This is your brain on music
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Music does something to humans like no other species. The rhythm gets inside our bodies and we can’t help but move along with the bass, or sing our heart out to that catchy chorus. Scientists from the University of Tokyo sought to uncover exactly what is Read More...
This simple exercise can improve your brain power
If squats are part of your daily routine, then we have good news for you! Doing just a few minutes of this resistance exercise can go a long way towards improving your brain power and making you smarter, according to recent research. Squats are often used by fitness trainers to improve strength Read More...
Ultrasound could be used to treat addiction and OCD
The 'credit assignment' problem refers to when someone attributes an event to the wrong outcome. For example, passing an exam and instead of assigning your success to the many hours of studying put in, you put it down to the number of times you brushed your teeth that day. This psychological Read More...
Robots with ‘human like’ brains able to escape maze
Mazes are commonly used in psychology to assess the behavior of rats and mice. As scientists create more and more human-like robot brains, they thought it was time for the machines to have a turn. Robot vs. maze Teams from the Eindhoven University of Technology and the Max Planck Institute for Read More...
We are one step closer to understanding Alzheimer’s disease
Scientists have an incomplete picture of the contributing factors of Alzheimer's disease, meaning there is still no preventative treatment or cure for sufferers. It is widely accepted that build-up of the protein ‘tau’ around the brain forms ‘plaques,' which stop signals from being able to be Read More...
Researchers invent revolutionary non-invasive brain surgery
Brain surgery is one of the most complex and difficult procedures to carry out. The little box beneath our skull has millions of wires running inside of it, and one wrong interaction with these can have potentially fatal effects. In the majority of cases, this procedure leaves people with a long Read More...
Study: Animals respond to speech the same way as humans
The brain’s response to sound is termed “frequency-following responses”, or FFRs. Clinicians use these as an assessor of hearing and speech capacity, helping them diagnose language disorders such as autism and dyslexia. FFR tests consist of a participant being played different sounds, with Read More...
Study: Covid-19 does not impact fetus brain development
A big source of anxiety during the pandemic came from the unknown impact of COVID-19 on pregnant people and their soon-to-be-born children. It has been observed that other viruses, such as HIV and rubella, can pass from mother to fetus through a process called vertical transmission. A research Read More...
Study provides insights into how the brain ages with Down syndrome
A breakthrough study from Sanford Burnham Prebys, has uncovered some of the mysteries surrounding the brains of individuals with Down syndrome. The disorder occurs when people obtain an extra copy of chromosome 21, giving them three instead of two. With one in 700 births carrying this chromosomal Read More...
How inflammation plays a role in our efforts to slow climate change
It really feels like climate change is getting more imminent by the day. With every other headline about how temperature levels are rising, animals are going extinct, and companies aren’t reaching their promised quotas, fear, stress, and anxiety over climate change can be extremely overwhelming Read More...