SharpBrains

A quick note to announce that these blog carnivals (collections of selected blog posts on specific topics) are available:

- Grand Rounds: spectacular edition of the best health and medicine blog carnival, presented in 100% haiku form! 

- Encephalon: neuroscience and psychology topics

- Human Resources: good roundup of posts for HR professionals

- Update 1: The Education one just appeared. Great for teachers and school staff

- Update 2: Tangled Bank is online too, with great science-related posts

Also, you can check my new article at the Huffington Post on 10 Habits of Highly Effective Brains.

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 »

Dr. Michael Merzenich has written a great post titled A “cognitive reserve” is a good thing to work on!. Recommended reading if you are interested in another scientific perspective for cognitive training.

I agree we should know more (as usual), especially for policy decisions, but there is enough research, from Marian Diamond et al (see beautiful essays below) work on enriched environments to cognitive reserve and training, that is shouting at all of us: Exercise Your Brain! Enjoy Learning! Statistics such as that the average American-including kids- watch 5 hours of TV daily... don't mean "we need more research" but "how can we change this"?.

See a couple of quotes from my recent interview with Yaakov Stern on the Cognitive Reserve.

• "well...I was pretty surprised when, years ago, a reporter from Seventeen magazine requested an interview. I was really curious to learn why Continue Reading »

A couple of quick links

• DISCOVER Magazine, May 2007 issue, brings a great article titled "The Elastic Brain: Michael Merzenich believes you can tone your mind and stave off memory loss. All it takes is time in his mental gym". The article (which is not available online) provides a great overview of the amazing work of Prof. Merzenich (a UCSF neuroscientist) with Scientific Learning and Posit Science, pioneers in the field. The writer's tone is positive overall but adds a note of skepticism, saying that "Yet despite the enthusiastic testimony I heard from senior citizens who have tried the program, there are no formal studies published in peer-reviewed journals that demonstrate the program's effects" and gathering criticisms outlined by other researchers. Having said so, in our opinion, Posit Science offers the best program we have seen focused on improving auditory processing, and we expect to see more clear studies soon-the field is relatively new.
• Slate Magazine presents a special issue on the brain. We will review and comment on it soon, including a neurobic club/ brain gym.

You can see here an interview with interview with Dr. Michael Merzenich

Good interview with Posit Science's Dr. Michael Merzenich. (Thanks, Steve!)

Includes the quote "People can be active learners by learning in new forms and in new domains. It's not just being active and getting up every day. The brain is a learning machine, and it needs to be engaged in new learning of different dimensions. The best kinds of exercise are those that challenge. For example, to master a musical instrument at an older age is a wonderful thing. Or, seriously undertaking the mastery of a second language is a wonderful thing to do. One of the problems with such exercises is that it's very hard to maintain the skills and abilities necessary to maintain a mental fitness program."

You can read our previous Brain Coach Answers post on why crosswords and sudoku aren't sufficient brain exercise.