I’ve never really been a “beach person” when it comes to vacations.  For me, a great vacation is about going to new places and immersing myself in different cultures.   Experiencing a new language, finding new ways of seeing, and pushing culinary boundaries are my idea of good fun.  Yes, I’ve gotten lost, had to rely on the kindness of strangers and eaten some creatures I didn’t even know were food.  However, I’ve loved it and treasure those very vivid memories.

A recent Psychology Today article helped me understand why I find this so exciting.  It turns out, it’s all in my head.  Fear-provoking situations, even mild ones, encourage the release of noradrenaline, which  makes us more aware and clear-headed.  I’ve certainly felt that clarifying buzz.  What I didn’t know was that the noradrenaline also stimulates the hippocampus and its neighboring structure, the amygdala, which stores memories.  With all this amping up of emotion and memory-related brain structures, not only are you more present but those stimulating situations are remembered very well.

If a major trip isn’t in your immediate future, don’t worry.  The author reminds us that just getting out of your comfort zone with new experiences, no matter where are you are, is enough to get the noradrenaline flowing.

It has become clear over the last few years that one of the many benefits of regular physical exercise is a better functioning brain. In a recent review paper Erickson and Kramer (2009) noted the following:

1. People who exercise regularly have larger volumes of grey matter in important regions of the brain, including the prefrontal, parietal and temporal lobes. They also have a greater volume of white matter in the corpus callosum. (Grey matter contains the neurons that process information in the brain. White matter helps disperse the information rapidly to other regions of the brain.)
2. Participants who follow an aerobic exercise plan over a 6 month period perform better on cognitive tasks such as task switching and selective attention tasks.

Continue reading "Optimizing Brain Function" »

Of all the issues around brain development, the most interesting to me has always been that of language learning- especially relating to second language learning. It probably has to with my background: my Dad is from Iran, and in my early childhood I spoke Farsi with him and English with my Mom. Eventually, though, my Dad worried that I would lag behind in school if he continued to speak Farsi with me, so he stopped. It wasn’t until I learned Spanish in high school and developed an interest in languages that I decided to revisit Farsi. I like to think that the Farsi just hovered around in the back of my brain somewhere waiting for me to use it again, because I’m picking it up at a good clip now.

That’s why I’m so pleased that some you are apparently interested in this too! The way the brain can learn a new language well into old age has raised a lot of discussion on how important it is for kids to grow up bilingually. It has been specifically asked: if Americans speak fewer languages than the rest of the world, does that mean our brains are less developed? Since I have written about the topic of languages and the brain before, I thought I would give it my best shot: countries that teach their children multiple languages from pre-adolescence onward  produce citizens with more linguistically developed brains.

Continue reading "The Second Language Brain Debate" »

I attended the UNC CHAT festival and heard Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft’s entertainment division, talk about convergence and what Microsoft is doing to enable its products and services to ride that wave.  The main point of the presentation was to discuss the merging of technology into all forms of entertainment and to note the three big themes that influence, and are influenced by, this trend.

The first is customers’ use of technology.  The expectation is that content will follow the customer across multiple devices, or, in Robbie’s words, “multi-screen is the new main screen.”  He stated this is already happening with TV viewers being online more than half the time while watching a program.  That same expectation of access is clear when looking at mobile devices, primarily smart phones, delivering music, video, and other content that is also found on the laptop, desktop computer, or home entertainment system.  Since all of that content is rapidly moving to the cloud, enabling anytime, anywhere access.

Continue reading "Convergence = Computer Science + Entertainment + Brain Science" »

Does thinking burn calories? I’ve often wondered about that, and today I came across a Q&A article in New Scientist on that very topic. According to behavorial neuroscientist Ewan McNay, who has conducted research in this area,

“A rough calculation suggests that thinking hard about a task for 30 minutes might burn about 1/30th of a gram of fat. Thinking is not likely to turn an intellectual couch potato into a lean machine.”

Roger Hicks puts it even more succinctly:

“…it appears that the thinking part of brain function… consumes a relatively small amount of extra energy and is therefore of little use in weight loss-unless, of course, some of that thinking is aimed at producing exercise.”

Darn it! I guess I better sign off the computer and hit the gym after all. Of course, there’s lots of evidence that actual  physical exercise is good for your brain too.

About the Brain is a new section on the Posit Science website that’s chock-full of great information about the brain and brain fitness.

You can choose from these areas of interest:

• Brain Facts helps you understand how your brain and brain plasticity work. It answers all kinds of questions, like “Are crosswords really good for your brain?,” “How does sleep affect memory?,” and “Why is brain fitness suddenly so popular?”

• Brain Healthy Activities gives concrete ideas for supplementing brain training with everyday habits that are good for the brain, including brain-healthy recipes, activities, and more.

• Fun Brain Tricks lets you explore cool visual and auditory illusions and describes what’s happening in the brain.

So check out About the Brain and let us know what other questions you’d like to see answered there!

As someone with a deep interest in music, I’ve often wondered about that age-old question: where does music come from? It’s become a cliché for musicians to wax philosophical about how their creative impulses come from “deep within” or that improvisation is a way of expressing their “true self”, but good luck getting anything more concrete than that. Thankfully for us curious types, Charles Limb of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has published a study that helps answer that question.

As assistant professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery as well as a trained jazz saxophonist, Limb is uniquely qualified to explore this topic. He took MRIs of jazz pianists to study their brain activity as they played music- first when they recited some pre-rehearsed scales and then as they improvised on the spot. The findings actually back up all those claims that creating music is a form of pure self-expression that comes out us raw and uninhibited.¹

Continue reading "Your Brain On Jazz" »

I had the opportunity to speak at my alma mater, the University of North Carolina, this week at the CHAT Festival.  It is a creative and broad reaching event sponsored by the Institute for Arts and Humanities and includes music performances, views on the growing variety and impact of video games, art installations, the future of digital media, and many opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas.  The topic for the panel in which I was a participant was “Collaboration and Entrepreneurship”.

In preparing for the panel, I realized that every single thing we pursue at Posit Science is made possible by working collaboratively.  Our company was born from a collaboration between our founding duo: Dr. Mike Merzenich, world-class neuroscientist, and Jeff Zimman, world-class creative thinker and deal maker.  The diversity they brought–distinctive problem solving approaches, a broad set of contacts to recruit talent, access to different sources of capital–was critical to success in multiple areas. Their different experiences and skill sets create an environment for debate that is the only way to reach shared vision.

Continue reading "Collaboration: Lifeblood of Success" »

People have been talking about Temple Grandin quite a bit lately, partly because HBO recently released an original movie about her life and achievements starring Claire Danes. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it. (If you don’t have HBO, you can make a note to check it out when it’s released on DVD.)

So just who is Temple Grandin? She is an inventor, a PhD, an animal advocate, a 6-time author, and a great scientific mind. Also, she is profoundly autistic. While she acknowledges that her autism has made certain social aspects of her life difficult, she celebrates the gifts that autism has bestowed upon her and uses them to lead a professionally exciting and fulfilling life that benefits millions of animals. She speaks about “thinking in pictures” instead of words, having a special understanding of animals, and being able to discern very small details in their environment that makes them feel afraid, nervous, or distressed. This has led to her success as a designer of humane slaughterhouses. It’s estimated  that over 50% of the slaughterhouses in the U.S. now use machines of her design.

Continue reading "Personal Hero: Temple Grandin" »

There was an intriguing article in Scientific American last week called “Think Twice: How the Gut’s ‘Second Brain’ Influences Mood and Well-Being.” Although I work at a neuroscience company, I was unfamiliar with the “second brain.” It turns out it’s a mass of tissue in our intestines that shares many qualities with our brains–millions of neurons, many of the same key chemicals (like dopamine and serotonin). This “second brain” is officially called the “enteric nervous system,” and it’s a fascinating part of the body.

Here’s a little context: As you probably know, the brain and spinal cord are known as the “central nervous system.” The central nervous system receives and makes sense of information from other parts of the body (such as “ouch! that hurt!”). It also sends messages out (such as “right hand: wave good bye”). The “peripheral nervous system” connects the central nervous system to the rest of the body, moving the messages along until they reach their destination. The enteric nervous system (the “second brain”)  is part of the peripheral nervous system.

Continue reading "The “Second Brain”" »