Description: When I first started teaching introductory psychology a few decades ago I used to tell students that they had most of the largest number of brain neurons they would ever have at the time they were born. After their birth the number of brain cells dropped due to things like attrition and pruning (neurons… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Physical Changes In Aging
Executive Functions in Alzheimer’s: Brain Pacemakers Might Help
Description: Alzheimer’s main impact is on peoples’ memories, right? Well, we can debate the depth of impact of the various features of the disease but it is the case that more than memory is affected. Specifically, the array of frontal lobe functions involving various aspects of what is called Executive Function (thinking, reflecting, planning and… Read more »
Brain Cohesiveness During Information Processing: Individual Differences and Aging Effects
Description: Over time, research into what happens in the brain as humans age has moved beyond looking at issues related to the loss of specific neurons or areas of the brain as a result of things like stroke damage and begun to look in more complex manners at how the various regions of the brain… Read more »
Memory in Alzheimer’s Disease and Light Therapy
Description: The most poignant symptom of Alzheimer’s disease is the loss of previously consolidated long-term memories. The search is on for therapies that will, in particular reduce the impact of this particular symptom of the disorder. Read the article linked below for an overview of the way fiber-optic or light therapy may have a positive… Read more »
When are Synapses Impacted in the Emergence of Alzheimer’s?
Description: In relation to Alzheimer’s disease, the races on to properly understand not only the underlying causes of the disorder but also the order in which these causes unfold. This article talks about recent research that seems to be located the point in the disease development process for the actual synapses in the neural system… Read more »
Depression, Bipolar Disorder and “Fuzzy” Thinking
Description: Feeling like your thinking is less sharp or even describable as “fuzzy’ is a fairly common subjective report offered by people struggling with depression or bipolar disorder. However, there has been debate as to whether such feeling are reflections of actual changes in brain function or related, instead to changes in mood or motivation… Read more »
Ultrasound and Alzheimer’s Disease: Steps Toward the Development of a Treatment
Description: Current treatments for Alzheimer’s disease are limited in their effectiveness. A major issue is sorting out the potential causes of the disease from symptoms – the classical problem of correlation. This research on the potentially positive effects of ultrasound on the amyloid plaques that arise in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients is a good… Read more »
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