Scientists have made the surprising discovery that our ability to recognize and remember faces peaks at age 30 to 34, about a decade later than most of our other mental abilities. Researchers Laura T. Germine and Ken Nakayama of Harvard University and Bradley Duchaine of Dartmouth College will present their work in a forthcoming issue of the journal Cognition. ...

We commonly think of sleep as a healing process that melts away the stresses of the day and prepares us to deal with new challenges. Research has also shown that sleep plays a crucial role in the development of memories. Now researchers believe that sleep deprivation may help prevent maladaptive memory formation after experiencing a disturbing event, and noted that these findings have obvious implications f ...

Physical activity promotes changes in the brain that may protect high-risk individuals against cognitive decline, including development of Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study done at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). The study will be published in Vol. 54 (January 2011) of the journal NeuroImage, but is now available online. ...

A new study has been released from The University of New Mexico School of Medicine comparing the mental abilities of teens that abused alcohol and marijuana to those who abstained from drugs. The results of this research are reported in the study Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Overall, this new study supports the idea that alcohol and marijuana use impairs the mental abilities of teens. ...

As humans, we spend about a third of our lives asleep. So there must be a point to it, right? Scientists have found that sleep helps consolidate memories, fixing them in the brain so we can retrieve them later. Now, new research is showing that sleep also seems to reorganize memories, picking out the emotional details and reconfiguring the memories to help you produce new and creative ideas, according to th ...

Brain research over the past 30 years has shown that if a part of the brain controlling movement or sensation or language is lost because of a stroke or injury, other parts of the brain can take over the lost function – often as well as the region that was lost. New research at the University of California, Berkeley, shows that this holds true for memory and attention as well, though – at least for memory – ...

It is one thing to learn a new piece of information, such as a new phone number or a new word, but quite another to get your brain to file it away so it is available when you need it. A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience by researchers at the University of York and Harvard Medical School suggests that sleep may help to do both. The scientists found that sleep helps people to remember a newly ...

Today´s 70-year-olds do far better in intelligence tests than their predecessors. It has also become more difficult to detect dementia in its early stages, though forgetfulness is still an early symptom, reveals new research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, based on the H70 study. New results from the study were published earlier this year in the reputable American journal Neurology. ...

It has been known for many years that drinking alcohol while pregnant can cause serious and irreversible damage to the fetus. However, new research exploring memory deficits in children diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) or fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) may be able to aid in the creation of new therapies and treatments. The results will be published in the January 2011 issue of Alcoholism: ...

Because of impairments in their insulin sensitivity, obese individuals demonstrate different brain responses than their normal-weight peers while completing a challenging cognitive task, according to new research by psychologists at The University of Texas at Austin. The results provide further evidence that a healthy lifestyle at midlife could lead to a higher quality of life later on, especially as new dr ...