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"In medicine, we have an excellent system in place to go from basic research to clinical practice, while in neuroscience we have the basic understanding of how the brain learns but still need to figure out how to translate this into the classroom," says Manfred Spitzer of the University of Ulm in Germany, one of the conference organisers. With brain imaging and, increasingly, genetic studies now complementing psychology research, a host of new findings could inform teachers about the conditions in which our brains can be primed to learn best.

大脑就是一台三磅重的超级计算机。它是身体运行的命令和控制中心。它几乎涉及你所做的每一件事。你的大脑决定你如何思考，如何感觉，如何行动，以及如何与他人相处。你的大脑甚至决定你是哪一类的人。它决定了你有多善解人意；你有多友善或是有多粗鲁。它决定了你思维有多敏捷，这还涉及到你工作完成的如何以及你的家庭。你的大脑还影响你的情感活动，以及你如何对待异性。

可以充当情绪兴奋剂的味道有薄荷，柏杨和柠檬。起到舒缓作用的味道有：依兰，天竺葵和玫瑰。滴几滴精油在浴缸中或者在扩散器中，都可以起到作用。你也可以在一个棉球或手帕中滴一两滴，然后吸入这种味道。对于办公地点使用的一个警告：先确保没有人对你使用的精油过敏。

For middle-aged and older adults, searching the Internet could be a boost to the brain, a new study suggests.

Some specific types of sensory stimuli and activities, especially those that involve non-routine actions and thoughts, produce more of those chemicals that encourage growth of new dendrites and neurons in the brain. These are generally non-routine activities. Routines become so automatic that actions are done largely unconsciously (ever get up in the morning and walk to the bathroom before you're really conscious?). Such automated or unconscious actions require less activity in the brain, and exercise it less.

The situation is much the same in primates and rodents, where new neurons only appear in the hippocampus and olfactory bulb. In contrast, fish, reptiles and birds renew the neurons throughout their entire network and throughout their entire lives.

For a long time, we were pretty dumb. Humans did little but make "the same very boring stone tools for almost 2 million years," he said. Then, only about 150,000 years ago, a different type of spurt happened — our big brains suddenly got smart. We started innovating. We tried different materials, such as bone, and invented many new tools, including needles for beadwork. Responding to, presumably, our first abstract thoughts, we started creating art and maybe even religion.

"One theory is that individual senses have separate areas of the brain dedicated to them," said Mark Wallace, Ph.D., the study's lead investigator. "In this view, information is processed initially on a sense-by-sense basis and doesn't come together until much later. However, this view has recently been challenged by studies showing that processing in the visual area of the brain, for example, can be influenced by hearing and touch."

A little brain boost is something we could all use now and then. A new option may be on the horizon. Researchers at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, in Bethesda, MD, are studying how applying gentle electrical current to the scalp can improve learning.

Multitasking is part of daily life. But humans remember and learn differently when their attention is divided. Russel Poldrack, a UCLA psychology professor, speaks with Lynn Neary about what occurs in the brain during multitasking.

Most IQ tests attempt to measure two types of intelligence--crystallized and fluid intelligence. Crystallized intelligence draws on existing skills, knowledge and experiences to solve problems by accessing information from long-term memory. Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, draws on the ability to understand relationships between various concepts, independent of any previous knowledge or skills, to solve new problems. The research shows that this part of intelligence can be improved through memory training.