Short answer: There’s a real, fairly consistent association between volunteering and better cognitive function in older adults,...
Oscar Forrester
Very Big Brain is written by Oscar Forrester, a researcher and writer with a long-standing fascination with how the brain works. Oscar spent several years working in hospital IT, including on infection control systems, and grew up in a household shaped by medicine — his father was a physician and his mother a registered nurse. He is not a clinician himself, and nothing on this site should be taken as medical advice. What he brings instead is a rigorous, source-first approach to research, honed over two decades of writing (he’s authored numerous published books, primarily on software development), and a genuine curiosity about the science of cognition. Mr. Forrester strives to present complex topics in a clear and engaging manner, making it easy for you to understand and apply the knowledge to your daily life.
The most common signs of low testosterone in men under 40 are persistent fatigue, low libido, difficulty...
It’s largely a myth. A comprehensive meta-analysis pooling data from 41 clinical studies and more than 1,700...
Fasting does not reliably increase testosterone. In fact, in lean, physically active young men, controlled studies consistently...
Short answer: Yes, genuinely, and this is one of the more solid findings in stress neuroscience. Acute...
Short answer: Yes, and for mothers specifically, the changes are more dramatic and longer-lasting than most people...
Short answer: The evidence is genuinely mixed, and this is a good example of how research on...
Short answer: Largely yes, though the full story involves both wiring and genetics working together, and neither...
Short answer: Yes, and it’s well established. Whether you naturally lean toward being an early riser or...
Short answer: There’s a genuine, peer-reviewed neurological framework for thinking about it, though “writer’s block” itself isn’t...