Enjoy some memorable mental stimulation by checking out SFA’s September 17 entries on “In the News” (which accompanies this newsletter). The two entries of note concern memory fitness. One is a short report on an interesting scientific study, and the other is just for fun as singer-songwriter Tom Rush performs a tune sure to spark your humor neurons!
Please enjoy your LOL moment of the day — while also being entertained and informed by these three short video clips. Each is only a few minutes long, sheds light on the remarkable workings of the brain, and is sure to bring a smile.
The first is a World Science Festival presentation called "Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale." Simply by hopping about on stage, McFerrin leads a large unrehearsed audience to sing tunes together quite beautifully. He relies on their long-time familiarity with — that is, learning of — their culture’s predominant pentatonic scale (one that includes five notes an octave). It is believed they can so easily follow McFerrin’s unvoiced cues because their brains have learned to anticipate that particular musical pattern. To view, click on All Together Now.
On another musical note, meet Snowball the dancing cockatoo! If you’ve already seen him on YouTube, look again with this new insight in mind: At first, neuroscientists thought that surely Snowball must only be trained to boogie. But when he aced controlled testing that kept the tempo changing, they found that he was really listening and following the rhythm. This undermines an earlier view that only human beings possess the neural connections needed to dance in sync with music. For a fun overview of this subject regarding the animal kingdom at large, click on Creatures Great and Small. Get down with Snowball’s full dance routine to a Backstreet Boys hit by clicking Do It, Snowball!
Here’s how a distinguished English historian and biographer, who lived from 1876 to 1962, thought of his regular walking regimen:
"I have two doctors, my left leg and my right."
– George McCaulay Trevelyan
To conclude today’s issue with a light take on a serious subject, we reprint a favorite quotation. Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "Old age is always fifteen years older than I am."
Seth Borenstein, science writer for the Associated Press, recently interviewed scientists whose research goals include establishing a better understanding of laughter and its potential benefits. 
His resulting article notes that laughter is fundamentally a primal, social behavior often performed involuntarily. Not only do human beings laugh — so do apes, chimpanzees, dogs and even rats who, current research has disclosed, take delight in being tickled and will laugh during the pleasurable experience!
Laughter has been linked to the production of a chemical that acts as an anxiety-reducer and antidepressant. Although researchers quoted in the piece did not assert that laughter alone has been proven to provide direct health benefits, it was pointed out that this may be because it is scientifically difficult to isolate laughter from distraction and mood improvement, two variables which have been found beneficial to patients. Interviewed for the article, Baltimore neuroscientist and laughter researcher Dr. Robert Provine observed: "Isn’t the fact that laughter feels good when you do it, isn’t that enough?"
To read Borenstein’s complete article, click here.
One contemporary humorist has a very simple fitness test for us to consider:
"A man’s health can be judged by which he takes two at a time — pills or stairs."
– Joan Welsh
As springtime begins tempting us to get outdoors again and take a nice long walk, the words of American author Christopher Darlington Morley (1890-1957) capture the feeling:
"April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks Go."
— Christopher Morley, John Mistletoe
In his publication Democracy and Its Discontents, the American historian, professor, attorney and writer Daniel J. Boorstin (1914-2004) asserts:
"Education is learning what you didn’t even know you didn’t know."
– D.J. Boorstin
Well, here’s one common-sense take on weight control:
"People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas."
– Author Unknown
Articles (RSS)
|
Comments (RSS)
© 2010, American Senior Fitness Association. Creative Commons License
