What a month. We promised you with our blog title 7 months ago that we would be your “Window into the Brain Fitness Revolution”, but we couldn’t have predicted that CBS, Time Magazine, WSJ, NYT and other mainstream media would be such great allies in this neuroplasticity effort.

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Brain Fitness for All 

Let’s start with (Wall Street Journal Science Editor) Sharon Begley’s article titled How The Brain Rewires Itself, based on her Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain book. She provides a fascinating overview, summarized as 

FOR DECADES, THE PREVAILING DOGMA IN neuroscience was that the adult human brain is essentially immutable, hardwired, fixed in form and function, so that by the time we reach adulthood we are pretty much stuck with what we have. Yes, it can create (and lose) synapses, the connections between neurons that encode memories and learning… . The doctrine of the unchanging human brain has had profound ramifications. …But research in the past few years has overthrown the dogma. In its place has come the realization that the adult brain retains impressive powers of “neuroplasticity” — the ability to change its structure and function in response to experience. These aren’t minor tweaks either.

In short, the brain is not that different from a muscle (better said, a group of muscles). It can be trained. At any age. Not with magical pills or cures, but with focus and disciplined training.
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Alzheimer’s disease affects more than 4.5 million adults in the US today. To help understand the progressive neurodegenerative disorder, special mice have been bred to develop the brain lesions associated with the disease. Using these mice, researchers at UC Irvine published some promising results in the Jan. 24 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Here are some highlights from the coverage in Science Daily:

Learning appears to slow the development of two brain lesions that are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists at UC Irvine have discovered. The finding suggests that the elderly, by keeping their minds active, can help delay the onset of this degenerative disease.

This study with genetically modified mice is the first to show that short but repeated learning sessions can slow a process known for causing the protein beta amyloid to clump in the brain and form plaques, which disrupt communication between cells and lead to symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. Learning also was found to slow the buildup of hyperphosphorylated-tau, a protein in the brain that can lead to the development of tangles, the other signature lesion of the disease. Scientists say these findings have large implications for the understanding and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, as it is already known that highly educated individuals are less likely to develop the disease than people with less education.

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After the carnival, which was fun but a bit of work, I will do an easy post…just came accross a good brief article on how a Counseling center offers biofeedback to help decrease stress.

We do see stress and anxiety management as integral part of brain fitness. Some quotes from the article

- “The Savannah College of Art and Design Center for Student Counseling and Disability Services offers students a unique opportunity to decrease their stress levels — by using a biofeedback machine called the Freeze-Framer.”
- “College students tend to have high levels of stress as a result of Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Brain Fitness Blog Carnival. The timing couldn’t be better — you have probably seen the featured CBS News/TIME Series on Brain Neuroplasticity.

Thanks to the over 40 people who submitted posts. We have had to select the posts we enjoyed the most to help facilitate an engaging and informed conversation.

Learning is physical. Our experience literally shapes our brains. And vice versa. The media seems to be focusing mostly on brain fitness for seniors, but its implications go beyond that, as you will see in this post by Caroline: What is Brain Fitness?, and the articles in this carnival.

Science-based understanding is evolving from “Use it or Lose It” to “Use It and Improve It”. As Fast Company’s Alan Deutschman provocatively puts it in his last book, Change or Die. We couldn’t agree more with his summary recommendation: “Relate. Repeat. Reframe.” Alan presents a blog article announcing his book (here is his original article). Read the rest of this entry »

Main Points:

1. A brain fitness program will help us maintain quality of life as we age.
2. The human brain is a social brain. It has evolved over time within multiple social systems. We are born into a social system, learn in social systems, and age in social systems.
3. A “Head Coach” can provide a social context that facilitates and enhances brain function as we move through the aging process.

Our American society is aging. Within the next three decades, one out of every five people will be 65 or older. Unfortunately, research suggests that approximately 30% of individuals age 60 years or older will experience dementia as they near the end of life. To increase the odds that we can maintain a quality life across our life span, our focus needs to shift from increasing longevity to maintaining quality of life as we age.
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CBS News and TIME magazine are teaming up for a five-part series on the “The Complicated, Mesmerizing World of the Brain“. The first report by CBS Evening News contributor Dr. Sanjay Gupta focused on neuroplasticity – “the brain’s ability to reorganize itself by creating new brain cells through mental and physical exercises.”

Dr. Gupta interviewed Arthur Kramer, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois who studied the effects of exercise, diet, and social and mental stimulation on older adults. According to Kramer, the break through anti-aging treatment is exercise.

We found in our study that walking will increase the volume of the brain, increase the efficiency of the brain and increase improvements in the number of cognitive functions such as memory and attention.

Kramer and McAuley’s research showed that aerobic exercise led to increased brain volume in the prefrontal and temporal cortices – areas that show considerable age-related deterioration.

To go beyond physical exercise and look at mental exercise, Dr. Gupta also interviewed Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. of UCSF and Posit Science. Merzenich said, “The brain is actually revising itself. It is actually plastically changing itself as you develop new skills and abilities, as you learn new things.” Merzenich has been studying neuroplasticity and how the brain changes with experience since the 1980s.

To Catch the Series, Here’s the Schedule:
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