A social enterprise providing education and information to protect and enhance the mental health of young people
Where in your brain do you exist? Is your awareness of the world around you and of yourself as an individual the result of specific, focused changes in your brain, or does that awareness come from a broad network of neural activity? How does your brain produce awareness? Vanderbilt University researchers took a significant step [...]
For example, raw speed in processing information appears to peak around age 18 or 19, then immediately starts to decline. Meanwhile, short-term memory continues to improve until around age 25, when it levels off and then begins to drop around age 35. For the ability to evaluate other people's emotional states, the peak occurred much [...]
Some chemicals—lead, mercury and organophosphate pesticides, for example—have long been recognized as toxic substances that can have lasting effects on children’s neurological health. But scientists are also now discovering that chemical compounds common in outdoor air—including components of vehicle exhaust and fine particulate matter—as well as in indoor air and consumer products can also adversely [...]
By now, most of us have seen the shocking before and after pics of people addicted to methamphetamines. Exactly what is happening inside each cell to cause such striking changes to a person’s face and body? Meth, scientists from the Italian Institute of Technology and UC Irvine say, causes abnormalities in the fat metabolism of [...]
Children deprived of loving care have reduced white matter in crucial parts of the brain compared to those raised in a better environment. The observations are not surprising in light of the well-known behavioral effects of neglect, but what this study has done is identify and measure the areas of the brain most affected. The [...]
The risk of dementia doubles every five years after the age of 65 in Australia. And whereas before little was known about this debilitating disease, we now have "some good ideas as to what may be the contributing mechanisms", says Professor Perminder Sachdev, co-director of the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), UNSW. While there's no [...]
The thickness of cortical brain tissue progressively reduces as individuals develop psychosis, according to researchers of a large, multi-site study of young adults at clinical high risk. Onset of psychosis typically occurs during the transition from adolescence to early adulthood, a period of time when the brain is also maturing, they note. - Elsevier via Development [...]
When depression chopped me in the back of the knee and sent me sprawling on the floor – well actually the couch – for a full year, I had to learn some brilliant ninja moves. I learned moves that got me back on my feet and moves that keep sneaky saboteurs from whacking me so [...]
Red and yellow indicates the more active areas of the brain when images are rated as highly stimulating. Green indicates the areas that specifically become more active in women. Credit: MCN, University of Basel Women rate emotional images as more emotionally stimulating than men do and are more likely to remember them. However, [...]
Regular physical activity improves brain function even in young adults considered in their prime and at the height of cognitive ability, according to a new University of Otago study. A body of research already exists showing aerobic exercise improves brain function in older adults, but there is a limited amount of literature on how it affects young adults. The Otago [...]
