This article was written by Travis M of Clearer Thinking, in partnership with Consensus.Shakespeare’s tragedies nearly all feature a protagonist with a fatal personality flaw that leads to their downfall. For Macbeth, it’s his ambition. For Othello, it’s his jealousy. What would yours be? The idea of a fatal personality flaw that leads to ruin is a well-established trope in tragic storytelling (going all the way back to the ancient Greeks), but it’s also a trope in the things we say to ourselves - things like:“If I wasn’t so anxious, I’d have a better social life”“If I wasn’t so lacking in self-discipline, I’d have a better job”

How to Improve Focus and Attention: Mechanisms of ActionThis post was written with Consensus AI Academic Search Engine. Improving focus and attention is crucial in today's fast-paced world. Various mechanisms and techniques have been identified that can significantly enhance these cognitive functions. This article explores different strategies, backed by scientific evidence, to help you improve your focus and attention effectively.Understanding Attention NetworksAttention involves various networks in the brain that coordinate to enhance how we focus and respond to tasks. Researchers Posner, Rothbart, and Tang (2015) describe two main training approaches: network training, which involves repeated tasks to stimulate specific brain networks, and state training, which includes exercises like meditation to alter brain states. Network training can be done through activities like video games or specialized computer exercises, whereas state training includes mindfulness and meditation techniques, both known to reduce stress and improve executive attention (Posner, Rothbart, & Tang, 2015).

We asked three psychology and cognitive science experts to weigh in on whether IQ scores change as we age. Their answers reveal the fascinating complexity behind intelligence measurement across the lifespan. From neuropsychologists to quantitative psychologists, these specialists provide evidence-based perspectives on IQ stability that challenge common assumptions. What they reveal about age-related cognitive changes might surprise you.Louis Matzel has answered UnlikelyAn expert from Rutgers University in Genetics, Psychology, NeuropsychologyAlthough IQ can change for an individual, across a population it is well established that IQ is stable across the lifespan. This does NOT mean that our abilities do not change as we age. IQ (as the name indicates) is a QUOTIENT, i.e., your score is calculated relative to persons of your age. If your IQ is high relative to other 20 year-olds, it is very likely to be high relative to your age-matched peers when you are 90 years old. Likewise if your IQ is low. Nevertheless, we are all much less capable at 90 than we were at 20 (cognitive aging is real and it is profound) . But since IQ scores are age-normalized, your IQ score will remain relatively constant. Abilities change, but IQ scores tend to be very stable.

The risks of a poor diet include obesity and diabetes - but also a decline in brain performance. Increasing evidence shows that eating balanced food (and avoiding too much sugar, salt and fat) can help against dementia, perhaps by keeping your cardiovascular system in check. Whether or not it can improve cognition in healthy people is less clear. This consensus is based on 6 experts answers from this question: Can a good diet improve cognitive function?Every time a neuron in your brain sends out a message to another one down the road, substances like sodium and potassium are pumped in and out of the neuron in a wave that spreads along its membrane. Then, once the signal gets to the end of the neuron, there will be a signal to fire and the neuron will immediately release a bunch of neurotransmitters to its neighbours. This process is repeated over and over again in your brain - and for that, you need lots of energy.The brain is a hugely demanding machine and burns about a fifth of all the glucose in our body - but even that is not enough. Like other organs, it needs a number of different nutrients in the right amount to function well. So can your diet affect cognitive function?Good nutrition, bad nutrition

Millennials are less prone to dementia than boomers. The rate of new cases is lower now than it was for previous generations. Still, more people live with dementia today than ever before, as the world’s population keeps growing and more people live into older ages. This consensus is based on 7 experts answers from this question: Are dementia rates in the US declining?As we blow out those birthday candles year after year, we get older. So do the people near us, and when one looks around it would seem that more and more of them are getting dementia as the years go by. Unhelpfully, news often seem to present a rather dystopian future where most of us may inevitably get Alzheimer’s in a few years or decades. But are we any more likely to suffer dementia than were those from our parents’ generation? We have put this question to our experts and all of them agreed on quite the opposite: Dementia rates are declining. And yet, our perception may be right - more people do live with it in today’s world than ever before. Here is how to reconcile both facts.More and more live with dementia...The prevalence of a disease is the total amount of people that have it at any given time. For dementia, the overall number of patients living with it is on the rise - and is expected to keep increasing in the coming years. John Goss, a global health expert from the University of Canberra, explains that this is due to the growth of the population (whereby the more people there are, the more dementia patients there will be in total) and the fact that people live longer now.

We haven't been dependent on natural light from the sun since the invention of the lightbulb in 1879. Nowadays, many people spend most of the day not just in artificially lit rooms, but also looking at screens - phones, computers and TVs. Recently, there have been concerns that looking at bright screens in the evening can confuse your circadian rhythm, which is the internal clock that regulates our sleep-wake cycle. We would assume that this means using a screen before bed might make it harder to fall asleep. In fact, there are many products you can buy to filter out the blue light from your screens, which promise to improve your sleep quality. Do these products actually work? Does screen light change our circadian rhythm, and does this make it harder to fall asleep? We asked 4 experts ‘Is technology changing our circadian rhythm?’. All of the experts answered ‘yes’, but the story is a little more complicated, here is what we found out. This consensus is based on 4 experts answers from this question: Is technology changing our circadian rhythm?How does the circadian rhythm work?The circadian rhythm is an innate ‘body clock’ present in many forms of life including plants, fungi, and animals. In humans, the body clock is found in the hypothalamus. The hypothalamus releases a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin is often referred to as the ‘sleep hormone’ as its levels are high at night but drop just before we wake up in the morning. The clock has an intrinsic rhythm, but it can also be adjusted in response to light. Professor Axelsson, an expert in sleep research from the Karolinska Institute explains, the “master clock … has a near 24 hour intrinsic rhythm and is very sensitive to light around dusk and dawn, so to fine tune the circadian system; which allows the system to be dynamic and adapt to the seasonal changes in duration of day and night.”Learn more with Consensus AI Academic Search Engine: