Tag Archives: Brain health

The National Alzheimer’s Project Act makes progress

Yesterday the US Senate passed the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) (S. 3036), taking an important step toward addressing Alzheimer’s disease, the public health crisis of the 21st century. Pushed through under bi-partisan leadership, the country is one step closer to laying the groundwork for a national strategic plan to address the Alzheimer’s epidemic. NAPA [...]

When Your Brain Falls In Love

Ever wondered how “falling in love” actually happens? Or have you ever done something stupid out of love and put it down to “The heart has its reasons”? Well, you were wrong!

How Our Attention Works

Last week we gave a summarizing overview of what is currently known about memory. This week we take a look at attention. Attention is generally defined as our ability to selectively focus on one thing, idea, or task while filtering out other distractions. Another way to describe attention is selective concentration. Attention is the function [...]

8 Unusual Facts About Your Brain

This week we explore eight unusual facts you may or may not know about your brain. Do you know other unusual facts not on the list below? Please let us know by including them in the comment section below. 1. No rest for your brain Believe it or not, although rest is quite important for [...]

Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Decline

A response to The New York Times article, “Years Later, No Magic Bullet Against Alzheimer’s Disease”, dated Aug 28, 2010 based on the NIH Report “Preventing Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline” from Dr. Peter Magaro. In late spring 2010, the National Institute for Health (NIH) produced a review of research on Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and [...]

Seniors Should Maintain an Active Lifestyle

My colleague Dr. Jeffery Cummings gave a very informative interview to the Las Vegas Review-Journal last week (entitled Alzheimer’s studies urge active retirement). In the article, Dr. Cummings highlights the growing body of research that leading an active life, especially after retirement, appears to be one of the most important things one can do in [...]

7 Myths About the Human Brain

7.  Humans have bigger brains than all other animals: Although we are the smartest mammals, we don’t have the largest brains on this planet. Whales and elephants have bigger brains than humans, but their brains are obvious less developed comparatively. What does make us unique is our ratio of brain weight to body weight, which [...]

Vitamin D and Cognitive Health

This week Dr. Katherine Tucker of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging published a report in the Journals of Gerontology which makes the claim that elderly individuals may be able to help sustain their cognitive function by maintaining sufficient levels of vitamin D. The study (Vitamin D Is Associated with Cognitive [...]

Memory Screening: The Latest Debate

Sandra, a fit 65-year-old woman, believes in the benefits of proactive health care. She exercises regularly and never misses an annual physical. So when she sees a flier for a free memory screening event at her local Kmart, she thinks it’s a great opportunity to check on her brain health too. Sandra’s reasoning would seem [...]

Cognitive Ability is More Important than Age

In neuroscience news this week, a newly published study by Scott Huettel, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of psychology and neuroscience and director of the Duke Center for Neuroeconomic Studies) attempts to help disprove the myth that simply aging makes us inferior at financial decision making compared to our younger counterparts. Dr. Huettel’s study was published earlier [...]