Word: braine
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Take the case of the identical-twin 81-year-old sisters reported by Dr. Gary Small in The Memory Bible: An Innovative Strategy for Keeping Your Brain Young (Hyperion), due out next month. One sister lived a "hard life," smoking, drinking heavily, eating a high-fat diet and exercising little, if at all. She started experiencing mild forgetfulness at 77, followed by difficulty balancing her checkbook, completing crossword puzzles and addressing Christmas cards. Soon she developed Alzheimer's. The other twin was a social drinker who never smoked, adhered to a diet low in starches and animal fats, and exercised...
...strategies are based on recent research findings. The most striking are those showing that, where the brain is concerned, the familiar exhortation is right: use it or lose it. The Religious Orders Study, headed by Dr. David Bennett, director of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago, looked at 700 elderly, dementia-free Roman Catholic nuns, priests and brothers. Each was asked about time spent on various activities, among them viewing television; listening to the radio; reading newspapers, magazines and books; playing games such as cards and checkers; doing crossword puzzles; and going to museums...
...perceptual memory--a person's ability to perceive new information. "We're not in a position to recommend one activity over the other," says Bennett. "As far as we can tell, it's the variety--doing a bunch of different things--because you're stimulating different parts of your brain...
...illuminate colored lamps in the floor that outline the route they should take to find the desired object. Ada, named after 19th century British programming pioneer Ada Lovelace, performs all these feats thanks to neural network technology, layers of computer circuits that work in ways analogous to the human brain. If its intelligent space architecture proves a success, Ada may help pave the way for the acceptance and development of commercially constructed "smart" rooms and buildings that can dynamically adapt themselves to the needs of their inhabitants. MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY Fashion That Makes You Feel Good It used...
PLACEBO POWER Move over, Prozac. It looks as if sugar pills can chase the blues away too. A six-week clinical trial in which doctors used PET scans to examine the brains of 17 patients hospitalized for depression shows that high-priced antidepressants and dummy pills both cause visible changes in the mood-regulating regions of the brain. Asked how they felt, patients on fake and real pills alike reported that their symptoms improved. But don't tear up your prescription just yet. The catch? The subjects' moods may have lifted in part because they had left their usual worries...