SharpBrains

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

  After many months of work we have just released our inaugural report The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 for corporate executives, health care professionals, and investors. This report defines the emerging brain fitness software market and analyzes the size and trends of its four customer segments. For top 10 highlights and to purchase the report at a 10% discount (before March 20th) click here: Report: The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008

Brain Fitness News and Events

NEWS FEATURE-Brain fitness seen as hot industry of the future (Reuters 03/12): The most comprehensive article we have seen so far covering this emerging field, based on our market report and with original reporting. Highly recommended read.

Continue Reading »

I hope you are having a joyful holiday season, and wish you a Happy and Prosperous 2008. The Brain Fitness field has made a great deal of progress in 2007, and we are looking forward the New Year.

Here you are have the Monthly Digest of our Most Popular Blog Posts. You can consider it your monthly Brain Fitness/ Exercise Newsletter.

Let me first of all introduce you to our new "Author Speaks Series", where we will give leading scientists and experts a forum to present their new brain-related books. We are honored to kickstart the series with Larry McCleary, former acting Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Denver Children's Hospital. You can read Here his article on how to keep a brain-friendly lifestyle. This series will complement our ongoing Neuroscience Interview Series.

Brain Fitness in the News

Brain Fitness @ PBS: PBS featured a fantastic special program on neuroplasticity and brain fitness during the month of December. Before you ask: as of today, the DVD of the program is still not available in PBS online shop. We expect to see it there in 2-3 weeks. We will keep you informed.

The Huffington Post started featuring a column written by me: you may enjoy taking a look at Alvaro Fernandez - Living on The Huffington Post.

Jogging our Brains for Brain Vitality, Healthy Aging-and Intelligence!: a roundup of several great recent articles on memory, aging, IQ and cognitive abilities such as self-control.

Health & Wellness

Brain Training: No Magic Bullet, Yet Useful Tool. Interview with Elizabeth Zelinski: Dr. Zelinski, leading researcher of the IMPACT study, shares fascinating insights. For example: "...cognitive enhancement requires the engagement in a variety of activities, those activities must be novel, adaptive and challenging-which is why computer-based programs can be helpful. But even at a more basic level, what matters is being engaged with life, continually exposed to stimulating activities, always trying to get out of our comfort zones, doing our best at whatever we are doing. A major typical misconception is that there is only one general intelligence to care about. In reality, we have many different cognitive abilities, such as attention, memory, language, reasoning, and more, so it makes sense to have different programs designed to train and improve each of them."

How to Evaluate and Choose a Brain Fitness Program: To help you navigate the growing number of computer-based programs and games, we published this 10-Question Checklist, based on dozens of interviews with scientists, experts and consumers.

Travel and Engagement as Good Brain Exercise: As we've seen, novelty, variety and challenge are the key guidelines for "brain exercise" that help build new neural connections, force one to be mindful and pay attention, improve abilities such as pattern-recognition, and generally contribute to lifelong brain health. In this post we feature the brain building / mind expanding experience of a SharpBrains friend working in Namibia.

Alzheimer's Prevention and Diagnostic Tests: analysis of several recent articles on emerging research behind Alzheimer's diagnostic and prevention.

Corporate Wellness and Training

Cognitive Reserve and Intellectually Demanding Jobs: a recent study shows how "Intellectually demanding work was associated with greater benefit to cognitive performance in later life independent of related factors like education and intelligence."

Cognitive Health and Baby Boomers- 6 Points to Keep in Mind: based upon an excellent McKinsey report titled Serving Aging Baby Boomers, we discuss a variety a news articles, including interesting numbers, some bad news, and some good news.

Lifelong Learning Is Changing My Brain: Andreas, the neuroscience PhD student who spent last summer working with SharpBrains, writes some reflections on his experience and on how scientists and business professionals can learn from each other.

Brain Teasers

Traveler IQ Game: Check out this stimulating online game...

Events

Learning & The Brain Conference, February 5-7 2008, San Francisco: Sign up now for this great conference for educators who want to learn about the latest brain research findings and implications. I will be speaking at the conference giving an overview of innovative cognitive training programs. The organizers are offering a Special Discount for SharpBrains readers until January 25th 2008, so click here if interested.

If we don't talk beforehand...Happy New Year!

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You can also enjoy our previous editions of our Brain Fitness Newsletter:

- November Edition

- October Edition

- September Edition

- August Edition

- July Edition

A quick note to alert you of two very interesting, growing, and somehow linked debates:

1) Very insightful article on The Aging of the Baby Boomers: What Does It Mean for the Legal Profession (thank you, Stephanie!). Some quotes:

- "As I pen this article, it seems as though I’m writing about someone else—the older worker. Age and aging, it seems, are in the eye of the one looking back at you in the mirror. I have this theory, especially as it pertains to men, that when we look in the mirror, we still see that 20 year-old stud who can leap tall buildings. But I know that my vertical leap is not what it used to be. The reality of aging in the legal profession is upon me and those of our generation."

- "Also, the perception of how old is old varies depending on the job or profession. For example, Continue Reading »

Very interesting collection of recent news...let's connect some dots

1) Great article titled Boom time for retirees (Financial Times)

- "By 2015, boomers will have a net worth of some $26,000bn (£12,750bn, €17,670bn) – equivalent to a year’s gross domestic product for the US and eurozone combined. They will control a larger proportion of wealth, income and consumption than any other generation in the country – the first time that consumers over 50 have held such sway over the world’s largest economy."

- "But as the boomers aged – by 2015 they will all be outside the fabled under-49 cohort – corporate America failed to grow old with them. Marketing experts argue that the continued focus of large companies such as P&G and Gap on the youth of “generation X” and “generation Y” overlooks a simple statistic: the 18-49 age group will grow by only 1m people in the next 10 years, compared with the 22.5m Americans set to enter the 50-plus bracket."

- “The last thing the [boomer] generation needs is a company that tells them they need tools to address their lack of dexterity,” he says. “They don’t want geriatric tools, they want cool stuff.”

Main take-way: baby boomers are always "awake" and reinventing things...companies, advertisers, time to wake-up! 

Full article: Boom time for retirees

2) The article is based upon this excellent McKinsey report Continue Reading »

Dr. Ginger Campbell just published a nice podcast interview with our co-founder and chief scientific advisor Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, whom we also interviewed some months ago on brain improvement research and ideas.

The first half of the 30-minute interview is a bit technical, including a nice introduction to the field of neuropsychology as the convergence of neurology and psychology. It starts focusing on the role of lifelong learning and cognitive exercise at minute 15 or so. Some of the take-aways from the second half:

• Given that the brain's right hemisphere seems more focused on dealing with novelty than the left one (more focused on pattern recognition based on pre-wired neural networks due to previous experiences), and that the right hemisphere typically declines first as we age...we need to ensure a good supply of novel challenges to maintain our brain, including the right hemisphere, sharp.
• The field of Cognitive Fitness is now emerging because Baby Boomers are more educated, proactive and computer-savvy than previous generations (as a broad generalization), and Continue Reading »

A collection of recent announcement in the "brain games" or "brain training games" space:

The Wii sets new generational standards for the videogame industry

• "The ageing of the Japanese population compelled gamemaker Nintendo to widen its audience. Now, the Wii is leading the industry standards. But hardcore gamers are still too important to be neglected."

Strain your brain the smart way

• "George Harrison, Nintendo's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications, has said that more than half of the company's marketing for Wii is aimed at adults. And the system has been presented at conventions for the aging "gray gamer" population." and talks about sudoku, Brain Age, Big Brain Academy, and more.

SBT Announces the Acquisition of Quixit

• "Scientific Brain Training ("SBT"), based in Lyon, France, today has announced that Continue Reading »

We are very happy to see how the science-based brain fitness field is emerging, and we have prepared a Hot Topics section to keep you well informed. Our Chief Scientific Officer, Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, has been writing about brain fitness for many years. Here you have a selection of the most popular posts: Hot Topics on Memory, Brain Fitness, Brain Teasers, Mental Exercise, Stress Management, Physical Exercise, Nutrition, News, Products, Events, Students, Science, Resources, and more.

We are also opening up our moderated Message Boards to everyone interested in learning and sharing. You can self-register to create a new forum account and join the conversation. Jump in and start asking questions and give us feedback!

This is a new field, and we are happy to contribute, and to listen. Looking forward a stimulating dialogue!

We wrote yesterday about Growing Super Athletes (each of our students) and how "Learning" goes beyond what we typically call "Education". One of the skills needed for success at school and life is emotional self-regulation, and a recent article on SharpBrains in La Opinion (main US-based Spanish-language newspaper) touched precisely on that.

Below you have the link, and quotes, in Spanish. The gist of the article is similar to this previous article in Technology & Learning magazine: Take a Deep Breath: Biofeedback software is helping students calm down for better test performance.

La Opinion article, by Lucero Amador: Secreto para triunfar en los exámenes

• "Cuando una persona está muy enojada o tensa, el lóbulo frontal del cerebro resulta afectado por Continue Reading »

(Thanks for the lead, Tom!) 

David Brooks writes a great column (requires subscription) in the NYT titled A Critique of Pure Reason. He expands the usual restricted understanding of "education" to incorporate a wider sense of "learning", by discussing 

1. Where

• "The creative ones (politicians) will finally absorb the truth found in decades of research: the relationships children have outside school shape their performance inside the school."