Cognitive training (the basis for what we call “brain fitness” these days) has a wide array of applications. The most recent one, which is capturing public’s imagination, monopolizing media coverage, and creating certain confusion, is Healthy Brain Aging. We are fortunate to have Dr. Joshua Steinerman, one of our new Expert Contributors, offer today his great voice to this conversation. Enjoy!

- Alvaro
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Minding the Aging Brain

– By Joshua R. Steinerman, M.D.

Scientists, philosophers, artists, and experts from all fields of human endeavor lament: it ain’t easy getting older. It? Do they refer to frailty and disability? To bodily disease? To life at its essence?

It’s all in your head

The mind is not set in stone, but it is encased by bone. It’s really all about the brain, the hyphen in the mind-body conundrum. That squishy gray neuronal jungle is the interface between internal life and environmental sensations and stimulation. As expected, the brain shows signs of aging just as a wrinkled brow, a stooped posture, or an arthritic finger might. The most common brain changes observed in aging and in age-associated neuropsychiatric disease include:

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My first full-time job was as a strategic consultant at McKinsey & Company. A very intense 2-year learning experience.

Their Alumni News Service recently interviewed me and published this great article on SharpBrains. The writer does a superb job of providing an overview of what we do, so I recommend you read it. I’d like to emphasize the following quotes for anyone looking for jobs these days, so that “brain exercise” is part of the equation:

• “Alvaro has some very high praise for the mental gymnastics that the McKinsey experience provides.  Given that the frontal lobes in our brain (behind the forehead) only mature in our late 20s, he says, the jobs we take in our early and mid-20s are very important not only for our career prospects, but also for our brain development fitness. This is the stage in our life where, consciously or not, we can improve our decision-making, initiative and self-regulation abilities, all of which literally affect the physical growth of our frontal lobes in a significant way.”
• “Joining McKinsey as a BA is literally like joining a brain gym,” Alvaro says. “The demands of the ‘McKinsey model’ Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of quick links

• DISCOVER Magazine, May 2007 issue, brings a great article titled “The Elastic Brain: Michael Merzenich believes you can tone your mind and stave off memory loss. All it takes is time in his mental gym“. The article (which is not available online) provides a great overview of the amazing work of Prof. Merzenich (a UCSF neuroscientist) with Scientific Learning and Posit Science, pioneers in the field. The writer’s tone is positive overall but adds a note of skepticism, saying that “Yet despite the enthusiastic testimony I heard from senior citizens who have tried the program, there are no formal studies published in peer-reviewed journals that demonstrate the program’s effects” and gathering criticisms outlined by other researchers. Having said so, in our opinion, Posit Science offers the best program we have seen focused on improving auditory processing, and we expect to see more clear studies soon-the field is relatively new.
• Slate Magazine presents a special issue on the brain. We will review and comment on it soon, including a neurobic club/ brain gym.

You can see here an interview with interview with Dr. Michael Merzenich