This week I am in Quantico, Virginia with the U.S. Marines. This is an informative experience of which I am very grateful!

Here is what I am reading today:

An animation on the art of collecting scientific data!

“This new study, led by Gaël Chételat at INSERM in France, investigated both structural differences and functional differences in the brains of healthy elderly individuals.  The subjects were prescreened to detect amyloid deposits in the brain to exclude people who might have preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.  This is an important advance over previous work, says Dr. Chételat.  “This is the first [study] to have assessed this question in a sample of elderly with no amyloid deposition.  This is important because it allows us to specifically address the relationship to education without the effect of pathology that complicates interpretation,” he says.   The battery of tests included MRI to pinpoint anatomical differences in the brain, PET imaging to assess metabolic activity in brain tissue, and functional MRI, which examined neural activity and functional connectivity in the brain at rest in people between the ages of 60 and 80 who had from 7 to 20 years of school education.”

“Kevin Johnston, the lead author of the paper, explains, “This study shows that although behaviour that’s well practiced or automatic is pretty robust to the effects of moderate amounts of alcohol, things really fall apart when you have to override these responses and do something different.””

“”Much remains to be understood about exactly how the brain strikes the balance between learning a behavioral response that is consistently rewarded, versus retaining the flexibility to switch to a new, better response,” said Kenneth R. Warren, Ph.D., acting director of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. “These findings give new insight into the process and how it can go awry.”

The study, published online in Nature Neuroscience, indicates that specific circuits in the forebrain play a critical role in choice and adaptive learning.”

“SiteLock has now protected more than 1,000,000 websites and online business around the globe. That’s more than any other website security or virus scan provider. SiteLock maintains strategic partnerships with global leaders in the Internet hosting and related online markets, solidifying its position as the world leader in website security technology and services including malware removal, website firewall and website acceleration.”