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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Here you have the November 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.

Thank you for your interest, attention and participation in our SharpBrains community. As always, we appreciate your comments and suggestions.

Summit of the Global Agenda

How can we persuade business leaders, policy-makers and researchers of the urgency to develop and promote an integrated “Healthy Living” agenda focused on maintaining lifelong physical and cognitive health, vs. the usual mindset focused on dealing with specific diseases and problems once they arise?

In The Future of the Aging Society: Burden or Human Capital?, I summarize some of the key themes discussed at the World Economic Forum event in Dubai on November 7-9th. The world is aging – and in healthier ways. But our healthcare and retirement systems are on track to go bankrupt – their premises are outdated. The current disease-based research agenda compounds the problem. Solutions? 1) Promote Healthy Lifestyles that help Maintain Physical and Cognitive Functional Abilities, 2) Redesign Environments to Foster Health, Engagement and Financial Security, 3) Develop an Integrated Healthy Living & Aging Research Agenda. Specifically, we could work with the UN and Global 2000 companies to move forward a new agenda.

Planet Earth 2.0: A New Operating System: Imagine seeing a top sheik in Dubai, wrapped in traditional Arab clothing, exclaim “Yes We Can” (a la Obama) in front of the 800 global experts, adding that “we build the future with our own hands”. Some of the attendants of the World Economic Forum’s Summit of the Global Agenda urged us to “reboot” the system. More than a “reboot”, we may have to upgrade to a new global “Yes We Can” operating system.

Brain Fitness Research

Neuroplasticity and the Brain That Changes Itself: Laurie Bartels reviews the excellent book by Norman Doidge, explaining that “the neuroscience behind Doidge’s book involves neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to rewire itself. This means that the brain – our intelligence – is not something fixed in concrete but rather a changing, learning entity.”

Can We Pick Your Brain re: Cognitive Assessments?: In our view, a critical component in the maturity of the brain fitness market will be the availability of inexpensive, valid and reliable objective cognitive assessments,  to help measure how our brain functions change over time and identify priorities for targeted improvements. Dr. Joshua Steinerman asks if you would be up for them?

Use It (Properly) or Lose It

Physical and mental exercise to prevent cognitive decline: The American Medical News, a weekly newspaper for physicians published by the American Medical Association, just published an excellent article on the importance of physical and mental exercise. We are very happy to see efforts like these to train physicians and health professionals in general,  given that most of them were trained under a very different understanding of the brain than the one we have today.

Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound: PBS recently announced the second installment of their popular Brain Fitness Program show, to start airing soon.

MetaCarnival #1: a conversation across the blogosphere: We often insist on “Novelty, Variety and Challenge” as key ingredients for good “brain exercise”. There are many ways to mix those ingredients – you may enjoy this one, the first interdisciplinary gathering of blogs and blog carnivals covering health, science, anthropology, general advice and more.

Top 15 Brain Teasers and Games for Mental Exercise: Over the last 2 years we have published close to 100 puzzles, teasers, riddles, and every kind of mental exercise (without counting our in-depth interviews with top neuroscientists). Which ones have proven most stimulating for you. Let us know. Here is a selection of our Top 15 teasers.

Final Details

Please share this newsletter with your friends and colleagues if you haven’t done so already.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

PBS recently announced the second installment of their popular Brain Fitness Program show, and released this trailer via YouTube:

Watch: Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound (2:30)

Description: Join host Peter Coyote in “Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound,” the follow-up to “The Brain Fitness Program,” as he explores the brain’s ability to change and grow, even as we age, helping us maintain and improve our vision and hearing.

“Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound” is a special in-depth look at the advances in neuroplasticity and how it relates to healthy aging, with a particular focus on making the most of information filtered through our eyes and ears. Check your local listings to catch it, beginning in December 2008. Your brain will thank you. Help PBS continue to offer all Americans; from every walk of life; the opportunity to explore new ideas and new worlds through television and online content. To donate, please visit http://www.pbs.org/support

Schedule: You can check the schedule for the program by city Here.

And Here you have some information on the first show Read the rest of this entry »

Two quick notes:

- Encephalon #56 edition: the latest edition of this neuroscience and psychology blog carnival is ready for your reading pleasure.
- Michael Merzenich Elected to Institute of Medicine: Congratulations! “The Institute of Medicine’s total active membership is now 1,576 and the number of foreign associates is 89. With another 71 members holding emeritus status, IOM’s total membership is now 1,736. Established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine is a national resource for independent, scientifically informed analysis and recommendations on issues related to human health. With their election, members make a commitment to devote a significant amount of volunteer time as members of IOM study committees.”
You may have seen him talking about neuroplasticity in the PBS special titled Brain Fitness Program.

Here you are 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.

News and Analysis

Computerized Cognitive Assessments: opportunities and concerns: health companies and the military are starting to use new tools to assess brain functions in contexts that neither neuroimaging nor traditional neuropsychological testing can reach. This is a critical piece of the brain fitness puzzle that is worth keeping track of, full of opportunities, but also privacy concerns.

Cognitive Health News Roundup: recent news covering studies on mental training and DNA, on nutrition and the brain, and more. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to our 3-month-old daughter, my wife and I have been learning much about baby brains. Mostly learning on the job, as you can imagine.

We just watched a very nice PBS series titled Secret Life of the Brain that covers brain development accross the lifespan: babies, kids, teenagers, adults, seniors. A bit dated (2002) but excellent watching even today.

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I wrote this article for the March/ April edition of the publication Aging Today, published by the American Society on Aging, and received permission to reproduce it here.

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In recent years, most professionals in aging have become aware of the growing scientific evidence showing that human brains retain the ability to generate neurons and change over a lifetime, discoveries that have broken the scientific paradigm prevalent during the 20th century. Furthermore, neuroimaging and cognitive training studies are showing how well-directed exercise presents people major opportunities for healthy brain aging.

How can people use emerging technologies to keep their brains healthy and productive as long as possible? An emerging market for brain health– $225 million market in 2007, in the United States alone, of which consumers account for $80 million–is trying to address that question in a way that complements other important more traditional pillars (and multi-billion industries) of brain health, such as physical exercise, balanced diet, stress management (stress has been shown to actually kill neurons and reduce the rate of creation of new ones) and overall mental stimulation and lifelong learning.

2007 AN ACTIVE YEAR

A series of important events took place in 2007, a seminal year for the brain health field, beginning in January when many mainstream media publications, such as Time Magazine and CBS News, started to publish major stories on neuroplasticity and brain exercise. This media coverage followed the publication of the long-awaited results from national clinical trials showing that significant percentages of the participants age 65 and older who trained for five weeks improved their memory, reasoning and information-processing speed. Findings from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) Study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Dec. 20, 2006) and revealed that even after five years, participants in the ACTIVE computer-based program showed less of a decline in information-processing skills than those in a control group that received no cognitive training.

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We recently prepared a Directory of Web Sites as part of our  Resources section. You will find some gems here, in a variety of areas:

>> The Dana Foundation offers several excellent online resources:

- Brainy Kids Online offers children, teens, parents and teachers links to games, labs, education resources and lesson plans.

- BrainWeb: general information about the brain and current brain research, as well as links to validated sites related to more than 25 brain disorders.

- Brain Resources for Seniors provides older adults and their caretakers with links to sites related to brain health, education and general information.

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As you have probably noticed, a growing number of Expert Contributors are writing in our blog, so that we can collectively discuss the latest research and trends on cognitive and brain health, and the implications of brain research in general for our everyday lives. 

If you haven’t done so already, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter (above) and our RSS feed (on the right).

Below you have the profiles of some of our Contributors and links to their best articles with us so far. Enjoy!

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Salon.com published yesterday a thought-provoking article focused on Posit Science’s Brain Fitness Program, titled Buff Up Your Brain, that combined a) some pretty good analysis and great points about that specific program and justifiable (to a point) criticism of the commercial tone of a recent PBS Special, with b) the error of confusing a tree with the forest, that led the author to make several unwarranted claims regarding the field.

Computerized cognitive training has been around since way before Posit Science, and will be here way beyond Posit Science (and SharpBrains, and Salon.com), and their auditory processing product-featured in the PBS Special- is not, in our view, the most particularly impressive example. Well-directed cognitive exercise can enhance mental skills and transfer to real-life outcomes, acting as a good complementary tool, when used properly, to other lifestyle options and tools.

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