Did You had Your Breakfast Today???

Breakfast a important meal

Skipping breakfast before a day of school significantly reduced students' speed and accuracy on cognitive and memory tests compared with those who ate breakfast, according to a study recently published online in the journal Appetite.

Researchers compared the performance of 1,386 students from 32 schools throughout the U.K. on several Internet-based tests of attention, memory and reaction time. 

Compared with those who ate breakfast, students who skipped the morning meal had 7% slower power of attention, a measure of their ability to focus and avoid distraction. They also detected 7% fewer targets on target-detection tasks and correctly identified 9% fewer pictures on a picture-recognition test at a 9% slower speed than students who ate breakfast. Variability in response time, an indication of focusing consistency, was 10% more erratic in those who missed breakfast. Girls without breakfast were significantly more disrupted in their ability to focus than boys who didn't have breakfast, results showed.

Breakfast like a king

Test-score differences between the two groups were larger in those tested after 11 a.m. than those tested earlier in the morning. 

This theory is not only for kids but  true for all ages.

So It is always said.........

- Team Shirsa

Five Super Foods For The Brain.

- Team Shirsa

Now Choose Your Color According To Your Task!!!!!!!

While doing research for shirsa, recently i came across an article about the psychology of architecture, a neuroscience blogs, The Frontal Cortex by Jonah Lehrer. I was particularly drawn to his mention of a study conducted in 2009 by Ravi Mehta and Rui Zhu that compared people’s performance on different types of tasks whether they were in a room that was painted red, blue, or neutral. 

psychology of architecture

The researchers undertook the study because there had previously been conflicting research about how color affects cognitive tasks, with some studies finding better results with one color or the other. The Mehta and Zhu study uncovered the reason for these previous conflicts: people do better at different types of tasks in differently colored environments.

Specifically, they found that subjects in a bright red room do better on a detail-oriented task, while those in blue room excel at a creative task. 

Mehta and Zhu posit that this effect occurs because red puts people in a higher state of alertness and awareness, since red is associated with danger. On the other hand, blue is associated with things that may mentally relax us–like the sky and the ocean–so we have an easier time opening up for more creativity and imagining things.

This effect was not small; those in the blue room had double the creative output of those in the red room, showing that color may have a stronger effect than we would imagine. I think this is pretty interesting, as i never thought form this angle before going for painting for my office.  

Rather than i would  suggest everybody should paint their conference rooms in different colors depending on what types of tasks there are taking on?

- Sukhada

Subconscious Mind controls 95% Of Our Daily Activities

Amazing Brain

- Team Shirsa

Want To Get Rid of Memories Of Your Embarrassing Moments??

E arsing Memories

If you want to forget or wants to get rid of  any embarrassing actions which you may have done, than you're in luck: a new discovery reveals two ways that our minds can erase memories.

According to the study, conducted by researchers at the University of Cambridge, the brain erases traumatic and otherwise undesirable memories via two opposite mechanisms. The findings are published in the October 17 copy of Neuron.

In one method researchers have termed "direct suppression," the brain inhibits the processing of the hippocampus, a region of the brain critical for the formation of conscious memories. This interference prevents the memory from ever being recorded in the first place.

The other method, called "thought substitution," doesn't halt the memory from being recorded; instead, the brain alters its own wiring to replace the memory with something else.

"This study is the first demonstration of two distinct mechanisms that cause such forgetting: one by shutting down the remembering system, and the other by facilitating the remembering system to occupy awareness with a substitute memory," said Roland Benoit, the study's lead author, in a press release.

Researchers conducted the study with 36 volunteers instructed to remember and forget specific pairings of words. According to Business Insider, half the individuals were instructed to replace one word with a different word, while the other half were instructed to forget the word entirely. Researchers watched participants' brain activity while they repeatedly committed words to memory, then attempted to forget them.

The findings could have implications for a whole host of populations including veterans suffering from PTSD, or victims of traumatic crime.

- Team Shirsa

The Best Gift You Can Give It To Your Dear Ones On This Festiv Season!!!!!!

As festival seasons are rapidly approaching, and if you’re like me, you may still be struggling with deciding what ‘perfect gift’ you should give your mate or aunt or sister that could really mean something for them.  

In the Land of Plenty, it is sometimes hard to determine what those individuals that we love can really benefit from, and may really need.

I suggest that you consider giving them both a Dassehara  or Diwali gift and a New Year’s resolution, all at the same time: the gift for a stronger and brighter future.  If you suggest them Brain Fitness Programs that we’ve created to help restore and sustain your brain fitness at Shirsa. 

You should seriously suggest this programe, because it is actually proven scientific studies that unequivocally show that most people DO very substantially wake up their brains and improve their memories and very significantly improve the quality of their lives if they spend a little time each day working at these exercises. 

It’s SCIENCE we’re talking about!

Unfortunately, I can’t use this gift option myself now because I have already given it to ALL of my  brothers, sisters, and in-laws and even my husband  to most of our older friends,  because there is no better gift i could give them.  

What would be the greater gift than a personally stronger, livelier and more capable life, going forward, over the next months and years.  

So if you’re feeling especially kindly this festiv season… give your dear ones the gift of brain fitness.

- Team Shirsa

Why Do We Have Brain?

With all of the complex brain science findings out there, I really enjoyed this TED talk from neuroscientist Daniel Wolpert that goes back to one of the most fundamental questions about brains: 

why do we have them at all? Wolpert argues that the only reason we evolved our brains is because we had to move, not because we had to think or feel. 

This is a fun and thought-provoking talk that may get you thinking about your brain in a markedly different way! 

Incidentally, Wolpert is a compelling and humorous speaker, too

- Team Shirsa

Are You A Left Handed or Right Handed Person?

Recently, scientists at the University of Oxford have gathered enough evidence to identify a novel gene for handedness. Even more astonishing, their research suggests that there is a link between handedness and language-related disorders.

Handedness

So then, what implications does this hold for right-handed and left-handed individuals? It is a well-known fact that most people are right-handed. 

Since the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body (and vice versa), then it is safe to assume that language is dominant in the left hemisphere of the brain for most people. 

From this theory, we should conclude that left-handed individuals hold language regions in their right hemisphere; however, left-handed individuals also display evidence of language in their left hemisphere, too.

In left-handed patients with aphasia (a language disorder that impairs language function as a result of a brain injury), symptoms tend to be milder than right-handed aphasic patients. This is strong enough evidence to suggest that left-handed individual hold more language regions than right-handed individuals.

Many questions remain about how language processing works in the brain. If left-handed individuals do in fact have a greater ability to retain language, could they also have a greater ability to acquire language than right-handed individuals? 

In addition, can the link between hand preference and disorders affect language development? Exploring new avenues of neuroscience can one day help us further understand ways in which the brain plays a powerful role in language development.

- Team Shirsa

Did you know that your brain has no pain? - Facts About Brain

Brain Facts

This is a fact that your brain doesn't have nerves to register pain within itself. It is obvious that there is no need to describe how important your brain is to your survival.

However what's not so clear is the many interesting facts there are about the brain. I have put together a list of the most fascinating facts that are associated with the brain.

Interesting Brain Facts

1. Every minute about 750ml of blood Pumps through your brain.

2. Your brain makes up about 2% of your body weight. 
3. A human brain is about 75% water. 
4. A human brain is made up of 100 billion neurons.
5. A human brain weighs about 1350g. 
6. Your brain stops growing at 18 years old. 
7. The Brain is pink because of the blood that flows through it.

8. The brain has 2 sides. The left side controls the right side of your body, while the right side controls the left side of your body.
9. A newborn baby's brain grows about 3 times in their first year. 
10. While you are awake your brain generates about 25 watts of power. 

- Team Shirsa

So I Can Feel More Healthy And More Creative!!!

Enjoy Your Vacation

Too much time in sealed homes and offices saps your brain of fresh oxygen, which is essential to clear thinking, Howard says. 

So get outside for frequent breaks or at least open a window. Just spending time in nature and sunshine can boost brain health by improving mood and creating calm. 

It also provides vitamin D, and people with low levels of the “sunshine vitamin” have a greater risk for cognitive decline, according to a 2010 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine. 

II recently read a somewhat unscientific article that talked about why vacation is good for your brain, and it mentioned the work of Adam Galinsky and William Maddux. 

 I found there is a fascinating body of work about how traveling affects creative thinking. Maddux et al have published research findings showing that multicultural learning experiences enhance creativity, and that living abroad improves creativity measures of insight, association, and generation.

Further research shows that vacation can have recuperative health benefits. A study in middle-aged men at high risk for heart disease showed that those who took annual vacations had a significantly lower mortality rate (over a 9 year period) than a non-vacationing cohort.

You Will Never Diagnose it, Untill Your Brain Gets Damaged!!!

Brain Healthy Lifestyle

Misplace your glasses or occasionally forget a friend’s name? These common memory lapses are normal – not signs of Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia that robs one of cognitive skills and independence. However, we now know Alzheimer’s starts in the brain decades before behavioral symptoms appear. But there are many ways to protect brain health. Read on for their expert tips...
We think of Alzheimer’s disease as an older person’s illness, but experts say critical proteins begin to break down as early as middle age. 

“Long before you really start to notice you’re more forgetful or having trouble learning new things, your brain is experiencing changes that lead to the plaques and tangles that typically occur in Alzheimer’s,” says Daniel G. Amen, M.D., a psychiatrist and author of Change Your Brain, Change Your Body.

Plaques are clumpy deposits of proteins that develop between brain cells in Alzheimer’s patients. They can block the brain from sending important messages. When nerve fibers that nourish the brain become twisted, they’re called tangles, another symptom of Alzheimer’s disease.

Because you’re not likely to get diagnosed early when this damage is just starting, adopt a healthy brain lifestyle through Shirsa now to stop symptoms before they start.

- Team Shirsa

Some More Findings on 'Alzheimer'

Alzheimer

Couple of days back, we had posted a  blog on 'Alzheimer' and questions related to it, here are some more findings on 'Alzheimer'

Try to answer following questions on 'Alzheimer' 

1.Alzheimer’s disease is less common in this group of people:

The highly educated
Farmers
Athletes

2.One out of 8 people over the age of 65 has Alzheimer’s. By age 85, the chance of having the disease rises to this ratio:

One in five
One in three
One in two

2. Which class of Alzheimer’s drugs is used to delay the worsening of cognitive symptoms?

Furosemide, which treats excessive fluid accumulation
Cholinesterase inhibitors, which increase the level of acetylcholine in the brain.
Miotic agents, which help the ciliary muscle contract

4. According to the National Institute on Aging, researchers have found a link between weakness in this sense with the beginning of cognitive decline:

Seeing
Testing
Smelling

5.Which hobby may help keep Alzheimer’s at bay?

Crocheting 
Painting
Doing crossword puzzles

How Much You Know About Alzhemier???

Questions on Alzheimer

More than 5 million Indian have Alzheimer’s disease, and that   number could climb to 16 million by 2050. Women face a higher risk of developing it than men, and are also more likely to become caregivers.

Take this quiz to see how much you know about Alzheimer’s. Solution are below only but try to answer the questions first.

1.At what age can early-onset Alzheimer’s occur?

In your 30's
In your 40's
In your 50's

2.You’re more likely to develop Alzheimer’s if which relative had it, according to a recent study?

Your father
Your mother
Your brother

3.Which health issue has been associated with a higher incidence of Alzheimer’s?

A broken arm
A head Injury
Tonsillitis

4.You follow a healthy diet and exercise frequently to help ward off Alzheimer’s. What else can play a preventive role?

Avoiding tobacco
Eliminating caffeine
Playing golf

5.Problems with which of these bodily organs have been associated with an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s?

The heart
The liver
The kidneys

What Are Night People And Morning People??

Day & night

I recently saw a research finding from 2009 that was pretty interesting. Canadian scientists studied people who self-identified as “morning people” or “night people” and found striking differences in brain activity patterns between the two groups. They noticed that neuronal excitability started high and decreased throughout the day for morning people, and started low and increased for night people.

They also measured spinal cord response, which they found increased throughout the day in everyone. They posited that this might mean that night people are able to increase strength to its maximum potential better than morning people, because their brain and spinal cord activity are in sync, whereas the brain and spinal cord activity of morning people are off-kilter with one going up while the other goes down.

The researchers are hoping these findings could help find ways to help shift workers or others who have to adjust their schedules contrary to their natural inclinations. You can learn more about the study here.

- Team Shirsa

Turn Off Your Television Now!!!!!!!!!!!

watching television

An Australian study recently released a shocking finding: every hour of television a person watches shortens their life by an average of 22 minutes. 

Looking at the behavior of 11,000 participants, the Queensland scientists found that people who watched around 6 hours of TV each day lived an average of almost 5 years less than people who never watched TV. 

This research corroborates another recent study from Harvard. The Harvard team found that TV watchers are at a significantly greater risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and early death than people who don’t watch TV.

Perhaps the most sobering statistic cited by the Australian team: if TV didn’t exist, the average life expectancy for women would be 1.5 years longer for women and 1.8 years longer for men.

Before you throw your TV out, consider this aspect of the finding: it’s probably not the TV itself that’s causing the problem- it’s the fact that because you’re watching TV, you’re not doing other, more active things. 

The researchers in both studies agree that watching a lot of TV is strongly correlated with reduced physical activity and poor eating habits. So if the only TV you watch is at the gym while you’re on a treadmill, this finding may not apply to you.

Not sure what to do now that your TV is off? Visit our Shirsa.me to learn quick brain fitness tips and to learn more about how to choose daily activities that boost your brain instead of draining it.

- Team Shirsa

The crucial role of play in childhood - worth watching the video

What has happened to children's play?

Today, childrens are more in school or in classes rather then playing.

let them play for their better future, physical and cognitive development.



- Team Shirsa

It's Never Too Early To Read Or Talk To Your Baby!!

So getting ready to have a baby. It must be a most exciting and joyous experience that will forever change your life for the better, people like me can't imagine without experiencing it. 

The purpose of this blog is to raise a question -   "what you do prior to the birth that can have significant implications on the baby’s life? 

Cognitive development is not only possible, but it is crucial as a fetus. So what can you do to enhance their overall brain development?

While some may view talking to the baby prior to the birth as foolish, it can have outstanding affects on the baby. The question many have is when can the fetus begin to hear sounds and how should the mother and father talk to the incoming baby.

Fetuses actually hear sounds quite similar to the way we hear a next-door stereo. The key thing to remember is that they are capable of hearing voices that are filtered through tissues, bones and fluid. By this they can recognize mother’s voice and be calmed by it. 

10 Ways To Rewire your Brain!!

Form many years we have a belief  that the human brain remained unchanging once it hit adulthood.

Healthy Habits

But in the early 1980s, neuroscientist Michael Merzenich, now a professor emeritus of neuroscience at the University of California San Francisco, showed through his research that the brain is plastic. In other words, the brain can alter itself depending on environmental input.

Below is Dr. Merzenich's list of everyday things you can do to keep your brain fit.

Exercise Your Peripheral Vision

Actively challenging your peripheral vision improves brain performance and helps you navigate the world safely.

Recent studies shows that drivers stay on the road longer and have fewer accidents after actively training their useful field of view.

Memorize A Song

Developing better habits of careful listening will help your ability to understand, think and remember, you release brain chemicals like the neurotransmitter acetylcholine that enable plasticity and vivifies memory.

Reconstructing the song requires close attentional focus and an active memory.

Learn To Play A New Instrument
Playing an instrument helps you exercise many interrelated dimensions of brain function, including listening, control of refined movements and translation of written notes (sight) to music (movement and sound).

Too Much Time on Internet Turn Your Brain To Mush? - II

_ Team Shirsa

Too Much Time on Internet Turn Your Brain To Mush?

Web Surfing Image

I recently read an interesting article on CNN about all of the ways that spending too much time online can affect the brain.  I myself spend a lot of my days and nights on the internet. Is it all turning my brain to mush?

Some interesting findings reported in the article include:

Clifford Nass, a social psychologist at Stanford, says studies show multitasking on the Internet can make you forget how to read human emotions. When he showed online multitaskers pictures of faces, they had a hard time identifying the emotions they were showing.

 Oh no... That doesn’t sound too good. We  would definitely like to be able to read the emotions of our family and friends.

Over time, and with enough Internet usage, the structure of our brains can actually physically change, according to a new study. Researchers in China did MRIs on the brains of 18 college students who spent about 10 hours a day online. Compared with a control group who spent less than two hours a day online, these students had less gray matter, the thinking part of the brain.

Google surfing

Less gray matter? Also a little scary.

.

The article also provides a few tips for moving back to normalcy:

• Going offline–by limiting internet use between certain hours, 
• Going device-free for some amount of time, and even just staring out the window from time to time. 
• Get off the computer and take a walk around the office… although it would be hard for many people to leave their iPhones and blackbarries in the leaving room instead of taking it up to bed.

- Team Shirsa

Versatility of Visual Processing - Take a look at this picture:

Visual Processing

I think it’s pretty incredible–not just because it’s an awesome piece of art, but because it provides a fantastic example of the versatility of our visual processing system.

See how you can switch back and forth from seeing the “big picture” (the Renaissance-style face) and the details of the smaller images that make up the face. A grimace (or smile?) for the eye.  

How can your visual system process such disparate details to see the whole?

I Have Got Another Reason To Fear High Cholesterol And High Blood Pressure!!

Effect on Cognitive skills

Recent  new study has shown that people with elevated cholesterol and blood pressure in middle age exhibit more problems with their memories as they age, as compared to people with good cardiovascular health.

 The study was conducted in nearly 5,000 people. The researchers looked at several factors to determine cardiovascular risk and found that people with just a 10% higher risk were prone to a quicker rate of cognitive decline.

 The only areas of cognition that seemed unaffected by cardiovascular risk were reasoning in men, and fluency (usually assessed by a word-finding or word-generating task) in women.

So how can you improve cardiovascular health and lower your risk for heart disease and increased cognitive decline?

 According to Mayo Clinic, you should try the following:

1) Choose lower fat protein sources like skim milk, fish, beans, and skinless chicken.

·    2) Try olive oil instead of butter

·    3) Eat lots of fruits and vegetables

·    4) Switch to whole grains for flour, bread, pasta, and rice, and cut the sugar to a minimum

·    5) Cut down on salt and salty condiments like soy sauce

·    6) Whatever you eat, be sure to control portion size so you don’t eat too much

·    7) Don’t smoke

·    8) Get some exercise regularly–even if it’s just a walk

·    9) Reduce stress in your life

      - Team Shirsa

So..... Keep On Doing Lot Of Mistakes!!!!

Learning From Mistakes

Recently i came across the excellent blog The Frontal Cortex, Jonah Lehrer offers his take on a couple of recent studies about how a person’s reaction to mistakes, and subsequent feedback about the mistakes, affect the learning process. The findings might interest you, especially if you are a parent with school-aged children.

The researchers found that the reaction to the mistakes is what makes the difference. Using EEG technology to measure brain waves, they identified two opposing reactions to mistakes.

They noted that people who showed brain activity that meant they were paying attention to the mistake were more likely to learn from it and correct it in the future, whereas those who ignored the mistake and moved on were more likely to continue making mistakes.

Another researcher had incorporated the seminal mindset research ofCarol Dweck, which divides people into two groups:

those who believe your intelligence level is innate and can’t be greatly changed (“fixed mindset”), and those who believe that with time and energy, people can get better at almost anything (“growth mindset”). As you might expect, people with a fixed mindset were less likely to learn from mistakes (since they viewed them as failure), while people with a growth mindset viewed mistakes as part of the learning process.

In earlier studies that dovetail nicely with these findings, Dweck found that after students completed a task, she could manipulate their future choices–in telling ways–simply by varying the type of praise she gave them. 

Telling students that they were really smart had a markedly different effect than telling students they must have worked hard on the task. Indeed, those who were told they were smart chose easier subsequent tests, while those praised for effort chose more challenging tests. Dweck surmised that the kids who were told they were smart didn’t want to take the risk of making a mistake, lest they be seen as not so smart. Ironically, telling a student he or she was “smart” inhibited the learning process.

- Team Shirsa