Video games may improve brain power in older adults: Older adults wanting to keep their brains sharp may want to take a lesson in gaming from youngsters. A new study shows that healthy people ages 60 to 79 “got better at multitasking, paying attention in dull situations and remembering things short-term” after playing a specially-designed videogame called NeuroRacer on at laptop at home for 12 hours. Even better, “the improvements were still evident six months later, and they extended beyond the skills learned for the game.” 

Sleep ‘boosts brain cell numbers’: A new study may shed some light on why we need sleep. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin have found that “sleep ramps up the production of cells that go on to make an insulating material known as myelin which protects our brain’s circuitry.” The production rate of these cells, called oligodendrocytes, doubled while mice slept. This discovery “could lead to insights about sleep’s role in brain repair and growth” as well as help researchers understand multiple sclerosis, a disease characterized by the loss of myelin.