Links:
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/mind-brain/#page=1
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/03/130410-brain-games-neuroscience-culture-science/
Some people like to invest in apps that are supposed to help the brain. The brain games are meant to help people respond at quicker rates and so forth. A study done by researchers from the University of New South Wales in Sydney found that nature documentaries might actually be more beneficial. They started out by testing 135 people for their stress levels and cognitive abilities. Then, half of the group went to a 16 week program of watching short (around 3 minute) nature documentaries while the other half used "Happy Neuron" brain training sessions. They found that both options did not
significantly change cognitive skills but the group that watched the nature documentraies had lower amounts of stress and more language skills. This study was done so that we could identify the problems with these brain games and figure out how to fix them. However, the main researcher herself said that she is still a huge fan of brain games because she finds them fun.
NOS Themes:
Science is collaborative.
Cate Borness worked with her colleagues to complete this study.
Role of motivation and curiosity
Scientists need to be motivated to research. This is such a specific study and I wonder how long Cate has been researching this.
I thought this article was very intriguing! It's interesting to hear that watching movies can actually lower your stress levels. I also thought it was strange that there is no significant difference between the games and the documentaries! Id like to add the NOS the persons view and experience can influence the data because some subjects may be biased towards games or movies.
ReplyDeleteI thought that this was a very interesting article! I never would have guessed that watching a movie would lower your stress level. Below is a link that the Mayo clinic published about other ways to lower your stress level.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mayoclinic.com/health/exercise-and-stress/SR00036
I found this article to be very interesting. I personally feel less stressed after watching tv, but I never thought watching nature films could be better for your brain than playing brain games. I also agree with the scientist, brain games are a lot of fun.
ReplyDelete