increasing evidence that computer-assisted training and rehabilitation can help people with schizophrenia overcome some of their symptoms

Schizophrenia is estimated to cost £13.1 billion per year in total in the UK, so even small improvements in cognitive functions could help patients make the transition to independent living

The game, Wizard, was the result of a nine-month collaboration between psychologists, neuroscientists, a professional game-developer and people with schizophrenia

patients who had played the memory game made significantly fewer errors and needed significantly fewer attempts to remember the location of different patterns in the CANTAB PAL test relative to the control group. In addition, patients in the cognitive training group saw an increase in their score on the GAF scale

Participants in the training group played the memory game for a total of eight hours over a four-week period; participants in the control group continued their treatment as usual. At the end of the four weeks, the researchers tested all participants' episodic memory using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB) PAL, as well as their level of enjoyment and motivation, and their score on the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale

The memory task was woven into a narrative in which the player was allowed to choose their own character and name; the game rewarded progress with additional in-game activities to provide the user with a sense of progression independent of the cognitive training process

Because the game is interesting, even those patients with a general lack of motivation are spurred on to continue the training

used in conjunction with medication and current psychological therapies, this could help people with schizophrenia minimise the impact of their illness on everyday life

It is not clear exactly how the apps also improved the patients' daily functioning, but the researchers suggest it may be because improvements in memory had a direct impact on global functions or that the cognitive training may have had an indirect impact on functionality by improving general motivation and restoring self-esteem

This new app will allow the Wizard memory game to become widely available, inexpensively. State-of-the-art neuroscience at the University of Cambridge, combined with the innovative approach at Peak, will help bring the games industry to a new level and promote the benefits of cognitive enhancement

a newly emerging model of how the brain focuses attention on a particular task, using neurons in the thalamic reticular nucleus as a switchboard to control the amount of information the brain receives, limiting and filtering out sensory information that we don't want to pay attention to

People need to be able to focus on one thing and suppress other distractions to perform everyday functions such as driving, talking on the phone, and socializing

sets the stage for ever more detailed studies on the complex behavior involved in how the mammalian brain pays attention to what's important, and especially how those neural circuits are broken in cases of attention-deficit diseases, such as ADHD, autism, and schizophrenia

ndividual TRN neurons that act like a "switchboard," continuously filtering sensory information and shifting more or less attention onto one sense

The test, they say, was designed to gauge how well the area of the brain known to control higher behavioral functions, the prefrontal cortex, could direct the focus on one sense over another

researchers distracted the mice with opposing stimuli: If the mouse was expecting a flash of light to guide it to the milk reward, the researchers distracted it with a sound, and vice versa. Distracting the mice decreased their ability to collect the food reward to 70 percent from nearly 90 percent, even if the distracting stimulus was removed later

found that inactivating the prefrontal cortex region of the brain, which is believed responsible for decision-making in complex behaviors, disrupted TRN neural signaling and reduced mice to only random success in obtaining a milk reward when presented with specifically cued light or sound signals

Inactivating the TRN, while leaving the cortical regions intact, also diminished success with obtaining the prompted food reward

prefrontal cortex is essential to performing such behavioral tasks

this part of the brain "stores the knowledge ultimately communicated to the TRN to control how much visual or auditory sensory information is suppressed or not, and how the brain ultimately multitasks

tested participants who perceived the dress as white-gold or black-blue

brain activation of all participants was measured while they looked at the photo of The Dress via a computer-based presentation system

participants looked at coloured squares with the same colour properties as the photo of The Dress

no differences between the groups were identified in correctly naming the colours of the squares

They demonstrated that in a direct comparison of groups the photo triggered differential brain activation, depending on their perception

participants who saw the dress as white-gold presented additional activation, mainly in frontal and parietal brain areas

Frontal regions are particularly involved in higher cognitive processes such as selective attention and decision making

Before, no optical illusion existed with exactly two competing perceptions which could not be deliberately manipulated

research group succeeded in identifying brain areas which cause optical illusions

thus we have laid a foundation for further research in the field of visual processing

ranslates to increases in academic performance

rating themselves on a "humble-ometer," people generally did not see themselves as others see them

other team members gave better evaluations to those they viewed as humble

Then they took tests -- first individually, then with fellow group members, who gave feedback on each member's work. Students earned credit for individual and group performances

They measured "intellectual humility," based on such traits as "open to criticism" and "knows what he/she is not good at." They also measured "intellectual arrogance," based on such traits as "is close-minded" and "believes own ideas superior to others' ideas.

Additional traits also were evaluated, among them assertiveness, intelligence, self-discipline, openness and sense of humor

intellectually arrogant whom they saw as being high in dominance, extraversion and wanting to be the center of attention, but low in agreeableness and conscientiousness

But it's more challenging for groups to recognize what behavior reveals another person's humility, as opposed to simply being shy or unsure

Learning something new requires first acknowledging your own ignorance and being willing to make your ignorance known to others

little evidence that moving to a four-day week compromises student academic achievement

We thought that especially for the younger, elementary school kids, longer days on a shorter school week would hurt their academic performance because their attention spans are shorter. Also, a longer weekend would give them more opportunity to forget what they had learned

did not have negative effects

The four-day school week requires school districts to lengthen the school day

My own personal hypothesis is teachers liked it so much--they were so enthusiastic about the four-day week--they did a better job. There's some evidence in other labor studies that four-day work weeks enhance productivity

Walker notes the results are only applicable to smaller and more rural school districts

beliefs about how memory works

some believed that traumatic memories could be repressed for years only to be recovered later in therapy, others questioned the concept, noting that lack of scientific evidence in support of repressed memory

Roughly 60-80% of clinicians, psychoanalysts, and therapists surveyed agreed to some extent that traumatic memories are often repressed and can be retrieved in therapy, compared to less than 30% of research-oriented psychologists

belief in repressed memory is still prevalent among the general public

researchers on the one hand and clinicians and the public on the other

In the courtroom, beliefs about memory often determine whether repressed-memory testimony is admitted into evidence

researchers collected millions of dream reports. After studying the data, Professor Wiseman discovered that the soundscapes did indeed influence people's dreams

people's dreams were especially bizarre around the time of a full moon

the team also found that certain soundscapes produced far more pleasant dreams

Having positive dreams helps people wake-up in a good mood, and boosts their productivity. We have now discovered a way of giving people sweet dreams, and this may also form the basis for a new type of therapy to help those suffering from certain psychological problems, such as depression

If they are seen as delusions or hallucinations, they are treated as problems to be controlled

During a delirium state, the person has lost their connection to reality and ability to communicate rationally. Delirium is distressing and dangerous, and must be treated medically. In contrast, our study shows that ELDVs are typically comforting, realistic, and often very meaningful, highlighting a critical difference.

that information is favourably consolidated over information associated with a low reward and is transferred to areas of the brain associated with long-term memory

Both groups' performance was better for highly rewarded picture pairs, but the sleep group performed better overall

participants who had slept after learning were selectively better for the highly rewarded pairs

The people who slept were also more confident of achieving a correct answer during the memory tests, even after three months

We already knew that sleep helps strengthens memories, but we now also know that it helps us select and retain those that have a rewarding value

consolidation of memory should work to prioritise information that is critical to our success and survival

this coherence process is disrupted in Alzheimer's disease.

β-amyloid plaques

these plaques directly impair the slow wave activity.

this balance was disturbed by the protein deposits, so that inhibition was reduced.

Low doses of sleep-inducing drugs as possible therapy

secured these lines to guitar-tuner knobs that helped apply tension to the tendons

hold them open for slaps, weakly clench them into "unbuttressed" fists or strongly curl them into "buttressed" fists.

humans can safely strike with 55 percent more force with a buttressed fist than with an unbuttressed fist, and with twice as much force with a buttressed fist than with an open-hand slap.

fists can protect hand bones from injuries and fractures

reducing the level of strain during striking

evolution favored lengthening the big toe and shortening other toes so that humans could run more easily

improved understanding of who we are, of human nature, should help us prevent violence of all kinds in the future."

left brain pulls it from your memory.

face recognition and processing music.

right hemisphere

helps us to comprehend visual imagery and make sense of what we see.

increasing its processing capacity and avoiding situations of conflict where both sides of the brain try to take charge."

People who took their time got selected out,

hypersensitive agency-detecting device, or HADD,

facilitated the rapid decision-making process that humans had to go through when they heard a rustling in the grass. (Lions act of their own accord. Better run.)

HADD may have planted the seeds for religious thought.

humans started attributing agency to things that really didn't have agency at all.

tendency to explain the natural world through the existence of beings with supernatural powers — things like gods, ancestral spirits, goblins and fairies — formed the basis for religious beliefs, according to many cognitive scientists.

They started attributing meaning to the actions of things that weren't really acting of their own accord.

they started anticipating what other beings' actions might be and planning their own actions accordingly.

"You might think that raindrops aren't agents," Clark said. "They can't act of their own accord. They just fall.

enabled them to discern other people's positive and negative intentions

thereby increasing their own chances of survival.

attributing purpose to the actions of nonactors, like raindrops, ToM took a turn toward the supernatural.

Theory of Mind

refer to HADD and ToM as the "god faculty,"

human beings haven't evolved past this way of thinking and making decisions,

"You can be educated out of some of these beliefs, but you can't be educated out of these cognitive faculties. We all have a hyperactive agency-detecting device. We all have a theory of mind."

a trait that stuck around because the people who possessed it were better able to survive and pass on their genes.

Religion may have naturally sprung up from this need to keep everybody on the same page,

Humans' predisposition to attribute intention to just about everything (e.g., volcanic eruptions, lunar eclipses, thunderstorms) isn't necessarily the reason religion came about,