Early in October a team of researchers from the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council of the University of Oxford in England, U.K. , published the results of a new study discussing how juggling and similar activities increase brain connections.

In brain scans of 48 subjects made after an extensive 6-week practice period, the researchers observed changes in regions of the brain’s white matter that are linked with reaching, grasping, and peripheral vision, independently from the acquired level of juggling skill.

These results suggest that it is not how well a person learns to do something that matters, but rather that the time spent practising and training is the key to improving the brain function. So, when engaging in such an activity as brain training, it is essential to do it over a period of time to realise the positive changes and benefits.   You can read more about the findings here.

Unbelievable for some, but true:  Apparent smarts makes men more attractive in women’s eyes!

Scientists from Elon University  conducted a study on female  students, asking them to choose the most desirable males from videos showing them accomplishing athletic and cognitive tasks. It turned out that the women picked those men who appeared the most intelligent!  It makes for very interesting reading here…

Is it true? What do you think?

Some time back I wrote about the cognitive skills necessary for safe driving.  It’s ever more clear that abilities such as vision, reaction times, attention, judgment and ability to multitask, that is, to focus on more than one task at a time are all essential to our ability to be safe on the road. As we age, our brains do change, and one of the normal changes is that our ability to multitask decreases.  Elderly drivers need to pay attention on the road and not use the phone—especially dialing numbers. (This is  true for younger drivers as well, but is a much harder sell, I’m afraid). This month, the Dana Foundation summarizes some recent articles on this topic that’s worth a read here.

A new controlled study using HAPPYneuron exercises has been launched at the prestigious University of Zurich, Institute of Psychology, Switzerland under the supervision of Dr. Anne Echen. The goal of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of episodic memory training consisting of personalized adaptive computer exercises. 40 subjects between the ages of 60 and 70 will participate in the study. The first results are expected to be available in the Fall of 2009. We’ll keep you posted of the results as they become available from the study team. At that time you’ll find the results posted on our research listing pages.

In recent years scientists have become intensely interested in what could be called a super memory club. At a retirement community in Southern California fewer than one in 200 persons out of 20,000 are living past 90 without a trace of dementia. It is a group that, for the first time, is large enough to provide a glimpse into the lucid brain at the furthest reach of human life, and to help researchers tease apart what is essential in preserving mental sharpness to the very end. Read this fascinating article at the New York Times online

Now, according to a study published on April 3 in the journal Science, researchers from University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health found more evidence that sleep resets the brain to allow more growth and learning the next day.  Read about their fascinating research here. So get a good night’s sleep - your brain will thank you for it.

Last week I spoke with Adrian Berg of the Longevity Club Radio Show about the HAPPYneuron cross training program, the history of brain science, the impact of technology on the effectiveness of the program and the resulting cognitive health benefits for life.  Listen on (about 5 minutes into the show).

For many years, I and, the HAPPYneuron scientific team have been working with prestigious medical institutions and universities to collaborate on the effective use of interactive Cognitive Training activities for the deferral of brain decline in addition to the remediation of specific conditions such as Mild Cognitive Impairment, Traumatic Brain Injury, Depression and Schizophrenia.  Many of you have expressed interest in these so we recently posted a list of research studies. There are many more in progress and they will be posted as the information becomes available.

They say that human beings are social animals. It seems intuitive (even for introverts!) that social contact has benefits. Obviously we need other people to fulfill basic needs such making sure that our genes outlive us. Maybe less obviously, we seem to need other people to maintain adequate levels of mental well-being and motivation. Even less obviously still, social contact may help us improve our brain functions…

Mental fitness seems to depend on a large part on being connected with other people. A study published in 2008 by Ybarra and his colleagues showed that socializing and mental exercises have very similar effects in terms of improving brain functions! Ybarra hypothesized that social interaction could facilitate cognitive functioning.

First, they collected data from 3600 people aged 24 to 96. They assessed how often these people talked on the phone with friends, neighbors and relatives and how often they got together with the same parties. They also assessed mental functioning of their sample using the mini-mental exam. It was found that the more socially engaged people were, the higher their cognitive performance. Great news, right? Stay connected and your neurons will stay healthy!

One limitation of this type of study is that is shows a CORRELATION. The result shows that people who are socially engaged are also doing well in terms of brain function. This does not mean that being socially engaged results or CAUSES good brain functioning.
This correlation can be interpreted in several ways:

1. being socially engaged results in good brain functioning
2. Good brain functioning results in being socially engaged
3. being wealthy (for instance) may result both in being socially engaged and good brain functioning

As a consequence, Ybarra and colleagues proceeded to conduct another study to show that social interaction indeed CAUSES better cognitive performance.
They randomly assigned participants (aged 18-21) to three groups:

1. a social group, in which the participants engaged in a discussion of a social issue for 10mn
2. an intellectual activities group, in which the participants solved stimulating tasks (crossword puzzles and the likes) for 10mn
3. a control group, in which the participants watched a 10mn clip of Seinfeld

After they participated in the discussion or watched the clip or solved the puzzles, the cognitive functioning of all the participants was assessed. Two tasks were used (for those you are interested: these were a speed of processing task and a working memory task). Here is what Ybarra et al. found:

• People in the intellectual activities group did better in the cognitive tasks than people who merely watched a movie. This shows one more time that stimulating your neurons is a great way to boost your performance

• People who were in the social group did better in the cognitive tasks than people who merely watched a movie. This is the first time that social interaction is shown to directly CAUSE better cognitive functioning. This is a very exciting result. Remember that participants engaged in discussion for only 10m!

The benefit from social interaction was as great as the benefit from intellectual activities.

Why would social interaction boost brain function?
Ybarra and colleagues offer the following reasoning. Social interaction involves many behaviors that require memory, attention and control. These mental processes are also involved in many cognitive tasks. Thus social interaction would act as a prime, it would “oil” these processes so that they are ready to be used when a cognitive task is to be solved. This is a tentative explanation that may require some refinement but the results are here! Social interaction seems to benefit the brain.

Read the original article:

Ybarra, O., Burnstein, E., Winkielman, P., Keller, M. C., Manis, M., Chan, E., & Rodriguez, J. (2008). Functioning Mental Exercising Through Simple Socializing: Social Interaction Promotes General Cognitive. Pers Soc Psychol Bull., 34, 248.

In March 2009 at the American Society on Aging Conference in Las Vegas, I look forward to presenting the results of a recent HAPPYneuron user study.  The study shows the cognitive improvements experienced by users after a playing series of online cognitive exercises over a period of 18 weeks.  Dr. Croisile presented the results the National Academy of Neuropsychology in October 2008 to significant interest of this peer group.

See you there if you are attending also….