Marcel Proust’s 3,200 page novel À la recherche du temps perdu has in it the famous scene where dipping pastry into his tea flooded him with his childhood memories. It was the odor which provoked it, and it has gone into psychoanalytical literature as the most famous literary evidence of the power of scents in retrieving long-lost memories.

In a recent controlled study over sleeping mice at the Duke University Medical Center, neuroscientists Stephen Shea and Richard Mooney have tried to elucidate the cellular and molecular basis of how memory of scents are locked up in the brain, only to be retrieved later years afterward, and provoking a strong recall of original incidents. Read more →

Vitamin E today ranks as the second highest single vitamin consumed in the world after vitamin C, following well organized marketing campaigns extolling its anti-oxidative properties. Anti-oxidation is today a key marketing buzzword for the growing market segment of anti-aging dietary supplements, although how it affects human life spans is poorly understood. According to Wellcome Trust [1] there is no evidence in humans that anti-oxidative vitamins (A, C and E) slows aging; only in laboratory mice have they led to a sight increase in lifespan. Nevertheless, these vitamins are widely sold today without prescription as tablets, fish oils and capsules across chemists, superstores and even eBay. Read more →

Amongst older adults aged 65 and over, falls are the leading cause of non-fatal injuries and hospital admissions. It is estimated that at least one-third of adults above 65 experience serious falls in their lifetime. The cause of falls in the elderly is often multi-factorial, and no definite cause is ascertainable in the vast majority. Quite often balance system in-coordination is pointed out, but as an integrated system, balance relies on inputs from various sources: vision, cerebellar responses, joint senses and even basic spinal reflexes. Read more →

Despite the fact that functional MRI was discovered in the early 90’s, scientific research related to its clinical applications is still at an early stage. The first paper on the use of functional MRI (fMRI) in Alzheimer’s disease came out as late as 1999. Today, fMRI is being intensively studied in a number of other clinical areas like dyslexia, epilepsy, mood and anxiety disorders, pain management, rehabilitation after stroke and schizophrenia. Though the application of fMRI in routine neurological practice is still some years away, already our understanding of these disorders and knowledge about mapping progression and treatment effects with fMRI is rapidly progressing. Read more →

Law enforcers now have all the proof they need for tougher anti-cell phone measures for drivers, as the latest published neurological study shows that there is a 37% reduction in parietal cortex activity with driving. Arguments that there are many among us who can multi-task well have taken a back seat in recent studies involving driving and mobile phone listening.

An University of Oregon Study in 2005 found that complex skills like driving do not only include motor skills, but also staying receptive of visual and spatial cues from minute to minute. It estimated that conversing on the cell phone can increase a driver’s response time by up to 800 milliseconds, and at 60 miles per hour that could mean a significantly higher risk to drivers responding to road hazards. Read more →

A three-year multicenter study called Learning, Arts, and the Brain is finally close to solving the problem of whether art makes us smarter or whether smarter people are drawn to arts.

The question is not purely rhetorical, as in recent years educationists have debated about the relevance of arts in modern school curricula; whether music, drama and dance education should be given an equal emphasis compared to more mainstream science and humanities subjects. Read more →