Neuroscience

If you box, play soccer, or do anything that may induce a concussion, you may want to consider finding a new hobby. Studies indicate that a certain gene can cause early-onset memory impariment following brain trauma. Basically, a genetic predisposition to damage from such sports.

Traumatic brain injury, even if apparently fleeting, can resurface later in life as focused cognitive deficits. A study from Mt. Sinai shows that a large proportion of alcoholics and the homeless have suffered some form of frontal brain injury (usually through abuse, accidents, or sports) and it has affected their frontal planning, motivation, and memory centers.

Did you know illegal levels of pesticides are popping up in breast milk? I wonder where they’re coming from.

An autobiography of the Nobel-prize winning neuroscientist’s search for the mechanisms of learning.

Dicusses the genetics related to learning, intelligence, propensity for Alzheimer’s and other neurological disease, the origins and succeptibility of populations to Creutzfeld Jakob disease (Mad Cow) disease, and differences in reactions to stress. Excellent book.

Has chapter on the effects of stress on memory.