Sep 24, 2006
Brain Fitness and Mind Fitness Glossary
By: Alvaro Fernandez
Senia has a good post on the importance on learning the “jargon” of new fields of interest.
Let’s review a few terms we have been or will be using often:
Brain Fitness or Mind Fitness: the general state of good, sharp, brain and mind, especially as the result of mental and physical exercise and proper nutrition.
Brain Fitness Program: structured set of brain exercises, usually computer-based, designed to train specific brain areas and functions in targeted ways, and measured by brain fitness assessments.
Chronic Stress: ongoing, long-term stress. Continued physiological arousal where stressors block the formation of new neurons and negatively impact the immune system’s defenses.
Cognitive training (or Brain Training): variety of brain exercises designed to help work out specific “mental muscles”. The principle underlying cognitive training is to help improve “core” abilities, such as attention, memory, problem-solving, which many people consider as fixed.
Cognitive Reserve (or Brain Reserve): theory that addresses the fact that individuals vary considerably in the severity of cognitive aging and clinical dementia. Mental stimulation, education and occupational level are believed to be major active components of building a cognitive reserve that can help resist the attacks of mental disease.
fMRI: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that enables researchers see images of changing blood flow in the brain associated with neural activity. This allows images to be generated that reflect which structures are activated (and how) during performance of different tasks.
Heart Rate Variability (HRV): describes the frequency of the cardiac cycle, and is one of the best predictors of stress and anxiety. Our hear rate is not “flat” or constant: HRV measures the pattern of change.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): yoga and meditation practices designed to enable effective responses to stress, pain, and illness.
Neurogenesis: the process by which neurons are created all throughout our lives.
Neuroimaging: techniques that either directly or indirectly image the structure, function, or pharmacology of the brain. Recent techniques (such as fMRI) have enabled researchers to understand better the living human brain.
Neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections throughout life.
PubMed: very useful tool to search for published studies. “PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.”
Working memory: the ability to keep information current for a short period while using this information. Working memory is used for controlling attention, and deficits in working memory capacity lead to attention problems. Recent research has proven that working memory training is possible and helpful for people with ADD/ ADHD.
You can read more on the Science of Brain Fitness.
[…] We can not place them all under fMRI examination , so we will have to ask them questions to understand how they deal with, and they developed, what neuropsychologists call Executive Functions, which are mostly located in our Frontal Lobes , the most recent part of our brains in evolutionary terms. […]
[…] “Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, wanted to find the neural basis for unselfish acts. They decided to peek into the brains of 19 volunteers who were choosing whether to give money to charity, or keep it for themselves. To do so, they used a standard technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can map the activity of the various parts of the brain. The results were reported in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” … “the researchers were able to examine what went on inside each person’s head as they made decisions based on moral beliefs. They found that the part of the brain that was active when a person donated happened to be the brain’s reward centreâ€â€the mesolimbic pathway, to give it its proper nameâ€â€responsible for doling out the dopamine-mediated euphoria associated with sex, money, food and drugs. Thus the warm glow that accompanies charitable giving has a physiological basis.” … “Donating also engaged the part of the brain that plays a role in the bonding behaviour between mother and child, and in romantic love. This involves oxytocin, a hormone that increases trust and co-operation.” […]
[…] On the Science — Overview of the Science Behind Brain and Mind Fitness — Brain Fitness Glossary — Why we need more than crosswords and sudoku to protect/ improve our Brain Fitness — Use It or Lose It: what is “It”? […]
[…] Related Links Brain Anatomy Physical Fitness and Brain Fitness Glossary of Brain Fitness Terms […]
[…] Great article in this week’s The Economist on The joy of giving: Donating to charity rewards the brain. Some quotes: “Researchers at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland, wanted to find the neural basis for unselfish acts. They decided to peek into the brains of 19 volunteers who were choosing whether to give money to charity, or keep it for themselves. To do so, they used a standard technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging, which can map the activity of the various parts of the brain. The results were reported in this week’s Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.” … “the researchers were able to examine what went on inside each person’s head as they made decisions based on moral beliefs. They found that the part of the brain that was active when a person donated happened to be the brain’s reward centreâ€â€the mesolimbic pathway, to give it its proper nameâ€â€responsible for doling out the dopamine-mediated euphoria associated with sex, money, food and drugs. Thus the warm glow that accompanies charitable giving has a physiological basis.” … “Donating also engaged the part of the brain that plays a role in the bonding behaviour between mother and child, and in romantic love. This involves oxytocin, a hormone that increases trust and co-operation.” […]
[…] A year ago we wrote a Glossary where we defined Brain Fitness as “the general state of good, sharp, brain and mind, especially as the result of mental and physical exercise and proper nutrition” and a Brain Fitness Program as a “structured set of brain exercises, usually computer-based, designed to train specific brain areas and functions in targeted ways, and measured by brain fitness assessments.” […]