Talk to our Scientists in the Brain Blog
Find out everything you've wanted to know and more about CogniFit brain fitness programs from our team of scientists. Or fill out the form and send us your own questions, comments and compliments.
03/01/2010 - 4:12pm
TV, Movies and Your Brain- Tips to watch Academy Award movies and engage your brain
With this weekend’s upcoming Academy Awards, many of us may be thinking about our favorite movies and spending time in front of the television catching up on movies from the past year. What does that mean for your brain? Unfortunately, television isn’t the best thing for our brains; it’s the kind of passive activity that doesn’t help to stimulate new pathways and connections so important for cognitive health.
02/23/2010 - 11:49am
Thank Your Brain on Memory Day and Every Day
Our brains are remarkable. Consider all the things they allow us to do: learn a language, remember our multiplication tables, learn to play an instrument, recall names and fond moments of our friends and families among a million other small and large details we need for daily life.
02/16/2010 - 12:43pm
Love on the Brain – A post Valentine’s Day thought
As Hollywood, romance novels, and even our personal experiences sometimes attest, it seems that love can either turn our brains to mush or it can conquer all. So what does the scientific evidence say about the effects of love on our brain fitness and health?
02/10/2010 - 10:33am
Wise Consumer Health Care Month
February is Wise Consumer Health Month. To help people recognize the importance of being more involved in their own health care, the American Institute for Preventative Medicine suggests some tips to support and encourage people in this endeavor below. CogniFit believes that the first step in taking care of ourselves is to take care of our brain fitness so we’ve suggested a number #11 below.
10 Tips for Being a Wise Health Care Consumer
02/08/2010 - 12:00am
Super Bowl Brain
The Super Bowl conjures images of rabid sports fans, a day of sitting in front of the television and eating unhealthy snacks, a fun time with family and friends- but it’s generally not considered a day that has any redeeming qualities for our brain fitness.
10/29/2009 - 3:49pm
Sometimes, Sugar Might Be Good For You
We all know by now that sugar is generally not a good thing for our bodies- empty calories, diabetes, bad for your teeth- there is not much to be said for sugar...until now.
Prof. Roy Baumeister, in his psychology lab at Florida State University in Tallahassee, asked subjects to perform a mentally taxing task (watching video while being careful to ignore random words scrolling across the bottom of the screen).
10/28/2009 - 3:42pm
Brain Training May Help The Blind-Sighted To See
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research have found that brain training may help people who are blind due to injury to the brain region responsible for vision, gain some vision.
Patients whose primary visual cortex has been damaged through a stroke or trauma cannot consciously see, but at some level their brains are still processing their visual environment. Through brain training, these patients may regain some conscious awareness of what their minds can see.
10/28/2009 - 3:15pm
Scientists Find How Brains Keep Track of Time
Keeping track of time and remembering things that happened in the past is one of the brain’s most important functions. A recent study has identified the neurons in primate brains that code time.
Neuroscientists have theorized that the brain “time stamps” events as they happen, allowing us to keep track of where we are and when past events occurred. Scientists were not able to find evidence that such time stamps existed. But a study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has now found that missing evidence.
10/27/2009 - 12:08pm
Scientists Find Way to Reverse Insomnia-Induced Cognitive Impairment
Sleep deprivation affects cognitive function and learning and memory are the cognitive functions most affected by lack of sleep. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have identified a molecular pathway in the brain that causes the cognitive impairment due to insomnia. They have also found that by reducing the concentration of a specific enzyme that builds up in the hippocampus, they can reduce the inability to focus, learn or memorize that is symptomatic of sleep deprivation.
10/26/2009 - 11:38am
Brain Trauma and Amateur Athletes
Recent news items have brought to light the increased incidence of Alzheimer’s and other brain-related diseases in retired professional football players. The high incidence of brain disorders and cognitive decline is thought to be caused by the many head traumas professional football players receive during their careers.
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