Some recent brain training and health news: 
1) A Promising Debut for Computerized Therapies
2) Fitness protects brain in Alzheimer's patients
3) Brain Fitness Program Classic comes to Mac
4) Posit Science gains ownership of Scientific Learning (NSDQ: SCIL)´s BrainConnection.
5) Brain training on your mobile
6) You must remember this: how the mind works
Here you have the links and my commentary for these news: Continue Reading »
In an emerging, dynamic, high growth market, like brain training, it is difficult to make precise projections. But, we can observe a number of trends that executives, consumers, public policy makers, and the media should watch closely in the coming years, as brain 
fitness and training becomes mainstream, new tools appear, and an ecosystem grows around it.
1. We predict an increased emphasis on brain maintenance in locations ranging from retirement communities to gyms. As a computer-savvy baby boomer population looks for ways to stay mentally fit, brain fitness, or brain training, is becoming part of their vocabulary and concern.
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.
3. Watch for a Continue Reading »
Our fellow blogger Jeremy over at PsyBlog has written a thoughtful post comparing the value of a number of cognitive enhancing tools. His overall verdict?
"The evidence for exercise boosting cognitive function is head-and-shoulders above that for brain training, drugs, nutritional supplements and meditation. Scientifically, on the current evidence, exercise is the best way to enhance your cognitive function. And as for its side-effects: yes there is the chance of an injury but exercise can also reduce weight, lower the chance of dementia, improve mood and lead to a longer life-span. Damn those side-effects!"
Article: Which Cognitive Enhancers Really Work: Brain Training, Drugs, Vitamins, Meditation or Exercise?
Jeremy, I started writing this as a comment to your post in your blog, but then it got too long. Let me write my reaction to your post here.
While I appreciate your analysis and share most of your points, I think the "ranking" effort (this type of intervention is better than that one) is ultimately misleading. It is 
based on a faulty search for a general solution/ magic pill for everyone and everything.
If only things were so simple. Perhaps one day there will be research to support that view, but certainly not today. A number of interventions have shown their value. In different populations, and contexts. For "exercise is the best way to enhance your cognitive function" to be true, one needs to have a pretty specific understanding of "best", "your" and "cognitive function".
We have talked about the value of meditation before (see Mindfulness and Meditation in 
Schools), as a form of well-directed mental exercise than can help train attention and emotional self-regulation. Which other studies have shown how it strengthens specific parts of the brain, mainly in the frontal lobe.
Dr. Rabiner shares with us, below, an excellent review of a new study that analyzes the benefits of mindfulness for adolescents and adults with attention deficits. He writes that "although this is clearly a preliminary study, the results are both interesting and encouraging."
- Alvaro
Does Mindfulness Meditation Help Adults & Teens with ADHD
-- By Dr. David Rabiner
Although medication treatment is effective for many individuals with ADHD, including adolescents adults, there remains an understandable need to explore and develop interventions that can complement or even substitute for medication. This is true for a variety of reasons including:
1) Not all adults with ADHD benefit from medication.
2) Among those who benefit, many have residual difficulties that need to be addressed via other means.
3) Some adults with ADHD experience adverse effects that prevent them from remaining on medication.
I wrote this article for the March/ April edition of the publication Aging Today, published by the American Society on Aging.
----------------
In recent years, most professionals in aging have become aware of the growing scientific evidence showing that human brains retain the ability to generate neurons and change over a lifetime, discoveries that have broken the scientific paradigm prevalent during the 20th century. Furthermore, neuroimaging and cognitive training studies are showing how well-directed exercise presents people major opportunities for healthy brain aging.
How can people use emerging technologies to keep their brains healthy and productive as long as possible? An emerging market for brain health-- $225 million market in 2007, in the United States alone, of which consumers account for $80 million--is trying to address that question in a way that complements other important more traditional pillars (and multi-billion industries) of brain health, such as physical exercise, balanced diet, stress management (stress has been shown to actually kill neurons and reduce the rate of creation of new ones) and overall mental stimulation and lifelong learning.
2007 AN ACTIVE YEAR
A series of important events took place in 2007, a seminal year for the brain health field, beginning in January when many mainstream media publications, such as Time Magazine and CBS News, started to publish major stories on neuroplasticity and brain exercise. This media coverage followed the publication of the long-awaited results from national clinical trials showing that significant percentages of the participants age 65 and older who trained for five weeks improved their memory, reasoning and information-processing speed. Findings from the Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) Study appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Dec. 20, 2006) and revealed that even after five years, participants in the ACTIVE computer-based program showed less of a decline in information-processing skills than those in a control group that received no cognitive training.
(Please remember you can subscribe, at the top of this page, to receive this complimentary bi-monthly newsletter by email).
We are proud to announce that we now belong to the exclusive Scientific American Partner Network. Scientific American Mind spoke highly of our website last year, so it was only natural (but made us very pleased) that we were invited to join their new blogger network. We remain an independent company, so there will be few obvious changes - mainly some more links between their website and ours and new banner ads administered by Scientific American's great team.
News
Brain Fitness Software Report: Reviews: our just released Market Report is earning a growing number of accolades as a must-read publication for executives and investors interested in emerging brain health trends and opportunities.
Brain Rules- science and practice: molecular biologist John Medina releases a new book to make brain science accessible and relevant to all, and writes a fun article challenging the very existance of classrooms and cubicles. Continue Reading »
Superb blog article by Newsweek's Sharon Begley: The Lotus and the Synapse, introducing a new Study that shows compassion meditation changes the brain.
To read the original paper led by Richard Davidson and Antoine Lutz, click Here. We will be covering this in more detail next week.
What stresses you out ?
Whatever it is, how you respond to it may have more consequences than you think. Let me show you how.
Recapping from last months article (see Stress and Neural Wreckage: Part of the Brain Plasticity Puzzle)...our bodies are a complex balancing act between systems working full time to keep us alive and well. Any change which threatens this balance can be referred to as stress. Cortisol, a key component of the stress response, does an excellent job of allowing us to adapt to most stressors which last more than a couple of minutes. However, having to endure a high stressor for longer than about 30 minutes to an hour negatively impacts the brain in various ways.
A spate of recent news coverage on brain fitness and "brain training" reflects a growing interest in natural, non-drug-based interventions to keep our brains sharp as we age. This interest is very timely, given the aging population, increasing Alzheimer's rates, and soaring health care costs that place more emphasis than ever on prevention and changing lifestyle.
This past Tuesday, the MIT Club of Northern California, the American Society on Aging, and SmartSilvers sponsored an event on The Emerging Brain Fitness Software Market: Building Better Brains to explore the realities and myths of this growing field. The panel was moderated by Zack Lynch, Executive Director of the Neurotechnology Industry Organization, and composed of a venture capitalist and 3 CEOs of program developers in the field. Before the panel, I had the chance to present an overview of the state of the Brain Fitness Software Market based on our upcoming report to be released on March 4th.
Why are we talking about this field at all? Well, for one, an increasing number of companies are achieving significant commercial success in packaging "brain exercise". An example is the line of Nintendo games, such as Brain Age and Brain Training, that have shipped over 15 million units worldwide despite limited scientific support, since 2005. What is less visible is that a number of companies and scientists are 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 »
- Next »
