Slide-deck from presentation: The Effect of Social Media on the Brain – at the Safety and Wellbeing on CyberMedia Conference hosted by the Tipperary Children and Young People’s Services Committee. The Conference provided a forum to discuss social media and its impact on children and young people and marked International Safer Internet Day.
Tag: internet and the brain
Weekly Neuroscience Update
An international team of researchers has found the Internet can produce both acute and sustained alterations in specific areas of cognition, which may reflect changes in the brain, affecting our attentional capacities, memory processes, and social interactions.
Memory performance can be enhanced by rhythmic neural stimulation, using both invasive and non-invasive techniques.
A new study has found that infants at high risk for autism were less attuned to differences in speech patterns than low-risk infants. The findings suggest that interventions to improve language skills should begin during infancy for those at high risk for autism.
A new ultrasound method restores dopaminergic pathway in the brain at Parkinson’s early stages.
Neuroimaging reveals a significantly diminished response in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in children on the autism spectrum. The findings could be used as a biomarker for diagnosing ASD.
A correlative link has been discovered between weak upper and lower body physical performance, and an increase in depression and anxiety during midlife.
Researchers have examined new evidence about how low-grade inflammation could impact a person’s level of motivation. This may also have implications for the treatment of some cases of depression.
Finally this week, new research has suggested that virtual reality may play a crucial role in monitoring Alzheimer’s disease.
The wired brain
I am guest blogging today on Science Calling on how the future of the Internet is wired into the human brain.
Weekly Round Up
Pathways within the brain can be strengthened by reading and language exposure
Recent research shows that reading boosts brain pathways and can actually affect understanding in nearly all school subjects – a great reason to encourage the reading habit in your children.
Scientists at the University of Michigan Health System have demonstrated how memory circuits in the brain refine themselves in a living organism through two distinct types of competition between cells. Their results, published in Neuron, mark a step forward in the search for the causes of neurological disorders associated with abnormal brain circuits, such as Alzheimer’s disease, autism and schizophrenia.
The left and right halves of the brain have separate stores for working memory, the information we actively keep in mind, suggests a study published online yesterday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Over time, and with enough Internet usage, the structure of our brains can actually physically change, according to a new study.
Bringing the real world into the brain scanner, researchers at The University of Western Ontario from The Centre for Brain and Mind can now determine the action a person was planning, mere moments before that action is actually executed.
And finally good news at last for coffee addicts.For years we’ve been told that caffeinated coffee was bad for us. It’s unhealthy and addictive, doctors warned. But as vindication for all who stuck by their energizing elixir, a new study published early online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, shows that guzzling caffeinated coffee may actually be good for our brains. In fact, it may help keep Alzheimer’s at bay. So enjoy that cuppa joe!
inside-the-brain.com 