A rare aha moment in 2011 set me chas­ing new problem-solving research. The study Ratio­nal Ver­sus Intu­itive Problem-Solving: How Think­ing ‘Off the Beaten Path’ Can Stim­u­late Cre­ativ­ity pub­lished in Psy­chol­ogy of Aes­thet­ics, Cre­ativ­ity, and the Arts stung me out of a spot of intel­lec­tual arro­gance. From my per­spec­tive, John Dewey’s 19th cen­tury step-wise Read the rest of this entry »

Aer­o­bic exer­cise is the kind of exer­cise that has been con­sis­tently shown to trig­ger the growth of both brain cells and new con­nec­tions between them, boost­ing cog­ni­tive func­tions. It has also been asso­ci­ated with lower risks of devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s Dis­ease. Is it the case that other types of phys­i­cal exer­cise can also ben­e­fit the brain? Evi­dence is more lim­ited, but a new study sug­gests that weight train­ing may be a likely can­di­date to do so. Read the rest of this entry »

Spon­sored Ad

Time for Sharp­Brains’ April 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing new  per­spec­tives and research on how, and why, we can think about shap­ing our brains for bet­ter life­long health and functioning.

Fea­tured Perspectives:

• Why I Wrote The Woman Who Changed Her Brain, by Bar­bara Arrowsmith-Young
• Pro­tect Your Asset by Being Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach, by Alvaro Fernandez
• Promis­ing New Neu­rocog­ni­tive Inter­ven­tion for Preschool­ers with ADHD (TEAMS), by Dr. David Rabiner

New Research & Resources:

• Daniel Kah­ne­man on the Need to Think Slow (at times)
• Why our brains weigh 1.3 kilo­grams, have ~100 bil­lion neu­rons, con­sume 20% of the oxy­gen we breathe
• Can You Make Your­self Smarter? Yes. Real ques­tion is, How?
• Cog­ni­tive Behav­ioral Ther­apy, deliv­ered as a Videogame, Can Help Lower Anx­i­ety and Depression
• Con­nect­ing the (Brain) Dots: Under­stand­ing Brain Func­tional Networks
• New WHO Report: Global demen­tia cases expected to exceed 115 mil­lion by 2050

Sharp­Brains News:

• We thank three new 2012 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit Spon­sors: About­My­Brain, Advanced Brain Tech­nolo­gies, Unit­ed­BioSource Corporation

Note: Please remem­ber that 2012 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit early-bird reg­is­tra­tion rates end tomor­row, Tues­day May 1st. We hope you can join us! To Learn More and Reg­is­ter, please Click Here.

Have a great month of May!

We are proud to announce three new Spon­sors @ 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit: Opti­miz­ing Health through Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity, Inno­va­tion and Data (June 7-14th, 2012): Read the rest of this entry »

We have always thought that “our brain shapes us.” I wrote my new book, The Woman Who Changed Her Brain (May 2012; Free Press, Fore­word by Nor­man Doidge), to prove that the reverse is equally true. I wanted to demon­strate how “we can shape our brains.”

Imag­ine hav­ing a brain that is capa­ble and inca­pable at the same time. Grow­ing up, I had severe learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties. I lived in a world that was con­fus­ing and incom­pre­hen­si­ble. As I was to later dis­cover, a crit­i­cal part of my brain was not work­ing prop­erly, the end result being that all lan­guage was expe­ri­enced as for­eign and my trans­la­tor was Read the rest of this entry »

Last week I had the good for­tune of spend­ing four days in Nuevo Val­larta, Mex­ico, with over 300 amaz­ing indi­vid­u­als from 40+ coun­tries who had been named Young Global Lead­ers by the World Eco­nomic Forum. The sum­mit agenda was insight­ful and inspir­ing, con­ver­sa­tions with other par­tic­i­pants always proved to be eye-opening and stim­u­lat­ing, and the over­all atmos­phere was con­struc­tive. You can read more about some of those con­ver­sa­tions here.

What I’d like to high­light in this arti­cle is the remark­able (and optional) activ­ity that started off every day at 7 in the morn­ing. Called “Pro­tect Your Asset” Read the rest of this entry »

A sta­tis­ti­cal model of the net­work of con­nec­tions between brain regions (Kurzweil):

- “Researchers at the Uni­ver­sity of Cam­bridge have devel­oped a sim­ple math­e­mat­i­cal model of the brain which pro­vides a remark­ably com­plete sta­tis­ti­cal account of the com­plex web of con­nec­tions between var­i­ous brain regions.” Read the rest of this entry »

A new arti­cle in The New York Times, Can You Make Your­self Smarter, pro­vides a great overview of work­ing mem­ory and cog­ni­tive training:

- “We see atten­tion and work­ing mem­ory as the car­dio­vas­cu­lar func­tion of the brain,” Jaeggi says.“If you train your atten­tion and work­ing mem­ory, you increase your basic cog­ni­tive skills that help you for many dif­fer­ent com­plex tasks.” Read the rest of this entry »

We invite orga­ni­za­tions shap­ing the future of brain health and health over­all to become Spon­sors or Exhibitors @ 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit: Opti­miz­ing Health through Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity, Inno­va­tion and Data (June 7-14th, 2012), in order to expand a crit­i­cal con­ver­sa­tion, engage an influ­en­cial com­mu­nity of early-adopters and decision-makers, and show­case inno­v­a­tive research, solu­tions, and ser­vices dur­ing the Sum­mit Expo (June 12-13th).

You can learn more via this Spon­sor­ship Brochure (opens PDF), and also con­sult this Sam­ple of Par­tic­i­pants in 2010/ 2011 Sharp­Brains Sum­mits (opens PDF). Par­tic­i­pants in pre­vi­ous Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mits include: Read the rest of this entry »

Although med­ica­tion treat­ment and behav­ior ther­apy pro­vide short-term symp­to­matic relief for chil­dren with ADHD, such gains rarely per­sist after treat­ment ends. Because these treat­ments are infre­quently sus­tained over extended peri­ods (most chil­dren on med­ica­tion do not even remain on it for a year), few indi­vid­u­als with ADHD receive effec­tive treat­ment over the long-term. This may explain why Read the rest of this entry »