Update: New tools, research and thinking to promote Brain Health in the Digital Age

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The Times They Are a‑Changin.

In a recent sur­vey, 91% of those polled said that “Doc­tors should mon­i­tor cog­ni­tive health sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly, espe­cial­ly when pre­scrib­ing new medica­ments.”

This is impor­tant news, as any­one who has expe­ri­enced neg­a­tive side-effects, cog­ni­tive or oth­er­wise, knows.

We need to upgrade our brain health sys­tem to reflect the real­i­ties, chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties in the 21st cen­tu­ry, in the midst of the Dig­i­tal Age we live in.

Where should we start? In this edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, let’s take a look at some emerg­ing tools, sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies and fresh ideas. Hap­py read­ing, and have a great Fall:

New tools

• The Cana­di­an Cen­tre for Aging and Brain Health Inno­va­tion (CC-ABHI) launch­es fund­ing pro­gram to spark R&D and com­mer­cial­iza­tion initiatives
• AARP wants to engage Gen X and Mil­len­ni­als with Stay­ing Sharp brain health platform
• IBM and MIT part­ner to upgrade cog­ni­tive computing
• Learn­ing how to mind­ful­ly nav­i­gate mind­ful­ness apps
• FDA clears two com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive tests to assist in med­ical eval­u­a­tions fol­low­ing brain injury or concussion
• Sci­en­tists call for reg­u­la­tions for brain stim­u­la­tion devices sold direct­ly to consumers

New research

• Train your cin­gu­late cor­tex to reduce bias and reg­u­late emotions
• Appar­ent­ly nei­ther Google nor smart­phones are fry­ing our brains
• Review finds mixed results on the effec­tive­ness and safe­ty of brain and mem­o­ry supplements
• Job sat­is­fac­tion in your 20s and 30s has a sig­nif­i­cant impact on your phys­i­cal and men­tal health in your 40s
• Mas­ter­ing a new lan­guage can pro­mote neur­al flex­i­bil­i­ty and increase learn­ing speed

New thinking

• Three pio­neers of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty research dis­cuss the present and future of rewiring the brain
• Retool­ing brain health care with per­va­sive, inex­pen­sive, data-dri­ven dig­i­tal technologies
• The Nine Habits of High­ly Effec­tive Brains
• More health­care and research facil­i­ties offer mul­ti­pronged brain fit­ness programs
• New book on how to prac­tice mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion with humor and playfulness
• Har­ness­ing infor­ma­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tions tech­nol­o­gy (ICT) to address men­tal health chal­lenges affect­ing 700 mil­lion peo­ple today