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Adding to research suggesting type of background noise affects whether it impairs learning or not, a new study indicates white noise has different effects depending on whether the students have attention problems.

Five years ago I reported on a finding that primary school children exposed to loud aircraft noise showed impaired reading comprehension (see below).

A new study finds that overheard cell phone conversations are particularly distracting because we can't predict what will be said next.

Why are other people’s phone conversations so annoying? A new study suggests that hearing only half a conversation is more distracting than other kinds of conversations because we're missing the other side of the story and so can't predict the flow of the conversation.

Children’s slowly developing memory for past events may not be due to the slow development of the prefrontal cortex, as was thought, but to changes in the hippocampus.

Children’s ability to remember past events improves as they get older. This has been thought by many to be due to the slow development of the

A safety trial has shown that Deep Brain Stimulation is safe for those with mild Alzheimer’s, and may slow cognitive decline.

A pilot study involving six patients with mild Alzheimer’s has shown using Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) is safe and may help improve memory, or at least slow decline. Patients received continuous stimulation for 12 months, between 2005 and 2008.

In a study of young Mexican-American children, higher prenatal exposure to pesticides was significantly associated with ADHD symptoms at age 5.

A study following over 300 Mexican-American children living in an agricultural community has found that their prenatal exposure to organophosphate pesticides (measured by metabolites in the mother’s urine during pregnancy) was significantly associated with attention problems at age 5.

A strong association between gum inflammation and poorer cognitive performance in 70-year-olds has been found in a small study.

Following on from indications that gum disease might be a risk factor for dementia, analysis of data from 152 subjects in the Danish Glostrop Aging Study has revealed that periodontal inflammation at age 70 was strongly associated with lower cognitive scores (on the Digit Symbol Test).

  • Vitamin B supplements markedly reduced brain atrophy in older adults with MCI, offering hope that they may be effective in delaying the development of Alzheimer’s.

A two-year study involving 271 older adults (70+) with mild cognitive impairment has found that the rate of brain atrophy in those taking folic acid (0.8 mg/d), vitamin B12 (0.5 mg/d) and vitamin B6 (20 mg/d), was significantly slower than in those taking a placebo, with those taking the supplem

A new way of analyzing brain scans reveals exactly what changes in the brain, in terms of connectivity, as it matures.

Last year I reported on a study involving 210 subjects aged 7 to 31 that found that in contrast to the adult brain, most of the tightest connections in a child's brain are between brain regions that are physically close to each other.

A long-running study of Swedish women has revealed that dementia risk is greater in those who experienced periods of stress in middle age.

Data from a 35-year study of women from Gothenburg in Sweden has revealed that the risk of dementia was about 65% higher in women who reported repeated periods of stress in middle age than in those who did not.

Experiments with mice have found that inhibiting the production of kynurenic acid in the brain has dramatic benefits for cognitive performance.

Commercial use is a long way off, but research with mice offers hope for a ‘smart drug’ that doesn’t have the sort of nasty side-effects that, for example, amphetamines have.

Two studies suggest that ADHD is being over-diagnosed among students who are the youngest in their classes.

Two independent studies have found that students whose birthdays fell just before their school's age enrollment cutoff date—making them among the youngest in their class—had a substantially higher rate of ADHD diagnoses than students who were born later.

Adding to the evidence that chronic alcohol abuse produces various cognitive deficits, a new study reveals that it’s also linked to poor metamemory.

Metamemory (understanding your own memory capabilities) is important for learning.

A study of joint decision-making has found collaborative decisions are better, unless one of the individuals is unknowingly working with flawed information.

There’s been a lot of discussion, backed by some evidence, that groups are ‘smarter’ than the individuals in them, that groups make better decisions than individuals. But it is not, of course, as simple as that, and a recent study speaks to the limits of this principle.

A new study adds to the evidence that berries and other foods rich in polyphenols help your brain fight age-related cognitive decline.

A number of studies have found evidence that fruits and vegetables help fight age-related cognitive decline, and this has been thought to be due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

A memory function thought to require a specific brain region called the amygdala has now been found to be able to be performed by another region, if the amygdala is impaired.

A number of studies in recent years have revealed the amazing ability of the human brain to compensate for damage down to its part.

Another study adds to growing evidence that diabetes, or poor glycaemic control, has serious implications for brain function.

A small study comparing 18 obese adolescents with type 2 diabetes and equally obese adolescents without diabetes or pre-diabetes has found that those with diabetes had significantly impaired cognitive performance, as well as clear abnormalities in the integrity of their

  • A large study confirms that your cardiac health affects your brain, and provides evidence that the extent of this problem is greater than we think.

I have often spoken of the mantra: What’s good for your heart is good for your brain.

Two studies demonstrate why knowing whether you’ve told someone something is difficult for all of us, and that this is particularly so as you get older.

A number of studies have found that source memory (knowing where you heard/read/experienced something) is a particular problem for older adults. Destination memory (knowing who you’ve told) is an area that has been much less studied.

New research confirms most students have poor study skills, and points to the effectiveness of association strategies.

No big surprise, surely: a new study has found that computers do not magically improve students’ study skills — they tend to study online material using the same techniques they would use with traditional texts. Which means, it appears, poor strategies.

  • Walking speed and balance may be improved in seniors through a brain training program. Research has indicated that a common pathology underlies cognitive impairment and gait and balance problems.

On the subject of the benefits of walking for seniors, it’s intriguing to note a recent pilot study that found frail seniors who walked slowly (no faster than one meter per second) benefited from a brain fitness program known as Mindfit.

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