A daily dose of the herbal remedy gingko biloba may help prevent brain damage after stroke, new research suggests.

The findings, published online in the medical journal Stroke, have been shown only in mice, but researchers say the studies support theories that ginkgo biloba may be a useful treatment for stroke patients.

A mouse study suggests ginkgo biloba may be a promising treatment for stroke patients. (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

“It’s still a large leap from rodent brains to human brains, but these results strongly suggest that further research into the protective effects of ginkgo is warranted,” said lead researcher Sylvain Doré, an associate professor in the Johns Hopkins department of anesthesiology and critical care medicine, in a press release. “If further work confirms what we’ve seen, we could theoretically recommend a daily regimen of ginkgo to people at high risk of stroke as a preventive measure against brain damage.”

In the series of mouse studies, Read more…

If you haven’t read the recent New Yorker article, “The Itch,” by Dr. Atul Gawande, then you should stop reading this post now and go read it.

But if you did read “The Itch,” then you, like me, are probably still thinking about it. “The Itch” tells the story of a chronic itch experienced by a patient called M. and details her subsequent suffering. The article also explores how the brain interprets various stimuli and includes fascinating insights into the phantom limb sensations of amputees. But mostly, it’s about itching.

Many people who read the article, however, were disappointed by the end, which left them hanging about what happened to patient M.’s itch. Other readers on this blog have expressed disbelief about some of the more shocking aspects of the story.

I e-mailed Dr. Gawande, who kindly agreed to answer a few of your questions Read more…

Dr. Atul Gawande (Erik Jacobs for The New York Times)

“Itching is a most peculiar and diabolical sensation,” writes surgeon and author Dr. Atul Gawande in the current issue of The New Yorker. “Itch has been ranked, by scientific and artistic observers alike, among the most distressing physical sensations one can experience.”

After reading Dr. Gawande’s latest essay, “The Itch,” you will certainly agree, and you may find yourself experiencing irksome itches all over your body. Dr. Gawande’s exploration of itching, and what it says about the brain and body, is told through the shocking story of Patient M., who is tortured by an incessant itch. Read more…

Brain scans reveal that the mammillary bodies, shown in box and circled, of a sleep apnea patient (right)
are smaller than those of a healthy control subject (left).(U.C.L.A./Harper Lab)

The part of the brain that stores memory appears to shrink in people with sleep apnea, adding further evidence that the sleep and breathing disorder is a serious health threat.

The findings, from brain scan studies conducted by researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, show for the first time that sleep apnea is associated with tissue loss in brain regions that store memory. And while the thinking and focus problems of sleep apnea patients often are attributed to sleep deprivation, the scans show something far more insidious is occurring. Read more…

The gals who meet for coffee may have a leg up on maintaining their memory. (Joshua Lott for The New York Times)

An active social life appears to delay memory loss as we age, a new study shows.

The finding, which appears in the July issue of The American Journal of Public Health, suggests that strong social ties, through friends, family and community groups, can preserve our brain health as we age and that social isolation may be an important risk factor for cognitive decline in the elderly. Read more…

Last week, I spent several hours on my cellphone doing interviews. That’s not unusual, except this week, the subject of my Well column is whether regular cellphone use is risky to the brain.

Noah Benezra, 18, uses a cellphone across the street from the NYC Lab School. (John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times)

I’m rethinking how I use my cellphone after hearing three brain surgeons make the point that they use ear pieces, speaker phones or headsets when talking on the phone, and they don’t put cellphones next to their ears.

The data on cellphone use and health is mixed. The Food and Drug Administration says there is no evidence of health problems associated with cellphone use, but the F.D.A. adds that there also is no proof “that wireless phones are absolutely safe.” More recent studies suggest an increased risk for head tumors after 10 or more years of heavy cellphone use. To read more about the data on cellphones and health, read the full Well column.

What do you think? Do you think the fears about cellphones are overblown? Or is it time to start talking on a headset? Post your comments below.

Today’s special Well guide offers readers head-to-toe advice for healthy aging. Whether you’re worried about your heart, expanding waistline, wrinkles or aching feet, you’ll find answers to some of your most pressing health problems.

To read the full report, go to www.nytimes.com/wellguide and be sure to check out the online options. Click to find memory games, health quizzes and cool three-dimensional graphics around the Web. And when you’re done, take the Well quiz below to test your body knowledge.

To take the quiz, click here.

Last week, my post about the spinning dancer drove many readers to distraction.

Among nearly 200 viewers who commented, several were frustrated by the illusion, which can spin clockwise or counter-clockwise, depending on how your eyes adjust to it. Some readers were skeptical, convinced it was a trick, and a few were oddly taken by the dancer’s shapely silhouette.

I asked one of the world’s leading authorities on optical illusions, Al Seckel, to talk about the spinning dancer and other optical illusions. Mr. Seckel, whose latest book, “Masters of Deception,” explores optical illusions in the arts, shared his thoughts about why we are so captivated by optical illusions and what they tell us about ourselves.

Click the “Listen to the Podcast” link, below, to hear our conversation.

Listen to the Podcast (mp3)

And for more fun illusions, check out the following links. One of my favorite illusions shows three sport utility vehicles, and still has me scratching my head. To see it, click here. For two more pages of illusions, click here and here. If you haven’t wasted enough time, click here to learn more about various illusion artists and experts, including the amazing Shigeo Fukuda, who creates shadow illusions.

And if you’re still vexed by the spinning dancer, click here for a thorough analysis of the illusion and even a glimpse at which way the dancer was originally designed to spin.

A popular e-mail going around features a spinning dancer that has been touted as a test of whether you are right-brained and creative or left-brained and logical. If you see the dancer spinning clockwise, the story goes, you are using more of your right brain, and if you see it moving counterclockwise, you are more of a left-brained person.

Clockwise or counterclockwise?But while the dancer does indeed reflect the brain savvy of its creator, Japanese Web designer Nobuyuki Kayahara, it is not a brain test. Read more…

As a Harvard-trained neuroanatomist, Jill Bolte Taylor has always known more about brains than most people. But when a brain hemorrhage triggered her own stroke, she suddenly had a front-row seat on the deterioration of the brain.

Dr. Taylor recounts the details of her stroke and the amazing insights she gained from it in a riveting 18-minute video of her speech at the Technology, Entertainment, Design Conference in Monterey, Calif., last month. Her fascinating lecture includes a detailed explanation of the differences between the left and right sides of the brain, complete with an incredibly cool prop — a real human brain. Read more…

A mother’s impulse to love and protect her child appears to be hard-wired into her brain, a new imaging study shows.

The maternal instinct may be connected to brain circuitry, a new study suggests. (Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times)

Tokyo researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (M.R.I.) to study the brain patterns of 13 mothers, each of whom had an infant about 16 months old.

First, the scientists videotaped the babies smiling at their mothers during playtime. Then the women left the room, and the infants were videotaped crying and reaching for their mothers to come back. All of the babies were dressed in the same blue shirt for the video shoot.

M.R.I. scans were taken as each mother watched videos of the babies, including her own, with the sound off. When a woman saw images of her own child smiling or upset, her brain patterns were markedly different than when she watched the other children. There was a particularly pronounced change in brain activity when a mother was shown images of her child in distress. Read more…

Are people with autism trapped in their own world? Or are the rest of us just trapped in ours?

After seeing 27-year-old Amanda Baggs, featured in this month’s Wired magazine, you may rethink your views of the so-called “normal” world. Ms. Baggs, who lives in Burlington, Vt., is autistic and doesn’t speak. But she has become an Internet sensation as a result of an unusual video she created called “In My Language.”

For the first three minutes of the video, she rocks, flaps her hands, waves a piece of paper, buries her face in a book and runs her fingers repeatedly across a computer keyboard, all while humming a haunting two-note tune.

Then, the words “A Translation” appear on the screen. Read more…

Keeping an aging brain active may stall mental decline. (Todd Heisler/The New York Times)

Brain health among older Americans appears to be getting better.

Compared to aging adults in the 1990s, people over 70 today may have a lower risk for serious memory problems, including Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, according to a new study that examined mental function among more than 14,000 people over a decade. While the reasons for the apparent decline aren’t known, the brain boost may be explained by the fact that older Americans today are better educated, wealthier and have improved cardiovascular health compared to similarly-aged adults in the 1990s.

“The study suggests that it’s important to keep your mind active, not just in formal education in early life, but with reading and talking with friends and staying connected with the world through volunteering and social networks,’’ said lead author Dr. Kenneth Langa, associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan. “We think that’s part of the story of keeping your brain healthy and working against cognitive decline and dementia.’’ Read more…

These days, it’s tough to know what to worry about. Resistant bacteria? Cancer? Global warming?

As it turns out, you’re not going to get any extra help from your brain. Although the human brain is well adapted to respond to risk, it’s not so skilled at sorting out which modern risks to worry about. The current issue of Psychology Today explains why in its article “10 Ways We Get the Odds Wrong.”

“Our biases reflect the choices that kept our ancestors alive. But we have yet to evolve similarly effective responses to statistics, media coverage, and fear-mongering politicians….Though emotions are themselves critical to making rational decisions, they were designed for a world in which dangers took the form of predators, not pollutants.”

Part of the problem is that our emotions have evolved to help our brains make “lightning fast” assessments about risk before we have a chance to think. Things that have been around awhile — snakes and spiders, for instance, scare us. But bigger risks, such as fast driving, don’t trigger the same instinctive response. “Our emotions push us to make snap judgments that once were sensible — but may not be anymore,” the author, Maia Szalavitz, writes. Read more…

(From left: Robert Stolarik for The New York Times New York; Alan Zale for The New York Times; Owen Franken for The New York Times )

Every day, we are tested. Whether it’s a cookie tempting us from our diets or a warm bed coaxing us to sleep late, we are forced to decide between what we want to do and what we ought to do.

The ability to resist our impulses is commonly described as self-control or willpower. The elusive forces behind a person’s willpower have been the subject of increasing scrutiny by the scientific community trying to understand why some people overeat or abuse drugs and alcohol. What researchers are finding is that willpower is essentially a mental muscle, and certain physical and mental forces can weaken or strengthen our self-control.

Studies now show that self-control is a limited resource that may be strengthened by the foods we eat. Laughter and conjuring up powerful memories may also help boost a person’s self-control. And, some research suggests, we can improve self-control through practice, testing ourselves on small tasks in order to strengthen our willpower for bigger challenges.

“Learning self-control produces a wide range of positive outcomes,’’ said Roy Baumeister, a psychology professor at Florida State University who wrote about the issue in this month’s Current Directions in Psychological Science. “Kids do better in school, people do better at work. Look at just about any major category of problem that people are suffering from and odds are pretty good that self-control is implicated in some way.’’ Read more…