Welcome to the 61st edition of Encephalon, the blog carnival that offers some of the best neuroscience and psychology blog posts every other week.

We do have an excellent set of articles today. covering much ground. Enjoy the reading:

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Neuroscience and Society

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Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurocognitive Health Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

(Note: neurofeedback is a form of biofeedback that measures brain waves and that, according to practitioners, provides good “brain training” for specific clinical conditions).
A few weeks ago Dr. David Rabiner wrote a great post on How Strong is the Research Support for Neurofeedback in Attention Deficits?, concluding that

- “It is for these reasons that neurofeedback is understandably regarded as an unproven treatment approach for ADHD at this time by many ADHD researchers.

- However, these studies do provide a solid basis for suggesting that if parents choose to pursue neurofeedback for their child, there is a reasonable chance that their child will benefit even though we can’t be sure that it is the specific EEG training that is responsible for the benefits. Thus, although the efficacy of neurofeedback has yet to be conclusively confirmed in a randomized, placebo-controlled trial, it is important to place this limitation in the context of the supportive research evidence that has been accumulated.

Read the rest of this entry »

Prof. Baba Shiv, one of our advisors, just published a fascinating paper on the power of our beliefs to influence brain activation, and on how marketing can influence those beliefs:

Price Tag Can Change The Way People Experience Wine, Study Shows (Science Daily)

- According to researchers at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and the California Institute of Technology, if a person is told he or she is tasting two different wines—and that one costs $5 and the other $45 when they are, in fact, the same wine—the part of the brain that experiences pleasure will become more active when the drinker thinks he or she is enjoying the more expensive vintage.

- “What we document is that price is not just about inferences of quality, but it can actually affect real quality,” said Baba Shiv, a professor of marketing who co-authored a paper titled “Marketing Actions Can Modulate Neural Representations of Experienced Pleasantness,” published online Jan. 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. (Note: link here)

This Stanford article provides an overview of his research: click Here.

- “The belief in the academic field is that emotions are essential to decision making, otherwise you’ll end up making bad decisions,” Shiv says. “But,” he adds, explaining his huge contrarian streak, “I can show the opposite as well, that Read the rest of this entry »

Neurofeedback is one of the technologies that people often ask us about.  It is a promising intervention in a variety of areas, and has got significant traction in helping kids with ADD/ ADHD. Now, given the significant cost it poses for parents, we need to ask the question: “How Strong is the Research Support for Neurofeedback Treatment of Children with ADHD”?

We are honored to present the thoughts of Duke University’s Dr. David Rabiner, a leading authority on the field, on that important issue. As a bonus, you will enjoy his detailed description and suggestions of how to design a high-quality scientific study. Without further ado, let’s hear Dr. Rabiner speak.

- Alvaro

(Update as of March 2009: Dr. David Rabiner has written an update to the article below based on a newer study. You can read it clicking on link: New Study Supports Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD)
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How Strong is the Research Support for Neurofeedback Treatment of Children with ADHD? 

Neither of the two prominent approaches to treating ADHD – medication treatment and behavior therapy – are expected to effect long term changes in the child. Medication treatment induces short-term changes in brain activity that is associated with a reduction in symptoms for many individuals. Behavior therapy attempts to create a set of environmental contingencies that promote desired behavior in the child, but which is unlikely to endure when those contingencies are removed.

In recent years, researchers have begun devoting greater attention to the possibility that children – and adults – may be provided with particular kinds of experiences that may induce alterations in brain functioning that are associated with more enduring changes, i.e., they do not dissipate as soon as treatment ends.

Neurofeedback – also known as EEG Biofeedback – is reflective of this approach and has a history that goes back Read the rest of this entry »

Good interview with Posit Science’s Dr. Michael Merzenich. (Thanks, Steve!)

Includes the quote “People can be active learners by learning in new forms and in new domains. It’s not just being active and getting up every day. The brain is a learning machine, and it needs to be engaged in new learning of different dimensions. The best kinds of exercise are those that challenge. For example, to master a musical instrument at an older age is a wonderful thing. Or, seriously undertaking the mastery of a second language is a wonderful thing to do. One of the problems with such exercises is that it’s very hard to maintain the skills and abilities necessary to maintain a mental fitness program.”

You can read our previous Brain Coach Answers post on why crosswords and sudoku aren’t sufficient brain exercise.