Cognitive Labs

Low Bandwidth gets a new meaning.

One of the studies presented at the International Alzheimer's Association Conference was fascinating - asymptomatic APOEe4 positive people - the most reliable genetic indicator of Alzheimer's susceptibility yet identified - seem to have connectivity issues between the hippocampus and posterior cingulated cortex, according to researchers at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

A new MRI technique being developed by Shi Jiang Li and colleagues and tested on 28 subjects, 12 APOEe4 positive, showed that the non APOEe4 group exhibited 65% better connectivity than the APOEe4 group by measuring response across the brain from a resting state.

This correlates rather well with Dr. O'Hara's paper involving the Cognitive Labs tests/games, where APOEe4 individuals were found overall to have lower scales of performance. Fortunately, it's much easier to take our test than to get an MRI. Can you imagine how expensive it would be for 7.4 million MRI sessions to be administered? With no paperwork and bureaucracy allowance (this is an unreal assumption) the cost would be at least $7 billion, and possibly $15-$20 billion, fully allocated.

Now you can take self-assessment in your own hands by putting this sensitive technology on your own website, if you want - it's still free, for now. The upside - a public good, is potentially in the billions per year.

Learning about your own body and mind - before problems and accumulated wear and tear impair performance, can lead to being proactive about your lifestyle, which at present is the best way to stay healthy physically and cognitively.

Labels: apoee4, brain, Jiang, Ohara, Shi, Wisconsin

At UC-Irvine, scientists are studying a man with a hyperthymestic memory, planning to use an advanced MRI array to analyze whether or not he shows any signs of structural brain differences compared with the norm.

In hyperthymesticsm, individuals have a more efficient database, remembering most details about daily activities years later, associating each with a name and a date.

Interestingly, they do not show superior behavior on information processing and immediate memory tasks, just exceptional recall. Nor are such individuals savants, with deficiencies in one area but exceptional skills in others areas, such as numeric computation.

Findings might improve our understanding of the mechanism of knowledge accumulation and retention and locate it more precisely in the brain.

Labels: 1964, condition, hyperthymestic, Irvine, UC, Williams, Wisconsin