Mind, features and articles | Educational Science

May 30, 2013

In Elderly, Metabolic Syndrome May Lead to Memory Decline

Metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of medical issues that includes high blood pressure, a large waist and low HDL (good) cholesterol levels, may bring on mental decline in the elderly, according to a new study. People with metabolic syndrome at the start of the study were 20 percent more...

May 30, 2013

5 Experts Answer: What's the Best Way to Improve My Memory?

Each week, MyHealthNewsDaily asks the experts to answer questions about your health. This week, we asked neurologists and geriatricians: What's the best way to improve your memory? Here's what they said. Dr. Jane F. Potter, chief of the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center;...

May 30, 2013

For Multiple Sclerosis Patients, Warm Days Bad for Memory

People with multiple sclerosis (MS) may have a harder time learning or remembering things on warm days, a new study suggests. People with MS scored 70 percent better on learning and memory tests during cold-weather months than in warm-weather months, said study researcher James Sumowski, a scientist at the Kessler...

May 30, 2013

3 Exercise Tips to Energize Your Brain

If you’re over 40, you may have noticed that you don’t remember things as well as you used to. You might walk into a room and forget why, or you might be hazy about past events or the time of tomorrow's dentist appointment. A little forgetfulness now and then isn’t...

May 30, 2013

How 'Emotional Memories' Differ in Kids with ADHD

Emotional disturbances in children with ADHD may be related to activity in their brains during sleep, a new study suggests. The researchers found that sleep seemed to help strengthen emotional memories in healthy children, but not in children with ADHD. Moreover, the pattern of electrical activity in frontal regions of...

Jul 3, 2013

Exercising Your Brain into Old Age May Keep Memory Sharp

Keeping your brain busy from childhood into old age may help keep dementia and memory loss at bay, even for people who already have early signs of dementia, a new study says. Mental exercises during both the grade-school years and late adulthood independently contributed to a slower mental decline in...

Jul 16, 2013

Drinking Water May Provide Mental Boost

Drinking plain old water may help improve mental performance, at least on certain brain tests, a small study suggests. In the study, participants who drank about three cups of water (24 ounces, or 775 milliliters) before taking a battery of cognitive tests performed better on a test that measured reaction...

Jul 18, 2013

What Is Déjà Vu?

Most people have experienced it at one point or another: déjà vu, the haunting sense that you've experienced something before. French for already seen, déjà vu has been under investigation for years by scientists, who have yet to offer a complete explanation for the phenomenon, though it's reportedly experienced by...

Jul 24, 2013

Chew on This: Fewer Teeth Linked with Worse Memory

If you want to maintain a sharp memory, you may want to brush up: People who have fewer natural teeth remaining perform more poorly on memory tests, a new study suggests. Looking at 273 people ages 55 and older, the researchers found a modest but significant relationship between a person's...

Jul 26, 2013

Scientists Produce False Memories In Mice

(ISNS) -- “Memory is deceptive because it is colored by today’s events,” said Albert Einstein. It is also deceptive because it is frequently wrong, sometimes dangerously so. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed the ability to implant mice with false memories. The memories can be easily induced...

Aug 20, 2013

Odd Hallucination: Woman Hears Forgotten Songs

One night as she lay down to sleep, a 60-year-old woman suddenly started having strange hallucinations. She told her doctors she heard music that seemed like it was playing from a radio at the back of her head. Within a few months, she was hearing music all the time, with...

Oct 1, 2013

Statins Do Not Harm Memory, Study Says

Statins, a group of drugs that treat high cholesterol, do not appear to impair people's memory, as some recent claims had suggested, and their long-term use may even protect against dementia, a new review of studies suggests. The researchers looked at previous studies of statins and their effects on cognition....

Nov 20, 2013

People Who Don’t Forget Can Still Be Tricked with False Memories (Op-Ed)

This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to LiveScience's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. “Time is the thief of memory,” wrote Stephen King in one of his many books. For some people, however, that is not true. They are gifted with what scientists call...

Dec 9, 2013

Want to Remember Your Museum Visit? Don't Take Pictures

When it comes to looking at art and artifacts, new research may encourage habitual shutterbugs to put away their cameras. A study suggests museum-goers are less likely to remember objects they photograph than objects they simply observe. However, taking a zoomed-in photo of a specific part of a painting, mosaic...

Jan 28, 2014

Slicing of the Brain of Patient H.M.

The brain of Patient H.M. (Image credit: Jacopo Annese)Patient H.M. became an iconic case in neuroscience when he developed a peculiar form of amnesia after parts of his brain were removed during surgery in 1953. After H.M.'s death in 2008, Jacopo Annese and his colleagues at the Brain Observatory in...