As we have been doing for the last 6 months, here you are have the Monthly Digest of our Most Popular Blog Posts. You can consider it your monthly Brain Fitness/ Training Newsletter.

Several recent news pieces, including this New York Times article, have reported on an emerging trend: schools using techniques such as yoga and meditation to help students manage anxiety and stress. To better understand what is going on, we are pleased to bring you this article thanks to our collaboration with Greater Good Magazine.

-Alvaro

—————————————

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.

— By Jill Suttie

At Toluca Lake elementary school in Los Angeles, a cyclone fence encloses the asphalt blacktop, which is teeming with kids. It’s recess time and the kids, who are mostly Latino, are playing tag, yelling, throwing balls, and jumping rope. When the bell rings, they reluctantly stop and head back to their classrooms—except for Daniel Murphy’s second grade class.

Murphy’s students file into the school auditorium, each carrying a round blue pillow decorated with white stars. They enter giggling and chatting, but soon they are seated in a circle on their cushions, eyes closed, quiet and concentrating. Two teachers give the children instructions on how to pay attention to their breathing, telling them to notice the rise and fall of their bellies and chests, the passage of air in and out of their noses. Though the room is chilly—the heating system broke down earlier that day—the children appear comfortable, many with Read the rest of this entry »

We are pleased to announce that we’ll have 2 additional excellent contributions during February:

- Adrian Preda, M.D., will write about a brain plasticity topic.

Adrian Preda, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior in the UC Irvine School of Medicine. His expertise in human behavior, psychology and spirituality is based on years of experience working as a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, teacher and researcher in a variety of academic clinical and non-clinical settings, including Yale Psychiatric Institute, Yale New Haven Hospital, Yale Health Plan, UT Southwestern and UC Irvine Neuro-Psychiatric Research.

- Joanne Jacobs, education expert and great blogger, will participate in our Author Speaks Series. 

Once a Knight Ridder columnist, Joanne is now a freelance writer and author of a book about a charter school that prepares Hispanic students for college. Her most recent book is Our School: The Inspiring Story of Two Teachers, One Big Idea and the Charter School That Beat the Odds.  

Prof. Baba Shiv, one of our advisors, just published a fascinating paper on the power of our beliefs to influence brain activation, and on how marketing can influence those beliefs:

Price Tag Can Change The Way People Experience Wine, Study Shows (Science Daily)

- According to researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology, if a person is told he or she is tasting two different wines—and that one costs $5 and the other $45 when they are, in fact, the same wine—the part of the brain that experiences pleasure will become more active when the drinker thinks he or she is enjoying the more expensive vintage.

- “What we document is that price is not just about inferences of quality, but it can actually affect real quality,” said Baba Shiv, a professor of marketing who co-authored a paper titled “Marketing Actions Can Modulate Neural Representations of Experienced Pleasantness,” published online Jan. 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Note: link here)

This Stanford article provides an overview of his research: click Here.

- “The belief in the academic field is that emotions are essential to decision making, otherwise you’ll end up making bad decisions,” Shiv says. “But,” he adds, explaining his huge contrarian streak, “I can show the opposite as well, that Read the rest of this entry »

Neurofeedback is one of the technologies that people often ask us about.  It is a promising intervention in a variety of areas, and has got significant traction in helping kids with ADD/ ADHD. Now, given the significant cost it poses for parents, we need to ask the question: “How Strong is the Research Support for Neurofeedback Treatment of Children with ADHD”?

We are honored to present the thoughts of Duke University’s Dr. David Rabiner, a leading authority on the field, on that important issue. As a bonus, you will enjoy his detailed description and suggestions of how to design a high-quality scientific study. Without further ado, let’s hear Dr. Rabiner speak.

- Alvaro

(Update as of March 2009: Dr. David Rabiner has written an update to the article below based on a newer study. You can read it clicking on link: New Study Supports Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD)
————————————–

How Strong is the Research Support for Neurofeedback Treatment of Children with ADHD? 

Neither of the two prominent approaches to treating ADHD – medication treatment and behavior therapy – are expected to effect long term changes in the child. Medication treatment induces short-term changes in brain activity that is associated with a reduction in symptoms for many individuals. Behavior therapy attempts to create a set of environmental contingencies that promote desired behavior in the child, but which is unlikely to endure when those contingencies are removed.

In recent years, researchers have begun devoting greater attention to the possibility that children – and adults – may be provided with particular kinds of experiences that may induce alterations in brain functioning that are associated with more enduring changes, i.e., they do not dissipate as soon as treatment ends.

Neurofeedback – also known as EEG Biofeedback – is reflective of this approach and has a history that goes back Read the rest of this entry »

This is an event you may be interested in, if you are based in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The MIT Club of Northern California, American Society on Aging, The Business Forum on Aging and SmartSilvers presents:

The Emerging Brain Fitness Market:  Building Better Brains (Contact information and Registration Here)

Date: 02/12/2008 Tuesday
Time: 6:00pm
Venue: Wilson Sonsini
Location: 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto
Cost: $20 online, $25 walk-in

Contact information and Registration Here.

Here is the buzz … Scientific, technological and demographic trends have converged to create an exciting new market in brain fitness, where software and online applications can assess and train cognitive abilities. That equates to a sharper mind and better memory retention contributing to healthier aging.  There is currently a $400m worldwide market with high growth ahead predicted.

Join us in lively and informative discussions as Alvaro Fernandez; CEO of SharpBrains.com summarizes the science, key market segments, players and trends, based on the first Brain Fitness Software Market Report, presented in this event.  He will discuss the implications with several neuro-technology, gaming experts and investors.”   Moderated by Zack Lynch, the speaker and panel will discuss:  Read the rest of this entry »

Here you have a few good recent blog carnivals (collections of selected blog posts around specific topics) 

- Tangled Bank: science-related posts across a variety of disciplines. 

- 2 editions of the Carnival of Education: this week and last one.

- HR carnival: because “human resources” have brains, too.

- Medicine 2.0: how web 2.0 can enhance the practice of medicine.

- Change of Shift: nursing topics.

- Gene Genie: human genetics.

Today we have the pleasure to have Dr. Pascale Michelon, one of our new Expert Contributors, write her first article here. Enjoy, and please comment so we hear your thoughts and engage in a nice conversation. 

(Btw, if you notice some similarity between the colors in the fMRI scan below and the look & feel of this site…well, the reason is that those orange-grey fMRI colors were our inspiration! the orange color denotes the most brain activation).

- Alvaro

————————————–

You have probably heard about CAT and MRI scans (produced thanks to machines like the one to the top right). So you know that these are techniques that doctors and scientists use to look inside the brain.

You have probably also heard about brain fitness and how important it is to keep a healthy brain to be protected against age-related and disease-related brain damages.

The question we ask here is the following: Can we use brain scans to evaluate how fit the brain is? Before we try to answer this question let’s start with the basics and try to understand how brain scans work.

Brain imaging, also called neuroimaging, allows one to Read the rest of this entry »

Starting this week, you will start seeing a growing number of Expert Contributors writing in our blog and website, so that we can collectively discuss the latest research and trends on cognitive and emotional training, brain fitness and health, and the implications of brain research in general for our everyday lives. All of it, spiced up by stimulating brain teasers.

So, if you haven’t already, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter (above) and our RSS feed (on the right).

Let me introduce, In alphabetical order, the Expert Contributors who will share their knowledge with us in January and February.

- Wes Carroll, SB in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT, and Puzzle Master for Ask a Scientist lecture series.

- Simon Evans, PhD., and Paul Burghardt, PhD., who collaborate in the University of Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry and the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute, to study the effects of nutrition and exercise on brain function.

- Greater Good Magazine, a quarterly magazine published by a UC-Berkeley center to “highlights ground breaking scientific research into the roots of compassion and altruism.” 

- Gregory Kellett, a recent graduate from the Cognitive Neurology/Research Psychology Masters program at SFSU.

- Eric Jensen, author of Enriching the Brain: How to Maximize Every Learner’s Potential, and well-known synthesizer of brain research information with implications for K12 education.

- Pascale Michelon, Ph. D., an Adjunct Faculty at Washington University in Saint Louis, Psychology Department.

- Tom O’Brien, professor emeritus in mathematics education, Southern Illinois University, and author of prize-winning games.

- Joshua Steinerman, M.D., Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University Medical Center.

- David Rabiner, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist and Director of Undergraduate Studies at Duke University. Dr. Rabiner maintains the highly-regarded Attention Research Update.

Please Note: if you would like to become an Expert Contributor, Read the rest of this entry »

Fyi, I will be teaching this workshop soon, as part of our collaboration with several Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes: 

 

San José State University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (website) presents

Title: Brain Fitness: The Science and Practice.

When: Saturday, February 2, 2008 9:30-3:30

What: Neuroscientists have shown how the human brain retains neuroplasticity (the ability to rewire itself) and neurogenesis (creation of new neurons) during its full lifetime, leading to a new understanding of what aging means. In this class, we will review the science behind some of the key concepts in this field and explore their implications on our lifestyles in a fun and engaging way. We have all heard “Use it or lose it.” Latest research suggests, “Use it and improve it!” Read the rest of this entry »