Sharp Brains: Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

Neuroplasticity, Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

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1. Brain Fitness Fundamentals

High­lights from Sec­tion 1. Brain Fit­ness Fundamentals

  • The brain is com­posed of a num­ber of spe­cial­ized regions serv­ing dis­tinct functions.
  • Our life and pro­duc­tiv­ity depend on a vari­ety of brain func­tions, not just one.
  • There is noth­ing inher­ently fixed in the tra­jec­tory of how brain func­tions evolve as we age.

In order to make informed deci­sions about brain health and brain train­ing, you need to first under­stand the under­ly­ing orga­ni­za­tion of the human brain and how it evolves across our lives.

a

Brain struc­tures: all you need to know

The dom­i­nant struc­ture of the human brain is called the cere­brum, which con­sists of the grey, curly cor­tex. The cere­brum is divided into two hemi­spheres (right and left), each con­sist­ing of four lobes, and con­trols higher men­tal func­tions. As you can see in Fig­ure 1, the four lobes of the brain are the occip­i­tal, tem­po­ral, pari­etal and frontal lobes. Keep read­ing.

b

Brain func­tions: per­cep­tion, atten­tion, mem­ory, and more

You have prob­a­bly heard about cog­ni­tive func­tion or cog­ni­tion. What is cog­ni­tion? Cog­ni­tion has to do with how a per­son under­stands and acts in the world. It is a set of processes that are part of nearly every human action. Cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties are the brain-based skills we need to carry out any task – from the sim­plest to the most com­plex. They have more to do with the mech­a­nisms of how we learn, remem­ber, problem-solve, and pay atten­tion rather than with any actual knowl­edge. Any task can be bro­ken down into the dif­fer­ent cog­ni­tive skills or func­tions needed to com­plete that task suc­cess­fully. Keep read­ing.

j

The aging brain: cog­ni­tive improve­ment and decline

As we age, our whole body changes. The same is true for the brain. The most com­mon struc­tural change is brain atro­phy as neu­rons, and mostly con­nec­tions between neu­rons, die. In terms of func­tional changes, age-related cog­ni­tive decline typ­i­cally starts at about forty when the brain pro­cess­ing speed slows down. Keep read­ing.

d

Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity: the poten­tial for brain development

In the past decade there has been a fun­da­men­tal change in our under­stand­ing of human brain capac­ity. New research from sci­en­tists at the Salk Insti­tute, the Karolin­ska Insti­tute, Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity and else­where has given a renewed, pos­i­tive view of the human brain and its poten­tial for change and devel­op­ment through­out life. Keep read­ing.

e

Life­long learn­ing: why it is neuroprotective

Learn­ing is the phys­i­cal process of chang­ing our brains. Today we know this is pos­si­ble at all ages, bring­ing the con­cept and prac­tice of life­long learn­ing to the fore­front. Keep read­ing.

f

What is brain fit­ness: improv­ing cog­ni­tive abilities

Brain fit­ness is our brain’s abil­ity to read­ily cre­ate addi­tional con­nec­tions between neu­rons, and even to pro­mote new neu­rons in cer­tain parts of the brain. Research in neu­ropsy­chol­ogy and neu­ro­science shows that vig­or­ous men­tal activ­ity
can lead to good brain fit­ness, which in turn, trans­lates into a sharper mem­ory, faster pro­cess­ing of infor­ma­tion, bet­ter atten­tion, and other improved cog­ni­tive skills. Keep read­ing.

Keep learn­ing by read­ing more arti­cles in the Resources sec­tion, and also please con­sider join­ing our free monthly Brain Fit­ness eNewsletter

This new online resource is based on the con­tent from the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness (May 2009, $19.95), by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg.

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Welcome to SharpBrains!

As seen in The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, CNN and more, Sharp­Brains is an inde­pen­dent mar­ket research and pub­lish­ing firm track­ing brain fit­ness and applied neu­ro­plas­tic­ity research and mar­ket­place. AARP recently named The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness a Best Book on the subject.

UPCOMING ONLINE COURSE: How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach in 2012 (March 2012).

NEWS: How to Sub­mit a Guest Post to SharpBrains.com.

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Top 30 Articles

  1. Top 50 Brain Teasers, by Sharp­Brains Team
  2. The Ten Habits of Highly Effec­tive Brains, by Alvaro Fernandez
  3. Why do You Turn Down the Radio When You’re Lost?, by Car­o­line Latham
  4. Brain Plas­tic­ity: How learn­ing changes your brain, by Pas­cale Michelon
  5. Top 10 Brain Fit­ness Future Trends, by Alvaro Fernandez
  6. 7 FAQs on Men­tal Exer­cise, by Alvaro Fernandez
  7. It is Not Only Cars That Deserve Good Main­te­nance: Brain Care 101, by Alvaro Fernandez
  8. Eval­u­a­tion Check­list for Brain Fit­ness prod­ucts and games, by Alvaro Fernandez
  9. MIT Event on Brain Games: Con­text, Trends, Ques­tions, by Alvaro Fernandez
  10. Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day, by Alvaro Fernandez
  11. Mind­ful­ness and Med­i­ta­tion in Schools for Stress Man­age­ment, by Jill Sutie
  12. Stress and Neural Wreck­age: Part of the Brain Plas­tic­ity Puz­zle, by Gre­gory Kellet
  13. How can I improve my short term mem­ory?, by Car­o­line Latham
  14. Cog­ni­tive and Emo­tional Devel­op­ment Through Play, by David Elkind
  15. Judith Beck: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Per­son, by Alvaro Fernandez
  16. Easy Steps to Improve Brain Health, by Car­o­line Latham
  17. Info­graphic: State of the Mar­ket 2009, by Paul Van Slembrouck
  18. Improve Mem­ory with Sleep, Prac­tice, and Test­ing, by Bill Klemm
  19. 10 Brain Tips To Teach and Learn, by Lau­rie Bartels
  20. Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg on Cog­ni­tive Train­ing and Brain Fit­ness, by Alvaro Fernandez
  21. Max­i­mize the Cog­ni­tive Value of Your Men­tal Work­out, by Schlomo Breznitz
  22. Brain Fit­ness Pro­gram and Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity @ PBS, by Alvaro Fernandez
  23. Mind­ful­ness Med­i­ta­tion for Adults & Teens with ADHD, by David Rabiner
  24. Can Intel­li­gence Be Trained? Mar­tin Buschkuehl shows how, by Alvaro Fernandez
  25. How Strong is the Research Sup­port for Neu­ro­feed­back in Atten­tion Deficits?, by David Rabiner
  26. Exer­cis­ing the body is exer­cis­ing the mind, by Adrian Preda
  27. Brain Evo­lu­tion and Why it is Mean­ing­ful Today to Improve Our Brain Health, by Larry McCleary
  28. Phys­i­cal Exer­cise and Brain Health, by Pas­cale Michelon
  29. Posit Sci­ence, Nin­tendo Brain Age, and Brain Train­ing Top­ics, by Alvaro Fernandez
  30. Sleep, Tetris, Mem­ory and the Brain, by Shan­non Moffet

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