100 is the New 65
- Why do some people live to 100? Researchers are trying to find out, reports Meera Lee Sethi, and they’re discovering how we might live better lives, not just longer ones.

Will Clark, 105, recently bought a van for a 5,000-mile road trip across the Midwest with his wife, Lois, who is 102.

Elsa Brehm Hoffmann loves bridge and is always ready for a party. Rosa McGee enjoys singing hymns to herself all day long. Will Clark makes a mean spaghetti and meatballs. What connects these three? They belong to the single fastest growing segment of the United States population: people over a hundred years old.

Hoffmann, McGee, Clark, and the nearly 100,000 other centenarians in the U.S. provide inspiration to the rest of us. But they also provide researchers with a tantalizing puzzle: Why do some people live so long? For years, medical researchers have been studying this select group, identifying some key factors to a long life. Now, a growing body of research is suggesting that longevity isn’t just linked to good genes and a healthy lifestyle; it’s also tied to cultivating a positive, resilient attitude toward life. These results validate a simple idea: that centenarians can teach us how to live not just longer lives, but better ones.

At the fore of this research is the New England Centenarian Study (NECS), which has enrolled more than 1,500 centenarians from around the world over the past 15 years. The study’s director, Thomas Perls, says these participants dispel the belief that the older someone gets, the sicker he or she becomes. Instead, he says, “the older you get, the healthier you’ve been.” In other words, people who demonstrate exceptional longevity tend to have had a lifelong history of good health.

Indeed, people who die in their 70s or 80s are plagued by degenerative illnesses in the years before their death; in contrast, Perls has found that nearly two thirds of centenarians either delay the onset of diseases such as heart disease, stroke, and diabetes—or escape them altogether. Plus, a substantial proportion of centenarians who survive such age-related illnesses do so without developing physical disabilities, enabling them to remain socially, mentally, and physically active. As a result, in a culture that romanticizes youth, Perls argues that centenarians embody “a thoroughly optimistic view of aging”—one that shows that prolonging life and enjoying it go hand-in-hand.

How do they do it?

To reach 100, research suggests that it definitely helps to have the right genes. Longevity clusters in families; Perls has documented as many as eight siblings in one generation who lived to 100. He’s also found that the children of centenarians have only one-third the risk of dying from cancer as the rest of us, and one-sixth the risk of dying from heart disease. Although specific genetic mechanisms behind long life are notoriously difficult to prove, there is some evidence that centenarians may be less likely to possess specific genetic variations that predispose people to problems like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and high cholesterol. Perls is currently studying the entire human genome, searching for genetic variations associated with other diseases that centenarians lack, as well as variations that may actively promote longevity.

But long life isn’t just a lucky break. Scientists’ best estimate, largely based on a landmark Swedish study of identical and fraternal twins, is that genetic factors account for only 20 to 30 percent of a person’s lifespan. Environmental and behavioral factors dictate the other 70 to 80 percent.

Much of what researchers know about how to reach extreme old age sounds like basic public health advocacy: Don’t smoke. Drink in moderation. Eat healthy. Exercise regularly. “What we can do to live longer is no secret,” says Peter Martin, who directs the Gerontology Program at Iowa State University and was a key contributor to a study of centenarians in Georgia, the Georgia Centenarian Study, which ran from 1988 to 2006.

But what is new is the growing evidence that our personalities affect our longevity. It’s easy to know what it takes to stay healthy. More difficult is believing we have the power to control our lifespans, mustering the will to make good choices, and simply loving life enough to make long-term investments in our health. “It’s personality,” says Martin, “that turns these things on.”

Though every centenarian is unique—they vary widely in terms of education, socioeconomic status, religion, and ethnicity—Martin reports that, as a group, they exhibit a distinct constellation of personality traits. For instance, they tend to display relatively high levels of what psychologists label “competence”—the ability to achieve goals—and “conscientiousness,” or self-discipline. These qualities may make it easier to follow through on the healthy habits the rest of us resolve to keep each New Year’s Eve but abandon by the end of January.

“It’s amazing how cognizant they are of the need to exercise and not just leave it to chance or nature,” says Lynn Peters Adler, who runs the National Centenarian Awareness Project, an advocacy group that celebrates the pleasures and accomplishments of aging. “One woman I know walks a mile every morning, no matter the temperature.” This may sound like a strict and dreary regimen, but Adler notes that there’s an exciting reason for it: This woman loves hiking the Grand Canyon, which she has done nearly a dozen times since her 75th birthday.

Martin’s research suggests that centenarians also seem to be more inclined to embrace new skills and experiences, defying the stereotype of the elderly as stuck in their ways. Will Clark is living proof. Now 105, he just acquired his first computer, which he uses to email friends and to research authors and golfers in which he’s interested. He’s even taken to Googling family members. “I can’t believe the things you can call up on this gadget,” chuckles the former dentist and military man.

Elsa Hoffmann, 102, with her great granddaughters.

Elsa Hoffmann, 102, epitomizes two other traits centenarians display at relatively high levels: extraversion and trust. “I love people and I like to find out their interests in life,” she says. “We get to be intimate almost when we meet.” Hoffmann’s schedule includes lunch dates, theater outings, fundraisers, shopping excursions, bridge and gin tournaments, and—every year for the past few years—a cruise with fellow country club members.

Though she derives boundless joy from all this social activity, it also happens to be good for her: A considerable body of epidemiological research has linked low levels of social connection with higher risks for mortality. (See Jill Suttie’s Greater Good article this month for more on the cognitive benefits of social connection.)

But even when life isn’t all about world travel and intellectual discovery, centenarians still seem to have a leg up on the rest of us: Their results on personality tests show that they may be better equipped to handle difficult situations without literally worrying themselves to death. Rosa McGee, for instance, has lived through cancer, the death of her husband of 25 years, and a foot condition that renders her essentially homebound. Yet her daughter Clara Jean describes her personality simply as “sweetness. She never fusses, never argues, never complains. It’s a contentment that is beautiful.”

Indeed, research also shows that centenarians are more likely than younger adults to engage in “cognitive coping,” using mental strategies to tackle difficult situations. Martin says he has seen centenarians take a variety of approaches to combating stress and negative emotions. Some write poetry about the loneliness of old age or the misery of illness; others replace lost physical pursuits with mental ones, like reading, or take comfort in deep religious beliefs.

None of these coping strategies are particularly innovative. But Perls, Martin, and their colleagues argue that they can add up to a lifetime’s worth of healthy stress-management. Centenarian research shows that avoiding anxious or neurotic behavior may not only help us increase our lifespans but better enjoy those extra years.

A higher bar for aging

Given how “fantastically well” he has seen his study participants doing in the later stages of their lives, Perls is frustrated by what he sees as our culture’s obsession with youth. He laments the fact that “we have an entire industry that tries to stop aging—it’s all nonsense.”

Leonard Poon, who heads the Georgia Centenarian Study and is a professor of public health and psychology at the University of Georgia, says it’s not just popular culture but politicians who are short-sighted in this regard. Poon bemoans the lack of congressional support for the fields of gerontology and geriatrics. “The White House Conference on Aging is held every 10 years to get grassroots recommendations,” explains Poon. “In the last one, President Bush did not show up.”

Their lack of political clout is ironic; in his interviews with centenarians, Martin has found that many are acutely interested in politics, and love discussing issues like the national debt. He says this vigorous involvement in community life is a joy that old age shares with youth.

But there are also new joys that take shape as one gets older. There is, for instance, the pleasure of what Martin calls “weaving your own life story and making sense of why we’re here.” It’s a pleasure that McGee clearly enjoys when she talks about her role orchestrating a year’s supply of food for a church in Mexico, and that Hoffmann feels when she fixes broken toys for her great-grandchildren and speaks to elementary schoolchildren about her life’s experiences. And there is, still, the pleasure of exploration. Clark reveled in it recently, when he bought a van and went on a 5,000-mile road trip across the Midwest with his wife, herself 102.

Rising life expectancy rates mean that most of us will live longer than previous generations. What remains in question is the quality of life we’ll have at 80, 90, or 100. Martin contends that the answer lies in the attitude we cultivate in our younger years. “Imagine that you’re 95,” he says. “You can’t see, you can’t hear, you’re lonely and dependent on other people—and it’s because of the anxious, disagreeable attitude you had all your life.”

On the other hand, he says, developing a positive attitude towards life while we’re young, though challenging at times, can set us up to be happy, healthy, and independent in old age.

In other words, aging well isn’t just a project for the elderly. It’s something we can work toward our entire lives.

“For our parents, the standard was aging gracefully,” says Adler. “The bar has been raised. Let’s aspire instead to age excellently.”

– Meera Lee Sethi is a Chicago-based freelance writer who reports on current issues in biomedicine, public health, social psychology, and neuroscience. She is a contributing editor for Utata.org. Copyright Greater Good. Greater Good Magazine, based at UC-Berkeley, is a quarterly magazine that highlights ground breaking scientific research into the roots of compassion and altruism.

Related articles by Greater Good Magazine:

• Arts and Smarts: Test Scores and Cognitive Development
• Cognitive and Emotional Development Through Play
• Mindfulness and Meditation in Schools for Stress Management

The press release: Nine Leading Research Teams Selected to Study How Digital Games Improve Players’ Health

• “Digital games are interactive and experiential, and so they can engage people in powerful ways to enhance learning and health behavior change, especially when they are designed on the basis of well-researched strategies,” said (UC Santa Barbara’s Dr. Debra) Lieberman.
• “The pace of growth and innovation in digital games is incredible, and we see tremendous potential to design them to help people stay healthy or manage chronic conditions like diabetes or Parkinson’s disease. However, we need to know more about what works and what does not — and why,” said Paul Tarini, team director for RWJF’s Pioneer Portfolio. “Health Games Research is a major investment to build a research base for this dynamic young field. Further, the insights and ideas that flow from this work will help us continue to expand our imagination of what is possible in this arena.”

All 9 studies sound interesting, 3 of them are closer to what we track:

1. University of California, San Francisco (San Francisco, CA) A Video Game to Enhance Cognitive Health in Older Adults. As people age, they lose some of their ability to sustain their attention and to focus their attention on their main task while ignoring distractions. This study aims to improve these and other related cognitive skills by using a driving game in which players practice paying attention to relevant information, such as traffic signs, and ignoring irrelevant information, such as billboards. The study monitors brain activity with electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings and observes eye position and game performance in younger adults (ages 18 to 30) and older adults (ages 60 to 80) before and after six weeks of game play. The study assesses changes in cognitive ability, brain activity and transfer of game-related skills to similar cognitive operations and activities that take place in daily life.
2. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA) Reward Circuitry, Autism and Games that Teach Social Perceptual Skills – tests effects of facial perception games on the brain activity and facial perception skills of 8- to 12-year-old children who have been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Children with ASD tend to have difficulty perceiving and interpreting facial expressions and recognizing a person’s identity by observing their face. The games used in the study challenge them to notice subtle differences in faces and expressions and give them opportunities to rehearse these skills and receive feedback on their performance. Behavioral testing and use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) of players’ brains before and after playing the games for 50 hours over the course of eight weeks will help the researchers determine how the games influence facial perception skills and how the brain changes in response to these game experiences.
3. Long Island University (Brooklyn, NY) Dance Video Game Training and Falling in Parkinson’s Disease — compares the use of a commercially available dance pad video game, Dance Dance Revolution, to two traditional treatment options that help people with Parkinson’s Disease reduce their risk of falling by increasing their balance, strength, endurance, motor coordination and visual-motor integration. The two traditional treatments are rhythmic stepping and treadmill training with music. The researchers assess balance, motor function, reaction time and self-confidence to evaluate the game in comparison to the two traditional treatments. They also use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to observe participants’ brain activity.

The press release: Here.

More information: Health Games Research.

Related articles:

• Are Videogames Good for YOU?
• Playing the Blame Game: Videogames Pros and Cons
• 10-Question Checklist to Evaluate Brain Games

“The Lumosity.com version of Dual N-Back replicates the training previously used in the lab while making it available online. The program will be used to facilitate further research in memory and intelligence training, with the Lumosity Research Platform supporting data collection and study administration.”

“The online availability of the dual n-back task is a great step forward for our ongoing research and we are happy having found Lumos Labs as a competent partner,” says Dr. Buschkuehl.

Also note that the researchers are now recruiting healthy 18-35 year-old volunteers to participate in an ongoing study. (Participants must be able to travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan for testing). Learn more Here.

You may also enjoy this interview with Dr. Buschkuehl on their working memory training work.

“On November 11-12, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), working with the Monitor Institute, will welcome a small group of researchers, academics, physicians and industry leaders in the fields of neurotechnology, neurodevelopment and behavior change for a “Forum on the Future Impact of Neuroscience and Behavior Change.”

The question: what could neuroscience innovation mean for the future of health and health care?

This blog post contains the list of  participants (honored to be one) and an excellent contextual overview. 

Foundation staff will blog and tweet the event (haven’t seen the hashtag yet); I will link to good materials and offer my own perspective focused on that “neurodevelopment” aspect and, overall, where/ how research and the real-world can “dance” with each other.

There is little doubt that drinking that morning cup of coffee will likely increase alertness, but the main questions that research is trying to answer go beyond that. Basically: is there a sustained, lifetime, benefit or harm from drinking coffee regularly?

The answer, so far, contains good news and bad news. The good news for coffee drinkers is that most of the long-term results are directionally more positive than negative, so no clear harm seems to occur. The bad news is that it is not clear so far whether caffeine has beneficial effects on general brain functions, either short-term or long-term (aged-related decline or risks of dementia).

It is important to note that many of the studies showing an effect of coffee consumption on brain functions or risks of dementia report a correlation or association (they are not randomized clinical trials). As you know, correlation doesn’t prove causation: coffee drinkers may seem to do well in a number in these long-term studies, but there may be other reasons why coffee drinkers do better.

Q: How does caffeine affect my brain?
A: Caffeine is a stimulant.

It belongs to a chemical group called xanthine. Adenosine is a naturally occurring xanthine in the brain that slows down the activity of brain cells (neurons). To a neuron, caffeine looks like adenosine. It is therefore used by some neurons in place of adenosine. The result is that these neurons speed up instead of slowing down.

This increased neuronal activity triggers the release of the adrenaline hormone, which will affect your body in several ways: your heartbeat increases, your blood pressure rises, your breathing tubes open up, sugar is released in the bloodstream for extra energy.

In moderate doses (a few cups a day) caffeine can increase alertness but also reduce fine motor coordination, cause insomnia, cause headaches and nervousness.

Q: Does caffeine boost brain functions?

A: To date 3 studies suggest that the answer is “maybe”.

In one study of over 7000 people, results showed a correlation between current caffeine intake and better performance on 4 tests. This was more pronounced in older individuals than in younger ones (Martin, 1993).

Another study showed that in 1500 people over 65, life-time consumption of coffee was associated with increased performance in 6 out 12 tests. Current intake was related to better performance in only 2 out 12 tests (Johnson-Kozlow, et al., 2002).

The third study showed for a group of 1875 adults aged 24 to 81, current intake of coffee was associated with better performance in 2 tests but not in 4 others. (Hameleers et al., 2000)

Thus, caffeine consumption may be associated with better performance but 1) there are only very few studies so far, 2) this effect seems limited to some tasks only.

Q: Does caffeine protect against age-related cognitive decline?

A: Two studies say “yes” and 3 studies say “no”.

Van Gelder et al. (2007) followed 676 elderly men over 10 years and found that those who drank more coffee showed less decline in the Mini-Mental Test. The least decline was observed with 3 cups a day.

Ritchie et al. (2007) showed that over 4 years, women over 65 (but not men) who drank more than 3 cups a day showed less decline than women who drank one cup or less. This was observed only in a task of verbal memory.

Van Boxtel et al. (2003) followed 1376 individuals aged 24 to 81 for 6 years and found that caffeine intake had a very small impact on a motor task but no effect on verbal memory tasks.

Hameleers et al. (2000) found no evidence that caffeine intake counteracts cognitive age-related decline in a group of 1875 people aged 24 to 81.

The most recent study of 2606 people showed that over 28 years coffee drinking was not related to better performance (Laitala et al., 2009).

As you can see results are mixed. The evidence showing that caffeine reduces age-related cognitive decline is limited: very few studies and very few tasks.

Q: Does caffeine protect against dementia?

A: Three studies say “yes” and 2 studies say “no”.

Maia et al. (2002) studied 54 Alzheimer’s patients and their non-affected relatives (Controls): Higher daily caffeine intake during the 20 years prior diagnosis was found to be associated with lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease, suggesting that coffee may be protective.

Eskelinen et al. (2009) followed 1409 individuals aged 65 to 79 for 21 years and found that those who drank coffee had less risk of developing dementia than those who didn’t. The lowest risk was in people drinking 3-5 cups a day.

Lindsay et al (2002) studied 4615 individuals over 5 years and found that coffee consumption was associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Ritchie et al. (2007) studied 7017 individuals aged 65 and over and showed that, over 4 years, caffeine consumption did not reduce dementia risk.

The most recent study to date showed that over 28 years, coffee drinking did not affect the risk of mild cognitive impairment or dementia (Laitala et al., 2009).

Here again the evidence is mixed. Based on the few studies, it is not possible at this time to say that coffee consumption indeed decreases the risks of dementia.

– Pascale Michelon, Ph. D., is SharpBrains’ Research Manager for Educational Projects. Dr. Michelon has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and has worked as a Research Scientist at Washington University in Saint Louis, in the Psychology Department. She conducted several research projects to understand how the brain makes use of visual information and memorizes facts. She is now an Adjunct Faculty at Washington University.

What a nice surprise. Hello. Nice to meet you!

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Note: Chronic Babe wins a complimentary copy of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness for basically inventing cognitive sleep therapy. Congrats!

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Life and Death

MindHacks discusses an unexpected surge in brain activity when blood pressure drops to zero.

In Sickness & In Health suffers a death in the family. Adam shem tov. A man of good name.

BrainBlogger wonders, is religion a “natural” phenomenon?

Mind and Empathy

Behaviorism & Mental Health finds that everyone can have a mental illness – take a look at “Adjustment Disorder“.

ACP Internist reinforces the importance of empathy. Novel Patient encourages patients to dream big, Florecendotcom highlights how patients themselves contribute to patient safety. The Hippocratic Oaf discusses the feelings of a medical student. Clinical Cases wonders what doctors  in training carry in their white coats.

Advances in the History of Psychology examines an important early step in the journey to conceptualize cognition and emotion from a neural point of view.

The Fitness Fixer empathizes with her feet.

Brain

How to Cope With Pain discusses a controversial treatment for severe pain.

Neurophilosopher shows how vision (viewing one’s body) can modulate the senses of touch and pain. Fun experiments  included. Neurocritic takes things one step further, and takes us to the potential future of tattoo removal.

Providentia announces a new NFL Concussion Committee. 300,000 sports-related traumatic brain injuries occur in the United States alone each year.

SharpBrains answers 15 common questions related to neuroplasticity.

Medical Smartphones suggests smartphones can act as peripheral brains.

Cognitive Daily introduces us to the combination of fMRI research and genetic analysis to identify a genetic basis for anger.

Technology

Health Business Blog issues a warning to teleradiologists and other tele-providers.

Anticlue explains how to sell the concept of Electronic Health Records.

Shrink Rap offers the provider’s guide to Facebook. ACP Hospitalist covers Twitter obsession.

Diabetes Mine wonders about the safety of inhalable insulin.

Big, broad questions

Neuroanthropology, a neuroanthropology group blog, avoid the kind of cognitive bias that we at SharpBrains suffer all too often,  and asks, Why Neuroanthropology?

Teen Health 411 kindly reviews our recent SharpBrains book, and enjoys reading how humans developed cultural systems to help young people master the knowledge and skills they need to survive. Highlight Health likes the book too, placing it in the right lifelong context.

The Cockroach Catcher suggests a solution for ADHD in China: playing the piano.

Specific answers

Allergy Notes discusses a treatment for pregnant women with allergic rhinitis.

Medicine for the Outdoors introduces us to a useful device to manage bone fractures.

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Next edition of Grand Rounds: October 27th, CodeBlog.

Next edition of Encephalon: November 2nd, Providentia.

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Good night! good morning!

We are now finalizing agenda and contacting sponsors and partners. Details will be ready, and registration open, by the end of October. In the meantime, please Save the Date if you are interested in participating: January 18-20th 2010 (Pacific Time).

• Conference: January 18-19th. A series of 30-minute sessions (20-minute presentation, 10-minute Q&A), to discuss Market and Research Insights,  together with online discussions and, in some cities, social gatherings of participants.
• Expo Day: January 20th. Product demos by Sponsors.

Confirmed speakers and themes:

Monday, January 18th, 2010:

Cognition and Neuroplasticity: The New Healthcare Frontier

• Alvaro Fernandez, CEO, SharpBrains
• David Whitehouse, Chief Medical Officer, OptumHealth Behavioral Solutions
• William Reichman, President, Baycrest
• P Murali Doraiswamy, Biological Psychiatry Division Head, Duke University

Tools for Safer Driving: Teenagers and Older Adults

• Steven Aldrich, CEO, Posit Science
• Peter Christianson, President of Young Drivers of Canada
• Jerri Edwards, Assoc. Professor University of South Florida

Clinical Applications: Researching, Identifying, Treating Cognitive Deficits

• Keith Wesnes, Practice Leader, United BioSource Corporation
• Jonas Jendi, CEO, Cogmed
• Michel Noir, President, Scientific Brain Training
• Elkhonon Goldberg, Chief Scientific Advisor, SharpBrains

Preventive Applications: Maintaining Cognitive Functions for Independent Living

• Kunal Sarkar, CEO, Lumos Labs
• Elizabeth Zelinski, Professor at USD Davis School of Gerontology
• Dan Michel, CEO, Dakim

Tuesday January 19th, 2010:

New Cognitive/ Emotional Health Assessments

• Evian Gordon, CEO, Brain Resource
• Misha Pavel, Biomedical Engineering Division Head, OHSU
• Albert “Skip” Rizzo, Co-Director VR Psych Lab at USC

Integrating Cognition with Home Health and Medical Home Models

• Kenneth Kosik, Co-Director, UC Santa Barbara Neuroscience Research Institute
• Holly Jimison, Assoc. Professor, Oregon Health & Science University
• Jesse Wright, Director Depression Center, University of Louisville

Moving From Mental Health Disorders to Brain Functionality

• Torkel Klingberg, Professor Cognitive Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute
• Joshua Steinerman, Assoc. Professor, Albert Einstein – Montefiore Medical Center
• Yaakov Stern, Cognitive Neuroscience Division Leader, Columbia University

Entrepreneurial And Funding Perpectives

• Tim Chang, Partner, Norwest Venture Partners
• Richard Levinson, President, Attention Control Systems
• Veronika Litinski, Director, MaRS Venture Group

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For Whom: healthcare, high-tech, insurance, research, policy, decision-makers and practitioners, worldwide.

How: we’ll use online tools for webinars, discussions, networking, and have social gatherings in cities with enough critical mass. We want to replicate the “conference experience” as much as possible without having people travel from all over the place to one city and hotel.

We recently run an online survey among subscribers of our monthly eNewsletter, and over 500 people said we have helped them make better personal or professional decisions on how to maintain and improve brain fitness. Most gave very illuminating examples, which we are reading and enjoying as we speak.

Respondents also had many good questions to ask, so I have selected 15 common ones, paraphrased/ synthesized them below, and answered them by linking to our most relevant posts and resources. I hope you enjoy the FAQ session.

Q: I teach a brain fitness class at my library/ senior center/ school, using much of your info. Can you share some of your presentations?
A: Yes, we have just decided to share, using a Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License, the full presentation of my recent book talk at New York Public Library. As long as you give credit to SharpBrains and don’t modify it, you are free to use the presentation you can see and download HERE. The talk was videotaped, and will be available online soon, so please keep tuned.

Q: What exactly does neuroplasticity mean, and why is it so important for education and health?
A: Start by reading how learning changes your brain.

Q. Is this only relevant for older adults? Can I also apply it in the workplace (I am 47)
A. I strongly suspect you do have a human brain, so you may benefit from these Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains. Further, HR departments would do well to start paying more attention to Cognitive Fitness and the Mature Workforce trends.

Q. I read so many conflicting things I don’t know where to start.
A. You are not alone. We should all be aware that It is Not Only Cars That Deserve Good Maintenance: Brain Care 101.

Q. How can my organization deliver brain fitness activities as a community service?
A. These articles will provide good guidelines and ideas: Retooling Use It or Lose It , and Public Libraries: Community-Based Health Clubs for the Brain.

Q. Everyone seems obsessed with brain games. What about meditation?
A. Check out Yes, You Can Build Willpower, and Mindfulness Meditation in Schools.

Q. Are software-based cognitive interventions effective?
A. As a category, it certainly seems so, as long as we ask the right questions, For Whom, For What?. For example, did you see this Science paper on how Cognitive Training Can Influence Dopamine System?.

Q. What about the trade-off between time invested vs benefits realized.
A. Efficiency and replicability of cognitive and brain-based outcomes seem to be, in fact, the strongest points of structured cognitive interventions. They seem to maximize the Cognitive Value of your Mental Workout.

Q. It sometimes looks like the whole field came out of nowhere, due to Nintendo Brain Age’s success, so we can’t be talking about something serious.
A: Nintendo did indeed create consumer awareness (for a product with little evidence) but “brain training” has solid roots in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience, as you can read in our interview with Elkhonon Goldberg.

Q. What about neurofeedback?
A. After years of much clinical use and little solid evidence, several important trials have been published in 2009, showing how neurofeedback can help diagnose and treat ADHD patients.

Q. How can one improve memory?
A. Well, the answer deserves a whole book, but we can offer some Tips to Improve Memory including Sleep, Practice and Testing.

Q. How can I choose one among the number of products making memory and brain claims?
A. We suggest you use this Evaluation checklist, and consider reading our consumer guide/ book.

Q. Any general tips for educators and lifelong learners?
A. Indeed, here you have these 10 Brain Tips to Teach and Learn.

Q. How can I keep track of all the new trends, companies and products? Our health system/ insurer/ senior community/ venture firm/ company needs to make good decisions.
A. Well, that’s why we publish market research, such as the one summarized in this Infographic: State of the Market 2009 and also recently launched a professional Network for Brain Fitness Innovation. You can also Save the Date for the upcoming SharpBrains Summit.

Q: Thank you for all the information you provide…but what I want more of is… brain teasers!
A. Understood. We will make sure to offer more, but you can try, right now, these Top 50 Brain Teasers and continue with more recent puzzles and brain games.

I will be hosting Grand Rounds, the weekly collection of great health and medical blogging, on Tuesday, October 20th. Please send me your post at alvaro (at) sharpbrains (dot) com, indicating Grand Rounds in the title. Please do so before end of Sunday, October 18th, USA time.

Optional theme will be, of course: Cognition and the Brain. Would you share your thoughts and experiences on how cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychology should, will, or may, be used to improve health and healthcare? what opportunities you see for preventive and/ or clinical care to better deal with the assessment, maintenance, rehab, of cognitive and emotional functions, across the lifespan?

Reward for the extra brain exercise? I will give away a complimentary copy of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, our recent book, to the blogger who (in my editorial judgement) offers the most insightful post.

The theme is optional. Grand Rounds will include all other important topics you write about. Looking forward a stimulating edition!

The School Issue: Preschool: Can the Right Kinds of Play Teach Self-Control? (New York Times)

- “Over the last few years, a new buzz phrase has emerged among scholars and scientists who study early-childhood development, a phrase that sounds more as if it belongs in the boardroom than the classroom: executive function. Originally a neuroscience term, it refers to the ability to think straight: to order your thoughts, to process information in a coherent way, to hold relevant details in your short-term memory, to avoid distractions and mental traps and focus on the task in front of you. And recently, cognitive psychologists have come to believe that executive function, and specifically the skill of self-regulation, might hold the answers to some of the most vexing questions in education today.”

- “The ability of young children to control their emotional and cognitive impulses, it turns out, is a remarkably strong indicator of both short-term and long-term success, academic and otherwise.”

A truly excellent article, highly recommended reading. The only aspect lacking is the absence of coverage/ analysis of training-based alternatives to developing self-regulation, such as meditation and computerized cognitive training, which can help address some of the issues raised in the article (limited scalability, difficulty in isolating influential variables). We covered this in-depth in our book interview with Michael Posner.