ADHD impairs working memory and limits the ability to form long-term memories

Memory disorders disrupt the brain's ability to make, store, or recall memories

These disorders stem from reversible issues like vitamin deficiencies or irreversible causes such as stroke or dementia. Only one type of dementia—familial Alzheimer’s disease—is directly inherited and accounts for about 20% of Alzheimer’s cases.

SAD uniquely affects people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder

Those with ADHD—chronic issues with attention and executive function—are primed for SAD. Many are disproportionately evening chronotypes (more awake in the evening), have a delayed sleep phase, and have low sensitivity to light in the morning. This podcast explores the overlap between these two groups.

Autism and ADHD may have overlapping symptoms and someone can have both disorders

This video explores similarities and differences between these two disorders, which both have genetic causes. Challenges with attention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are typical of ADHD. Fidgeting, problems picking up on social cues, emotional dysregulation, and being oblivious to time may occur with both disorders—though the impetus for these behaviors may differ.

Various types of memory, each serving unique functions, create a complex brain system

These forms of memory, which can overlap in daily life, have been sorted into broad categories, such as short-term and long-term memory, and subtypes such as implicit memory, which uses saved information without conscious awareness that it’s being recalled.

Memories are formed through attention, repetition, and emotional significance

Our brains create memories by taking in sensory input, filtering it through short-term memory, and storing it in long-term memory. Emotional events are more likely to become vivid, lasting memories because they activate stronger neural connections.

'Why'd I take speed for twenty years?': an exploration of stimulant ADHD medication

Many people with ADHD are prescribed stimulant medication to assist with symptoms ranging from time blindness to executive dysfunction. This hour-long podcast episode by Search Engine explores the host's experience with ADHD medication and the history of amphetamine and methylphenidate use in the US.

Prolonged stress impairs the prefrontal cortex

Burnout isn't just a feeling—it physically affects the brain. Prolonged stress impairs regions of the brain responsible for decision-making, emotional control, memory, and more. It can also lead to chemical imbalances, like reduced dopamine and norepinephrine levels, that worsen these effects.

Age, stress, and neurological disorders can prevent memory formation and recall

Neurons transmit signals between one another at sites called synapses. Repeated interactions at these sites improve the efficiency of signal transmissions, making memories involving sensory data associated with those neurons easier to recall. Biochemical factors impacting these synaptic interactions affect memory quality.

Short-term memory is a temporary space for limited, newly learned information

Short-term memory stores info for 15 to 30 seconds and is managed by the prefrontal cortex. Though they're often confused, short-term memory stores information, while working memory actively uses it to help you reason, learn, and solve problems, such as a math equation.

Long-term memory formation may not need short-term memory

New research shows that long-term memories can still develop even when short-term memory formation is blocked, suggesting the brain uses separate pathways for short- and long-term memory. This discovery could help scientists open new avenues for treating memory loss in diseases like Alzheimer’s.

When to see a doctor over memory lapses

Memory includes various, distinct functions, like working memory (storing information temporarily) and procedural memory (your body's ability to perform a task unconsciously). Forgetting a word or losing your keys can feel like red flag memory lapses, but they are, in fact, language or attention problems, not memory ones. However, a lapse on top of stress, lack of sleep, chronic dysfunction, or an injury may be a red flag to see your doctor.

How to remember everything

On average, people can remember seven different things using their working memory. To better retain all the things we need to remember, Tiago Forte developed the Second Brain method: a simple approach for immediately capturing, organizing, and storing the myriad tasks, learnings, and resources we collect throughout the day.

Eliminating distractions is essential to improving one's attention span

Setting a baseline, removing distractions, establishing focus rituals, taking breaks, and finding purpose in your task are five science-backed practices that can help address a short attention span. Bestselling author Daniel Pink breaks down how to approach each part of the plan and introduce these habits to your life today.

The hippocampus, a structure in the brain, plays a crucial role in memory formation

The seahorse-shaped structure transfers short-term memories to long-term storage during sleep. It is located in the temporal lobes, above each ear, and aids in spatial navigation and remembering directions.

Resistance training is linked to better memory and cognitive function in older adults

Randomized control trials looking at structural neuroimaging and exercise suggest that resistance training in older adults induces structural brain changes that could reduce the risk of Alzheimer's Disease or mitigate its progression. The benefits have been documented when performed at least twice per week for at least six months.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Researchers use the brain's ability to edit memories to explore memory deletion

Scientists have successfully implanted false memories in mice after studying how the editing process works in the brain. Beyond potentially deleting memories in those with PTSD, upcoming research may allow clinicians to forecast the onset of neurodegenerative diseases.

What’s with the teen brain, anyway

In this video NIDA explores the intriguing similarities between the processes of brain development and computer programming. This analogy helps us understand why toxic environmental factors like drugs, bullying, or lack of sleep strongly affect a teenager’s life The information provided by this video can empower your children or students with information they need make better decisions.

Watch a USA Memory Champion answer questions about memory

Six-time USA Memory Champion, Nelson Dellis, answers popular questions about memory, from how sleep, stress, emotion, and attention influence memory to ways techniques like the memory palace, mnemonics, and the PAO system can dramatically improve recall.

Even brief physical activity can trigger the release of neurotransmitters that provide mental health boosts

A couple of minutes of light walking or stretching can increase feelings of energy and reduce fatigue, not just through the release of endorphins. Exercise can also provide self-regulation and improve task engagement and focus in those with certain mental health disorders, like ADHD.

Hearing loss is linked with brain volume reductions

The brain looks different as a result of hearing loss, with reductions in brain volume overall and in specific areas, and these changes are hypothesized to impact cognition. Exactly why hearing loss alters cognition is an active area of research, but theories include that the elevated cognitive load of straining to hear affects brain power available for thinking and memory and that hearing loss leads to social isolation which boosts dementia risk.

Repeated head injuries can lead to CTE and early dementia

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a progressive neurodegenerative disease caused by repeated trauma to the head. The condition has become a particular concern in sports like football and soccer, from youth to professional leagues, where repeated low-level concussive events are likely.

Addiction is defined as chronic compulsive drug use despite adverse consequences

This resource from the National Institute on Drug Abuse provides a comprehensive look at addiction as a complex brain disorder. It explores why people initially take addictive substances and how continued use alters the brain’s reward system.

Why 'spacing out' or dissociating may help reduce trauma awareness

Dissociation may have developed as a defense mechanism in the brain to help navigate intense emotional or physical situations by providing out-of-body experiences that put distance between the mind and the environment. However, in about 1.1% and 1.5% percent of the general population, a severe form of this separation can produce alternate identities, or alters.

Early-onset Alzheimer's can appear as early as age 30

Drugs recently approved to slow the progression of Alzheimer's appear to work best when administered as early as possible. Early stages are marked by a low buildup of tau, a protein experts believe clumps into misfolded, neuron-disrupting tangles once clusters of another protein—amyloid beta—have already started causing damage.

Visualizing 11 cognitive biases that influence how you think

Humans are hardwired to make mental mistakes called cognitive biases, affecting the way we view our world. Among the most common are confirmation bias (seeking only evidence that affirms your views), authority bias (overweighting things said by authority figures), groupthink (assimilating ideas to avoid conflict), and more. This quick chart gives an overview of some of the most notable ways we mislead ourselves.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

The first steps to rebuilding your credit score include getting to know exactly what's on your credit report and figuring out how far you are from the '700 club,' or 'good score' range.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.