Given the growing awareness of this emerging field, let's review some of the most relevant concepts:
Brain 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 Continue Reading »
The Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives is keeping up its great outreach initiatives:
1- Check their blog with posts such as Resolve to be good to your brain, too. Tip: "Brain change takes time; allow your brain time to get used to new circumstance" (from the Dana Guide to Brain Health).
You can read our The Dana Guide to Brain Health book review.
2- The Brain Awareness Week 2007, March 12-18th, with many activities around the world to "advance public awareness about the progress and benefits of brain research. The Dana Alliance is joined in the campaign by partners in the United States and around the world, including medical and research organizations; patient advocacy groups; the National Institutes of Health, and other government agencies; service groups; hospitals and universities; K-12 schools; and professional organizations."
Learn how you can participate!
(Note: the following is inspired by real events but not quite. Caroline is a colleague, not my grandma!)
Over the weekend, I dropped by to say Hi to my grandma Carolina, the Wise Neuroscientist every family should have. She always helps me out. Imagine, then, my relief when she happily spent a few hours with me going over the printed submissions for Encephalon #15. The conversation went so well, that we are adding it to our Neuroscience Interview Series on learning and "brain gyms".
Alvaro: Thanks again! I have heard organisms have something called a biological clock — what is that?
Carolina: According to Bora of A Blog Around The Clock, a biological clock is a structure that times regular re-occurrence of biochemical, physiological and behavioral events in an organism in constant environmental conditions. The word “clock” is a metaphor, and the concept tries to exclude direct responses to the environment. Make sure to understand this properly, otherwise Bora suggests explaining it to you this way: “If I give you an electroshock every two hours, you will exhibit a 2-hour cycle of convulsions…but that’s not a biological clock”.
Alvaro: Crystal clear. Hmmm, I am thinking of nothing in particular right now, my mind wanders, like a river stream…what may be happening in my brain?
Carolina: Nothing special, as The Neurocritic seems to argue in his series Default Mode or Detritus?, , and . Don’t be easily seduced by sexy neuroimaging into believing that “default” constitutes some kind of baseline.
Alvaro: I wouldn’t dare do so, by no means. Continue Reading »
No matter what we are reading or doing, there is always the need to take a little break and challenge our minds (and to learn a bit about how our brains work). Here you have a selection of the 10 Brain Teasers that people have enjoyed most in this site.
1. Do you think you know the colors?: the Stroop Test
2. Can you count?: Basketball attention experiment
3. Planning is not that easy: Towers of Hanoi
4. Interactive visual illusion: the Muller-Lyer Illusion
5. Who is this?: A very important little guy
5. How many...: Train your Frontal and Parietal lobes
6. What's the missing number: Pattern Recognition Brain Teaser
7. Who's the eldest?: Reasoning Skills Brain Teaser
8. Brain Puzzle for the Whole Brain: The Blind Beggar
9. Is a circle a circle?: Visual Perception Brain Teaser
10. How is this possible?
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Here is question 13 of 25 from Brain Fitness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Questions. To download the complete version, please click here.
Question:
Are there specific brain fitness programs for adults?
Key Points:
- In the course of normal aging, some cognitive funcions and brain processing speed slow down.
- Without specific activities to keep your brain engaged, neurons are more likely to die off without being replaced.
- Novelty, variety and constant challenge are key ingredients for good programs. Learning a new language or musical instrument can be great options.
- There are also computer-based programs. A good program should include an assessment, a variety of challenging tasks that use different cognitive skills, regular practice, and feedback.
"The generally accepted knowledge about the brain is that it starts going downhill fairly early in life, which is true, and that there is little one can do about changing that pattern, which is not true. Increases in cortical growth as a consequence of stimulating environmental input have been demonstrated at every age, including very old age."
— Dr. Marion Diamond, Professor of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley.
Answer:
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We want to congratulate Dr. Torkel Klingberg, professor of cognitive neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute and one of the founders of our partner Cogmed, on receiving the Philip’s Nordic Prize for his research on working memory training for children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
The prize recognizes outstanding research in the field of neuropsychiatry and was presented by the Norwegian royal princess Märtha Louise at the Rikshospital in Oslo, Norway. Translating his research into an active training program, Klingberg co-founded Cogmed, a developer of software-based working memory training products headquartered in Stockholm. Cogmed’s rigorous and rewarding program combines computer-based training and personal coaching to help people with attention deficits strengthen their working memories. More than 80 percent of children who have completed Cogmed’s intensive five-week program have demonstrated dramatic and lasting improvements to their attention, impulse control and problem solving skills.
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What a month. We promised you with our blog title 7 months ago that we would be your "Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution", but we couldn't have predicted that CBS, Time Magazine, WSJ, NYT and other mainstream media would be such great allies in this neuroplasticity effort.
Special Offer: For a limited time, you can receive a complimentary copy of our Brain Fitness 101 e-Guide: Answers to your Top 25 Questions, written by Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg and Alvaro Fernandez, by subscribing to our monthly newsletter. You can subscribe Here.
Brain Fitness for All
Let's start with (Wall Street Journal Science Editor) Sharon Begley's article titled How The Brain Rewires Itself, based on her Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain book. She provides a fascinating overview, summarized as
FOR DECADES, THE PREVAILING DOGMA IN neuroscience was that the adult human brain is essentially immutable, hardwired, fixed in form and function, so that by the time we reach adulthood we are pretty much stuck with what we have. Yes, it can create (and lose) synapses, the connections between neurons that encode memories and learning... . The doctrine of the unchanging human brain has had profound ramifications. ...But research in the past few years has overthrown the dogma. In its place has come the realization that the adult brain retains impressive powers of "neuroplasticity" — the ability to change its structure and function in response to experience. These aren't minor tweaks either.
In short, the brain is not that different from a muscle (better said, a group of muscles). It can be trained. At any age. Not with magical pills or cures, but with focus and disciplined training.
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Here is question 12 of 25 from Brain Fitness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Questions. To download the complete version, please click here.
Question:
What does “normal aging” mean? Do we all age the same way?
Key Points:
- Age-related cognitive decline typically starts at about 40 when your brain processing speed slows down.
- At the same time, older adults have generally acquired more knowledge and wisdom, but may still have difficulties memorizing specific information.
- The more education people have and the more their minds are challenged throughout lifetime, the less they suffer from age-related decline.
Answer: Continue Reading »
Alzheimer's disease affects more than 4.5 million adults in the US today. To help understand the progressive neurodegenerative disorder, special mice have been bred to develop the brain lesions associated with the disease. Using these mice, researchers at UC Irvine published some promising results in the Jan. 24 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Here are some highlights from the coverage in Science Daily:
Learning appears to slow the development of two brain lesions that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, scientists at UC Irvine have discovered. The finding suggests that the elderly, by keeping their minds active, can help delay the onset of this degenerative disease.
This study with genetically modified mice is the first to show that short but repeated learning sessions can slow a process known for causing the protein beta amyloid to clump in the brain and form plaques, which disrupt communication between cells and lead to symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. Learning also was found to slow the buildup of hyperphosphorylated-tau, a protein in the brain that can lead to the development of tangles, the other signature lesion of the disease. Scientists say these findings have large implications for the understanding and treatment of Alzheimer's disease, as it is already known that highly educated individuals are less likely to develop the disease than people with less education.
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We announced last week the CBS News/TIME Series on Brain Neuroplasticity and Memory Exercises.
Now, Time Magazine has published a spectacular special issue with many good brain-related articles. Enjoy TIME Magazine - A User Guide to the Brain.
