We’ll have an exciting session in Palo Alto on October 6th, as part of the BoomerTech series organized by the MIT Club and SmartSilvers. Let me share the details now.

Fact or Fad: Who is Shaping the Brain Fitness Market?
Description: Lots of buzz … Perhaps you think that “Senior Moments” are an inevitable part of aging. But research shows you may be able to keep your brain young and fit the same way you do your body, with exercise and training. With the success of Nintendo’s Brain Age, Posit Science and dozens of new software programs and games that promise “brain fitness”, the real question is: “Are we experiencing a fad, or an emerging new consumer market?”

Join our speaker, Alvaro Fernandez, author of the new book, The Sharp Brains Guide to Brain Fitness, and our expert panel to discuss:

* What are the top products on the market today?
* Can the emerging field of Brain fitness improve your job performance?
* How will consumers make informed decisions on what to buy and use?
* What are the emerging trends to leverage for entrepreneurs to jump into the marketplace?

Click Here to Register

Speaker, Panelist & Moderator

Alvaro Fernandez, SharpBrains — Alvaro is co-founder and CEO of SharpBrains, a leading market research firm that tracks the market and research for cognitive assessments, training, and games. A member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils, he has been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and more, and recently co-authored the book, The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews, to Keep Your Brain Sharp. Alvaro received masters’ degrees in education and business from Stanford University, and teaches at UC-Berkeley Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.

Panelists

Roger Quy, General Partner, Technology Partners — Roger has been responsible for the life science practice of Technology Partners since 1989. He specializes in neurotechnology, investing in both biopharma and medical device companies. Roger began his career at the Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London where he was a Research Fellow for the British Medical Research Council. He developed and commercialized techniques for monitoring the brains of ambulatory patients. He contributed to a textbook on epilepsy and holds eight patents. Roger earned a BA with honors in psychology and law and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Keele, England. He received an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Jan Zivic, Founder, Vibrant Brains — Jan’s interest in Brain Fitness is very personal. She suffered a traumatic brain injury after an automobile accident several years ago, and experienced the concept of neuroplasticity first-hand as she rehabilitated from not being able to walk or think rationally to restoring much of her previous function.

Jan has served in a variety of leadership roles including: the Board of Directors of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts where she currently serves as President of the Board, the Library Commission of SF, the California Executive Recruiters Association (its first female President), the Katherine Delmar Burke Independent School, and The Family Services Agency of SF – President of the Board. Jan was recognized as The SF Cable Car Awards “Woman of the Year,” and later as the recipient of the Maya Angelou Community Leadership Award, from the University of California, San Francisco Medical School’s Center Of Excellence.

Date: Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Time:

* 6:00PM Registration, Hors d’oeuvres and Networking
* 7:00PM Presentation and Panel Discussion

Cost:

* $20.00 in advance on the website
* $25.00 Walk-ins at the door (cash or check please, no credit cards accepted at door)

Contact:

Michael Sarfatti
tel 415-885-2293
sarfatti@alum.mit.edu

Location:

Wilson Sonsini
950 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94301

Click Here to Register

Here you have the September edition of our monthly newsletter covering cognitive health and brain fitness topics. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, using the box at the top of this page.

In the current edition of The Journal on Active Aging, I discuss why we need to Retool “Use it or lose it”, and why routine, doing things inside our comfort zones, is the most common enemy of the novelty, variety and challenge our brains need. You can read the full article for free Here.

Book Tour

We are glad to report that The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness continues to obtain excellent endorsements:

“This is the only book that I know of that seamlessly integrates latest information about cognitive health across the lifespan. Very useful to anyone interested in brain care.”

–Arthur Kramer, Ph. D., Professor of Psychology at University of Illinois

“…we now have a rock solid primer on brain health that we can recommend with confidence…I found it particularly effective to start the book with a list of ten brain myths that need debunking.”
–Michael C. Patterson, former Manager NRTA/ Staying Sharp at AARP

The official book tour starts this week, and includes New York Public Library!
09/08: Club One Fitness Center, Petaluma, CA
09/09: San Francisco State University OLLI
09/11: ASA Brain Health Day, Oakland, CA
09/23: New York Public Library, Bronx Library Center
09/25: New York Public Library, Stephen Schwarzman Building
10/06, SmartSilvers MIT Northern California, Palo Alto, CA
10/14: UC-Berkeley OLLI, CA

You can find all the details here. If you haven’t read the book yet, you can order it via Amazon Here (print book) or Here (Kindle edition). Or ask your local bookstore or library.

Brain Reserve

Here you have the August edition of our monthly newsletter covering cognitive health and brain fitness topics. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, using the box at the top of this page.

Scientific publication Frontiers in Neuroscience recently published a special issue on Augmenting Cognition, and invited me to contribute with an article titled Preparing Society for the Cognitive Age. Groundbreaking brain research has occurred over the last 20 years. The opportunity to improve brain health and performance is immense, but we need to ensure the marketplace matures in a rational and sustainable manner, both through healthcare and non-healthcare channels. Click Here to read my article.

Announcements

In May 2009 SharpBrains published The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2009, the main industry report for leading organizations preparing their members, their clients, and their patients for the cognitive age. 150-pages long, the report includes a market survey with 2,000+ respondents, detailed analysis of 20+ vendors, research briefs written by 12 leading scientists and data and trends for 4 major customer segments.

Below we share the full Executive Summary of the report and announce an exclusive webinar on September 29th to discuss the State of the Market in more depth with buyers of the report.

To order the report and access both the report and the webinar, you can click Here. (Only $975 -a 25% discount- using Discount Code Frontiers2009 before September 28th).

State of the Market
 

Here you have the April edition of our monthly newsletter covering cognitive health and brain fitness topics. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, using the box at the top of this page.

We are excited to release our 2009 market report The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2009. To be formally released on May 4th but available now for our clients and readers, this report aims to inform decision-makers at healthcare, insurance, research, public policy, investment and technology organizations about important developments in the brain fitness and cognitive health space.

2009 Market Report

The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2009: This new 150-page report finds sustained growth in the brain fitness software market (from $225m in 2007 to $265m in 2008) and promising seeds for future growth, combined with increased confusion given aggressive marketing claims and lack of education and standards. The report includes, for the first time, a Market & Research Momentum Matrix to categorize 21 key vendors, 10 Research Executive Briefs written by 12 leading scientists, and the complete results of our market survey with 2,000+ respondents. You can learn more, and acquire the report, Here.

News and Resources

Cognitive Health News April Round-Up: New cognitive track at the Games for Health conference, bilingual brains, poverty’s effect on the brain and working memory due to stress, diabetes, neuroenhancing drugs, Kellogg’s settlement with the FTC, neurocognitive testing in the military.

Normal Aging vs. Alzheimer’s Disease: Dr. Murali Doraiswamy shares his very insightful views on the key question, “How can we help the public at large to distinguish Alzheimer’s Disease from normal aging — so that an interest in early identification doesn’t translate into unneeded worries?”, based on his recent book The Alzheimer’s Action Plan.

Upcoming Guide

Here you have the January edition of our monthly newsletter covering cognitive health and brain fitness topics. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, simply by submitting your email at the top of this page.

Bird’s Eye View

Brain fitness heads towards its tipping point: How do you know when something is moving towards a Gladwellian tipping point? When health insurance companies and public policy makers launch significant initiatives. Dr. Gerard Finnemore provides a market overview, based on SharpBrains’ client webinar held last December.

Ten Reflections on Cognitive Health and Assessments: Here are 10 highlights from several stimulating January events:  Symposium on Adaptive Technology for the Aging (by Arizona State University), Health Bloggers’ Summit (by Consumer Reports), Traumatic Brain Injury (by Veteran Affairs in Palo Alto), and a new Alzheimer’s/ Dementia Expert Panel organized by the city of San Francisco.

News and Events

Nintendo Brain Age vs. Crossword Puzzles: we need much public education in order to help consumers separate reality from hope from hype. Nintendo is not helping, neither is media reporting.

Collection of recent news: including training for senior fitness trainers, reports on the importance of purpose,  on older driver safety, and more.

Upcoming events: I will be speaking soon at the New York Academy of Medicine, the American Society on Aging/ NCOA conference, and the Silvering Workforce Summit at the University of North Carolina. Let me know if you are attending any.

Education and Learning

Learning about Learning: an Interview with Joshua Waitzkin: Scott Barry Kaufman interviews “child prodigy” Joshua Waitzkin on The Art of Learning. Many fascinating insights, including “I think losing my first National Chess Championship was the greatest thing that ever happened to me, because it helped me avoid many of the psychological traps…(associated with being called a “child prodigy”)”.

Resources to help students build emotional intelligence: Daniel Goleman introduces educators and parents to a new book that “adds an important tool to the emotional intelligence kit: mindfulness, a moment-by-moment awareness of one’s internal state and external environment.”

Resources

Top 10 Cognitive Health and Brain Fitness Books: Here you have The 10 Most Popular Brain Fitness & Cognitive Health Books, based on book purchases by SharpBrains’ readers during 2008.

10-Question Program Evaluation Checklist: To help consumers and professionals navigate through the growing number of programs making “brain fitness” or “brain training” claims, we published last year this Evaluation Checklist. Now we are making the Checklist available as a Bookmark given recent requests by universities and conference organizers.

Brain Teaser

Brain Teaser to Exercise your Memory and Reasoning Skills: Dr. Pascale Michelon offers a stimulating teaser that not only helps exercise our brain but also educates us on how and why the same activity may exercise different brains differently – depending on where we are from.

Here you have SharpBrains’ 30 most popular articles, ranked by the number of people who have read each article in 2008.

Please note that, since the first article already includes most of our most popular brain teasers, we have excluded teasers from the rest of the ranking. (If those 50 are not enough for you, you can also try these brain teasers).

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Read the rest of this entry »

Here you have the twice-a-month newsletter with our most popular blog posts. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, simply by submitting your email at the top of this page.

Have you ever wondered how we can maintain SharpBrains’ website, blog and newsletter without selling any products and with only limited advertising? The answer is, we offer market research to organizations such as healthcare providers, research centers, technology developers, venture capital firms, consulting and training companies, and more.

Our new Premium Research Sponsors program will allow pioneering organizations to collaborate with us to shape the future of the brain fitness and cognitive health field, by sponsoring and accessing the most up-to-date information on the science and best practices to assess and improve cognitive functioning across the lifespan. You can learn more about the Premium Research Sponsors program Here.

Market News

The Cognitive Health and Fitness Market On The Move: As you have probably seen, the Cognitive Health and Brain Fitness field is rapidly evolving. Here we highlight some of the main developments affecting the field over the last 6-months: public policy initiatives in Canada and the US, the growing role of computerized assessments, several venture capital rounds, major initiatives by insurance companies, and significant research findings.

 The Big Picture

Executive Summary of the Brain Fitness Market: Let’s step back and ask ourselves, “Why is the field evolving in such a fast way? What is hope, what is hype, what is reality?” A spate of recent global news coverage on brain fitness and brain training reflects a growing interest in natural, non drug-based interventions to keep our brains sharp as we age. This interest is very timely, given an aging population, the increased prevalence of Alzheimer’s rates, and soaring health care costs in the US that place more emphasis than ever on prevention and lifestyle changes. This article summarizes the main market dynamics, open questions, and top trends to watch for.

Nourishing Our Brains and Minds

Philosophy as the Missing Link in School Curricula: Kimberly Wickham answers provides some good answers to the question, “Why would anyone want to teach philosophy to pre-adolescent children?” that will engage your critical thinking skills.

A User’s Guide to Lifelong Brain Health: Drs Simon Evans and Paul Burghardt hope (as we do) that the emerging emphasis on cognitive exercise and fitness helps complement -not substitute- other lifestyle factors important for the “physical health of the brain and all the systems it communicates with”. Think: nutrition, exercise, sleep.

Excellent Reader Comments: Our last newsletter generated a round of excellent  comments by readers on cognitive training, Posit Science and Alzheimer’s Australia, gerontology and the brain, and the value of videogames. Come enjoy this collective wisdom and participate as you wish.

Brainy Haikus:
river with haikus
flowing in since the summer
keeping  us afloat

The Challenges of Gerontology?: The World Economic Forum has asked me, as one of the 16 members of the Global Agenda Council on the Challenges of Gerontology, for “an 800 word summary of your most compelling actionable idea on the challenges of gerontology.” Feel free to help me out by offering your own actionable ideas, either related to the discipline of gerontology itself or on ways to best engage the growing number of brains over the age of 60 in our planet.

Enjoy!

Over the next weeks we are going to be sharing the Executive Summary of our market report The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 with members and clients of several partner organizations (the British Columbia Seniors Living Association, where I will be speaking this Thursday, Neurotech Reports, where I will speak on October 24th, and the Health 2.0 conference, where we are sponsoring a panel on gaming for health), so it is only fair that we first share it with our own readers.

Executive Summary

A spate of recent global news coverage on brain fitness and brain training reflects a growing interest in natural, non drug-based interventions to keep our brains sharp as we age. This interest is very timely, given an aging population, increasing prevalence of Alzheimer’s rates, and soaring health care costs in the US that place more emphasis than ever on prevention and lifestyle changes.

US brain fitness market: significant and growing

We estimate the size of the US brain fitness market was $225m in 2007 – more than double what it was in 2005. Whereas K12 school systems were the largest buyers in 2005, consumers were responsible for most of the growth from 2005 to 2007. We estimate that the consumer segment grew from a few million in 2005 to $80m in 2007, and foresee significant market growth driven not only by consumers but also by healthcare and insurance providers.

Market dynamics

As we speak to diverse audiences about this emerging field around the country we are frequently asked the following questions:

- Why are we talking about the brain fitness field at all?

Over the past decade, teams backed by neuroscientists around the world Read the rest of this entry »

We just received this quote of how a major health system is using our Brain Fitness Market Report:

“At Sutter Health Partners we recognize the importance of brain health and how much the health of the brain and the body are interdependent.  The market report helped us further target our coaching efforts to integrate brain fitness and upgrade our entire coaching platform.  It is easy to read and gives you the industry perspective in a thorough yet concise manner.  I highly recommend it!”

– Margaret Sabin, CEO of Sutter Health Partners and VP, New Product Development, at Sutter Health.

You may wonder, “what is the link between  wellness coaching and brain fitness”?

In practice, good health and wellness coaches provide excellent brain health advice, given that the areas they focus on (nutrition, physical exercise, stress management) do play an important role in maintaining our brains in top shape.

Additionally, pioneers  such as Sutter Health Partners are adding a Brain “lens” to their work. How?

First, by better understanding and explaining the brain benefits of what they already do, in order to provide additional motivation to stick with healthy behaviors. For example, most people will be able to recite multiple benefits of moderate cardiovascular exercise. But how many know  that it can also contribute to neurogenesis -the creation of new neurons – in adult brains?

Second, by starting to offer brain fitness guidelines to clients who want too go beyond crossword puzzles and sudoku.

I had a great training session with a number of Sutter Health coaches last week – let me summarize some of the main points we covered. Read the rest of this entry »

Busy as we have been, we only recently compiled the list of organizations who have purchased our Brain Fitness Market Report so far. We were impressed by the quality and variety represented, and the cross-sector demand for quality information in the emerging brain fitness/ cognitive health category. Seeing the list helps us prioritize efforts and coverage of market and research news and trends.

Below you have a selection of main categories, and a few selected clients:

· Research centers and universities: Harvard Medical School, US Army Research Lab, MaRS Discovery District, Oregon Center for Applied Science, University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan.

· Older adults organizations and communities: AARP, Sunrise Senior Living, Belmont Village Senior Living.

· Healthcare Providers: Sutter Health, Memorial Hospital Health System, NeuroCare Network, Mindmedi Clinic. Read the rest of this entry »