Scientists who study memory phenomena generally believe that eidetic memory (more popularly known as "photographic memory") does not exist. Early experiements on eidetic memory were intriguing, but could not be replicated. People do show extraordinary memory performance in certain circumstances. For example, expert chess players can typically play blindfolded chess against several opponents at the same time, easily memorizing many chessboard configurations. Others use special tricks to memor...

Imagine moving an object using only your mind. Software company Unique Logic’s Time on Task exercise makes that feat possible, at least on a computer screen. The game, which is designed to teach people how to sustain their attention in order to complete tasks, involves getting a forklift operator to transport a stack of crates from the ground onto the back of a big rig. It doesn’t seem like a particularly interesting plot, except for the fact that, instead of using a remote control to dictate th...

Children who are placed in out-of-home care are likely to have experienced a range of early-life adversity. The range and complexity of these adverse circumstances are well known to practitioners, and they include trauma, abuse, neglect and antenatal substance exposure. The Adverse Childhood Experiences study (Anda, Felitti, & Bremner, 2006) has shown that this kind of exposure is associated with a range of adverse physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood (see also Price-Robertson, H...

Two Northwestern University neuroscientists have identified the neurochemical signal likely missing in Parkinson’s disease by being the first to discover two distinctly different kinds of neurons that deliver dopamine to an important brain region responsible for both movement and learning/reward behavior. “It has been dogma for decades that all dopamine neurons are somehow involved in both movement and reward, but this didn’t really make sense,” said Daniel A. Dombeck, the study’s senior auth...

There are critical periods during childhood that influence the development of obesity, including gestation and early infancy. Size at birth and early postnatal growth are determinants of adult height and body mass index. Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, New Zealand researchers conducted a study to assess if birth weight has any effect on body composition and/or fat distribution in adolescents. Study The effects of changes in nutrition on body composition of the growing animal dep...