Hello Lily Have you ever wished you could get stronger without lifting a finger? We might all have felt like that while watching the Olympics this past week. It turns out that simply imagining exercis
Lily Toomey
Have you ever wished you could get stronger without lifting a finger? We might all have felt like that while watching the Olympics this past week. It turns out that simply imagining exercise can actually strengthen your muscles.
Mental imagery or visualisation is a technique that sports psychologists have used for years to improve the performance of Olympic athletes, basketball players, golfers, tennis players, and other sports people.
In this newly updated blog post, I explore how mental imagery strengthens neural circuits to speed up the learning of new skills. To help you navigate, the 2024 updates are indicated by 🌱 for new research.
Click here to learn more: Imagine This: Mental Imagery Strengthens Neural Circuits.
Brain Micro-Briefing: 5 Essential Neuroscience Updates 🧠🔬
⏰ You often hear that those who start their day at 5 am are the most productive people. Meanwhile, night owls commonly get a bad rap for being lazy or unmotivated. However, research looking at over 26,000 people has tested these stereotypes, finding that night owls have better cognitive performance than early risers. The research also reaffirmed that the most important factor for boosting cognition is simply getting a solid amount of sleep. Read more in this article by The Guardian: Night owls’ cognitive function ‘superior’ to early risers, study suggests.
🌿 Our ability to learn and grow is mainly driven by changes in the connections between already existing neurons. As we form new memories, the dendrites of our neurons sprout little spines (think of new buds sprouting on the branches of a tree) to form new circuits with other neurons around them. In this article from The Conversation, learn how the brain creates these spines in specific places along the dendrite to allow us to learn and store our new memories. Read it here: Nanoscopic motor proteins in the brain build the physical structures of memory.
😊 Though most of us blush when we feel embarrassed or shy, scientists actually know very little about why blushing happens. To investigate, researchers recruited teenage girls to sing a particularly hard karaoke song. The scientists then put the adolescents into an MRI scanner to record their brain while they watched the karaoke footage back. The cerebellum, which is primarily involved in controlling movement, became more active when participants blushed. Interestingly, there were no related activity increases in areas controlling social awareness and theory of mind. This suggests blushing may be an automatic rather than a cognitive response. The study is available here, with a non-academic summary here.
🧬 At the turn of the millennium, you may remember a lot of hype and publicity around the Human Genome Project. This multi-billion-dollar international research collaboration was the first time scientists could sequence the entire human genome. The project was completed in 2003, yet many anticipated benefits never happened. In this video by SciShow, host Savannah Geary shares why the Human Genome Project wasn’t the predicted magic-bullet cure to disease and how it’s instead shown us how complicated our DNA truly is. Watch here: The Human Genome Project Was a Failure.
“The Human Genome Project was a huge achievement that may have been overhyped, but which was still was a huge technical success and is still leading to exciting new things… Today, what once cost billions of dollars and took two years is down to less than a thousand dollars and can take as little as five hours. A scientist can whack a sample down in a fancy sequencer, go have a sandwich and look after a few other experiments, and come back to results before it’s time to quit for the day.” Savannah Geary
🧠 Neuroscience Academy | Pre-register your interest for September 2024🧠
The Neuroscience Academy is the flagship 12-week professional development program in applied neuroscience and brain health. It’s perfect for professionals in human behaviour, mental health, education, and wellbeing. As an accredited provider with the ICF, NBHWC and HCANZA we offer 40 hours of CCE, a certificate in applied neuroscience and brain health, live weekly Q&A sessions, and a global network of over 2,000 graduates.
I know how valuable your time is, so this September, I'm running the course a bit differently. Each weekly Zoom call will start with a rapid 30-minute summary of the lessons—a quick 'micro-training'. Each Zoom also includes an interactive Q&A and small group discussions. You can dive deeper into the comprehensive online lectures and resources at your own pace.
I’ve designed the course to be flexible and convenient, fitting into your busy schedule while enhancing your professional skills.
Download a full curriculum and pre-register your interest here: The Neuroscience Academy
x Sarah
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