Neckties Are Bad For Your Brain

Until now, business attire for men has meant a suit, collared shirt, and a necktie. Many men have dispensed with neckties, and that may be smart. Wearing neckties can reduce blood flow to the brain by 7.5 percent. If you already have high blood pressure, that could make you dizzy, nauseous, or bring on headaches. A tight necktie can even contribute to glaucoma.

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to pop your collar button, you’re welcome.

More:

“Wearing a tie may be restricting blood flow to your brain,” Alice Klein, New Scientist

“Another reason not to wear a tie: It could be cutting the blood flow to your brain,” Seattle Times

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Divided Brain

Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist has written about brain function, behaviour, and culture, and spoke last year at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA). The video of his lecture is here, but this short animated excerpt is easier to follow and more fun:

Speak, Memory

Remember “The End of History?  Sigh. How quickly they forget.

We now we have The End of Memory. We forget more these days, but it’s okay. We’ve all out-sourced our long-term memories to search engines. That’s according to a new report by researchers from Harvard, Columbia and the University of Wisconsin:

“Google Effects on Memory: Cognitive Consequences of Having Information at Our Fingertips,” Betsy Sparrow,Jenny Liu, Daniel M. Wegner, Science (abstract)

Tea Party Brain

A scientific study at Britain’s University College London finds that conservative brains have a larger “fear center” and smaller center of courage and optimism. No wonder the Tea Party hates science and foreigners.

Brain scans found that political conservatives tend to have a larger amygdala,  often called  the “primitive brain,”  the structure responsible for emotions like fear. Conservatives also seem to have a smaller anterior cingulate,  the part of the brain responsible for courage and optimism.

If this news makes you want to check your own amygdala, you can’t miss it. It’s that almond-shaped mass in the temporal lobes adjacent to the hippocampus.

  

Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.