Weekly Roundup: Thinking in your job is good for your brain, decision-making, and metacognition is environmentally dependent not genetically

My weekly round up of latest research in all things the brain and mind

This week I focus on some new research on using your brain and healthy brains in age, a bunch on decision making, and new research showing that metacognition and emotional intelligence seemed linked to upbringing — not genetics!

Use it or lose it

Well, it may seem obvious but this is another piece of research to show the case of “use it, or lose it”. Specifically with brain usage at work. If your job requires more brain power, your chances of brain degenerative disorders later in life are lower.

This is according to another study that has shown this by Edwin Trine et al. of the American Academy of Neurology. The study analysed data from 7’000 individuals in 305 professions in a Norwegian dataset. They found that the higher the cognitive load in your job, the lower your chances of cognitive impairment after 70.

They do stress that this is only a correlational study — correlation is not causation (it could be that those in jobs that require more brain power have a genetic advantage)…