We are pleased to announce the new annual Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, designed to foster innovation and best practice sharing by celebrating outstanding pioneers who apply neuroplasticity-based research and tools in the “real world”. The awards will recognize organizations that are devising and implementing results-oriented and scalable initiatives that demonstrate their commitment to the brain fitness of their clients, members, patients, students or employees, and showcase innovative uses of non-invasive tools to improve cognitive and emotional functions and “real-world” outcomes.

Prizes

1 Grand Prize Winner will receive: $2,500 check, consulting session with SharpBrains staff, 2 tickets for each SharpBrains Summit in 2011; 10 signed copies of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness.

2 Silver Prize Winners will each receive: $1,000 check, consulting session with SharpBrains staff, 2 tickets for each SharpBrains Summit in 2011, 10 signed copies of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness.

7 Finalists will each receive: $250 check, 1 ticket for each SharpBrains Summit in 2011, 10 signed copies of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness.

How to Enter

Organizations can use this Entry Form to submit entries by end of Thursday, April 15th, 2010.

The 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards will recognize unique initiatives that not only bring measurable benefits to end users but also are closely connected to furthering the objectives of the organization in which they operate, via (for example) increased customer/ patient satisfaction, employee engagement, branding benefits, professional development gains, and others. All eligible submissions will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• 20%: Measurable Benefits for end users
• 20%: Measurable Benefits for organization
• 20%: Creativity and Innovation of approach
• 20%: Scalability of initiative
• 20%: Value of Lessons Learned

Process

March 10th: Awards announced
By April 15th: All entries collected
By April 30th: SharpBrains staff selects 10 finalists
By May 15th: judges score finalists and select 1 Grand Prize Winner and 2 Silver Prize Winners
May 24th: Winners will be announced on Monday, May 24th, at the SharpBrains Summit – The State of the Brain Fitness Market

Confirmed Judges

• Alvaro Fernandez, Co-Founder of SharpBrains
• Baba Shiv, Professor at Stanford Business School
• Bill Tucker, Managing Director at Education Sector
• Brian Murphy, President of De Anza College
• Charles Jennings, Director of the McGovern Institute Neurotechnology Program, MIT
• Chuck House, Executive Director of Stanford Media X
• Colin Milner, CEO of the International Council on Active Aging
• Elizabeth Edgerly, National Spokesperson for Alzheimer’s Association “Maintain Your Brain”
• Gloria Cavanaugh, Former President of the American Society on Aging
• Kenneth Kosik, Co-Director of UC-Santa Barbara Neuroscience Research Institute
• Margaret Morris, Senior Researcher at Intel’s Digital Health Group
• Nigel Smith, AARP Strategy and Planning Director
• P Murali Doraiswamy, Head of Biological Psychiatry at Duke University
• Rod Falcon, Director of Health Horizons Program at the Institute For The Future
• Stephen Macknik, Lab Director at Barrow Neurological Institute
• Susan Hoffman, Director of OLLI @ Berkeley

May 24th Summit

2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Award Winners will be announced during the SharpBrains Virtual Summit on the State of the Brain Fitness Market, to be held on Monday, May 24th, 2010, from 8am to 4pm US Pacific Time. Registered attendees will receive an electronic copy of SharpBrains’ annual report The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2010, the most comprehensive report on the category, to be released and discussed during the Summit.

Summit Agenda

8am. Bird’s-Eye View: Top Events, Indicators, Trends

8.30am. Market Survey on Beliefs, Attitudes, Purchase Habits
9am. Competitive Landscape: Leading Assessments and Training Tools
9.30am. State-of-the-Art Research and Development
10am. Watercooler Chat

10.30am. Consumer Data and Trends
11am. Healthcare, Insurance, Senior Living Data and Trends
11.30am. Lunch Break

12.30pm. K12 Data and Trends
1pm. Military, Corporate, Sports Data and Trends
1.30pm. Future Directions – Projections, Themes and Risks
2pm. Watercooler Chat

2.30pm. 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards
3.30-4pm. Watercooler Chat and Wrap-Up

Past Summit attendees/annual report buyers include:  AARP, Aberdare Ventures, Abington Memorial Hospital, Agility Group, Alegent Health, Applied Cognitive Engineering, Aspyr Media, Baycrest, BCM Technologies, Belmont Village, Binnacle Capital, BKIN Technologies, Bon Secours New York Health System, Brain Resource, Brookdale Senior Living, Campbell Soup Company, Care One, Choratech, Clinton Global Initiative, Club One, CNS Vital Signs, Cogmed, Cognitive Media, CogState, CORE Health, Credit Suisse, Dakim, Easter Seals, EDGE Innovation Network, Ericsson, Ernst & Young, FDA, First Currency R &D, FitBrains, Fonterra, HappyNeuron, Institute for Behavioral Health Informatics, Intel Corporation, International Masters Publishers, Inverness Medical Innovations, Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation, Kaiser Permanente, LEAF, LearningRx, Lumos Labs, Medisolve, Merit Entertainment, NeuroCare Network, Mindware Lab, Neuroimage, NovaVision, One Laptop Per Child, Ontario Long Term Care Association, OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions, Oregon Health & Science University, Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes, Osmium Partners, Pfizer, Piedmont Gardens, Posit Science, Proactive Aging, Procter & Gamble, Scientific Learning, Sovereign Health, Sun Microsystems, Sunrise Senior Living, Sutter Health, The Wellness Alliance, Unilever, USAA, US Army Research Lab, Technology Partners, vibrantBrains, Visiting Angels, Westminster Communities.

You can Learn More about Innovation Awards and May 24th Summit Here.

This week the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA), the main association of health clubs worldwide, is holding its annual convention in San Diego. Information Here.

I will be presenting a session on Wednesday titled Brain Fitness Offerings to Attract and Retain Baby Boomers, to help participants…

• Understand the implications from emerging research, tools and trends that will affect how health clubs attract and retain baby boomers
• Learn about the 4 lifestyle pillars for lifelong brain health, including physical and mental exercise
• Review a proven checklist to build a solid business case and navigate through the growing array of options
• Find the best mix of brain health products and practices by discussing best practices and case studies
• Identify low-cost and easy-to-implement options that your clubs can use to start engaging baby boomers

I assume most of you won’t be able to attend, so let me share an article that Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg and I wrote for their main magazine in 2006 (progress does happen, but slowly), titled Are you sure your members are working out ALL their muscles?

“Sure, they come to the gym every day. They lift more weights, do more pushups, and run further during every workout. They eat right. They watch their weight. They’re in good shape. What could your members possibly be missing? Their mental muscles. 

While living an active life and participating in stimulating activities such as crossword puzzles, music lessons and reading certainly do use one’s brain, they do not provide a consistent, comprehensive brain workout with measurable results. Brains need novelty, variety and stretching practice in order to get fit!”

You can keep reading article Here.

via Press release:

The Research Partnership in Cognitive Aging, a public-private effort to promote the study of brain function with age, will award up to $28 million over five years to 17 research grants to examine the neural and behavioral profiles of healthy cognitive aging and explore interventions that may prevent, reduce or reverse cognitive decline in older people.

The partnership, led by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the McKnight Brain Research Foundation (MBRF), is seeking ways to maintain cognitive health — the ability to think, learn and remember — into old age.

Hodes pointed out that emerging evidence suggests that certain interventions — such as exercise, environmental enrichment, diet, social engagement, cognitive training and stress reduction — should be studied more intensively to determine if they might prevent or reduce declines in cognitive health.

All the studies are fascinating, and a few of them may have significant impact in the near-term given market trends:

• Ellen F. Binder, M.D., and Mark A. McDaniel, Ph.D., Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis: Combining Exercise and Cognitive Training to Improve Everyday Function. A pilot trial in 90 older adults will evaluate whether cognition improves when aerobic exercise is combined with cognitive enrichment provided by a specific research-based video game. The randomized trial is aimed at finding an intervention to improve day-to-day cognitive function.
• Mark D’Esposito, M.D., University of California, Berkeley: A Brain-Based Approach to Enhancing Executive Control Functions in Healthy Aging
• Patricia A. Boyle, Ph.D., Rush University Medical Center, Chicago: Characterizing the Behavior Profile of Healthy Cognitive Aging
• Randy L. Buckner, Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston: Neural Processes Underlying Cognitive Aging
• Joe Z. Tsien, Ph.D., Medical College of Georgia, Augusta: Hippocampal Network Profiles of Memory Aging.
• Yaakov Stern, Ph.D., Columbia University, New York: Combined Exercise and Cognitive Training Intervention in Normal Aging

For more information

• Press release: Here
• Website: Research Partnership in Cognitive Aging

My two cents:

• Why $28 million and not, say, $300m (one dollar per living American who tomorrow will be one day older than he or she is today)?
• Why the main emphasis on “prevent, reduce or reverse decline” and not on “develop, build, maintain functionality”?

(Editor’s Note: by popular demand, following goes the Spanish translation of an excerpt from The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, available in English by clicking on Debunking 10 Brain and Brain Fitness Myths)

10 MITOS SOBRE EL CEREBRO Y EL ENTRENAMIENTO MENTAL: VERDADERO O FALSO?

Extraído del libro electrónico “La guía de SharpBrains para un cerebro en forma” (The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness). Con permiso de sus autores Alvaro Fernández y Dr.Elkhonon Goldberg.

Mito 1. Mis genes determinan el destino de mi cerebro

Realidad. La neuroplasticidad hace que nuestro estilo de vida, acciones y experiencias tengan un rol importante en la evolución física de nuestro cerebro a lo largo de toda la vida, especialmente dado el incremento de la esperanza de vida.

Mito 2. El envejecimiento acarrea automáticamente el declive cognitivo

Realidad. No hay nada inherentemente fijado sobre la trayectoria precisa de cómo nuestros cerebros evolucionarán con la edad

Mito 3. La medicación es la principal esperanza para la mejoría cognitiva

Realidad. Las intervenciones no invasivas pueden tener efectos comparables y más duraderos, libres de efectos secundarios

Mito 4. Read the rest of this entry »

(Editor’s Note: In 1990, Congress designated the 1990s the “Decade of the Brain.” President George H. W. Bush proclaimed, “A new era of discovery is dawning in brain research.” During the ensuing decade, scientists greatly advanced our understanding of the brain. The editors of Cerebrum asked the directors of seven brain-related institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify the biggest advances, greatest disappointments, and missed opportunities of brain research in the past decade—the decade after the “Decade of the Brain.” They also asked them what looks most promising for the coming decade, the 2010s. Experts focused on research that might change how doctors diagnose and treat human brain disorders.)

Neuroscience is at a historic turning point. Today, a full decade after the “Decade of the Brain,” a continuous stream of advances is shattering long-held notions about how the human brain works and what happens when it doesn’t. These advances are also reshaping the landscapes of other fields, from psychology to economics, education and the law.

Until the Decade of the Brain, scientists believed that, once development was over, the adult brain underwent very few changes. This perception contributed to polarizing perspectives on whether genetics or environment determines a person’s temperament and personality, aptitudes, and vulnerability to mental disorders. But during the past two decades, neuroscientists have steadily built the case that the human brain, even when fully mature, is far more plastic—changing and malleable—than we originally thought.1 It turns out that the brain (at all ages) is highly responsive to environmental stimuli and that connections between neurons are dynamic and can rapidly change within minutes of stimulation.

Neuroplasticity is modulated in part by Read the rest of this entry »

Here you have the February edition of our monthlyeNewsletter covering cognitive health and brain fitness topics. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, using the box in the right column.

The recent SharpBrains Summit witnessed the convergence of Benjamin Franklin’s words (”Man is a Tool-Making Animal”)  with neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal’s  (”Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculptor of his own brain.”) The neuroplasticity revolution that may well transform education, training, healthcare, aging, is under way.

New Tools

Will the Apple iPad Be Good for your Brain: Prof. Luc Beaudoin lays out key criteria to assess Apple iPad’s potential value for our cognitive fitness, and judges the iPad against a comprehensive checklist.  His verdict? Thumbs-up.

Is Working Memory a better predictor of academic success than IQ?: Dr. Tracy Alloway summarizes  a recent landmark study, published in the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, which  tracked children over a six-year period. Key finding: Working memory can be a more powerful predictor of academic success than IQ scores.

Old Tools

Building Fit Minds Under Stress: According to Science Daily’s take on a just published study, “a high-stress U.S. military group preparing for deployment to Iraq has demonstrated a positive link between mindfulness training, or MT, and improvements in mood and working memory”.

The Evolution of Empathy: Empathy is not a uniquely human trait, explains primatologist Frans de Waal in this Greater Good Magazine article. Apes and other animals feel it as well, suggesting that empathy is truly an essential part of who we are.

Reflections

Reflections on Creativity – Interview with Daniel Tammet:  Scott Barry Kaufman recently interviewed Daniel Tammet, known for vividly describing autistic savantism from the inside. Their in-depth conversation made Scott reflect that “Daniel Tammet’s feeling of a great loneliness and isolation growing up spoke to me, for sure. But I’m sure it also spoke to a great many people reading the interview.”

Summit Reactions

The SharpBrains Summit took place January 18-20th, helping engage over 250 participants in 15 countries. Here are a couple of reactions from participants:

5 Key Reflections on “Neurocentric Health”: Institute For The Future researcher Jake Dunagan summarizes his main take-aways, including this overall assessment – “Although the conference was virtual, aside from the rigors of travel and a basket of bagels on the hallway table, my level of intellectual stimulation (and fatigue) mirrored most of my face-to-face conference experiences. It was a technical success and the content was first-rate.” (Thanks, Jake!)

The Future of Cognitive Enhancement: Neuroethics researcher Peter Reiner ponders,  “Will brain fitness software dominate the world of cognitive enhancement?”.  His take: “Prior to this conference I was quite skeptical, but the overall impression that I was left with was that brain fitness software may turn out to have some distinct advantages over pharmacological approaches.” Read his article to discover why.

Community

Network for Brain Fitness Innovation (private LinkedIn group):  Members are engaging in many good discussions, including most surprising things learned during the SharpBrains Summit, how to deal with conflicts of interest in industry and academia, resources and conferences relevant to education and children, and ways to elicit a wider interest in brain health.

Looking for Speakers: We are always looking for best practices and research-based innovation. If you are interested in speaking at future SharpBrains events (including Games for Health brain tracks), please Contact Us and tell us about 1) your innovation or research, 2) its measured and/ or potential impact, 3) recent coverage in general, trade, or scientific media, 4) the typical audience you talk to, and a couple of descriptions of recent talks, 5) what you propose talking about.

Offer

Brain Fitness Information Package for Libraries:  libraries of all kinds can now  order a copy of our main report, The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2009, at 50% off price.  Using discount code sharplibrary leaves this premium report at $645 (offer valid until March 31st, 2010). Offer is  valid for individuals and organizations who commit to donating their copy to a library, in good shape, after consulting it.

Finally, a reminder that Brain Awareness Week (March 15-21, 2010) is approaching soon!

Very interesting and relevant recent study on the impact of mindfulness meditation (noticed thanks to heads up by SharpBrains reader John):

Building Fit Minds Under Stress (Science Daily)

• “high-stress U.S. military group preparing for deployment to Iraq has demonstrated a positive link between mindfulness training, or MT, and improvements in mood and working memory”
• The study also suggests that sufficient mindfulness training (MT) practice may protect against functional impairments associated with high-stress challenges that require a tremendous amount of cognitive control, self-awareness, situational awareness and emotional regulation

Please note that this wasn’t a properly randomized study, so in fact much/ most of the effect may be due to the placebo effect, but still the findings seem to be consistent with a growing body of evidence on the brain-based effects of structured mental training in the form of meditation (usually mindfulness meditation).

Full study Here (opens PDF).

Related articles:

• Meditation on the Brain – a Conversation with Andrew Newberg: “What is happening is that specific practices that have traditionally been associated with religious and spiritual contexts may also be very useful from a mainstream, secular, health point of view, beyond those contexts.”
• Mindful Kids, Peaceful Schools: With eyes closed and deep breaths, students are learning a new method to reduce anxiety, conflict, and attention disorders. But don’t call it meditation.
• Mindfulness Meditation for Adults & Teens with Attention Deficits: David Rabiner comments on a recent published study, saying that “although this is clearly a preliminary study, the results are both interesting and encouraging”

(Editor’s Note: contributor Scott Barry Kaufman recently interviewed Daniel Tammet, one of the 100 known prodigious savants living at the present time. Their in-depth conversation –summary and links follow Scott’s reflections below– provoked a powerful reaction in Scott’s mind, as you are about to read).

Last night I was eating dinner with my parents back in my hometown in Philadelphia. I was telling them about my interview with Daniel Tammet, and how I was working on a post about my reflections on the interview. My father, who reads everything I write (which can be awkward sometimes!), looked at me and said, plainly and simply, “I see a lot of similarities between you and Daniel, Scott.” Those words were a kind of crystallizing moment for me. I suppose I knew at an intuitive level that this interview was so meaningful to me, and I was aware that I had this great drive to get the complete interview out there for people to read, but with that comment by my Dad, it really hit me why the experience was so meaningful: this interview really was personal.

To the best of my knowledge, I don’t have Asperger’s syndrome. But I did have an auditory learning disability growing up that made me feel like an outsider most of my early childhood, a feeling which remains to this day. My interview with Daniel was so profound to me because I think it really made it crystal clear to me, at least clearer than ever before, that whatever the “disorder”- learning disability, personality disorder, attention deficit disorder, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, etc. – or life circumstance, anyone whose marginality put them on a different path from the rest of the kids, from the rest of the adults, from the rest of society, are united in that feeling of being different. Daniel Tammet’s feeling of a great loneliness and isolation growing up spoke to me, for sure. But I’m sure it also spoke to a great many people reading the interview.

There is a bit of Daniel Tammet in all of us. I think all of us, at one time or another, have felt different in a particular context, and have felt the intense conflict to simultaneously want to fit in while also wanting to just be accepted for being different. Not all of us may be able to calculate pi to as many places as Daniel can, or can automatically associate numbers with colors, or can write both prose and poetry as beautifully as he does, or can paint as he does. But what my interview with Daniel taught me is that it doesn’t matter if you can’t do everything he does. Life is not about deliberately practicing yourself down someone else’s path. It’s about staying true to yourself at all times, and being fully open to going down your own unique, unplanned, and unpredictable path.

Researchers have asked me whether, after my interview with Daniel, I think he is a “fraud”. I suppose they want to know whether he really is “autistic” or whether he really can truly do all the mind tricks he appears to be capable of. They saw his interview on Letterman, where he was very charismatic and socially engaging and they wonder whether he still has Asperger’s syndrome, since he didn’t seem to display all of the symptoms on the show.

I, too, saw the Letterman interview. What I saw in that interview was a very smart person who was capable of being social. There is no doubt that Daniel has gone through a great transformation over the years, becoming more socially adept and outgoing. He has learned quite a bit about life, love, and relationships. But still, talking on the phone with him, there were moments when I could tell he was struggling a bit to understand some of my more ambiguous phrases, that he still processed some of the things I said literally. Whether he would still be labelled “Asperger’s” today though, is in many ways missing the larger point.

The point is that there is something it means to be Daniel. Daniel was born with a unique mind, wired in a certain way, which contributed significantly to how he sees the world. He has been able to compensate quite a bit, but there still remains a core to him that makes him unique. And I saw absolutely no dishonesty in my interview with him– in fact, what I had the honor of witnessing was one of the most truest individuals I’ve ever met in my entire life, a person who lives his life always trying to stay true to himself in a society that labels him as different. In a lot of ways, a lot of people in this world every day of their own lives are trying to do the very same thing.

Throughout the interview, Daniel was very critical of IQ testing and the study of individual differences. I fully appreciate where his critiques were coming from. I agree with him that many things we do serve to reduce people to just one dimension, and in the case of a poorly administered IQ test, reducing a person to just a number. But as I’ve reviewed recently, the field of IQ testing is rapidly evolving. The major aim of most modern day IQ test makers I talk to is not to reduce, but to broaden– to identify a particular individual’s unique pattern of cognitive strengths and weaknesses and to custom tailer an educational program for that person. This is a goal I think Daniel would agree with.

I think Daniel also underestimated the importance of investigating individual differences more generally. I study individual differences in my research program. The reason why I do so is because I fully believe that’s where most of the interesting aspects of human nature lie. It’s so fascinating to me how we can all vary so much from one another– on so many attributes like physical features, personality, intelligence, creativity, style of thinking, life experiences, etc.– and yet at the end of the day we are all part of the same species. We all have similar fears, desires, and foibles. I think the study of individual differences is important– not as a way of reducing people– but as a way of broadening the spectrum of ways people can differ and the ways in which both innate dispositions and culture shapes who we are.

It is clear from my interview with Daniel that he really was born with a unique brain wiring. It wasn’t solely deliberate practice that got Daniel Tammet to Daniel Tammet. It was the unique constellation of potentials that the body named “Daniel Tammet” was born with, and that, through a series of fortunate opportunities, allowed him to more fully express and realize his potential than could have easily been the case – unfortunately, many people have life circumstances that hinder them from realizing their potential, and they erroneously think that their current life is all that is possible for themselves. If anything, I’d imagine most of Daniel’s deliberate practice went toward trying to learn things that come more naturally to others (such as how to recognize faces), just so he could better fit in, than learning things that already came more naturally to himself (such as dancing with numbers).

In this new year, this new decade, and well into the future of humanity, let’s all try a little bit harder to appreciate each other’s differences. And by doing so, let’s also remind ourselves to remain true to ourselves, despite society. Like Daniel Tammet.

(Editor’s Note: what follows is a summary of the in-depth conversation between Daniel Tammet and Scott Barry Kaufman. Links to whole series below).

Interview Corner: Daniel Tammet
An autistic savant joins the wider world.

PROFESSION: Writer

CLAIM TO FAME: Vividly describes autistic savantism from the inside

Although their unusual abilities compel considerable attention, there are fewer than 50 autistic savants worldwide. Daniel Tammet is one of them. Over 30 years, the London-born mathematical and language whiz has transformed from an awkward, reclusive boy into a confident adult. His quiet, private life of strict routines gave way in 2006, when his memoir Born on a Blue Day became a best-seller, necessitating travel, self-promotion, and talk show appearances. His latest book, Embracing the Wide Sky, is a scientific exploration of his extraordinary abilities (reciting pi to 22,514 places, learning to speak Icelandic in a week) and a tour of autism.

Scott: How have you compensated for the challenges of Asperger’s?

Daniel: Growing up, I would have to watch the other children and learn from my mistakes. I would have to push myself to overcome the things most people don’t have to think about. Brushing my teeth was very difficult because Read the rest of this entry »

In a previous article for SharpBrains, I asked whether the Apple tablet (the iPad) would hinder or support cognitive fitness. Here, I assess the iPad against the criteria I laid out previously. I then assess its potential for brain fitness in general. I am relying on Apple’s information; I have not yet used the iPad.

The iPad has been covered all over the net, and Apple has much information on its website, so I will not repeat that here, except to say that the iPad looks like a 9.7 inch iPod with a multi-touch LED-backlit IPS screen. It can run all iPod applications and more. It is a rather spectacular, attractive platform for doing all of what you can do with an iPod but with compelling possibilities that a larger screen presents. It is also an eBook reader and an extremely impressive gaming machine. It is priced very competitively ($500 and up). I imagine that many people will forgo purchasing an iPod, a game station, a netbook and an e-reader and apply their savings to this device.

The iPad itself, and as part of a technological ecosystem of products that work together, is something which has major implications for the brain fitness market.

The following table summarizes the check-list from my previous article.

Table 1 iPad Evaluation Check-List

1. Applications Checklist

Apple has enabled much of what is needed for the iPad to meet the application criteria I laid out. The iPad is not just an e-reader, it is an application platform for cognitive productivity, brain fitness and learning. It will run all existing (140,000 and counting) iPod applications. Some of the applications I called for are already on the Apple App Store, though they will require (forthcoming) enhancements.

I previously noted the need for a task manager, a graphic organizer, an outliner, and a spaced learning system. These applications will not be pre-installed on the iPad. However, many vendors have already announced that their Mac OS X cognitive productivity applications (including graphic organizers, outliners and task managers) are being ported to the iPad. So, we can tick those criteria off.

Apple has developed specifically for the iPad inexpensive iWorks productivity applications for composing documents, spreadsheets and presentations. This is implicit support for active learning on the iPad. In addition, Apple’s existing iPod applications are also available for the iPad.

I was puzzled by the absence of a dictionary on the iPad home page. Users should not have to research and download dictionaries themselves, particularly since a useful dictionary is available on OS X (its ecosystem relative).

2. User Monitoring

I expressed the need for a user activity monitor, which was not provided. What I mean here is that the Apple should include operating system, MobileMe and application support for monitoring and reporting on how the user is spending their time across the Apple ecosystem. This support Read the rest of this entry »

On January 18-20, 2010 Alvaro Fernandez and his team at SharpBrains put together a splendid line-up of speakers on a wide range of topics related to emerging brain fitness research, technologies, and markets, and clinical cognitive and mental health issues. IFTF was proud to be a sponsor of this event.

Although the conference was virtual, aside from the rigors of travel and a basket of bagels on the hallway table, my level of intellectual stimulation (and fatigue) mirrored most of my face-to-face conference experiences. It was a technical success and the content was first-rate.

The conference was a great opportunity for us at IFTF to gather data and map the research landscape in cognitive fitness, especially as it relates to our 2010 Health Horizons research project around “Neurocentric Health.”

I’d like to share a small sample of the observations, shifts, and points of interest we took from the conference.

1. The forecast of Dr. Michael Merzenich, an expert in brain plasticity, that clinical practice and treatment will move from drug/surgery-based interventions to non-invasive techniques, practices, and preventative coaching is profound. This would change the timing, level, and quality of treatment interventions, and could be a significant catalyst to the (arguably) needed change in medical/clinical point of care and culture that Dr. P Murali Doraiswamy of Duke University mentioned as well. This shift would impact the insurance industry and risk profiles, payment mechanisms, and, most importantly, might be better for patients as well.

2. I am always wary of reductionist models and the tendency to focus our attention on certain organs or methods at the expense of the whole system. This hesitation is especially important when the focus is on the brain. I was very happy to hear Read the rest of this entry »