Here you have the March 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. I know I am biased – but do believe this Newsletter issue might well be our best so far. I hope you find the time to enjoy it!

Bird’s Eye View

Brain Fitness Survey: Over 2,000 thoughtful responses to our January survey (Thank You!) reinforce the need for public awareness initiatives and quality information to help evaluate and navigate lifestyle and product claims, as well as the need for more research, an expanded healthcare culture, as more. Given this context, we are publishing The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness in May 2009, a book with 18 Interviews with Scientists, Practical Advice, and Product Reviews, in addition to our annual market report for professionals and executives (to be published in April). If you have ideas to help us promote the book, please reply to this email and let us know!

Lifelong Learning

Here you have the presentation I delivered on Tuesday at ETech 2009 (this year’s O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference):

Emerging Research and Technology for Life Hacking/ Brain Training

(click to open presentation in new window)

Description: Life hacking. Brain training. They are one and the same. The brain’s frontal lobes enable our goal-oriented behavior, supporting “executive functions,” such as decision-making, attention, emotional self-regulation, goal-setting, and working memory. These functions can be enhanced with targeted practice – such as life hacking. This session will provide an overview of the cognitive neuroscience underpinning life hacking, and review the state-of-the-art of non-invasive tools for brain training: neurofeedback, biofeedback, software applications, cognitive simulations, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, and plain-old meditation.

It was great to meet fellow bloggers and presenters, such as Shelley Batts of Of Two Minds and Chris Patil of Ouroboros, and very inquisite and throughful audience members. Getting ready to speak at ASA/ NCOA and IHRSA next week!

In the ETech panel a few days ago, we discussed some futuristic and some emerging ways in which we can “hack our minds”, mostly from a technology point of view.

Neither myself nor the other panelists thought of suggesting the most obvious and inexpensive method, proven in thousands of research studies.

The secret compound?: Belief. Also called “the placebo effect”. Let’s see what Wikipedia says:

Read the rest of this entry »

A few updates and announcements:

- 1) My apologies for slow blogging, due to travel. I participated yesterday in a fun panel discussion at ETech on Use Your Head- The Future of Mind Hacks. You can read some take-aways (in Italian, so this may be good brain exercise) here.

- 2) We will release our report The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 next Monday (Update: Tuesday March 11th!), to coincide with Brain Awareness Week. Make sure to visit our blog next Monday if you want to learn more.

- 3) The National Museum of Health and Medicine at Walter Reed Army Medical Center is planning some great activities during Brain Awareness Week (Thank you, Tim). Learn more about their “Partners in Education” activities for students in the Washington DC area.

- 4) The Dana Foundation has released a great research report to address the question “Are smart people drawn to the arts or does arts training make people smarter?” Enjoy the report and some excellent related resources Here.

- 5) Eric Jensen has written a great article on Brain-Based Education for PDK International Journal of Education. Enjoy it!

Senia writes a great article on How You Tell the Story of Your Life in Positive Psychology News Daily. As part of the story, she mentions a very fun study on the power of the Placebo effect.

From Senia’s post:

“In the February, 2007 issue of Psychological Science, Langer and colleague Alia Crum reported that they took 84 hotel workers and told one group that “the work they do (cleaning hotel rooms) is good exercise and satisfies the Surgeon General’s recommendations for an active lifestyle. Examples of how their work was exercise were provided.” Langer and Crum told the control group nothing. Four weeks later, Langer and Crum returned to find some measurements of both groups: the control group hadn’t changed physically, but the test group had decreased all of the following: weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, and body mass index.

Langer and Crum describe this study as supporting the theory that exercise affects health at least partly due to the placebo effect. Furthermore, we can ask, what are the stories that these hotel workers are telling themselves? Why do the hotel workers suddenly believe that they actively affect their exercise regiment?”

Implication: the placebo effect is real, and it can help our health.

A few fun questions to consider:

- How do we prevent other people from selling us stuff that only works based on the placebo effect?

- Once we decide to do something, shouldn’t we try to “placebo” ourselves in order to get the most of it? this is another manifestation of the importance of emotional self-regulation.

Enjoy the long weekend