Brain News

Kelsy alerted me to this article today..since I am studying the Polish language and need all the help I can get with my memory....

To Boost Your Memory, Take a Break
Resting after learning helps to cement new information, researchers say

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter


(HealthDay News) -- Great news for working stiffs: You can take a break and feel good about it, new research suggests.

If you want to strengthen your memory, take a break after learning new information, say New York University researchers who found such "active rest" strengthens memory.

While sleep has been studied and found valuable as a way to preserve memories, less is known about how "active rest" during the day may affect them, said Lila Davachi, an assistant professor of psychology at NYU. So, she tested the memory of 16 study participants and evaluated the effect of rest on memory.

The study is published in the Jan. 28 issue of Neuron. The lead author of the study is Arielle Tambini, a doctoral candidate at NYU.

First, the researchers showed participants a series of images, each one pairing a face and an object. For instance, they looked at a "surfer dude" and a beach ball and were asked how likely the person was to be holding that object.

"After that, we asked them to rest," Davachi said. As they rested, the researchers observed brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

The investigators wanted to examine activity between the brain's hippocampus and the neocortex. Long-term storage of memories is thought to result from the "off-line" transfer of information from the hippocampus to the neocortex, Davachi explained.

"The brain regions remained active during rest, suggesting a replay of the experience," Davachi said. This suggested, but didn't prove, that memories were being cemented, she noted.

So the researchers gave the participants the memory test after they had rested. "The subjects who had greater correlations between the two brain areas [during rest] had better associative memory," Davachi said. "They remembered the face that went with the object [better]."

Another expert found the study results interesting. "I think it is important in that [the study] is showing that active rest is a time when you get this transfer of memory," said Dr. Paul Sanberg, director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa.

The finding may help both in a practical way, for individuals trying to improve their memory, and in research, to help experts further understand memory and what goes wrong, he said.

For people, the finding suggests having a rest period after learning new information may be valuable, Sanberg added. He doesn't know, however, if a coffee break would be the best way. It's probably better to sit, do nothing and let the new information soak in, he suggested.

"By keeping on doing many different tasks [after learning new information], you may interrupt the memory you want to strengthen," Sanberg said.

More information

Learn some tips on boosting your memory from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.
SOURCES: Lila Davachi, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology, New York University, New York City; Paul Sanberg, Ph.D., M.D., professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair, Tampa, Fla.; Jan. 28, 2010, Neuron

http://us.mc307.mail.yahoo.com/mc/showFolder?&.rand=167992221&&abnumadded=1&abnames=+Jackie++Fielder+&abids=489#_pg=showMessage&sMid=1&fid=Inbox&sort=date&order=down&startMid=0&filterBy=&.rand=941599820&midIndex=1&mid=1_20393662_AI3IjkQAARryS4h4EQaf4FE8I4I&m=1_20394442_AIbIjkQAAAS9S4h6Zg3ULmFaGTg,1_20393662_AI3IjkQAARryS4h4EQaf4FE8I4I,1_20393045_AIjIjkQAAXC0S4hufAk9MXq742M,1_20392373_AIrIjkQAABLVS4hqOgj%2Fk2EpIOY,1_20391634_AIjIjkQAAUr3S4hpJQYlZg6eveQ,1_20390391_AIzIjkQAAWhwS4hjywM%2FmXzs5FM,1_20391046_AIbIjkQAANokS4hknQjgwVIdlFg,&.jsrand=6144033

Pig Knuckles?

I have several hobbies, one of which is Polish Culture and Language.
Besides trying to learn Polish, I latch on to whatever interesting thing about Poland I can find. Here is a mind opening thought: These folks' favorite food is pig knuckles!

I ask : What are we missing? Something very delicious?

I searched for a picture of roasted pig knuckles and found one!

Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-JeziornaFood expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27Family recipe: Pig's knuckles with carrots, celery and parsnips
From the Book, "Hungry Planet"
http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1626519_1373724,00.html



Pig Knuckels with a side of sauerkraut and mashed potatoes. I like the little dollop of yellow mustard on the side. Dare me to buy pig knuckles and cook and eat them?

I Do Love the Color Green

This is our newly painted bathroom with a leaf motif shower curtain and whimsical frog soap dispenser. The walls are colored Chives (A Wal Mart brand paint-1 gallon for less than 14 dollars)

Before..this bathroom had light pink walls and a dark burgandy shower curtain. It is amazing how color affects one's moods and how exhiliarating change can be!!!

Ponczka Time!

Caleb Wojtalewicz spreads out freshly made ponczka on a table to cool as Scott Vuorinn fills them with prunes Friday as members of the St. Mary’s Torun Catholic Church in the town of Dewey carry on the pre-Lent Polish tradition of making ponczka. (DOUG WOJCIK/STEVENS POINT JOURNAL

I, Joan, regret that I never made ponczkas (pronounced POONCH kas)while our kids were growing up. It is a Polish Catholic tradition. Before Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, the homemakers would make ponczkas. My mom made them every year. What a sight to see a big bowl of these big round brownish fried balls of dough dusted with sugar and filled with either dates, prunes or jam. They were best the first day.
So here is an article from my hometown newspaper about the current ponczka situation.
My folks have been getting them from the grocery store, instead of driving way out to the country churches.

January 23, 2010
http://www.stevenspointjournal.com/print/article/20100123/SPJ0101/1230537/Ponczka-baking-a-sweet-endeavor-for-church

Ponczka baking a sweet endeavor for church

By Cara Spoto
Journal staff
Bready and mildly sweet, ponczka -- Polish doughnuts filled with prunes or jelly -- are well known to people in Portage County, scores of them the ancestors of Polish immigrants who moved here more than a century ago.

For many of their families, the language and other cultural elements of Poland have faded with each generation, but somehow, ponczka have managed to stick around.
On Friday, dozens of St. Mary's Torun parishioners gathered in the church's basement in the town of Dewey with one clear goal: to make a lot of ponczka.
Gathered in the steaming hot kitchen, women stood around a small table rolling yellow balls of dough. Just feet away, kids poured flour and beaten eggs into churning bread mixers. Behind them, men boiled the doughnuts in large vats of oil, rotating each one carefully before draining and handing them off to a runner to be filled and bagged.

Several parishes in the region hold annual ponczka events, typically before Lent. St. Mary's has hosted its event for close to 35 years, church secretary Kristi Vuorinen said. The church typically fills 500 ponczka orders from residents each year. This year, they reached the 500 order mark by Tuesday -- a new record, Vourinen said.

Work on this year's batch of doughnuts began at 4 a.m., as women came into makethe first batches of dough. The church has used the same recipe for years -- one that only the bakers themselves and a few parishioners know.

At 10 a.m., things were in full swing, with school children running back and forth to collect doughnuts. Huge vats of jelly and prune butter sat on tables.
Marty Tepp, 67, of Hull has volunteered to make the ponczka for as long as she can remember. She said she remembers coming home from school to find her mother with plate of hot ponczka waiting for her.

"She would put the whole prune inside," Tepp said.

Marion Schultz, 71, of Dewey, has taken part in the event for as long as it has been held. Surrounded by two flour-covered grandchildren, 9- and 13-year-olds Paige and MacKenzie, Schultz said what she likes most about the event is spending time with everyone. She said what makes a perfect ponczka has everything to do the rising of the dough.

For 13-year-old Caleb Wojtalewicz, of Dewey, who spent much of the morning filing bags with doughnuts, the best kind of ponczka is jelly filled.
"I haven't had prune yet, and I need something in all this doughnut," he said.

Technology Perks

Save A Life, Use Technology !!!
The picture above is from the Associated Press:
AP – The sun shines onto the ice-covered beach of St. Peter Ording, at the north sea coast, Germany, on Thursday, …

Here is the story:
German man saved on frozen sea by webcam spotter
By DESMOND BUTLER, Associated Press Writer Desmond Butler, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 1 min ago (February 3, 2010 9:45 am)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_germany_webcam_rescue/print

BERLIN – Watch the sunset, save a life.
A woman admiring the sunset on a tourist webcam in northern Germany spotted a man who was lost on the frozen North Sea and probably saved his life by alerting authorities, police said Wednesday.

The man had climbed over pack ice off the coast to photograph a sunset near the town of St. Peter-Ording, then became disoriented on the ice, Husum police spokeswoman Kristin Stielow said.

Unable to locate the beach, the man began using his camera to flash for help. That got the attention of a woman hundreds of miles (kilometers) away in southern Germany who was watching the sunset over the sea on her computer.
The woman contacted police, who located the man's signals and guided him into shore by flashing their car lights. Officers then lectured him on the dangers of trekking on the ice.

Police would not identify the man or the woman who spotted him. Stielow said he was a German tourist in his forties.

She said locals are well aware of the risk of disorientation as darkness falls and the beach becomes hard to identify, but vivid sunsets over frozen landscapes often draw people away from the shore.

At the time the man lost his bearings, the air temperature was below freezing. He could have frozen to death or fallen through the ice, Stielow added.
St. Peter-Ording is popular tourist destination known for its beaches and sailing, and the local tourism board runs a Web site with a webcam. The board, however, said images from the webcam are routinely erased and the dramatic flashes from the man's camera were not saved before the story came to light.
____
On the Web: http://www.st.peter-ording-nordsee.de/webcam-strand.html