cognitive function

Yesterday’s NYT Mind over Mass MediaSteven Pinker does a great job of addressing the debate that the internet has a negative effect on cognitive functioning.

Yes, the constant arrival of information packets can be distracting or addictive, especially to people with attention deficit disorder. But distraction is not a new phenomenon. The solution is not to bemoan technology but to develop strategies of self-control, as we do with every other temptation in life. Turn off e-mail or Twitter when you work, put away your Blackberry at dinner time, ask your spouse to call you to bed at a designated hour.
And to encourage intellectual depth, don’t rail at PowerPoint or Google. It’s not as if habits of deep reflection, thorough research and rigorous reasoning ever came naturally to people. They must be acquired in special institutions, which we call universities, and maintained with constant upkeep, which we call analysis, criticism and debate. They are not granted by propping a heavy encyclopedia on your lap, nor are they taken away by efficient access to information on the Internet. continue reading


Source:
New York Times

A Reason to Drink More Coffee

iStockphoto

Caffeine May Slow Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias and Restore Cognitive Function

Athough caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive drug worldwide, its potential beneficial effect for maintenance of proper brain functioning has only recently begun to be adequately appreciated. Substantial evidence from epidemiological studies and fundamental research in animal models suggests that caffeine may be protective against the cognitive decline seen in dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). A special supplement to the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, “Therapeutic Opportunities for Caffeine in Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Neurodegenerative Diseases,” sheds new light on this topic and presents key findings. [continue reading…]

Test your memory

My two previous posts this morning focus on Alzheimer’s news. While researching the current posts I discovered Cambridge Brain Sciences -a website that provides scientifically proven tools for the assessment of cognitive function over the web. The Cambridge Brain Sciences concept was developed by Dr Adam Hampshire and Dr Adrian M. Owen at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit.

Members of the public and the wider scientific community can assess their cognitive function using rigorously tested and scientifically proven tests of memory, attention, reasoning and planning. All of the test made available on the site have been used in scientific studies of brain function by Dr Owen and his team at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit and have been described in more than 150 scientific publications in leading academic journals.

Ive included a video demonstrating one of the tests. You can try one test from each Test Category without registering, or you can register your details to gain access to all of the tests and find out how you compare to other people like you. link to try tests

You might be interested to learn that chimps have been found to beat humans on this spatial memory test!

Source: Cambrige Brain Sciences