Is your memory weaker then you think?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44010877/ns/health-mental_health/#.TtxpPmMr2nB

Most people think that your memory works like a video camera. But in fact doesn't do that at all. It remembers the events and information as a sort of data. Also your memories can change over time as well. Which can eventually lead people the recall events that never happened. Also that hypnosis can be helpful when jogging ones memory, but is no more accurate than their initial memory.

So your mind can play tricks on you, which can be hard to tell whats real from wrong. It's scary to think how some people can remember something completely wrong from what happened. I hope that people can be more attentive then most people are.

Right-handed typing more favorable

Right-handed typing more favorable

http://www.livescience.com/18901-qwerty-keyboard-hand.html

Researchers from University College London and New School for Social
Research in New York have studied how people respond to words based
on having letters on the right or left hand side of the qwerty keyboard.
Volunteers rated their feelings on English, Dutch, and Spanish words.
They found no matter what the language or if the volunteer was right
or left handed, people had more positive feelings about words that
mainly involved the right side of the keyboard, even with made up words.

Researchers thought this may be due to the left hand having to work
harder on the qwerty keyboard because it’s responsible for 15 letters
while the right only has 11. They stated this research is helpful for
people responsible for naming new products, brands and companies to
choose the ‘right’ name.

This doesn’t seem like a very important topic for scientists to spend their
time investigating, but merchandising is a multimillion dollar business.
Taking advantage of every tool for your product is a smart idea. My name has
only 2 letters out of 8 on the left side so people should respond positively
to my name.

Music and the Brain: 1 Way Music Affects the Body

Probably the most important thing music can do for you is, believe it or not, restore lost senses and abilities that were inhibited by a stroke or brain damage. People who have had brain damage and are unable to talk are strangely able to sing. This eventually restores their ability to talk normally.

Fear alters perception

Fear alters perception
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120222204241.html
In this report, researchers from Ohio State University found that
the more afraid a person is of a spider, the more the perceived
size of the spider is enlarged. The researchers exposed 57
people who self-identified as having a spider phobia to a live
tarantula on 5 different occasions over a period of 8 weeks.
The tarantulas varied in size from 1 to 6 inches and the person
was asked to approach the tank and guide the spider around
with an 8 inch probe. The participants were asked to rate how
afraid they were feeling on a scale of 0-100 as an index of
subjective units of distress. They also rated their specific fear
of spiders, any panic symptoms, and thoughts about fear reduction
on future spider encounters. Then they estimated the size of the
spiders by drawing a single line on an index card without being
able to see the spider. An analysis showed that the higher ratings
of distress were associated with higher over-estimates on
tarantula size. The study was published in the Journal of
Anxiety Disorders.
The researchers are trying to study why phorias persist
and to identify predictors of relapse to better judge when
treatment is completed. It seems like gradually confronting
your fear is a good way to treat a phobia. If you avoid your
fear, you don't get a chance to learn that it really isn't as
bad as you thought.

How Marijuana Impairs Memory

Summary: A major downside of the medical use of marijuana is the drug's ill effects on working memory, the ability to transiently hold and process information for reasoning, comprehension and learning. Researchers reporting in the March 2 print issue of the Cell Press journal Cell provide new insight into the source of those memory lapses. The answer comes as quite a surprise: Marijuana's major psychoactive ingredient (THC) impairs memory independently of its direct effects on neurons. The side effects stem instead from the drug's action on astroglia, passive support cells long believed to play second fiddle to active neurons.

Critic: Interesting

Impact: This will impact your memory.

Reference: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120301143424.htm

World of Warcraft Boosts Cognitive Functioning in Adults

World of Warcraft Boosts Cognitive Functioning in Adults

Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that playing World of Warcraft (WoW) actually boosts cognitive functioning in older adults, especially those who had poor cognitive ability before playing. The researchers choose WoW because it is a “cognitively challenging game in a socially interactive environment that presents users with novel situations.” They also found that the overall improvement of someone’s cognitive abilities depended on their “baseline cognitive functioning level.” In the study two groups of participants ages 60-77 had their cognitive abilities tested and then where sent home for two weeks, one group played around fourteen hours of WoW each and the other group did not. The group that played WoW showed a much greater increase in cognitive ability compared to the group that did not. Also “those people who needed it most – those who performed the worst on the initial testing – saw the most improvement.”

HA!!! I have been saying that playing WoW is good for you but I meant emotionally not cognitively but I was still right. This means that all those nerds who play WoW now, like me, will be able to think better when we get old, or maybe even right now, which would be nice. This could lead to more people playing WoW and similar games.

Bird Brains Follow the Beat

Summary: By training birds to 'get rhythm', scientists uncover evidence that our capacity to move in time with music may be connected with our ability to learn speech.

Critic: Intersting

Impact: Something to talk about.

Reference: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120224152753.htm