All posts; Tags Include "Cognitive Neuroscience"
- January 15, 2014
- 08:20 AM
- 784 views
Pump Up Your Brain
by Mark Lasbury in As Many Exceptions As Rules
Exercise increases brainpower, but do you know how? Many recent studies document the results of exercise on executive function, memory, processing speed, and attention, but some are also investigating just how these changes in cognitive function are brought about.
In particular a 2013 study shows that preadolescents who begin exercise score better on a cognitive assessment not unlike an IQ test. They also perform better on a math test, even though no additional math instruction was given. On ........ Read more »
Patten AR, Sickmann H, Hryciw BN, Kucharsky T, Parton R, Kernick A, & Christie BR. (2013) Long-term exercise is needed to enhance synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. Learning , 20(11), 642-7. PMID: 24131795
Cassilhas RC, Lee KS, Fernandes J, Oliveira MG, Tufik S, Meeusen R, & de Mello MT. (2012) Spatial memory is improved by aerobic and resistance exercise through divergent molecular mechanisms. Neuroscience, 309-17. PMID: 22155655
Davis CL, Tomporowski PD, McDowell JE, Austin BP, Miller PH, Yanasak NE, Allison JD, & Naglieri JA. (2011) Exercise improves executive function and achievement and alters brain activation in overweight children: a randomized, controlled trial. Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association, 30(1), 91-8. PMID: 21299297
Tam ND. (2013) Improvement of Processing Speed in Executive Function Immediately following an Increase in Cardiovascular Activity. Cardiovascular psychiatry and neurology, 212767. PMID: 24187613
- January 14, 2014
- 09:20 AM
- 644 views
Weight Loss Drug Combo Improves Sleep Apnea
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Obesity is a risk factor for obstructive sleep apnea. Use of a positive airway pressure (PAP) device is the standard treatment for sleep apnea.However, PAP commonly is only moderately effective in reducing sleep disruption and day time fatigue. A significant number of individuals fail to use their PAP devices due to inconvenience or mask problems.Weight loss alone can improve sleep in those developing sleep apnea. Winslow and colleagues at the Kentucky Research conducted a randomi........ Read more »
Winslow DH, Bowden CH, DiDonato KP, & McCullough PA. (2012) A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of an oral, extended-release formulation of phentermine/topiramate for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea in obese adults. Sleep, 35(11), 1529-39. PMID: 23115402
- January 13, 2014
- 08:49 PM
- 959 views
Using Ultrasound to Boost Brain Performance
by Jason Carr in Wired Cosmos
Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute scientists have demonstrated that ultrasound directed to a specific region of the brain can boost performance in sensory discrimination. Whales, bats, and even praying mantises use ultrasound as a sensory guidance system — and now a new study has found that ultrasound can modulate brain activity to heighten sensory perception … Read More →... Read more »
Wynn Legon, Tomokazu F Sato, Alexander Opitz, Jerel Mueller, Aaron Barbour, Amanda Williams, & William J Tyler. (2014) Transcranial focused ultrasound modulates the activity of primary somatosensory cortex in humans. Nature Neuroscience. info:/10.1038/nn.3620
- January 7, 2014
- 09:37 AM
- 728 views
Weight Loss Surgery Improves Memory and Cognition
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
I have reviewed some research evidence documenting the adverse effect of obesity on cognition.Dementia rates do appear increased in obese populations but the mechanism and issue of causality is unclear.If there is a direct effect of obesity on brain function, one might expect weight loss to improve cognition.There have been a series of papers examining changes in cognition following bariatric weight loss surgery using the Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery study.At baseline, about one ........ Read more »
Gunstad J, Strain G, Devlin MJ, Wing R, Cohen RA, Paul RH, Crosby RD, & Mitchell JE. (2011) Improved memory function 12 weeks after bariatric surgery. Surgery for obesity and related diseases : official journal of the American Society for Bariatric Surgery, 7(4), 465-72. PMID: 21145295
Alosco ML, Galioto R, Spitznagel MB, Strain G, Devlin M, Cohen R, Crosby RD, Mitchell JE, & Gunstad J. (2013) Cognitive function after bariatric surgery: evidence for improvement 3 years after surgery. American journal of surgery. PMID: 24119892
- December 30, 2013
- 10:24 PM
- 772 views
Electroconvulsive Therapy Impairs Memory Reconsolidation
by The Neurocritic in The Neurocritic
** This post is meant to be read in tandem with its more critical cousin, How Can We Forget? at The Neurocritic. **Thymatron® System IV (Somatics, LLC)“Memories are constantly changing, each time we recall them they're physically different.”- me, July 7, 2006The precision of memory over time is a quaint idea. A large body of research shows us that memories are not fixed entities (Alberini & Ledoux, 2013). Every time a specific memory “trace” is reactivated, it enters a transiently u........ Read more »
Kroes MC, Tendolkar I, van Wingen GA, van Waarde JA, Strange BA, & Fernández G. (2013) An electroconvulsive therapy procedure impairs reconsolidation of episodic memories in humans. Nature neuroscience. PMID: 24362759
Schiller D, Monfils MH, Raio CM, Johnson DC, Ledoux JE, & Phelps EA. (2010) Preventing the return of fear in humans using reconsolidation update mechanisms. Nature, 463(7277), 49-53. PMID: 20010606
- December 27, 2013
- 05:15 AM
- 1,255 views
Autistic brains: Under- or over-connected?
by Jon Brock in Cracking the Enigma
SourceFor a while now, the prevailing view has been that the brains of people with autism are "underconnected" and that this lack of communication between different parts of the brain causes at least some of the features of autism. It's an intuitively plausible idea but it was always likely to be an over-simplification.Recently, a number of studies have pointed to the exact opposite - an increase in connectivity in autism. The emerging story is that kids with autism have "hyper connected" b........ Read more »
García Domínguez L, Stieben J, Pérez Velázquez JL, & Shanker S. (2013) The imaginary part of coherency in autism: differences in cortical functional connectivity in preschool children. PloS one, 8(10). PMID: 24098409
Supekar K, Uddin LQ, Khouzam A, Phillips J, Gaillard WD, Kenworthy LE, Yerys BE, Vaidya CJ, & Menon V. (2013) Brain hyperconnectivity in children with autism and its links to social deficits. Cell reports, 5(3), 738-47. PMID: 24210821
- December 17, 2013
- 09:32 AM
- 750 views
Does control of cognition have to be conscious?
by Janet Kwasniak in Neuro-patch
What are the functions of consciousness in cognition? In fact, are there any? Over many experiments, it has been shown that unconscious information processing is common, powerful, sophisticated and not completely unlike ‘conscious processing’. Unconscious processing can reach higher semantic levels. But many theories, some very widely accepted such as the Global Neuronal Workspace, contain […]... Read more »
Desender K, Van Lierde E, & Van den Bussche E. (2013) Comparing conscious and unconscious conflict adaptation. PloS one, 8(2). PMID: 23405242
- December 15, 2013
- 06:45 AM
- 573 views
fMR-Why? Bad Science Meets Chocolate and Body Envy
by Rebecca Schwarzlose in Garden of the Mind
An experiment on bulimia goes awry: an example of less-than-exemplary research.... Read more »
Van den Eynde F, Giampietro V, Simmons A, Uher R, Andrew CM, Harvey PO, Campbell IC, & Schmidt U. (2013) Brain responses to body image stimuli but not food are altered in women with bulimia nervosa. BMC Psychiatry, 13(1), 302. PMID: 24238299
- December 12, 2013
- 11:56 AM
- 1,085 views
Regular Exercise Linked to Lower Dementia Risk in Men
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Tiger Woods Practices at 2010 PGA ChampionshipThere has been quite a bit of news coverage of the recent release of a study of the effects of a healthy lifestyle.This study led by Peter Elwood examined the rates of chronic diseases and dementia in a cohort of 2,235 men assessed in 1979 in the city of Caerphilly, United Kingdom.The authors identified five healthy lifestyle variables in the original assessment including smoking status, BMI, fruit and vegetable consumption, regular exercise and reas........ Read more »
Peter Elwood, Julieta Galante, Janet Pickering,Stephen Palmer,Antony Bayer,Yoav Ben-Shlomo,Marcus Longley,John Gallacher. (2013) Healthy Lifestyles Reduce the Incidence of Chronic Diseases and Dementia: Evidence from the Caerphilly Cohort Study. PLOS One. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081877
- December 10, 2013
- 11:42 AM
- 847 views
Football Concussion, CTE and Brain Pathology
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
The relationship between football-related head injury and brain disorders is an important research topic.Case reports of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) continue to emerge among retired NFL football players.In a previous post, I have summarized a Mayo Clinic study finding limited evidence for increased brain injury in a cohort of high school football players.In another related post, I summarized research demonstrating college football players with sport-related head trauma had evidence of........ Read more »
Hazrati LN, Tartaglia MC, Diamandis P, Davis KD, Green RE, Wennberg R, Wong JC, Ezerins L, & Tator CH. (2013) Absence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in retired football players with multiple concussions and neurological symptomatology. Frontiers in human neuroscience, 222. PMID: 23745112
- December 9, 2013
- 09:26 PM
- 378 views
Language in developmental and acquired disorders
by Dan Mirman in Minding the Brain
As I mentioned in an earlier post, last June I had the great pleasure and honor of participating in a discussion meeting on Language in Developmental and Acquired Disorders hosted by the Royal Society and organized by Dorothy Bishop, Kate Nation, and Karalyn Patterson. Among the many wonderful things about this meeting was that it brought together people who study similar kinds of language deficit issues but in very different populations -- children with developmental language deficits such as d........ Read more »
Mirman, D, & Britt, A. E. (2014) What we talk about when we talk about access deficits. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 369(1634). info:/
- December 6, 2013
- 04:14 PM
- 1,317 views
Does a baby's eye gaze really predict future autism?
by Jon Brock in Cracking the Enigma
Baby's gaze may signal autism, study finds. That was the headline in the New York Times. The BBC declared that Autism signs present in first months of life. Turning the hype up to 11, a Canadian website boldly announced that Researchers prove that autism can be diagnosed right at the infant stage and that intervention is possible.Nature, the journal that published the study, ran with Autism symptoms seen in babies, summarising the findings thus:Children with autism make less ........ Read more »
Jones W, & Klin A. (2013) Attention to eyes is present but in decline in 2-6-month-old infants later diagnosed with autism. Nature. PMID: 24196715
- December 6, 2013
- 04:10 PM
- 1,365 views
A BOLD signal in the hippocampus ambiguous
by Emilie Reas in Emilie Reas - Remember
When you see a red blob on an fMRI activity map, what do you think? We all know fMRI doesn’t directly measure neural activity, yet an increased BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) response is commonly used as a proxy for elevated “brain activity”. This interpretation is, in fact, strongly supported by studies identifying a relationship […]... Read more »
Reas ET, & Brewer JB. (2013) Imbalance of incidental encoding across tasks: An explanation for non-memory-related hippocampal activations?. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 142(4), 1171-9. PMID: 23773160
- November 27, 2013
- 11:08 AM
- 647 views
Tools for Measurement of Alzheimer's Disease
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Brain Hippocampus Highlighted in GreenThere are a multitude of tools that provide measurements of cognitive and physical function.Choosing the best tools to assess and monitor Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia is an important clinical task.A research team from the Netherlands recently reviewed the assessment of cognitive and physical assessment in older adults with dementia.Their goal was to provide a recommended set of tests that would improve consensus and aid in the research in ........ Read more »
Bossers WJ, van der Woude LH, Boersma F, Scherder EJ, & van Heuvelen MJ. (2012) Recommended measures for the assessment of cognitive and physical performance in older patients with dementia: a systematic review. Dementia and geriatric cognitive disorders extra, 2(1), 589-609. PMID: 23341825
- November 26, 2013
- 11:55 AM
- 708 views
Dietary Nuts, Cancer, Heart Disease and Death
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
There is a growing body of research linking dietary nut consumption with reduced risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.A recent large study adds to our understanding of this link.Ying Bao and colleagues published the results of a large epidemiological study using women participating in the Nurse's Health Study and men participating in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.Approximately 120,000 participants in these two studies were followed over a period of 30 years.During the course of t........ Read more »
Bao Y, Han J, Hu FB, Giovannucci EL, Stampfer MJ, Willett WC, & Fuchs CS. (2013) Association of nut consumption with total and cause-specific mortality. The New England journal of medicine, 369(21), 2001-11. PMID: 24256379
- November 25, 2013
- 11:30 AM
- 879 views
Brain Adaption in Developmental Mathematics Disorder
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Disability in learning mathematics is a common condition affecting about 5% of the population.I have previously posted a research review on the topic of developmental mathematics disorder, also known as dyscalculia here.A recent imaging study sheds some light on some of the brain correlates of developmental mathematics disorder.Cappelleti and Price from the University College of London studied a group of eleven individuals with developmental mathematics disorder.Subjects in the study were adults........ Read more »
Cappelletti M, & Price CJ. (2013) Residual number processing in dyscalculia. NeuroImage. Clinical, 18-28. PMID: 24266008
- November 23, 2013
- 03:07 PM
- 705 views
People with superhuman memories still mistake fantasy for reality
by Shelly Fan in Neurorexia
When I was young, the one superpower I craved above all was perfect memory. I’d picture my eyes as camcorder lenses, recording everything I read, saw and experienced into the Kodak film that was my brain. Anytime I wanted to re-experience something, I’d simply hit a mental “play” button and BAM! The video of my […]... Read more »
Patihis L, Frenda SJ, Leport AK, Petersen N, Nichols RM, Stark CE, McGaugh JL, & Loftus EF. (2013) False memories in highly superior autobiographical memory individuals. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. PMID: 24248358
- November 20, 2013
- 11:20 AM
- 714 views
Preterm Birth: Exploring the Link to Low Socioeconomic Status
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
Previous posts in this series looked at the brain disorders linked to preterm birth including ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and learning disability. There is a strong incentive for public health prevention interventions to reduce the number and severity of preterm birth.These efforts require better understanding of the specific risk factors and mechanisms for preterm labor and birth.Known risk factors for preterm birth include:Previous preterm birthFirst pregnancyLow socioec........ Read more »
Räisänen S, Gissler M, Saari J, Kramer M, & Heinonen S. (2013) Contribution of risk factors to extremely, very and moderately preterm births - register-based analysis of 1,390,742 singleton births. PloS one, 8(4). PMID: 23577142
- November 14, 2013
- 12:00 PM
- 1,313 views
Preterm Birth and Risk of Adult Bipolar Disorder
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
In the previous two posts, I reviewed recent studies of childhood outcome following preterm birth.These posts highlighted the increased risk for childhood anxiety, ADHD and autism as well as increased risk for learning disability and cerebral palsy.Preterm birth appears related to the risk for adult brain disorders including schizophrenia.A recent study from Sweden provides some additional insight into the common risk for preterm birth to influence rates for a variety of adult brain disorders.No........ Read more »
Nosarti C, Reichenberg A, Murray RM, Cnattingius S, Lambe MP, Yin L, MacCabe J, Rifkin L, & Hultman CM. (2012) Preterm birth and psychiatric disorders in young adult life. Archives of general psychiatry, 69(6). PMID: 22660967
- November 13, 2013
- 12:29 PM
- 744 views
Preterm Birth and Childhood Brain Disorders II
by William Yates, M.D. in Brain Posts
This is the second in a series of three posts examining the role of preterm birth in later child and adult brain disorders.In a previous post, I reviewed a recent study showing evidence on increased risk for anxiety disorder, ADHD and autism in preterm birth children by age 7 years of age.In this post I want to review and comment on a large French study of outcome in a cohort of very preterm children.Marrett and colleagues summarized the key elements in the design of their research:Sample: All p........ Read more »
Marret S, Marchand-Martin L, Picaud JC, Hascoët JM, Arnaud C, Rozé JC, Truffert P, Larroque B, Kaminski M, Ancel PY.... (2013) Brain injury in very preterm children and neurosensory and cognitive disabilities during childhood: the EPIPAGE cohort study. PloS one, 8(5). PMID: 23658763
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