Brain Health Blog

Category Archives: Brain Research

Genetic Component of Alzheimer’s Disease

By Lumos Labs Science Associate, Paul Li, MS Neuroscience.
There is some new evidence that Alzheimer’s disease is much more likely for people whose parents both have the neurodegenerative disorder than if only one parent has it. Researchers examined families in which both parents have Alzheimer’s, and found that their children ended up with the disease [...]

Brain activity across languages

By Lumos Labs Science Associate, Paul Li, MS Neuroscience.
Different languages are represented differently across the brain. This is especially true for languages that are very dissimilar, such as English and Chinese. English is learned from pronouncing its 26-letter alphabet, whereas to learn the Chinese language, one needs to memorize thousands of characters in order to [...]

Berkeley’s Mind Reader

By Lumos Labs Science Associate, Paul Li, MS Neuroscience.
Movies like Being John Malkovich are based on the idea that one might be able to experience what another human’s mind is visualizing. Most would think that such movies are pure fantasy and science fiction, but researchers at U.C. Berkeley are one step closer to making this [...]

The Color Blind Advantage

I used to think I had Ted Williams-caliber vision (a doctor said that, and it was memorable for a 10-yr old aspiring baseball player). When dreams of baseball stardom started to seem less likely, I began to think I’d make a good pilot. Though I’ve long since chosen a different direction, I still took pride [...]

Cell phone use and brain activity Part II

By Lumos Labs Science Associate Paul Li, MS Neuroscience.
This post is a follow-up to our previous post on the role cell phones play in increasing the level of awareness. Recently, a different group of researchers have found evidence that using your cell phone before heading to bed can delay reaching the deep stages of [...]

Ask the Expert: Introducing Dr. Cynthia Green

Got a question about memory or brain fitness? Cynthia Green, Ph.D., the nationally recognized expert on developing better memory and brain health, is here to help with the new Ask the Expert column.
Dr. Green began the Memory Enhancement Program at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, where she has been a faculty member since 1990. [...]

Working memory and neurogenesis at the Bay Area Neuroscience Gathering

By Lumos Labs Science Associate Paul Li, MS Neuroscience.
Last Friday afternoon, UCSF held their annual Bay Area Neuroscience Gathering (BANG) where local grad students and neuroscientists showcased their research posters to the Bay Area neuroscience community. Universities included UCSF, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, San Francisco State and Stanford. Lumos Labs presented an investigation into [...]

Are you smarter than a chimp?

Ayumu, a 7-year old chimp living in a lab at Kyoto University, was in the news the last month for his remarkable cognitive performance. In a test of working memory, Ayumu and 5 other chimpanzees were able to outclass college students. Watch him go at it here.
Have you got what it takes to outsmart [...]

Early Biomarker for Alzheimer’s?

By contributing author Paul Li, a neuroscience graduate student at Columbia.
Researchers from Stanford might have found a biological marker for Alzheimer’s disease via a simple blood test. This is exciting news given that it might predict the onset of the disease several years before the symptoms begin. The procedure involves examining 18 key proteins in [...]

Cell phone use and brain activity

By contributing author Paul Li, a neuroscience graduate student at Columbia.
Ever since the advent of cellular phones, horror stories have been circulating on issues about its safety, particularly the effects it has on the human brain. Some have become increasingly worried and resort to using an ear piece whenever they are on the phone. While [...]