With so much of our time spent on screens, getting motion sickness from scrolling (called “cybersickness”) occurs frequently.  It was once thought of as a type of motion sickness that only gamers got, especially from virtual reality devices, but it’s become more widespread.  The effects of taxing the visual system with scrolling and looking at small screens that flicker seems subtle, but it can add up to uncomfortable feelings of eye strain, headaches, and can trigger actual motion sickness.                 A new study has found that you may be able to relieve symptoms...

               If you’ve had a hard night sleeping, or a few weeks of disrupted sleep, you can catch up on that sleep the next chance you get, right?  A new study challenges our assumptions of how much sleeping in on the weekends to make up for a sleepless week can really help us.                 Researchers at Penn State University stacked how well sleep accumulates versus the effects that missing sleep can have on the cardiovascular system.  They followed 15 healthy participants in an eleven-day sleep study while taking cardiovascular metrics like heart rate and...

           Modern hustle culture teaches us that it’s important to be productive from sun up to sun down, and that the only way to progress is to try twice as hard.  Free time is viewed as time when you’re not living up to your potential and connected to traits like laziness and sloth.  For freelancers or anyone in a profession where creativity is key, the pressure to fill all your time with work or busy-ness can be even more pronounced.                 However, research finds that people who enjoy times of leisure and a slower pace might...

            There’s a lot of stigma attached to how much money you make being representative of your overall intelligence, especially in blue-collared jobs versus white-collared jobs.  However, new research shows that based on IQ tests, this prejudice doesn’t have a scientific basis.                 Researchers from Sweden at the Linköping University interpreted results from cognitive performance tests with information about wages earned from participants.  They found that as wages increase, a plateau occurs between IQ and income.  Right around an annual income of 60,000 euros, those with top earning actually had a slightly worse IQ score...

                The mind-body connection is continuing to take us by surprise.  Recent research has found that being under stress immediately impacts the body and its’ performance, even down to the spine.                 A team of researchers from Ohio State University tested what happens to the body during lifting when working through information that is contrary to what the participants believed.  This type of mental stress is related to the effects of working through cognitive dissonance, which is the phenomenon that occurs when people have to think about things which don’t match what they...

              When it comes to planning, a recent study finds that planning skills can be learned and improved even it’s not inherent to someone’s particular nature.  Thinking ahead has been linked to better decision-making capabilities, but there hasn’t been a lot of information about how the brain achieves this.                  To learn more about people’s “planning depth”, a team of researchers from NYU teamed up to find out if it’s possible to learn this skill.  They embellished the classic tic-tac-toe game to have more evolved decision-making steps and asked the participants playing the game...

              Sometimes it’s easy to see if someone expresses their creativity more than others, but what if creativity could actually be measured?  Scientists believe they’ve found a way to measure—and test—your creativity with a simple exercise.                                Based on research from three international universities, measuring creativity is as simple as a 4- minute test, which you can give yourself and your friends!  It’s called the Divergent Association Task which was created by a McGill University Psychiatry graduate.  In this exercise, you think of 10 words in a 4-minute period that are as unrelated from...

                 You may have heard that you can only relate to someone or something based on your previous experiences, but what’s happening in the brain to cause that phenomenon?                 Researchers have determined that your perception is influenced by your past experiences, starting with your visual processing.  This isn’t just confined to how the brain processes visual input, but even the manner that your eyes perceive something is going to be different based on what you’ve seen in the past.                  It’s also influenced by what action you took when you saw something similar in the past.  If you saw...

               When you’re looking for a boost to amp up your creativity, it’s easy to start off with the usual nootropics (and, more often than not, that common nootropic usually an arm’s length away: coffee).  However, creativity may start off more with the foundations of your diet, instead of things you add in to supplement it.                 According to new research from cognitive psychologists, some of the nutrients and neurotransmitter building blocks that are in fruit and almonds may have a key role in boosting creativity.  Some proponents of the all-fruit diet believe that...

               Have you heard of the one-hit wonders?  They’re the songwriters, composers, or authors who produce stellar works on their very first attempt—but they struggle to continue to reproduce the same caliber of work afterwards. While it may seem counterintuitive, this is a true phenomenon which, once understood, can help you or your team avoid this creative pitfall.                 Researchers from Washington University (St. Louis), investigated this effect, trying to understand why some people can be continuously creative, while others struggle to maintain that same level of creativity in their work as time goes...

               The old adage “something is better than nothing” is true even when you’re looking at maximizing your potential for an extra long life.  The secret may not be in up-and-coming supplements, but just keeping busy.                 We’ve learned how just small amounts of exercise can benefit the brain and keep normal aging processes for the brain and body at bay, and we’re learning more and more than 10,000 steps per day may not be a magic number.  In a recent study from the University of Sydney, we’ve learned that even if you’re not...

            When you’re serious about nootropics, you’re serious about brain health.  It’s now more important than ever to take steps to reduce the chances of suffering through the consequences of inflammation, pollution, and poor mental performance.  Most of the key ways that nootropics help us achieve better and more efficient cognitive performance is through keeping the brain as healthy as it can be, now and in the long-term.                 Recently published in the Journal of Physiology, a research team has found that preventing neurodegeneration due to aging relies on the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) protein. ...