SharpBrains

Hello, this is Andreas again, the MD/ PhD student in cognitive neuroscience and new summer intern here.

Cognitive/ brain health is finally getting more attention by Public officials. On June 10th the National Public Health Road Map to Maintaining Cognitive Health was released by the CDC and the Alzheimer's Association. The authors propose a set of 44 actions to reach a lofty goal: To maintain or improve the cognitive performance of all adults. This is great timing, given all the research and media attention that this field is getting.

I want to share with you the 10 top actions proposed by this report:

1) To determine how diverse audiences think about cognitive health and its associations with lifestyle factors. This work has all-ready yielded in a phenomenal report on Baby boomers’ current opinion of Brain Health and Fitness.

2) To disseminate the latest science to increase public understanding of cognitive health and to dispel common misconceptions. The discovery of lifelong neuroplasticity and neurogenesis has given us a new positive view
upon the human brain - This is still a concept not many know of. "Use it or lose it" and “Use It and Get More of It” needs to reach all people. See this good overview on the topic.

3) Help people understand the connection between risk and protective factors and cognitive health. Protective factors are well summarized in this blog post on the results from the Macarthur study of successful aging.

Continue Reading »

Today we would like to ask for your opinions on the emerging Brain Fitness field, your interests and needs. We would really appreciate if you can devote 5-minutes to complete this online survey. 

Thanks! please let us know what you think!

PS: as a small token of appreciation, we will give you a discount of 10% on all products offered in our website, valid for a month after you complete the survey...sorry, no Starbucks cards...

Very quick post: just want to alert you of 2 news pieces on MCI and Alzheimer's prevention-related research.

Frequent Brain Stimulation In Old Age Reduces Risk Of Alzheimer's Disease

• "The study found a cognitively active person in old age was 2.6 times less likely to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease than a cognitively inactive person in old age. This association remained after controlling for past cognitive activity, lifetime socioeconomic status, and current social and physical activity."
• "Wilson says the study also found frequent cognitive activity during old age, such as visiting a library or attending a play, was associated with reduced risk of mild cognitive impairment, a transitional stage between normal aging and dementia, and less rapid decline in cognitive function."

Stress Linked to Memory Decline

• "If you want your mind to stay healthy into your golden years, don't worry, be happy. That could be the message of new research that shows those prone to worry, anxiety or depression are more likely to develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition often considered a precursor to the more-debilitating Alzheimer's disease."
• "MCI is now recognized as a very early sign of incipient Alzheimer's disease," said Robert S. Wilson, lead author of the study and a neuropsychologist at the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center in Chicago. "We found that among healthy elderly people without evidence of cognitive dysfunction at the beginning of the study, chronic distress predicted the development of MCI."
• "This is consistent with 20 years of literature on the subject," added Dr. Sam Gandy, chairman of the Alzheimer's Association's medical and scientific advisory council and director of the Farber Institute for Neurosciences at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia."

What to do? well, you can check out these Easy Steps to Improve Your Brain Health Now. And check this nice article on New mental exercises, games can keep aging minds fit.

Stephanie West Allen kindly alerted us of her impressive new initiative and blog, in collaboration with Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz, titled Brains On Purpose™. They have partnered to bring a series of seminars on neuroscience and conflict resolution: Portland, Oregon, in November 2007, and San Francisco Bay Area in January 2008-so far.  Dr. Schwartz has previously participated in a similar and fruitful initiative on The Neuroscience of Leadership with David Rock. We wish them best luck in this exciting initiative.

Stephanie writes a great blog post on "What are you feeling?" "What am I feeling?" These questions are tools for brain taming, explaining how "A flurry of articles appeared this week (such as this one in Scientific American: "Name that feeling: You'll feel better") about the neuroscience research showing that labeling your feelings can quiet your brain and increase impulse control"

adding that...

"In our recent article "Lead Your Brain Instead Of Letting It Lead You," we talk about the practice of making mental notes (first described by Jeff in his book Dear Patrick: Life is Tough - Here's Some Good Advice). Developing your skill in making mental notes can bring relief when high conflict occurs." and "The more skilled you get at labeling, the more quickly — no matter the situation — you can return to equanimity and composure."

Check her post to learn more about the labeling technique. Developing mental notes can be a very powerful way to self-regulate behavior, not too different from cognitive therapy and emotional self-regulation techniques.

Exciting to see more scientists and practitioners bringing research into practice! As we have mentioned, Brain Fitness is something that applies to different ages and different purposes, and this is a great example for lawyers.

Please enjoy this brain teaser compliments of puzzle master Wes Carroll. He found this one in the Mensa publication Number Puzzles for Math Geniuses by Harold Gale.

The Empty Triangle

Question:
Which figure should be placed in the empty triangle?

This puzzle works your executive functions in your frontal lobes by using your pattern recognition, hypothesis testing, and logic. Let us know how you do!

Click here to read the Answer and Solution.

Hi!

I’m Andreas, the new intern at SharpBrains. I’m having a summer break from my MD/PhD program in cognitive neuroscience at Oslo University, Norway. My research group’s recent work on patients with memory complaints has brought to me a really positive impression of brain fitness and its outcomes.

This Tuesday Santa Clara University hosted the annual Boomer Venture Summit. The forum brought together a great group of industry leaders and start-ups in the growing market segment of baby boomers. Let's see how my own memory is working...I’ll bring you the 10 things that I remember from this great event.

1. According to Mary S. Furlong, Executive Producer of the summit, healthy living and aging is a $480 billion industry. And 80% of the purchase decisions in this industry are made by women. Read interview of this important boomer with 50+ digital.
2. Paul Kleyman, editor of Aging Today is frustrated about how the media pays so little attention to baby boomers in general, being obsessed with mainly younger people. Let’s keep in mind that the boomers are a 77 million population and the biggest spenders in the consumer market.
3. Simplicity is Key. James Koch of Leavy School of Business says that the successful products for the 50+ consumers bring simplicity to the consumer’s life. World Hearing Organization and Seronostics, the winners of the $10K business plan both makes products that make the life of the consumer easier.

Continue Reading »

We just came across an article titled Best Computer ‘Brain Games’ for Senior Citizens to Delay Alzheimer's Disease. The headline makes little scientific sense-and we observe this confusion often. The article mentions a few programs we have discussed often in this blog, such as Posit Science and MindFit, and others we haven't because we haven't found any published science behind, such as Dakim and MyBrainTrainer. And there are more programs: what about Happy Neuron, Lumosity, Spry Learning and Captain's Log. Not to talk about Nintendo Brain Age, of course.

Some of those programs have real science that, at best, shows how some specific cognitive skills (like memory, or attention, or processing) can be trained and improved-no matter the age. This is a very important message that hasn't yet percolated through many brains out there: we know today that computer-based software programs can be very useful to train some cognitive skills, better than alternative methods (paper and pencil, classroom-based, just "daily living").

Now, no single program can make ANY claim that it specifically delays/ prevents Alzheimer's Disease beyond general statements such as that Learning Slows Physical Progression of Alzheimer's Disease (hence the imperative for lifelong learning) and that mental stimulation-together with other lifestyle factors such as nutrition, physical exercise and stress management, as outlined in these Steps to Improve Your Brain Health- may contribute to build a Cognitive Reserve that may reduce the probability of problems. Programs may be able to Continue Reading »

One of the many Sharp Brains around, who is up to date of everything related to brain health and fitness (yes, Jeanne, that's you! thanks for being such a great bureau chief!) has sent us a very interesting press note on how brain fitness and training can be applied in the sports performance world. I haven't been able to track down the research behind the specific programs mentioned in the article, but the theoretical rationale makes sense based on similar programs we are familiar with: you can see below a summary of our interview with Prof. Daniel Gopher, scientific mind behind computer-based cognitive simulations for military pilots and for basketball players.

The note Sports Vision Training Takes Athletes to New Frontiers explains how

• "Specialty sports vision facilities are helping athletes train skills that many believed were “untrainable"; skills like anticipation, field vision, timing, sport intelligence, game tempo, reaction speed, focus and concentration."
• "What has everyone all worked up is the knowledge that they can actually train athletic skills that many believed were “untrainable.” We’re talking about intangibles like anticipation, field vision, timing, sport intelligence, game tempo, reaction speed, focus and concentration. “One of the worst mistakes an athlete can make is to believe that you’re either born with or without these kinds of skills, and that they’re consequently not trainable,” says Brian Stammer, editor of SportsVision Magazine. “If you want to be the best athlete you can be, you must do exercises to condition and sharpen your sensory system, including visual, auditory and brain-processing speed.”
• This is the link to the magazine they mention: SportsVision Magazine

And here is the summary of my (AF) interview with Prof. Daniel Gopher (DG) on Cognitive Simulations and cognitive training:

• "AF: ...Can you summarize your research findings across all these examples and fields, and how you see the field evolving?
• DG: In short, I’d summarize by saying that
• - Cognitive performance can be substantially improved with proper training. Continue Reading »

There is a great article on some findings from The Brain Fitness in Older Adults (B-fit) study posted at Psych Central: Fitness Training for the Brain and Science Daily: Attention Training May Help Older Adults Improve Concentration.

Here are a few key points:

• Early results from a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study appear to affirm cognitive benefits as attention training allowed older adults to block out distractions and improve concentration.
• Paul Laurienti, M.D., Ph.D., lead scientist on this study, said that as people age, they experience changes in how they perceive the information that their eyes and ears gather from the environment. ... Specifically, older adults combine information from the different senses more readily than do younger adults. This tendency, known as sensory integration, can lead to difficulties in blocking out distracting sights and sounds while still maintaining focus on important information.
• Follow-up fMRIs showed that in the group receiving the one-on-one training, activity related to sight was increased, while activity related to sound was decreased. In addition, performance on the task was improved.
• “Behavioral and imaging data support our hypothesis that attention training can reduce multi-sensory integration,” said Mozolic. “This suggests that attention training is a potential way to improve sensory processing by reducing older adults’ susceptibility to distracting stimuli.”

Stay tuned as we look for the research study to continue with more participants. If you are looking for some of your own one-on-one training, see if MindFit meets your goals. You can always use our checklist to help you evaluate any brain fitness program.