Apr 23rd, 2008
Brain Research Interview Series
We are working on improving several sections of our website, especially our Resources section. It will look much better in a few days. Our first step has been to re-organize our Neuroscience Interview Series, and below you have how it looks today.
Apr 2nd, 2008
Learning & Brain Conference in Boston
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.
Jan 17th, 2008
Brain Plasticity, Health and Fitness Books
As you may have noticed, 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.
One of the new pages, that we will update often, is an expanded Books page. Here are the books that we are recommending now.
Fascinating books on neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to rewire itself through experience):
Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves - by Sharon Begley.
The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - by Norman Doidge.
Great popular science books by Continue Reading »
Jan 3rd, 2008
Brain Fitness Software Trends
Some very interesting brain fitness software market news:
1) Scientific Learning To Buy Out Soliloquy
- "Scientific Learning Corp. has announced that it will acquire Soliloquy Learning from JTT Holdings. Both Scientific Learning and Soliloquy provide technology solutions for education. The acquisition will cost SLC about $11 million and is expected to be completed this month."
- "Scientific Learning is the developer of Fast ForWord, a family of reading intervention tools targeted toward students who are characterized as struggling learners and designed to develop the required "neurocognitive skills" for reading and learning in general. Soliloquy is also a reading intervention developer."
Comment: this acquisition consolidates Scientific Learning (NSDQ: SCIL) as the leading company in the education segment of the brain fitness market. It will be interesting to track what research gets done on the neural and cognitive effects of Soliloquy, since Scientific Learning's Fast Forword is backed by extensive literature.
2) Technomedia Partners With SBT to Accelerate Its International Expansion
- "Technomedia, a Canadian provider of talent management and human capital development solutions, announced its partnership with the SBT (Scientific Brain Training) group, a European provider of training and evaluation of cognitive functions." 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:
On how new neurons are born and grow in the adult brain:
On the surprising plasticity and development potential throughout life:
Other important aspects:
On the importance and impact of mental stimulation and training: 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 »
Continuing with the theme of a Week of Science sponsored by Just Science, we will highlight some of the key points in: Appelhans BM, Luecken LJ. Heart Rate Variability as an Index of Regulated Emotional Responding. Review of General Psychology. 2006;10:229–240.
Defining Heart Rate Variability
Effective emotional regulation depends on being able to flexibly adjust your physiological response to a changing environment.
"... heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of the continuous interplay between sympathetic and parasympathetic influences on heart rate that yields information about autonomic flexibility and thereby represents the capacity for regulated emotional responding."
"HRV reflects the degree to which cardiac activity can be modulated to meet changing situational demands."
The sympathetic (SNS) and parasympathetic (PNS) branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) antagonistically influence the lengths of time between consecutive heartbeats. Faster heart rates, which can be due to increased SNS and/or lower PNS activity, correspond to a shorter interbeat interval while slower heart rates have a longer interbeat interval, which can be attributed to increased PNS and/or decreased SNS activity.
The frequency-based HRV analyses are based on the fact that the variations in heart rate produced by SNS and PNS activity occur at different speeds, or frequencies. SNS is slow acting and mediated by norepinephrine while PNS influence is fast acting and mediated by acetylcholine.
