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Intensive training helps seniors with long-term aphasia

A six-week specific language therapy program not only improved chronic aphasic’s ability to name objects, but produced durable changes in brain activity that continued to bring benefits post-training.

Here’s an encouraging study for all those who think that, because of age or physical damage, they must resign themselves to whatever cognitive impairment or decline they have suffered.
Checklists dramatically reduce errors in operating room crises

A simulated study of life-threatening surgical crises has found that using a checklist reduced the omission of critical steps from 23% to 6%.

I reported recently on how easily and quickly we can get derailed from a chain of thought (or action).
The role of motivation on academic performance

A study shows how easily you can affect motivation, producing a significant effect on college test scores, while a large German study finds that motivational and strategy factors, but not intelligence, affects growth in math achievement at high school.

I’ve spoken before about the effects of motivation on test performance.
Evidence that IQ is rooted in two main brain networks

A very large online study helps decide between the idea of intelligence as a single factor (‘g’) versus having multiple domains.

An online study open to anyone, that ended up involving over 100,000 people of all ages from around the world, put participants through 12 cognitive tests, as well as questioning them about their background and lifestyle habits.
Even tiny interruptions can double or treble work errors

A new study quantifies the degree to which tasks that involve actions in a precise sequence are vulnerable to interruptions.

In my book on remembering intentions, I spoke of how quickly and easily your thoughts can be derailed, leading to ‘action slips’ and, in the wrong circumstances, catastrophic mistakes.
Menopause forgetfulness greatest early in postmenopause

A smallish study suggests that the cognitive effects of menopause are greatest in the first year after menopause.

Being a woman of a certain age, I generally take notice of research into the effects of menopause on cognition.
Worry & fatigue main reason for ‘chemo-brain’?

A new study points to pre-treatment reasons for declined cognitive function following chemotherapy, and suggests that anxiety may be the main driver.

The issue of ‘chemo-brain’ — cognitive impairment following chemotherapy — has been a controversial one.
Inhibitory control deficits common in those with MCI

Impairment in executive function is apparently far more common in those with MCI than previously thought, with the most common and severe impairment occurring in inhibitory control.

Providing some support for the finding I recently reported — that problems with semantic knowledge in those with mild cognitive impairment (
Alcohol and marijuana use in adolescence linked to impaired white-matter integrity

A brain-imaging study shows adolescents who abuse alcohol and marijuana show poorer white-matter integrity, with alcohol associated with continuing damage to wiring in prefrontal regions.

Chronic use of alcohol and marijuana during youth has been associated with poorer neural and cognitive function, which appears to continue into adulthood.
Chewing ability linked to reduced dementia risk

A large study of older adults suggests that being able to bite into a hard food such as an apple puts you in a better state to fight cognitive decline and dementia.

Previous research has pointed to an association between not having teeth and a higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia. One reason might have to do with inflammation — inflammation is a well-established risk factor, and at least one study has linked gum disease to a higher dementia risk.
Cognition impaired by low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides

A meta-analysis has concluded that low-level exposure to organophosphates has a small-to-moderate negative effect on cognitive function.

Organophosphate pesticides are the most widely used insecticides in the world; they are also (according to WHO), one of the most hazardous pesticides to vertebrate animals.
Ginkgo biloba doesn’t prevent Alzheimer’s

The second large-scale study investigating whether gingko biloba helps prevent Alzheimer’s has confirmed that it doesn’t.

Sad to say, another large study has given the thumbs down to ginkgo biloba preventing Alzheimer’s disease.
Popular cognitive test for Alzheimer’s insufficiently sensitive

The most common cognitive test used in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s treatments has been shown to have significant flaws that underestimate cognitive change.

New research suggests that reliance on the standard test Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale—Cognitive Behavior Section (ADAS-Cog) to measure cognitive changes in Alzheimer’s patients is a bad idea. The test is the most widely used measure of cognitive performance in clinical trials.
Simple semantic task reveals early cognitive problems in older adults

A study finds early semantic problems in those with MCI, correlating with a reduced capacity to carry out everyday tasks.

A small study shows how those on the road to Alzheimer’s show early semantic problems long before memory problems arise, and that such problems can affect daily life.
Feeling lonely linked to increased dementia risk

A study that attempts to separate the effects of social isolation from subjective feelings of loneliness concludes that feelings of loneliness have a greater effect on dementia risk.

There's quite a bit of evidence now that socializing — having frequent contact with others — helps protect against cognitive impairment in old age. We also know that depression is a risk factor for cognitive impairment and dementia.
The wrong genes mean even moderate drinking in pregnancy can affect a child's IQ

A large study suggests that even a few drinks a week can negatively affect the developing fetus, but only if the woman has specific gene variants.

It’s always difficult in human studies to disentangle the effects of lifestyle factors. Alcohol is a case in point, and in particular the vexed question of whether any alcohol is safe during pregnancy.
Social isolation decreases myelin

A mouse study demonstrates that prolonged social isolation can lead to a decrease in myelin, an effect implicated in a number of disorders, including age-related cognitive decline.

Problems with myelin — demyelination (seen most dramatically in MS, but also in other forms of neurodegeneration, including normal

Self-imagination helps memory in both healthy and memory-impaired

A small study involving patients with TBI has found that the best learning strategies are ones that call on the self-schema rather than episodic memory, and the best involves self-imagination.

Sometime ago, I reported on a study showing that older adults could improve their memory for a future task (remembering to regularly test their blood sugar) by picturing themselves going through the process.
Poverty affects brain development through attention needs

One reason for the association between poverty and poorer cognition in children may lie in how poverty affects attention, with poor children tending to use more cognitive resources in monitoring the environment.

There have been a number of studies in the past few years showing how poverty affects brain development and function.
Meditation can produce enduring changes in emotional processing

A new study provides more evidence that meditation changes the brain, and different types of meditation produce different effects.

More evidence that even an 8-week meditation training program can have measurable effects on the brain comes from an imaging study. Moreover, the type of meditation makes a difference to how the brain changes.

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