http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Since 1977, there has been a 70% increase in caffeine consumption among children and adolescents. Whether it is coffee, tea, soda, or energy drinks, our children are consuming more of it. One well documented effect of caffeine is improved cognitive performance on certain tasks. However, scientists also hypothesize that habitual caffeine use may lead to greater neural rewards if the caffeine drinker were to consume illicit drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-caffeine-effect-cognitive-tasks-food.html Health Mon, 22 Apr 2013 12:00:06 EST news285849631 Mindfulness training may help to boost standardized test scores and improve working memory, according to a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-mindfulness-boost-scores-memory.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:45:49 EST news283520729 Cognitive problems with memory and behavior experienced by individuals with schizophrenia are linked with changes in brain activity; however, it is difficult to test whether these changes are the underlying cause or consequence of these symptoms. By altering the brain activity in mice to mimic the decrease in activity seen in patients with schizophrenia, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Neuron on March 20 reveal that these changes in regional brain activity cause similar cognitive problems in otherwise normal mice. This direct demonstration of the link between changes in brain activity and the behaviors associated with schizophrenia could alter how the disease is treated. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-brain-responsible-cognitive-symptoms-schizophrenia.html Neuroscience Wed, 20 Mar 2013 12:00:01 EST news282999473 Playing video games for an hour each day can improve subsequent performance on cognitive tasks that use similar mental processes to those involved in the game, according to research published March 13 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Adam Chie-Ming Oei and Michael Donald Patterson of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-video-game-hour-day-cognitive.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:28:23 EST news282414496 Sports-related head injuries are a growing concern, and new research suggests that even less forceful actions like 'heading' a soccer ball may cause changes in performance on certain cognitive tasks, according to a paper published February 27 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Anne Sereno and colleagues from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-soccer-ball-affect-cognitive.html Health Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:00:01 EST news281206244 (Medical Xpress)—Even with a constant task, human performance fluctuates in time-scales from seconds to minutes in a fractal manner. In a recent study a Finnish research group found that the individual variability in the brain dynamics as indexed by the neuronal scaling laws predicted the individual behavioral variability and the conscious detection of very weak sensory stimuli. These data indicate that individual neuronal dynamics underlie the individual variability in human cognition and performance. Results may also have a strong impact in understanding the neuronal mechanism of neuropsychiatric diseases in which behavioral dynamics are abnormal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-memories-brain-streaks-individual-behaviour.html Neuroscience Tue, 12 Feb 2013 16:46:37 EST news279909984 A team of researchers led by Weill Cornell Medical College is calling into question the published statistics, methods and findings of a highly publicized research study that claimed bedside electroencephalography (EEG) identified evidence of awareness in three patients diagnosed to be in a vegetative state. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-science-opinion-flaws-patients-vegetative.html Neuroscience Thu, 24 Jan 2013 18:30:02 EST news278272883 Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and the VA San Diego Healthcare System have found that deficiencies in the neural processing of simple auditory tones can evolve into a cascade of dysfunctional information processing across wide swaths of the brain in patients with schizophrenia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-schizophrenia-patients-auditory-cues-bigger.html Neuroscience Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:02:00 EST news273513710 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers at King's College London have identified several cardiovascular risk factors, including smoking and high blood pressure, which may be associated with the accelerated decline of memory, learning, attention and reasoning in older adults. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-high-blood-pressure-linked-ageing.html Health Mon, 26 Nov 2012 07:01:52 EST news273135701 (Medical Xpress)—Researchers from the Université Bordeaux Segalen, France, and their Swedish colleagues have recently demonstrated that constant exposure to blue light is as effective as coffee at improving night drivers' alertness. Based on tests conducted in real driving conditions, the results have been published in the journal PLoS One. They could pave the way for the development of an electronic anti-sleep system to be built into vehicles. Before then, the scientists will be testing this equipment in a broader range of situations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-coffee-blue-night-drivers.html Other Fri, 23 Nov 2012 06:27:19 EST news272874384 (Medical Xpress)—A gene that confers a higher risk for dementia in old age could also promote better-than-average memory and verbal skills in youth, according to a new University of Sussex-led study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-alzheimer-gene-boost-young-brains.html Neuroscience Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:20:01 EST news272009657 Caffeine perks up most coffee-lovers, but a new study shows a small dose of caffeine also increases their speed and accuracy for recognizing words with positive connotation. The research published November 7 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Lars Kuchinke and colleagues from Ruhr University, Germany, shows that caffeine enhances the neural processing of positive words, but not those with neutral or negative associations. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-caffeine-recognition-positive-words.html Neuroscience Wed, 07 Nov 2012 17:00:04 EST news271519669 Researchers at the University of Bergen in Norway have found new support for their theory that cannabis use causes a temporary cognitive breakdown in non-psychotic individuals, leading to long-term psychosis. In an fMRI study published this week in Frontiers in Psychiatry, researchers found a different brain activity pattern in schizophrenia patients with previous cannabis use than in schizophrenic patients without prior cannabis use. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-cannabis-mimics-cognitive-weakness-schizophrenia.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 02 Nov 2012 12:09:42 EST news271076971 A century and a half ago, French physician Pierre Paul Broca found that patients with damage to part of the brain's frontal lobe were unable to speak more than a few words. Later dubbed Broca's area, this region is believed to be critical for speech production and some aspects of language comprehension. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-neuroscientists-broca-area-subunits-function.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Oct 2012 07:40:53 EST news269592007 Standard head movements made while exposed to one of the three electromagnetic fields produced by a heavy duty MRI scanner seem to temporarily lower concentration and visuospatial awareness, shows an experimental study published online in Occupational and Environmental Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-mri-scanners-affect-visuospatial-awareness.html Medical research Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:30:03 EST news265479313 A new study proposes a communication routing strategy for the brain that mimics the American highway system, with the bulk of the traffic leaving the local and feeder neural pathways to spend as much time as possible on the longer, higher-capacity passages through an influential network of hubs, the so-called rich club. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-highways-brain-high-cost-high-capacity.html Neuroscience Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:00:11 EST news259239686 (Medical Xpress) -- Researchers at the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS have recently identified in mice the role played by neo-neurons formed in the adult brain. By using selective stimulation the researchers were able to show that these neo-neurons increase the ability to learn and memorize difficult cognitive tasks. This newly discovered characteristic of neo-neurons to assimilate complex information could open up new avenues in the treatment of some neurodegenerative diseases. This publication is available online on the Nature Neuroscience journal's website. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-memory-role-neo-neurons-revealed.html Neuroscience Tue, 22 May 2012 10:19:56 EST news256900775 A simple drawing test can predict the long-term risk of dying after a first stroke among older men, finds research published in the online journal BMJ Open. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-subsequent-death-older-men.html Cardiology Wed, 09 May 2012 18:30:02 EST news255784188 A team of University of Pittsburgh mathematicians is using computational models to better understand how the structure of neural variability relates to such functions as short-term memory and decision making. In a paper published online April 2 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the Pitt team examines how fluctuations in brain activity can impact the dynamics of cognitive tasks. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-link-neural-variability-short-term-memory.html Neuroscience Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:25:44 EST news252602734 The brain has a remarkable ability to learn new cognitive tasks while maintaining previously acquired knowledge about various functions necessary for everyday life. But exactly how new information is incorporated into brain systems that control cognitive functions has remained a mystery. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-gain-insight-prefrontal-cortex.html Neuroscience Mon, 05 Mar 2012 15:00:12 EST news250174429 In the classic film "12 Angry Men," Henry Fonda's character sways a jury with his quiet, persistent intelligence. But would he have succeeded if he had allowed himself to fall sway to the social dynamics of that jury? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-group-diminish-intelligence-women.html Neuroscience Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:00:07 EST news246460131 Researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Baltimore VA Medical Center have launched a study of exercise and computerized memory training to see if those activities may help people with Parkinson's disease prevent memory changes. The type of memory that will be examined is known as "executive function;" it allows people to take in information and use it in a new way. Many Parkinson's patients develop problems with executive function, which can prevent them from working and may eventually require a caregiver to take over more of the complex cognitive tasks of daily living. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-exercisememory-parkinson.html Parkinson's & Movement disorders Mon, 12 Dec 2011 16:15:58 EST news242928952 (Medical Xpress) -- Distinct neural pathways are important for different aspects of language processing, researchers have discovered, studying patients with language impairments caused by neurodegenerative diseases. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-brain-words-sentences.html Neuroscience Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:58:12 EST news241343822 Just as the Occupy Wall Street movement has brought more attention to financial disparities between the haves and have-nots in American society, researchers from Indiana University and the University Medical Center Utrecht in The Netherlands are highlighting the disproportionate influence of so called "Rich Clubs" within the human brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-rich-club-human-brain.html Neuroscience Tue, 01 Nov 2011 17:50:01 EST news239388028 (Medical Xpress) -- Effective memory is a key ability for independent living in later life, and a new Iowa State University study is among the first to report that social partners can help extend memory. The study also found that the collaboration that helps middle-aged couples with memory tasks doesn't seem to be as effective for couples older than 70. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-couples-collaborative-dialogue-memory.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 29 Aug 2011 09:45:51 EST news233829936 Although a class schedule with later start times allows colleges students to get more sleep, it also gives them more time to stay out drinking at night. As a result, their grades are more likely to suffer, suggests a research abstract that will be presented Tuesday, June 14, in Minneapolis, Minn., at SLEEP 2011, the 25th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-college-students-longer-grades-classes.html Health Tue, 14 Jun 2011 05:10:01 EST news227244965