Positive thinking

Marianna Bolognesi, University of Oxford   Words work as a glue, allowing us to group together different experiences under one label. This is especially true for concepts that we cannot see or touch. But we still don’t really understand how language works in shaping the meaning of these more abstract concepts, or how it allows us to group experiences together under one “umbrella” term, which denotes something we cannot point to, or see, or touch. Concrete concepts such as “banana” and abstract ones such as “freedom” differ in many ways. To get a grasp of this difference, Google the words “banana” and “freedom” and compare the images that are returned by the browser. For “banana” you get pictures that are quite similar to one another. For “freedom”, on the other hand, you get very different types of images that apparently have little in common. Screenshots of Google Image searches using ‘banana’ and ‘freedom’ as keywords. Google , Author provided Th...

Angela Clow, University of Westminster and Nina Smyth, University of Westminster October is a dismal time of year. The clocks go back, which accelerates the onset of darker evenings and the “shorter days” inevitably lead to calls for the tradition of putting clocks forward or backward to stop. Of course, the annual return to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) from British Summer Time (BST) doesn’t make the days any shorter, it merely shifts an hour of available daylight from the evening to the morning. For many, lighter evenings are a priority and little attention is given to the benefits of lighter mornings. Arguments over clock changes tend to revolve around benefits for easier travel in lighter evenings. Nevertheless research suggests that holding onto lighter mornings might have hitherto unforeseen advantages. Light in the morning – more than any other time of day – leads to powerful brain-boosting effects , helping us to function as best we can, despite the approachin...

    Michael Wheeler, University of Western Australia ; Daniel Green, University of Western Australia ; David Dunstan, Baker Heart and Diabetes Institute , and Paul Gardiner, The University of Queensland In many aspects of life where we need to use our brain power, we also tend to sit down: at school, at work, sitting exams or concentrating on a crossword. In a new paper , we explore how prolonged sitting may affect the brain’s fuel supply and have a negative impact on brain health. The brain is a glucose hungry organ. It weighs about 2% of body mass but demands about 20% of our resting energy requirements, which is mostly in the form of glucose, the primary brain fuel. If this energy supply is disrupted it can impair and even damage brain cells . Therefore, the availability of glucose to brain cells may have implications for brain health. Exposure of the brain to both high glucose levels and low glucose levels can increase the risk of developing dementia. Als...