Comments for SharpBrains

Comment on To Harness Neuroplasticity, Start with Enthusiasm by Kyle Ambrosas

Kyle Ambrosas — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 02:53:26 +0000

Great analogy! It really ties everything together nicely. It’s interesting too, if you combine everything we are told to do to stay physically healthy with the things we are told to do to be happy, you basically get a healthy brain.

Bottom line, exercise and be happy and your brain will work really well even when you are old!

Comment on To Harness Neuroplasticity, Start with Enthusiasm by Sandra Heusel

Sandra Heusel — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 20:54:43 +0000

So true!! This is what we practice with our students every day at Eaton Arrowsmith School in Vancouver, Victoria and soon to be Surrey, BC, Canada. By strengthening their capacity to learn, as opposed to accommodating for their learning weaknesses, our students are building stronger and tighter cognitive ships…which will lead them on a far more independently run journey throughout life!

Comment on When 1 + 1 = 5: Dyscalculia and Working Memory by Michael Ballard

Michael Ballard — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:02:50 +0000

P.S. I should have said my father was one of the volunteers helping the gentleman that had been seriously injured.

Comment on When 1 + 1 = 5: Dyscalculia and Working Memory by Michael Ballard

Michael Ballard — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 15:55:18 +0000

Thank for this article Doctor. Would the math issue be lessened if the musical part of the brain was used to assist?

My father volunteered using protocols from what was the Philadelphia Brain Injury Clinic. Despite having lost 1/2 his brain in a tragic auto accident (he was a bystander) with a very regimented 14 hour+ day of therapy his recovery from given up for dead to mid level function was amazing.

Thank you for sharing this insight.

I’m a generalist in the field of resiliency.
One of our programs helps foster parents, grand parents, parents of special needs children learn key skills to assist them gain some added self-awareness and self-management skills

https://www.facebook.com/InnerResilience

Michael
Toronto Canada

Comment on When 1 + 1 = 5: Dyscalculia and Working Memory by Tracy

Tracy — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 18:27:03 +0000

Hi David, thanks for taking the time to comment. It looks like there are at least 3 questions here, so I will try to address them in turn (and briefly!). The first question seems to me to be why some children have WM deficits, while others don’t. This is a tricky one and the jury is still out. We do know that WM is not greatly affected by environmental factors (eg, financial background, mother’s educational level, etc), unlike other cognitive skills in general ability (IQ scores). So why do some kids struggle: one possibility is they start off with a smaller WM (or ‘post-it-note’ as I have referred to it in the past). Another possibility is that for some reason they are not able to use all of their WM capacity, sometimes b/c of stress or anxiety. So although they have the capacity to do well, they are not maximizing it.
Q2: Genetics. There is some research (and I am in the midst of completing some as well) indicating there is a a strong genetic component to WM capacity. This idea fits well with my previous point about WM being minimally affected by environmental factors.
Q3: Brain differences: The question could be rephrased to look at whether there is less activation when some people use WM to solve a problem, vs brain size (cortical thickness, etc). We do know that lower scores on WM tests are linked to less brain activation in the PFC. However, there is less research on actual brain size and WM scores. Hope this helps.

Comment on When 1 + 1 = 5: Dyscalculia and Working Memory by David Boulton

David Boulton — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:33:52 +0000

Are the neurophysical correlates of working memory deficits the result of biologically ordained structural/processing insufficiencies (maladaptive bio-development) (1) or are the neuro-physiological correlates of working memory deficits the result of a lack of neurophysical exercise/activity due to learned maladpative processing schema? For a related example, a recent study of dyslexia moved us closer to understanding the signature of dyslexia prior to beginning reading (http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/GeneralNeurology/30835) but here too the testing is far downstream from the influence of early learning. Isn’t disentangling the genetically-determined from the learning-formed much more subtle than we are acknowledging? Are the brain differences correlated with memory deficits described here exclusively the result of gene-formative processes or could there be a much deeper and richer and more subtle realm of early learning that can also result in the brain differences you are describing?

Comment on Education for Mental Fitness: “A Sharper Mind, Middle Age and Beyond” by Cascia Talbert

Cascia Talbert — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 22:36:49 +0000

Great tips!

Comment on Research: Does Nintendo Brain Age work as a brain training game? by Alvaro Fernandez

Alvaro Fernandez — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:09:58 +0000

Dear Derek,

Thank you for your comment. We did blog about that case study when the British press talked about it a couple years ago. Please note that the blog post is titled “Does Nintendo Brain Age work as a brain training game?”, neither “Does Nintendo Brain Age work as edutainment” nor “Does Nintendo Brain Age work as a motivational tool to engage students in doing math?”

There is little serious question that well-designed games can bring a variety of “serious” benefits, the question is whether real “brain training” is one of those. The kind of research to answer that question would look much more like the one you can find here, for example:
http://www.klingberglab.se/pub.html

Please also take a look at the links included at the end of the article — I believe you’ll find them valuable.

Comment on Research: Does Nintendo Brain Age work as a brain training game? by Derek Robertson

Derek Robertson — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:08:13 +0000

Surprised to see no mention of published research about this games use in Scottish schools that carried out with Prifessor David Miller from the University of Dundee in Scotland.

Here is the case study about the intervention
http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/sharingpractice/i/improvingmentalmaths/introduction.asp

And here are the references for the papers

1. Miller, D.J. & Robertson, D.P. (2010). Using a games-console in the primary classroom: effects of ‘Brain Training’ programme on computation and self-esteem. British Journal of Educational Technology, 41 (2), 242–255.

2. Miller, D.J. & Robertson, D.P. (2010) Educational benefits of using games consoles in a primary classroom: a randomised controlled trial. British Journal of Educational Technology (in press)

Comment on Study: Cognitive Training in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) by Sunny Lam

Sunny Lam — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 04:58:09 +0000

Thanks for this timely article on using brain exercises to reduce overall decline of the mind.

There was a recent article about brain decline starting at age 45 (http://bit.ly/xMYkCK).

It’s totally important to combine brain exercises with enhanced diet to maximize effectiveness of both (synergy).

It would be interesting to see how much mental exercises boost the success rate percentage of different tasks — I have looked at various research in the past.

The amount seems to vary.

What does the latest research statistics indicate?

Fair winds and light laughter,
Sunny Lam