Word: cortex
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...techniques may sound far-fetched, many therapists-and their patients-swear by them. And recent advances in brain-scanning technology suggest a mechanism by which they might work. "With fmris [functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain], we are starting to locate centers of creativity in the left prefrontal cortex, in the same area that lights up for heightened meditative states and the capacity for optimism," says Ron Alexander, a therapist based in Santa Monica, Calif., who specializes in treating creative blocks...
...recent study found evidence that the daily practice of meditation thickened the parts of the brain's cerebral cortex responsible for decision making, attention and memory. Sara Lazar, a research scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital, presented preliminary results last November that showed that the gray matter of 20 men and women who meditated for just 40 minutes a day was thicker than that of people who did not. Unlike in previous studies focusing on Buddhist monks, the subjects were Boston-area workers practicing a Western-style of meditation called mindfulness or insight meditation. "We showed for the first time that...
Caffeine also triggers the release of dopamine, mostly in the frontal areas of the brain and the anterior cingular cortex, in which the so-called executive functions like attention, task management and concentration are located. This is consistent with what the Austrian scientists reported last month at the Radiological Society of America's annual conference in Chicago. Dr. Florian Koppelstaetter and his colleagues at the Medical University in Innsbruck gave 15 male volunteers 100 mg each of caffeine?about the same amount as in two cups of coffee?and then tested their short-term memory. Not only did the caffeine...
...learned sports skill begins in the thinking part of the brain, with nerves in the prefrontal cortex. As those neurons get excited, they activate nerve cells connected to the limbic system just under the cerebrum of the brain, the area associated with emotions such as fear, anxiety, elation and satisfaction. That area is tied in turn to the motor cortex, which controls the muscles...
Memory Pharmaceuticals in Montvale, N.J., for instance, is developing drugs that boost the expression of genes essential to shoring up the connections among neurons?the physical process that is thought to turn immediate experiences into long-term memories. Cortex Pharmaceuticals in Irvine, Calif., meanwhile, is testing compounds that accomplish something similar more indirectly. Those molecules amplify the response of brain chemicals called AMPA receptors, among the first players in a long biochemical cascade that takes place in the neuron as it encodes memory. The first of those ampakine molecules has been shown in a recent study to boost the attention...