SharpBrains

Brain Gyms a new industry?

Alvaro Fernandez — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:45:53 +0000

The Calgary Harald and other Canadian papers bring a good article:

I'd only add that the revenue figures suggest we are really talking about a highly-dynamic and growing "baby-market", which one day (hopefully, soon enough for all of us to benefit) will mature to become a real "industry". We see very positive signs, but there is still a lot of (mentally stimulating) work to do.

Brain Fitness, brain fitness industry, brain fitness market, brain gyms, Calgary, Canada

NeuroActive Bike at Lady of America fitness centers

Alvaro Fernandez — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:45:53 +0000

NeuroActive Bike: America’s First and Only Mind-Body Fitness Equipment Launched at Lady of America Fitness Centers (press release)

- "The patent-pending bike, engineered by Dr. Bergeron and BCA (Brain Center America)’s international team of brain specialists, makes its U.S. debut this month at Lady of America (LOA) fitness centers."

- "Users of the NeuroActive Bike may select from 22 brain-stimulating exercises that train different parts of the brain, including: memory of names and faces, 3D visuo-spatial skills, concentration, word naming and arithmetic. As they pedal, they manipulate a wireless mouse to interact with the computer and complete the NeuroActive Program"

In our 2008 market report we offered Top 10 Brain Training Future Trends, including:

"2. Physical and mental exercise will be better integrated. Physical exercise has been shown to increase the rate of neurogenesis, whereas mental exercise helps ensure the survival of any newly created neurons. Today both activities usually take place in very different settings: the former, in health clubs, the later, in universities. We predict that the borders between them will become more diffuse. Expect new programs such as brain fitness podcasts that allow us to train working memory as we jog or exercise bikes with built-in brain games."

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Brain Fitness Marketplace: new section

Alvaro Fernandez — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:30:15 +0000

Starting this month we will cover interesting new brain fitness products & services on a regular basis, both via this blog and via our monthly newsletter (you can subscribe at the top of the page).

Please note that we do not endorse any products, or make any comment on their validity or supporting research, by covering them in our blog & newsletter. We will mention whatever we think, from an editorial point of view, is noteworthy from a research, commercial, or innovation perspective, since we have seen that many people rely on SharpBrains to stay abreast of developments in the field.

if you are interested in a deeper exploration on the specific research and business drivers behind different companies and products, we suggest you consider acquiring our Report on the State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008.

Note: We will categorize relevant posts as "Brain Fitness Industry".

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Brain Plasticity @ Edge

Alvaro Fernandez — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:59:52 +0000

Edge's Question of the Year is,

"What will change everything? What game-changing scientific ideas and developments do you expect to live to see?"

A couple of scientists respond on areas close to our field:

- Controlling Brain Plasticity (by Leo Chalupa)
- The first major upgrade of the human brain and the mind it generates since the Pleistocene (by Gregory Paul)

You can read those and many other fascinating answers at Edge's Question of the Year.

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Top 10 Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health Books

Alvaro Fernandez — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 02:55:03 +0000

Here you have The 10 Most Popular Brain Fitness & Cognitive Health Books, based on book purchases by SharpBrains' readers during 2008.

Enjoy!

	1. Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School (Pear Press, March 2008) - Dr. John Medina, Director of the Brain Center for Applied Learning Research at Seattle Pacific University, writes an engaging and comprehensive introduction to the many daily implications of recent brain research. He wrote the article Brain Rules: science and practice for SharpBrains readers.
	2. The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person (Oxmoor House, March 2007) - Dr. Judith Beck, Director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, connects the world of research-based cognitive therapy with a mainstream application: maintaining weight-loss. Interview notes here.
	3. The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science (Viking, March 2007) - Dr. Norman Doidge, psychiatrist and author of this New York Times bestseller, brings us "a compelling collection of tales about the amazing abilities of the brain to rewire, readjust and relearn". Laurie Bartels reviews the book review here.
	4. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain(Little, Brown and Company, January 2008) - Dr. John Ratey, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, summarizes the growing research on the brain benefits of physical exercise. Laurie Bartels puts this research in perspective here.

	5. The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning (Stylus Publishing, October 2002) - Dr. James Zull, Director Emeritus of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education at Case Western Reserve University, writes a must-read for educators and lifelong learners. Interview notes here.
	6. Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves (Ballantine Books, January 2007) - Sharon Begley, Newsweek' excellent science writer, provides an in-depth introduction to the research on neuroplasticity based on a Mind & Life Institute event.
	7. Thanks: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (Houghton Mifflin, August 2007) - Prof. Robert Emmons, Professor of Psychology at UC Davis and Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology, writes a solid book that combines a research-based synthesis of the topic as well as practical suggestions. Interview notes here.
	8. The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind (Oxford University Press, January 2001) - Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, clinical professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine, provides a fascinating perspective on the role of the frontal roles and executive functions through the lifespan. Interview notes here.
	9. The Brain Trust Program: A Scientifically Based Three-Part Plan to Improve Memory (Perigee Trade, September 2007) - Dr. Larry McCleary, former acting Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Denver Children's Hospital, covers many lifestyle recommendations for brain health in this practical book. He wrote the article Brain Evolution and Health for SharpBrains.
	10. A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain (Pantheon, January 2001) - In this book (previous to Spark), Dr. John Ratey provides a stimulating description of how the brain works. An excellent Brain 101 book to anyone new to the field.

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Brain Fitness Update: Best of 2008

Alvaro Fernandez — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:25:51 +0000

Dear reader and member of SharpBrains' community,
We want to thank you for your attention and support in 2008, and wish you a Happy, Prosperous, Healthy and Positive 2009!

Below you have the December edition of our monthly newsletter. Enjoy:

Best of 2008

Announcing the SharpBrains Most Important Book of 2008: Neuroscientist Torkel Klingberg has written a very stimulating and accessible book on a crucial topic for our Information Age: The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory. We have named it The SharpBrains Most Important Book of 2008, and asked Dr. Klingberg to write a brief article to introduce his research and book to you. Enjoy it here.

Top 30 Brain Fitness Articles of 2008: We have compiled SharpBrains' 30 most popular articles, written by thirteen Expert Contributors and staff members for you. Have you read them all?

November-December News: No month goes by without significant news in the field of cognitive fitness. Summarized here are 10 recent developments worthy of attention, including an upcoming brain training product for ice hockey players, my lecture at New York Public Library, and more.

Interviews: Videogames, Meditation

Are videogames good for your brain?: A landmark study by Dr. Arthur Kramer and colleagues has shown that playing a strategy videogame can bring a variety of significant mental benefits to older brains. Another recent study, also by Kramer and colleagues, does not show similar benefits to younger brains (despite playing the same game). How can this be? Dr. Kramer, who has kindly agreed to serve on SharpBrains' Scientific Advisory Board, elaborates.

Meditation on the Brain: Dr. Andrew Newberg provides an excellent overview of the brain benefits of practices such as meditation. He recommends, "look for something simple, easy to try first, ensuring the practice is compatible with one's beliefs and goals. You need to match practice with need: understand the specific goals you have in mind, your schedule and lifestyle, and find something practical."

The Need for Objective Assessments

Cognitive screenings and Alzheimer's Disease: The Alzheimer's Foundation of America just released a thoughtful report advocating for widespread cognitive screenings after the age of 65 (55 given the right conditions). SharpBrains readers, probed by Dr. Joshua Steinerman, seem to agree.

Quantitative EEG for ADHD diagnosis: Dr. David Rabiner reports on the findings from a recent study that documents the utility of Quantitative EEG as an objective test to assist in the diagnosis of ADHD. If this procedure were to become more widely used, he suggests, the number of children and adolescents who are inappropriately diagnosed and treated for the disorder would diminish substantially.

Shall we question the brand new book of human troubles?: The fights over the new version of the psychiatric diagnostic manual, the DSM-V, are starting to come to light. Dr. Vaughan Bell wonders why the public debate avoids the key question of whether diagnosis itself is useful for mental health and why psychometrics are simply ignored.

Resources for Lifelong Learning

Education builds Cognitive Reserve for Alzheimers Disease Protection: Dr. Pascale Michelon reviews a recent study that supports the Cognitive Reserve hypothesis - mentally stimulating experiences throughout life, such as formal education, help build a reserve in our brains that contributes to a lower probability of developing Alzheimer's symptoms.

5 Tips on Lifelong Learning & the Adult Brain: Laurie Bartels asks us to please please 1) challenge ourselves with new learning, 2) remember that neuroplasticity and neurogenesis are hallmarks of our brains, 3) check for mis-learning on an ongoing basis, 4) more visuals, less text, 5) move it, move it - start today!

Neuroscience Core Concepts: We all have heard "Use It or Lose It". Now, what is "It"? The Society for Neuroscience (SfN) has just released a user-friendly publication titled Neuroscience Core Concepts, aimed at helping educators and the general public learn more about the brain.

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Are videogames good for YOU? Depends on who YOU are

Alvaro Fernandez — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:54:11 +0000

Two recent scientific studies published by Dr. Arthur Kramer and colleagues present fascinating results. The two studies are:

1) Basak C, et al "Can training in a real-time strategy video game attenuate cognitive decline in older adults?" Psychol Aging 2008; DOI: 10.1037/a0013494.

2) Boot, W. R., Kramer, A. F., Simons, D. J., Fabiani, M. & Gratton, G. (2008) The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychologica, 129, 387-398.

Let's first review the first study, a landmark experiment in that it showed wide and significant cognitive benefits in adults over 60 years old who played a strategy videogame (Rise of Nations) for 23 hours.

Playing computer games improves brain power of older adults, claim scientists (Telegraph)

- The team at the University of Illinois recruited 40 adults over 60 years old, half of whom were asked to play a computer game called Rise of Nations, a role-playing game in which you have to build your own empire.

- Game players have to build cities, feed and employ their people, maintain an adequate military and expand their territory.

- Both groups were assessed before, during and after the video game training on a variety of tests.

- As a group, the "gamers" became significantly better – and faster – at switching between tasks as compared to the comparison group. Their working memory, as reflected in the tests, was also significantly improved and their reasoning ability was enhanced.

Really remarkable results.

The second study, in contrast, found no comparable cognitive benefits for college students in their early 20s who played the same game for the same number of hours, regardless of whether they play videogames often or don't.
How come this contrast?

In order to better understand this, we contacted Arthur Kramer and asked him to elaborate on what he told us in our first interview. Let's first review what we discussed in June:

Question (me): Tell us more about your work with cognitive training for older adults.

Answer (Prof Kramer): We have now a study in press where we evaluate the effect of a commercially available strategy videogame on older adults’ cognition.

Let me first give some context. It seems clear that, as we age, our so-called crystallized abilities remain pretty stable, whereas the so-called fluid abilities decline. One particular set of fluid abilities are called executive functions, which deal with executive control, planning, dealing with ambiguity, prioritizing, multi-tasking. These skills are crucial to maintain independent living.

In this study, we examined whether playing strategy-based video game can train those executive functions and improve them. We showed that playing a strategy-based videogame (Rise of Nations Gold Edition) can result in not only becoming a better videogame player but it transferred to untrained executive functions. We saw a significant improvement in task switching, working memory, visual short-term memory, and mental rotation. And some, but more limited, benefits in inhibition and reasoning.

I can share a few details on the study: the average age was 69 years, and the experiment required around 23 hours of training time. We only included individuals who had played videogames 0 hours/ week for the last 2 years.

That last criteria is interesting. We typically say that good “brain exercise” requires novelty, variety and challenge. So, if you take adults who are 69-years-old and haven’t played a videogame in 2 years, how do you know if the benefit comes from the particular videogame they played vs. just the value of dealing with a new and complex task?

That’s a great question. The reality is that we don’t know, since we had a “waiting list” control group. In the future perhaps we should compare different videogames or other mentally stimulating activities against each other and see what method is the most efficient. Perhaps the National Institutes on Health may be interested in funding such research.

In any case, your study reinforces an important point: older brains can, and do, learn new skills.

Yes. The rate of learning by older adults may be slower, and they may benefit from more explicit instruction and technology training, but, as a society, it is a massive waste of talent not to ensure older adults remain active and productive.

Full interview: here

And below are his answers to my new questions last week, after both studies were published.

What may, in your view, explain the different effect of Rise of Nations on non-gamers, contrasting both studies?
Certainly one of the most notable between our two studies was the age of the study participants – with young adults serving as subjects in the Acta Psychologica paper and older adults serving as subjects in the Psychology & Aging study. We observed training benefits for the older but not for the younger adults. There are several reasons why this might have been the case. First, older adults perform more poorly on the target abilities that we were trying to train – that is executive control processes – than younger adults. So it might be the case that video game training benefits are more readily observed for cognitive processes that are somewhat degraded. Second, while it is quite easy to find older adults who have never played video games (and especially strategy-based games like Rise Of Nations) it is very difficult to find completely naïve younger adults (although the younger adults subjects in our study did play video games less than 1 hour per week). So it is conceivable that video game training based gains might be more readily observed the less experience that someone has with video games. These seem to be the most likely reasons for the different effects in the two studies.

What is the main implication from both studies combined/ what do we know today that we didn't know 3 months ago?
First, I think that our results suggest promise with regard to video game playing and older adults cognition. However, given, to my knowledge, this is the first attempt to improve executive control abilities of older adults via strategy-based video game playing certainly additional studies should be conducted to further explore this relationship, particularly with real-world tasks as transfer tasks. Second, the results of our study with younger adults suggest that caution is in order with regard to assuming that video game training will enhancing, perceptual, attentional and cognitive abilities of young people. Clearly, there are important boundary conditions of such relationships that we don’t yet know.

Arthur Kramer, attention, cognitive decline, computer games, executive control, maintain independent living, memory, mental rotation, older adults, Rise of Nations, task switching, video game playing, videogames, visual short term memory, Working memory

The Overflowing Brain: Most Important Book of 2008

Alvaro Fernandez — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 22:22:02 +0000

We have tracked for several years the scientific studies published by Torkel Klingberg and colleagues, often wondering aloud, "when will educators, health professionals, executives and mainstream society come to appreciate the potential we have in front of us to enhance our brains and improve our cognitive functions?"

Dr. Klingberg has just published a very stimulating popular science book, The Overflowing Brain, that should help in precisely that direction. Given the importance of the topic, and the quality of the book, we have named The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory The SharpBrains Most Important Book of 2008, and asked Dr. Klingberg to write a brief article to introduce his research and book to you. Below you have. Enjoy!

---

Research and Tools to Thrive in the Cognitive Age

By Dr. Torkel Klingberg

Do we all have attention deficits?

The information age has provided us with high technology which fills our days with an ever increasing amount of information and distraction. We are constantly flooded with on-the-go emails, phone calls, advertisements and text-messages and we try to cope with the increasing pace by multi tasking. A survey of workplaces in the United States found that the personnel were interrupted and distracted roughly every three minutes and that people working on a computer had on average eight windows open at the same time. There is no tendency for this to slow down; the amount and complexity of information continually increases

The most pressing concerns with this environment are: how do we deal with the daily influx of information that our inundated mental capacities are faced with? At what point does our stone-age brain become insufficient? Will we be able to train our brains effectively to increase brain capacity in order to stay in-step with our inexorable lifestyles? Or will we be stricken with attention deficits because of brain overload?

In his article “Overloaded Circuits: Why Smart People Underperform,” psychiatrist Edward Hallowell coins the term “attention deficit trait” to characterize the situation in which so many of us find ourselves. This is not a new diagnosis of any use to doctors, but rather a description of the mental state that information technology, a faster pace, and changing work patterns have induced. Some would call it a lifestyle.

The point of Hallowell’s term is that it illustrates how the modern work situation, with its pace and simultaneous demands, often gives us the feeling of having attention difficulties and of not quite having the capacity to do our jobs. Our brains are being flooded. But is it really the case that the information society generally impairs people’s attentional abilities? What are attentional abilities, anyway, and exactly what in our complex work situations is mentally demanding?

Cognitive Demands in the Information Age

In my book “The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory” I try to pinpoint the nature of the cognitive demands of modern life and the psychological and neural basis of our capacity limitations. One demand factor in our working lives is the incessant distractions: all the impressions that buzz around us like mosquitoes and make it hard for us to concentrate on what we’re doing. The torrent of information increases not only the volume of data we’re expected to take in but also the volume we need to shut out.

Another important demand factor is multitasking, which is the quick and easy solution for all those who want to get more done in less time. However, doing (or at least trying to do) several tasks simultaneously is one of our most demanding everyday activities. Running on a treadmill while watching TV usually isn’t too taxing, nor is chewing gum while walking in a straight line. But even such a mundane situation as talking on a cell phone while driving is not as easy as we’d like to think. Apart from the fact that it’s difficult to hold the wheel and shift gears with the same hand, or to keep our eyes on the road and on the phone’s display at the same time, there’s something in the mentally demanding task of telephoning that makes us worse drivers.

Information overload, distractions and multitasking are probably the most important factors in making the information age so cognitively demanding are.

The Role of Working Memory: challenges and opportunities

There are plenty of indications that those three factors are loading on our working memory capacity, which is our capacity to hold on to relevant information for short periods of time. The problem is that our working memory capacity is a scarce resource. The increase in information load thus meets a biological constraint in how much we can handle. A question that has always fascinated me is how this capacity constraint is wired in our brain, and if we can in some way increase this capacity, and this question is a thread that I follow throughout the book.

In the research that my colleagues and I have done at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, we have shown that training on working memory tasks, close or above the limit of our capacity, can improve our working memory. This improvement is not only confined to the trained tasks, but generalizes to other cognitive tasks requiring working memory and control of attention. We have also shown that this training improves the ability to focus in everyday life. The working memory capacity limitation is not immutable, but actually possible to stretch.

Furthermore, it is possible that the increasing information load not only is harmless, but might actually improve our cognitive abilities through improvement of working memory. The now well known Flynn effect tells us that fluid intelligence is increasing, presumably due to environmental demands on cognition. The most important cognitive demands of modern life relates to working memory, and the most important cognitive function underlying fluid intelligence is working memory capacity. The way environmental demands improves fluid intelligence might thus be through improvement on working memory capacity.

In other words, modern life itself may help make us more cognitively able. And emerging tools may enhance our abilities and better prepare us for the demands of the Information Age.

Reflections for the Future

Training our brains might thus be a way to keep up with the increasing demands of the information age. This might be especially relevant for those of us that are over 25 years of age, when working memory capacity starts to decline year by year, at the same time as the demands increase. In my book I, half jokingly, suggested that in the future we might see company-funded cognitive fitness training for employees. It was with a certain satisfaction that I recently read in SharpBrains blog about a new initiative by the USA Ice Hockey league to provide computerized cognitive training -focused on important perception and decision-making skills- to its players.

In the future we might be as aware of cognitive function as we know are obsessed with calories, diets, glycemic index and cardiovascular training, and brain training might be a part of our every day life.

-- Dr. Torkel Klingberg leads the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab at the Karolinska Institute, which is part of the Stockholm Brain Institute. He has recently written The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory (Oxford University Press, November 2008).

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Cognitive News November-December 2008

Alvaro Fernandez — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:03:07 +0000

Here you have several recent articles and developments worthy of attention:

1) Boom times for brain training games (CNN)
2) Navigating the brain fitness landscape: do's and don'ts (McKnight's Long Term Care News)
3) USA Hockey and Intelligym (press release)
4) Brain Fitness at New York Public Library (NYPL blog)
5) McDonnell Foundation grant harnesses cognitive science to improve student learning (press release)
6) Health insurance firms offering online cognitive therapy for insomnia (Los Angeles Times)
7) HeadMinder Cognitive Stability Index: Computerized Neurocognitive ... (Press release)
8) THE AGE OF MASS INTELLIGENCE (Intelligent Life)
9) Working Later in Life May Facilitate Neural Health (Cerebrum)
10) The Cool Factor: Never Let Them See You Sweat (New York Times)

Links, selected quotes and commentary:

In the News

1) Boom times for brain training games (CNN)

Includes my quote "[Brain fitness] is not just some fad. The market is much deeper than Nintendo."

Comment: This article provides is a very good market overview. The reporter and I also discussed in depth the need for better consumer education and professional development, so people can make informed decisions, and for cognitive assessments to serve as independent baseline, help identify priorities and measure results. Please note that our market estimates do include revenues of computerized cognitive assessments, today mostly used in clinical trials, and wthin the military and sports teams.

2) Navigating the brain fitness landscape: do's and don'ts (McKnight's Long Term Care News)

Comment: "Choosing the right cognitive fitness product or program for senior living residents is harder than it sounds. But understanding residents' needs, identifying your objectives and considering the total cost of ownership will help set you on the right path."

New initiatives

3) USA Hockey and Intelligym (press release)

- "USA Hockey, with partners ACE (Applied Cognitive Engineering) and the BIRD (Binational Industrial Research and Development) Foundation, have announced plans to develop a revolutionary product that will, for the first time ever, provide players a training tool to develop “hockey sense.”

- "To be called Hockey IntelliGym, the software-based product will furnish players with a highly effective training tool to develop perception and decision-making skills. Further, it will enable coaches to fine-tune the training program and follow-up on the progress of their players."

- “We’re really into unchartered territory with the development of Hockey IntelliGym,” said Dave Ogrean, executive director of USA Hockey. “With the expertise of ACE and the support of the BIRD Foundation, we’ll be able to produce a product that will give our players an opportunity to improve in areas that training has never before been available.”

- "It is anticipated that the product will be available in December 2010"

Comment: this initiative is very meaningful for two reasons: first, it shows how the Brain Fitness field is composed of several market segments (we cover ACE as one of the companies in the Corporate, Military & Sports segment) beyond what we can call "healthy aging". Second, it beautifully illustrates the potential to enhance cognitive performance at all ages - to improve quality of life, driving skills, job-related skills...for more context, read: Cognitive Training for Basketball Game-Intelligence: Interview with Prof. Daniel Gopher

4) Brain Fitness at New York Public Library (NYPL blog)

- "After attending a recent staff training session offered by the library's Office of Staff Development, I decided to return to a habit of my childhood--eating sardines."
- key pillars for brain health ...are... "1) A balanced diet; 2) Cardiovascular physical exercise; 3) Stress management; and 4) Brain exercise: Novelty, Variety, Challenge (as long as it doesn't stress us out)."

Comment: A few weeks ago I had the pleasure to give a talk to one hundred or so staff members at New York Public Library. As you would expect, it was a very stimulating group, and one of the participants wrote a fun blog post. The very interesting trend to observe here is the growing role of public libraries in providing quality brain health information.

5) McDonnell Foundation grant harnesses cognitive science to improve student learning (press release)

- "Using what cognitive psychologists are discovering in the laboratory to improve learning in the classroom is the goal of a $6.47 million collaborative activity grant to Washington University from the James S. McDonnell Foundation (JSMF)."

- "The aim of the grant is to take the knowledge that cognitive psychologists have gained about learning and memory from laboratory experimentation and to develop techniques to improve learning in the classrooms," said Henry L. "Roddy" Roediger III, Ph.D., principal investigator on the grant and the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in Arts & Sciences.

Comment: this is great news, but it would be even better would publishers be the ones developing these new techniques and curriculum - it is time to start moving beyond a purely content-based approach and introduce the evaluation and enhancement of what we can call "cognitive functions for life".

6) Health insurance firms offering online cognitive therapy for insomnia (Los Angeles Times)

- "helping consumers get a good night's sleep has become a priority for most of the top-tier U.S. health insurance companies, including WellPoint, Aetna, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente and several Blue Cross plans. Their new programs don't involve sleeping pills. Instead, insurers are advocating the use of cognitive behavior therapy. Traditionally, the therapy has been done largely through face-to-face sessions, but many of the programs are now available online."

- "And use of sleeping pills has skyrocketed. A study this year in the journal Health Affairs found a 50% jump in sleeping pill use --- from 5,445 people per 100,000 in 1998 to 8,194 per 100,000 people in 2006. Though one version of Ambien, a popular sleep aid, is now available as a lower-cost generic costing about 50 cents per pill, newer drugs such as Rozerem and Lunesta cost about $4 and $5 per pill, respectively, or a minimum of nearly $1,500 per year for patients who take a sleeping pill every night. Online behavioral therapy programs cost less than $40 per user, and face-to-face counseling can range from about $300 to $1,800, depending on how many sessions a patient goes through and what level of specialist, from social worker to psychiatrist, provides the therapy."

- "Unlike sleeping pills, counseling is usually a one-time thing and costs do not continue year to year."

Comment: To read more on this trend - see The Future of Computer-assisted Cognitive Therapy

7) HeadMinder Cognitive Stability Index: Computerized Neurocognitive ... (Press release)

- "The HeadMinder web-based Cognitive Stability Index (CSI) has proven more useful for blast-concussion detection than the ANAM computerized test battery the DoD currently employs. The CSI provides an immediate solution to clear the backlog of 400,000 IED-exposed service members in less than two years."

- "The CSI is a 30-minute, Internet-based, computerized test that provides automated, objective measures of attention, memory, response speed, and processing speed for initial evaluation of cognitive functioning. The CSI produces standardized reports that enable triage and decision-making appropriate to a user's qualifications - from medic to neuropsychologist to neurologist and other treatment team members."

Comment: computer-based neurocognitive assessments will play a critical part in the brain fitness puzzle. How long will it take before consumers can have access to a reliable and credible annual "mental check-up"/ cognitive baseline?

The Big Picture

8) THE AGE OF MASS INTELLIGENCE (Intelligent Life)

- "Millions more people are going to museums, literary festivals and operas; millions more watch demanding television programmes or download serious-minded podcasts. Not all these activities count as mind-stretching, of course. Some are downright fluffy. But, says Donna Renney, the chief executive of the Cheltenham Festivals, audiences increasingly want “the buzz you get from working that little bit harder”. This is a dramatic yet often unrecognised development. “When people talk and write about culture,” says Ira Glass, the creator of the riveting public-radio show “This American Life”, “it’s apocalyptic. We tell ourselves that everything is in bad shape. But the opposite is true. There’s an abundance of really interesting things going on all around us.”

- "Third, what does all this say about the widespread view that societies are dumbing down, educational standards are crumbling and people’s ability to concentrate is collapsing? The reply must be that it cannot be true across the board and that for a significant number, the opposite is the case: people want more intellectually demanding things to see and hear, not fewer. Surely both things are happening at once: part of the population is dumbing down, part is wising up."

Comment: For a related blog article, you may enjoy Exercise your brain in the Cognitive Age

9) Working Later in Life May Facilitate Neural Health (Cerebrum)

- "Carmi Schooler at the National Institutes of Health, using a technique that allowed him to assess causal relationships, found that adults who performed intellectually challenging jobs across their life span showed more cognitive flexibility in late adulthood than those who performed less demanding jobs."

- "Perhaps the most compelling evidence regarding the impact of novel experiences on brain volume and function comes from a study at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. Adults with a mean age of 59 spent three months learning to juggle three balls. Although only about half the participants were able to achieve competence in this complex skill, those who succeeded had increased volume in a mediotemporal area of the visual cortex as well as the nucleus accumbens and the hippocampus, suggesting that sustained novel experience can increase the sizes of neural structures. Notably, the changes in the nucleus accumbens and hippocampus were transient, disappearing three months after the juggling ceased. This intriguing study provides clear evidence that continued skill performance is necessary to maintain some gains from experience, and it strongly supports the “use it or lose it” adage."- "One of the premier challenges of the 21st century lies in determining what behaviors will protect neural health and then developing public health initiatives to encourage these behaviors in our communities. Sound social policies that encourage older people to keep working will have direct benefits to our economic system. It also could be neuroprotective, resulting in later onset of dementing illnesses, an outcome that offers gains for society thanks to reduced caregiving and health care costs, as well as extended time with beloved family members."

Comment: simply spectacular article by Dr. Denise Park. When will we take brain fitness into account when selecting careers, jobs, retirement policies and options?

10) The Cool Factor: Never Let Them See You Sweat (New York Times)

- "We even elevate such equilibrium to the superhuman: calm, as applied to No Drama Obama, often comes linked to the modifier “preternatural.”

- "But the calm temperament is not so superhuman, nor is it entirely the gift of the chosen few. It can be cultivated, even as the world cleaves around us."

- "So how do we get there without a steady diet of beta blockers and Xanax? Calm, per se, doesn’t appear in the taxonomy of those who study personality and temperament."

Comment: As the article later discloses, this ability is often called "emotional self-regulation" by cognitive scientists, and its development can assisted with tools such as meditation, cognitive therapy and biofeedback. Perhaps one day this will be part of everybody's school curriculum and leadership programs?

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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Alvaro Fernandez — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 19:23:33 +0000

We wish you a very nice day.

- The SharpBrains Team

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