Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg and I, co-authors of The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, will cover the main highlights from our new book and address the questions submitted by readers.
When: Tuesday July 21st, 10am Pacific Time; 1pm Eastern Time.

How to Register: Click HERE for more information and to Register.
Title: The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness:
18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews, to Keep Your Brain Sharp

Book description: While most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it,” very few understand what “it” means, or how to properly “use it” in order to maintain brain function and fitness. The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness is an invaluable guide that helps readers navigate growing brain research and identify the lifestyle factors and products that contribute to brain fitness. By gathering insights from eighteen of the world’s top scientists and offering tools and detailed descriptions of over twenty products, this book is an essential guide to the field of brain fitness, neuroplasticity and cognitive health.

An accessible and thought-provoking read, The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness educates lifelong learners and professionals in healthcare, education, business, etc., on emerging trends and forecasts of what the future will hold.

To order book via Amazon.com:

- Print book ($24.95): click Here
- Kindle version ($9.99): click Here

Our first book is available in Amazon.com!

After several meetings with Dr. Goldberg, who kindly responded to my initial unsolicited letter, we decided to partner and create SharpBrains with a mission to “to provide individuals, companies and institutions with independent, high-quality, research-based, information and guidance to navigate the growing cognitive health and brain fitness market.”

Since then, we have launched one of the most popular brain websites, blogs and newsletters, two annual market reports that have become the standard in our field, a lifelong learning curriculum taught in multiple universities, and we are now pleased to bring to you our first book. We hope you enjoy it.

Book description: While most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it,” very few understand what “it” means, or how to properly “use it” in order to maintain brain function and fitness. The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness is an invaluable guide that helps readers navigate growing brain research and identify the lifestyle factors and products that contribute to brain fitness. By gathering insights from eighteen of the world’s top scientists and offering tools and detailed descriptions of over twenty products, this book is an essential guide to the field of brain fitness, neuroplasticity and cognitive health. An accessible and thought-provoking read, The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness educates lifelong learners and professionals in healthcare, education, business, etc., on emerging trends and forecasts of what the future will hold.

Praise for the book

“Finally, an insightful and complete overview of the science, products and trends to debunk old myths and help us all maintain our brains in top shape. A must-read for everyone with a brain – an instant classic.”
—Gloria Cavanaugh, former President & CEO of the American Society on Aging and founding Board member of the National Alliance for Caregiving

“The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness offers a valuable and stimulating blueprint for anyone who wants to grow older sustainably — that is, with sound mind and good humor. Fernandez and Goldberg are the pioneers we’ve been waiting for to help us do exactly that. Buying this book is the ultimate no-brainer.”
—Joel Makower, Executive Editor, GreenBiz.com, and author, Strategies for the Green Economy

“A masterful guide to the brain training revolution. Promises to stimulate a much needed conversation that will nudge society to build a new brain fitness culture on solid, research-based, foundations.”
—P. Murali Doraiswamy MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Duke University and Co-author of The Alzheimer’s Action Plan

“Our curriculum and research circle will begin summer work by reading The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, a much-needed new resource to help us better understand our brains and minds and how to nourish them through life.”
—Susan E. Hoffman, Director, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at UC Berkeley

“All of us researching healthy brain function owe SharpBrains a debt of gratitude for promoting a science-based approach to brain health education and offering an unbiased view of the landscape. Now, with The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, Alvaro Fernandez and Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg serve up plentiful food for thought to satisfy the growing number of adults who are hungry for a healthy mind.”
—Joshua R. Steinerman, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neurodegenerative Disease Clinical Trials Program at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center

“I am a neurosurgeon and have a great interest in the rapidly advancing field of neuroscience, especially the areas of neurogenesis and neuroplasticity. New developments happen so fast that it is difficult to keep up. This book by Alvaro Fernandez and Elkhonon Goldberg offers a spectacular introduction to the field, valuable both to the public at large and healthcare professionals.”
—Guy Otis Danielson III, MD, President of the NeuroCare Network Tyler, Texas

“Finally, a book that makes sense out of the confusing brain fitness movement! I believe brain fitness could very well be the next big thing. Baby boomers like me are getting older and we want to stay mentally sharp, maintain if not strengthen our cognitive skills, and above all avoid mental decline and Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, there’s been many conflicting claims and confusing products that has made it difficult for me and thousands of others people to decide just what we should do. SharpBrains’ guide is an honest, clearly written examination of brain fitness concepts, the underlying science, and the best products and services out there. It’s a first-class, pioneering resource that summarizes all I need to know about how to stay sharp for many more years.”
—David Bunnell, founder of PC, PC World, Macworld and BioWorld

Continue reading about (and order!) The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews, to Keep Your Brain Sharp

A recent CNN article explains well why a growing number of companies use brainteasers and logic puzzles of a type called “guesstimations” during job interviews:

- “Seemingly random questions like these have become commonplace in Silicon Valley and other tech outposts, where companies aren’t as interested in the correct answer to a tough question as they are in how a prospective employee might try to solve it. Since businesses today have to be able to react quickly to shifting market dynamics, they want more than engineers with high IQs and good college transcripts. They want people who can think on their feet.”

What are technology companies (Google, Microsoft, Amazon) and consulting companies (McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Accenture…) looking for? They want employees with good so-called Executive Functions: problem-solving, cognitive flexibility, planning, working memory, decision-making, even emotional self-regulation (don’t try to solve one of these puzzles while being angry, or stressed out).

Want to try a few? Below you have our Top 7 Guesstimations/ Logic Puzzles for Brain Challenge:

Please try to GUESS the answers to the questions below based on your own logical approach. The goal is not to find out (or Google) the right answer, but to Read the rest of this entry »

Here you have a few recent great blog carnivals (collections of selected blog posts focused on specific topics):

- Grand Rounds: health and medicine

- Encephalon: neuroscience and psychology

- COTC: business and entrepreneurship

- Human Resources: articles for HR professionals

- Education: articles for K12 teachers and staff

- Tangled Bank: general science 

- Books: good book reviews

 

We also just found a great overview of the brain fitness market in French, summarizing many of the topics we have written about:

Des logiciels qui boostent le cerveau… et son marché

Here is question 22 from Brain Fitness 101: Answers to Your Top 25 Questions.

Question:

Are there specific brain fitness programs for kids? My kids have problems with math-why should they do these things that may distract them?

Key Points:

• Learning stress management skills can reduce test anxiety and improve learning readiness.
• If stress levels are too high, concentration and focus are negatively impacted.

Answer:

Read the rest of this entry »

Brett N. Steenbarger , Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at SUNY Upstate Medical University, active trader for over 30 years, former Director of Trader Development for Kingstree Trading, LLC, author of The Psychology of Trading and the new Enhancing Trader Performance, and of the blog TraderFeed: Exploiting the edge from historical market patterns, is writing a great collection of best practices for traders (many of which are very relevant for all high-pressure occupations).

He wrote a great article a few weeks ago on the value of biofeedback in achieving self control, and now deepens the discussion with this best practice for traders.

Both articles are a fun read-here go some quotes from the most recent one

• “This best practice describes biofeedback as a tool for performance enhancement among traders. It emphasizes that the role of biofeedback is to keep us in touch with our (implicit) knowledge, not to eliminate emotion from the decision-making process.”

• “we want to control the level of cognitive and physical arousal so that we retain access to expertise that is already present. Biofeedback is a powerful tool for achieving such cognitive and physical control.”
• “Through structured practice, people can learn to systematically improve their ability to enter and remain in states of calm focus. Such ability is important to trading (and many other performance activities), not because it eliminates emotion, but because it preserves our access to the somatic markers that represent our market feel. The heart rate variability feedback is particularly user friendly, because it is computer based and can track progress both in practice sessions and in real time performance.”
• “Using the Freeze-Framer program, audible signals tell the user when he or she is experiencing high, medium, or low “coherence”, which is a measure of emotional regulation. On-screen games require the user to keep a floating balloon in the air, for instance, based upon sustained medium and high readings. I recently had an interesting experience during one feedback session: I sustained a high level of the balloon, but then clicked a wrong button on the screen and erased my data accidentally! After that frustration, it was *much* harder for me to keep the balloon in the air. It was a nice illustration of the impact of frustration even several minutes after an event.”

You can learn more about this best practice for Traders and other high-pressure occupations where learning how to identify and manage our emotions and levels of stress is critical for performance.

Here is question 19 of 25 from Brain Fitness 101 e-Guide.

Question:
How can I improve my concentration and my memory?

Key Points:

• - Attention is among the most important components of our mental life, cognitive performance and quality of life.
• - Reduce your stress to improve concentration and reduce distractions.
• - Focus, take breaks, and elaborate in order to remember.

Answer: Read the rest of this entry »

Q: How can I improve my memory? Is there a daily exercise I can do to improve it?

A: The most important component of memory is attention. By choosing to attend to something and focus on it, you create a personal interaction with it, which gives it personal meaning, making it easier to remember.
Read the rest of this entry »