Memory News Digest

A new study indicates that sleep deprivation leads to short-term memory loss not, or not only, because the brain has problems encoding the information, but because people who are sleep deprived can see and take in only a small number of objects at a time.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#attention

Sleep deprivation can threaten competent decision-making

An imaging study reveals why we make poorer decisions when sleep deprived.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#decision

Inducing restorative sleep

Researchers have found a way to stimulate the slow brain waves that characterize the deepest stage of sleep using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#restorative

Meditation may improve attentional control

Intensive training in Vipassana meditation was found to result in increased attentional control.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#Meditation

A first glimpse at healthy brain and behavioral development

Initial data from a large, population-based study documenting structural brain development and behavior from birth to young adulthood, has revealed higher norms and less gender and socioeconomic difference than previous studies. The study excludes children who had any signs or known risk of serious neurological or psychiatric disorders).

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#development

Frequent TV viewing during adolescence linked with risk of attention and learning difficulties

A long-running study of 678 families has found those who watched 1 or more hours of television per day at mean age 14 years were at higher risk of poor homework completion, negative attitudes toward school, poor grades, and long-term academic failure, while those who watched 3 or more hours were also least likely to receive postsecondary education.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#TV

Young children can add and subtract without arithmetic

A new study shows that children have some ability to add and subtract Arabic numerals after learning to count but before they have learned to add and subtract.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#arithmetic

Stereotype-induced math anxiety robs women's working memory

Another study finds evidence that being told men are better at mathematics undermines women's math performance, and extends it by demonstrating that the anxiety induced by the stereotype mainly reduced the verbal part of working memory, and that this carried over to subsequent (non-math-related) tasks.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#math

Female alcoholics can develop cognitive problems more rapidly than male alcoholics

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#alcoholics

Tight diabetes control does not impact cognitive ability in type 1 diabetes

Multiple episodes of severe hypoglycaemia have been found not to lead to long-term loss of cognitive ability.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#diabetes

Inflammatory system genes linked to cognitive decline after heart surgery

A study has found that people with variants of two genes involved in the inflammatory system appear to be protected from suffering a decline in mental function following heart surgery.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#heart

Adult neurogenesis more important for learning than thought

A mouse study reveals that adult neurogenesis briefly gives adult brains similar plasticity to that seen in infant brains. The findings suggest that new neurons are more involved than their mature neighbors in memory formation, and that plasticity depends more on the age of the neurons than the age of the brain.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#neurogenesis

Fragile X syndrome -- A stimulating environment restores neuronal function in mice

Mice in which the gene that causes Fragile X syndrome —- the most common form of inherited mental retardation —had been knocked out, showed reduced long-term potentiation in neurons but normal neuronal plasticity was restored by exposure to an enriched environment.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#Fragile

Chronic pain can impair working memory

A small study has found many patients with chronic pain showed cognitive impairment on attentional tasks.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#pain

Bigger is smarter: brain size predicts intelligence in different species

New research has found overall brain size and overall neocortex size were good predictors of intelligence in different primate species, suggesting that, although some correction is probably needed, completely controlling for body size is almost certainly a mistake.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#size

Gene mutation linked to cognition is found only in humans

A new study has found that a variant of a gene that plays a role in learning and memory, is expressed only in the central nervous systems of humans.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#mutation

Green tea extract protects against HIV-associated dementia in mouse study

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#tea

Symptomatic Gulf War veterans show reduced brain volume

Early results from a study of 36 veterans of the first Gulf War found that those who had more than five symptoms had significantly reduced brain tissue in two areas compared to those who had five or fewer symptoms.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#reduced

TMS improves neuronal function in mice

A mouse study reveals that TMS improves long-term potentiation in neurons and substantially increased stem cells in the dentate gyrus.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#TMS

Drinking heavy amounts of alcohol shrinks your brain

A large study has found that the more alcohol people drink on a regular basis, the lower their brain volume. The relationship was slightly larger in women than in men, and drinking heavy amounts of alcohol seemed to have the biggest negative impact on brain volume for women in their 70s.

http://www.memory-key.com/news/2007/news_2007May.htm#Drinking

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ALZHEIMER'S NEWS

<http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers%20news.htm>

May 2007

<http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm>

Brain scans show early Alzheimer's disease in people with memory problems

Another study confirms a technique for early diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, and MCI as a precursor.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#early

Reduction of tau protein protects against Alzheimer’s

A study using genetically engineered mice has found that when tau protein was reduced their memory function was retained and they lived a normal lifespan, even though amyloid-beta levels weren’t affected.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#tau

Personality changes may help detect Lewy bodies dementia

A new study has found that people with dementia with Lewy bodies often display passive personality changes some time before cognitive deficits are evident, offering hope that a simple personality test might help diagnosis.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#Lewy

Breakdown of myelin implicated in Alzheimer's

A new study suggests that it is the breakdown of myelin that promotes the buildup of amyloid-beta fibrils, that in turn destroy more and more myelin. The idea suggests a new therapeutic approach.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#myelin

Blood inflammation plays role in Alzheimer's disease

Data from a long-running study provides further evidence that inflammation plays a role in the development of Alzheimer's disease.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#inflammation

Alzheimer's weight gain initiative improved patients' intellectual abilities

A program to increase the weight of people with Alzheimer's improved intellectual abilities.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#weight

Some hypertension drugs may help reduce dementia risk

Data from a very large long-term study of cardiovascular risk factors has found a class of high blood pressure medicines that are centrally active ACE inhibitors was associated with lower risk of cognitive decline. The benefit did not result from ACE inhibitors in general, only to those that are centrally active.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#hypertension

Estrogen use before 65 linked to reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease

A very large long-running study has found hormone therapy before the age of 65 was associated with a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s for women, but beginning such therapy after the age of 65 increased the risk of developing dementia.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#Estrogen

Secondhand smoke increases risk of dementia

Preliminary findings from a large long-running study indicates that elderly people with high lifetime exposure to secondhand smoke were significantly more likely to develop dementia than those with no lifetime secondhand smoke exposure.

http://www.memory-key.com/Seniors/Alzheimers_2007a.htm#smoke

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EARNEST PLEA / CARD SORT

This newsletter is a little late because I was wanting to get a card sort up and running. A card sort is a tool to help you organize information. I was advised of this extremely nifty little tool, which is currently in beta, and free for a short time, and have set up some sample sorts to help me with my website redesign. At the moment the website is based solely on my own views as to how the contents should be organized. This is not necessarily the way other people would organize them. Obviously the better the organization reflects users’ minds, the easier it will be for them to find the information that interests them. So I can make a very earnest plea for anyone who is interested in my site to do at least one of these sorts?

There are 8 samples, each one having 42 items in it (if anyone is really into this, I do have a complete set with 170 items in it and will happily forward the link to that to anyone who asks!). The 8 sets come in two flavors: open and closed. Open means you not only put items together that you think are related, but also choose their category labels. Closed means the categories are set; all you have to do is choose which items to place in them.

These are the links to the 4 open sorts:

http://memory.optimalsort.com/memkey1/

http://memory.optimalsort.com/memkey2/

http://memory.optimalsort.com/memkey3/

http://memory.optimalsort.com/memkey4/

These are the links to the 4 closed sorts:

http://memory.optimalsort.com/memkey1cl/

http://memory.optimalsort.com/memkey2cl/

http://memory.optimalsort.com/memkey3cl/

http://memory.optimalsort.com/memkey4cl/

The numbers do indicate item sets, so memkey1 (open) has the same items as memkey1cl (closed).

To help get a spread across samples, could I ask, on your first/only sample, could you do 1 if your surname is A-F, 2 if G-M, 3 if N-S, 4 if T-Z. As I say, the tool is free for only a short time, so the card sort will only be available for a short time – maybe a couple of weeks. I do hope enough people will do it to give me useful feedback.

Thanking you in hopeful anticipation!

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MISSING LINK

Carelessly I omitted the link for the memory game website I mentioned in the last newsletter, though I did add it to the online newsletter and mentioned it on my blog. Here it is again for those who missed it:

http://www.lumosity.com/

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If you have missed any issue of the newsletter (those people who use hotmail
in particular sometimes have their mail bounced back "overquota"), you can
read back issues at: http://www.memory-key.com/newsletters/newsletters.htm

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The Memory Key website is named after my book "The Memory Key", a
practical user-friendly handbook designed to help people achieve
genuine, long-lasting memory improvement.

http://www.memory-key.com/AboutTheSite/about_book.htm

www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1564144704/thememorykey-20

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