Your brain is an incredibly fast, effective and efficient machine that makes about 10,402,560,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per day if everything is running smoothly. That also leaves a lot of room for error. So how does that three pound fat ball on your shoulders control all of that information? Read more to find out about brain communication and information processing.
Nutrition is serious business; in fact, it is a multi-billion dollar business. Everyone is trying to cash in on the health craze with one fad diet after the other. One week it is bad to eat carbohydrates, the next week juice cleanses are all the rage, and before you know it someone is advocating eating like a caveman. With all the competing information out there, what does your body really need? Well, we are no nutrition experts, but here are a few essential minerals to consider in the third part of our brain food series, You Are What You Eat.
Imagine that your body is a car. First things first, you aren’t going anywhere without fuel (calories from food). Secondly, the type of fuel you choose makes a huge difference. You can’t put diesel in a Honda Civic, just like someone with celiac disease wouldn’t eat gluten. But it goes farther than that. 93 octane burns better than 87. Compounds like NOS will cause massive temporary spikes in power, at a high cost. So, is the higher price worth it? And no, we aren’t talking about cars anymore.
“Restless Mind, Restless Body,” a study published in the December edition of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition (Seli et al), shows a correlation between sustained focus and the ability to control secondary motor movement, like sitting still during a lecture.
Two clocks!? Holy cow, I’m already late according to the one on the wall. New research suggests that the brain actually has two clocks working simultaneously, and possibly competing with each other. Find out why timing is even more important now than ever.
Our focus on neuromuscular conditions continues with Huntington’s, a truly devastating disease that could be affecting as many as 180,000 people in America. This hereditary disease has been known to stay relatively dormant in some people for 50 years, only to appear after it has been passed on to another generation. Find out how to spot Huntington’s.
Dyspraxia affects an individual’s ability to plan and coordinate motor tasks. It is a developmental disorder, most commonly affecting young males. The condition will manifests itself in every aspect of life, although the severity and age of onset can vary drastically. Continue reading to learn more about the warning signs and symptoms of dyspraxia.
A new study by Tierney & Kraus (2013) from Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory helps shed more light on why synchronizing motor movements to a steady beat results in faster, more accurate auditory processing, reading, and language processing. Their landmark study of 124 high school students highlights a neural structure called the inferior colliculus (IC) that serves as a way station for timing information between subcortical auditory structures, cerebral cortex, and the cerebellum. Tierny & Kraus have found the “first evidence linking [motor] beat synchronization ability to individual differences in auditory system function.” Continue reading for more information on this groundbreaking research.
2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit to Discuss Latest on Digital Brain Health, Brain Fitness, Personal Health
150+ science and industry pioneers in 14 countries to gather online on September 19th and 20th
“It is exciting to imagine the possibilities at the intersection of brain health, digital health, and neuroplasticity, but getting there requires addressing the immediate questions confronting us today,†says Alvaro Fernandez, CEO of SharpBrains and Summit’s producer. “We are proud to offer this unique forum to help the field move forward.â€
This is a very interesting study that demonstrates use of the Interactive Metronome (IM) as an evidence-based diagnostic tool. Interactive Metronome is the only technology that can objectively measure millisecond timing in the brain that has been directly associated with attention, concentration and motor synchronization in published studies too numerous to count. Researchers from Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology utilized IM as a measure of attention & concentration. With a sample size of 138 women in the 34th week of gestation who planned to receive an epidural during delivery, this study was conducted over a 1 year period.
