Cognitive training and stress management, MindFit and Freeze-Framer (or emWave): two complementary sides of Brain Fitness.
Research shows that adults can and should take care of their brains, both for short-term and long-term benefits. Through brain exercise we can improve our overall cognitive function right now—making quick decisions, staying calm and focused under pressure, and multitasking effectively. Over time, we may not reduce our brain age, but we can build up a cognitive reserve to buffer against age-related cognitive decline or other progressive diseases. Short term and long term, we all want to lead productive, successful lives.
Any good brain fitness program must provide you a variety of new challenges over time. While recreational activities like bridge, sudoku, and crossword puzzles can work our brain, only a comprehensive tool based in scientific research, like MindFit, can work your mental muscles systematically through a completely individualized training regimen for Continue Reading »
Here is question 21 from Brain Fitness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Questions.
Question:
I am busy executive with a challenging job. How is brain fitness relevant to me?
Key Points:
- Reduce your stress to improve concentration and learning readiness and reduce distractions.
- Increase your mental stimulation to help maintain a healthy, flexible brain.
Answer:
Executives, or anyone involved in complex and rapidly evolving environments, need to make pressured decisions based on sound logic, instead of emotional impulses. It is not easy to deal with the frustration, for example, when Continue Reading »
Hot off the press!
We just found on the newstand an amazing special issue of Discover magazine on The Brain-An Owner's Manual (Spring 2007), with fascinating articles on how the mind changes from infancy to old age, female vs. male brains (yes, we men have brains too), videogames as brain training (by Steven Johnson), an article titled "24 hours in the life of the brain", the "most magnificent neurons, and much much more.
A bit technical, but not too much for anyone who reads popular science books. It will probably become a classic for brain aficionados. We can not find any mention of it in www.discover.com, so we will keep our eyes open and link to the index and more info as soon as we find somewhere to link to...
Nice combination today, of article and brain teaser (thanks Ellen!).
1- Brain Teaser: Try this quick game and test your peripheral vision, visual short-term memory and hand-eye coordination.
When all the numbered red squares are visible, try to get rid of them as fast as you can, in numerical order. You don't have to click them... just touch them with the cursor. To start, click here.
2- Article: Exercising your brain power, The News Journal, DE. "Like your muscles, your mind needs regular workouts to remain in top shape as you age, but don't sweat it --- it can be easy and fun"
3- If you like it, you may consider a more rigorous and personalized Brain Workout program to train 14 cognitive skills.
There has been an interesting discussion about the issues related to the aging of the legal profession. Stephanie introduced us to the article "the Graying Bar: let's not forget the ethics" by David Giacalone.
In short: statistics about the increasing ratio of lawyers over 70 in active practice, on the one hand, and the general incidence of Alzheimer's and other dementias, on the other, lead David to point out an increasing likelihood that some lawyers may be practicing in less than ideal conditions for their clients, beyond a reasonable "brain age". The question then becomes: who and how can solve this problem, which is only going to grow given demographic trends?.
We are not legal experts, but would like to inform the debate by offering 10 considerations on healthy aging and job performance from a neuropsychological point of view, that apply to all occupations:
1- We should talk more about change than about decline, as Sharon Begley wrote recently in her great article on The Upside of Aging - WSJ.com (subscription required).
We discussed some of these effects with Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, who wrote his great book The Wisdom Paradox precisely on this point, at The Executive Brain and How our Minds Can Grow Stronger.
2- Some skills improve as we age: In our "Exercising Our Brains" Classes, we typically explain how some areas typically improve as we age, such as self-regulation, emotional functioning and Wisdom (which means moving from Problem solving to Pattern recognition). As a lawyer accumulates more cases under his/ her belt, he or she develops an automatic "intuition" for solutions and strategies. As long as the enviroment doesn't change too rapidly, this growing wisdom is very valuable.
3- ...whereas, yes, others typically decline: Continue Reading »
Another great week full of interesting and relevant articles. We will start a new tradition: we will end up the week (either on Friday or during the weekend) with a round-up of the articles we haven't been able to comment on during the week. Please feel free to send us your suggestions too!
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Brave Heart: does will power reside in heart?
- "A recent study has looked into the issue of whether cognitive self -regulation (will power / motivation) is also associated with HRV. The study reported that higher baseline HRV was associated with more will-power and ability to resist temptation."
Book review: Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain by Sharon Begley
- "Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain is as entertaining as it is edifying. This unlikely page turner fascinates, and suggests optimism about your brain's capacities.
Considering the aging baby boom generation and the demands this group has created in every phase of life, if a culture of mental fitness develops, it won't surprise me. Being a boomer myself, I'm all for it. I just hope I don't have to become a bodhisattva to reap the benefits."
Newsweek: Clear link between exercise and improved cognition
A couple of good recent articles:
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Brain Games will give adults all the challenge they can handle
Baltimore Sun, MD. Mar 22, 2007.The reporter provides a great survey of products. The only parts I find missing are:
1) what specific cognitive skill/s is/are being trained by each product? if we understand that the brain has a variety of structural and functional areas, it becomes evident that different programs may be training different "mental muscles".
2) How does each program enable the user measure progress in an objective way? I'd say this is the main difference between "games" and brain fitness programs. If you have a wildly different brain age everytime you try...that so-called brain age is not very credible.
Does brain exercise fight dementia?
Minneapolis Star Tribune (subscription), MN. Mar 18, 2007.As the article mentions, no program can claim to "prevent Alzheimer's". And I haven't seen Posit Science (or us) claim such a thing, or imply it. But what can be claimed is meaningful: Continue Reading »
Here is question 20 from Brain Fitness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Questions.
Question:
Can a brain fitness program help me become more creative?
Key Points:
- Creativity can be trained, like other mental muscles.
- Set up structured time, places, or routines that provide a framework for creativity to happen.
- Reducing your stress helps to keep your brain more flexible.
- Using many parts of the brain as well as trying new things will stimulate the areas of your brain involved in creativity.
Answer: Continue Reading »
Fun article in the Washington Post: Aging Japanese Keep Their Minds Moving
- "part of a broad range of mental acuity products that are all the rage in Japan: books, toys, food and other things, sold with the pledge that they can reenergize aging brains."
- "Analysts said the current brain-training trend began in 2004 and 2005 when video games such as Sega Toys Co.'s Brain Trainer and Nintendo Co.'s Brain Age became smash hits. Since its launch, Brain Age for Nintendo's DS console has sold 6.7 million copies around the world, including 3.4 million in Japan."
We were fortunate to interview a Japanese expert on this trend a few months ago. In Brain Training and "Brain-ism" in Japan, we can learn a lot, such as
- "To see the activities inside the brain was fresh for people, but the methodology and logic was not reviewed by any scientific publication. It was published by Continue Reading »
Jeffrey Gonce, a Psychology teacher at Red Land High School (West Shore School District, PA) just asked his students to "complete a project describing a recent brain (or genetic) study that affects behavior." The students could opt to post their articles online, and Jeffrey was kind enough to send us a link to read the results.
We enjoyed the overall level of the essays (you can read them all here), and truly enjoyed reading a beautiful, well-researched and better written essay by Alexandra M, 15. Which, incidentally, quotes from one of our favourite popular science books on the brain, John Ratey's A User's Guide to the Brain.
Enjoy!
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March 2, 2007
Alexandra M
It’s Christmas morning, and your brother rushes downstairs to see what “Santa” brought him. The morning goes by in a flurry of colorful wrapping paper and stringy ribbons until all that’s left is a big present in the center of your brother’s lap. The present that “Santa” brought him. As he rips open the paper, “Santa’s” chest swells with pride, he feels good and happy. As the brother runs around screaming about his new remote controlled F-14 Tomcat, “Santa” laughs and cleans up. But why did he feel that way? Continue Reading »
