Yup, scientists at the University of Wisconsin scanned some adult brains, specifically, those of volunteers who were followed from birth through to age 18. Participants who reported experiencing childhood maltreatment were found to have lower connectivity between key brain regions. Neither their amygdala nor their hippocampus were on good speaking terms with their cingulate cortex. What does that mean? Basically, the childhood trauma altered how their brains processed fear as adults, leading to an increased risk of anxiety and depression.

Scientists have previously demonstrated that childhood abuse can alter our DNA. However, this is the first time that researchers have shown it can alter how our brains are wired and respond to emotional situations. Hopefully, this knowledge will lead to better interventions for patients. Minimizing childhood trauma would obviously be ideal, but parents need not worry – despite their protests, making your kids do their homework probably won’t traumatize them.

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Sound like the stuff of dreams?  Try geochemistry.  Turns out the roots of these trees reach deep into the ground – tens of meters deep, to be exact.  Since the water in the Kalgoorlie region of Western Australia contains traces of gold, trees looking to quench their thirst inadvertently suck up metal particles.  Nice bonus, right?  Apparently not.  As trees have no use for bling (it might even be toxic to them), the gold is relegated to branches and eventually leaves so that it can be cast-off.

Sure, it’s probably not worth our while to collect these leaves for their gold, but there could be a benefit to this discovery.  By x-raying leaves useful metals, including copper and zinc, researchers may have discovered a more environmentally friendly method to find mineral deposits.  Regardless, the thought of unwanted gold being discarded by trees must trigger a bit of mental anguish in some people.  What would you do with gold falling from trees?

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A batch of cute youngsters (with the permission their doting parents) was rounded up and engaged in memory-based learning followed by naps or wake. Afterwards, when testing the kids’ recall, researchers found something unexpected. Not only did naps result in an immediate 10% improvement in cognitive performance vs non-napping, but these results lasted until the next day – after all the kids had a good night’s sleep. Why? Well, though naps lack non-REM sleep (critical for adult memory), they are invaluable to youngsters.  A brain underdevelopment needs this type of frequent sleep to process and bank what it has learned.

One important thing to note was that the benefit of napping depended on the child’s stage of brain development. Everyone is different. Depriving a kid who needed their daily nap reduced their performance, but preschoolers who did not need daily naps performed the same regardless. Obviously, parents know if their child needs regular naps, but truth be told, who doesn’t have at least one childhood memory best left forgotten?

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Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to be nice.  In fact, for years, economists and mathematicians would have agreed.  So why does generosity exist in nature?  Turns out, it really is the best strategy.

If you’re familiar with Game Theory, then you’ve probably heard of the Prisoner’s Dilemma.  The hypothetical situation was created by researchers to determine which leads to the biggest payoff – cooperation or selfishness.  Clearly, there are real-life applications.  When two players cooperate, they both win.  When both are selfish, they gain less.  When opposites are matched together, the selfish player wins the most.  The key question for researchers?  If this is true, then why does generosity persist in society?

Recently, biologists at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered a fundamental flaw in the traditional win/lose model – it only applied to one-on-one, short-term situations, not an evolving population.  Apparently, selfishness and extortion (when you force an opponent to receive a lower score) are only for the short-sighted.  There is no way to win in a society without being generous and showing forgiveness.  The researchers used a lot of complicated math to unequivocally back this up.  Scientists suspect that this could account for the findings of evolutionary psychologists which have shown that generosity elicits happiness in people.  What do you think?  Is it worth it to play nice?

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In their quest for data, scientists rounded up many participants, and even more chocolate bars. In the first experiment, some volunteers were asked to unwrap and consume their chocolate bars in a specific manner. The result? Those who followed systematic steps experienced more flavour. Even more intriguing is that those same people estimated the candy bar to have a higher dollar value and to be more worthy of savouring.

In an interesting twist, it was also discovered that the enjoyment only increased for participants if they were the ones performing the ritual. For instance, watching someone prepare a glass of lemonade for you won’t result in the same satisfaction as that derived from preparing it yourself prior to consumption.

So what impact do these findings have on our everyday lives? Well, aside from making every bite more savoury, it reminds of of how common rituals enhance our experiences. Turns out giving thanks before a big meal can help mitigate the craziness of a family gathering. Now I’m willing to toast to that.

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Video games have their benefits. Yes, you read that correctly. Thanks to researchers at Duke University, there is proof that very intensive gaming can train the brain to digest visual data better and faster. How’s that for an unexpected perk?Though researchers declined the intense hobby themselves, they did study college students. Participants were either very intensive gamers or non-gamers. All were given a visual sensory memory task. Basically, they had to look at a screen on which eight letters would flash for one-tenth of a second. They were then asked to identify the letter that had appeared in a randomly-selected position. The gamers won – hands-down – in every variation of the test.Apparently, all human brains quickly filter out unused visual info. The difference? Gamers either collect more info than the rest of us, make better decisions, or both. Looks like gamers will have to volunteer for MRI brain scans to help scientists solve this puzzle. For now, they can continue to save the world in their virtual reality, while fine-tuning their minds in our reality.

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So what is cognitive vulnerability? It’s the way you interpret stressful life events. Do self-blame and the feeling that factors are beyond your control sound familiar? Apparently, thinking this way puts you at an increased risk for depression. Traditionally, researchers believed that these thought patterns were solidified in early adolescence. Well, they were wrong.

Though this research is in its infancy, the knowledge that cognitive vulnerability is adaptable could yield significant benefits. For instance, future interventions could include altering your social environment. For now, it’s best to ensure that you have a healthy, stress-free roommate environment – assuming this exists.  What roommate situations have you survived?

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