We have just announced an upcoming webinar to provide a market update:  Top 10 Cognitive Fitness Events of 2008 – A Market Update.

When: Thursday December 11th, from 12:00 to 1:00 pm Pacific Time. The same webinar will be repeated on Thursday December 18th, from 9:00 to 10:00 pm Pacific Time.

The Top 10 Cognitive Fitness Events that will be discussed include:

1) February: Dakim secures a $10.6m investment from Galen Partners. Jack LaLanne becomes spokesperson.
2) April: The Government of Ontario, Canada, invests $10m in Baycrest to develop and commercialize cognitive fitness technologies.
3) April: University of Michigan researchers reveal in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences how computerized working memory training can generalize and improve fluid intelligence in healthy adults.
4) May: Humana unveils Games for Health initiatives, not renewing its agreement with Posit Science.
5) June: The US Army launches a new policy requiring cognitive screenings of all soldiers before deployment (in order to Read the rest of this entry »

Today I had a great conversation with Martin Buschkuehl, one of the U Michigan researchers involved in the cognitive training study that has received much media attention since early last week, when the study was published at the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

I will publish the interview notes next week. For the moment, let me paraphrase his answer to the question: “Why are computerized programs like the one you used fundamentally different from, say, simply doing many crossword puzzles?”.

Read the rest of this entry »

The ABA (American Bar Association) Journal has a good article titled Law Hacks: 101 tips, tricks and tools to make you a more productive, less stressed-out lawyer, combining tips on email usage, software, and some brain tips from us:

• 67 “The Web site SharpBrains suggests self-improvement exercises. Try this one: Take five-minute visu­alization breaks with deep and regular breathing, picturing beautiful landscapes or pleasant or successful memories, especially after finishing a tough task.”
• 68 “Improve your mental acuity by subtracting numbers, i.e., 7 from 200 (200, 193, 186, 179 …) or practicing an exponential series (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 …). The point is not to become a math genius or be smarter than a fifth-grader, but just to keep your mind sharp.”
• 69 “It takes a system to be productive, but it’s also useful to try something different every day to stay sharp. For example, try commuting differently or talking to new people.”

Some more tips?

• Here is our full post on Brain Exercise FAQs.
• And the notes from a Stress Management Workshop we run at Accenture recently.
• You may also be interested in this article on Ten Important Truths About Aging: How we age is at least partially under our control, published by The Complete Lawyer, where you can learn why stress management is important, and more tips.
• And a Best practice for peak performance: emwave biofeedback