Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
The researchers, from the University of Sydney and James Cook University, found that the ones who were the most mentally active had a larger hippocampus in their brains, and that their hippocampus shrank at a rate half of that of people who were the least mentally active.
Their abstract concluded, “High level of complex mental activity across the lifespan was correlated with a reduced rate of hippocampal atrophy. This finding could not be explained by general differences in intracranial volume, larger hippocampi at baseline, presence of hypertensive disease, gender or low mood."
Further, "Our results suggest that neuroprotection in medial temporal lobe may be one mechanism underlying the link between mental activity and lower rates of dementia observed in population-based studies. Additional studies are required to further explore this novel finding.”
Valenzuela comments, "This is a significant finding because a small hippocampus is a specific risk factor for developing Alzheimer's disease.” [Sydney Morning Herald, “Strain your brain and stay sharp, study shows”]
He adds, “We know that people that are at risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and dementia have a smaller hippocampus to start with, so it could be quite important that by staying mentally active we can actually protect this brain area from shrinkage." [ABC News]
The ABC News article states that about one in four people develop Alzheimer’s and dementia after a stroke. However, Dr. Valenzuela says that risk can be reduced by learning sometime new or doing something as simple as reading.
He says, "There's no one particular activity that comes up time and time again as a magical activity; it seems to be more related to keeping a diverse range of activities. Doing something where you are learning or you're being forced to challenge your mind somewhat." [ABC News]
The Valenzuela adds additional scientific evidence to the link between mental activity and dementia—more mental activity and less risk of memory loss.
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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