Brain Fitness: Sight & Sound

Join host Peter Coyote in "Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound," the follow-up to "The Brain Fitness Program," as he explores the brain's ability to change and grow, even as we age, helping us maintain and improve our vision and hearing.



"Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound" is a special in-depth look at the advances in neuroplasticity and how it relates to healthy aging, with a particular focus on making the most of information filtered through our eyes and ears.

Fluid Intelligence and the Prefrontal Cortex

The Positive Manifold: Reactive Control in Fluid Intelligence?
by Chris Chatham

What neural mechanisms underlie "fluid intelligence," the ability to reason and solve novel problems? This is the question addressed in a recent paper by Gray et al. in Nature Neuroscience. The authors begin by suggesting that fluid intelligence is related to both attentional control and active maintenance of information in the face of ongoing processing (i.e., working memory).

Each of these concepts, in turn, has been associated with the functioning of the lateral prefrontal cortex - a region that has been massively expanded in humans compared to even our closest evolutionary relatives.

Read More: Here

Yale Scientists May Have Found Brain's Center For Self-Control

Intelligence offers some protection against succumbing to immediate gratification, but psychologists have been unsure why. Yale University researchers report that they may have found the first clue to the mystery in an area of the brain that governs abstract problem solving and goal management.

"How do you juggle what you desperately want to do right now versus what you know to be best for yourself long term? Its not easy for anyone," said Jeremy Gray, assistant professor of psychology and co-author of the study. "We found that a part of prefrontal cortex that helps integrate goals and values appears to contribute to both self-control and to performance on tests of abstract reasoning and problem solving, helping to explain why self-control and intelligence are related."

Read More: Here

Jill Bolte Taylor's Stroke of Insight

One morning in 1996, a blood vessel in Jill Bolte Taylor's brain exploded. Within moments, her left lobe--the source of ego, analysis, judgement and context--began to fail her. And much to her shock, the Harvard-trained brain scientist felt great. She'd been given a ringside seat to her own stroke, and a host of powerful insights as a result.

Here she is talking about her work and life at the TED 2008 Conference:

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