If you are having a long conversation on the phone, do you just sit still and enjoy the sounds of the voice on the other end of the phone, or do you seek out a pen and a piece of paper and start drawing cute little pictures or shapes? This action, commonly known as doodling, is something that many of us do when we are involved in a phone conversation. Personally I am the Doodle Queen. I work in a call centre and by the end of my shift, I always have to throw 3 pieces of paper in the bin as they are always filled with my pointless pictures and scribbles.  Despite the pen scribble that I do, I always seem to be able to carry a perfectly fluent conversation with the respondant on the other line. This mindless act that we all seem to carry out when listening to another person talk actually has benefits and a purpose.... Read More

Feeling like you are having trouble with your memory? Can’t remember those little things you usually seem to be able to remember? Before you start googling Alzheimers to see if that is what you have, perhaps you should turn to something you would not normally associate with memory loss; your diet.  You may not be aware that the food you eat can have an immediate impact on your cognitive abilities.  Research published in the February 2009 edition of the Journal, Apetite, found that a diet low on carbohydrates lead to poor performance on memory tasks.... Read More

According to Dr. William Fishbein, a cognitive neuroscientist at the City University of New York, “Not only do we need to remember to sleep, but most certainly we sleep to remember.” Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night, randomly remembering that thing you were supposed to have done last week but totally forgot to do? Or have you ever woken up with a great idea for your next blog post/book/assignment or a great solution to a problem you have been trying to fix. Recent studies on how sleep helps the brain process memories may provide an answer to why these random thoughts come to us during our sleep.... Read More