Mindfully Healing

Thinking like a five-year-old can help you learn more in a new environment. Young children have one cognitive talent that most adults have forgotten. That is the ability to pay attention to everything. As adults we learn to focus our attention and block out distractions. But, sometimes being distracted means noticing and learning more. Professor Vladimir Sloutsky, study co-author, explained: “We often think of children as deficient in many skills when compared to adults. But sometimes what seems like a deficiency can actually be an advantage. That’s what we found

Lonely people quickly move to the edges of social networks — here’s why. Loneliness makes the areas of the brain that are vigilant for threat more active, a new study finds. This can make people who are socially isolated more abrasive and defensive — it’s a form of self-preservation. This may be why lonely people can get marginalised. Professor John Cacioppo, an expert on loneliness, speaking about an earlier study on the marginalisation of the lonely, said: “We detected an extraordinary pattern of contagion that leads people to be moved

Improve both your memory and intelligence with a popular supplement. Creatine — a popular dietary supplement — boosts IQ and working memory, research finds. Creatine is generally known as a supplement used by athletes for gaining muscle mass. But that is not its only effect. For the research vegetarians and vegans were given creatine supplementation. Dr Caroline Rae, who led the study, explained the choice: “Vegetarians or vegans were chosen for the study as carnivores and omnivores obtain a variable level of creatine depending on the amount and type of