According to the CDC, nearly 5% of American adults have regular feelings of depression. Scientists have suggested that one possible cognitive deficit that people with depression experience relates to “inhibitory control”—the ability to make a considered, controlled response instead of an impulsive one. Without strong inhibitory control, people can spiral into sadness. A new study conducted by Posit Science in collaboration with Hebrew University and Dominican University aimed to test this hypothesis, and found that people with depressive symptoms did, indeed, have less inhibitory control. To date, most treatment of depressive symptoms has relied on medication and talk therapy. But as our CEO Dr. Henry Mahncke has pointed out, “this study raises an interesting question—could improving inhibitory control through brain training improve mental health?” Read this article from Happiful to learn more! |
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Best regards, Jeff Zimman Co-founder Posit Science |
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| | Aduhelm: Hope or Hype? Alzheimer’s patients and their families were overjoyed to hear of a new FDA-approved Alzheimer’s drug: Aduhelm. After all, the field has been agonizingly stuck—no new drug has been introduced in 20 years. But does Aduhelm offer real hope? Critics say the benefit it offers is very limited, and even that is built on less-than-perfect data. Learn more. |
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Brain “Drift” The brain’s plasticity—its ability to change by constantly rewiring itself in response to new learning—is well established. But now scientists are finding that the brain may change even more than they thought. The general premise was that once neurons learned to represent something new—say, the smell of an apple—those neurons would remain roughly the same. But according to recent research, they can actually “drift,” so that over time, the same smell becomes represent by an entirely different set of neurons. Why does this happen? Find out what scientists think. |
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Menopause and the Brain Hot flashes, insomnia, and other common side effects of the transition to menopause originate in the brain. But until recently, scientists have not had a clear picture of the differences between the pre-menopausal, peri-menopausal, and post-menopausal brain. An important new imaging study led by Dr. Lisa Mosconi highlights many of ways in which a woman’s brain changes during this transition, such as a reduction in brain volume and changes in blood flow. The good news is that many of these changes are transitory, or partially compensated for after the transition is complete, suggesting that “the brain has the ability to find a new ‘normal’ after menopause.” Learn more. |
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What Do Covid-19 Patients and Alzheimer’s Patients Have in Common? A new study compared the brains of people who died of COVID-19 with those that died of other causes. The researchers found that the brains of those who died of COVID-19 showed significant inflammation and degeneration—not dissimilar to the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurological conditions. Some questions remain, though. Learn more. |
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What One Cubic Millimeter of the Human Brain Can Teach Us Researchers at Google (and elsewhere) have created the most detailed map ever of a part the human brain. It’s beautiful—and contains about 50,000 cells, with 130 million neural connections. Storing the entire data set would take the memory capacity of about 700 normal computers. How big is this piece of brain tissue? Just one cubic millimeter. Learn more or, if you’re so inclined, explore the map yourself. |
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News from BrainHQ Recently, we made some significant improvements to the BrainHQ Android app! We added a "reminders" feature, so users can get messages sent via email, text, or mobile alert on the days and times of their choosing, just as they can on the website. Also, for those who like to choose their own exercises when they train, there's a new user interface and useful graphs that help track progress. |
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Reckonings: Numerals, Cognition, and History (2020) By Stephen Chrisomalis How do we represent numbers? Why do we do it like that? It wasn’t inevitable—there have been more than 100 methods over the past 5000 years. In Reckonings, anthropologist Stephen Chrisomalis “argues that written numerals are conceptual tools that are transformed to fit the perceived needs of their users, and that the sorts of cognitive processes that affect decision-making around numerical activity are complex and involve social factors.” It’s a fascinating work on what is, and what could have been. Learn more. |
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