drink water to improve reaction time
Quenching your thirst during the hot weather with a glass of water can help make your brain work faster, scientists have found. The researchers discovered that people who drank a pint of water before conducing mental tasks had reaction times that were 14 per cent faster than those who did not have drink. The findings underlines how even mild dehydration can impact on a person’s mental performance, the scientists say. Dr Caroline Edmonds, a psychologist at the University of East london who led study, said: “Reaction time seemed to be most affected by water, particularly if the people were thirsty. “It might be because when you are thirsty, it diverts your attention away from the task at hand.”
Alzeimer’s and memory problems
Five studies found that people who were clinically healthy but anxious about memory lapses were significantly more likely to develop more severe problems in future. The findings suggest that people should trust their instincts and consider seeking advice if they are concerned about memory lapses, while doctors should not dismiss patients’ worries too readily, researchers said.
The studies focussed on patients with “subjective cognitive decline”, or self-reported problems with memory which are often dismissed as a normal consequence of ageing.
One group of researchers, from two US hospitals, found that elderly people with concerns about their memory but were otherwise deemed healthy had significantly greater levels of plaque which accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers.
Choir Singing synchronises heartbeat
Singing in a choir often gives individuals a feeling of harmony, both musically and spiritually, but new research suggests these feeling are more than psychological as scientists from the University of Gothenburg have shown that singing in unison actually causes heartbeats to synchronise. The project — named ‘Kroppens Partitur’ or ‘The Body’s Musical Score’ — also showed that the calming effects of singing in a choir can be as beneficial to an individual’s health as yoga. This is due to both activities reducing the variability of your heart rate. The study monitored the pulses of fifteen 18-year-old choral singers as they sang their way through three different exercises. The first was simply humming, the second singing a Swedish hymn, and the third chanting a slow mantra.