DailyDirt: Train Your Brain

Bleeding Edge

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The human brain is a remarkable organ, but we’ve only really just started to study it. Scientists are scanning brains with intense magnetic fields and zapping skulls with electrical pulses — and measuring some differences that could point to ways that’ll help people understand how our minds work. Here are just a few examples of projects focused on our brains.

• Measuring IQ with MRI scans suggests that IQ scores might fluctuate quite a bit. Various mental and physical training tasks can apparently boost IQ scores, and conversely, folks with jobs that don’t require much mental exercise seem to lose IQ points over their lifetime. [url]
• Targeted electrical pulses into the brains of mice (aka deep brain stimulation) have been shown to improve their spatial learning ability. Actual “thinking caps” might be useful tools someday. [url]
• The young brains of frequent video gamers might grow differently than non-gamers’ brains. Further studies could help us understand the development of addictive behaviors — or it could help make really, really awesome video games. [url]
• To discover more interesting articles on the human mind, check out what’s currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: addictive, brain, deep brain stimulation, gamers, iq scores, mri, transcranial magnetic stimulation