Week in Review – May 21, 2021 - The Neuroscience School

A new Canadian research paper discusses evidence of potential autoimmune contributions to Alzheimer disease. There has been little research looking at the autoimmunity hypothesis and the paper recommends more targeted research in this area. This is an exciting new potential area of research. [link]
Here's another study that highlights the importance of adequate sleep: "It remains an enigma why human beings spend one-third of their life asleep." "A recent research study has found evidence that one night of total sleep deprivation impairs molecular clearance from the human brain, and that humans do not catch up on lost sleep" even if they sleep through the following night. One of the brain regions where molecular clearance failed following sleep deprivation was the locus coeruleus, an area that shows degeneration in Alzheimer's disease. [link]
Another sleep study, this time on how poor sleep is linked to impaired focus. The difficulty with paying attention was linked to increased distractibility. [link]
A study of over 25,000 subjects from the University of Oxford suggests that there is no safe level of alcohol consumption for brain health. Alcohol consumption was related to reduced global brain grey matter volume and reduced integrity of white matter microstructure. This was a correlational study, so the results are not causal. Nevertheless, they are compelling. [link]
Humans seem naturally drawn to adding behaviours rather than subtracting them. "'What can I add' appears to be a natural default." "It’s a shortcut that people use when they’re 'thinking fast." What if we tried to improve our lives by subtracting behaviours rather than adding them? [link]
Multi-tasking is not all bad. While it does increase stress levels, If we schedule a more creative task following a period of multi-tasking, it can spur creativity. It turns out that activation and cognitive flexibility, which are provided by multi-tasking, are important mediators of creativity. How can we apply this to ourselves? We could use multi-tasking strategically by scheduling a bout of multi-tasking before a more creative task. [link]