Brain Fitness

The next time your husband or mother tells that story you've heard at least a gazillion times, think of it as an important developmental stage of adulthood. It turns out our brains our hard-wired for storytelling and reminiscing, with older adulthood a natural time to engage in those activities. Growth doesnt stop in childhood, aging experts say. Just as healthy children have certain Read more...

Searching the Internet exercises the brains of older people by activating their neural circuitry, says UCLA's Memory & Aging Research Center. Internet searches activate regions in the brain that control complex reasoning and decision making, the Center found in a nine-month study of 24 neurologically normal volunteers, with similar education levels, ages 55 to 76. The test subjects Read more...

WASHINGTON -- Scientists have discovered how stress -- in the form of emotional, mental or physical tension -- physically reshapes the brain and causes long-lasting harm to humans and animals. "Stress causes neurons [brain cells] to shrink or grow," said Bruce McEwen, a neuroscientist at Rockefeller University in New York. "The wear and tear on the body from lots of stress Read more...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- New research in mice suggests that high levels of social support may provide some protection against strokes by reducing the amount of damaging inflammation in the brain. Researchers at Ohio State University found that male mice that lived with a female partner before and after a stroke had a much higher survival rate compared to those mice that lived alone. In addition, Read more...

Sleep helps the mind learn complicated tasks and helps people recover learning they otherwise thought they had forgotten over the course of a day, research at the University of Chicago shows. Using a test that involved learning to play video games, researchers showed for the first time that people who had "forgotten" how to perform a complex task 12 hours after training found Read more...

BETHESDA, Md. (Nov. 18, 2008) -- A new study confirms that exercise can reverse the age-related decline in the production of neural stem cells in the hippocampus of the mouse brain, and suggests that this happens because exercise restores a brain chemical which promotes the production and maturation of new stem cells. Neural stem cells and progenitor cells differentiate into a variety of Read more...

Ever forget to drop off dry cleaning on the way to work? This minor error of memory may be evidence of two competing parts of the brain, one that harbors habits, and another involved in learning. Driving to work is a habit; going to the dry cleaner is a comparatively novel task. Dr. Christopher J. Pittenger, assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale, calls this symbolic lapse the Read more...

If building cardiac endurance isn't enough motivation for you to do some aerobic exercise, think about this: It also builds your memory. "Put on your sneakers," says Sue Halpern, author of "Can't Remember What I Forgot: Good News from the Front Lines of Memory Research" (2008, Harmony Books). "We have definite proof that aerobic exercise improves memory. "Put Read more...