Mom and dad, stop stifling me – it’s damaging my brain

Overprotective parents inhibit more than their kids’ freedom: they may also slow brain growth in an area linked to mental illness.

Children whose parents are overprotective or neglectful are believed to be more susceptible to psychiatric disorders – which in turn are associated with defects in part of the prefrontal cortex.

To investigate the link, Kosuke Narita of Gunma University, Japan, scanned the brains of 50 people in their 20s and asked them to fill out a survey about their relationship with their parents during their first 16 years. Read the rest of this entry »

Mind tricks: Six ways to explore your brain

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Giving the ‘unconscious’ a voice

THE inner voice of people who appear unconscious can now be heard. For the first time, researchers have struck up a conversation with a man diagnosed as being in a vegetative state. All they had to do was monitor how his brain responded to specific questions. This means that it may now be possible to give some individuals in the same state a degree of autonomy.

“They can now have some involvement in their destiny,” says Adrian Owen of the University of Cambridge, who led the team doing the work. Read the rest of this entry »

Instant Expert: Mental Health

When the heart breaks down, it beats erratically or not at all. A bone can chip or snap. But when the complex network of neurons in our brain malfunctions, the result can be a near-endless variety and combinations of mental illnesses.

It’s normal to sometimes be sad, happy, anxious, confused, forgetful or fearful, but when a person’s emotions, thoughts or behaviour frequently trouble them, or disrupt their lives, they may be suffering from mental illness. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 450 million people worldwide are affected by mental, neurological or behavioural problems at any time. Read the rest of this entry »

Forgotten Memories Are Still in Your Brain

For anyone who’s ever forgotten something or someone they wish they could remember, a bit of solace: Though the memory is hidden from your conscious mind, it might not be gone.

In a study of college students, brain imaging detected patterns of activation that corresponded to memories the students thought they’d lost.

“Even though your brain still holds this information, you might not always have access to it,” said neurobiologist Jeffrey Johnson of the University of California, Irvine. His remarks appeared in the study he co-authored, published Wednesday in Neuron. Read the rest of this entry »

What Makes Us Happy?

The (Scientific) Pursuit of Happiness

The Harvard Study of Adult Development, begun in 1937, has been following the lives of 268 men, from college to death, to learn what makes for a good life.

Dr. George Vaillant, a professor at Harvard Medical School, has been the director of the study for 42 years. In this excellent short video from The Atlantic, he discusses lessons he learned about fame, ambition, and happiness along the way. In the end, his expansive empirical studies confirmed what John Lennon told us a few decades ago:

“The job isn’t conforming, it isn’t keeping up with the Jones’. It is playing and working and loving. And loving is probably the most important. Happiness is love. Full stop.”

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6 Minutes to a Better Memory

For a quick and easy boost to your brainpower this weekend, pull down the shades, close your eyes, and catch some daytime ZZZs.

People who take daytime naps outperform non-nappers on memory exercises. And, surprisingly, a mere 6 minutes of shut-eye is enough to refresh the mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Take Note: Doodling Can Help Memory

It actually keeps us on track with boring tasks, study suggests

You might look like you’re not paying attention when you doodle, but science says otherwise.

Researchers in the United Kingdom found that test subjects who doodled while listening to a recorded message had a 29 percent better recall of the message’s details than those who didn’t doodle. The findings were published in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

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How your friends’ friends can affect your mood

Your behaviour is influenced by others far more strongly than you might think, even if you’ve never met them.

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