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Tip-of-the-Tongue Moments May be Benign
Despite the common fear that those annoying tip-of-the-tongue moments are signals of age-related memory decline, the two phenomena appear to be independent, according to findings published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
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Veterans With Gulf War Illness Show Brain Changes Linked to Memory Deficits
New research illuminates definitive brain alterations in troops with Gulf War Illness (GWI) thought to result from the exposure to neurotoxic chemicals, including sarin gas, during the first Persian Gulf War. “More than 250,000 troops, or approximately 25% of those deployed during the first Persian Gulf War, have been diagnosed with Gulf War Illness (GWI). Although medical professionals have recognized the chronic and often disabling illness for almost two decades, brain changes that uniquely identify GWI have been elusive until now,” explained researcher Bart Rypma, principal investigator at the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Texas at Dallas.
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Brief Memory Test ‘Ages’ Older Adults
A simple memory test can have a noticeable impact on just how old some older adults feel, results from a cognitive study show.
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Appearances Really Count When Rising to the Top
Even in the most egalitarian of working environments, certain people seem to reliably move to a higher status than others. They seem more competent and committed. In essence, they appear to be natural leaders. But groups don’t always place the most valuable or competent person in charge. Rather, the people who appear to be the most valuable or competent at any given time tend to achieve higher rank, a recent study indicates.
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New Research on Genetics and Intelligence
Read about the latest research on genetics and intelligence: Literacy and Numeracy Are More Heritable Than Intelligence in Primary School Yulia Kovas, Ivan Voronin, Andrey Kaydalov, Sergey B. Malykh, Philip S. Dale, and Robert Plomin Are literacy and numeracy less heritable than general cognitive ability? Monozygotic and dizygotic twins were assessed for literacy, numeracy, and general cognitive ability at ages 7, 9, and 12. Literacy and numeracy were found to be more heritable than general cognitive ability at ages 7 and 9 but not at age 12.
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Blindsight in Children With Cerebral Lesions
Congenital or acquired damage to the visual processing areas of the brain is often associated with a loss of vision. Despite sustaining damage to these brain areas, some people retain an unconscious ability to respond to visual stimuli — and ability termed blindsight. Although these people are not consciously aware of visual stimuli, they are in many instances able to direct their eyes towards target items and to discriminate the orientation and direction of movement presented in their area of blindness. Studies examining blindsight have found that those who acquire damage early in life retain more visual ability than those who acquire brain damage in adolescence or adulthood.
