science newsletter: Science News SciGuru.com

Δευτέρα 26 Νοεμβρίου 2012

Science News SciGuru.com

Smoking and high blood pressure may be linked to ageing of the brain
Historical Human Footprint in the Amazon Forest
Offering a reward can improve visual awareness in stroke patients

Smoking and high blood pressure may be linked to ageing of the brain

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 06:24 AM PST

Researchers at King’s College London have identified several cardiovascular risk factors, including smoking and high blood pressure, which may be associated with the accelerated decline of memory, learning, attention and reasoning in older adults.

Published today in the journal Age and Ageing, the study found that participants over the age of 50 who smoked, had high blood pressure or were most at risk of suffering a stroke, performed more poorly on a range of cognitive tasks designed to test memory recall, verbal fluency, attention and other cognitive outcomes.

Historical Human Footprint in the Amazon Forest

Posted: 26 Nov 2012 02:30 AM PST

In a recently published study scientists suggest that past forest manipulation by man was not limited to the pre-Columbian settlements along major rivers in the Central Amazonia, but extended beyond these areas considered to be primary forest today.

Offering a reward can improve visual awareness in stroke patients

Posted: 25 Nov 2012 07:55 PM PST

Stroke patients who have difficulty paying attention to part of their visual field may perform better when offered a reward, a study by Imperial College London and Brunel University researchers has found.

Between a third and half of stroke patients suffer from spatial neglect - a disorder of visual attention that means they do not notice objects on one side of their field of view. In some cases, sufferers have been known to shave only one side of their face or leave half of a meal on their plate.