TEDx Youth Day will be streaming live

I know... enough with the TED stuff already.  But.... if you're the kind of person who is into new, thought provoking ideas, you'll want to catch this.  If you can't make it to TEDx Youth Day in your city tomorrow (11/20) you can watch it streaming live here:

http://www.livestream.com/tedxyouthday 

For the Sacramento TEDx event, go here:  http://www.livestream.com/TEDx Youth Sacramento

Quick preview of the presentation by one of the many speakers to present tomorrow in Sacramento.

Many of today's youth spend their time in Internet-based virtual worlds like Second Life or in role-playing games like Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft.  What is this doing to their brains? Alex Terrazas, President and Chief Scientist at Media Balance, addresses this question through a discussion of his research on the hippocampus (the brain area critical to cognitive mapping).  He says that by living in virtual worlds and relying on technology like GPS devices, we may be letting the hippocampus out of its usual job of mapping events to their locations. The question is, what is the hippocampus going to be used for now?

Impressive Line-up of Thought Leaders to Present at TEDx Sacramento

The line up of presenters at this year's TEDx Sacramento conference is impressive.

Here is the list (in alpha order):

• Brendan Boyle IDEO

• Sarah Cook

• Neeru Khosla

• William Rankin

• Rivkah Sass

• Julie Schweitzer

• Jay Silver

• Alex Terrazas

• Daniel Wetter

Musical guests and performers will include:

• DoomBird
• Dog Party
• The Bad Apples

On Twitter, Look for #TedxYouthSac

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In the interest of full disclosure,  I'm on the planning committee for this year's TEDx conference

Can exercise improve cognitive function?

The date of the article is November, 2007 - but the evidence seems strong that exercise improves cognitive function - and it is doubtful that it has been overturned.

According to the authors (see below):  "In people, fitness training slows the age-related shrinkage of the frontal cortex, which is important for executive function. In rodents, exercise increases the number of capillaries in the brain, which should improve blood flow, and therefore the availability of energy, to neurons. Exercise may also help the brain by improving cardiovascular health, preventing heart attacks and strokes that can cause brain damage. Finally, exercise causes the release of growth factors, proteins that increase the number of connections between neurons, and the birth of neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region important for memory. Any of these effects might improve cognitive performance, though it’s not known which ones are most important."

Sandra Aamodt is the editor in chief of Nature Neuroscience. Sam Wang is an associate professor of molecular biology and neuroscience at Princeton. They are the authors of the forthcoming “Welcome to Your Brain: Why You Lose Your Car Keys but Never Forget How to Drive and Other Puzzles of Everyday Life.”