I’ve made several posts over the last several months stressing the importance of keeping your blood vessels open and free of atherosclerosis in order to maintain optimal brain power.

Although I’m not really aware of any study that specifically proves this concept, it is an intuitive one that I’ve become more and more convinced of over the years.

Now a new study out of the field of cardiology (Johns Hopkins School of Medicine), lauded as a “paradigm shift”, offers compelling proof of this concept.

Using an extremely sensitive new MRI technology, the researches found that atherosclerosis which has yet to manifest itself clinically is able to influence several functional properties of the heart negatively - well before any obvious signs of clinical disease arose.

Common sense says that if this is true in the heart, it is also going to be true in the brain (which is even more dependent than the heart on proper blood flow.)

The study, which “challenges conventional views” with its unexpected results, was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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A new study published in the June issue of Neurology sheds some light on what the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease may be.

After a period of several minutes, you might have difficulty remembering:

• The details of a short story just read to you
• A short list of words you were told to remember

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Yevgenia Kozorovitskiy of a Princeton University study says that fatherhood “produces changes in very high-cognitive-level areas”.

The study, which involved marmosets, found brain enhancement in the form of more synaptic connections in the prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex in humans is crucial for higher level thinking.

Interestingly, these changes diminished as the young ones grew up, and then disappeared entirely when they became independent.

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Ampakines are a class of proprietary drugs that are being developed by Cortex Pharmaceuticals and its partners. These compounds are thought to be potentially useful in improving memory and concentration in people who have ADHD and Alzheimer’s disease. Many are hopeful that the drugs will help improve cognition and performance in those that are normal and healthy.

There have been several studies published on ampakines. A recent study from earlier this year seemed to show one ampakines effectiveness for treating ADHD.

A study that will appear in the August issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology seems to show the mechanism by which ampakines boost memory and learning in middle-aged rats:

• First, long-term potentiation is enhanced
• Secondly, brain-derived neurotrophic factor(BDNF) increased in the hippocampus

Ampakines have not been approved yet for use by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Clinical trials are still being conducted. Unfortunately, on March 31, 2006, the FDA called Cortex Pharmaceuticals and told them they must place their clinical research on hold due to ampakine safety issues.

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I’ve been asked several times if studying can be made more productive by having music playing in the background.

While going through college and medical school, I’ve met quite a few students who insisted they study better and learn more with this method.

Based on what I’ve learned over the years about the brain, however, I would most definitely recommend you not do this. If students following this technique are doing well on their exams, I would bet they’d do even better without the music in the background.

Came across a new study by Russell Poldrack out of UCLA, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that shows any additional stimuli in your study environment impedes the brain’s learning systems.

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Many turn to soft drinks loaded with sugar for energy. These drinks are everywhere; you can’t leave your house without passing a coke or pepsi vending machine. The common belief is that the sugar bolus gives you that extra mental energy boost.

A new study, however, shows otherwise. 80 minutes into testing, subjects made more mistakes on a test of vigilance and attention. Their reaction times also appeared slower, and there was also a trend towards greater sleepiness.

The study was published in the July issue of Human Psychopharmacology: Clinical and Experimental.

Modern science clearly teaches us these soft drinks are very bad for your health. The flood of sugar wreaks havoc on the pancreas, sends insulin levels on a rollar coaster ride, and ruins the metabolic machinery of your cells. If you’re itching to become part of the 1 in 3 Americans who develops diabetes, keep drinking.

[ for a great student gift idea, be sure to check out Smartkit Student Guidebook ]

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