The mind’s eye scans like a spotlight

You’re meeting a friend in a crowded cafeteria. Do your eyes scan the room like a roving spotlight, moving from face to face, or do you take in the whole scene, hoping that your friend’s face will pop out at you? And what, for that matter, determines how fast you can scan the room?

Researchers at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory say you are more likely to scan the room, jumping from face to face as you search for your friend. In addition, the timing of these jumps appears to be determined by waves of activity in the brain that act as a clock. The study, which appears in the Aug. 13 issue of the journal Neuron, sheds new light on a long-standing debate among neuroscientists over how the visual system picks out an object of interest in a complex scene.

By Deborah Halber (MIT News)

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Brain radiotherapy affects mind

Radiotherapy used to treat brain tumours may lead to a decline in mental function many years down the line, say Dutch researchers.

A study of 65 patients, 12 years after they were treated, found those who had radiotherapy were more likely to have problems with memory and attention.

By BBC News

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Stay Upbeat, Active to Keep the Mind Young

To stave off the mental decline associated with old age, engage in intellectually challenging activities, maintain a positive outlook and keep up your social life.

Those are the findings of what researchers say is the largest-ever review of studies on aging and the brain.

The review, which spanned three decades and covered more than 400 studies, found that remaining physically, mentally and socially active has a substantial impact on whether older adults experience declines in memory and cognition, which includes the ability to learn and solve problems.

By Jennifer Thomas (U.S.News)

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102-year-old grandma is oldest person on Facebook

At a mere 102, she’s the oldest face on Facebook. Ivy Bean many have been born 46 years before the first computer, but that hasn’t stopped the savvy senior from tapping in to the online world of social networking.

After hearing her care workers discussing the Web site, the British great-grandmother decided to sign up too.

By Nicole Lyn Pesce (Daily News)

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How to Steer Your Mind Power Perception to Your Benefit

Did you know that the Values and Beliefs we have in life adds up to shape who we are and how we perceive things in life?

Well, experiences we have throughout our lives are filtered by us at different stages and stored in our memory according to what we believe as realities of those experiences.

By  Joy Obihara

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Brain Games: Do They Really Work?

Do you misplace your keys or regularly miss appointments? Do you often forget the names of people you know well? Do you feel like your memory is slowly getting worse? If so, then you may find yourself considering those brain games advertised everywhere. Sales pitches such as “where the sweat is figurative, but results are real” and “your brain will thank you” are amusingly alluring. But you may find yourself wondering whether they are really worth the time and expense. You shell out the money, play a few rounds and your brain will start spitting out names, dates and pin numbers like you’re 18 again—right?

By P. Murali Doraiswamy and Marc E. Agronin (Scientific American)

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Controlling Our Brain’s Perception Of Emotional Events

Research performed by Nicole Lauzon and Dr. Steven Laviolette of the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at The University of Western Ontario has found key processes in the brain that control the emotional significance of our experiences and how we form memories of them.

By Science Daily

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Brain Scans Of The Future

Psychologists have found that thought patterns used to recall the past and imagine the future are strikingly similar. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging to show the brain at work, they have observed the same regions activated in a similar pattern whenever a person remembers an event from the past or imagines himself in a future situation.

By Science Daily

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Does diabetes make the mind go to pieces?

Sweet sugar. That’s the Greek translation of the word glucose, the substance our bodies make to use for energy. Glucose and the glucose-regulating hormone insulin have long been studied by scientists looking for a cure for diabetes. Now the substances are increasingly coming under the study of brain scientists because it appears they might just be golden keys to brain health as we age.

By Mary Brophy Marcus (USA Today)

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Attention, Memory and the Mind: A Synergy of Psychological, Neuroscientific, and Contemplative Perspectives

Beginning in the twentieth century, science has become the dominant paradigm for understanding the natural world by way of objective, quantitative measurements, using the instruments of technology. The integration of scientific knowledge and technology has vastly contributed to our understanding of the physical world and to improving the human standard of living. Furthermore, over a much longer time period spanning the past 2,500 years, Buddhism has emerged in multiple cultures throughout Asia as the dominant paradigm for understanding the natural world by way of subjective, qualitative observations by way of highly sophisticated meditative training.

By (Mind & Life Institute)

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Mind over matter

Neuroscientist Shanida Nataraja has proved meditation does more than clear your head, it can put both halves of your brain to work, improving your concentration, memory and decision-making. She tells Andy Darling how it works.

By Andy Darling (guardian.co.uk)

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Surveys and Psychology Tests

Find out what you are all about by taking these survays and psychological tests (BBC):

Explore your memory - Stretch your memory with fun challenges designed by experts.

What sex is your brain? – Take the Sex ID test and find out more about ‘brain sex’ differences.

The ‘What am I like?’ personality test – A test where you discover if you are a Big Thinker, an Idealist or another of 16 personality types.

Memory training – Try to improve your recall using World memory champion Andi Bell’s technique. Requires Flash 5.

Self-control – Paul Rincon – Are you a slave to your habits? Test your self-control against the rest of the nation.

Millionaire – Sharon Maxwell Magnus – Have you got what it takes to get to the top of the pile and stay there?

Do Past and Future Really Exist?

As every second ticks away, with every event that we experience, it turns into past, a moment that once was, but no longer exists. It is scientifically proven that memory is stored in the brain and that what we remember only encompasses around the average of eight percent of what we experience.

By Stacey T Pollock (Creation Theory Revised)

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Inside the mind of an autistic savant

Autistic savant Daniel Tammet shot to fame when he set a European record for the number of digits of pi he recited from memory (22,514). For afters, he learned Icelandic in a week. But unlike many savants, he’s able to tell us how he does it. We could all unleash extraordinary mental abilities by getting inside the savant mind, he tells Celeste Biever.

New Scientist

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