SharpBrains Summit participant Peter Reiner, from the National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia, shares his main Summit take-aways on the potential and challenges of non-invasive technologies for brain fitness.

He synthesizes the opportunity well: 1) Cognition is not monolithic 2) Software is adaptive 3) and seems safe, elaborating that:

“Will brain fitness software dominate the world of cognitive enhancement? Prior to this conference I was quite skeptical, but the overall impression that I was left with was that brain fitness software may turn out to have some distinct advantages over pharmacological approaches.

1. Cognition is not monolithic: there are multiple domains of cognition to be targeted, and the deficits that individuals have as they age vary. The software lends itself to both assessing which domain an individual is in need of ‘tuning up’ and then directing them to a particular product that is best capable of improving that domain of cognition. Pharmacological cognitive enhancement, even as it matures, may include drugs that target particular domains. However, the development costs for each drug are so great that it seems unlikely to me that there will be as many domains of cognition targeted with drugs as with brain fitness software.
2. Brain fitness software is progressive: as one becomes more proficient at the task, it becomes difficult. Such individual tailoring is difficult to achieve with pharmacological agents.
3. Using software is probably safe. I say probably, because as Mike Merzernich pointed out, nobody has systematically investigate the potential side effects of using this software. There may be some, but the likelihood of side effects is relatively low.

Probably the biggest disadvantage with brain fitness software is that you have to do it; just like physical exercise, if you don’t regularly ‘exercise’ your brain, you won’t improve. The software now needs to move from being useful to being compelling. Taking a cue from the gaming industry’s success might be an idea whose time has come.”

You can read his whole blog post clicking on Brain Fitness Software Update.

Based on what we see, I’d say that top-down and bottom-up approaches are complementary, so the question will be when and how to use each on its own vs. combined.

The SharpBrains Summit is ongoing, with 242 participants in 15 countries! thanks to the IT brains at the Institute for The Future and collaborators such as Anett Gyurak, Pascale Michelon and Camille Finley, event is going great.

If you Twitter, you can follow my updates here. The Summit hashtag/ feed is #sharp2010. Participants who were actively tweeting the first day:

@IFTFHealth @rodfalcon @positscience @billiamjames @drg @FitLifeClubs

@performbetter @YoungDrivers @AOborne

(Registration is closed now for new participants, please subscribe to our eNewsletter if you want to learn about future events)

In this January issue of our eNewsletter, we will first brief you on the enlightening demos that will take place on Wednesday, January 20th, as part of the SharpBrains Summit, and then present the 15 most stimulating SharpBrains articles of 2009.

Expo Day

If you want to see and discuss the latest programs and technologies for brain fitness, presented by Summit Sponsors, Wednesday January 20th is your day. Each demo will last 30 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A.

9am. Baycrest/ Cogniciti will introduce the new Memory@Work workshop, designed to teach what memory is, how lifestyle factors such as distraction and stress can affect memory, and how to enhance memory performance at work with the use of enabling strategies.

10am. CogniFit will demo CogniFit Personal Coach and CogniFit Senior Driver, two online programs designed to assess and main cognitive functions for healthy living and safe driving, respectively.

11am. Posit Science will demo InSight, a software-based cognitive training package designed to sharpen brain’s visual system. This is the program being tested by Allstate for safer driving.

Noon. Happy Neuron will introduce HAPPYneuron PRO, a new platform for professionals for the effective delivery and management of cognitive remediation and rehabilitation programs in a patient centric manner.

1pm. SharpBrains will help navigate this growing field by discussing The State of the Brain Fitness Software 2009 report and The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness consumer guide, and summarizing key Summit take-aways.

Learn more and register HERE. Please remember that registration closes on January 17th.

We want to thank our most recent sponsor, the Arrowsmith Program, a comprehensive suite of cognitive programs for students with learning disabilities available in public and private schools in Canada and the U.S. More information here.

And now, let’s review the (in our view) 15 most stimulating articles of 2009.

The Big Picture

100 is the new 65: Why do some people live, and well, to 100? Researchers are trying to find out, reports Meera Lee Sethi at Greater Good Magazine.

Learning about Learning: an Interview with Joshua Waitzkin: Scott Barry Kaufman interviews “child prodigy” Joshua Waitzkin on The Art of Learning.

Debunking 10 Brain Health Myths: Does your brain have a “Brain Age”? Is a Magic Pill to prevent memory problems right around the corner?  Check out the facts to debunk 10 common myths.

Why is working memory relevant to reading and mathematics: A recent large UK study identified 1 in 10 students as having working memory difficulties. Dr. Tracy Alloway elaborates why this matters.

Change Your Environment, Change Yourself: Dr. Brett Steenbarger explains why new environments  “force us to exit our routines and actively master unfamiliar challenges.”

Tools

Retooling Use it or lose it: Alvaro Fernandez discusses why routine, doing things inside our comfort zones, is the most common enemy of the novelty, variety and challenge our brains need.

Does cognitive training work? (For Whom? For What?): Dr. Pascale Michelon, dissects a couple of recent press releases and the underlying studies to clarifying what they mean – and what they don’t mean.

New Study Supports Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD: Dr. David Rabiner reports the promising findings from the first well-designed controlled trial on the effect of neurofeedback treatment for ADHD.

Do Art Classes Boost Test Scores? Is there a “Mozart Effect?”: Some researchers suggest so; others are not convinced. Karin Evans offers a  thoughtful review of the evidence and asks, “Now, is this the right question?”

Does coffee boost cognitive functions over time? Dr. Pascale Michelon reports good news (long-term effects seem more positive than negative, so coffee leads to no clear harm) and bad ones (no clear beneficial effects on general brain functions).

Industry

Brain fitness heads towards its tipping point: How do you know when something is moving towards a Gladwellian tipping point? When insurance companies and policy makers pay attention, Dr. Gerard Finnemore reports.

Visual Representation of the State of the Market 2009: Paul Van Slembrouck beautifully presents the main findings of our 150-page market report, The State of the Brain Fitness Market 2009.

Michael Merzenich on brain fitness: neuroscientist Michael Merzenich discusses neuroplasticity, technology, safe driving, mental health, and the need for standards, automated assessments and “personal brain trainers”.

Brain Teaser

Stimulate your Concentration Skills: when one really wants to memorize a fact, it is crucial to pay attention. Dr. Pascale Michelon challenges you to count a few simple letters.

Resolution

Finally, an article that may inspire some New Year Resolutions. In Yes, You Can Build Willpower, Daniel Goleman discusses how the brain makes about 10,000 new cells every day, how they migrate to where they are needed, and how each cell can make around 10,000 connections to other brain cells. Implication? Meditate, mindfully, and build positive habits.

Wishing you a Happy and Productive 2010, and looking forward to meeting many of you (200 so far) at the inaugural SharpBrains Summit!

Back to work after nice mini-break…let’s all have a great 2010, and a fruitful decade.

We are proud to announce a new sponsor and several partners who are helping make the SharpBrains Summit a reality.

Sponsor

The Arrowsmith Program is a comprehensive suite of cognitive programs for students with learning disabilities that targets 19 areas of the brain that are most commonly involved in learning.  It integrates two lines of neuroscience research, that of Russian neuropsychologist, A.R. Luria and the American psychologist, Mark Rosenzweig, into a methodology with a multitude of practical applications for addressing learning disabilities.  The Arrowsmith Program identifies and strengthens the weak cognitive areas that affect learning and each student works on cognitive programs that are individually designed for his or her areas of learning difficulty.  The Arrowsmith Program was developed at Arrowsmith School in Toronto where it has been offered since 1979 and is available in public and private schools in Canada and the U.S.

Partners

The Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA), founded in 1980, is the leading national organization serving and representing individuals, families and professionals who are touched by a life-altering, often devastating, traumatic brain injury (TBI). Together with its network of more than 40 chartered state affiliates, as well as hundreds of local chapters and support groups across the country, the BIAA provides information, education and support to assist the 3.17 million Americans currently living with traumatic brain injury and their families.

The UC-Santa Barbara Neuroscience Research Institute has a mission to promote and facilitate interdisciplinary neuroscience research. Work in the institute integrates the tools and strategies of modern molecular biology, genetics, cell biology, developmental biology, biopsychology, biochemistry, physiology, biophysics and bioengineering.

The Alzheimer’s Research and Prevention Foundation (ARPF), established in 1993, is dedicated to reducing the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease by conducting clinical research and providing educational outreach. Our mission is to make available information, from conventional and complementary medicine, that will empower people to build healthy brains.

OLLI @ Berkeley is one of the 121 Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes on university and college campuses in 48 states (plus the District of Columbia) supported by the Bernard Osher Foundation. OLLI @ Berkeley provides older adults an intellectual, cultural and creative connection to Berkeley as well as a place for Berkeley’s distinguished faculty and others to share their research and interests in an interdisciplinary exchange of ideas.

To learn more about the upcoming SharpBrains Summit (January 18-20th), click Here.

Here you have the December edition of our monthly eNewsletter covering cognitive health and brain fitness topics. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, using the box in the right column.

Michael Merzenich on Brain Fitness

You will enjoy this comprehensive conversation with neuroplasticity expert  Michael Merzenich on the 8 main topics that will be addressed in the SharpBrains Summit. What value does technology bring to the cognitive health table? Why is brain training for safe driving gaining so much momentum? what automated assessments may become commonplace? why do we need “personal brain trainers” – and who will they be? Read the full interview here.

The SharpBrains Guide @ New York Public Library

You may well be thinking about New Year Resolutions, so we are sharing a couple of resources that may help you select resolutions to foster brain fitness without breaking the bank.

First, here is the video of my book talk at The New York Public Library on September 23rd, where we discussed The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness (May 2009; $19.95). The talk lasts an hour, followed by 25 minutes of Q&A. If you enjoy, please make sure to  share with your friends and colleagues.

Second, you can download a complimentary PDF copy of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews, to Keep Your Brain Sharp, by subscribing to our monthly eNewsletter. You can introduce and submit your email in the column to the right, and you’ll receive a confirmation email including a link to download the eBook.

Wishing you a very Sharp 2010!

We just announced a new session at upcoming SharpBrains Summit:

Monday January 18th, 2010, 3.30-4pm: The Future of Cognitive Health Tech – Intel’s Perspective
Two researchers at Intel Corporation and the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre will provide an overview of why and how Intel Corporation is supporting R&D initiatives to help develop home-based automated applications to assess, monitor and help maintain cognition among older adults. They will also share key lessons learned so far, and outline challenges and potential guidelines for the field at large based on ethnographic research and first-hand product development.

* Margaret Morris, Senior Researcher, Intel’s Digital Health Group
* Muki Hansteen-Izora, Product Research and Incubation Division Strategist, Intel’s Digital Health Group

Muki Hansteen-Izora, Senior Design Researcher and Strategist with the Product Research and Incubation division of Intel’s Digital Health Group. Muki is also the Intel lead and co-PI for the Technology Research for Independent Living (TRIL) Centre’s Cognitive Function research strand, which is investigating how interactive media and gaming technologies can support cognition in older populations. Prior to joining Intel, Muki served as a lead researcher at Philips Research Labs. He holds a degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Cruz, and completed his graduate training in Learning, Design, and Technology at Stanford University.

Margaret Morris, Senior Researcher in Intel’s Digital Health Group. Margaret studies the ways that emerging technologies can enhance mental and physical wellbeing. She conducts ethnographic research to identify needs and works with engineers to develop and evaluate exploratory prototypes. Prior to joining Intel in 2002, she studied technology adoption in Sapient’s Experience Modelling group. Margie completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a minor in Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of New Mexico, her clinical internship at the San Francisco VA Medical Centre, and her postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. She has a B.A. in English from Haverford College.

To learn more and register: click on SharpBrains Summit.

Dr. Michael Merzenich, Emeritus Professor at UCSF, is a leading pioneer in brain plasticity research. In the late 1980s, Dr. Merzenich was on the team that invented the cochlear implant. In 1996, he was the founding CEO of Scientific Learning Corporation (Nasdaq: SCIL), and in 2004 became co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Posit Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1999 and to the Institute of Medicine this year. He retired as Francis A. Sooy Professor and Co-Director of the Keck Center for Integrative Neuroscience at the University of California at San Francisco in 2007. You may have learned about his work in one of PBS TV specials, multiple media appearances, or neuroplasticity-related books.

(Alvaro Fernandez) Dear Michael, thank you very much for agreeing to participate in the inaugural SharpBrains Summit in January, and for your time today. In order to contextualize the Summit’s main themes, I would like to focus this interview on the likely big-picture implications during the next 5 years of your work and that of other neuroplasticity research and industry pioneers.

Thank you for inviting me. I believe the SharpBrains Summit will be very useful and stimulating, you are gathering an impressive group together. I am looking forward to January.

Neuroplasticity-based Tools: The New Health & Wellness Frontier

There are many different technology-free approaches to harnessing -enabling, driving- neuroplasticity. What is the unique value that technology brings to the cognitive health table?

It’s all about efficiency, scalability, personalization, and assured effectiveness. Technology supports the implementation of near-optimally-efficient brain-training strategies. Through the Internet, it enables the low-cost distribution of these new tools, anywhere out in the world. Technology also enables the personalization of brain health training, by providing simple ways to measure and address individual needs in each person’s brain-health training experience. It enables assessments of your abilities that can affirm that your own brain health issues have been effectively addressed.

Of course substantial gains could also be achieved by organizing your everyday activities that grow your neurological abilities and sustain your brain health. Still, if the ordinary citizen is to have any real chance of maintaining their brain fitness, they’re going to have to spend considerable time at the brain gym!

One especially important contribution of technology is the scalability that it provides for delivering brain fitness help out into the world. Think about how efficient the drug delivery system is today. Doctors prescribe drugs, insurance covers them, and there is a drug store in every neighborhood in almost every city in the world so that every patient has access to them. Once neuroplasticity-based tools and outcomes and standardized, we can envision a similar scenario. And we don’t need all those drug strores, because we have the Internet!

Having said this, there are obvious obstacles. One main one, in my mind, is the lack of understanding of what these new tools can do. Cognitive training programs, for example, seem counterintuitive to consumers and many professionals – why would one try to improve speed-of-processing if all one cares about is “memory”? A second obvious problem is to get individuals to buy into the effort required to really change their brains for the better. That buy-in has been achieved for many individuals as it applies to their physical health, but we haven’t gotten that far yet in educating the average older person that brain fitness training is an equally effortful business!

Tools for Safer Driving: Teens and Adults

Safe driving seems to be one area where the benefits are more intuitive, which may explain the significant traction.

Yes, we see great potential and interest among insurers for improving driving safety, both for seniors and teens. Appropriate cognitive training can lower at-fault accident rates. You can measure clear benefits in relatively short time frames, so it won’t take long for insurers to see an economic rationale to not only offer programs at low cost or for free but to incentivize drivers to complete them. Allstate, AAA, State Farm and other insurers are beginning to realize this potential. It is important to note that typical accidents among teens and seniors are different, so that training methodologies will need to be different for different high-risk populations.

Yet, most driving safety initiatives today still focus on educating drivers, rather that training them neurologically. We measure vision, for example, but completely ignore attentional control abilities, or a driver’s useful field of view. I expect this to change significantly over the next few years.

Long-term care and health insurance companies will ultimately see similar benefits, and we believe that they will follow a similar course of action to reduce general medical and neurodegenerative disease- (Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s- and Parkinsons-) related costs. In fact, many senior living communities are among the pioneers in this field.

Boomers & Beyond: Maintaining Cognitive Vitality

Mainstream media is covering this emerging category with thousands of stories. But most coverage seems still focused on “does it work?” more than “how do we define It”, “what does work mean?” or “work for whom, and for what?” Can you summarize what recent research suggests?

We have seen clear patterns in the application of our training programs, some published (like IMPACT), some unpublished, some with healthy adults, and some with people with mild cognitive impairment or early Alzheimers Disease (AD). What we see in every case: Read the rest of this entry »

Nice weekend reading material – recent news reiforcing emerging trends on physical, cognitive and emotional fitness, but with new twists.

Fit teens could be smarter teens

“Researchers from Sweden and USC examined data on 1.2 million Swedish men born between 1950 and 1976 who also enlisted for the country’s mandatory military service. They looked at the participants’ global intelligence scores as well as logical, visuospatial, verbal and technical scores. The greater the cardiovascular fitness, the higher the cognitive scores at age 18. The association between muscle strength and global intelligence, in contrast, was weak.”

 
UPMC Health Plan Offers Brain Fitness Software to Improve Health

“UPMC Health Plan announced today that it has signed an agreement to offer award-winning brain fitness software from Posit Science®, at no cost, to all UPMC for Life Medicare Advantage members. This brain training program is a new part of the UPMC Health Plan wellness services, which focus on both mind and body fitness.

The brain fitness software, known as the Insight(TM) Brain Fitness Program, is a suite of five game-like computer exercises that make brain training challenging and effective. The program engages the brain’s natural plasticity (the brain’s ability to rewire itself) to improve basic brain function.”

Brain-fitness industry grows as baby-boomers work to stay sharp.

“When we’re younger we’re learning quite intensively,” she said. “By middle age, we’re not learning intensively anymore and just using skills we’ve already mastered. That’s why it’s important to stretch your brain.”

Brain fitness games also have the potential to improve one’s emotional health, said Mark Baldwin, a psychology professor at McGill University in Montreal.

Baldwin has developed a number of computer games based on keeping a brain active physiologically, to improve it psychologically.

“It’s about practising or using games to train beneficial habits of thought, ” he said.

Just a quick note to announce a new Silver Sponsor of the SharpBrains Summit, and link to a couple stimulating online conversations.

The Institute For the Future is an independent, nonprofit strategic research group with more than 40 years of forecasting experience. The core of our work is identifying emerging trends and discontinuities that will transform global society and the global marketplace. We provide our members with insights into business strategy, design process, innovation, and social dilemmas. Our research spans a broad territory of deeply transformative trends, from health and health care to technology, the workplace, and human identity. The Institute for the Future is located in Palo Alto, California.

I have been collaborating informally with IFTF projects for a few years, and it is exciting to collaborate on the upcoming Summit and related work.

Now, two stimulating links:

1) Encyclopedia Britannica Blog is hosting an online conversation on Multi-tasking:

“Multitasking—remember when that was something computers did? They were supposed to do it for our benefit, to make our lives easier, but somehow it hasn’t quite worked out that way. With fast computers, the Internet, and smart phones in our pockets, today we’re always tethered to The Network, and sometimes it seems we’re doing its bidding instead of it doing ours. There’s so much to do, it comes at us so fast, and it all has to be done now. The solution: forget what you were taught about doing one thing at a time and start doing several things at once. Call your office from the expressway. Bring that Blackberry to the meeting. Answer e-mails over dinner. Multitask.

Of course, whether multitasking really is efficient is a matter both of public debate and clinical research, and it’s just one of the questions we plan to get into next week in a new forum on the subject here at the Britannica Blog.”

You can participate Here.

2) For extra brain & mind reading, you can visit  yesterday’s Encephalon edition at The Mouse Trap. Enjoy!

Our inaugural SharpBrains Summit continues to grow momentum – here goes a quick update.

New Speakers:

Thomas M. Warden is Assistant Vice President and Leader of Allstate’s Research and Planning Center (ARPC). He helps sets ARPC’s research agenda and manage its execution by 60-member ARPC staff, leading the development of significant innovations that contribute to Allstate’s profitable growth. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has an M.B.A. from Harvard University.

Dr. Laurence Hirshberg directs the NeuroDevelopment Center and serves on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior of the Brown University Medical School as Clinical Assistant Professor. The NeuroDevelopment Center is one of the 20 research sites worldwide participating in the largest study of neurophysiological markers for depression. Dr. Hirshberg is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified in EEG biofeedback by the Biofeedback Certification Institute of America, and recently served as Guest Editor and contributor to a special issue of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America devoted to emerging interventions in applied neuroscience, including neurofeedback and other brain based interventions.

New Silver Sponsor:

A.G.E. Matters is a multidisciplinary Adult and Geriatric Evaluation Clinic in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, with a mission to provide swift and continually upgraded access to community-based, comprehensive assessment of cognition, function and behavior; personalized programs of prevention, counseling, education and treatment; and nutritional and lifestyle recommendations, cognitive training programs, and medications of proven benefit.

New Partners:

The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation was established in 2004 as a public charity to support the advancement of drugs to prevent, treat, and cure Alzheimer’s disease, related dementias, and cognitive aging. Our strategy of venture philanthropy is based on the idea that our research grant recipients are engaged in projects that are potentially viable in the marketplace with a possible return on investment.

The International Council on Active Aging® (ICAA) was founded in the belief that unifying the efforts of the organizations focused on older adults benefits both the people they reach and the organizations themselves. Today, the vision is shared by over 8,000 organizations connected to the ICAA network.

The Knowledge Media Design Institute (KMDI) is a leader in interdisciplinary research and teaching at the University of Toronto. Our work spans the scientific study of the ways in which media and media technologies shape, and are shaped by, human activity, and the practical work of founding an interdisciplinary nexus for the design of such media. Adopting a human-centred and participatory approach to design, our goal is to enhance human skill rather than diminish it, and to encourage creativity and innovation.

The USC Davis School of Gerontology has consistently pioneered innovative educational programs including the world’s first Ph.D. in Gerontology, the first joint Master’s degree in Gerontology and Business Administration, and the first undergraduate Health Science Track in Gerontology. Research in molecular biology, neuroscience, demography, psychology, sociology and public policy is conducted under the auspices of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, founded in 1964.

Still much much more work ahead…but we are excited to see how this is shaping up!

For more information, and to Register a early-bird rates, click on SharpBrains Summit.