Cartoon for Apr 6, 2009: "Sweet Straight and Narrow" Top 10 Brain Teasers and Games, with a neuroscience angle. 22 Ways to Overclock Your Brain. “I just found out that the brain is like a computer. If that’s true, then there really aren’t any stupid people. Just people running DOS.” - Anonymous The brain is a three-pound supercomputer. It is the command and control center running your life.
It is involved in absolutely everything you do. Your brain is more complicated than any computer we can imagine. It’s simple, your brain is at the center of everything you do, all you feel and think, and every nuance of how you relate to people. No matter what your age, mental exercise has a global, positive effect on the brain. 1. Research suggests that people who get plenty of physical exercise can wind up with better brains. 2.
It isn’t just physical exercise that gets those brain cells jumping. 3. Our brains are wired to be curious. 4. Scientists tell us that laughter is good for our health; that it releases endorphins and other positively powerful chemicals into our system. 5. 6. Get out an old photo album or high school yearbook. 7. 8. Brain Rules: Brain development for parents, teachers and business leaders | Brain Rules | The Whole Brain Atlas - StumbleUpon. The Brain-Information about the Brain - StumbleUpon. 1 Introduction “I think, therefore I am.” —René Descartes, 17th-century philosopher Few of us question the crucial importance of the brain. It is vital to our existence. Our brains enable us to think, as René Descartes so skillfully pointed out nearly 400 years ago.
Yet the human brain is responsible for so much more. It directs almost everything we do. The brain makes up only 2 percent of our body weight, but it consumes 20 percent of the oxygen we breathe and 20 percent of the energy we consume. Scientists have worked for many years to unravel the complex workings of the brain. Despite these and other significant advances in the field of brain research, most of the processes responsible for the integrated functioning of billions of brain cells remain a mystery. An essential aspect of any scientific research is communicating results to the public in a way that is easily understood. 2 Myths and Realities about the Brain Myth: The brain is separate from the nervous system.
Figure 1. MoodyTube - Human & Brain. Memory strengthened by stimulating key site in brain. Ever gone to the movies and forgotten where you parked the car? New UCLA research may one day help you improve your memory. UCLA neuroscientists have demonstrated that they can strengthen memory in human patients by stimulating a critical junction in the brain. Published in the Feb. 9 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine, the finding could lead to a new method for boosting memory in patients with early Alzheimer's disease. The UCLA team focused on a brain site called the entorhinal cortex. Considered the doorway to the hippocampus, which helps form and store memories, the entorhinal cortex plays a crucial role in transforming daily experience into lasting memories. "The entorhinal cortex is the golden gate to the brain's memory mainframe," explained senior author Dr.
Itzhak Fried, professor of neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Six million Americans and 30 million people worldwide are newly diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease each year. BrainMysteries.com - Brain Mysteries. Brain Explorer - StumbleUpon. & 100 Terrific Mindhacks to Make the Most of Your Brain - StumbleUpon. How To Boost Brain Power and Memory. Until just a few years ago, doctors believed that the brain stopped making new neural connections - meaning that the memory began to get irreversibly worse - when the body stopped developing, usually in the early 20s. And doctors knew that, like any other part of the body, neurons weaken as people age. Loss of brain function due to neural breakdown was assumed to be a normal, unavoidable part of aging. It turns out they were wrong. In the past few years, it has become clear that you can, in fact, make new neurons starting in your 20s and continuing well into old age.
There are lots of things you can do right now to preserve, protect and enhance your gray matter. 1Physical exercise A healthy body really does mean a healthy mind. Physical exercise may even help prevent Alzheimer's disease. 2Lifelong learning - your brain is a learning machine For most of us, after we graduate from high school or college, our pursuit of new knowledge bottoms out over time.
How can you challenge yourself? Neurological Control - Neurotransmitters - StumbleUpon. Neurotransmitter Molecules Neurotransmitters can be broadly split into two groups – the ‘classical’, small molecule neurotransmitters and the relatively larger neuropeptide neurotransmitters. Within the category of small molecule neurotransmitters, the biogenic amines (dopamine, noradrenaline, serotonin and histamine) are often referred to as a discrete group because of their similarity in terms of their chemical properties.
Click on the links in the table above to read more about some of the important neurotransmitters. Serotonin Although the CNS contains less than 2% of the total serotonin in the body, serotonin plays a very important role in a range of brain functions. It is synthesised from the amino acid tryptophan. Within the brain, serotonin is localised mainly in nerve pathways emerging from the raphe nuclei, a group of nuclei at the centre of the reticular formation in the Midbrain, pons and medulla.
Noradrenaline Find out more about noradrenaline and serotonin Dopamine Acetylcholine.