Attention May Link Arts and Intelligence
News

Attention May Link Arts and Intelligence

Arts education causes “profound changes” in the brain and may improve cognition by enhancing the ability to focus attention, experts said at the first of two neuro-education conferences, held in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., this past week.

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The Arts Will Help School Accountability

The Arts Will Help School Accountability

Commentary by Mariale Hardiman

Federal and state policy makers should expand their view of what constitutes an effective school based on the evidence of science and of experience, proposes a neuroeducation specialist at Johns Hopkins University.  For example, at the school she ran in Baltimore, "as teachers designed arts-integrated lessons that fostered creative thinking, a transformation occurred in the school."

Why the Arts Matter

Why the Arts Matter

Jerome Kagan Gives Six Good Reasons for Advocating the Importance of Arts in School

“It is not possible to live by rationality alone," said cognitive-research pioneer Jerome Kagan during the Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference in Baltimore.

Blog

Neuro-Education: What To Do Next?

The Learning, Arts, and the Brain conference offered a chance for scientists to tell teachers what they know—and also for teachers to tell scientists what they want them to find out. Also, a composer’s musical meditation on the mind and a Learning & the Brain conference presentation both ask “big questions” of neuroscience. And at the neuro-education conference in Washington, D.C., researchers suggest that gifted people seem to have slightly different patterns of brain development and use different brain areas to do cognitive tasks.

In the News

Alzheimer's Disease — The Dana Guide

Researchers are gaining momentum in discovering potential methods to diagnose, treat and possibly prevent Alzheimer's, a progressive brain disorder that causes a gradual and irreversible loss of higher brain functions. 

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Can Alzheimer’s Researchers Identify At-Risk Patients?
Column

Can Alzheimer’s Researchers Identify At-Risk Patients?

by Guy McKhann, M.D.

Brain in the News

Identifying Alzheimer's years before symptoms begin to show could provide better treatment. However, the slow progression of the disease makes testing drugs difficult.

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News

Brain Actively Alters What We See

by Aalok Mehta

We don’t just see through colored glasses, we tweak the color of those spectacles to suit our expectations, suggests a recent study of the visual system.

News

New Cell ‘Reprogramming’ Techniques Could Hold Promise for Neurodegenerative Disorders

Two groups of researchers have developed methods to create pluripotent stem cells, one using a virus, the other a snip of DNA.

News

Flu Outbreak Shows How Hard They Are to Predict

As immunologists work to identify the potential virulence of the new swine flu strain and prepare a viable vaccine, outbreaks like these show how much guesswork is involved in producing our annual flu shot.

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Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini Celebrates 100th Birthday on April 22, 2009
European Dana Alliance for the Brain

Nobel Laureate Rita Levi-Montalcini Celebrates 100th Birthday on April 22, 2009

Rita Levi-Montalcini, who  started her research career in a laboratory set up in her bedroom in Turin, Italy during World War II, pioneered research into nerve growth factor (NGF). Her findings opened new areas of research in neuronal plasticity and repair, with implications for neurodegenerative diseases. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1986, which she shared with her colleague Stanley Cohen. She is a founding member of the European Dana Alliance for the Brain. Read more.

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Brain Stimulation Pioneer Sets Sights on Other Diseases
Profile

Brain Stimulation Pioneer Sets Sights on Other Diseases

by Aalok Mehta

Moving from the laboratory bench to the operating room, Mahlon DeLong helped pioneer deep brain stimulation for treating movement disorders. Now he believes the technique has potential for many other diseases—and for solving some brain mysteries. Second of two parts.

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News

Listeners Predict What’s Coming Next

by Faith Hickman Brynie

The brain draws on more than words, grammar and syntax when trying to decipher speech and writing; it actively anticipates and assumes meaning, according to experts.

News

Is Alzheimer’s Disease a Natural Brain-Cell-Removal Process Gone Awry?

by Jim Schnabel

A neuronal pruning process, designed to reduce clutter in the fast-growing brain in the early months of life, may be reactivated during aging to cause the brain-cell destruction seen in Alzheimer’s disease, propose Genentech researchers.

News

Autism Researchers Seek Answers Within and Without

by Kayt Sukel

Autism spectrum disorders may be rooted in a mix of genetic influences and environmental risk factors from early in prenatal development.

Cerebrum 2009: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science
Dana Press Book

Cerebrum 2009: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science

In this annual anthology of articles selected from Cerebrum, the online magazine, a stellar group of scientists and science writers, including neuroscientist Guy McKhann, computational neuroscientist Sebastian Seung, developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan and neurologist Stephen L. Hauser, introduce readers to cutting-edge developments in brain science.

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Vitamin D and the Brain: More Good News

Vitamin D and the Brain: More Good News

by R. Douglas Shytle, Ph.D., and Paula C. Bickford, Ph.D.

Cerebrum

Vitamin D, long ago established as important for healthy bones, also appears to be significant in the brain during development and as we age—but more research is necessary to determine the consequences of vitamin D deficiency and how supplements could help.

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Learning How You Learn Best
Partner site

Learning How You Learn Best

"Your Brain at Work: Making the Science of Learning and Memory Work for You" is an interactive Web site exploring how learning changes with age, learning better in the workplace and how a brain-healthy lifestyle can support learning throughout life. It's the newest piece in the Dana Alliance's Cognitive Fitness at Work series, developed in partnership with The Conference Board. [off-site link]

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The Teen Brain: Primed to Learn, Primed to Take Risks

The Teen Brain: Primed to Learn, Primed to Take Risks

by Jay N. Giedd, M.D.

Cerebrum

The changes the brain undergoes during adolescence pave the way to adulthood, but this plasticity also can open the door to poor decision making and risky behavior, writes Jay N. Giedd, a child psychiatrist at the National Institute of Mental Health. 

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Podcast

The Importance of Clinical Trials

Clinical trials have long been a part of the history of medical research. While testing new drugs or devices, investigators enlist patients with fixed characteristics, dispense treatments and assemble data for a set period of time. The results can be crucial to advancing medical knowledge. Reisa Sperling, M.D., of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, talks about her research, the importance of clinical trials, and the patients who so generously participate in them.

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Arts Educators Show Resilience against Economic Challenges
Column

Arts Educators Show Resilience against Economic Challenges

by Janet Eilber

Arts Education in the News

The country's arts educators exhibit creativity and optimism in the face of the economic crisis.

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Briefing Paper

The Chemistry of Love

Chemical messages wafting off other people’s bodies clearly influence sexual attraction and mating behavior in humans.  Just don’t call them pheromones—yet.

Learning, Arts, and the Brain
Research

Learning, Arts, and the Brain

Dana Consortium studies find strong links

For the first time, coordinated, multi-university scientific research brings us closer to answering the question: Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter?

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Book Releases

Try to Remember

Try to Remember

by Paul R. McHugh, M.D.

One of our country’s leading authorities on psychiatry tells the unforgettable story of how lives can be destroyed by faddish misdirections of thought and therapeutic practices. His first-hand account begins in the 1990s with his battle against the theory of “repressed sexual memories” and ends with his concern that excessive diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder is today placing many patients in treatments that leave their real mental troubles untouched. A passionate advocate for the contribution of psychotherapy to healing, McHugh reaches out to patients, families, and mental health providers to explain how to work together toward effective diagnosis and treatment to win a contest for mental peace.

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Cerebrum 2008: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science

Cerebrum 2008: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science

In this second annual anthology, top scientists and scholars interpret the latest discoveries about the human brain and confront their implications for fields from architecture to ethics, music to health care policy. Foreword by Carl Zimmer.

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Your Brain on Cubs

Your Brain on Cubs

Inside the Heads of Players and Fans

Edited by Dan Gordon

A group of today’s leading science writers and neuroscientists explore here the ways that our brain functions when we participate in sports as fans, athletes, and coaches, taking baseball as the quintessential sport for all three perspectives.

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Best of the Brain from Scientific American

Best of the Brain from Scientific American

Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow's Brain

by Floyd E. Bloom, M.D.

Top neuroscientist Floyd E. Bloom has selected the most fascinating brain-related articles from Scientific American and Scientific American Mind since 1999 in this collection. Divided into three sections—Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow’s Brain—this compilation takes you to the latest information from the front lines of brain research.

Audiobooks Now Available

Audiobooks Now Available

The Creating Brain, The Ethical Brain, Your Brain on Cubs and Best of the Brain from Scientific American are available now as audiobooks at Audible or iTunes.


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Events

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July 13, 2008

Music and the Brain: From Perception to Emotion (from the archives)

Music and the Brain: From Perception to Emotion brought together neuroscientists, performing artists, and the public all participating in a gathering which discussed the interpretation of emotions, creativity, and improvisation. The public event was held during the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) in Geneva. Participants included, EDAB vice chairman, Pierre Magistretti, Federal Institute of Technology and Lausanne University Hospital; Francois Ansermet, Geneva University Hospital; Gary Magby, Lausanne Music Conservatory; Solenn’ Lavanant, opera singer; Ioanna Bentoiu, opera singer; Richard Rentsch (www.richard-rentsch.com), composer and Orazio Sciortino (www.oraziosciortino.com).