emotional response. However, in everyday life we are rarely told to suppress our emotions, and usually have to decide whether to feel or control our emotions, the researchers noted.
In the new study, the researchers showed 15 healthy women unpleasant or frightening pictures. The women were given a choice to feel the emotion elicited by the image or to inhibit the emotion by distancing themselves through an act of self-control.
The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan the women’s brains. They then compared these scans to another experiment where the women were instructed to feel or inhibit their emotions, rather than make the choice for themselves.
What the researchers found is that different parts of the brain were activated in the two situations. When participants decided for themselves to inhibit negative emotions, the scientists found activation in the dorso-medial prefrontal area of the brain. They previously linked this area to deciding to inhibit movement.
In contrast, when the participants were instructed to inhibit the emotion, a second, more lateral area was activated.
“We think controlling one’s emotions and controlling one’s behavior involve overlapping mechanisms,” said Kuhn. “We should distinguish between voluntary and instructed control of emotions, in the same way as we can distinguish between making up our own mind about what do versus following instructions.”
The brain mechanism identified in the study could be a potential target for therapies, according to Professor Patrick Haggard of the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and co-author of the study.
“The ability to manage one’s own emotions is affected in many mental health conditions, so identifying this mechanism opens interesting possibilities for future research,” he said.
“Most studies of emotion processing in the brain simply assume that people passively receive emotional stimuli, and automatically feel the corresponding emotion. In contrast, the area we have identified may contribute to some individuals’ ability to rise above particular emotional situations.
“This kind of self-control mechanism may have positive aspects, for example making people less vulnerable to excessive emotion,” he continued. “But altered function of this brain area could also potentially lead to difficulties in responding appropriately to emotional situations.”
Labels: fMRI, ghent-university, patrick-haggard, simone-kuhn, UCL-institute-of-cognitive-science
// posted by neurofuture10:22 AM permanent link
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