BrainHelper.org has a downloads section that will continue to add tested and reliable programs for free and available for public use. So check it out often to look for new downloads. Downloads are FREE!
BrainHelper.org announces the Brain Arcade as a new addition to the website. The Brain Arcade will contain a host of free games to play and a leaderboard for members to record their scores. As many studies attest, playing computer games can be beneficial for hand-eye coordination and helping with focus and concentration. So keep your skills sharp and put your name on the leaderboard.
Some of the games included in the Brain Arcade are: Pacman, Space Invaders, Hockey Shoot, Frogger, Donkey Kong, Duck shoot, Mahjoong, Hangman, Simon, and many other games including games for the Brain.
Check back often as new games will be added to the arcade, if you have any suggestions please submit them to
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
or post them in the BrainHelper.org forums.
Click on The Brain Arcade button in the menu bar to go to the arcade.
BrainHelper.org was created to address issues that effect the brain and brain functioning as it relates to life circumstances. The brain is one of the most complex organs known to man with mysteries unfolding everyday. BrainHelper.org will provide information, education, and resources so every person who wants a better understanding and better coping skills in dealing with emotions, stress, and health can have access to a volume of information on a multitude of topics.
We would like to thank you for your support, feedback, and contributions to this ongoing project. Donations are welcome to help offset the costs of the site and to keep adding services and resources for the public to use.
BECOME A MEMBER, IT'S FREE!
Membership has its privileges:
- ability to create a profile
- ability to submit news items
- ability to submit web links
- ability to save scores in the Brain Arcade
- ability to post to the BrainHelper Blog
- ability to have your own email address
- access to private members part of the website
So sign up today by clicking below to register. Become a Member
Some combat veterans' difficulty returning to civilian life may be in part connected to smaller brain volume, researchers found.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after fighting in a war zone was strongly linked to smaller cortical volumes in four areas of the brain involved in identifying objects and words and putting them in context, according to a study led by Steven H. Woodward, PhD, of the National Center for PTSD at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System in California.
"Compromise of these regions may result in difficulty in relearning pretrauma schemata for interpreting the civilian physical and social environments," the investigators wrote in the December Archives of General Psychiatry.
Woodward's group used new advances in the structural analysis of MRI to revisit cortical volume in a group of 99 Vietnam and Gulf War veterans they had previously studied.
Half the participants met criteria for current PTSD (37 Vietnam and 13 Gulf War veterans) as a result of experiencing military trauma.
PTSD was associated with significantly lower total cortical volume adjusted for age (350,744 mm3 versus 368,896 mm3, P<0.01). The link was strengthened by adjustment for stature and volume of white matter in the brain (P<0.001).
Alcohol abuse or dependence, past or present, also tended to be correlated with lower total cortical volume (P=0.06) but there was no significant interaction with PTSD.
Cortical thickness as a weighted mean over the whole brain was likewise significantly lower among veterans with PTSD (2.384 versus 2.428 mm, P=0.03).
All individual areas of the brain that were linked through volume to PTSD showed inverse associations as well. After adjustment for stature and cerebral white matter volume, those that remained significant were:
* Parahippocampal gyrus (P<0.001)
* Superior temporal cortex (P<0.001)
* Lateral division of the orbital frontal cortex (P=0.001)
* Pars orbitalis of the inferior frontal gyrus (P=0.002)
There were no multivariate associations with PTSD for thickness of individual areas of the brain, but planned comparisons found significantly thinner rostral (P=0.007), caudal (P=0.03), and superior temporal cortex (P=0.04) divisions in veterans with PTSD.
Total cortical area also tended to be smaller in association with PTSD (P=0.06), but the superior temporal cortex was the only individual area for which the comparison was significant (P=0.02).
Compromised structure in the parahippocampal, and orbital frontal areas among individuals with PTSD suggested problems with facilitated object identification, Woodward's group wrote.
Recent studies have shown that the parahippocampal gyrus works with the hippocampus to determine how objects relate to each other within space and "in contextualization more generally," they added.
They also noted that "misperception of safe versus threatening contexts has been proposed to contribute to PTSD."
The ventrolateral and orbital frontal cortex regions, which were seen to be smaller in PTSD-affected veterans, also play a role in identifying objects, with the whole system heavily interconnected. The superior temporal cortex has also been implicated in stimulus identification, the authors noted.
If structural and functional compromise to these areas hampers their plasticity, conditioning by trauma sustained during combat could continue to influence identification of words and objects after the return home, the researchers suggested.
As in prior studies in which PTSD has been linked to lower intelligence, scores in vocabulary and digit symbol substitution on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale were significant predictors (P<0.001 and P=0.003, respectively).
Brain volume appeared to be a mediating factor between intelligence and the likelihood of PTSD (P=0.006 for cortical thickness and digit symbol substitution score, P=0.01 for total area and vocabulary score).
The researchers cautioned that their study was limited by predetermining which regions of the cortex to examine and by the greater use of psychotropic medications in the PTSD group than with other veterans (70% versus 10.6%), which could have an unknown impact on cortical structure.
The study was largely funded under a Department of Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense assistance agreement from the US Army Medical Research and Material Command administered through the VA. Additional support was provided by Swiss National Research Funds grants.
Primary source: Archives of General Psychiatry
Source reference:
Woodward SH, et al "Smaller global and regional cortical volume in combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder" Arch Gen Psychiatry 2009; 66: 1373-82.
