Linos and Severnini found that exposure to pollution above their threshold shifts a person's Lumosity percentile ranking by about 6 points on average.
Where this was said
At 41:40 · chapter starts 40:15
Acknowledging he's not a medical expert, Severnini synthesizes the biomedical literature: air pollution impairs the brain through two routes. The first is direct — fine particles are small enough to pass through the blood-brain barrier and directly disrupt neuronal function. The second is indirect — particles stimulate the release of pro-inflammatory cytokines, triggering systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, and ultimately neuron loss. Researchers studying this topic consistently observe these same processes: oxidative stress, inflammation, and neuronal damage. Together, these mechanisms explain how short-term variation in pollution exposure — the kind Linos and Severnini measure with daily gameplay data — can translate into measurable shifts in cognitive test scores.
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A large Harvard study found that a wandering mind is an unhappy mind — people report greater happiness when their attention is tethered to the present, even if the task is unpleasant.
A key study finding that we have a 'credit card's worth of plastic' in our bodies was likely skewed because researchers used nitrile gloves that shed plastic particles onto the microplastic detector.
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