Skilled readers can quickly recognize words when they read because the word has been placed in a visual dictionary of sorts which functions separately from an area that processes the sounds of written words, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) neuroscientists. The visual dictionary idea rebuts a common theory that our brain needs to "sound out" words each time we see them.

The adult brain has learned to calculate an image of its environment from sensory information. If the input signals change, however, even the adult brain is able to adapt − and, ideally, to return to its original activity patterns once the perturbation has ceased. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried have now shown in mice that this ability is due to the properties of individual neurons. Their findings demonstrate that individual cells adjust strongly to changes in the environment but after the environment returns to its original state it is again the individual neurons which reassume their initial response properties. This could explain why despite substantial plasticity the perception in the adult brain is rather stable and why the brain does not have to continuously relearn everything.

4.  The Mindful Brain 

Mindfulness-based meditation is now firmly established as a valid stress-reduction tool and is backed by a growing body of solid science illuminating its effects on the brain and health. It is being applied to an ever-growing list of conditions and life situations, including keeping kindergarteners calm, boosting job satisfaction, overcoming addiction, and beating back pain. Mindfulness meditation, as Fortune magazine reported in March, has become a billion-dollar business.

Stroke, the most common medical emergency, is a cerebrovascular accident that can cause death and long-term disability. Over 80 percent of all strokes are ischemic strokes, when a clot lodges in an artery supplying blood to the brain and the blood flow is reduced or blocked. A small percentage, caused by rupture of brain blood vessels, are called hemorrhagic strokes. Stroke risk factors are well known and include high blood pressure, elevated lipids, diabetes, smoking, heavy drinking, coronary artery disease, heart diseases, etc.

6.  Life after a stroke: Fontbonne program helps patients with speech therapy 

As many as one million Americans live with some form of aphasia, according to the National Institutes for Health, and a growing body of research