“Man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much — the wheel, New York, wars and so on — whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man — for precisely the same reasons….In fact there was only one species on the planet more intelligent than dolphins, and they spent a lot of their time in behavioural research laboratories running round inside wheels and conducting frighteningly elegant and subtle experiments on man. The fact that once again man completely misinterpreted this relationship was entirely according to these creatures’ plans.” – Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

As tempting as it may be to believe the science fiction version of the intelligence rankings, real-life science has spoken and suggests (much to my displeasure) that humans may actually be the highest on the intelligence scale.

Glia are non-neuronal cells found in the brain mainly described as performing “housekeeping” functions, for example, providing structural support to neurons, and providing them with nutrients. Astrocytes are a specific type of glia, and as one might hypothesize, they are bigger in humans than in mice. Was this just a consequence of humans having more complex brains, or do these astrocytes have different functions in humans beyond the basic housekeeping functions? To test this, scientists grafted human astrocyte progenitor cells into developing mouse brains to create chimeric mice.

Human astrocyte (green) and mouse astrocyte (red)

The human astrocytes that matured successfully matured as human cells; characteristics such as their size were unaffected by being in a mouse environment. But they did not remain completely foreign – they successfully formed electrical connections with the mouse cells. Their differing cellular properties were thus propagated into the mouse neural networks. Of particular interest is the hippocampus, the brain region important for learning and memory. Chimeric hippocampal slices had a higher level of baseline excitatory activity, and long-term potentiation (LTP), or synapse strengthening, was much greater. At the molecular level, this can be explained because the human cells express higher levels of a protein that promotes an increased number of glutamate receptors at the synapse.

There were also clear differences in the behavior of chimeric mice. Experiments were performed to test learning and memory abilities to corroborate the cellular results observed in the hippocampus. A classic fear conditioning experiment involves pairing a tone with a foot shock; mice learn to associate the two and exhibit freezing behavior after hearing a tone. Chimeras learned the association after only one tone/shock pairing. The learning persisted for several days, during which time control animals did not learn the initial association. The experiment was repeated as context fear conditioning, meaning that the mice were placed in different chambers that had varying floors and odors. Chimeric mice were able to differentiate between chambers significantly better than their control counterparts. In other learning and memory tasks, these mice learned their way through mazes faster and were better at familiar object recognition in novel contexts.

The results of this study show that glial cells have much more function beyond their basic housekeeping properties. A single cell graft manipulation was enough to significantly improve mouse performance on learning and memory tasks. Complexity of these cells has evolved with the brain, and this provides important new insight on how exactly this complexity has come to be. Future experiments could involve grafting chimpanzee or macaque glia, any differences observed could be key in outlining how our processing abilities evolved from our monkey fathers (I additionally support research with dolphin glia grafts, keeping on the theme of the three most intelligent species). Unfortunately, without the higher processing abilities made possible by human cells, mice likely cannot achieve the tasks and level of status they exhibit in the science fiction. It seems as though man has indeed correctly interpreted his relationship with the mouse.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

-Reena Clements

References:

Human Brain Cells Boost Mouse Memory – ScienceNOW

Forebrain Engraftment by Human Glial Progenitor Cells Enhances Synaptic Plasticity and Learning in Adult Mice – Cell Stem Cell

A research team led by Laura Matzen at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuqurque, NM has demonstrated that it is possible to predict how well people will remember information by monitoring their brain activity while studying. Matzen’s team monitored test volunteers with electroencephalography (EEG) sensors to make accurate predictions. Why bother making a prediction if the result will show how well someone remembered the information anyways? Matzen brought up this example, ”if you had someone learning new material and you were recording the EEG, you might be able to tell them, ‘You’re going to forget this, you should study this again,’ or tell them, ‘OK, you got it and go on to the next thing.”  Essentially providing a real-time performance metric, the applications of which many students would appreciate.

The team monitored test subjects’ brain activity while they studied word lists, then used the EEG data collected during the trial to predict who would remember the most information. Researchers had a baseline of what brain activity looked like for good and poor memory performance, so they knew the average percentage of correct answers under various conditions. The computer model predicted five of 23 people tested would perform best, based on their EEG scans. And the model was correct, they remembered 72 percent of the words on average, compared to 45 percent for everyone else.

This study is part of Matzen’s overarching research goal to understand the Difference Related to Subsequent Memory, or Dm Effect. The Dm effect is a measure of brain activity that can distinguish remembered items from forgotten ones. A measurable difference would give cognitive neuroscientists a way to test hypotheses about how information is encoded in memory. Matzen is interested in not only what causes the effect, but also how to change it; she wants to discover how different methods of training can help people performing at different levels.  That’s why the second half of this study was done, to predict who would benefit most from memory training.

This second half of the study tested different types of memory training to see how they changed participants’ memory performance and brain activity. This study, still in its preliminary stages, aims to find out whether recording partcipants’ brain activity while they use their natural approach to studying can predict what kind of training would work best for them. The computer model from the first half of the study was used to predict who would perform best on the memory tasks, and after memory training, the high performers did even better.

90 volunteers spent 9 to 16 hours over five weeks in the memory training study. The first half provided a baseline for how well they remembered words or images. Most then underwent memory training for three weeks and were retested. The control group received no training, one group practiced mental imagery strategy, thinking up vivid images to remember words and pictures, and the final group went through working memory training to increase how much information they could handle at a time.  Each volunteer, shut into a sound-proof booth, watched a screen that flashed words or images for one second, interrupted with periodic quizzes on how well the person remembered what was shown.

Sandia National Laboratories researcher Laura Matzen demonstrates the memory testing task of her experiment

The test was divided into five sections, each about 20 minutes long and testing a different type of memory. The first, middle, and last sections consisted of single nouns. During quizzes, volunteers hit buttons for yes or no to whether they’d seen the word before. The other two sections combined adjectives and nouns or pairs of unrelated drawings, and volunteers were tested on what they remembered. The image section tested associative memory or memory for two unrelated things, which according to Matzen is the most difficult because it links arbitrary relationships.

When performance was compared before and after training, the control group did not change, but the mental imagery group’s performance improved on three of the five tasks. ”Imagery is a really powerful strategy for grouping things and making them more memorable,” Matzen said.

The working memory group did worse on four of the five tasks after training. Volunteers trained on working memory, remembering information for brief periods, improved on the task they had trained on, but that training did not carry over to other tasks. Matzen believes the difference between the two groups boils down to strategy: The imagery training group learned a strategy, while the working memory training group simply tried to push the limits of memory capacity.

While the imagery group did better overall, they made more mistakes than the other groups when tested on “lures” that were similar to, but not the same as, items they had memorized. ”They study things like ‘strong adhesive’ and ‘secret password,’ and then I might test them on ‘strong password,’ which they didn’t see, but they saw both parts of it,” Matzen said. “The people who have done the imagery training make many more mistakes on the recombinations that keep the same concept. If something kind of fits with their mental image they’ll say yes to it even if it’s not quite what they saw before.”

What’s next? Matzen and the Center for the Advanced Study of Language at the University of Maryland plan to study tasks that measure cognitive flexibility and how it relates to training performance, working on understanding and affecting the Dm affect.

Sources:

Sandia Shows Monitoring Brain Activity During Study Can Help Predict Test Performance – ScienceNewsline

Monitoring Brain Activity During Study Can Help Predict Test Performance – Science Daily

What comes to mind when you think of Friday? Friends. A night off from work. Movies. Fun. Rebecca Black? Yikes. I don’t mean to remind you of such a low point in the history of American pop-culture but there is, in fact, a small amount of useful information to be extracted from the phenomenon that is Rebecca Black. Why did her music spread like an epidemic through the minds of millions of teens and adults worldwide? This event can be loosely related to what the Germans like to call an öhrwurm.

The term öhrwurm literally translates in English to “earworm”, and can be described as that inescapable occurrence of getting a song stuck in your head for an hour, a day, or even months at a time. The term is misleading in that the repetition of music does not occur in the ear but within the brain. For an experience that is so familiar to most people there is still much unknown as to how and why one contracts this stuck song syndrome.

One man that has put some time into the issue is Professor James Kellaris of the University of Cincinnati. He coined the term “cognitive itch” to describe his theory of the instance of getting a song stuck in one’s head because the only way to satisfy the feeling is to repeat the song over and over inside the mind (kind of like scratching an itch). He has found that there are certain kinds of music and songs that tend to induce an unusual reaction in the auditory cortex. This extra attention that is paid to a small part of a song produces the “itch”, which then starts the vicious cycle of repetition. Simple songs that are catchy and repetitive are found to be the one’s most often plaguing the mind, as well as songs with unpredicted rhythm changes. This is why “Don’t Stop Believin’” or “Hey Jude” will continue to live on decades after their original heyday in American culture.

Research so far has been unable to uncover the exact biological mechanisms of this phenomenon. A recent study done at Dartmouth University, however, has shed some light on not only how the auditory cortex (the area where the brain processes most of the external auditory stimuli it receives) may be involved in producing this odd effect, but also on some other areas of the brain and how they are involved in producing the “earworm” as well. Using magnetic resonance imaging techniques it was found that when a patient is exposed to a catchy tune with some parts of the song missing here and there, the auditory cortex does not just shut down or anything during these silent gaps. In fact, if the song is recognizable the brain will fill in the missing pieces and effectively continue the song even when it is not playing! The brain’s ability to retain auditory signatures makes it possible for us to preserve “many structural and temporal properties of auditory stimuli” such as songs. This discovery indicates that the auditory cortices of the brain are most likely involved in the occurrence of earworms. Besides the primary and secondary auditory cortices though, blood flow has been found to increase in such other areas as the primary motor cortex, frontal operculum, insula, posterior cerebellum, and basal ganglia when the brain is exposed to “novel melody” or monotonic vocalization. When a repeated melody is heard, there is also additional stimulation in the planum polare (BA 38). Further study of these brain regions has the potential to reveal more about not just the mystery behind earworms, but also about the complex memory systems of the mind.

It has also been shown that there are people who are more prone to earworms than others based on gender, physical characteristics, and personality. For example, women are more likely to be affected by a stuck song for a longer period of time than men. Supposedly left-handed people and people with anxiety disorders like OCD are more likely to catch an earworm, and so are people who are more musically inclined (most likely because they listen to more music than the average person). So if you are a left-handed, obsessive compulsive female musician and just can’t get rid of that annoying background music that’s been in your head all day, try a few of these tactics: turn on the radio, play a different song for yourself (on one of the many instruments you have at hand), listen to that song, or try to pass the misery along to someone else.

The “earworm” phenomenon, and the ability for a simple melody to last months, or even years inside the mind is just another one of the many fascinating aspects of the brain. Because of this ability, I am stuck here with Britney Spears on replay in my head at the moment. But, hey, at least it’s not “Friday.”

And in case you don’t have an earworm of your own here is a video that will give you a few (and maybe a laugh too…)

Earworms (stuck song syndrome): Towards a Natural History of Intrusive Thoughts – British Journal of Psychology

The Song System of The Human Brain – Cognitive Brain Research

Why Do Songs Get Stuck in Your Head? – Word Detective

Science of Music – Exploratorium

Why Do Songs Get Stuck in Your Head? – The Straight Dope

Scientists at the Bewundgen University in Germany discovered that a diet rich in petrolatum, a substance of hydrocarbons, can greatly improve performance on a wide variety of cognitive tasks.

The research, led by neuroscientist Dr. Hans Schweinstucken, followed three groups of human subjects for over a year. The first group was instructed to eat regularly, but to also consume 500 grams of petrolatum per day, in the morning after breakfast. The second group was given an energy-deficient supplement of sugar substitutes; and the third were not given anything at all. All groups were tested periodically on tasks of memory, abstract thinking, cognitive speed, and general agility. To their surprise, the researchers found that regular consumption of petrolatum improved subjects’ recall, memory retrieval and abstract thinking while reducing overall agility, motivation and ability to make decisions. In contrast, the group eating sugar substitutes performed significantly worse over time on tests of memory and abstract thinking, with 50% of the subjects hitting an all-time low of 25% correct responses on recall (vs. their performance prior to the experiment).

Dr. Schweinstucken speculates that the first group’s reduced motivation and agility may have something to do with their major weight gain, which by itself remains a mysterious side-effect. As for the mechanisms of action, Dr. Schweinstucken proposes that petrolatum acts via inhibitory GABAergic interneurons in neocortex, the brain part thought to be important in higher cognition, antagonizing GABA action and thereby reducing overall levels of inhibition in the brain. However, he warns that at higher doses than 500 grams per day, petrolatum may actually have a detrimental effect on cognition because it may saturate GABA receptors and the corresponding neurons, causing massive seizures; he is currently conducting experiments to test this hypothesis.

Meanwhile, for all you folks who have exams to study for, I recommend a trip to your local CVS, where petrolatum is sold over-the-counter as “Vaseline,” or petroleum jelly.

Further reading:
Schweinstucken et al. Petrolatum improves cognitive performance in humans. J Psycho Chemo Physio Med. 2011, April 1.

With the Pancakes for Parkinson’s event at Boston University nearing, on April 2^nd, I thought it would be a good time to check up on the latest in Parkinson’s research.

Firstly, Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is a motor disorder that affects dopaminergic neurons of the brain, which are necessary in the coordination of movement. Onset is usually around age 60, starting with symptoms including tremor, stiffness, slowness of movement, and poor balance and coordination. While current treatments can help alleviate the symptoms in patients, none provide a cure.

Second off, the mission of the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and other support groups is to find better treatments for those suffering from the disease. With the Baby Boomer generation entering late adulthood and old age, more research needs to be done to better understand the disease and help those with it find relief. Consider stopping by the GSU Alley for some pancakes to show your support for the Foundation and its cause next month!

Ranging from studying food intake to using technology, many approaches have been used in PD research.

FOOD

In a study released in February from the Harvard school of Public Health, flavonoids (citrin and Vitamin P), found in chocolates, citrus fruits, berries, and other foods, were speculated to reduce the risk of Parkinson’s Disease (PD).

The top 20% of males consuming these foods were 40% less likely to develop PD than the bottom 20%. While the overall flavonoid intake had no effect on women, a subclass of flavonoids called anthocyanins, which are primarily found in berries, did.

Study author Dr. Xiang Gao notes that this subclass has neuroprotective effects. Dr. Carlos Singer of UMiami’s Miller School of Medicine adds that the risk reduction “probably has to do with an antioxidant effect” because a lot of PD mechanisms deal with how nervous tissue handles oxidative stress.

Dr. Anna Hohler, a neurologist and professor at our very own, Boston University, was not involved in the study, but she comments on its benefits, saying that it “opens up a whole area of potential future studies examining other types of environmental effects on Parkinson’s.”

Hopefully, with more research we can determine whether these berries play a role in risk reduction. For now, Gao encourages us to eat berries anyway – they’re part of the reason why fruits and vegetables are so good for our health! Want to start a regular berry-eating habit? BU’s Mind and Brain Society is actually hosting another Miracle Berry event March 23^rd. Soon enough, you can reap the benefits of berries, AND have a taste-altering experience – find out how bitter foods can taste quite sweet when these berries intervene then!

DRUGS

Berries are not the only things that affect PD. Drugs, of course, do. One drug is the psychostimulant – amphetamine. According to a study released in February, amphetamines may increase the risk of PD, in contrast to the berries. Researchers found that those using the amphetamines Benzedrine or Dexedrine at some point in their lives were 60% more likely to develop PD compared to those who never used. Why? According to the report, amphetamines affect the release and absorption of dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with PD development. More on the mechanisms causing this difference still need attention.

Another drug to consider is apomorphine, which is used to alleviate PD patients’ motor symptoms. Amazingly, this drug has also been found to improve short-term memory in mice with Alzheimer’s Disease, which, like PD, affects brain function. According to a study released in October, 2010 by Japanese researchers at Kyushu University, the drug reduced the levels of amyloid beta, a protein that reduces brain cell function; it led mice to improve their times in a swimming test conducted before and after the drug was injected.

The results, indicating improved memory function, “will lead to the development of a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease,” says Associate Professor Yasumasa Oyagi. His group plans to perform clinical testing on human patients to develop a drug with few or no side effects (apomorphine can cause nausea and vomiting).

While not directly influencing PD patients, this development is inspiring; perhaps drugs used to treat other neurodegenerative diseases can help treat PD as well.

PROTEINS

In their study published March 4^th, Researchers at John Hopkins found that, when the parkin gene is mutated in genetically altered mice, the protein PARIS accumulates since its degradation is blocked. Excess decreases the production of PGC-1alpha, a protein that protects brain cells, such that unprotected cells die and PD advances.

“Of all the important changes that lead to the death of brain cells as a result of parkin inactivation, our studies show that PARIS is, without a doubt, a key player,” says Ted Dawson, M.D., Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering.

STEM CELLS

A press release March 3^rd announced that Stanford researchers used induced pluripotent stem cells to model PD. With the skin of a woman with a genetic form of PD, they derived neurons that replicated “some key features of the condition in a dish.” They hope to test treatments on and learn more about PD from these neurons.

TECHNOLOGY

A study published in September, 2010, demonstrates an approach to PD treatment through technology, specifically virtual reality. Researchers involved wanted to reduce “fall risk and difficulties with mobility, especially during complex or dual-task walking.”

Using virtual reality, they can better “incorporate principles of motor learning while delivering engaging and challenging training in complex environments.” At the end of the training, they observed a significant improvement in gait speed, particularly in walking, dual task, and facing overground obstacles. One month after the training, researchers still observed these effects. The group hopes to continue research on motor learning and fall risk reduction.

PSYCHOLOGY

From a review published in January, neuroscientists examined studies on Theory of Mind (ToM), “the ability to infer other people’s mental states,” in those with PD. They found “preliminary evidence that ToM difficulties may occur in PD patients,” particularly in the “cognitive component of ToM in the early stages of the disease.”

SOCIETY

Paul Green of Westport, CT was diagnosed with PD 17 years ago. Since then, he has searched for ways to slow its progression, finding some that have allowed him to live into his 80s. Now 87, he denies that symptoms like depression and tremor will occur.

Compiling his research, he wrote a booklet on his conclusion that progression can be slowed with “vigorous exercise.” Using this and his foundation Nevah Surrendah to Parkinson’s (inspired by Winston Churchill’s use of “nevah” in WWII), he aims to help others with PD.

He believes that with “prescription drugs, deliberate exercise and changes in nutrition and attitude they can enjoy a full life.” He continues, “What works for one person might not be as helpful for another. However, it’s vital that people ‘nevah’ stop trying to improve their physical, spiritual and emotional condition.”

Whether people eat more berries, exercise more, or cut down on amphetamines, they are making attempts to fight PD. Thanks to the research using so many different approaches, a lot has been discovered about the disease. However, it is quite clear that many more studies need to be carried out to affirm the conclusions above and better understand the mechanisms of PD. For now, with awareness and support of Parkinson’s Disease research, the goal is to find the best treatments for patients and most earnestly a cure.

Sources: Berries may offer sweet protection against Parkinson’s — Steven Reinberg of The Jackson Sun; Certain foods could reduce risk of Parkinson’s? Berry possible. – Tyler Moss of Northwest Indiana (NWI) Times; Parkinson’s drug ‘helped mice with Alzheimer’s’ – The Daily Yomiuri; Can Prescription Amphetamine Use Raise Parkinson’s Risk? – Stacy Lipson of Bloomberg Newsweek; Johns Hopkins Team Explores Paris; Finds A Key To Parkinson’s – Press release by Maryalice Yakutchik; Stanford scientists create neurons with symptoms of Parkinson’s disease from patient’s skin cells – Press release by Krista Conger; Virtual Reality for Gait Training: Can It Induce Motor Learning to Enhance Complex Walking and Reduce Fall Risk in Patients With Parkinson’s Disease? – Anat Mirelman, et al. from the Journals of Gerontology; Theory of Mind in Parkinson’s disease – Michele Poletti et al. from ScienceDirect; Westport man refuses to surrender to Parkinson’s – Karen Kovacs Dydzuhn of Westport News

Do you ever wonder how you are able to remember the name of your third-grade teacher, or the skills you use to ride a bike, or even lines from your favorite movie?  Well, if you haven’t then you should, because it takes the workings of many regions of our brain to combine all the different aspects of one memory into a cohesive unit.

The first step in this complex process deals with our perceptions and senses.  Think about the last time you visited the beach.  Recall the sound of the wind and birds, the sight of the sun and ocean, the smell of the salt water and the feeling of the hot sand and shells underfoot.  Your brain merges all of these different perceptions together, crafting them into the “memory” that we are able to recall.

All of these separate sensations travel to the part of our brain called the hippocampus.  Along with the frontal cortex, the hippocampus plays a huge part in our memory system.  These two regions decide what is worth remembering and then store this information throughout the brain.

Perception starts the processes leading up to encoding and storage, which takes place through our brains’ synapses (or the gaps between neurons).  Through these synapses, neurons are able to electrically and chemically transmit information between themselves.  When an electric pulse is fired across the gap, it triggers the release of chemical messengers called neurotransmitters.

Here is a clear view of communication between neurons through the releasing of neurotransmitters over the synapse.

From there, the spread of information begins.  The neurotransmitters diffuse to neighboring cells and attach to them, forming thousands of links.  All of these cells process and organize the information as a network.  Similar areas of information are connected and are constantly being reorganized as our brain processes more and more.

Changes are reinforced with use.  So let’s say you are learning to play a sport.  The more you practice, the stronger the rewiring and connections will become, thus allowing the brain to do less work as the initiation of pulses becomes easier with repetitive firing.  This is how you get better at a certain task and are able to perform at a higher level without making as many mistakes.  But again, because our brain never stops the process of input and output, practice needs to be constant in order to promote strong information retention.

Knowing all of this, it probably comes as no surprise that the most basic function for ensuring proper memory encoding is to pay specific attention to what you are doing.  We are exposed to thousands of things in very short amounts of time, so the majority of it is ignored.  If we pay more attention to select, specific bits of information, we’ll have a higher potential to remember certain things (try it out for yourself in lecture).

Since the actual process has been discussed, we’ll go into greater detail about the types of memory we have and how they differ.  There are three basic memory types that act as a filter systems for what we find important.  This is based on what we need to know and for how long we need to know it.

The first is sensory memory, which is basically ultra-short-term memory.  It is based off of input from the five senses and usually lasts a few seconds or so.  An example would be looking at a car that passes by and remembering what color it was based on that split second intake.  The effect is vaguely lingering, and is forgotten almost instantly.

Short-term memory is the next category.  People sometimes refer to it as “the brain’s Post-it note”.  It has the ability to retain around seven items of information for about less than a minute.  Some examples would include telephone numbers or even a sentence that you quickly glance over (such as this one).  You have to remember what is being said at the beginning to understand the context.  Likewise, numbers are usually better remembered, and have longer staying power in the brain, when split up (800-493-2751 instead of 8004932751 for instance).

Repetition and conscious effort to retain information leads to the transformation of short-term memory into long-term memory.  By rehearsing information without interference or disturbances, one is better able to remember things and ingrain them into his/her brain.  This is a gradual process, but it proves why studying is important!  Unlike the other two memory categories, long-term memory has the ability to retain unlimited amounts of information for a seemingly indefinite amount of time.

This diagram shows a more complex view of the major memory types and their subdivisions.

A  piece of information must pass from both sensory and short-term memory to successfully be encoded in long-term memory.  Failure to do so generally leads to the phenomenon known as “forgetting”, something that many of us are all too familiar with ironically enough!

To give a common example of long-term encoding and memory retrieval, consider trying to recall where you have put your keys down.  First, you must register where you are putting your keys and attention while putting them down so that you can remember later.  Accomplishing all of this helps a memory to be stored, retained, and ready for retrieval when necessary.

Forgetting may deal with distraction, or simply just failure to properly retrieve a memory.  That being said, it should be noted that there is no predisposition to having a “good” or a “bad” memories.  Most people are good at remembering certain things (numbers, procedures and mechanisms for example) better than others (names, phrases, or even entire plays) and vice versa.  It all depends on where you are able to focus your interests and your attention.

Hopefully, you will be able to remember some of this so that you can use your understanding of the complexities of the brain and memory encoding to your advantage.  After all, your brain does all the hard work for you!  Now you just need to pay attention and focus on what you find important and what you want to remember to best suit your own needs.

How Human Memory Works – Discovery Health

Types of Memory – The Human Memory

How Does Human Memory Work? – USATODAY.com

First, forget about holing up at that same seldom-visited spot over the span of time before an exam. Studies have found that students who vary where they study will remember the information better than those who stay in one place. The brain makes associations between what we study and where we study it, so the greater the number of associations, the more enriched the material, and the better entrenched the memory.

Experts advise students never to have a "go-to" study spot; changing locations can help students better learn the information.

Next, throw the one-subject-at-a-time approach out the window. Varying the type of material studied in one session has been shown to leave a deeper impression on the brain than focusing on a single topic at a time.

For example, a recent study in the journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology featured two groups of 4^th graders being taught how to calculate the dimensions of a prism. There were four existing problem sets; one subject group was given repeated examples of one type of problem, while the other was given a mix of all four types of problems. A day later the groups were given separate tests on what they had learned, and the 4^th graders who had been given the mixed problem sets performed twice as well.

Last but not least, when you have some down time, take the airplane approach: turn off all your electronics and take a nap. This technological age encourages nearly constant multitasking, but multitasking deprives our brains of much-needed rest. A continuous stream of digital input-via cell phones, iPods, computer screens, and televisions- forfeits the time when our minds could better learn and remember information, even form ideas.

Don't be this guy: Overloading your brain might appear to save you time, but in the end it impairs your learning abilities.

A study at UC-San Francisco found that rats do not process new information and transform it into a persistent memory until they are given a break from those new experiences. Thus in order for us to process what we’ve learned and experienced during the day, we need to rest our brains.

Recent studies have shown that sleep not only consolidates what you have already studied, but it also primes the mind for further learning. So an afternoon nap between classes (as long as you set your alarm) can actually be the final element to a perfect study system.

For Reference:

Think You Know How to Study? Think Again- NPR

Digital Devices Deprive Brain of Needed Downtime- The New York Times

Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits- The New York Times

Behavior: Napping Can Prime the Brain for Learning- The New York Times

If I told you that a theater company and a medical school collaborated to produce one of the best plays of the year, would you believe me?

Probably not, because this is not the case. However, this unlikely partnership of industries did produce a substantial therapeutic program for people who are currently suffering the cognitive deficits associated with dementia.

Based on the theory of cognitive reserve - or the brain’s resilience to neuropathological damage – it is widely hypothesized that creative and interactive activities, such as painting, singing, and acting, would help patients maintain their cognitive functions for as long as possible.

With this hypothesis and the guidance of the Lookingglass Theater Company, the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University formed the first-ever “Memory Ensemble.” The cast included six elderly patients suffering from early stages of memory loss, a common symptom attributable to various types of dementia.

Quoted as “one of the first-of-its-kind,” the directors of this production sought to design a program that would improve the quality of life for these patients by setting up a safe and supportive environment. With the serene scene set, patients were encouraged to express every emotion and/or words associated with their neurological deficits to help them alleviate any pains or questions of uncertainty accompanied by these disorders.

As a part of a seven week pilot study, the ensemble would meet and participate in various cognitive activities, including an impromptu-style of acting that actively engaged the patients both physically and mentally. As a baseline measure, metaphor-based warm-up exercises prompted the patients to choose a color that symbolizes their current emotional state. Prior to their regularly scheduled regime, the patient’s reports ranged from a happy sunny yellow to a melancholy blue. Nevertheless, after a stretching routine, body-sculpting exercises portraying various feelings, and an active discussion of the hardships involved with their disorders, all of the patients were quick to describe their emotional state at the end of the workshop as a happy yellow.

Although these patients verbally reported an improvement in their quality of life within the given time period, it was noted that this qualitative research study could not quantitatively provide evidence in support of their hypothesis. Thus, a lack of evidence from this study could be detrimental to implementing this therapeutic program in hospitals across the US simply because of the lack of funding.

Though not discussed in this article, pre- and post-study fMRI scans and intermittent neuropsychological tests could provide quantitative insight on whether or not such a therapeutic program significantly contributes to the patient’s cognitive reserve. Pre- and post-study fMRI scans of the patients performing these neuropsychological tests can be compared to control subjects, as well as across-patients and within-patients, in order to identify the statistical differences between the patterns of activity associated with each task. Other measures, such as reaction time, can also be recorded to correlate with the patients behavioral performance to provide more information and insight on whether or not this is an effective prevention program.

Despite this predicament, I must say that I am very impressed and optimistic about this new style of therapy because it helps the patient positively cope with such a disastrous and unfortunate mental disorder. In the future, I hope that quantitative measures, as discussed before, will be implemented to help facilitate and disambiguate the uncertainty pertaining to dementia-related research.

Trying Improv as Therapy for Those with Memory Loss – Chicago News Cooperative - NYTimes.com

Cognitive Reserve – Dr. Yaakov  Stern (2009) - Neuropsychologia (PDF)

Involvement of the prefrontal cortex (in yellow) seems to make variable practice effective.

The familiar mantra “practice makes perfect” may be taken too literally. The definition of effective practice as the constant repetition of a particular exercise – a golf swing, a tennis serve, a dance step – is faulty, as it turns out.

Time has reported on a study published in Nature Neuroscience by neuroscientists at the University of Southern California and UCLA. The study compares the results of repetitive, “constant practice” with the results of “variable practice.”  In one experiment, scientists instructed a group of subjects to copy a movement with their forearm as displayed by a line on a computer screen. One group representing constant practice repeated a movement holding their arm at 60-degrees 120 times. The variable practice group was asked to do the same 60-degree movement only 60 times, but they were also asked to do three other movements 20 times each. The two groups did equally well in practice. However, when they were retested 24 hours later, the variable practice group outperformed the rote repetition group on the 60-degree task.

So, variable practice works – but why? Some of the subjects from each group were treated with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). A portion of each group had TMS in the prefrontal cortex, and another portion received TMS in the primary motor cortex. The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain that allows for executive functions like reasoning and planning while the primary motor cortex deals with simple, physical task learning. Fittingly, when the prefrontal cortices of variable-practice group members were “messed with” by TMS, the performance of the participants declined. Performance levels also decreased when constant-practice subjects underwent TMS in their primary motor cortices. It seems that “tedium is bad for the brain,” and it needs variety to actively learn by using higher structures like the prefrontal cortex to better retain what has been practiced.

It would be interesting to find out whether or not this concept applies to different types of learning, like studying for exams or playing an instrument. Even when training a dog, it is suggested to work amid distractions and to increase the time between clicking the “clicker” to let the dog know it has performed a task correctly and rewarding it with a treat. A higher level of focus seems to occur when there are more variables in the practice routine. My piano teacher must have been on to something when she gave me so much homework!

Study: Why Athletes Should Mix Sports-Training Routines – Time

Article: Practice Structure and Motor Memory -Nature Neuroscience

Do you ever fear that you are losing your memory?

One hundred years ago, when Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) was even more of a mystery than it is now, amyloid protein aggregates were described as black spots that showed up on brain slices after autopsy. These aggregates, commonly known as plaques, denote the telltale sign that a patient has AD. Until recently, these plaques could only be detected after death, but Dr. Daniel Skovronsky, creator of Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, may have a solution.

On July 11th, Dr. Skovronsky will present his latest findings at the international meeting of the Alzheimer’s Association in Honolulu. He has spent the last five years creating a fluorine radioactive dye to be used in positron emission tomography (PET) scans. The results of these PET scans are engineered to be so accurate that they can compete with brain autopsies, the only method currently available to determine whether a patient has AD.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) questioned Dr. Skovronsky about his fluorine-18 dye and whether the results of fluorine-18 PET scans compare to the definitive results of brain autopsies. Dr. Skovronsky recruited thirty-five patients in hospice with ranging levels of memory loss; all of these patients would receive a PET scan and would have their brains autopsied post-mortem. The results of each patient’s PET scan matched his or her autopsy results.

If approved by the FDA, Dr. Skovronsky’s work will lead to an increase in accuracy in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, 20% of patients diagnosed with AD are revealed to not have the disease when an autopsy is performed. With fluorine-18, Dr. Skovronsky has fine-tuned a method to detect amyloid plaques in the brain in a living patient, which is a feat within itself. Previously, the only way one could determine whether a patient had the disease or not was through autopsy – a posthumous procedure. Now, patients could have the chance to receive an accurate diagnosis while they are still alive and earlier in their lives.

In addition to simply detecting plaque, fluorine-18 will also aid in understanding the development of the disease, for plaques were found in patients deemed as healthy when they took memory tests. Currently, people who are not diagnosed with AD earlier in life will not receive treatment until the disease has developed more, and they will likely not receive any preventative medicine. With Dr. Skovronsky’s PET scans, doctors could diagnose the development of the disease earlier and administer preventative measures to slow down the development of the disease. Also, patients who are currently misdiagnosed with AD do not receive the correct treatments that they need for the diseases that are actually causing their memory loss or dementia, like depression.

The Vanishing Mind – Promise Seen for Detection of Alzheimer’s – NYTimes
The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative positron emission tomography core – Alzheimer’s Dement. 2010
In Vivo Imaging of Amyloid Deposition in Alzheimer Disease Using the Radioligand 18F-AV-45 (Flobetapir F 18) – The Journal of Nuclear Medicine