Cognitive Labs

Meditation, Relaxation. and Deep Thinking is threatened by constant reliance on digital devices, say neuroscientists in a NY Times piece.

Labels: bates, nytimes, piece

Scientists believe that preventing loneliness and developing social connections, or the lack thereof, can play a role in whether or not individuals become susceptible for Alzheimer's according to recent research. Having a large number of friends on social networks like myspace or facebook may not mitigate these findings...

Labels: social

A shift in research strategy among scientists is beginning to yield insights into how Alzheimer’s disease begins. The key to the Alzheimer’s project was an agreement as ambitious as its goal: not just to raise money, not just to do research on a vast scale, but also to share all the data, making every single finding public immediately, available to anyone with a computer anywhere in the world.

Labels: research, ucsf, weiner

Scientists believe that sometimes the brain throws up roadblocks to prevent the cortex from being disturbed during crucial periods of sleep when memories are consolidated. These roadblocks are sleep spindles, which also have a characteristic appearance on an EEG.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School's Division of Sleep Medicine and colleagues theorized that people whose brains produced a higher rate of sleep spindles would be rewarded with a sounder sleep.

To test their hypothesis, they convinced 12 volunteers to spend three nights in a sleep lab at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital....read the whole piece

Labels: latimes, spindles, thalamus