Research-based information on Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health, authored by Alvaro Fernandez and over 10 Expert Contributors.
What a beautiful display of creativity:
- Dakim, Inc., announced today that 93-year-young Jack LaLanne, the world's most iconic figure in health and fitness, has signed on as a "brain fitness motivational coach" on behalf of the company's [m]Power Cognitive Fitness System, joining the company's efforts to help seniors fight against dementia.
In the past two days, The New York Times has published two excellent articles on brain and cognitive fitness. Despite appearing in separate sections (technology and editorial), the two have more in common than immediately meets the eye. Both raise key questions that politicians, health policy makers, business leaders, educators and consumers should pay attention to.
1) First, Exercise Your Brain, or Else You’ll ... Uh ..., by Katie Hafner (5/3/08). Some quotes:
- "At the same time, boomers are seizing on a mounting body of evidence that suggests that brains contain more plasticity than previously thought, and many people are taking matters into their own hands, doing brain fitness exercises with the same intensity with which they attack a treadmill."
Here you are have the bi-monthly Digest of our 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).
Brain Fitness News and Events
Upcoming Events: I will be speaking at five Health, Education and Gaming events over the next couple of months to introduce findings from our recent market report. Please introduce yourself if you attend any of these events.
Preventing Memory Loss-Special Issue: Congressional Quarterly Researcher, one of the main publications on Capitol Hill, published an impressive 24-page special issue titled Preventing Memory Loss. Highly recommended if you want to be on top of the latest research trends and their policy implications.
The next Learning & the Brain conference edition is April 26-29, 2008, in Cambridge, MA. We recommend it highly for educators interested in learning more about latest brain research findings and implications for teaching. See Detailed program.
Description: Cognitive neuroscience has discovered that the brain is not ‘hardwired’ from birth, but holds a remarkable lifelong power to change—a phenomenon called ‘plasticity.’ Positive or negative environments, exercise, nurturance, learning, and other experiences continue to change the brain throughout life.
Physical fitness. Cognitive/ brain fitness. Both require novelty, variety and challenge. Professor Schlomo Breznitz, a scientific and business leader in the cognitive fitness field, explains why, eloquently, below. Perhaps "we want change" really means "we need change". Enjoy!
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Why are everyday life challenges not sufficient to keep our brains fit?
-- By Prof. Shlomo Breznitz
Often, when describing the benefits of MindFit to brain health, I am asked by people in the audience whether this software is really needed. After all, so they argue, life provides continues cognitive challenges, which should suffice for ensuring brain fitness. From the moment we wake up until we go to sleep our brains have to attend to complex stimuli, plan many activities, some of them quite complex, and carry us through whatever the day offers. These tasks should provide sufficient "brain exercise" without the need to engage in specific mental workout.
This line of argument sounds oddly familiar, since it is an exact duplication of claims made in the recent past against the need for physical exercise. One jumps into the car and from the car and perhaps even climbs a few stairs before sitting in the chair, which should be enough to burn the calories and keep fit.
Our January Newsletter received a good deal of feedback from many readers. Based on it, our new approach is to select the top 10 most important articles every other week. Please take a look at this first experiment, and let us know you feedback.
(Also, remember that you can subscribe to receive our blog RSS feed, or to our monthly newsletter at the top of this page if you want to receive this newsletter by email).
News and Events
Stress Management is Key Factor For Cognitive Fitness: a great cover story in US News & World Report, and an excellent article in Prevention Magazine that was highlighted on the Today Show this week, both feature the importance of Continue Reading »
A roundup of several excellent articles this week:
Keeping Your Brain Fit (US News and World Report)
- "In a study of more than 2,800 people ages 65 or older, Harvard researchers found that those with at least five social ties—church groups, social groups, regular visits, or phone calls with family and friends—were less likely to suffer cognitive decline than those with no social ties."
- "The working hypothesis is that it has something to do with stress management," says Marilyn Albert, a neuroscientist at Johns Hopkins and codirector of the Alzheimer's research center there. In animal studies, a prolonged elevation in stress hormones damages the hippocampus. Social engagement appears to boost people's sense of control, which affects their stress level. Creative arts seem to be a highly promising way to increase social engagement. George Washington University's Cohen has found that elderly people who joined choirs also stepped up their other activities during a 12-month period, while a nonsinging control group dropped out of some activities. The singers also reported fewer health problems, while the control group reported an increase."
We Never Forget Anything (Anymore) (Prevention Magazine)
- "Processing new information when we're anxious is tough; the stress itself is a distraction. Fernandez taught Laurie this relaxation trick: Continue Reading »
As we have been doing for the last 6 months, here you are have the Monthly Digest of our Most Popular Blog Posts. You can consider it your monthly Brain Fitness/ Training Newsletter.
Let me first introduce our new roster of Expert Contributors, highlighting first an article by Duke University's Dr. David Rabiner, a leading authority on attention deficits and author of the Attention Research Update newsletter, on the "promising, yet unproven" value of neurofeedback for attention deficits: How Strong is the Research Support for Neurofeedback.
Two other great articles by our Expert Contributors this month:
Looking inside the Brain: cognitive scientist Dr. Pascale Michelon introduces us to the world of neuroimaging and building mental reserves.
Meditation in Schools: thanks to our collaboration with Greater Good Magazine, we offer an excellent article on the emerging trend of schools using meditation to help students manage anxiety and stress.
The following Expert Contributors will be featured in February, so make sure to visit our blog often:
- Wes Carroll, Puzzle Master for Ask a Scientist lecture series.
- Simon Evans, PhD., and Paul Burghardt, PhD., from University of Michigan’s Department of Psychiatry and the Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience Institute.
- Gregory Kellett, masters in Cognitive Neurology/Research Psychology from SFSU and researcher at UCSF.
- Joanne Jacobs, education expert and blogger, will participate in the "SharpBrains Author Speaks Series" to present her most recent book.
- Eric Jensen, well-known resource on brain research information with implications for K12 education.
- Tom O'Brien, Professor Emeritus in Mathematics education and author of prize-winning games.
- Adrian Preda, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the UC Irvine School of Medicine.
- Joshua Steinerman, M.D., Postdoctoral Clinical Fellow in the Department of Neurology at Columbia University Medical Center.
Brain Fitness and SharpBrains in the News
Brain Fitness Software Trends (January 3rd): Scientific Learning Corp. (cognitive training for children with dislexia and reading difficulties) acquires Soliloquy Learning, and Paris-based Scientific Brain Training acquires Technomedia, a Canadian provider of corporate training.
More News on the Field (January 14th): Posit Science (auditory processing training) acquires Visual Awareness, Inc (visual processing training for driving skills, used in ACTIVE trials). Cogmed announces working memory training for adults. Nature Neuroscience brings great resources on the classic London Taxi Drivers study. The 2008 Mind & Life Summer Research Institute starts accepting applications by researchers interested in studying the effects of meditation on the brain.
SharpBrains Featured in Newsweek & Fox Business Network (January 19th): several great articles on the emerging brain fitness/ training field. New Scientist (subscription-only) provides a broad picture of the research. Newsweek kindly invites readers to "check out SharpBrains.com, which promotes science-based cognitive training". Fox Business Network includes our market estimates of $225 million for the whole brain fitness software field in 2007 in the US. The New York Times has a great article on the value of music training.
Is Your Brain Ready To Drink Cheap Wine?: Prof. Baba Shiv, one of our advisors, published a fascinating paper on the power of our beliefs to influence brain activation, and on how marketing can influence those beliefs.
Sharpen Your Brain to Improve Performance, Lower Stress (subscription required): Nicholas Genes from Medscape interviews me on the background behind cognitive fitness and SharpBrains.com.
Health and Wellness
It is Not Only Cars That Deserve Good Maintenance: If we can all agree on the importance of maintaining our cars that get us around town, what about maintaining our brains sitting behind the wheel?.
Grand Rounds: Briefing the Next US President on 40 Health Issues: we hosted an open letter to the "Next US President", gathering the questions and impressions of 40 health and medical bloggers. We will do the same on Education issues on February 20th-see below.
Cognitive Training Clinical Trial: Seeking Older Adults: Neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center asked for help in recruiting volunteers for an exciting clinical trial. If you are based in New York City, and between the ages of 60 and 75, please consider joining this study.
10 Brain Fitness New Year's Resolutions: probably a bit late...but contains potential New Years Resolutions with the three principles of brain fitness in mind - novelty, variety and challenge.
Education
Interview with Robert Sylwester on The Adolescent Brain: Dr. Robert Sylwester is an educator of educators, having received multiple awards during his long career as a master communicator of the implications of brain science research for education and learning. Enjoy this interview.
Don't Outsource Your Brain: neither to other people... nor to your GPS system. Funny, true story.
February 20th Blog Carnival of education: we will host this edition and present it as an open letter to the "Next US President", gathering the questions and impressions of a number of education bloggers.
Resources
20 Brain Plasticity Books: we just changed a few things in our site, including preparing a more solid Resources section. Please take a look at the navigation bar at the top, including an expanded Books page.
PBS Brain Fitness DVD: the PBS shop is already selling DVDs of its great December special on Brain Fitness and Neuroplasticity.
Brain Teasers
Monkeys and Brain Games: did you read about the recent experiment where young chimps displayed amazing visual working memory capability, beating humans? you can release your competitive juices here.
Brain Exercises for the Weekend: Harriet Vines, Ph.D., an experienced author and retired college professor, sends us a few fun brain exercises to train our attention and working memory.
Events and Speaking Engagements (more details in our Speaking page)
>> Feb. 2th: I will lead a Workshop on Brain Fitness: The Science and Practice, sponsored by San Jose State University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
>> Feb. 7th: will speak on "Sharpening Minds through Computerized Cognitive and Emotional Training Programs," at the Learning & The Brain Conference.
>> Feb. 12th: will speak on The Emerging Brain Fitness Software Market: Building Better Brains: sponsored by The MIT Club of Northern California, American Society on Aging, The Business Forum on Aging and SmartSilvers, we will cover how "Scientific, technological and demographic trends have converged to create an exciting new market in brain fitness, where software and online applications can assess and train cognitive abilities."
>> March 4th: I will be a panelist on how to Use Your Head-The Future of Mind Hacks, at O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference.
>> March 27th, 2008: will present an Overview of Cognitive Training Research and Programs, at the NCOA/ ASA Aging in America Conference.
David Pescovitz, Research Director, Institute for the Future, says "Alvaro Fernandez synthesizes and translates the latest neuroscience into provocative, compelling, and entertaining stories of mental fitness and the future of the brain." Please contact us, simply responding to this email, if your organization is interested in learning more about Brain and Cognitive Fitness and this emerging field.
All feedback and contributions are welcome, too. Please leave your comments below.
Did you read about the recent experiment where young chimps displayed amazing visual working memory capability, beating humans?
- You can watch a short video here.
- Lumos Labs has released a very fun game to test your own skills: try out this Chimp Game!
Also, some very good recent news articles:
1) Is it worth going to the mind gym? (New Scientist). This is one of the best articles we have read in a while (unfortunately requires subscription).
- "Birdwatching is the brainchild of San Francisco-based Lumos Labs, just one of the dozens of companies that have sprung up in recent months to cash in on the "brain-training" craze. Like most of its competitors, the theory behind ..."
Comments: the article introduces readers to much of the research and scientists we discuss in our blog, such as Torkel Klingberg's work and recent results from the IMPACT study. The article would have been even better had Daniel Gopher been interviewed on his work improving cognitive performance of military pilots and basketball players.
2) Innovation: Your Brain Needs Just as Much Exercise as Your Body (Fox Business Network)
- "The market, however, is still small. According to Alvaro Fernandez , who co-founded market research and consulting firm SharpBrains, which is focused solely on the field of brain fitness, in 2007 the market was valued at $225 million, which is up from $150 million in 2005. Fernandez thinks there’s potential for it to surge, reaching more than $2 billion by 2016."
Comments: Very good article. Those estimates refer to the whole brain fitness software market to assess and train cognitive skills, including Continue Reading »
Neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center (see our previous interview with Yaakov Stern on the Cognitive Reserve) have asked for help in recruiting volunteers for an exciting clinical trial. If you are based in New York City, and between the ages of 60 and 75, please consider joining this study.
More information below:
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Use it or Lose it?
Train your Brain! Healthy adults between the ages of 60 and 75 living in NYC are invited to join a study of mental fitness training. Qualified individuals will play a scientifically-based video game in our laboratory, and will be tested to determine the effects on attention, memory, and cognitive performance.
You will earn up to $600 plus transportation costs if you complete the 3-month program.
This exciting study is being performed by the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center.
If interested, contact us today: Continue Reading »
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