Brain – Page 10 – Impact Lab

Analysis, Brain, Food, Health & Fitness, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

How diet affects brain function revealed in studies

October 17, 2012

Your brain on food

New studies just released explore the neurological component of dietary disorders, uncovering evidence that the brain’s biological mechanisms may contribute to significant public health challenges — obesity, diabetes, binge eating, and the allure of the high-calorie meal. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

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Analysis, Brain, Historical Perspectives, Latest Trend, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Humans are getting smarter

October 5, 2012

Don’t be surprised when your toddler can operate your laptop. There’s a rise in IQ levels all around.

James R. Flynn explains how he came to understand how our minds have gained in cognitive skills during the 20th century in an excerpt from his new book, Are We Getting Smarter? Rising IQ in the Twenty-First Century.

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Analysis, Brain, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

Study of brain’s visual center finds men and women really do see things differently

September 5, 2012

Men and women do see things differently.

New research published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Biology of Sex Differences finds that the way that the visual centers of men and women’s brains works is different. Men have greater sensitivity to fine detail and rapidly moving stimuli, but women are better at discriminating between colors.

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Analysis, Brain, Food, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Chocolate may help lower risk of stroke in men

August 30, 2012

The beneficial effect of chocolate consumption on stroke may be related to the flavonoids in chocolate.

According to a new study, eating a moderate amount of chocolate each week may be associated with a lower risk of stroke in men. The study was published in the August 29, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “While other studies have looked at how chocolate may help cardiovascular health, this is the first of its kind study to find that chocolate, may be beneficial for reducing stroke in men,” said study author Susanna C. Larsson, PhD, with the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

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Analysis, Brain, Internet, Science & Technology News

How the internet could learn to feel

August 23, 2012

The Internet, in principle, could have conscious states.

If you had to list the hardest problems in science — the questions even some scientists say are insoluble — you would probably end up with two:

Where do the laws of physics come from?
How does the physical stuff in our brains produce conscious experience?

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Analysis, Brain, Business, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Work skills you will need to survive in the future

July 19, 2012

As employees chart their route to the top of the “Conceptual Age”, it’s important to know the skills that companies are looking for.

IBM’s 2010 Global CEO Study cited “creativity” as the most important leadership quality for the future when “global knowledge” was once essential for leaders. This is one of many signals that the business world is evolving out of the “Information Age,” where left-brain technical skills, knowledge and expertise were king.

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Analysis, Brain, Business, Science & Technology News

11 ways consumers are bad at math: Study

July 10, 2012

The shopping brain isn’t very smart.

You are at your local Starbucks and see two deals for a cup of coffee. The first deal you see offers 33% extra coffee. The second deal takes 33% off the regular price. Which one is the better deal?

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Analysis, Brain, New Discoveries, People Making a Difference, Science & Technology News

Mind-reading speller allows vegetative-state patients to communicate

June 29, 2012

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0I7h6Uucnc[/youtube]

The first real-time brain-scanning speller will allow people in an apparent vegetative state (unable to speak or move) to communicate, according to Maastricht University scientists. (video)

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Brain, New Discoveries, Science & Technology News

Intel’s neuromorphic chip design that works more like the human brain

June 21, 2012

Intel’s goal is to build chips that work more like the human brain.

The most extraordinary computing machine is the human brain. It carries out tasks as a matter of routine that would fry the circuits of the most powerful supercomputers on the planet: walking, talking, recognizing, analyzing and so on.

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Analysis, Brain, Food, Health & Fitness, Science & Technology News

Your brain on diet soda: How artificial sweeteners trick your brain

June 18, 2012

Sugar substitutes used in diet beverages actually change how our brains’ reward areas work.

There are some major loopholes in the New York soda ban measure that critics have pointed out. For example, convenience stores would still be free to sell large, sugary drinks. Also exempt from the bill are sweetened alcoholic beverages. Researchers that Mayor Bloomberg cited think the whole thing might backfire. But the biggest omission in the New York soda ban has to do with an entirely other class of fizzy, sweetened drink: diet sodas.

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Brain, Health & Fitness, Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Prosthetics of the future will be powered by bodily fluids

June 13, 2012

Prosthetics of the future may draw their power from juices in the brain.

These days, the most advanced robotic prosthetics take their commands from the brain. And pretty soon, they may be drawing their power from juices in the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid, that is. Electrical engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a novel platinum-coated fuel cell that runs off the glucose found in bodily fluids. Their specific aim is to implant the fuel cells in liquid pockets of the brain and use them to run low powered components in a neural prosthetic. They described a prototype this week in the journal PLoS One.

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Analysis, Brain, Latest Trend, Science & Technology News

Brainiest cities across America

June 6, 2012

The map from Zara Matheson of the Martin Prosperity Institute maps the brainy metro index across U.S. metros.

We are often told the smartest cities and nations do the best in the knowledge economy. Smart cities typically are measured by education level, calculating the cities or metros with the largest percentage of college grads or the largest shares of adults with advanced degrees. Others do it by charting the kinds of work people do and the occupations they hold, differentiating between knowledge or creative workers and others who do more routine manufacturing and service jobs.

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