Word: brained
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...good diet is certainly not the only way to protect and enhance brain health. Regularly exercising the mind and not smoking are also important. But food choices do count. So eat your vegetables, think about your daily dose of omega-3s, and consider flavoring more of your food with turmeric...
Over time, the experiment's sleep-restricted subjects became so impaired that they had difficulty concentrating on even the simplest tasks, like pushing a button in response to a light. "The human brain is only capable of about 16 hours of wakefulness [a day]," says Dinges. "When you get beyond that, it can't function as efficiently, as accurately or as well...
What most people don't realize is that the purpose of sleep may be more to rest the mind than to rest the body. Indeed, most of the benefits of eight hours' sleep seem to accrue to the brain: sleep helps consolidate memory, improve judgment, promote learning and concentration, boost mood, speed reaction time and sharpen problem solving and accuracy. According to Sonia Ancoli-Israel, a psychologist at the University of California at San Diego who has done extensive studies in the aging population, lack of sleep may even mimic the symptoms of dementia. In recent preliminary findings...
Indeed, some argue that the era is well under way. There's already a lively market for brain boosters. Herbs and supplements with names like Focusfactor and Brain Quicken clutter health-store shelves and the Internet, often with little scientific basis for their claims. Pill popping in some circles has become as American as SAT-prep classes. Students and professionals in growing numbers are taking potentially addictive stimulants like Ritalin to focus their minds and bolster their memory...
...that boost the expression of genes essential to shoring up the connections among neurons?the physical process that is thought to turn immediate experiences into long-term memories. Cortex Pharmaceuticals in Irvine, Calif., meanwhile, is testing compounds that accomplish something similar more indirectly. Those molecules amplify the response of brain chemicals called AMPA receptors, among the first players in a long biochemical cascade that takes place in the neuron as it encodes memory. The first of those ampakine molecules has been shown in a recent study to boost the attention and mental performance of healthy, sleep-deprived men. The more...