There’s lots to read this month, including teenage brains, robots to assist people with learning difficulties, video games and ADHD, plus a short video explaining why we we like to squeeze cute things!
Kind regards,
The Learning Brain News Team
PS: Did you know you can read The Learning Brain News on Facebook and also on the website.
Latest Research
Bad Dreams in Children Linked to a Higher Risk of Dementia and Parkinson’s Disease in Adulthood
A recent study indicates children who have frequent nightmares at age 11 are twice as likely to develop symptoms of cognitive impairment, and seven times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease by age 50.
Research Spotlight: New Discoveries on How Teenage Brains Learn Best
An understanding of the adolescent brain can help educators and parents guide their teenagers through the learning and behavioural challenges of their high school years.
Neuroscientists know that what makes a memory really stick is reconsolidation, when a new memory is reactivated by identical or similar experiences, stimulating the creation of additional and stronger neural connections.
This understanding may lead to new ways to strengthen memories weakened by dementia or to suppress unwanted memories in post-traumatic stress disorder.
People With Autism Experience Pain at a Higher Intensity
A new study has examined the pain perception among people with autism and found evidence contradicting the long-standing belief that autistic people are more indifferent to pain than those without autism.
Excessive video game play may be a risk factor for the development of ADHD, according to attention expert Dr David Rabiner of Duke University, USA.
Writing in his February 2023 Attention Research Update, Dr Rabiner describes the results of a study of over 1,400 youth published in the Journal of Attention Disorders. The study found that the weekly amount video game play reported at age 12 predicted higher levels of self-reported ADHD symptoms at age 13.
For centuries, the brain was considered immutable: If an area of your brain was damaged, there was little hope that you could ever again perform the activities controlled by that brain region. But scientists have now discovered that the brain is capable of rewiring itself after illness or injury, a phenomenon labeled “neuroplasticity.”