You have a question and would like to know what researchers have recently written on the topic. Nothing could be more natural. But how do you proceed? Where can you find the information you’re looking for? How do you assess its reliability?
Age-related neurocognitive decline can have a major impact on the life quality. Yet, the adult brain retains the remarkable ability to learn and to transform itself, which can reduce the impact of brain aging. In this post, we discuss our recent paper on the practice of singing, its impact on brain functionning and, in turn, on age-related cognitive decline.
Speech production – the act of speaking – is a process so ingrained in us, so effortless, that we forget its great complexity. If 26 muscles are needed only to smile, you can imagine the number required to pronounce the syllables of a complex sentence. About a hundred!
When you read the sentence 'I ride my bike', do you feel like you’re on a bicycle? Not really, but unconsciously, certain regions of your brain related to movement actually get activated!
In the experiments conducted in the lab, we frequently use non-words, that is, made-up words. For example, we may ask participants to repeat invented words they hear through headphones out loud, or to determine if two non-words are identical. But why not use real words?!
Many of us have seen an image comparing the brain of a young person to that of an elderly person. At a glance, it's possible to observe the loss experienced by the brain in the course of normal aging. This decrease in brain volume, including gray matter, i.e., the bodies of neurons, is associated with the decline in cognitive and language functions during aging. But is it just a matter of brain volume?
Isn’t it frustrating to have a word on the tip of the tongue? Although we know everything about it, the word keeps escaping our mind anyway. Talking is usually accomplished so easily that we forget how complex it is. However, it is at the same time a precise sensorimotor and cognitive task. In a previous publication, we explained that about a hundred muscles are required to produce a single sentence! At the sensorimotor level, talking is surely complex. But in order to produce a word, first we must find it!
Have you ever tried to reproduce a recipe from your grandmother but couldn’t achieve the same result as her? If so, it may be a sign that your grandmother's recipe is not easily replicable. In science, the same problem can arise with a study.
