Cognitive Labs

The Heart is 18 inches from the brain. You can ride a stationary bicycle and learn Spanish or Italian while undergoing the sensory experience of pedaling over cobblestone streets.

What can you do about brainage, brainaging, and preventing an aging brain? Try the selection of memory games from cognitivelabs.com.

Folate and B vitamin pills failed to help keep elderly people's brains and memories sharp in the longest study yet to test this approach.

Some scientists said the study was too small to be the final word, but it was one of the best done so far and came after three very large studies produced disappointing results using the same nutrients to try to prevent heart disease.

"We'd love to have something that is simple and reproducible and cheap and effective that would reduce the amount of dementia," but proof that vitamin supplements can do this is still lacking, said Bill Thies, scientific director of the Alzheimer's Association, which had no role in the study.


The findings were published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Introducing the Speed Racer memory test. This takes you back to the 1960's or early 1970's, along with Hot Wheels and the cool orange track and those purple connectors.

What about the mysterious Racer X, or Pops, Spritle, and Chim Chim?

They're all in the test. or the BIG version

Cognitive Labs: the Intersection of Games, Media and Science.


China Seas
Warner is releasing 6 Clark Gable films on DVD. The review in the New York Times, is here. (registration required)

What if we told you that you could now exercise your mind with pictures, even ones that you remember most? Well, you can, with memorypix. Here is the first in a series of tests with 1940's characters.

// posted by neurofuture8:42 AM permanent link

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  tags: take a quick memory test | games for your brain | moving pix for your brain | gamer IQ

Here is a brain-blasting version of rubiks' cube...here's the link.

If you want some history, this link is instructive.

If you are getting any "404" or "operation timed out when attemtping to connect to cognitivelabs.com" messages, please be patient.

It appears like it will be the busiest day, or certainly the day when the most people are taking tests at the same time.

Here at last is the Betty Grable, Rita Hayworth, and Clark Gable Memory Test - featuring some famous shots, which might stir up some memories.

The LARGE Format test is here.
The SMALL format test is here. The small format test includes some code in the box on the lower right so you can paste it into your website or blog, and start offering your own favorite "classic" tests that are as scientifically-based as they are entertaining.


It's a whole new world. Who's next, the King?

It's easy: click on your spacebar to start the test and after each picture you recognize as having seen before - that is during the test, not ever before in your life.

So you see, if you can't remember something you have just seen, then you may need to work on the episodic, or short term memory.

Building links to the long term memories you are already storing is also beneficial....

The so-called "senior moment" where names, faces, and recent experiences such as a simple story are forgotten, may be a sign of Alzheimer's and not "normal" memory loss or a side-effect of aging.

A new study at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Research Center in Chicago found that both subjects diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease and their counterparts without the disease had significant build-up of amyloid tangles, clumps of protein that are believed to be a primary cause of cognitive failure. Those with Alzheimer's Disease scored lower on cognitive tests.

However, those without the disease appeared to have developed a cognitive reserve that mitigated and shielded their brains from the negative effect of the protein accumulation.

The study suggests that games, crosswords, puzzles, social activities and other cognitive exercises may be responsible for the "cognitive reserve" in people who show no symptoms of decline, and may be helpful in delaying its onset.

The study is being published today in the journal Neurology.

"The results provide evidence in support of the idea that some type of neural reserve can allow a large number of older persons to tolerate a significant amount of Alzheimer’s pathology without manifesting obvious dementia," said study author David A. Bennett, MD, of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago.

"This study questions the acceptability of minor episodic memory loss in older adults as 'normal'," said Carol F. Lippa, MD, who wrote an editorial in the same issue of Neurology. "Maybe this early decline in episodic memory precedes mild cognitive impairment and should be the target of research efforts in the early detection of Alzheimer’s disease."

The study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Aging.

Can you recognize pictures that you have just seen? Or is your episodic memory in question? That is one of the hallmarks of Memorypix from cognitivelabs, which concentrates on episodic memory, or recall of something previously seen.

Brain chip made with neurons...

A uniform neural net of brain cells—a brain chip—has been created by a team of scientists lead by Yael Hanein of Tel Aviv University in Israel.

100-micrometer-wide bundles of nanotubes were used to get the rat neurons to form regular patterns on a sheet of quartz. The neurons bind to the nanotubes, which are placed close enough for the nerve cells' axons and dendrites to make links between cells and clusters. The electrical activity of the brain chip can be easily measured because carbon nanotubes conduct electricity.

According to Hanein, this method results in more uniform neural networks; they also last longer than other artificial networks of neurons, lasting up to eleven weeks.

>>how about a nanobot brain game? | Go Here

June 2006 is by far our biggest month yet , so thanks....if you go back to early 2005 it's a hockey stick since then.

Thanks again.


Betty Grable

In return, we're doing things like launching new games (such as the Darwin Turtle test) and also, the long-promised 1940's star memory tests which, on the memory TV feedback pages, was the most requested item.

MemoryPIX by the way, is replacing memoryTV for good. MemoryPIX is scientifically designed where MemoryTV provided a photostream of interesting classic pictures.

MemoryPIX combines science and media, and is a first.

On Friday, we were treated to a wonderful experience, James Conlon's interpretation of Dante's Inferno as composed by Franz Liszt, whilst at the head of the San Francisco Symphony.

My son's choral group, Ragazzi,  one of three groups performing, played the part of angeli and through their singing, raised the spirits of everyone in the concert hall.

Earlier this year Mr. Conlon impressed with his discussion of conducting and music in the U.S. while on the Charlie Rose show. Mr. Conlon is the Director of Ravinia, America's oldest outdoor musical festival near Chicago, and is taking over as the musical director of the Los Angeles Opera in the Fall.

Harriet the Turtle, once a resident of the Galapagos Islands, died yesterday in Australia. She was aged 176 years and once, if reports are to be believed, belonged to the Naturalist and Explorer Charles Darwin, who first was introduced to Harriet in 1835 when she was between 4 and 5 years old.

Darwin completed a voyage of Discovery aboard HMS Beagle in 1835 leading him to write a series of papers on behalf of scientific societies in Great Britain culminating in the Origin of Species.
You can test your memory and reaction with Harriet the Turtle
and Charles Darwin at the same time, maybe leading to your own cognitive evolution.

Take the Test Put the test on your site

Confused at Midlife: Clear Thinking About Estrogen Therapy and the Menopausal Brain

While normal aging itself can result in a decline of certain cognitive abilities, many women at midlife complain specifically of difficulties in maintaining focus and concentration - of feeling wooly-headed. But even those with younger and sharper minds are finding the information about estrogen therapy confusing.

cogtags: take a quick memory test | games for your brain | photos for your brain

Some studies on hormone therapy indicate that estrogen supplementation can help boost brain power during the menopausal transition, when some aspects of cognition, particularly verbal memory, may begin to deteriorate. Other studies, particularly the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) published in 2004, find no benefit - and even some risk - associated with hormone replacement therapy.

A large randomized controlled trial of more than 7,000 women, WHIMS found that estrogen fails to protect against cognitive aging in women who begin treatment after age 65. While these sets of findings appear to be at odds with one another, taken together, they indicate that estrogen supplementation can have the greatest benefit if begun during a woman's transition into menopause - generally between the ages of 45 and 55 - rather than years after menstruation ceases.....McGill University

Funny message-

Last pop-up allowed:

blueoystercult.com
(Thu Jun 22 21:03:55 PDT 2006)

Don't Fear the Reaper
Explore the Studio Space....


No, but seriously, you can get an Eric Bloom guitar...he of-the-permed-hair-and-sunglasses-look (wait, or was that the guy at ELO?)

According to Newsweek: and Dr. Gary Small, a memory expert

Tip #1: Sharpen your mind by doing exercises like crossword puzzles (and shutting off the TV). [Ad: take a memory test | play a game | save your memory with pictures

How it works: Research has shown that even doing simple exercises that stimulate the brain can help you stave off memory loss.

Tip #2: Maintain a positive outlook.
How it works: Studies show it can actually boost the body's immune system. Small says optimists also generally have fewer emotional difficulties, experience less pain, have more energy, and are generally happier and calmer.

Tip #3: Cultivate healthy and intimate relationships with friends and family.
How it works: Small cites research showing those who are socially connected may live up to 20 percent longer than those who lead more isolated lives. And a healthy sex life can provide several benefits (beyond the obvious)--from helping to lower blood pressure and ward off depression to boosting the immune system and improving physical fitness.

Tip #4: Promote stress-free living.
How it works: Stress is a leading cause of age-related disease, says Small. And research has shown that activities like yoga or meditation can not only reduce stress, but help fight pain and ward off illness.

Tip #5: Reduce clutter.
How it works: Removing clutter in our homes and offices helps relieve stress. Small also recommends clearing out ‘emotional clutter’ by ending relationships that are more damaging than enriching.

Tip #6: Get fit.
How it works: Research shows regular exercise boosts energy levels, improves health, and prevents many age-related diseases. Small recommends a program that combines cardiovascular conditioning, balance and flexibility, and strength training.

Tip #7: Eat a healthy diet.
How it works: A well-balanced, low-fat diet can help you lose weight and improve your health. Small promotes a diet high in antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables (like blueberries and broccoli); proteins, lean meats and healthy fats (found in wild salmon and nuts); and whole grains, legumes, and other fiber-rich carbohydrates.

Tip #8: Consider modern medicine for feeling and looking younger.
How it works: From heart transplants to Lasik eye surgery, Small points out that new medical breakthroughs are helping us live longer, healthier lives than any generation before. And cosmetic technologies can help us look younger too. Check with your doctor to see what treatments, if any, might be appropriate.

You can buy Gary's Book here:

tech mogul reaction test now sponsored by the Deal.com

We lost the guy wearing a turtleneck sweater in our ad. In this heat, it was hard to look at him.

According to the National Academy of Sciences, plus Al Gore, Earth is the hottest it has been since the year 6 A.D. and the time of Caesar Augustus.

Does Music Build Brains?

A new issue of the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences takes a closer look at how music evolved and how we respond to it and the role of music in cognitive growth.

Researchers believe that animals such as birds, dolphins and whales make sounds analogous to music out of a desire to imitate each other. This ability to learn and imitate sounds is a trait necessary to acquire language and scientists feel that many of the sounds animals make may be precursors to human music. (Reminiscent of Aslan the Lion)

In another surprise, scientists found more grey matter in the auditory cortex of the right hemisphere in musicians compared to nonmusicians. Listening to classical music, particularly Mozart, is thought to enhance performance on cognitive tests. Use of music to enhance memory suggests that recitation enhances the coding of information by activating neural networks in a more united and thus more optimal fashion.

Fox News does BrainAge...from Kotaku.

I guess everybody likes it or it is non-controversial.

Who can argue with Brain fitness.The link has a youtube short.

The previews to the long-awaited game Prey will be available at midnight tonight (June 22,2006). Prey was a big part of E3 in both 2005 and 2006, that's how high the level of anticipation is, far greater than Heinz ketchup. For now, test your ability to react using some of the pix from the game.

How fast are you?

If you haven't seen a picture yet, don't press the space bar.

If you have seen it, press it as fast as you can.

Pure brainspeed.

An actual measure of your brain and body's electromechanical efficiency, vectored by the speed of your processor.

Have fun and get ready for the real thing.

more about the story? go here

According to Snoop Dogg, Orbit Gum (from the Wm. Wrigley Co.) speeds up your brain and helps you concentrate. I know this because they had an ad running on this site. (not on this page, however)

The site uses Flash video which is becoming omnipresent.

Can you remember when they came out?






Which did you see first

Parasite impacts up to 50 million Americans....

  
try a simian memorypix...

Do primates remember the weather?

New research suggests that they do. Scientists studied the food foraging patterns of simians and found that at least some primates can use their stored knowledge of recent weather as a tool for guiding their foraging behavior when searching for ripening fruit. The work, which potentially informs our understanding of how cognitive skills developed in humans and other primates, is reported by Karline Janmaat, Richard Byrne, and Klaus Zuberbühler of the University of St. Andrews in the June 20th issue of Current Biology.

The question of why primates, and especially humans, have more strongly developed cognitive skills than other mammals has a long history in science. The most widely accepted notion has been that primates' superior cognitive abilities have evolved in the social realm. Many primate species live in complex societies, and, the argument goes, this favored the evolution of especially developed social skills. Although there is much empirical evidence in favor of the social-intelligence hypothesis, very little work has been conducted to address its alternative, the idea that primate cognition has evolved to deal with problems of an ecological nature, such as foraging for food.

With their new work, the researchers sought to address this anomalous gap. By following a group of wild gray-cheeked mangabeys from dawn to dusk over 210 days in their natural rainforest habitat of Kibale Forest, Uganda, the scientists obtained an almost complete record of their foraging decisions in relation to their preferred food, figs. The data showed that the monkeys were more likely to revisit fig trees (in which they had found fruit before) after a period of warm and sunny days than after a period of cold and cloudy days. Temperature and solar radiation are known to accelerate maturation of fruits and insect larvae inside them. The researchers were able to show that past weather conditions--as opposed to sensory cues such as the smell of ripe fruit--accounted for the behavioral trend they observed.

These findings are consistent with the idea that monkeys make foraging decisions on the basis of episodic (or "event-based") memories of whether or not a tree previously carried fruit, combined with knowledge of recent and present weather conditions and a more generalized understanding of the relationship between temperature and solar radiation and the maturation rate of fruit and insect larvae. The findings are also consistent with the idea that the evolution of primate cognitive skills has proceeded, at least in part, as a result of ecological challenges associated with foraging for intermittently available food such as ripening fruit.

For expert commentary on this work, be sure to see the related Dispatch in this issue of Current Biology from Dr. Michael Platt: "Animal Cognition: Monkey Meteorology."

This is the screenshot for memorypix.

The code on the lower right can be pasted anywhere on your site or bulletin board and will create an instant memory test - in fact exactly the same as what you get on cognitivelabs.com. So, whatever your interests are, there will likely be a test for you.

Adobe is now advertising on the site, since they now offer Flash. (see ad in the shot)

In the World Cup, Netherlands vs. Cote d'Ivoire; Switzerland vs Togo, and Ukraine vs. Saudi Arabia (realtime!)

Now you can commit it to memory and post it in your Blog.

When I'm 64. Paul McCartney turns 64 today.

More World Cup updates coming including Netherlands-Ivory Coast and more....

Yahoo! News runs a feature called This Week in Photos which is a collection of memorable photos of the week, now you can use photos like these to exercise your memory, before you even forget them. Deepen your understanding and recall of current events.

Tired of reading about explosions in mosques in Iraq? Why not take a look at some of the most interesting architectural designs incorporated in mosques, from the Golden Horn to India.

In the news: Stephen Hawking, who announced on 6/13 that humans must colonize space to insure species' survival and today, that the Pope had at one point asked him to refrain from exploring the origins of the Universe, which is at the center of the Hawking Cosmology.

This tribute exercise includes some pix from his speech this week at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and also, some lighter moments....

We just fixed a minor bug in memorypix paste-in code that you can use to add a memorypix to your site. We tried it in blogger and of course it does not work in your post but must be inserted somewhere on your template. For myspace, it works fine and should work on livejournal and other blog software solutions or in most CMS systems. We want people to have a seamless experience of adding it to their site. We also removed the registration system that was embedded with the code and will keep that on cognitivelabs.com

It will be propagating across all the tests.

test yourself


Amanda Beck of Reuters has written an informative piece on caloric restriction and Alzheimer's from a new study. Eating less may indeed be an effective strategy.

The sleep and brain activity patterns of fruit flies appear to be linked to centers of learning and memory, according to Science Daily .The implication is that levels of immobility in the sleeping insect or mammal may be subtly altered depending on input.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that a brain region previously known for its role in learning and memory also serves as the location of sleep regulation in fruit flies. Through further examination of this brain structure, researchers hope to shed light on sleep regulation and its role in memory.

Despite its importance in everyday human function, very little is known about the regulation of sleep. In search of the underlying brain region responsible for sleep regulation, senior author Amita Sehgal, PhD, Professor of Neuroscience and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Investigator, and colleagues turned their attention to the fruit fly.

"Fruit flies and humans share similar resting patterns," explains Sehgal. "Like humans, the sleeping states of fruit flies are characterized by periods of immobility over a twenty-four hour period, during which the fruit flies demonstrate reduced responsiveness to sensory stimuli."

By tinkering with the gene expression of multiple regions of the fruit fly brain, the research team was able to zero in on the adult mushroom body as the sleep center of the brain. They reported their findings in last week's issue of Nature.

To locate the brain region involved in sleep regulation, Sehgal manipulated the activity of an enzyme known as protein kinase A (PKA). Previous work in Sehgal's lab revealed that the higher the level of PKA activity, the lower the period of immobility, or sleep, in the fruit fly. By building upon this work, Sehgal and others set out to increase PKA activity in various regions of the brain and examine the subsequent sleeping patterns in the fruit flies. "Sleeping fruit flies" were defined as those that remained immobile for at least five minutes.

"From the beginning, we took the unbiased approach," explains Sehgal. "We targeted PKA activity to different areas of the fly brain to find out where PKA acts to regulate sleep."

Sehgal was able to selectively turn on PKA activity in a variety of brain locations, which promoted PKA expression in designated regions. Of the different regions targeted, only two regions, both present in the adult mushroom bodies, led to changes in sleeping patterns of fruit flies. The fly mushroom body has been likened to the human hippocampus. The changes in sleep caused by the increased PKA activity in the adult mushroom bodies highlighted this region as the sleep-regulating region of the fruit fly brain.

When PKA activity was expressed in one of the two distinct regions of the mushroom bodies, increased sleep occurred while expression in the other region decreased sleep in the flies. Thus, the adult mushroom bodies possess both sleep-promoting and sleep-inhibiting areas.

"Although people typically think of mushroom bodies as possessing similar functions to the human hippocampus, the site where long-term memories are made, our lab tends to think of the mushroom bodies functioning more like the thalamus, the relay station through which most sensory input to the brain is targeted," explains Sehgal. "Previous research links the thalamus to a role in human sleep." (There is no human structure that is anatomically similar to the adult mushroom bodies of fruit flies.)

Identifying the role of adult mushroom bodies in sleep may offer insight into how and why sleep is needed to assist in learning and memory consolidation. In mammals, sleep deprivation suppresses the performance of learned tasks, and sleep permits memory consolidation. Distinct anatomical regions of adult mushroom bodies have been shown to be important for at least some forms of memory in fruit flies.

In a paper also published last week in Current Biology, Sehgal and colleagues showed that serotonin affects sleep in fruit flies by acting at the site of the adult mushroom bodies.

Sehgal's lab reduced the function of three types of serotonin receptors in the brains of fruit flies (5HT1A, 5HT1B, and 5HT2). The reduced 5HT1A receptor activity in the fruit flies led to fragmented and reduced overall sleep. In essence, the fruit flies tossed and turned in their sleep. But, the flies with reduced 5HT1B and 5HT2 receptor activity displayed no change in their sleeping pattern. Penn researchers were able to treat the fruit flies to a good night's sleep by administering serotonin to the adult mushroom bodies.

The finding that serotonin plays a role in increasing sleep in fruit flies offers hope for the future of therapeutics for sleep disorders. "Serotonin may also promote sleep in humans," suggests Sehgal. "This may explain why serotonin-increasing antidepressants increase sleep."

Future work by Sehgal's lab will attempt to look for a connection among sleep, serotonin, and learning, and memory, while looking deeper into the cellular and molecular activity that enables mushroom bodies to regulate sleep.

Coauthors of the Nature study are William J. Joiner and Amanda Crocker, both from Penn, and Benjamin H. White, from the National Institutes of Health. Coauthors of the Current Biology study are Quan Yuan and William J. Joiner, both from Penn. These studies were funded by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the National Sleep Foundation and by the National Institutes of Health.

Here's a cool site, lots of interesting things.