Hello, everyone! I’m Payton, and I’m glad to be part of this project. It seems like an awesome way to learn some things I’d really like to know more about~

Regular exercise can improve memory and learning: Scientists

Exercising for up to an hour a day can improve memory and learning in children and the elderly, scientists have found.

Walking or cycling regularly for between six months to a year can improve memory and problem solving skills in the elderly by between 15 and 20 per cent, according to researchers.

Professor Art Kramer, director of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois, who led the research, said their findings could have major implications for improving children’s performance at school, and it could also be used to help the elderly combat memory loss in old age.

http://www.todayonline.com/Health/EDC120220-0000109/Regular-exercise-can-improve-memory-and-learning—Scientists

File this under “brain stunts.” Bet you didn’t know that there’s an annual world memory championship (http://www.worldmemorychampionship.com/). This year’s winner is defending champ Wang Feng.

‘Ecstasy’ may cause long-term changes in brain chemistry

Based on research with women, it appears that the so-called “rave” drug can induce a drop in serotonin levels that can last up to two years. Serotonin, the research team noted, is critical to the regulation of mood, appetite, sleep, learning and memory.

Study co-author Dr. Ronald Cowan and his colleagues report their findings in the Dec. 5 online issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Google’s browser Chrome has a bunch of great apps which include a plethora of free online games and other such things. One of their most popular games is a fun science based game called Little Alchemy. The premise is to combine elements to create a new element. There are over 200 different elements to discover and you start with just four!

BrainBashers is a collection of brain teasers, puzzles, riddles, games and optical illusions. BrainBashers has thousands of puzzles and brain teasers, and with new material added every single day, including games and optical illusions, you can be sure there is always something to do. With over one hundred awards, BrainBashers is the place to spend a boring Friday afternoon training your brain.

I was sent this article by a good friend of mine who also happens to be a psychiatrist. It’s about one of the driving forces of Einztein: the thirst for knowledge.

Why information is its own reward - same neurons signal thirst for water, knowledge

by Ed Yong

To me, and I suspect many readers, the quest for information can be an intensely rewarding experience. Discovering a previously elusive fact or soaking up a finely crafted argument can be as pleasurable as eating a fine meal when hungry or dousing a thirst with drink. This isn’t just a fanciful analogy - a new study suggests that the same neurons that process the primitive physical rewards of food and water also signal the more abstract mental rewards of information.

[…]

Ethan Bromberg-Martin and Okihide Hikosaka trained two thirsty rhesus monkeys to choose between two targets on a screen with a flick of their eyes; in return, they randomly received either a large drink or a small one after a few seconds. Their choice of target didn’t affect which drink they received, but it did affect whether they got prior information about the size of their reward. One target brought up another symbol that told them how much water they would get, while the other brought up a random symbol.

After a few days of training, the monkeys almost always looked at the target that would give them advance intel, even though it never actually affected how much water they were given. They wanted knowledge for its own sake. What’s more, even though the gap between picking a target and sipping some water was very small, the monkeys still wanted to know what was in store for them mere seconds later. To them, ignorance is far from bliss.

Learning languages games. For young adults, children and adults. Something new to try.

Interesting way to learning several languages. Somewhere between courseware and social networking. Great exercises and rather helpful.