University of Utah medical researchers have uncovered a wiring diagram that shows how the brain pays attention to visual, cognitive, sensory, and motor cues. The research provides a critical foundation for the study of abnormalities in attention that can be seen in many brain disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and attention deficit disorder. [continue reading…]
November 2010
A University of Toronto study shows that visual attention — the brain’s ability to selectively filter unattended or unwanted information from reaching awareness — diminishes with age, leaving older adults less capable of filtering out distracting or irrelevant information. [continue reading…]
Volunteering is known to provide health benefits to the person doing the volunteering. Now, a new study finds that older adults with functional limitations (trouble conducting daily tasks like cooking meals) in particular appear to reap the benefits from helping others.
The new study addresses the question of whether the impact of volunteering on risk of mortality was stronger for older adults with or without functional limitations. [continue reading…]
The 12 Pillars of Wisdom is series of 12 cognitive tasks which will test your planning, reasoning, working memory and attentional abilities to the limit. Brought to you by Cambridge Brain Sciences in collaboration with New Scientist and the Discovery Channel.
What makes you smart? Neuroscientist Adrian Owen reveals the 12 pillars of wisdom – and New Scientist invites you to take the ultimate intelligence test.
THERE are few more controversial areas of science than the study of intelligence. Its history is littered with disreputable ideas, from phrenology and other pseudoscientific ways of measuring it to flawed attempts to link it to race. Today intelligence remains contentious, not least because there is still no agreement on precisely what the word means.
Curious? Continue reading
Source: The New Scientist
