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LONDON – People playing computer games to train their brains might as well be playing Super Mario, new research suggests. In a six-week study, experts found people who played online games designed to improve their cognitive skills didn't get any smarter. Researchers recruited participants from viewers of the BBC's science show "Bang Goes the Theory." More than 8,600 people aged 18 to 60 were asked to play online brain games designed by the researchers to improve their memory, reasoning and other skills for at least 10 minutes a day, three times a week. They were compared to more than 2,700...

New silken brain implants that mold to the organ's grooves and crevices like shrink-wrap could lead to better devices for monitoring and controlling seizures. "They can also serve as advanced brain-machine interfaces for control of prosthetics and other devices," said John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. The new implants could transmit signals from the brain to the prosthetic, Rogers and his colleagues explain in the April 18 issue of the journal Nature Materials.

Most popular notions about the male brain are based on studies of men ages 18 to 22 - undergrads subjecting themselves to experiments for beer money or course credit. But a man's brain varies tremendously over his life span, quickly contradicting the image of the single-minded sex addict that circulates in mainstream consciousness. From his wandering eye to his desire to mate for life, here's what you need to know about guys' minds. > 5. Embraces chain of command An unstable hierarchy can cause men considerable anxiety, Brizendine said. But an established chain of command, such as that practiced by...

How carbon dioxide in the blood could be responsible for near-death experiences By David Derbyshire Last updated at 1:45 AM on 08th April 2010 Some say their life flashed before their eyes, others talk of an out-of-body floating sensation or an intense feeling of peace. Now scientists believe they can explain what causes the near-death experiences reported by thousands of patients on the operating table. A study of heart attack victims has found a link between them and high levels of carbon dioxide in the blood. Towards the light: People who have out-of-body experiences on the operating table may have...

A small system for reading and interpreting the intentions of highly disabled persons who cannot communicate normally has been developed by a team of researchers at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture. The researchers hope to develop a practical model with a price under 100,000 yen within the next few years. Because specific brain waves strengthen when a person stares at something, senior members of the Hasegawa Ryohei Neurotechnology Research Group developed a system where a person looks at blinking choices on a screen while their brain waves are measured. The choices...

February 28, 2010 Fighting Alzheimer's With A Touch of Beauty A pioneering care project demonstates how literature, music, art and love can improve the lives of dementia sufferers Rita Hayworth [Pic in URL] Margarette Driscoll In her heyday, Rita Hayworth was known as the “Love Goddess”: so explosive was her appeal that her image was placed on the first nuclear bomb to be tested on Bikini Atoll after the second world war. As befits one of the world’s most glamorous women, she danced her way through 61 movies and five husbands. She was a pin-up for American servicemen and is...

Most people have three varying images of psychology. One is of a scientist poring over notes derived from a patient -- the Robin Williams-in-"Awakenings" brain specialist. The second is of a patient, lying on a divan, telling a psychologist stories about her parents' unstable marriage -- the therapist. The third is of a patient and her psychologist in flagrante delicto. The truth is somewhere between the first and second images. Psychology is a field that is part science, part hand-holding and lots of speculation. The truth is that we know very little about the inner workings of the mind, and...

Scientists have identified areas of the brain that, when damaged, lead to greater spirituality. The findings hint at the roots of spiritual and religious attitudes, the researchers say. The study, published in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Neuron, involves a personality trait called self-transcendence, which is a somewhat vague measure of spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors. Self-transcendence "reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one's self as an integral part of the universe as a whole," the researchers explain. Before and after surgery, the scientists surveyed patients who had brain tumors removed. The surveys...

Scientists have identified areas of the brain that, when damaged, lead to greater spirituality. The findings hint at the roots of spiritual and religious attitudes, the researchers say. The study, published in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Neuron, involves a personality trait called self-transcendence, which is a somewhat vague measure of spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors. Self-transcendence "reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one's self as an integral part of the universe as a whole," the researchers explain. Before and after surgery, the scientists surveyed patients who had brain tumors removed. The surveys...

Scientists have identified areas of the brain that, when damaged, lead to greater spirituality. The findings hint at the roots of spiritual and religious attitudes, the researchers say. The study, published in the Feb. 11 issue of the journal Neuron, involves a personality trait called self-transcendence, which is a somewhat vague measure of spiritual feeling, thinking, and behaviors. Self-transcendence "reflects a decreased sense of self and an ability to identify one's self as an integral part of the universe as a whole," the researchers explain. Before and after surgery, the scientists surveyed patients who had brain tumors removed. The surveys...

People are afraid to lose money and an unusual study released on Monday explains why -- the brain's fear center controls the response to a gamble. U.S. | Science | Health | Lifestyle The study of two women with brain lesions that made them unafraid to lose on a gamble showed the amygdala, the brain's fear center, activates at the very thought of losing money. [...]

Determinism Absurd 45. Leaving God out of it, I still do not believe in freewill. I believe in psychological determinism. There are no facts of psychology which justify the denial of freewill. 46. Medical men say that a man is, for good or evil, what his brain cells make him. Not all medical men say that. Those who do may know their physiology, but they betray lamentable ignorance of psychology and philosophy. Brain cells are still brain cells, whether they are living or dead. If they are dead, they cannot make a man anything. If they are living, they owe...

Children who are ambidextrous, using either hand with the same ease, may be more likely to have mental health, language and academic problems than their peers, according to a new study. The researchers say the findings may help teachers and health professionals identify children who are particularly at risk of developing these problems. The researchers aren't sure what is behind this link, though they suggest differences in the brain between ambidextrous individuals and those who have a dominant hand may play a role. In fact, scientists aren't sure why some people can use both hands equally well (with no dominant...

According to this paper males are by nature more utilitarian than females, and non-invasive brain stimulation more easily and incisively alters feminine than male utilitarian thinking. Any comments?

A hot new trend in fitness is hitting retirement communities in Minnesota, but this is a workout for your brain. As one ages, one of the things that can sometimes begin to fade is the memory. But now there's a workout for the brain that really gets the wheels turning. It's new and now part of the wellness program at Friendship Village in Bloomington. Bob, 91, and Mary Morris, 89, have made the Dakim Brain Fitness program part of their weekly workout. Mr. Morris goes for it five days a week. It's hooked into the internet and set-up like a...

Two brain areas fail to connect when children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder attempt a task that measures attention, according to researchers at the UC Davis Center for Mind and Brain and M.I.N.D. Institute. "This is the first time that we have direct evidence that this connectivity is missing in ADHD," said Ali Mazaheri, postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Mind and Brain. Mazaheri and his colleagues made the discovery by analyzing the brain activity in children with ADHD. The paper appears in the current online issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry. The researchers measured electrical rhythms from the brains...

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Blocking the function of an enzyme in the brain with a specific kind of vitamin E can prevent nerve cells from dying after a stroke, new research suggests. In a study using mouse brain cells, scientists found that the tocotrienol form of vitamin E, an alternative to the popular drugstore supplement, stopped the enzyme from releasing fatty acids that eventually kill neurons. The Ohio State University researchers have been studying how this form of vitamin E protects the brain in animal and cell models for a decade, and intend to pursue tests of its potential to both...

SANTA FE — Members of a New Mexico family are suing an Española funeral home after they found their grandmother's brain in the bag of personal effects given to them after her death. The discovery was made the day after the interment, when relatives "smelled a foul odor coming from the bag" they received from DeVargas Funeral Home and Crematory of the Española Valley, according to a lawsuit filed on behalf of four family members in state District Court in Albuquerque. The bag had been left inside a family member's truck overnight. When family members opened it, they found, along...

Scientists have discovered how to “read” minds by scanning brain activity and reproducing images of what people are seeing — or even remembering. Researchers have been able to convert into crude video footage the brain activity stimulated by what a person is watching or recalling. The breakthrough raises the prospect of significant benefits, such as allowing people who are unable to move or speak to communicate via visualisation of their thoughts; recording people’s dreams; or allowing police to identify criminals by recalling the memories of a witness. However, it could also herald a new Big Brother era, similar to that...

The NFL is partnering with Boston University brain researchers who have been critical of the league's stance on concussions, The Associated Press learned Sunday. The league now plans to encourage current and former NFL players to agree to donate their brains to the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, which has said it found links between repeated head trauma and brain damage in boxers, football players and, most recently, a former NHL player. "It's huge that the NFL actively gets behind this research," said Robert Cantu, a doctor who is a co-director of the BU center and...