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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A few colleagues referred me over the weekend to a very nice article at business publication Portfolio.

While the article does an excellent job at introducing the reader to the concept and promise of computerized cognitive assessments, it also contributes to the mythology of “Brain Age”.

Let’s first take a look at the article How Smart Are You: The business of assessing cognition and memory is moving from testing brain-impaired patients to assessing healthy peoples’ brains online.

A couple of quotes:

- “Cognitive Drug Research is one a handful of businesses, most of them outside of the U.S., that work with pharmaceutical companies to test how new drugs for everything from nicotine addiction to Alzheimer’s disease affect the mind’s ability to remember things, make decisions, and analyze information.”

- “Cognitive tests have been around for a century as examinations taken with paper and pencil. In the 1970s and ’80s the tests shifted to computers, Cognitive Drug Research founder Keith Wesnes says.

So far, so good. In fact, one of the key highlights from the market report we released in March was that “Large-scale, fully-automated cognitive assessments are being used in a growing number of clinical trials. This opens the way for the development of inexpensive consumer-facing, baseline cognitive assessments.” And we profiled a few leading companies in the space: Brain Resource Company, Cognitive Drug Research, CNS Vital Signs and CogState.

Now, the article is accompanied by a 5-7 minute quick test that promises to give us our “Brain Age”. And this doesn’t come from Nintendo, but from Cognitive Drug Research, a respected science-based company.

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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 are proud to announce that SharpBrains has joined the soon-to-be-launched Scientific American Partner Network. This won’t change anything in our day-to-day operations.

Also, please visit us tomorrow Monday to read a superb article on Sleep and the Brain by Shannon Moffett, author of the superb book The Three Pound Enigma: The Human Brain and the Quest to Unlock its Mysteries. Moffett recently appeared on the PBS special The Brain Fitness Program, which aired nationwide on PBS.

Have a nice Sunday!

“How does this neuro frontier inside our skulls specifically inform law firm management? By peering inside the brain, we can see how its owner takes in information, makes decisions, changes and resists change, remembers and recalls, and responds to people. What we are learning about the brain affects three factors critical to law firms and to each individual lawyer: control, communication, and competence. Let’s take a tour of some of what’s been learned and see how the new information can be useful.”

This is part of the great article that Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Stephanie West Allen have written for the February, 2007 edition of Of Counsel: The Legal Practice and Management Report, titled “Brain Management: Law Firm Leadership on the Neuro Frontier” (Not available online.)

You can read a bit more in Stephanie’s blog (a must-read blog for lawyers).   

In short: our actions can change our brains. Actually, our thoughts can do so too. We all can benefit from “self-directed neuroplasticity”-which requires practice, imagination and empathy. The article mentions specific examples for lawyers.

Learning assumes and induces neuroplasticity (how the brain changes).

How can you apply this to your occupation? what have you learned today?

You can read more on a similar topic, by Dr. Jeffrey M. Schwartz and David Rock: check out The Neuroscience of Leadership.

 

 

Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg is a clinical professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine, and author of over 50 peer-reviewed papers. His areas of expertise include executive functions, memory, attention deficit disorder, dementia, traumatic brain injury, and others. Dr. Goldberg was a student and close associate of the great neuropsychologist Alexander Luria. His book The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind (Oxford University Press, 2001) has received critical acclaim and has been published in 12 languages. His recent book The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older (Gotham Books, Penguin, 2005) offers an innovative understanding of cognitive aging and what can be done to forestall cognitive decline. It has been, or is in the process of being, published in 13 languages.

We are fortunate that Dr. Goldberg is SharpBrains’ Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor. His book The Wisdom Paradox inspired me to embark in this path, and has been a key sounding board in the development of what we are doing.

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Key take-aways

- “Use It and Get More of It” reflects reality better than “Use It or Lose It”.

- Let’s demystify cognition and the brain. Everyone needs to have a basic understanding of the brain-and how to cultivate it.

- Well-directed mental exercise is a must for cognitive enhancement and healthy aging.
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