Unlike other skills we seem to have mastered as we grew up, reading and comprehension seem to be something we take for granted. If we read at normal speeds of around 120 words a minute with good comprehension we think that is enough. Think about it though, how many times have you read something and [...]
No matter where I go I get asked to do some kind of memory challenge. It’s all part of being a memory training expert and two-time U.S. Memory Champion. I don’t mind. It’s not only flattering, but it gives me a chance to practice and tune up my skills, and I really get a kick [...]
When our children are born we automatically have dreams of them becoming another Einstein, or someone who will make great advances to our world. What can we do to give them a leg up and help them on their way to greatness? We know that genetics plays a part in developing our brains, but there [...]
In a study published in the April 28, 2011 journal of Neuron, cognitive scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, and U.C. Berkeley identified a brain region called the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) as critical for establishing one’s particular place in space and perception of themselves (What is my place in the world?) There is [...]
Considerable research is available, done by archeologists, psychologists, neurogists and all sorts of “ists†to support that fact that music plays a key role in our lives and our ability to communicate. Many believe that the ability to communicate through music came before the ability to communicate through speech. Language and music share the same [...]
Most of us have a friend or family member who has received some devastating news and was afraid to tell his/her family. Eventually they had to, and instead of being scorned or turned away the family and friends rallied around him/her in their support and the patient was able to turn a dire prognosis around. [...]
There are several foods classified as brain foods that enhance your brain performance. They increase the blood flow to the brain and provide nutritional value. On the other side of the spectrum, there are foods that have a negative effect on your brain. Bad food provides little to no nutritional value, and decrease, if not [...]
In the largest genome-wide association study (GWAS) ever conducted on Alzheimer’s, researchers from around the world studied and shared information from the DNA samples of more than 56,000 participants. They analyzed the data to detect gene variations that could produce subtle effects on the developing, or risk for developing, Alzheimer’s. Results of the study were [...]
We judge things to be true based on how often we hear them. We like familiarity, and repeating a lie often enough makes it familiar to us - the repetition making it fall right in with all of the things our memory tells us are true about the world. Politicians and advertisers are aware of [...]
Fiction writers have been injecting cell memory plots into their stories long before transplants were even done. Austrian director Maurice Renard's introduced the idea in his silent film in 1924 titled, Les Mains d'Orlac, where a pianist lost his hands and they were replaced with the hands of a killer. The pianist then became a [...]
