Golfers have good memory
If there is one thing more extraordinary than the skill of the world’s top golfers, it is their memories. like elephants, they seem to forget nothing. Their minds appear stocked like their bags — tee shots and 3-irons and wedges and putts stored from tournaments played weeks or years ago, able to be summoned for better or for worse. “The majors, I really remember my wins,” said Ernie Els, who has won two United States Opens and two British Opens. “I really remember almost every shot.” By contrast, Els said with a laugh, a conversation with his wife sometimes “goes in one ear and goes on through, because you don’t get that same intensity, maybe.”
Virtual characters with real lives
Flirty, shy or gossipy... these aren't the typical traits of a bit of computer code. But a simulation system that gives computer-controlled agents a sense of social propriety could change that, leading to more realistic interactions between humans and characters in games. Richard Evans started out as a developer of the artificially intelligent behaviour in video games such as The Sims 3, in which players direct the lives of characters in a simulated suburban community. Now at linden lab, the company behind Second life, he and colleague Emily Short have created a text-based mobile game called Versu that captures the nuances of social interaction in a way not seen before. Characters in the Sims games appeared to have real lives — they visited each other's houses, they had jobs, they made friends and fell out.
Carbs can trigger cravings
Are all calories created equalIJ A new study suggests that in at least one important way, they may not be. Sugary foods and drinks, white bread and other processed carbohydrates that are known to cause abrupt spikes and falls in blood sugar appear to stimulate parts of the brain involved in hunger, craving and reward, the new research shows. The findings, published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, suggest that these so-called high-glycemic foods influence the brain in a way that might drive some people to overeat. For those who are particularly susceptible to these effects, avoiding refined carbohydrates might reduce urges and potentially help control weight.
Apps for your brain
lumosity Brain Trainer, free on Apple’s iOS, is one of the better-known brain-training apps. It is split into several sessions of three games each that are supposed to help you improve your memory, problem-solving ability or flexibility of thinking. The games are played against the clock, and they are all different. One challenging game shows two coloured words on the screen, each the name of a colour. Your task is to read one word and tap on “match” if the colour it describes is the colour the second word is written in. It sounds easy, but your brain is easily fooled by reading the word “yellow” and ignoring the fact that it’s written in red.
Three-D map of human Mind
Researchers in Germany and Canada have produced a new map of the human brain — not the sort that shows every brain cell and its every connection or the kind that shows broad patterns of activity in brain regions, but a work of classic anatomy, done with high technology, that shows a three-dimensional reconstruction of a human brain in unprecedented detail. The new map, called BigBrain, is 50 times as detailed as previous efforts and will be available everywhere, said Katrin Amunts of the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine in Jülich, Germany, the lead author of a report on the project in the current issue of Science. BigBrain depicts a specific human brain, that of a 65-year-old woman. It was preserved in paraffin after her death, sliced into 7,400 sections and photographed at a microscopic level just above that of viewing individual cells.