The results: Brain training games don't make us smarter

    Lab UK's groundbreaking scientific study, published in leading science journal Nature, has found no evidence that playing brain training games can meaningfully boost your 'brain power'.

  The Brain Test Britain experiment, launched on Lab UK in September  2009, was designed to find out if playing brain training games really does have benefits that transfer to other brain skills, like memory, planning or problem-solving.

    We asked the public to help us by brain training three times a week for a minimum of six weeks - and you responded in your thousands.

    

    Of the 67,000 people who signed up to take part in Brain Test Britain, more than 13,000 completed the initial six-week brain training period, making this by far the largest ever study of computer-based brain training.

  

    The scientists who designed the experiment - Dr Adrian Owen of the Medical Research Council, University of Cambridge, and Professor Clive Ballard, director of research for the Alzheimer’s Society – have now completed their analysis of the data.

What did we learn?

    The results are truly amazing. The Brain Test Britain study found no evidence that the benefits of playing brain training games transfer to other brain skills.Dr Adrian Owen said: "The result is crystal clear. Brain training is only as good as spending six weeks using the internet. There is no meaningful difference."

This will no doubt come as a surprise to the millions of people worldwide who do some form of brain training every day in the belief that regularly ‘exercising’ your brain with special tests and puzzles makes you better at everyday thinking tasks.

   The Brain Test Britain experiment was inspired by research, published in 2009, suggesting the scientific evidence for brain training was lacking. It found that most of the studies used to support the claims made by commercially available brain trainers were not carried out to accepted scientific standards.By contrast, the Brain Test Britain experiment was a full clinical trial - a type of scientific study used to evaluate the effectiveness of ideas that have a medical application. 

   This allowed our scientists to investigate brain training as a means of treating or preventing degenerative disorders of the brain, such as dementia.The results of Lab UK's Brain Test Britain experiment have now been published in Nature, one of the world's leading science journals. (To find out more about publication and peer review, read our article:What is peer review?)

So what are the benefits of brain training?

   
     Brain Test Britain found that people who play brain training games do get better at those specific brain training games. But this really only proves the old adage of ‘practice makes perfect’. There is no evidence that this transfers to the brain skills measured by our benchmarking tests.     

     The Brain Test Britain experiment is now closed. This includes the longer 12 month study for participants aged 60 and over. The results for this part of the experiment are being analysed now, and will be published on the BBC Lab UK site when the findings are ready.

What happens in the brain of a sexual sadist?

La Domaine light painting 1 (Photo credit: snakegirl productions)

 Sexual sadism is a psychiatric illness that makes your sexual pleasure only get affected when inflicting damage, suffering or humiliation of others. Althoughpsychology and       Forensic Medicine were able to characterize well this pathology,little is known about the neurocognitive circuits involved in it.
 However, scientists from New Mexico and the U.S. publishes data from one of the first studies that have evaluated a group affected with imaging.

 Carla Harenski, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, is the lead author. His essay shows that sadistic people,compared with those who are not, have a greater activation of brain parts when they see images that reflect suffering.

        "To understand the neural mechanisms that are behind the scenes of painobservation by sadistic people and those not, the participants were evaluated with brain imaging with fMRI while 50 images observed in which inflicting intentionalharm to others (for example, a person with a door hitting the hand of another). alsorated the 'pain intensity' of each one of them. it also showed them 25 themed images without scenes of suffering " according to the researchers listed in the latest Archives of General Psychiatry.

 The aim was to test the involvement of certain frontotemporal areas of the brain,the insula and anterior. These regions are associated with 'emotional pain'processing of emotions when you see someone suffer. We also evaluated whetherthe scenes of suffering, 'put up' other brain regions (amygdala and hypothalamus)related to sexual desire. 

The study

 The study was conducted with 15 sex offenders of which eight were suffering fromsexual sadism and the rest, no. Participants were recruited from a treatment center in Mauston (Wisconsin, USA). All had committed at least two violent sex offenses.
  The data reveal that the "sexual sadists showed, unlike those who were not,greater amygdala activation in response to images of pain compared with the scenes that did not represent suffering," the researchers determined that insist that those affected by the disorder classified the images as high-intensity compared with the unaffected and showed a positive association between pain intensity and increased activity of the insula, which is not recorded in non-sadistic "

Data

       The data are consistent with previous research showing an increase in sexual desire during observation of pain, which shows the neural mechanisms underlying pathology.

    Although scientists acknowledge some limitations in their work, they argue that "the data do not indicate the existence of brain abnormalities (structural) in brain regions mentioned, but a greater activation of certain areas does not occur in other populations. 
   Addition the results may reflect a typical brain mechanisms for processing of pain, leading to sadism or, conversely, the disease could lead to the involvement of these areas. All these questions. 
    All these questions could getanswered in the more development work involving imaging techniques and carried out long term monitoring. "

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A dog for for pregnant women

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• Having pet helps to implement the recommendations of daily exercise

    Pregnant women who have dog exercise more. According to a study published in the journal PLoS One ', meet the 30 minutes recommended by 50% more than women who do not have pets. Given the benefits of this practice on health, the researcherspropose to include this kind of tour company as a strategy to improve the habits of pregnant women.

    As the paper's authors argue, from the University of Liverpool (United Kingdom),numerous studies show that "obesity or a significant increase in weight duringpregnancy can affect both mother and baby. For example, it could cause difficulties in birth or have implications for the future development of child obesity. "

    According to Jackie Calleja, University Hospital gynecologist Chiron Madrid, we know that "sedentary activity with an unbalanced diet and overweight are risk factorsfor developing diseases that appear in the second and third trimester of pregnancy, such as preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, fatigue ... ".

     For these reasons, experts underline the British study, doctors are constantly monitoring the weight and daily exercise are advised. The Spanish gynecologistgives some clues: "It is exercise, not sport, aerobic 30 to 40 minutes three or four days a week. Yoga, pilates, jogging, swimming for pregnant women, biking, walking.What matters is that the pregnant is active and moving at a normal rate, a medium intensity. for example, in half an hour walk a mile. "

     Normally, pregnant women choose to walk, said Carri Westgarth, one of the authors of the research. "Although we had shown that having a dog increases physical activity in adults in general, this is the first study to assess this relationship in pregnant women," he adds.

    And the answer is yes. After analyzing more than 11,000 pregnant women, "observed to have one or more dogs helps them achieve the recommended 150 minutes ofexercise a week." The results show that having a pet is a motivation and "undertakes to maintain daily physical activity" because it involves a commitment to animal care.However, the researchers say, can not be said that the company of a dog isassociated with less weight during pregnancy. What I can say is that it helps promote the exercise at this stage, so it would "consider how it can be included as health strategy and analyze what are the most appropriate," among other factors.

Related articles

• Dog owners more likely to achieve recommended activity levels during pregnancy (eurekalert.org)
• Pregnant Women Everywhere!! (1sttimemomm.wordpress.com)
• Flu shots for pregnant women protect babies from being born too small: study (news.nationalpost.com)
• Dogs Can Boost Exercise Rates for Moms-to-Be (ihafs.org)

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Cannabis doubles the risk of traffic accident

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Image via Wikipedia

• Alters cognitive and psychomotor skills necessary to drive

   

     In the fight against alcohol before taking the wheel, several studies point to anotherworkhorse: the drug and, in particular cannabis. According to the latest study published in 'British Medical Journal (BMJ), "the cannabis use doubles the risk of a traffic accident", as they say the authors of Dalhousie University (Canada).

    A fact to consider after the last report published by the European Monitoring Centrefor Drugs and Drug Addiction, is that states that one in five European adults haveever tried cannabis and, in the case of Spain, 19, 4% of youth aged 15 to 34 years has ever used these drugs in 2011 (only behind the Czech Republic and Italy).

"Cannabis is the most widely used illicit substance worldwide and recent statistics show that far from going down, there is a significant increase in consumption," said Mark Asbridge, one of the authors of the paper published in 'British Medical Journal."But the figures show more. If cannabis is consumed before driving a motor vehicle crash risk doubles and also there is a significantly greater increase of collision if the driver is under 35 years," he adds.

Serious crashes ... and many deaths

     To reach these results, the team reviewed nine previous studies Asbridge, and a totalof 49,500 cases closely-related to the danger of collision after consuming this substance. Analyzing toxicological studies had been made to the injured, they sawthat cannabis was to blame for psychomotor and cognitive tasks of drivers were affected.

"The result was clear: cannabis increased traffic collisions doubling the chances of a crash, many with serious if not fatal results. And the problem is that it is one of the most consumed substances, especially among young people", explains Asbridge.

   This conclusion holds in the line of studies on alcohol and drugs are made in theEuropean Union. In a study in Spain provided by the DGT (presence of alcohol, drugs and medicines in Spanish drivers) shows that 11% of Spanish has ever driven under the influence of drugs, with cannabis and cocaine the 'queens' of this consumption.

   As stated in the study, "in 2010, 12.51% of road deaths had consumed some type of drug and you used the most stands out cannabis."

Related articles

• Pot Use Precedes the Onset of Psychotic Symptoms in Young People, Study Finds (addictionts.com)
• Cannabis linked to higher road deaths (changeagentsforroadsafety.wordpress.com)
• Fatal crash risk doubles with pot (vancouversun.com)
• Smoke and Mirrors: Driving While on Marijuana Doubles One s Chances of a Serious Car Crash (blogs.scientificamerican.com)

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Twitter, as addictive as cigarettes

Some people can not fail to see social networks or e-mail.

     Check messages from Twitter or Facebook and respond to an e-mail could cause more addictive than alcohol or snuff. According to a group of U.S. experts, is more difficult to resist seeing updates to these pages to say no to a drink or a cigarette. So say in a paper to be published in the journal Psychological Science.

    Thanks to new technologies (mobile phones, tablets ...), it's easy to connect at any time in social networks and email. Moreover, since actions are not considereddangerous or even carry a high cost (not multiplied by the number of times theresponse or request), no one feels the need to repress his curiosity to see what new messages you have received.

Social Network - Copertina (Photo credit: marcomassarotto)

  Yes, enter the Facebook profile to see if anyone has commented on a state or check the Twitter mentions or 'tweets' followers, become so common daily activities such as sleeping or eating. Thus, some of these users have addiction to social networks,even greater than that could cause the snuff or alcohol, according to a study at the School of Business at the University of Chicago (USA) and which include some British newspapers as 'The Guardian' and 'The Telegraph'.

   The authors of that study conducted 205 surveys of day desires of users (between 18and 85 years) and concluded that sleep and sex are the two strongest desires.However, access to social networks is positioned as the desire to resist harder and easier to satisfy. Alcohol and snuff were at lower levels, although addictive.

     It is so easy to 'keep an eye' to the email or Facebook via mobile which is notsurprising that sometimes people are more attentive to their digital relationship to the conversation at that point is supposed to be having with other people physically . How to control these situations? According to Wilhelm Hofmann, lead author of the study,"the only way is to resist temptation. This strengthens the willpower and every day areless willing to" fall into temptation. '"

Related articles

• Facebook and Twitter are more addictive than cigarettes or alcohol, study finds (bgr.com)
• Are we addicted to social media? (marchpr.com)
• Lady Gaga launches her own Social Networking Site 'LittleMonsters.com' (buzzom.com)
• Emerging Social Networks (onecoolsitebloggingtips.com)
• Licked RIM has a lifeline: a social network in a box (go.theregister.com)

When will my son lose the virginity?

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facebook (Photo credit: sitmonkeysupreme)

     Knowing the time when a son or daughter is willing to lose her virginity is a fact thatmany parents would want to know. Now they have easier thanks to social networks.At least that is what emerges from new research showing that public postings on Facebook sexual references can indicate the time of initiation of sex.

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     Megan Moreno of the University of Wisconsin (USA), is the author of the study, which has seen the light in the Journal of Sex Research.

   "Social networking sites are immensely popular among teens and young adults, most have access to the Internet and most people do it everyday ... The sexual content is part of the profiles of adolescents in many of these networks.  About a quarter of young people has references to sex in public access profile. An example:'Marck was last night ...'. Or by posting their pictures in their underwear. Social networks may represent a new place to explore the sexual behavior of adolescents. "