We are honored (even honoured, I’d dare say) that they started the list with our complimentary Brain Fitness 101 e-Guide:

- “The science behind some of the more outlandish claims for computer games that are supposed to improve your cognitive powers, is a matter of debate. However, you don’t need to pay £20 to give a game a try. The internet features a host of websites that can stretch your imagination and improve your mental prowess in a range of skills. Some are expensive rip-offs, but many are free, as our guide to the best of them shows.”

- “Begin by downloading the Brain Fitness 101 e-guide by Sharp Brains, available free at tinyurl.com/6nlz9j. The guide gives a good overview of how mental exercises keep the brain on top form.”

Some other great resources they outline include the superb article “Is it worth going to the mind gym?” in New Scientist, a memory test set up by Edinburgh University and the BBC. There are many more stimulating resources offered there (not necesarily brain/ cognitive training, but stimulating anyway), so go take a look. 

Article: Pump up those little grey cells.

Picture above: Image of pyramidal neurons in mouse cerebral cortex expressing green fluorescent protein. The red staining indicates GABAergic interneurons. Source: PLoS Biology, via Wikipedia. 

These are some of the resources I promised as a follow-up, which can be useful to everyone interested in our field:

Good general articles in the business and general media:

Change or Die

Want a sharp mind for your golden years? Start now

You’re Wiser Now

On how new neurons are born and grow in the adult brain:

Salk Scientists Demonstrate For The First Time That Newly Born Brain Cells Are Functional In The Adult Brain

Old Brains, New Tricks

On the surprising plasticity and development potential throughout life:

Brain Plasticity, Language Processing and Reading

Juggling Juggles the Brain

Successful Aging of the Healthy Brain

Other important aspects:

Stress and the Brain

Exercise and the Brain

Humor, Laughter and The Brain

On the importance and impact of mental stimulation and training:

Brain Work-outs

Training Improves Cognitive Abilities of Older Adults

On the role of mental stimulation in protecting the brain:

Mental stimulation staves off dementia

Mind-Building Hobbies Prevent Alzheimer’s

On Training the Brain to help people with ADD/ADHD:

Training the Brain: Cognitive therapy as an alternative to ADHD drugs

On the importance of building a Brain Reserve:

Level of Job Difficulty Linked to Alzheimer’s

Selected Scientific Abstracts:

Ball K, Berch DB, Helmers KF, et al. Effects of cognitive training interventions with older adults: a randomized controlled trial. JAMA. 2002;288:2271-81.

Klingberg T, Fernell E, Olesen PJ, et al. Computerized training of working memory in children with ADHD–a randomized, controlled trial. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2005;44:177-86.

Mahncke HW, Connor BB, Appelman J, et al. Memory enhancement in healthy older adults using a brain plasticity-based training program: a randomized, controlled study. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2006;103:12523-8.

Scarmeas N, Stern Y. Cognitive reserve and lifestyle. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol. 2003;25:625-33.

Tarraga L, Boada M, Modinos G, et al. A randomised pilot study to assess the efficacy of an interactive, multimedia tool of cognitive stimulation in Alzheimer’s disease. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2006;77:1116-21.

Willis SL, Tennstedt SL, Marsiske M, et al. Long-term effects of cognitive training on everyday functional outcomes in older adults. JAMA. 2006;296:2805-14.

Great popular science books by our Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor

The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind – by Elkhonon Goldberg

The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older – by Elkhonon Goldberg 

With a health/medical angle

Brain Longevity: The Breakthrough Medical Program that Improves Your Mind and Memory – by Dharma Singh Khalsa

The Memory Prescription: Dr. Gary Small’s 14-Day Plan to Keep Your Brain and Body Young – by Gary Small

Fascinating, user-friendly scientific books

A User’s Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain – by John J. Ratey

Best of the Brain from Scientific American - a selection of essays

In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind - by Eric Kandel

Magic Trees of the Mind – by Marian Diamond

Mapping the Mind – by Rita Carter

Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind – by V. S. Ramachandran

Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves - by Sharon Begley

Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide To Stress, Stress Related Diseases, and Coping – by Robert M. Sapolsky

Good combination of information and activities

Building Mental Muscle: Conditioning Exercises for the Six Intelligence Zones – by David Gamon and Allen D. Bragdon

1) our brains remain flexible during our lifetimes,

2) we can refine our brains with targeted practice,

3) good brain exercise, or “mental cross-training”, requires novelty, variety, and increasing level of challenge (but without creating too much stress),

are being very well accepted from both healthy aging and workplace productivity points of view. We have ONE brain: health and productivity are 2 sides of the same coin.

If you want to make sure we learn more about our brains, you can help fellow blogger Shelley Batts get a college scholarship by voting here. She has a great neuroscience blog, is now finalist in a competition to win a nice scholarship, and needs out help.

Have some more time? You can watch this excellent 90-second video of cognitive neuroscientist Dr Lisa Saksida doing yoga in front of the fire while explaining the nature of Brain and Mind (via MindHacks). Quotes:

“I wish people understood that there is no mind/brain duality. Specifically, I wish people understood that there is no such thing as a purely psychological disorder. Every event in your psychological life, and therefore every psychological change, is reducible in theory to events and changes in your brain. We should therefore not judge people differently, according to whether they are considered to have a ‘psychological’ as opposed to a ‘neurological’ problem.”

“Of course, a lack of mind/brain split does not mean that we should abandon all talk of psychology. Psychology and neuroscience are two ways of studying the same thing, and both are essential for understanding the human condition.”

For more, check the posts in these always great blog carnivals (selected collections of blog posts by a number of bloggers around specific topics)

Tangled Bank (science in general)

Encephalon (neuroscience)

Credit: Photo of Neurons by symphanee via flickr

First, a prescient quote by Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934): ”Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculptor his own brain“.

Thanks to new neuroimaging techniques, regarded “as important for neuroscience as telescopes were for astronomy”, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have been finding that the brain has a number of “core capacities” and “mental muscles” that can be exercised through novelty, variety and practice, and that exercising our brain can influence the generation of new neurons and their connections. Brain exercise is being recognized, therefore, as a critical pillar of brain health, together with nutrition, physical exercise and stress management.

Previous beliefs about our brain and how it works have been proven false. Some beliefs that have been debunked include claims that adult brains can not create new neurons (shown to be false by Berkeley scientists Marian Diamond and Mark Rosenzweig, and Salk Institute’s Fred Gage), notions that working memory has a maximum limit of 6 or 7 items (debunked by Karolinska Institute’s Torkel Klingberg), and assumptions that the brain’s basic processes can not be reorganized by repeated practice (UCSF’s Drs. Paula Tallal and Michael Merzenich). The “mental muscles” we can train include attention, stress and emotional management, memory, visual/ spatial, auditory processes and language, motor coordination and executive functions like planning and problem-solving.

Mental stimulation is important if done in the right supportive and engaging environment. Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky has proven that chronic stress and cortical inhibition, which may be aggravated due to imposed mental stimulation, may prove counterproductive. Having the right motivation is essential.

A surprising and promising area of scientific inquiry is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). An increasing number of neuroscientists (such as University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Richard Davidson) are investigating the ability of trained meditators to develop and sustain attention and visualizations and to work positively with powerful emotional states and stress through the directed mental processes of meditation practices.

And now, some keywords:

Brain Fitness Program: structured set of brain exercises, usually computer-based, designed to train specific brain areas and processes in targeted ways.

Chronic Stress: ongoing, long-term stress, which blocks the formation of new neurons and negatively impacts the immune system’s defenses.

Cognitive training (or Brain Fitness Training): the field of brain exercises designed to help work out specific “mental muscles”. The principle underlying cognitive training is to help improve “core” abilities, such as attention, memory, processing spped, problem-solving.

Cognitive Reserve (or Brain Reserve): theory that addresses the fact that individuals vary considerably in the severity of cognitive aging and clinical dementia. Mental stimulation, education and occupational level are believed to be major active components of building a cognitive reserve that can help resist the attacks of mental disease.

fMRI: functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that enables researchers see images of changing blood flow in the brain associated with neural activity. This allows images to be generated that reflect which structures are activated (and how) during performance of different tasks.

Heart Rate Variability (HRV): describes the frequency of the cardiac cycle, and is one of the best predictors of stress and anxiety. Our hear rate is not “flat” or constant: HRV measures the pattern of change.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): yoga and meditation practices designed to enable effective responses to stress, pain, and illness.

Neurogenesis: the process by which neurons are created all throughout our lives.

Neuroimaging: techniques that either directly or indirectly image the structure, function, or pharmacology of the brain. Recent techniques (such as fMRI) have enabled researchers to understand better the living human brain.

Neuroplasticity: the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections throughout life.

PubMed: very useful tool to search for published studies. “PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for biomedical articles back to the 1950s. PubMed includes links to full text articles and other related resources.”

Working memory: the ability to keep information current for a short period while using this information. Working memory is used for controlling attention, and deficits in working memory capacity lead to attention problems. Recent research has proven that working memory training is possible and helpful for people with ADD/ ADHD.

Any other keyword you would like explained?

When is stress chronic? When you feel out of control of your life. You may feel irritable or anxious. While every individual varies in their response the type and quantity of stress, there are some things you can do to feel more in control of your environment. This sense of empowerment can lower your stress, and as a result, help your memory.

What are some ways to feel in control and less stressed?

1. Use a calendar to schedule important things. Give items a date and a priority.
2. Make a list of things that need to be done. Even if it’s a long list, it can be rewarding to cross off items as you complete them.
3. Use a contemplative practice like yoga or meditation to calm your mind and body or try using a heart rate variability sensor to learn to relax and focus your mind and body.
4. Ask yourself how important something truly is to you. Maybe you’re stressing over something that you are better off just letting go.
5. Delegate what you can.
6. Get regular exercise to burn off those excess stress hormones.
7. Get enough sleep so that you can recharge your batteries.
8. Eat well and reduce your caffeine and sugar intake which can add to your sense of jitteriness.
9. Maintain your social network. Sharing concerns with friends and family can help you feel less overwhelmed.
10. Give yourself 10 minutes just to relax every day.

Further Reading on Stress and Memory
Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky, Ph.D.
A Primer on Multitasking
Simple Stress Test
Quick Stress Buster
Is there such thing as GOOD stress?
Brain Yoga: Stress — Killing You Softly

Having attended last week a conference where neuropharma executives presented all their future drugs against obesity, anxiety, depression…I couldn’t agree more. The rates of serious side effects of these drugs are astounding, yet as a society we seem to prefer to rely on taking drugs when are sick rather than proactively taking charge of our health and lifestyles and do our best (which not always is enough) to protect our fitness and wellness.

The press release Steven talks about: Yoga and Elevated Brain GABA Levels [PhysOrg]. Quotes:

• “Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) and McLean Hospital have found that practicing yoga may elevate brain gamma-aminobutyric (GABA) levels, the brain’s primary inhibitory neurotransmitter. The findings, which appear in the May issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, suggest that the practice of yoga be explored as a possible treatment for depression and anxiety, disorders associated with low GABA levels.”
• “The development of an inexpensive, widely available intervention such as yoga that has no side effects but is effective in alleviating the symptoms of disorders associated with low GABA levels has clear public health advantage,” added senior author Perry Renshaw, MD, PhD, director of the Brain Imaging Center at Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital.

Related posts:

Are yoga and meditation good for my brain?

Stress Management Workshop for International Women’s Day

Bill Clinton on health care and wellness