Feature Channels: Cognition and Learning

• share
• favorite_border

A new paper in the journal Cognition examines the visual complexity of written language and how that complexity has evolved.

• share
• favorite_border

On average the earliest memories that people can recall point back to when they were just two-and-a-half years old, a new study suggests.

• share
• favorite_border

Previous studies have shown that children with attention difficulties and/or ADHD solve cognitive tasks better when they are exposed to auditory white noise.

• share
• favorite_border

A new Cleveland Clinic-led study has identified mechanisms by which COVID-19 can lead to Alzheimer’s disease-like dementia. The findings, published in Alzheimer's Research & Therapy, indicate an overlap between COVID-19 and brain changes common in Alzheimer’s, and may help inform risk management and therapeutic strategies for COVID-19-associated cognitive impairment.

• share
• favorite_border

Until now, systemic biomarkers to measure exercise effects on brain function and that link to relevant metabolic responses were lacking. A study shows a memory biomarker, myokine Cathepsin B (CTSB), increased in older adults following a 26-week structured aerobic exercise training. The positive association between CTSB and cognition, and the substantial modulation of lipid metabolites implicated in dementia, support the beneficial effects of exercise training on brain function and brain health in asymptomatic individuals at risk for Alzheimer’s.

• share
• favorite_border

New research published in the journal Psychological Science, however, reveals that earworms can sometimes interject themselves into our dreams, where they can negatively impact our quality of sleep.

• share
• favorite_border

New research has revealed that people with the ability to visualise vividly have a stronger connection between their visual network and the regions of the brain linked to decision-making.

• share
• favorite_border

Youth brain activation data from the largest longitudinal neuroimaging study to date provides valuable new information on the cognitive processes and brain systems that underlie adolescent development and might contribute to mental and physical health challenges in adulthood.

• share
• favorite_border

Older Chinese immigrants who adjust to their new cultural environment by learning the language, following the country’s media and socializing with local residents can reduce acculturation gap with their adult children and protect their cognitive function, according to a Rutgers study.

• share
• favorite_border

A study published in the journal Pediatrics shows the combination of two early reading programs had positive effects on preschool students entering kindergarten in Cincinnati Public Schools over a three-year period.

• share
• favorite_border

New research into Alzheimer's disease (AD) suggests that secondary infections and new inflammatory events amplify the brain's immune response and affect memory in mice and in humans - even when these secondary events occur outside the brain.

• share
• favorite_border

To date, place cells have been studied in mammals in small spaces. How do we navigate large ones? Prof. Nachum Ulanovsky and team studied bats navigating a 200-m-long tunnel – and discovered a novel neuronal code for spatial perception. The work showed that place cells behave completely differently when navigating very large spaces.

• share
• favorite_border

A new measure of brain health developed by researchers at Rush University Medical Center may offer a novel approach to identifying individuals at risk of memory and thinking problems, according to research results published in Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association on June 1.

• share
• favorite_border

Sleep scientists assessed how effective caffeine was in counteracting the negative effects of sleep deprivation on cognition.

• share
• favorite_border

As Michael Shutt, then 48, recovered at Cedars-Sinai from back-to-back strokes six years ago, his memory wandered to a beach in his home state of Massachusetts.

• share
• favorite_border

Poor sleep impacts the risk of long-term cognitive decline in Hispanic/Latino middle aged and older adults differently than it does in non-Hispanic adults, according to research led by University of Miami Miller School of Medicine neurology faculty and the largest long-term study of U.S. Hispanic/Latinos to date.

• share
• favorite_border

While we sleep, the brain produces particular activation patterns. When two of these patterns - slow oscillations and sleep spindles - gear into each other, previous experiences are reactivated.

• share
• favorite_border

Pacientes diagnosticados com síndrome pós COVID-19, também conhecida como "PCS", "síndrome de COVID de longa duração" e "sequelas pós-agudas de SARS COV-2", apresentam sintomas como transtornos de humor, fadiga e comprometimento cognitivo que podem afetar negativamente o retorno ao trabalho e a retomada de atividades normais.

• share
• favorite_border

妙佑医疗国际学报(Mayo Clinic Proceedings)上发表的一项妙佑医疗国际研究表明，被诊断为COVID-19后综合征（也被称为“PCS”、“COVID-19长期综合征”和“SARS-COV-2急性长期症状”）的患者会出现心境障碍、疲劳和认知障碍等症状，可能会对复工和恢复正常活动产生负面影响

• share
• favorite_border

It is a common practice to photograph events that we most want to remember, such as birthdays, graduations and vacations. But taking photos can actually impair your memory for the experience, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

• share
• favorite_border

妙佑医疗国际学报(Mayo Clinic Proceedings)上发表的一项妙佑医疗国际研究表明，被诊断为COVID-19后综合征（也被称为“PCS”、“COVID-19长期综合征”和“SARS-COV-2急性长期症状”）的患者会出现心境障碍、疲劳和认知障碍等症状，可能会对复工和恢复正常活动产生负面影响。

• share
• favorite_border

Teens with high sensation seeking impulses and relatively low cognitive control are at elevated risk for binge drinking in early adulthood, a new study suggests. Young adults aged 18–25 report the highest rates of binge drinking in the previous month, a pattern that predicts later Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and other problem health behaviors. Two personality traits that evolve during adolescence and early adulthood — sensation seeking, the tendency to pursue novelty and excitement, and cognitive control, thinking before acting — are known to be related to binge drinking, or heavy episodic drinking (HED). Models of risky behavior among teens suggest that an imbalance involving higher sensation seeking and less-developed cognitive control may drive problem alcohol use. The study, in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, examined this imbalance over time as adolescents became young adults, and whether it was associated with binge drinking. Understanding these dynamic risk factors

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at UC San Francisco have observed a new feature of neural activity in the hippocampus - the brain's memory hub - that may explain how this vital brain region combines a diverse range of inputs into a multi-layered memories that can later be recalled.

• share
• favorite_border

How people consume news and take actions based on what they read, hear or see, is different than how human brains process other types of information on a daily basis, according to researchers at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

• share
• favorite_border

As we move through the world, what we see is seamlessly integrated with our memory of the broader spatial environment. How does the brain accomplish this feat?

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers to measure the brain's subtle magnetic signals in two research volunteers simultaneously as they interact, capturing the rich complexity of the brain's signaling during face-to-face social interactions in real-time.

• share
• favorite_border

Sounds like crickets chirping and the taste of warm buckwheat pancakes can spark the senses of people with dementia — a fact faculty and students at WVU used to develop a way for those people to experience parts of their cultural past and to relieve stress for their caregivers.

• share
• favorite_border

Thin-film electrodes developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have been used in human patients at the University of California, San Francisco, generating never-before-seen recordings of brain activity in the hippocampus, a region responsible for memory and other cognitive functions.

• share
• favorite_border

Patients diagnosed with post-COVID-19 syndrome, also known as "PCS," "COVID-19 long-haul syndrome" and "Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS COV-2," experience symptoms such as mood disorders, fatigue and perceived cognitive impairment that can negatively affect returning to work and resuming normal activities, according to a Mayo Clinic study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

• share
• favorite_border

A neurologic pathway by which non-damaging but high frequency brain impact blunts normal brain function and causes long-term problems with learning and memory has been identified. The finding suggests that tailored drug therapy can be designed and developed to reactivate and normalize cognitive function, say neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center.

• share
• favorite_border

UC San Diego researchers report that one kind of perceptual learning can occur in memory-impaired persons who do not actually remember what they learned.

• share
• favorite_border

Eating a Mediterranean diet that is rich in fish, vegetables and olive oil may protect your brain from protein build up and shrinkage that can lead to Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study. The research is published in the May 5, 2021, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at UC San Diego have used gene therapy to prevent learning and memory loss in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, a key step toward eventually testing the approach in humans with the neurodegenerative disease.

• share
• favorite_border

Following chemo, survivors suffer with memory dysfunction. The first large-scale study underway on cognitive behavioral therapy.

• share
• favorite_border

Exposure to air pollution, even over the course of just a few weeks, can impede mental performance, according to a new study led by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

• share
• favorite_border

An experimental treatment produced improvements in cognitive function and language in patients with fragile X syndrome, according to study results published on April 29 in Nature Medicine. Fragile X syndrome (known as FXS for short) is the most common known genetic cause of autism and the most common cause of inherited intellectual disability.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that improving the function of the brain's drainage network, known as the meningeal lymphatics, can make certain experimental Alzheimer’s therapies more effective in mice.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study by researchers at the VA Portland Health Care System in Oregon found that augmenting traditional treatment for traumatic brain injury (TBI) with morning bright light therapy (MBLT) improved physical and mental symptoms for participants. The team will present their work virtually at the American Physiological Society’s (APS) annual meeting at Experimental Biology 2021.

• share
• favorite_border

People rarely have just one motivation to do something. New research from the lab of Todd Braver at Washington University in St. Louis suggests how, and where, they combine.

• share
• favorite_border

In a new study led by Yale Cancer Center, researchers report many survivors of childhood cancers receive systemic therapies associated with cognitive effects and chronic health conditions that may impact long-term cognitive outcomes with downstream effects on education, employment, and income. The results were published online today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO).

• share
• favorite_border

A comprehensive analysis of 80 scientific studies has identified a 'window of impairment' of between three and 10 hours caused by moderate to high doses of the intoxicating component of cannabis, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

New research shows that people are more likely to rely on algorithms

• share
• favorite_border

Worldwide, 1 in 4 people will suffer from a depressive episode in their lifetime. While current diagnosis and treatment approaches are largely trial and error, a breakthrough study by Indiana University School of Medicine researchers sheds new light on the biological basis of mood disorders and offers a promising blood test aimed at a precision-medicine approach to treatment.

• share
• favorite_border

One in 54 kids in the U.S. lives with autism. Research shows that physical activity can positively impact quality of life for those living with the world’s fastest growing developmental disability. In honor of Autism Acceptance Month, David Geslak and ACSM team up to share three evidence-based physical activity strategies for those with autism.

• share
• favorite_border

Behavioral health providers now have access to an evidence-based standard to guide customized treatment plans

• share
• favorite_border

New research suggests that people without musical training have areas of the brain that can identify and respond to music, even if they are unfamiliar with the genre. The study is published ahead of print in the Journal of Neurophysiology (JNP).

• share
• favorite_border

Every day, nearly 400 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in Australia. As a major cause of illness and a leading cause of death, many of us, sadly, also know someone with cancer.

• share
• favorite_border

The shift to online teaching because of the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected learning, data shows, but students whose instructors had experience with online teaching tools – especially those in classes using structured peer interaction – performed better, according to a new Cornell study.

• share
• favorite_border