Scientists published a paper in a magazine saying that the total amount of gray matter in male brain is 6.5 times that of female brain, while the total amount of white matter in female brain is 10 times that of male brain. Generally speaking, gray matter is like the information processing unit in the brain, while white matter is the network connecting these information processing units.
This can explain why men are more likely to succeed in centralized information processing fields (such as mathematics), while women are more suitable for "distributed" information processing fields, such as language ability. Rex Rong, who participated in the research, said that the average intelligence level of the two sexes in the test is the same, indicating that the intelligence of the two sexes is "the same way" and different brain "design ideas" can reach the same intelligence level.
The study also found that about 85% of the white matter and gray matter that determine intelligence in women are concentrated in the front lobe of the brain; However, in men, the distribution of brain substances that determine intelligence is more uniform, with only 45% gray matter in the frontal lobe and no white matter in the frontal lobe. The researchers said that medical clinical experience shows that the mental damage caused by frontal lobe injury in women is more serious than that caused by men. This is consistent with the new research results.
The psychology professor at the University of California, who led the research, said that human evolution has produced two different brain designs to achieve the same level of intelligence. Continuing to study these different intelligence characteristics determined by sex will help to diagnose and treat diseases such as dementia, brain disorder and brain injury more accurately.
Chronic back pain affects memory. Office workers who are sedentary are often prone to chronic back pain. British researchers reported in the latest issue of American magazine that chronic back pain will affect patients' prospective memory and make them forget things easily.
Prospective memory is a form of memory relative to retrospective memory, which refers to the memory of completing a certain activity or certain activities at a certain moment in the future, such as remembering to buy food after work and making an appointment with a doctor one day. Prospective memory is usually generated at the prompt of time or things, for example, when you look at your watch, you will remember what time you have an appointment, and when you see your mailbox, you will remember that you have a letter to send.
In the report, Dr Jonathan Lin from Keele University and his colleagues said that they selected 50 patients with chronic back pain and 50 healthy people to fill out a prospective memory questionnaire. By means of questionnaire survey, this paper investigates the number of times people failed in prospective memory in a certain period of time and whether they used special methods to help consolidate prospective memory.
The survey found that the prospective memory of patients with chronic back pain will be seriously reduced compared with those with healthy backs. The survey also found that the greater the daily dose of painkillers taken by patients with chronic back pain, the more serious the impairment of prospective memory.
The researchers explained that the impact of chronic back pain on memory may be due to the stress caused by pain, or it may be because the treatment received by patients with back pain will have a certain impact on memory ability.
Scientific research shows that mental exercise can delay memory decline. When we meet an acquaintance, we may be right in front of him and suddenly forget his name. Can you stop this normal memory decline? If you are driving, you see a road sign that says "detour". So how quickly can your brain reflect what you are going to do next?
As we grow older, all of us will become mentally retarded, so the question is: What can you do to stop it from happening in our daily behavior? In order to obtain evidence that can prevent normal memory loss, the researchers recruited 2,800 volunteers in different communities across the United States for testing.
Half of them were divided into "no training" group, and the other half were divided into three groups, in which they received special intensive training in memory skills in a short time. For example, how do you remember what you want to buy when you go to the grocery store? How to quickly remember the information on the computer screen and so on. These people trained 10 times in 5-6 weeks. The results show that once trained, people's memory status has improved. A quarter of people have improved their memory. 87% people improved their information processing speed after receiving special training.
What is really interesting is that people can maintain this improved memory for five years after training. So it's like you are doing a monotonous job ahead of time. Once you solve this problem, you can still benefit from this job five years later.
Eating too many French fries will affect your memory. Trans fatty acids, also known as trans fats or trans fatty acids, are unsaturated artificial vegetable oils. Margarine and margarine, which are common in life, belong to trans fatty acids. Hydrogenation of trans fatty acids can prevent molecules from being oxidized, make liquid oil into semi-solid oil suitable for special purposes, and extend the shelf life. According to health experts, people often eat biscuits, crackers, shortcakes, chocolate, salad dressing, French fries, doughnuts, cream cakes, pancakes, potato chips, fried noodles and other foods, all of which contain different amounts of trans fatty acids.
Trans fatty acids have seven major effects on human health.
The content of trans fatty acids in natural food is almost zero, which is difficult to be accepted and digested by human body and easily causes multiple obstacles to physiological functions. It is a food additive made entirely by human beings. In fact, it is also the "killer" of human health.
1, reduce memory. Studies show that people who have bad eating habits when they are young are more likely to suffer from Alzheimer's disease (Alzheimer's Harmo's disease) when they are old. Trans fatty acids resist a cholesterol that can promote human memory.
2, easy to get fat. Trans fatty acids are not easily digested by the human body, and easily accumulate in the abdomen, leading to obesity. People who like to eat snacks such as French fries should be vigilant. Trans fatty acids in fried foods can cause obvious fat accumulation.
3, easy to cause coronary heart disease. According to the latest research by the French National Institute of Health and Medicine, trans fatty acids can reduce cholesterol content, thus effectively preventing heart disease and other cardiovascular diseases.
4. It is easy to form thrombus. Trans fatty acids can increase the viscosity and cohesion of human blood and easily lead to thrombosis, especially for the elderly with fragile blood vessel walls.
5, pregnant women or lactating women, eating too much food containing trans fatty acids will affect the health of the fetus. Studies have found that fetuses or babies can passively ingest trans fatty acids through placenta or milk, and they are more likely to suffer from essential fatty acid deficiency than adults, which affects their growth and development.
6, affecting male fertility. Trans fatty acids can reduce the secretion of androgen, have a negative impact on sperm activity, and interrupt the reaction process of sperm in the body.
7. Affect the absorption of essential fatty acids during the growth and development of adolescents. Trans fatty acids can also adversely affect the growth and development of the central nervous system of adolescents.
Obesity in middle age will make your memory decline. Researchers warn that if you have entered middle age and find that your memory is not as good as before, you should be careful about your weight.
Studies show that overweight people score lower in memory tests than thin people.
Studies have found that overweight middle-aged people are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease in the future.
The study was published in the journal Neurology, and the researchers concluded that the high incidence of cardiovascular disease and diabetes could explain the reasons. In addition, substances produced by fat cells, such as leptin, have a direct impact on the brain.
This study compared the intelligence and body mass index of the respondents. Body mass index refers to the ratio of height to weight, which is mainly used to measure whether a person is overweight or obese. People with a BMI of more than 25 are obese, while those with a BMI of more than 30 are obese.
The researchers also studied the relationship between body mass index and cognitive function. They conducted a cognitive test on 2223 healthy men and women aged between 32 and 62 in France.
The study found that the greater the body mass index, the lower the cognitive test score. One of the test results of word memory shows that among 16 words, people with a body mass index of 20 can remember 9 words on average, while those with a body mass index of 30 can only remember 7 words on average.
Good sleep is very important for memory.
New research shows that in addition to helping you regain your energy, sleep can significantly improve your memory and protect it from external interference. "Sleep has a great consolidation effect on memory, even beyond our imagination." Li Li, postdoctoral fellow and research director of Harvard Medical School in Boston, USA, said. Their findings were presented at the annual meeting of American Neuroscience in Boston on May 2nd.
This study involved 48 adults 18-30 years old, all of whom had a normal and healthy sleep pattern and did not take any drugs. They were asked to memorize 20 groups of words and test their memory after 12 hours. Then they were divided into different environmental groups for testing: pre-test sleep group, pre-test awake group, pre-test disturbed sleep group and pre-test disturbed awake group. The two awake groups memorized words at 9: 00 a.m. and took tests at 9: 00 p.m. to stay awake. The two sleeping groups recite words at 9 pm, then go to bed at 9 am and take the test. In addition, before the test, each group of sleeping and awake people were asked to memorize another group of 20 words, and then they were tested with the other two groups to understand the influence of interference (competitive information) on memory. The results show that sleep contributes to participants' memory, even after being disturbed by competitive information.
In the study, researchers mainly pay attention to the influence of sleep on "declarative" memory, such as special facts, plots and events. "Our research aims to understand whether sleep has an impact on the consolidation of memory, especially the memory of facts, events and time." Jeffrey said. "We already know that sleep is helpful for procedural memory, such as learning a new piano piece, but we are not sure whether sleep is helpful for declarative memory that has been controversial for a hundred years."
10 Ways to improve memory First, listen to more music to help memory.
On the basis of medicine and psychology, Bulgarian Dr. Lazanov studied some music and found that adagio in Bach and Handel's works can eliminate the tension in the brain and make people enter a state of meditation. He asked students to listen to slow-paced music, relax their muscles, and read materials that need to be memorized according to the beat of music. Play cheerful music for 2 minutes after learning, so that the brain can recover from memory activities. Many students who have tried this method feel that the memory effect is very good.
Second, recite classics to improve memory
Do we know that people often recite some famous articles, idioms, good sentences, short poems, mathematical formulas, loanwords and technical essentials when studying and even in their leisure time? That is the "hard work" to exercise memory. When Marx was young, he memorized poems in an unskilled foreign language to exercise his memory. Reciting 10 to 20 minutes every day can also improve memory.
Third, the memory efficiency of mind and body is high.
Science has proved that correct repetition is the main method of effective memory, especially when people memorize knowledge through their own brains, hands, ears and mouths in learning, the memory efficiency is high and the effect is good. Because in memory, we should not only think with our brains, but also read aloud and write by hand, and unconsciously mobilize more memory "channels" to participate in memory in learning, so that the memory traces will deepen and the memory effect will of course be better.
Fourth, whimsy and strong memory.
When we study and read books, it is often difficult to remember some numbers and years. If you are good at associative memory, it is easy to remember. For example, the pile table and chamber method or the Roman chamber method and the pictograph method are all manifestations of the association method. You can use a stake or room as a storage stake for images. The principle is to connect what you want to remember with what you already know. The original thing is called "wooden stake", and the new things to remember are connected with wooden stakes. This method is used to memorize a large number of materials and foreign languages.
5. Chewing more can increase memory.
Science has proved that chewing is one of the effective ways to prevent memory loss. Some people think that chewing can make people relax. If the elderly chew less, their blood hormones are high enough to cause short-term memory loss. If you observe the crowd, you will find that people who chew regularly have good teeth, eat more fragrant, and their learning ability and memory ability will also be enhanced. Another example is chewing chaff, which Americans like best.
Sixth, women's nagging encourages memory.
To some extent, nagging helps women to prolong their memory and life. In the use of language, nagging is also the repetition of something and someone. Frequent repetition will certainly deepen the nagger's attention and memory of something or someone. Experts believe that women are more willing to communicate with others than men; When men get old, they are mostly silent. Speech is an indispensable way of psychological catharsis, which can prevent memory decline.
Seven, clever diet helps to remember.
Proper intake of "healthy oil" can reduce the occurrence of thrombosis. For example, olive oil and fish oil are good choices to maintain normal blood circulation, and vegetables and fruits rich in vitamins and minerals are also good choices to maintain health. A considerable number of people are not unable to remember, but lack the memory information transmitter-choline acetate in their brains. If you eat these foods regularly, you can greatly improve your memory.
Eight, people who love to play more have strong memories.
Physical activity can improve people's health, while mental activity can reduce memory loss. Especially those who love to play love activities have a wide range of interests, dabble in many things, have a wide range of knowledge and have a strong memory. Science has proved that dancing, reading, playing cards and learning foreign languages can increase the number of synapses, enhance the signal transmission between nerve cells and consolidate memory.
Nine, exercise and fitness can prevent memory loss.
Generally speaking, people who are healthy, love sports and life are full of energy, strong learning ability and strong memory. People can promote brain self-renewal during exercise. Experts believe that long-term cardiovascular exercise can reduce brain tissue loss and memory loss caused by age. Many studies show that to keep your brain active, you only need to exercise regularly. Children who exercise three or four times a week generally get higher test scores when they are 10 or 1 1 years old. Older people who often walk perform better in memory tests than those who are accustomed to sedentary peers. By pumping extra oxygen into the brain that consumes energy, exercise can enhance intelligence.
The latest research also refutes the statement that people cannot produce new brain cells after birth. On the contrary, the study found that physical exercise can actually promote the growth of new brain cells. In mice, the brain enhancement effect caused by exercise is most obvious in the hippocampus related to learning and memory.
Ten, family happiness, physical and mental pleasure, prevent brain failure.
A large number of social surveys have proved that family happiness is a necessary condition for learners to improve their learning and memory ability. In particular, two of a kind of lovers or lovers can make both sides secrete hormones and acetylcholine, which is beneficial to enhancing the body's immunity and delaying brain aging.