Alzheimer’s Disease Skips Over Musical Part of the Brain

Why musical memory can be preserved in advanced Alzheimer’s disease   Musical memory is considered to be partly independent from other memory systems. In Alzheimer’s disease and different types of dementia, musical memory is surprisingly robust, and likewise for brain lesions affecting other kinds of memory. However, the mechanisms and neural substrates of musical memory…

Math anxiety linked to reduced ability to gut check

Basically, if you feel anxious  you don’t ‘gut check’ the first – and in this case – wrong answer. And on top of that the anxiety places a burden on working memory which is essential to problem solving. OPEN ACCESS   Mathematical anxiety is linked to reduced cognitive reflection: a potential road from discomfort in…

A Walk to Remember (a foreign language)

This is consistent with other studies on movement and memory and some practices used by actors, memory athletes and others.   OPEN ACCESS http://www.behavioralandbrainfunctions.com/content/10/1/24/abstract Treadmill walking during vocabulary encoding improves verbal long-term memory Moderate physical activity improves various cognitive functions, particularly when it is applied simultaneously to the cognitive task. In two psychoneuroendocrinological within-subject experiments,…

Green Tea enhances working memory and brain connectivity

The results seem to indicate green tea appears to improve working memory and fMRI showed increased connectivity between parietal and the frontal cortex. It’s a small test group, hopefully these results will be reflected in a larger study. OPEN ACCESS   Green tea extract enhances parieto-frontal connectivity during working memory processing Rationale It has been…

How a Pencil Can Rescue Comparison Deficits

This is really interesting experiment testing the idea of impaired perception. Patients that had difficulty comparing similar objects – presumed to be an impairment in perception – were given the opportunity to draw lines between the two objects. The simple task of connecting the objects erased their comparison deficits. The authors suggest comparison tasks reflect…

Piling On the Stress Blocks All Memory in Snails

Single stressors inhibits long-term memory but short term memory can still form. Combining the stressors inhibits all memory formation –  short and  long term. At least in snails. Free from PLoS ONE Combining Stressors That Individually Impede Long-Term Memory Blocks All Memory Processes The effects of stress on memory are typically assessed individually; however, in…

Exercise Improves Memory and Cognition

Yet another reason to avoid a sedentary lifestyle, even short-term exercise results in improvements to fitness, memory and cognition. Free from Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnagi.2013.00075/abstract Shorter term aerobic exercise improves brain, cognition, and cardiovascular fitness in aging Physical exercise, particularly aerobic exercise, is documented as providing a low cost regimen to counter well-documented cognitive…