Sleep not only refreshes the body and recharges the immune system but is believed to be crucial to memory consolidation. Sleep deprivation is stressful for the body and inhibits cognitive function.

Now there’s more evidence that getting enough sleep is good for you. Loss of sleep may prevent the creation of new cells in the brain according to a study at Princeton University.

When rats were deprived of sleep for 72 hours, they had increased amount of the stress hormone corticosterone and fewer new brain cells were produced in the hippocampus.

Once the rats’ sleep patterns were normalized again, the recovery of normal levels of nerve-cell production took two more weeks while the brain temporarily increased neuron formation.

Sleep deprivation inhibits adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus by elevating glucocorticoids

If you believe you can get smarter, you will. Studies have previously shown that IQ is not fixed but can be influenced by many factors. Home environment, community and education all affect IQ.

Findings of a study on how students views of their intelligence affected their math grades showed that those who believed that intelligence can be developed did in fact improve their math performance.

One study monitored 12 year olds over two years of school. The students who believed that their intelligence could be expanded outperformed those who believed that intelligence is fixed. Over the two years, the difference in performance levels widened, even though both groups had started out on an equal achievement level.

A second study concentrated on students whose math grades were declining. One group was taught that intelligence is not fixed, but expandable. Another group was not told that intelligence could be developed. Both groups went through an 8-session workshop on study skills. The students who were taught that their intelligence could be expanded reversed the decline in their grades in contrast to the second group, whose math grades continued on a downward slope.

Researchers believe that when students believe they are capable of achieving more, they concentrate more on learning and the power of their own effort. The results of the studies indicate that what students believe about intelligence can affect their academic progress and motivation.

The two studies were conducted by researchers at Columbia University and Stanford University, and are published in the January/February 2007 issue of the journal Child Development.

Society for Research in Child Development

Psychics say they can do it; that is, read the minds of others. Now scientist say they can do it too, and they have proved it in studies involving high-tech brain scans like funtional MRI and computer algorithms instead of the tradional crystal ball.

John-Dylan Haynes from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, in cooperation with researchers from London and Tokyo, conducted experiments in which the secret intentions of subjects were predicted with 70% accuracy.

Participants were asked to choose between two tasks, to either add or subtract two numbers. The participants made their choices secretly and before they were shown the numbers they were to add or subtract. Researchers asked participants to hold their intention in their mind for a while until the numbers were shown to them on a screen. Based on scans of brain activity, the researchers were able to predict which calculation the participants had decided upon before they saw the numbers or made any calculations.

These startling incidents of “mind reading” were accomplished by programming computers to recognize characteristic brain activity patterns associated with specific thoughts. The computer then can predict the decisions of subjects from scans of their brain activity.

The technology may have future uses in computer-assisted devices and brain/computer interfaces for patients who suffer paralysis.

A co-worker of mine goes out every day for a walk/run up and down the roads and hills surrounding our office building - rain or shine, summer or winter. When asked why she goes out running in single digit temperatures, she exclaims, “Because it makes me feel good!”

Everyone knows the mood-elevating benefits of a good workout. When we don’t get exercise, or think we are not getting enough, it can affect how we feel emotionally, but can it affect us physically?

A new study by Harvard University psychologist Ellen Langer and her student Alia Crum indicates that mind-set can inhibit or enhance the health benefits of exercise. In other words, what you do physically in your daily routine will be more beneficial to you health-wise if you are aware of the exercise you are getting.

Researchers studied 84 female hotel housekeepers. Women in 4 hotels were told that the exercise they got while cleaning rooms was sufficient to meet the requirements for a healthy and active lifestyle. Women in 3 other hotels were told nothing.

Four weeks later, the researchers assessed the women’s health. On average, the women who were informed that their work was healthy exercise had lost 2 pounds, lowered their blood pressure and improved their BMI (body mass index). The changes were significantly higher than in the group of women who were told nothing.

Researchers call this the “placebo effect”. The research shows that our mind-set plays a role in our health and that many of the beneficial results of exercise are due to the placebo effect; we reap more benefits from exercise if we expect to.