Never Forget A Face(book) – Memory For Online Posts Beats Faces And Books

People’s memory for Facebook posts is strikingly stronger than their memory for human faces or sentences from books, according to a new study.

Try to remember a line from the last book you read. Or, if you’re not a big reader, the face of the last new person you met. Now try to remember your significant other’s last Facebook status update.

According to a new study published in the journal Memory & Cognition, our brains may be more adequately wired to remember status updates and tweets rather than snippets from novels or faces. Subjects in the study were one and a half times more likely to remember posts than sentences from a novel and almost two and a half times more likely than to remember faces.

The findings shed light on how our memories favour natural, spontaneous writing over polished, edited content, and could have wider implications for the worlds of education, communications and advertising.

- Team Shirsa

Love, Drugs Work Similarly In The Brain, Researchers Say

Love is truly an addiction if you look at how it works in the brain, scientists say. Those who study the neurobiology of social bonding in humans and in some animals say those areas of attachment and affection share many of the same areas of the brain and the same chemical messengers as drug addiction.

 

Your Brain In Love

 The chemical messenger oxytocin, for instance, is   involved in the birth process and lactation in women and causes the mother to develop a strong attachment to the  baby.

 Also for instance, withdrawal is a major problem for treating addiction and is involved in the release of stress hormones, he said. People who lose partners go through similar things in their brains and could be treated in similar ways.

- Team Shirsa

Best Food And Nutrition For A Healthy Brain!!

      

Brainy food

Eating well means thinking well. Nutrition and some food have been shown to improve general brain health and others can help prevent or at least slow down the effects of certain brain diseases. That’s why it’s important to include these foods in your diet as often as possible.

1. Tomatoes contain lycopene, which helps fight the cell damage that can be found in Alzeheimer’s disease.

      2.  Fish has plenty of omega 3, which help maintain a healthy nervous system, and iodine, to improves mental clarity.

      3. Whole-grain foods contain folic acid, B12, B6, which all improve in memory.

      4.     Blueberries have been shown to improve short term memory.

      5.    Blackcurrants contain vitamin C, for increased mental agility.

      6.   Pumpkin seeds contain zinc, which enhances memory and thinking skills.

      7.  Fortified cereals are a good source of B12, which reduces homocysteine levels that  may contribute to     Alzheimer’s disease.

      8.   Brocoli provides Vitamin K, which enhances cognitive function.

      9.   Sage is good for improving memory.

    10.   Nuts are great source of vitamin E, which improves memory. 

     

     - Team Shirsa

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Are You Ready To Jump Start Your Brain Training??

Jump Start Your Brain Training Now!!!

Some popular brain game programs are entertaining to be sure, but not a truly demanding workout like what is necessary to see real changes. It's sort of like playing ping-pong, its fun and engaging but not very demanding as an exercise. 

You certainly develop some skills like eye-hand coordination, but really you only get better at ping-pong and those skills just aren't as useful in other aspects of your life.Just like basic strength, endurance and fitness training can benefit you in almost any physical endeavor (including ping pong), So can brain training that improves memory/recall, concentration, processing speed and sequencing/shifting(decision making).

 These exercises may be less entertaining, but much more important to the overall goal of brain fitness. This is very much like the process for physical training, you gauge the effectiveness of your workout by how much you can now lift, or how far you can run, or throw a ball, etc... Professional and amateur athletes will never tell you they got where they are by luck or giftedness. 

The fact is they all train very hard to improve their "talents", and the beauty part is, anyone can improve, physically and mentally, directly related to the investment in effort given to exercise.

- Team Shirsa

Learn How Your Brain Works? Slow Thinking VS Fast Thinking

I came across this video the other day and couldn't resist sharing it. In under 5 minutes, the video gives you a fun, energetic, and engaging overview of the brain’s two thinking systems: the fast, or instinctual system, and the slow, or purposeful system. 

Learn how these two kinds of thinking systems work together and separately to help you navigate the world- and how they can trick you from time to time.

This video is a summary of a book by Daniel Kahneman called Thinking Fast and Slow, which you can find at  Flipkart.

- Team Shirsa

5 Important Ways To Exercise Your Brain!!!!

1.  Walk briskly several times a week to boost blood flow and oxygen to the brain.








2.  Eat green leafy vegetables and nuts to help support memory function.










3  Socialize with friends and family to maintain verbal fluency and emotional control. 












4.  Read anything and everything you find interesting.

5.  Play Brain Games to help form new neural pathways and improve cognitive skills.







- Team Shirsa

Games Are Good For Brain : 10 Reasons To Play!!!

Games for the brain sound like a good idea!!!!

train your brain!!!

But are they really or are they just a waste of time?   we hear a lot about the negative impacts of children playing too many video games, so you must be wondering... why would games for the brain can be good..

Everything in moderation of course, but read on to discover 10 reasons to incorporate brain games into your daily workout routine:

1)       Brain exercise – Brain games challenge our language, math and problem-solving skills in ways that we may not otherwise find in our daily routine.
 
2)   Verbal Skills – Language based brain games help keep your vocabulary strong.  Games for the brain that encourage word finding are particularly beneficial. 
 
 3)     Creativity – Some brain games help stimulate right-brain thinking.  Look for games for the brain that include open-ended problem solving activities.  Think outside the box to solve problem.   At Shirsa, one of our favorites is Color Switch – give it a try.
 
4)     Memory Skills – Research shows that short-term memory skills can be improved by playing games for the brain.  Short-term memory skills can fade without stimulation as we age.  Practice holding new information in your mind and recalling it back.  Play games like Memorica, Memorica swing, Word Bubble to give your memory a workout.
 
 5)    Socialization – Not all games for the brain need to be played on the computer.  Find a friend and get out a deck of cards or the Scrabble board.  Enjoy socializing while you play.
 
6)  Change is good for the brain – Exposing your brain to a variety    of                                     cognitive tasks including online games for the brain can help support neuron growth in the brain.  Novel exercises are key, so change up your crossword puzzle and opt for more mathematical, language, novel games with Shirsa for twice or thrice a week.
 
7)    Hand eye coordination – Studies show that surgeons who played games for the brain a few hours a week had improved accuracy and efficiency during surgery.
 
8)    Stress Relief – Taking a short break to tackle a fun challenge can help you relax and provide a brief distraction from your current frustrations.
 
 
 9)  Pure Fun – Breaking away from your daily work to have fun is both good for your brain and offers you something to look forward to.  Use game time as a reward for completing your current task.
 
10)  Not So costly – There are many good  brain games available online or with a simple deck of cards.  Building a brain-healthy lifestyle doesn’t have to buy costly package.  Work to make small changes each day and enjoy some exercises with Shrisa
 

- Team Shirsa

Is It repetition That Makes Strong Connection??

When playing with a child, signing a song, or reading a book together, you might frequently hear, "Do it again!!" We all have probably heard this request. 

Connections in your brain

This repetition is exactly what the developing brain needs. When experiences are repeated, the brain creates strong pathways of connections based on those experiences. The brain then retains those connections. 

If an experience doesn't happen frequently the brain eliminates connections made from those experiences. As explained it in our earlier blog as well the brain adapts to the environment it is exposed to. The "use it or loose it" process explains how this adaptation takes place. The brain adapts skills needed for survival and success for the world in which it lives. 

As a result, for healthy brain development and helping a child thrive, positive environments and experiences are needed.  Shirsa program for kids includes an activity which helps you to develop new connection among your young ones.

- Team Shirsa

Why Memory and Maths Don't Mix?????????

Can you compute your taxes while simultaneously remembering what you had for lunch yesterday? Neither can I. But doing two things at once isn’t always hard – in fact, it can be as easy as listening to music while driving, or talking or while cooking food.

Maths & Memory

 Stanford neuroscientist  Josef Parvizi, MD, PhD, and his colleagues have shown in a study that recalling your own experiences and performing externally oriented tasks such as arithmetical reasoning are mutually exclusive. That’s because the same brain circuitry that must be activated for the former to proceed must be actively suppressed during the latter activity. 

The researchers showed that groups of nerve cells in a structure called the posterior medial cortex, or PMC, are strongly activated during a recall task such as trying to remember whether you had coffee yesterday, but just as strongly suppressed when you’re engaged in solving a math problem.

The PMC sits roughly where the brain’s two hemispheres meet, making it one tough place to visit, technically speaking. Yet neuroscientists would love to learn much more about the PMC, because it’s known to be a key player in introspective activities such as remembering past experiences, imagining the future, and just plain daydreaming.

Many more research about this field is still on its way, we will keep updating it in our Shirsa blogs.  

- Team Shirsa

Brain Facts That Every One Should Know!!!!!

Brain facts

The brain is perhaps the most fascinating organ in the human body. It controls everything from breathing to emotions to learning. If you work with children, here are some facts that you might find helpful, from how the brain affects learning to facts about memory to interesting facts about the brain that you can share with your students.

Brain Development and Learning

Read on to learn interesting facts about how the brain develops, what can affect that development, and how learning is impacted.

1. Read aloud. Parents and teachers who read aloud and talk often to young children are promoting brain development.
2. Bilingual brains. Children who learn two languages before the age of five have a different brain structure than children who learn only one language.
3. Child abuse and the brain. Studies have shown that child abuse can change the way the brain develops and can negatively affect learning.
4. New neurons. Throughout life, mental activity promotes the production of new neurons in the brain.
5. Handedness. Those who are left-handed or ambidextrous have a corpus collosum that is about 11% larger than those who are right-handed.
6. Brain growth. The human brain continues to grow until about age 18.
7. Stimulating environment. If a child is in a stimulating environment, she has a 25% greater ability to learn . Conversely, if she is in an environment with low stimulation, she has 25% less ability to learn.
8. Creative vs. methodical. Scientists have shown that creative thinkers’ brains work in different ways from the brains of those who think more methodically.
9. Food and intelligence. One study looked at students in New York and showed that those who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes did 14% better on IQ tests than the students who ate lunches with these additives
10. Boredom. Humans have an innate curiosity, but when they have a lack of stimulation, boredom sets in.
11. Learning new things. A study shows that when people are learning new things, their brains change very quickly. Those learning to juggle showed change in the brain in as little as seven days.
12. Music. Children who take music lessons show a considerable increase in the ability to learn.
13. Reading faces. The area of the brain called the amygdala is responsible for the ability to read someone’s face for clues to how they are feeling.

- Team Shirsa