Have Brain Fatigue?

A Bout of Exercise May Be the Cure, Mouse Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2011) Researchers have long known that regular exercise increases the number of organelles called mitochondria in muscle cells. Since mitochondria are responsible for generating energy, this numerical boost is thought to underlie many of the positive physical effects of exercise, such as increased strength or endurance. Exercise also has a number of positive mental effects, such as relieving depression and improving memory. However, the mechanism behind these mental effects has been unclear. In a new study in mice, researchers at the University of South Carolina have discovered that regular exercise also increases mitochondrial numbers in brain cells, a potential cause for exercise's beneficial mental effects. Results Confirming previous studies, the results showed that mice in the exercise group had increased mitochondria in their muscle tissue compared to mice in the sedentary group. However, the researchers also found that the exercising mice also showed several positive markers of mitochondria increase in the brain, including a rise in the expression of genes for proxisome proliferator-activated receptor-g coactivator 1-alpha, silent information regulator T1, and citrate synthase, all regulators for mitochondrial biogenesis; and mitochondrial DNA. These results correlate well with the animals' increased fitness. Overall, mice in the exercise group increased their run to fatigue times from about 74 minutes to about 126 minutes. No change was seen for the sedentary mice. Importance of the Findings These findings suggest that exercise training increases the number of mitochondria in the brain much like it increases mitochondria in muscles. The study authors note that this increase in brain mitochondria may play a role in boosting exercise endurance by making the brain more resistant to fatigue, which can affect physical performance. "These findings could lead to the enhancement of athletic performance through reduced mental and physical fatigue, as well as to the expanded use of exercise as a therapeutic option to attenuate the negative effects of aging, and the treatment and/or prevention of neurological diseases," the authors say. Robert Lee D. Silva AB Psychology 3-B http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110919113849.htm

Birth Control Pills Affect Memory, Researchers Find

ScienceDaily (Sep. 9, 2011) Women who use contraceptives like birth control pills experience memory changes, according to new UC Irvine research. Their ability to remember the gist of an emotional event improves, while women not using the contraceptives better retain details. "What's most exciting about this study is that it shows the use of hormonal contraception alters memory," UCI graduate researcher Shawn Nielsen said. "There are only a handful of studies examining the cognitive effects of the pill, and more than 100 million women use it worldwide." She stressed that the medications did not damage memory. "It's a change in the type of information they remember, not a deficit." The change makes sense, said Nielsen, who works with neurobiologist Larry Cahill, because contraceptives suppress sex hormones such as estrogen and progesterone to prevent pregnancy. Those hormones were previously linked to women's strong "left brain" memory by Cahill's research group. "This new finding may be surprising to some, but it's a natural outgrowth of the research we've been doing on sex differences for 10 years," Cahill said. A neurobiologist not involved in the latest work agreed it was a logical and intriguing next step in the examination of memory differences between the sexes. Like any research, she added, it would be important to validate it further. "Larry Cahill is already well known for his phenomenal research linking sex to memory," said Pauline Maki, professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who specializes in memory and brain functioning. "The fact that women on oral contraceptives remembered different elements of a story tells us that estrogen has an influence on how women remember emotional events." In the study, groups of women either on the contraceptive or experiencing natural hormonal cycles were shown photographs of a mother, her son, and a car accident. The audio narrative differed; some in each group were told the car had hit a curb, while others were told the car had hit the boy and critically injured him. One week later, all were given surprise tests about what they recalled. Women using hormonal contraceptives for as little as one month remembered more clearly the main steps in the traumatic event -- that there had been an accident, that the boy had been rushed to the hospital, that doctors worked to save his life and successfully reattached both his feet, for instance. Women not using them remembered more details, such as a fire hydrant next to the car. Robert Lee D. Silva AB Psychology 3-B http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110909141637.htm

When Do Products (and Money) Literally Make Your Mouth Water?

ScienceDaily (Sep. 15, 2011) In certain situations, people actually salivate when they desire material things, like money and sports cars, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. "In multiple languages, the terms hunger and salivation are used metaphorically to describe desire for non-food items," writes author David Gal (Northwestern University). "But will people actually salivate when they desire material things?" The answer, Gal found, is yes. In one study, for example, Gal examined whether people salivated in response to money. "Merely being exposed to the concept of money has been shown to have dramatic effects on behavior, and it has even been argued that money can be conceptualized as a drug in that it imitates the action of biological incentives in driving behavior," Gal writes. In the experiment, the author measured salivation by having participants put cotton dental rolls in their mouths while they gazed at pictures of money. He later weighed the rolls to measure the amount of saliva. Before they viewed money, however, Gal primed the participants to feel powerful or to feel that they lacked power. "The main result of the experiment was that participants salivated to money (relative to baseline), but only when they were in a lowpower state," Gal writes. "This suggests that people salivate to non-food items when those are items are desired to fulfill a highly active goal." Next, Gal wondered whether men would salivate to high-end sports cars. Instead of looking at their perceived power, he induced some of the men to have a "mating goal," because prior research has shown that men who want to impress women purchase conspicuous luxury goods. Gal showed the men photos of attractive women and asked them to choose one they would like to date. Gal asked the other group of men to ponder a visit to the barber. The men with the active mating goal salivated more at images of high-end sports cars than the men who had been prompted to imagine getting a haircut. "Why do people salivate to money and to sports cars?" Gal asks. "One possibility is the increasingly well-established finding that all objects of desire, whether biological or non-biological, activate the same general reward system in the brain. Salivation might merely be the consequence of the activation of this general reward system." Robert Lee D. Silva AB Psychology 3-B http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110914154408.htm

Science Shows Couples Really Do Start To Look Alike

Do couples really start to look alike the longer they are together? Scientists say yes. A 2006 study found that the longer a couple had been together, the more likely it was that they had similar personalities and appearances. Now new research by University of Michigan psychologist Robert Zajonc confirms these findings. Analyzing photos of couples over 25 years, Zajonc found that spouses came to resemble each other more closely as time went on. Moreover, the happiest couples showed the greatest resemblance to each other. Researchers have several ideas about why this phenomenon occurs. For starters, some studies have shown that people already tend to be attracted to others with faces like their own. It's also possible that similar personality traits create similar facial expressions, so that two people who both laugh often will develop similar laugh lines, for example.

Robert Lee D. Silva AB Psychology 3-B http://www.findcounseling.com/help/news/2010/07/science_shows_couples_really_do_s tart_to_look_alike.html

The Connection Between Bedtime & Teen Mental Health

The rebellion against bedtime starts young and often continues until the day kids leave home. But for parents considering throwing in the towel as their children enter their teens, there is new evidence for continuing to enforce a strict bedtime. The average teenager needs at least nine hours of sleep each night, but just eight percent are get that much, shows a new study published in the journal Sleep. This shortage has effects far beyond the expected fatigue, the study showed. Youth who went to bed after midnight were 24 percent more likely to be depressed and 20 percent more likely to have thoughts of suicide compared to peers who went to bed by 10 p.m. If your teen says this is too early, peer pressure may be in your favor. The study also found that 54 percent of teens had a bedtime of 10 p.m. while an additional 21 percent went to bed at 11 p.m. on school nights. To help teens (and adults) get enough sleep, experts recommend avoiding late night meals, spending time before bed unwinding, and varying weekend wakeup times by no more than an hour from the weekday.

Robert Lee D. Silva AB Psychology 3-B http://www.findcounseling.com/help/news/2010/01/Teen_Depression_Suicide_Sleep_B edtime.html

Small Talk Sharpens Memory

A University of Michigan study being published in the February 2008 issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin reveals merely talking for ten minutes to another person can improve both memory and test performance. Through two separate studies investigating the relationship between social interactions and mental functioning, researchers discovered chatting for ten minutes improved mental sharpness and performance just as well as completing a crossword puzzle. "In our study, socializing was just as effective as more traditional kinds of mental exercise in boosting memory and intellectual performance," said Oscar Ybarra, a psychologist at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR) and a lead author of the study with ISR psychologist Eugene Burnstein and psychologist Piotr Winkielman from the University of California, San Diego. In the first study, researchers examined survey data from a sample of more than 3,500 people ranging from 24 to 96 years old. The survey included both a mental exam assessing knowledge of personal information and current events and a questionnaire soliciting their frequency of conversations with friends and family each week. Upon isolating a wide range of demographic variables, researchers identified a relationship between the amount of social interaction and mental performance levels on the exam. The more frequently people socialized, the higher their cognitive performance - a relationship consistent through all age groups. In the second phase of the study, researchers split 76 college students ages 18 to 21 into three groups: a social interaction group participating in a 10-minute conversation, an intellectual group completing reading comprehension activities and crossword puzzles for 10 minutes, and a control group watching a 10-minute excerpt from "Seinfeld." Upon completion of each group's ten-minute activity, the college students completed a series of tests assessing their mental processing speed and memory capabilities. Phase two results confirmed that social interaction seemed just as helpful at boosting memory retention and cognitive speed as completing a daily crossword puzzle. Conversely, the findings suggest isolation may have a much more negative impact on a persons mental capabilities and emotional well-being. Robert Lee D. Silva AB Psychology 3-B http://www.findcounseling.com/help/news/2007/11/small_talk_sharpens_memory.html

Does Facebook Put Teens at Risk for Depression?

A clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics cautions that social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are often unhealthy environments for teens. Although social networking platforms offer chances for connection and friendmaking, researchers note that they can also serve as a medium for damaging offline behaviors such as bullying and clique-forming in teens. According to the report, teens who spend extensive time on such sites may be more likely to experience anxiety and what has been termed "Facebook depression." The publication suggests that parents monitor their children's social networking usage and keep an open dialog about happenings in their online lives. The report also recommends physicians assist parents by alerting them to social networking issues faced by children and making suggestions for communicating about, rather than merely monitoring, children and adolescent Internet usage.

Robert Lee D. Silva AB Psychology 3-B http://www.findcounseling.com/help/news/2011/04/does_facebook_put_teens_at_risk_f or_depression.html