I went to a meeting the other day. (Hmm. I really go to meetings at least thrice a week. But, you’ll see why this one was slightly different in a jif.) One that covered material with which I was not as familiar as I felt I needed to be. Which meant, of course, I needed to take notes.
Continue reading Notes to Remember
Each day we get more and more information. And, we worry how useful it is. In less than 15 years, the amount of information we assimilate has quintupled. So, of course, we feel the effects of overload. But, do we really?
When I was younger, I remembered virtually all of my dreams. Of course, I had a few
recurring dreams, which probably made it somewhat easier to remember them.
Continue reading Dream a little dream for me….
Memory. As I’ve discussed often, it is a critical component of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Those episodes where we felt that intense fear can reverberate and then periodically (or continually) revisit our consciousness. In PTSD, it’s the amygdala and the cingulate cortex portions of the brain that are prominent in these recurrences.
You know the rule- drink 8 glasses of water a day. (OK, I admit it- I drink that much fluid- and then some- but NOT pure water, since I need some flavor to handle the volume.)
Continue reading Water- for our diet and our brains!
Today, I’m going to revisit an important issue I discussed some 30 months ago. I discussed the empirical research that showed if we walked 6 miles a week, our brains and our bodies would thank us. Our bodies- because that is about the minimum exercise to keep it in tone. And, our brains- because the data indicated that cognitive impairment was associated with those who walked fewer than 6 miles a week.
Continue reading 6 miles…please!
I’ve written before about the value (and pay) of CEO’s of large (and small organizations). And, the value of institutional memory. So, when one is new in a position- and in a new environment, it is difficult to trust your instincts. Because YOU have no basis for such instincts. So, you have to consider a fair number of options, or have folks you can trust that have that institutional memory upon which you can rely.
Continue reading Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe..
My first kiss. The first time I saw my first-born. When I knew I passed my PhD exam. Those exquisite moments in time. It turns out, I- and you- can relive those moments. Because they are encoded in specific cells in our brain.
Continue reading Our memories ARE mapped to specific neurons
This is not good news. If this data are valid, it means that our belief that we are “safe” until age 60 (mostly from the Washington State studies) is incorrect- and that mental decline begins at age 45. So, those brain exercises you were going to start in a few years- better start them now.
Continue reading Am I losing my mind? (No comments from the peanut gallery!)
Dr. Grayden Solman, Allan Cheyne and Daniel Smilek from the University of Waterloo (Canada) published “Found and missed: Failing to recognize a search target despite moving it” in Cognition. They describe what they term an “unpacking” experience- our ability to search and find an object. The issue is that while searching for an item, we often have already found the object we seek- we just don’t realize it’s in our grasp. It seems that our various executive functions are all operating at different speeds- and our perception, our ability to coalesce this knowledge, is not able to keep pace.
Continue reading Your brain is smarter than you think- really!