The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness:
18 Inter­views with Sci­en­tists, Prac­ti­cal Advice, and Prod­uct Reviews, To Keep Your Brain Sharp

Book Descrip­tion:

While most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it, very few under­stand what  means, or how to prop­erly use it in order to main­tain brain func­tion and fit­ness. The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness is an invalu­able guide that helps read­ers nav­i­gate grow­ing brain research and iden­tify the lifestyle fac­tors and prod­ucts that con­tribute to brain fit­ness. By gath­er­ing insights from eigh­teen of the world’s top sci­en­tists and offer­ing tools and detailed descrip­tions of over twenty prod­ucts, this book is an essen­tial guide to the field of brain fit­ness, neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and cog­ni­tive health. An acces­si­ble and thought-provoking read, The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness edu­cates life­long learn­ers and pro­fes­sion­als in health­care, edu­ca­tion, busi­ness, etc., on emerg­ing trends and fore­casts of what the future will hold.

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Praise for the Book

******Selected by AARP as part of its Best Books Series******

“…we’re talk­ing a short, sweet, enter­tain­ing read of a com­plex topic, with timely reviews of 21 top tech­nol­ogy prod­ucts, as well as informed and expert pre­dic­tions of where this bur­geon­ing brain-fitness field is headed. More impor­tantly, after you read it, you’ll have a good, detailed sense of where you, per­son­ally, can act to improve your own couch-potato brain — and how to keep it fit and flex­i­ble your whole life. The Sharp­Brains Guide To Brain Fit­ness reminds of us all why books (and not just googling a topic) can be well worth your time and money. Two Stetho­scopes Up — check it out.”

Doc Gur­ley, Internist Physi­cian and Robert Wood John­son Fel­low. Book review for San Fran­cisco Chron­i­cle online (06/08/09), Is Your Brain A Couch Potato?

“Finally, an insight­ful and com­plete overview of the sci­ence, prod­ucts and trends to debunk old myths and help us all main­tain our brains in top shape. A must-read“
—Glo­ria Cavanaugh, for­mer Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Amer­i­can Soci­ety on Aging“

“Kudos for an excel­lent resource! This Sharp­Brains Guide is full of top notch infor­ma­tion, pro­vides prac­ti­cal tips and helps sep­a­rate hype from hope in the brain health arena.“
—Eliz­a­beth Edgerly, Ph.D., Chief Pro­gram Offi­cer, Alzheimer’s Association

“A mas­ter­ful guide to the brain train­ing rev­o­lu­tion. Promises to stim­u­late a much needed con­ver­sa­tion that will nudge soci­ety to build a new brain fit­ness cul­ture on solid, research-based, foun­da­tions.“
—P. Murali Doraiswamy MD, Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chi­a­try, Duke Uni­ver­sity

“This is the only book that I know of that seam­lessly inte­grates lat­est infor­ma­tion about cog­ni­tive health across the lifes­pan. Very use­ful to any­one inter­ested in brain care.“
—Arthur Kramer, Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chol­ogy at Uni­ver­sity of Illinois

“The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness is a much-needed resource to help us bet­ter under­stand our brains and minds and how to nour­ish them through life.“
—Susan E. Hoff­man, Direc­tor, Osher Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tute at UC Berkeley

“This book pro­vides a very valu­able ser­vice to a wide com­mu­nity inter­ested in learn­ing and brain top­ics. I found it inter­est­ing and help­ful“
—Michael Pos­ner, Emer­i­tus Pro­fes­sor of Neu­ro­science at the Uni­ver­sity of Ore­gon, and first recip­i­ent of the Dogan Prize

About the Authors

Alvaro Fer­nan­dez is co-founder and CEO of Sharp­Brains, a lead­ing mar­ket research firm cov­er­ing appli­ca­tions of neu­ro­science and cog­ni­tive sci­ence in edu­ca­tion and health­care. He received mas­ters in edu­ca­tion and busi­ness from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity, and teaches at UC-Berkeley Osher Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tute. A mem­ber of the World Eco­nomic Forum’s Global Agenda Coun­cils, he is often quoted by the media includ­ing recently in The Wall Street Jour­nal, The New York Times and CNN.

Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg is inter­na­tion­ally renowned for his clin­i­cal work, research, and teach­ing in neu­ropsy­chol­ogy and cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science. Co-founder and Chief Sci­en­tific Advi­sor of Sharp­Brains, he is also a Clin­i­cal Pro­fes­sor of neu­rol­ogy at New York Uni­ver­sity School of Med­i­cine and Diplo­mat of The Amer­i­can Board of Pro­fes­sional Psy­chol­ogy in Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­ogy. He is the author of The Exec­u­tive Brain: Frontal Lobes and The Civ­i­lized Mind and The Wis­dom Para­dox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older.

Table of Contents

Fore­word by Glo­ria Cavanaugh
Intro­duc­tion: Debunk­ing 10 Brain and Brain Fit­ness Myths
Chap­ter 1. The Brain and Brain Fit­ness 101
1.1. Brain struc­tures
1.2. Brain func­tions
1.3. The aging brain
1.4. Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity
1.5. Life­long learn­ing
1.6. What is brain fit­ness?
1.7. Inter­views
Dr. Mike Pos­ner: What is atten­tion and how to train it.
Dr. James Zull: What is life­long learn­ing?.
Dr. Eric Jensen: Learn­ing and the brain.
Dr. Robert Syl­wester: Cog­ni­tion and Brain devel­op­ment.
Lee Woodruff: Recov­er­ing from trau­matic brain injury.

Chap­ter 2. The 4 Pil­lars of Brain Main­te­nance
2.1. Why your lifestyle mat­ters
2.2. Pil­lar 1: Nutri­tion guide­lines
2.3. Pil­lar 2: Stress man­age­ment
2.4. Pil­lar 3: Phys­i­cal exer­cise
2.5. Pil­lar 4: Men­tal stim­u­la­tion
2.6. Brain main­te­nance: Alzheimer’s pre­ven­tion or cog­ni­tive enhance­ment?
2.7. Brain main­te­nance: sum­mary and guide­lines
2.8. Inter­views
Dr. Yaakov Stern: The con­nec­tion between build­ing a cog­ni­tive
reserve and delay­ing Alzheimer’s symp­toms.
Dr. Larry McCleary: A multi-pronged approach to brain health.
Dr. Art Kramer: Why we need both phys­i­cal and men­tal exer­cise.
Dr. Eliz­a­beth Zelin­ski: Healthy aging enhanced with computer-based programs.

Chap­ter 3. Men­tal Exer­cise vs. Men­tal Activ­ity
3.1. What is men­tal exer­cise or brain train­ing?
3.2. Dif­fer­ent types of brain train­ing
Cog­ni­tive ther­apy
Med­i­ta­tion
Biofeed­back
Computer-based Soft­ware
3.3. Brain train­ing soft­ware: An emerg­ing field
3.4. Do brain train­ing soft­ware pro­grams really work?
3.5. Flood of brain train­ing soft­ware with­out tax­on­omy
3.6. Inter­views
Dr. Judith Beck: The link between brain train­ing and weight loss.
Dr. Andrew New­berg: The value of med­i­ta­tion.
Dr. Brett Steen­barger: Achiev­ing peak per­for­mance in high-pressure pro­fes­sions.
Dr. Mar­tin Buschkuehl: Can intel­li­gence be trained?
Dr. Arthur Lavin: Work­ing mem­ory train­ing at a pedi­a­tri­cian office.

Chap­ter 4. Brain Train­ing Soft­ware: Pro­files, Eval­u­a­tion Cri­te­ria and 21 Quick Picks
4.1. Which exer­cises are most rel­e­vant?
4.2. Sharp­Brains’ check­list to eval­u­ate computer-based pro­grams
4.3. Map­ping the brain train­ing soft­ware land­scape
4.4. Top 21 Quick Picks, by pur­pose
Top 8 over­all brain main­te­nance prod­ucts
Top 8 tar­geted brain work­out prod­ucts
Top 5 stress man­age­ment prod­ucts
4.5. Prod­ucts descrip­tion and highlights

Over­all brain main­te­nance products

Tar­geted brain work­out prod­ucts
Stress man­age­ment products

Chap­ter 5. A Grow­ing Range of Appli­ca­tions
5.1. Healthy aging
5.2. Brain fit­ness cen­ters in res­i­den­tial facil­i­ties
5.3. Cog­ni­tive assess­ments
5.4. Pro­grams to improve dri­ving skills
5.5. Brain dis­or­ders
Stroke / Trau­matic brain injury
Atten­tion deficit dis­or­ders
5.6. Schools
5.7. Insur­ance com­pa­nies
5.8. Inter­views
Dr. Daniel Gopher: Appli­ca­tions for computer-based cog­ni­tive sim­u­la­tions.
Dr. David Rabiner: Brain exer­cise impli­ca­tions for chil­dren with ADD/ADHD.
Dr. Torkel Kling­berg: Expand­ing work­ing mem­ory for chil­dren with ADD/ADHD.
Dr. Jerri Edwards: Improv­ing dri­ving skills.

Chap­ter 6. Ready for the Future?
6.1. Brain fit­ness goes main­stream
Increased empha­sis on brain main­te­nance
Inte­gra­tion of phys­i­cal and men­tal exer­cise
Broad gov­ern­ment ini­tia­tives
6.2. Lever­ag­ing bet­ter tools
Assess­ments of cog­ni­tive func­tions
Computer-based tools to improve clin­i­cal con­di­tions
Low tech options
6.3. A grow­ing ecosys­tem
Psy­chol­o­gists and physi­cians
Insur­ance com­pa­nies
U.S. mil­i­tary
Cor­po­rate Amer­ica
6.4. Conclusions

Chap­ter 7. Open­ing the Debate
7.1. The case for social engage­ment
7.2. Book club dis­cus­sion guide

Glos­sary
Ref­er­ences
About Sharp­Brains
Index

Order Soft­cover at Amazon.com
	Click Here to order at Amazon.com. Print Edi­tion, $14.95

Order Kin­dle eBook Edi­tion
	Click Here to order at Amazon.com, Kin­dle Edi­tion, $4.99

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