SharpBrains

There's such a flood of very significant research studies, educational resources and articles related to brain health, it's hard to keep track - even for us!

Let me introduce and quote some of the top Brain Health Studies, Articles and Resources published in March:

1) Cognitive Decline Begins In Late 20s, Study Suggests (Science Daily)

- "These patterns suggest that some types of mental flexibility decrease relatively early in adulthood, but that how much knowledge one has, and the effectiveness of integrating it with one's abilities, may increase throughout all of adulthood if there are no pathological diseases," Salthouse said.

- However, Salthouse points out that there is a great deal of variance from person to person

2) Cerebrum 2009: Emerging Ideas in Brain Science - new book by the Dana Foundation that "explores the cutting edge of brain research and its implications in our everyday lives, in language understandable to the general reader."

A couple of excellent chapters of direct relevance to everyone's brain health are:
- Chapter 4: A Road Paved by Reason, by Elizabeth Norton Lasley

- Chapter 10: Neural Health: Is It Facilitated by Work Force Participation?, by Denise Park, Ph.D

3) Staying Sharp DVD Program: "Dr. Jordan Grafman, chief of the Cognitive Neuroscience Section at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke outside of Washington, DC, and a member of the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, is your guide as we cover what to expect from the aging brain and what we can do to 'stay sharp.'

For a free DVD of this program you can contact stayingsharp@dana.org. (they say free in their website, I don't know if that includes shipping & handling)

4) Drivers to be tested on cognitive ability starting at age 75 (Japan Times)

The outline of a cognitive test that drivers aged 75 or over will be required to take from June when renewing their licenses was released Thursday...The test is intended to reduce the number of traffic accidents involving elderly drivers by measuring their cognitive level.

5) Physical Fitness Improves Spatial Memory, Increases Size Of Brain Structure (Science Daily)

- "Now researchers have found that elderly adults who are more physically fit tend to have bigger hippocampi and better spatial memory than those who are less fit."

6) Brain Trainers: A Workout for the Mind (Scientific American Mind)

"I recently tried out eight of the latest brain fitness programs, training with each for a week. The programs ranged widely in focus, quality and how fun they were to use. “Like physical exercise equipment, a brain exercise program doesn’t do you any good if you don’t use it,” says Andrew J. Carle, director of the Program in Assisted Living/Senior Housing Administration at George Mason University. And people tend not to use boring equipment. “I remember when NordicTrack was the biggest thing out there. Everyone ran out and bought one, and 90 percent of them ended up as a clothes rack in the back of your bedroom.”

The reporter used: Posit Science's Brain Fitness Program Classic, HappyNeuron, Nintendo BrainAge, CogniFit's MindFit/ CogniFit Personal Coach, Lumosity, MyBrainTrainer, BrainTwister, Cogmed Working Memory Training.

7) The Latest in Mental Health: Working Out at the 'Brain Gym' (Wall Street Journal)

- "Marshall Kahn, an 82-year-old family doctor in Fullerton, Calif., says he got such a boost from brain exercises he started doing at a "Nifty after Fifty" club that he decided to start seeing patients again part-time. "Doing all the mental exercise," he says, "I realized I've still got it."

8) Debate Over Drugs For ADHD Reignites (Washington Post)

- "New data from a large federal study have reignited a debate over the effectiveness of long-term drug treatment of children with hyperactivity or attention-deficit disorder, and have drawn accusations that some members of the research team have sought to play down evidence that medications do little good beyond 24 months."

- "The study also indicated that long-term use of the drugs can stunt children's growth."

8) Adaptive training leads to sustained enhancement of poor working memory in children (Developmental Science)

Abstract: Working memory plays a crucial role in supporting learning, with poor progress in reading and mathematics characterizing children with low memory skills. This study investigated whether these problems can be overcome by a training program designed to boost working memory. Children with low working memory skills were assessed on measures of working memory, IQ and academic attainment before and after training on either adaptive or non-adaptive versions of the program. Adaptive training that taxed working memory to its limits was associated with substantial and sustained gains in working memory, with age-appropriate levels achieved by the majority of children. Mathematical ability also improved significantly 6 months following adaptive training. These findings indicate that common impairments in working memory and associated learning difficulties may be overcome with this behavioral treatment.

9) Brain cortex thinning linked to inherited depression (Los Angeles Times)

- "On average, people with a family history of depression appear to have brains that are 28% thinner in the right cortex --- the outermost layer of the brain --- than those with no known family history of the disease. That cortical thinning, said the researchers, is on a scale similar to that seen in patients with Alzheimer's disease or schizophrenia."

Here you are have the bi-monthly update with our 10 most Popular blog posts. (Also, remember that you can subscribe to receive our RSS feed, or to our newsletter, at the top of this page, if you want to receive this digest by email).

The Neuron, The Brain, and Thinking Smarter

Continue Reading »

Great article in the UK's Sunday Times yesterday: Pump up those little grey cells, listing a variety of free or inexpensive brain health-related resources.

We are honored (even honoured, I'd dare say) that they started the list with our complimentary Brain Fitness 101 e-Guide:

- "The science behind some of the more outlandish claims for computer games that are supposed to improve your cognitive powers, is a matter of debate. However, you don’t need to pay £20 to give a game a try. The internet features a host of websites that can stretch your imagination and improve your mental prowess in a range of skills. Some are expensive rip-offs, but many are free, as our guide to the best of them shows."

- "Begin by Continue Reading »

We had a very fun session titled Teaching Brain Fitness in Your Community at an American Society on Aging (ASA) conference for health professionals a couple of weeks ago. Full house, with over 60 attendants and very good participation, showing great interest in the topic. I can't wait to see the evaluations.

These are some of the resources I promised as a follow-up, which can be useful to everyone interested in our field:

Good general articles in the business and general media:

Change or Die

Want a sharp mind for your golden years? Start now

You’re Wiser Now

On how new neurons are born and grow in the adult brain:

Salk Scientists Demonstrate For The First Time That Newly Born Brain Cells Are Functional In The Adult Brain

Old Brains, New Tricks

On the surprising plasticity and development potential throughout life:

Brain Plasticity, Language Processing and Reading

Juggling Juggles the Brain

Successful Aging of the Healthy Brain

Other important aspects:

Stress and the Brain

Exercise and the Brain

Humor, Laughter and The Brain

On the importance and impact of mental stimulation and training: Continue Reading »

Very intense week, and very fun. I will be writing more about this week's 3 speaking events, but let me say now that our key messages

1) our brains remain flexible during our lifetimes,

2) we can refine our brains with targeted practice,

3) good brain exercise, or "mental cross-training", requires novelty, variety, and increasing level of challenge (but without creating too much stress),

are being very well accepted from both healthy aging and workplace productivity points of view. We have ONE brain: health and productivity are 2 sides of the same coin.

If you want to make sure we learn more about our brains, you can help fellow blogger Shelley Batts get a college scholarship by voting here. She has a great neuroscience blog, is now finalist in a competition to win a nice scholarship, and needs out help.

Have some more time? You can watch this excellent 90-second video of cognitive neuroscientist Dr Lisa Saksida doing yoga in front of the fire while explaining the nature of Brain and Mind (via MindHacks). Quotes:

"I wish people understood that there is no mind/brain duality. Specifically, I wish people understood that there is no such thing as a purely psychological disorder. Every event in your psychological life, and therefore every psychological change, is reducible in theory to events and changes in your brain. We should therefore not judge people differently, according to whether they are considered to have a 'psychological' as opposed to a 'neurological' problem."

"Of course, a lack of mind/brain split does not mean that we should abandon all talk of psychology. Psychology and neuroscience are two ways of studying the same thing, and both are essential for understanding the human condition."

For more, check the posts in these always great blog carnivals (selected collections of blog posts by a number of bloggers around specific topics)

Tangled Bank (science in general)

Encephalon (neuroscience)

Credit: Photo of Neurons by symphanee via flickr

Given the growing number of articles in the popular press mentioning words such as "neuroplasticity", "fMRI" and "cognitive reserve", let's review some key findings, concepts and terms.

First, a prescient quote by Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-1934): "Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculptor his own brain".

Thanks to new neuroimaging techniques, regarded “as important for neuroscience as telescopes were for astronomy”, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have been finding that the brain has a number of "core capacities" and "mental muscles" that can be exercised through novelty, variety and practice, and that exercising our brain can influence the generation of new neurons and their connections. Brain exercise is being recognized, therefore, as a critical pillar of brain health, together with nutrition, physical exercise and stress management.

Previous beliefs about our brain and how it works have been proven false. Some beliefs that have been debunked include claims that adult brains can not create new neurons (shown to be false by Berkeley scientists Marian Diamond and Mark Rosenzweig, and Salk Institute’s Fred Gage), notions that working memory has a maximum limit of 6 or 7 items (debunked by Karolinska Institute’s Torkel Klingberg), and assumptions that the brain’s basic processes can not be reorganized by repeated practice (UCSF’s Drs. Paula Tallal and Michael Merzenich). The "mental muscles" we can train include attention, stress and emotional management, memory, visual/ spatial, auditory processes and language, motor coordination and executive functions like planning and problem-solving.

Mental stimulation is important if done in the right supportive and engaging environment. Stanford’s Robert Sapolsky has proven that chronic stress and cortical inhibition, which may be aggravated due to imposed mental stimulation, may prove counterproductive. Having the right motivation is essential.

A surprising and promising area of scientific inquiry is Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). An increasing number of neuroscientists (such as University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Richard Davidson) are investigating the ability of trained meditators to develop and sustain attention and visualizations and to work positively with powerful emotional states and stress through the directed mental processes of meditation practices.

And now, some keywords:

Brain Fitness Program: structured set of brain exercises, usually computer-based, designed to train specific brain areas and processes in targeted ways.

Chronic Stress: ongoing, long-term stress, which blocks the formation of new neurons and Continue Reading »

We all know chronic stress is bad for our heart, our weight, and our mood, but how about our memory? Interestingly, acute stress can help you focus and remember things more vividly. Chronic stress, on the other hand, reduces your ability to focus and can specifically damage cells in the hippocampus, a brain structure critical to encoding short term memory.

When is stress chronic? When you feel out of control of your life. You may feel irritable or anxious. While every individual varies in their response the type and quantity of stress, there are some things you can do to feel more in control of your environment. This sense of empowerment can lower your stress, and as a result, help your memory.

What are some ways to feel in control and less stressed?

1. Use a calendar to schedule important things. Give items a date and a priority.
2. Make a list of things that need to be done. Even if it's a long list, it can be rewarding to cross off items as you complete them.
3. Use a contemplative practice like yoga or meditation to calm your mind and body or try using a heart rate variability sensor to learn to relax and focus your mind and body.
4. Ask yourself how important something truly is to you. Maybe you're stressing over something that you are better off just letting go.
5. Delegate what you can.
6. Get regular exercise to burn off those excess stress hormones.
7. Get enough sleep so that you can recharge your batteries.
8. Eat well and reduce your caffeine and sugar intake which can add to your sense of jitteriness.
9. Maintain your social network. Sharing concerns with friends and family can help you feel less overwhelmed.
10. Give yourself 10 minutes just to relax every day.

Further Reading on Stress and Memory
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers by Robert M. Sapolsky, Ph.D.
A Primer on Multitasking
Simple Stress Test
Quick Stress Buster
Is there such thing as GOOD stress?
Brain Yoga: Stress --- Killing You Softly

Steven Edwards at Wired Blog writes a post titled Yoga Boosts Brain's GABA Levels, saying that "Participants in the yoga group had a 27% increase in GABA levels, while those in the reading group remained unchanged. Co-authors Chris Streeter from BUSM and Domenic Ciraulo pointed out that this research shows a method of treating low GABA states. Fairly obvious --- yes --- but this shows a nonpharmacological method for increasing GABA levels that people can act on now, without waiting for a drug to go through FDA approval."

Having attended last week a conference where neuropharma executives presented all their future drugs against obesity, anxiety, depression...I couldn't agree more. The rates of serious side effects of these drugs are astounding, yet as a society we seem to prefer to rely on taking drugs when are sick rather than proactively taking charge of our health and lifestyles and do our best (which not always is enough) to protect our fitness and wellness.

The press release Steven talks about: Yoga and Elevated Brain GABA Levels [PhysOrg]. Quotes: Continue Reading »

Here you have a selection of blog posts on these topics:

Grand Rounds

BloggingBoomers

Nursing

Meditation, Yoga & Spiritual Growth

Continue Reading »

We can summarize a lot of research by saying that there are four essential pillars to maintaining a healthy brain that functions better now and lasts longer. Those pillars are:

• 1) Physical Exercise
• 2) Mental Exercise
• 3) Good Nutrition
• 4) Stress Management

Great ... now what?! How do you develop a healthy lifestyle that includes all four pillars? Let's look at each one.

1. 1. Physical Exercise
• - Start by talking to your doctor, especially if you are not currently physically active, have special health concerns, or are making significant changes to your current program.
• - Set a goal that you can achieve. Do something you enjoy for even just 15 minutes a day. You can always add more time and activities later.
• - Schedule exercise into your daily routine. It will be become a habit faster if you do.
• - If you can only do one thing, do something cardiovascular, meaning something that gets your heart beating faster. This includes walking, running, skiing, swimming, biking, hiking, tennis, basketball, playing tag, ultimate Frisbee, and other similar sports/activities.
2. 2. Mental Exercise
• - Be curious! Get to know your local library and community college, look for local organizations or churches that offer classes or workshops
• - Do a variety of things, including Continue Reading »