A blog by Prof. Dante Pirouz, a consumer behavior researcher at the Ivey Business School - University of Western Ontario, who specializes in understanding why our brain and body drive us to consume what we do and what we consumers can do about it.
ScienceDaily (2011-06-27) -- Rhythms in the brain that are associated with learning become stronger as the body moves faster, neurophysicists report in a new study. The research team used specialized microelectrodes to monitor an electrical signal known as the gamma rhythm in the brains of mice. This signal is typically produced in a brain region called the hippocampus, which is critical for learning and memory, during periods of concentration and learning. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2011-06-28) -- A little practice goes a long way, according to researchers who have found the effects of practice on the brain have remarkable staying power. The study found that when participants were shown visual patterns--faces, which are highly familiar objects, and abstract patterns, which are much less frequently encountered -- they were able to retain very specific information about those patterns one to two years later. ... > read full article
Mystery ingredient in coffee boosts protection against Alzheimer's disease, study finds
ScienceDaily (2011-06-28) -- An unidentified coffee component combined with caffeine increases a growth factor that counters Alzheimer's pathology in mice, according to new research. ... read full article
ScienceDaily (2011-06-10) -- New research shows that young Swedish women are more prone than men to perceive situations as risky. However, there are no gender differences in actual risk-taking behavior. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2011-06-10) -- Smokers tend to die young, but they tend to die thinner than non-smokers. A team of scientists has discovered exactly how nicotine suppresses appetite -- findings that suggest that it might be possible to develop a drug that would help smokers, and non-smokers, stay thin. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2010-08-22) -- The hormone oxytocin has come under intensive study in light of emerging evidence that its release contributes to the social bonding that occurs between lovers, friends, and colleagues. Oxytocin also plays an important role in birth and maternal behavior, but until now, research had never addressed the involvement of oxytocin in the transition to fatherhood. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2007-01-07) -- Using brain imaging, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have identified several brain regions that are involved in the uniquely human ability to envision future events. The study, to be published in the journal PNAS, provides evidence that memory and future thought are highly interrelated and helps explain why future thought may be impossible without memories. Findings suggest that envisioning the future may be a critical prerequisite for many higher-level planning processes. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2011-05-23) -- Stem cell researchers have been able to direct embryonic and induced human stem cells to become astrocytes in the lab dish. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2010-01-21) -- Researchers can predict your performance on a video game simply by measuring the volume of specific structures in your brain. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2011-01-16) -- Researchers report that they can predict "with unprecedented accuracy" how well you will do on a complex task such as a strategic video game simply by analyzing activity in a specific region of your brain. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2011-05-10) -- A new article argues that existing video game literature can't be classified in black and white terms. Instead, there's a vast gray area when considering the multiple dimensions of video game effects on kids -- with at least five dimensions on which video games can affect players simultaneously. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2010-12-17) -- 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 new research. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2010-06-10) -- Prior wakefulness caused the color gray to be classified as having a slightly but significantly greenish tint. Overnight sleep restored perception to achromatic equilibrium so that gray was perceived as gray. The study involved five people who viewed a full-field, homogenous stimulus of either slightly reddish or greenish hue. The observers had to judge whether the stimulus was greener or redder than their internal perception of neutral gray. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2011-05-17) -- It seems like everyone wants to be happier and the pursuit of happiness is one of the foundations of American life. But even happiness can have a dark side, according to a new article. ... > read full article
ScienceDaily (2009-12-14) -- "Why is it that men can be bastards and women must wear pearls and smile?" wrote author Lynn Hecht Schafran. The answer, according to a new article may lie in our interpretation of facial expressions. ... > read full article
My son has been trying to convince me for years that video games and computers, which he has an innate love of since the age of 1 1/2 (yes, I let my toddler play on computers...naughty mom!!). He recently wrote an articulate and thoughtful essay for his 7th grade language arts class on how video games can change the world. It included his belief that playing games online or on consoles helps him to meet kids all around the world, learn new languages like Chinese and Japanese, read faster, think better, learn how to solve puzzles, plan and strategize, and the list went on and on...I have spent years yelling at him to turn off the computer, obsessing about how much I suck as a mom because my kid sits sometimes for hours staring at a screen and worried about what he will do as an adult if all he can do is click the mouse really fast.
But my eyes have been opened since I have started to think about what it really means to reach a level of optimized human performance. My husband, who is a big my husband, who is a big proponent of virtual worlds and MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) including WOW (World of Warcraft for those of you non-gamers out there), told me to check out Jane McGonigal's TED video on how video games can change the world...I was impressed with her narrative (it helps that she talks in PhD-speak which I have learned to love)...and maybe I can be convinced that video games can save the world!
Alzheimer's is a tough disease to deal with...how can any of us stand to be without the parts of the brain that make us who we are? My mom is right now dealing with early onset Alzheimer's and since my grandmother and grandfather both died from it, I wonder how long it will be before my absent minded professor habits turn into full blown dementia in my overstressed, sleep-deprived mind...An article in Technology Review from MIT looks at new technologies being developed to help Alzheimer's patients recover cognitive functionality without the use of drugs. One being developed by Neuronix uses transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which researchers I know used in their work, in order to activate or deactivate specific regions of the brain as a way of circumventing neuronal damage. If this can become a way of treating the +5M people who are currently suffering along with all of their caregivers and those who love them, it will be a huge step forward!
ScienceDaily (2009-11-06) -- Common experience tells us that particular scents of childhood can leave quite an impression, for better or for worse. Now, researchers reporting the results of a brain imaging study show that first scents really do enjoy a "privileged" status in the brain. ... > read full article
