El cerebro aprende mientras dormimos

Una vez más encontramos un artículo que muestra la importancia de dormir bien, sobre todo si queremos manetner bien la mente y la memoria (además de no engordar como se ha mostrado recientemente y de no alterar la resistencia a la insulina):

El cerebro aprende mientras dormimos
Un grupo de investigadores del Insituto alemán Max Planck, entre los que se
encuentra el premio Nobel Bert Sakmann, han podido demostrar en vivo el
funcionamiento sincronizado de dos áreas del cerebro relacionadas con el
registro y almacenamiento de recuerdos durante el sueño. Gracias a un sistema
experimental, han podido registrar el comportamiento neuronal del llamado
hipocampo y de la corteza cerebral, que parece ir “a juego” en los cerebros de
ratones anestesiados, lo que vierte algo de luz sobre un proceso que hasta la
fecha ha permanecido sin explicar: cómo generamos y guardamos en nuestro
cerebro los recuerdos y cómo pasan de ser recogidos como recuerdos a
corto-plazo a quedar grabados en la memoria como recuerdos a largo-plazo.
22/12/2006
tendencias21.net

Fumar afecta el metabolismo cerebrall

Por si quedan dudas que fumar es malo para la salud. El lado bueno: dejar de fumar eprmite restablecer la química cerebral:

Fumar afecta (también) al metabolismo cerebral
El tabaquismo crónico afecta a las células nerviosas y altera la composición
química del cerebro, según el primer estudio realizado con la técnica de
espectroscopia de protones por resonancia magnética (MRS) con el fin de
vincular la adicción a la nicotina con la neuroquímica. Asimismo, dejar de
fumar restablece el orden natural de la sustancias químicas que permiten un
funcionamiento normalizado de nuestro cerebro, revela la misma investigación.
Cuarenta y tres fumadores que lo habían dejado demostraron que el proceso de
deterioro puede invertirse, y que el daño tiene solución.
15/12/2006
tendencias21.net

Videos de cientificos famosos en beyondbelief2006.org

Discusiones sobre la ciencia y religión. Hay neurocientíficos.

beyondbelief2006.org/Watch/

Sunday, November 5, 2006
Session 1 (watch)       Steven Weinberg, Lawrence Krauss, Sam Harris, Michael Shermer
Session 2 (watch)       Neil deGrasse Tyson; Discussion: Tyson, Weinberg, Krauss, Harris, Shermer
Session 3 (watch)       Joan Roughgarden, Richard Dawkins, Francisco Ayala, Carolyn Porco
Session 4 (watch)       Stuart Hameroff, V.S. Ramachandran

Monday, November 6, 2006
Session 5 (watch)       Paul Davies, Steven Nadler, Patricia Churchland
Session 6 (watch)       Susan Neiman, Loyal Rue, Elizabeth Loftus
Session 7 (watch)       Mahzarin Banaji, Richard Dawkins, Scott Atran
Session 8 (watch)       Scott Atran, Sir Harold Kroto, Charles Harper, Ann Druyan

Tuesday, November 7, 2006
Session 9 (watch)       Sam Harris, Jim Woodward, Melvin Konner; Discussion: Harris, Woodward, Konner, Dawkins, Paul Churchland
Session 10 (watch)      Richard Sloan, V.S. Ramachandran, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Terry Sejnowski

Mejorar la absorcion de la curcumina

En este artículo se recomienda consumir la curcumina (el principio activo de la cúrcuma) junto con aluna grasa como aceite de pescado o un emulsificante como la lecitina dado que sino no se absorbe bien.


If your physician agrees with the addition of curcumin and DHA along with the main treatment program, we think that Alzheimer’ patients might want to try the combination of curcumin and dha (should be taken together, because curcumin is not absorbed well unless it is dissolved).  Lecithin appears to improve absorption because it is an emusifier.

Curcumin can be obtained on the web and is fairly inexpensive.. Brands such as Jarrow or Life extension may be okay. For example you can purchase the Jarrow Brand Curcumin95 from Nutrition Dome

or purchase the Sabinsa manufactured curcumin with a pepper compound from Life Extension

For prevention DHA from fish oil or salmon oil (which has slightly higher DHA than EPA and may be superior) could be sufficient.

If however, the disease has initiated, there is membrane loss, and it may be necessary to take purer DHA eg from algae, which can be purchased from Martek dhadepot.com (neuromins200) , and is unfortunately fairly expensive (up to $600 per year)..

DOSES: Although clinical trials are needed, safe doses and extrapolation from animal studies would suggest that.....

if AD is diagnosed.. 600 mg minimum of DHA with 2000 mg curcumin, plus 1 capsule of lecithin.

For AD prevention.. 400 mg DHA (or 2000 mg fish oil, which has only 360 mg DHA) and 1000 mg curcumin (together).

Fighting Alzheimer's

La bioperina es criticada por algunos porque inhibe enzimas de desintoxicación.

La falta de oxigeno desencadenaria el Alzheimer

Song’s team found that oxygen deprivation triggers a greater activation of the BACE1 gene. More beta-amyloid means more plaques and, in turn, more neuron death. So getting enough oxygen to the brain may help stave off Alzheimer’s in people with known risk factors, says Song.

Drugs called vasodilators, which enlarge the blood vessels, may help to increase the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain, Song suggests.

Journal reference: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0606298103)

Newscientist

Me pregunto si el ejercicio aeróbico (algo que hacen bastante poco los ancianos) no sería también un buen preventivo de esa falta de oxigenación cerebral.

Hablando de drogas, uno de los oxigenadores cerebrales mejor tolerados y no muy caros es la vinpocetina (por ejemplo Kantor de Bagó en Argentina).

Memoria, estres post-traumatico y propranolol

The Memory Pill

If you experienced a painful or traumatic event, would you want a pill which could lessen the bad memories of what happened? That option might soon be here because of a drug called propranolol.
Videos en 60minutes.yahoo.com


1. Making Memories
See a study showing how memories are made
 
2. The Drug
Experimenting with propranolol
 
3. The Study
Could propranolol help treat PTSD?
 
4.Mind Control?
Are there wrong reasons to use the drug?

Contenido de cafe�na en el mate

Me pasan esta información que es interesante para los que tomamos mate. Los valores de cafeína son más bajos de lo que pensaba y de lo que se indica en páginas en internet.

* La infusión preparada con una cucharadita de Mate Cocido Instantáneo Taragüi aporta aproximadamente
0,002 grs. de cafeína.

* Yerba Mate en cebadura Taragüi: - 50 g en 500 ml -: entre 180 y 220 mg. aproximadamente
(esto teniendo en cuenta el porcentaje de palo, que no contiene cafeína, y
el porcentaje de extractabilidad desde la infusión (aprox. 65%)).

* Mate Cocido Unión: - 3 g en 200 ml -: 27 mg. aproximadamente (teniendo en
cuenta un 100% de extractabilidad).

Relacion entre fumar y deficit de atencion

Los déficits de atención podrian ser motivantes del hábito de fumar y deberísn ser tenidos en cuenta al ahora de realizar tratamientos para dejar de fumar.

Columbia Study Examines ADHD’s Role in Smoking

New York ­ Are you easily forgetful, distracted, impulsive or fidgety? Do you find that smoking helps you alleviate these symptoms?

Columbia University Medical Center researchers are investigating whether these most common symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders (ADHD) could be causing people to smoke. If that is the case, will treatment for ADHD combined with the standard treatment to help people quit smoking ­ the patch with counseling ­ increase the quit rates for smokers trying to quit?

Covey and her colleagues are recruiting smokers who have been diagnosed with ADHD or who may have symptoms of ADHD but have not yet been diagnosed, to be part of a study that will help them quit smoking. Approximately 7-8 million adults in the U.S. have ADHD. Smoking is twice as common in this population as in the general population.

Research has shown that most smoking in the U.S. occurs among people who have psychiatric conditions, such as alcohol or drug abuse, major depression, anxiety and ADHD. One line of research has shown that smokers with these conditions “self-medicate” their symptoms with nicotine, the primary addictive substance in tobacco.

Participants in the study will receive the nicotine patch, behavioral counseling, and a drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of ADHD called methylphenidate (brand name CONCERTA®). Because methylphenidate and nicotine act on the brain in a similar way, the premise is that treatment with methylphenidate when trying to quit smoking may reduce symptoms of ADHD while also reducing tobacco withdrawal symptoms.

Libro The Brain Manual

Hay capítulos de muestra en PDF


The Brain Manual

- The step-by-step guide for men to achieving and maintaining mental well-being.

by Dr Ian Banks

£14.99
 
 

Break a leg, burn your hand or cut your finger and the injury is obvious. They're the equivalent of a flat tyre - an easily observed fault. Problems under the bonnet are trickier to deal with. So it is with the human body - the workings inside the head are often beyond comprehension.

Fortunately, you don't have to be a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist to undertake simple maintenance of your mental faculties. But you do need a manual to follow - the new Brain Manual from Haynes.

Written by Dr Ian Banks, author of the NHS Direct Health Care Guide, a frequent broadcaster, President of the European Men's Health Forum and a practising casualty doctor, the Brain Manual emphasises positive steps to improved mental well-being.

There are tips for healthy eating and an explanation of the biophilia effect (why getting close to nature makes us feel better). Relationships and stress are covered as is the effect of ageing on the brain. Brain malfunctions and disorders are explained - with information about how to avoid them or how to cope with their effects.

Functional problems, such as the effects of a stroke, are also included. And there's a useful guide to the likely effects of alcohol and other recreational drugs.

Of course, many people prefer to ignore what is happening ?under the bonnet' but they are dismissing a serious problem. Nearly 13 million working days were lost to stress-related illness in 2004. Some of the causes of stress are not obvious - deaths from heart attack or stroke increase significantly on the day of a big football match for instance.

Some of the many "fact or fiction?" questions answered in :

All brains start life as girl brains.
True! The default brain in the developing foetus is female.

People can hear colour.
Strange as this may sound, it is fact. Approximately 1 in 25,000 people have this condition called synaesthesia - meaning joined sensation.

Humans only use 10% of their brains.
This is a popular myth but false.

Los examenes mejoran la memoria

A pesar de ser insufribles ahora parece que haypruebas 2científicas" de que los exámenes son "buenos". Eso si no te matan de ansiedad...

Testing Boosts Memory

By Jennifer Cutraro

Students who break into a cold sweat at the thought of a pop quiz might feel better once they learn about a side effect of test-taking: The practice appears to enhance memory, possibly even more than studying. What's more, according to a new study, testing also helps students remember material that wasn't on the exam in the first place.

Over the past several years, cognitive scientists have documented a phenomenon called the "testing effect," in which taking a test, rather than studying, boosts an individual's ability to remember the material later on. The research led psychology doctoral student Jason Chan and his colleagues at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, to wonder whether testing also affects memory for untested materials.

To test the theory, the team had 84 undergraduate students read a passage about toucans, a topic the researchers believed would be unfamiliar to psychology undergraduates. After reading the passage, one-third of the students were dismissed, one-third were asked to read an additional set of study materials that covered the same information as the original passage, and one-third were asked to take a brief short-answer test on the original material. The next day, all participants returned to take a final short-answer test, which included questions from the previous day's brief test as well as new questions.

Efecto del estres cronico sobre la atencion

Chronic stress affects attention by altering neuronal growth in the brain (ver completo)

Anxiety and depression can make a person feel as if he’s battling his own brain, complete with wounds and scars. Traumatic events ­ war, divorce, the death of a loved one ­ can trigger these disorders, and scientists are just beginning to clarify the biological connection. Now, working neuron by neuron, researchers have found that life experiences actually appear to change the length and complexity of individual brain cells. In a recent study published in The Journal of Neuroscience, Rockefeller University scientists show that chronic daily stress affected neurons in two different areas of the rat brain, showing for the first time a link between anxiety symptoms and the dynamic anatomy of the brain.

One of the characteristic manifestations of prolonged stress is decreased performance in tasks that require attention, including the ability to shift focus as well as to learn and unlearn information. Bruce McEwen, Rockefeller’s Alfred E. Mirsky Professor and head of the Harold and Margaret Milliken Hatch Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology, was interested in finding out how this translates to changes in the brain itself. So he and Conor Liston, a graduate student in McEwen’s lab, compared neuronal change in stressed and unstressed rats.

The researchers stressed out a dozen rats by keeping them in painless restraints for six hours a day. Then, after 21 days, they used a complex progression of trials to test how quickly the rats learned to make associations between different cues and the location of hidden food. First, Liston provided two different materials for the rats to dig in, such as sand and sawdust, and buried food consistently under only one. Next, he left the food in the same material but scented it with strong spices (like cumin or nutmeg) that were unrelated to the food’s location.

Rejunte de links sobre Sapolsky

transcript of 's How I Write Conversation.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/howiwrite/Transcripts/Sapolsky_transcript.html

video
http://vodreal.stanford.edu/urp/hiw/040903.ram

datos biograficos
http://www.stanford.edu/group/howiwrite/Bios/robertsapolsky/

Depression in the Brain
http://www.lcmedia.com/mind377.htm

Anxiety (cited)
http://www.mcmanweb.com/anxiety.htm

Weblog post about Sapolsky with links
http://jollysocratic.blogspot.com/2005/10/robert-sapolsky-on-stress.html

Taming Stress
An emerging understanding of the brain's stress pathways points toward
treatments for anxiety and depression beyond Valium and Prozac
By Robert Sapolsky
http://www.sciam.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=00083A00-318C-1F30-9AD380A84189F2D7

'Monkeyluv': Primates Are People, Too
By JAMIE SHREEVE
Published: November 6, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/06/books/review/06shreeve.html

"Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers"
by David Ruenzel

Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a Professor of Neurology at Stanford University.
Dr.Sapolsky Spoke at the Brain Connection to Education Spring Conference 2000.
http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/printindex.php3?main=fa/zebras

A Conversation With Robert Sapolsky
by Simon Hanson, Ph.D.
http://www.brainconnection.com/topics/printindex.php3?main=conv/sapolsky

Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers : An Updated Guide To Stress, Stress Related
Diseases, and Coping ("Scientific American" Library) (Paperback)
by Robert M. Sapolsky
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0716732106/104-6068630-1823122?v=glance

También buscar en Google video y YouTube.

DHA, p300 latency and Memory

DHA and Memory

Myanaga, K, Yonemura, K et al. DHA Shortens p300 latency in healthy persons. International Conference on Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids in Nutrition and Disease Prevention 1996. Barcelona, Spain.

A certain type of brain wave called p300 is linked to memory and learning. The faster the rate of transmission, the more efficiently the brain is functioning. The rate declines with age, and is slower in people with dementia. To demonstrate if Omega-3 fatty acids influence this brain function, researchers took 26 normal adult volunteers hooked them up to electrodes and gave them a test that determined their p300 rate. Immediately after taking the test, they were given supplements of either EPA or DHA (both are derivatives of Omega-3 from fish). Two hours later, their brain waves were measured, and this time the p300 rate was significantly faster in the group given the DHA supplements, supporting their hypothesis that DHA might enhance mental abilities in adults as well.

No todo es malo con la edad para el cerebro

STUDY SHOWS YOUR BRAIN GETS BETTER WITH AGE!

Brain-imaging is revealing many things about our brains that challenge the way we’ve traditionally thought about brain function and development. Here’s a report on a brain-imaging based study released this month …

It turns out the brain is more like fine wine than cheap beer: It gets better and more sophisticated with age, according to a new University of New Mexico study. The body stops producing gray matter – the stuff the brain's thinking lobes are made out of – at about age 16.

But white matter – the connective fiber between the lobes that allows parts of the brain to interact with each other – continues to grow until about age 45, according to the study by UNM's Health Sciences Center and New Mexico VA Health Care Systems.

“It looks like in some ways people between ages 35 to 45 are actually at their prime in terms of brain development,” said Cheryl Aine, a UNM researcher and lead author of a paper that details the findings in the Oct. 1 issue of the journal NeuroImage.

Scientists used to think it was all downhill for the brain after the teenage years, because gray matter stops developing and shrinks as people enter their 20s, Aine said. In the study, scientists scrutinized that theory by imaging the brains of people in three age groups – people 20-29, 35-45 and those older than 60.

They found that gray matter becomes more refined, and the white matter “superhighway” that sends information between them keeps growing well into adulthood. “We lose some of the gray matter because we get rid of the extra synapses we don't use,” Aine said. “It's more sculpted after that. It's more efficient.”

When it comes to memory and learning, young brains do still have an edge, said Janice Knoefel, a physician in geriatrics at the VA Hospital who also worked on the study. “Attention tends to decline and memory tends to decline as we get older,” she said. “But we use different strategies to remember things.”

by Sue Vorenberg
from the Scripps Howard News Service

Another thing we’re learning is just how much it matters that we care for our brains. Proper nutrition, rest, physical and mental exercise are essential to keeping our brains in prime condition as we age. Our internal research here at Amen Clinics is bearing that out. The function (or lack thereof) of certain brain areas has an impact on our behavior, life and family.

The good news is, the better we can identify the parts of the brain that are either working too hard or not hard enough, the better we can focus our treatment on that area. So, there’s hope for all of us on “the back side of forty”. Our brains really can improve with age and the proper care. And, as we understand the brain better, I believe our best brain-health days are yet to come!

To Your Brain Health,

Daniel

Daniel Amen, M.D.
www.amenclinics.com

Las frutillas son buenas para la memoria

Fisetin, a naturally occurring flavonoid commonly found in strawberries and other fruits and vegetables, stimulates signaling pathways that enhance long-term memory, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
...
Besides strawberries, fisetin is found in tomatoes, onions, oranges, apples, peaches, grapes, kiwifruit and persimmons. Gingko biloba leaves, while rich in other flavonoids, do not contain fisetin.

While eating strawberries sounds like an enjoyable alternative to popping a pill, Maher cautions that it would take about 10 pounds a day to achieve a beneficial effect, which might prove too much even for the most avid strawberry lovers.

sciencedaily

Alga Wakame

Parece que al alga Wakame (Undaria pinnatifida) le están encontrando muy buenas propiedades para prevenir enfermedades. El Wakame contiene un carotenoide llamado fucoxantina (fucoxanthin en Inglés) que no está presente en otras algas como el Nori y reduce los daños en modelos animales de infartos cerebrales, inhibe el cáncer, la hipertensión e incluso disminuye la obesidad.

Algunos especulan que el consumo de Wakame podría ser el factor responsable de la longevidad de las mujeres asiáticas de Bergen County, USA quienes tienen una expectativa de vida de 90 años.

Demasiado bueno para creerlo, pero se pueden encontrar los artículos en pubmed.com

¿Tendrá el gusto inmundo de las otras algas?.

Fanatica del Ginkgo

Name: Cor Kwant
About Me: Teacher, creator and webmaster of The Ginkgo Pages, a non-commercial awarded homepage about all aspects of the Ginkgo biloba tree, translated into German, French, Spanish and Dutch.

Su blog es: The Ginkgo Pages Forum - Blog

Incluye un interesante post en el que detalla las marcas de ginkgo que pasaron los tests de Consumerlab.

Atlas del cerebro

"We have essentially mapped each individual gene in the mouse brain, about 21,000 genes in all, down to the cellular level," said Allan Jones, chief scientific officer at the Allen Institute for Brain Science.

www.brainatlas.org

quinasa M zeta proteina que refuerza la memoria

Noticia interesante a pesar de los errores de ortografía.

"El trabajo se publicó el pasado 25 de agosto en Science y en él se describe la encima llamada quinasa M zeta. Esta proteína conserva la memoria a largo plazo a través un refuerzo persistente de las conexiones sinápticas entre las neuronas. Inhibiendo la enzima los científicos fueron capaces de borrar los recuerdos almacenados en un día o incluso en un mes. Esta función en el almacenamiento de la memoria es específica de esta proteína porque inhibiendo otras moléculas similares no se obtienen los mismos resultados."

novaciencia

Nutricion y salud mental

Un artículo sobresimplificador y remanido (además de peligrosamente antifármacos) pero del que se puede sacar alguna recomendación.

Four brain chemicals -- serotonin, catecholamine, GABA and endorphin -- are essential for proper mental health, each affecting a different area of the brain. Some of us, unfortunately, have a genetic predisposition to lack these chemicals. Additionally, the modern mainstream diet is deficient in the amino acids that our brains need to make these neurotransmitters. As a result of these factors, incidence of depression and anxiety has reached epidemic proportions.

Achieve optimum mental health by supplementing deficient brain chemicals instead of resorting to dangerous antidepressant drugs