Mindfully Healing

Brain scans reveal how men and women react differently to depression. Woman are much more susceptible to depression than men. At age 15, girls are twice as likely as boys to be experiencing depression. This could be down to hormonal fluctuations, body image issues, genetic factors or other causes. Men, though, are more likely to suffer persistent depression. And for women, depression tends to go in cycles. Brain scans of adolescents in a new study have found different responses at this young age. For the research, 106 adolescents with depression

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

The behavior is linked to more white matter, the brain’s ‘superhighway’. People who take calculated risks are likely to be smarter than average, research finds. People making quick decisions and taking chances have more white matter in their brains. White matter is sometimes called the ‘superhighway’ of the brain: it transmits signals and regulates communication. The researchers were surprised by the result as they expected the exact opposite: that smarter people would spend more time evaluating the situation before making a decision. Dr Dagfinn Moe, study co-author, explained: “We expected