As my daughter Karen often quips," Dr. Freberg and Dr. Freberg 2.0"
Here is what I am reading today:
“A program designed to boost cognition in older adults also increased their openness to new experiences, researchers report, demonstrating for the first time that a non-drug intervention in older adults can change a personality trait once thought to be fixed throughout the lifespan.”
“The hippocampus is an important brain structure for recollection memory, the type of memory we use for detailed reliving of past events. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron reveals characteristics of the human hippocampus that allow scientists to use anatomical brain scans to form predictions about an individual’s recollection ability. The new research helps to explain why this relationship has been hard to find in the past and provides evidence for a possible underlying mechanism.”
“People with dyslexia often struggle with the ability to accurately decode and identify what they read. Although disrupted processing of speech sounds has been implicated in the underlying pathology of dyslexia, the basis of this disruption and how it interferes with reading comprehension has not been fully explained. Now, new research published by Cell Press in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron finds that a specific abnormality in the processing of auditory signals accounts for the main symptoms of dyslexia.”
“A canine chorus barks a familiar tune. Keep an eye out for our 2012 Game Day commercial—it will all make sense. Love Star Wars and Volkswagen? Create an Intergalactic Invite to your Big Game party here: http://vw.com/star-wars-invite”
“If you’ve ever been watching a movie or attending a concert and someone’s ringtone interrupts the proceedings, you’ll appreciate this video that’s recently gone viral on YouTube. As Slovakian musician Lukáš Kmit played a beautiful piece on his viola, suddenly the obnoxious Nokia ringtone blasted through the reverie. What a wonderful reaction he had! Instead of stopping the music altogether (like what happened at a New York Philharmonic concert earlier this month when an iPhone’s “marimba” ringtone so blatantly interrupted the music that the conductor stopped the entire orchestra), Lukáš picked up on the Nokia noise, playing it more beautifully than we’ve ever heard.”
4 Comments
phtran · January 25, 2012 at 9:55 pm
In response to “Enhancing Cognition in Older Adults Also Changes Personality,” I found it remarkable that improvements in problem solving and inductive reasoning paralleled significant increases in ‘openness.’
‘Openness,’ as described in the article (being flexible and creative, embracing new ideas and taking on challenging intellectual or cultural pursuits) does seem to be a very loosely defined (and all-encompassing) term. I’m curious as to how this characteristic was measured in the study as degree of ‘openness’ seems dependent on s/he who is conducting evaluation (e.g. “moderately open” may be “not open” to someone else).
It was interesting (and pleasant), however, to read that following subjection to a program of intellectually challenging/creative endeavors, the subjects progressed intellectually.
phtran · January 25, 2012 at 10:26 pm
Also — I’m not too sure how thoughtful/contributory this comment will or can be (does this count?), but the VW Game Day “Bark Side” video was definitely entertaining. I wonder how many takes it took them to get it right (if it’s real). And if it is real — there’s absolutely no way that the Chewbacca dog at 0:36 really barks like a wookie! The distinctly clever teaser definitely does make one wonder what VW is about to unleash to the public in 2012 though.
astiers · January 28, 2012 at 11:44 am
Doctor Freberg’s textbook emphasizes structure and function of the various components in the brain and the article titled “when it comes to brains bigger is better” supports this way of teaching and learning. As technology improves, researchers are able to more exactly identify how the structures of the brain influence behaviors. It is interesting to read that an enlarged posterior hippocampus indicates better recollection because of connections to other structures; especially since the frontal lobe in involved in memory and damage to the frontal lobe is detrimental to memory recollection. I think this new information has the potential to help improve ways of improving memory for students as well as people who suffered trauma to the brain.
astiers · January 28, 2012 at 12:00 pm
the article “underlying dyslexia” illustrates how interconnected the structures of our brain are. Dyslexia has understood by most people to be a problem reading, and would not think that the auditory cortex would influence a person’s ability to read. However upon further examination, the article makes perfect sense. When we first start to read, we read aloud. We listen to the words our parents read to use and then assimilate it as best we can when we begin to read. Now that we know that the auditory cortex plays a role in dyslexia we can use this knowledge to help with dyslexia people learn and read easier.
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