Pulsating arteries wash away harmful waste products that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases at night.
A ‘sweet tooth’ is something we acquire, rather than being born with it.
This process of constructing values from the components of a sensation or experience may be how we make many different aesthetic decisions.
Neuroscientists find that cold water immersion changes connectivity in the medial prefrontal cortex and the parietal cortex.
“When we are afraid, when we are threatened in any way, our cortisol levels go up.”
“When we are afraid, when we are threatened in any way, our cortisol levels go up.”
Stress can literally shrink your brain, research suggests.
Middle-aged people with high levels of the ‘stress hormone’ cortisol also perform worse on memory tests than those with average levels of the hormone.
Common approaches such as mindfulness, moderate exercise and better sleep can all help reduce stress.
Professor Sudha Seshadri, who led the study, said:
“In our quest to understand cognitive aging, one of the factors attracting significant interest and concern is the increasing stress of modern life.
One of the things we know in animals is that stress can lead to cognitive decline.
In this study, higher morning cortisol levels in a large sample of people were associated with worse brain structure and cognition.”
The study involved brain scans of 2,231 people who also had their cortisol levels tested.
Cortisol is a hormone that rises in the body with stress levels.
The tests revealed that those with higher levels of cortisol had smaller brain volumes and worse memory.
However, no one in the study had signs of dementia.
Dr Justin B. Echouffo-Tcheugui, the study’s lead author, said:
“Cortisol affects many different functions, so it is important to fully investigate how high levels of the hormone may affect the brain.
While other studies have examined cortisol and memory, we believe our large, community-based study is the first to explore, in middle-aged people, fasting blood cortisol levels and brain volume, as well as memory and thinking skills.”
Professor Seshadri said:
“The faster pace of life today probably means more stress, and when we are stressed, cortisol levels increase because that is our fight-or-flight response.
When we are afraid, when we are threatened in any way, our cortisol levels go up.
This study adds to the prevailing wisdom that it’s never too early to be mindful of reducing stress.”
The study was published in the journal Neurology (Echouffo-Tcheugui et al., 2018).
‘Zoom fatigue’ is the phenomenon where people complain that online communication is more effortful and less natural, leaving them tired and despondent.
The standing waves revealed in the brain are akin to those produced in musical instruments.
Sleep adapts to the seasons and human physiology is ‘down-regulated’ in the winter.
Trying to solve a long-standing mystery about what the brain is doing when it’s doing nothing.
Some people have a can’t be bothered attitude, but apathy could be partly down to biology.
Some people have a can’t be bothered attitude, but apathy could be partly down to biology.
The root of apathy could lie in the brain’s structure, a study reveals.
The brains of people who can’t be bothered have to make more effort to take an action than those who are motivated, neuroscientists have found.
The pre-motor cortex — where there’s more activity in apathetic people — is an area key to taking actions.
The study could suggest that for apathetic people it is about more than attitude — it could be down to biology.
Professor Masud Husain, who led the study, said:
“We know that in some cases people can become pathologically apathetic, for example after a stroke or with Alzheimer’s disease.
Many such patients can be physically capable.
Yet they can become so demotivated they won’t be bothered to care for themselves, even though they’re not depressed.
By studying healthy people, we wanted to find out whether any differences in their brains might shed light on apathy.”
In the study people played games: these required varying levels of physical effort for more or less reward.
Scans showed that the pre-motor cortex in the brains of apathetic people was consistently more active than in motivated people.
Professor Husain explained why:
“Using our brain scanning techniques we found that connections in the front part of the brains of apathetic people are less effective.
The brain uses around a fifth of the energy you’re burning each day.
If it takes more energy to plan an action, it becomes more costly for apathetic people to make actions.
Their brains have to make more effort.
As far as we know, this is the first time that anyone has found a biological basis for apathy in healthy people.
It doesn’t account for apathy in everyone but by giving us more information about the brain processes underlying normal motivation, it helps us understand better how we might find a treatment for those pathological conditions of extreme apathy.”
Dr Raliza Stoyanova, a cognitive neuroscientist, commented on the study:
“Lack of motivation to act towards achieving even simple goals, for example taking medication, is a feature of some brain disorders but also varies naturally within the population.
It’s well known that some people are more motivated to achieve the same goals than others, but interestingly, very little is known about the biological basis of such apathy.
This study provides important new insights, showing us that the brain systems involved in motivation and preparing for action are important components.”
The study was published in the journal Cerebral Cortex (Bonnelle et al., 2015).
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