On Jan­u­ary 18–20, 2010 Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and his team at Sharp­Brains put together a splen­did line-up of speak­ers on a wide range of top­ics related to emerg­ing brain fit­ness research, tech­nolo­gies, and mar­kets, and clin­i­cal cog­ni­tive and men­tal health issues. IFTF was proud to be a spon­sor of this event.

Although the con­fer­ence was vir­tual, aside from the rig­ors of travel and a bas­ket of bagels on the hall­way table, my level of intel­lec­tual stim­u­la­tion (and fatigue) mir­rored most of my face-to-face con­fer­ence expe­ri­ences. It was a tech­ni­cal suc­cess and the con­tent was first-rate.

The con­fer­ence was a great oppor­tu­nity for us at IFTF to gather data and map the research land­scape in cog­ni­tive fit­ness, espe­cially as it relates to our 2010 Health Hori­zons research project around “Neu­ro­cen­tric Health.”

I’d like to share a small sam­ple of the obser­va­tions, shifts, and points of inter­est we took from the conference.

1. The fore­cast of Dr. Michael Merzenich, an expert in brain plas­tic­ity, that clin­i­cal prac­tice and treat­ment will move from drug/surgery-based inter­ven­tions to non-invasive tech­niques, prac­tices, and pre­ven­ta­tive coach­ing is pro­found. This would change the tim­ing, level, and qual­ity of treat­ment inter­ven­tions, and could be a sig­nif­i­cant cat­a­lyst to the (arguably) needed change in medical/clinical point of care and cul­ture that Dr. P Murali Doraiswamy of Duke Uni­ver­sity men­tioned as well. This shift would impact the insur­ance indus­try and risk pro­files, pay­ment mech­a­nisms, and, most impor­tantly, might be bet­ter for patients as well.

2. I am always wary of reduc­tion­ist mod­els and the ten­dency to focus our atten­tion on cer­tain organs or meth­ods at the expense of the whole sys­tem. This hes­i­ta­tion is espe­cially impor­tant when the focus is on the brain. I was very happy to hear Read the rest of this entry »

What a bet­ter open­ing for our Jan­u­ary Sharp­Brains Sum­mit than to have Mar­ian C. Dia­mond, one of the pio­neers of neu­ro­plas­tic­ity research since the 1960s, intro­duce us to the human brain, its anatomy and func­tion, and impli­ca­tions from neu­ro­plas­tic­ity for brain health and per­for­mance at any age.

Mar­ian C. Dia­mond, Ph.D., is Pro­fes­sor of Neu­ro­science and Anatomy at UC-Berkeley  and one of the world’s fore­most researchers on neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and enrich­ment since the 1960s . She is author of more than 100 sci­en­tific arti­cles and three books, includ­ing Enrich­ing Hered­ity (Free Press/Simon and Schus­ter, 1988) and The Magic Trees of the Mind (Plume, 1999). In par­tic­u­lar, she is inter­ested in study­ing the effects of the exter­nal envi­ron­ment, aging, and immune responses on the cere­bral neocortex.

You can read a num­ber of her pub­lic edu­ca­tion essays online:

• The Brain … Use It or Lose It: a core com­po­nent of brain exer­cise is chal­lenge. Pas­sive obser­va­tion is not enough.
• Why Einstein’s Brain?:  Dr. Dia­mond describes how she came to be inter­ested in study­ing the par­tic­u­lar­i­ties in Einstein’s brain back in the early 1980s.
• Suc­cess­ful Aging of the Healthy Brain: beau­ti­ful essay on how to keep our brains and minds active and fit through­out our lifetime.
• Response of the Brain to Enrich­ment: although the brain pos­sesses a rel­a­tively con­stant struc­ture, the ever-changing cere­bral cor­tex is pow­er­fully shaped by expe­ri­ences before birth, dur­ing youth and, in fact, through­out life.
• The Sig­nif­i­cance of Enrich­ment: here, the brain phys­i­o­log­i­cal changes are explored in more detail.
• My Search for Love and Wis­dom in the Brain: The frontal lobe is undoubt­edly the most impor­tant area to cul­mi­nate the neural processes lead­ing to what we call wis­dom and the most refined sense of love.

To learn more about the agenda of the Sharp­Brains Sum­mit and the incred­i­ble ros­ter of speak­ers who have agreed to par­tic­i­pate in this impor­tant event, click on Sharp­Brains Sum­mit.

We are excited to invite you to the first vir­tual, global Sharp­Brains Sum­mit (Jan­u­ary 18-20th, 2010). The Sharp­Brains Sum­mit will fea­ture a dream team of over 25 speak­ers who are lead­ers in indus­try and research from 7 coun­tries, to dis­cuss emerg­ing research, tools and best prac­tices for cog­ni­tive health and per­for­mance. This inau­gural event will expose health and insur­ance providers, devel­op­ers, inno­va­tors at For­tune 500 com­pa­nies, investors and researchers, to the oppor­tu­ni­ties, part­ner­ships, trends, and stan­dards of the rapidly evolv­ing cog­ni­tive fit­ness field.

Reg­is­ter Today

Learn more and reg­is­ter Here today, at dis­counted early-bird rates, to receive these benefits:

• Learn: Full access to all Con­fer­ence live ses­sions, and Down­load­able Record­ings and Handouts
• See: lat­est tech­nolo­gies and prod­ucts dur­ing Expo Day
• Con­nect and Dis­cuss: become a mem­ber of the Sharp­Brains Net­work for Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion (members-only LinkedIn Group) through the end of 2010, access online chats dur­ing the sum­mit, meet other reg­is­trants in your city
• Under­stand the Big Pic­ture: access 10 Research Exec­u­tive Briefs pre­pared by lead­ing scientists

On top of those early-bird dis­counts, we offer an addi­tional 15% dis­count for Sharp­Brains read­ers who want Reg­u­lar Admis­sion. Dis­count code: sharp2010. You can reg­is­ter Here.

Agenda/ Speak­ers

Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 18th, 2010:

(Pre­lim­i­nary sched­ule, US Pacific Time)

8–9.15am. Cog­ni­tion & Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity: The New Health­care Frontier

• Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, SharpBrains
• David White­house, OptumHealth Behav­ioral Solutions
• William Reich­man, Baycrest
• P Murali Doraiswamy, Duke University

9.30-11am. Tools for Safer Dri­ving: The Oppor­tu­nity with Teenagers and Adults

• Steven Aldrich, Posit Science
• Shlomo Breznitz, CogniFit
• Jerri Edwards, Uni­ver­sity of South Florida
• Peter Chris­tian­son, Young Dri­vers of Canada

Noon-1.30pm. Baby Boomers and Beyond: Main­tain­ing Cog­ni­tive Vitality

• Kunal Sarkar, Lumos Labs
• Eliz­a­beth Zelin­ski, USC Davis School of Geron­tol­ogy Read the rest of this entry »

You can see speak­ers and agenda by click­ing on Sharp­Brains Sum­mit. Please reg­is­ter if you are inter­ested in par­tic­i­pat­ing: Jan­u­ary 18-20th 2010 (Pacific Time).

• Con­fer­ence: Jan­u­ary 18-19th. 9–10 pan­els to dis­cuss Mar­ket and Research Insights,  together with online discussions.
• Expo Day: Jan­u­ary 20th. Prod­uct demos by Sponsors.

Con­firmed speak­ers and themes:

Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 18th, 2010:

Cog­ni­tion and Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity: The New Health­care Frontier

• Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, CEO, SharpBrains
• David White­house, Chief Med­ical Offi­cer, OptumHealth Behav­ioral Solutions
• William Reich­man, Pres­i­dent, Baycrest
• P Murali Doraiswamy, Bio­log­i­cal Psy­chi­a­try Divi­sion Head, Duke University

Tools for Safer Dri­ving: Teenagers and Older Adults

• Steven Aldrich, CEO, Posit Science
• Peter Chris­tian­son, Pres­i­dent of Young Dri­vers of Canada
• Jerri Edwards, Assoc. Pro­fes­sor Uni­ver­sity of South Florida

Clin­i­cal Appli­ca­tions: Research­ing, Iden­ti­fy­ing, Treat­ing Cog­ni­tive Deficits

• Keith Wesnes, Prac­tice Leader, United BioSource Corporation
• Jonas Jendi, CEO, Cogmed
• Michel Noir, Pres­i­dent, Sci­en­tific Brain Training
• Elkhonon Gold­berg, Chief Sci­en­tific Advi­sor, SharpBrains

Read the rest of this entry »