Here’s the lightly edited tran­script of the Jan­u­ary 4th online Q&A ses­sion with Dr. San­dra Chap­man, Direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Brain­Health at UT-Dallas and author of the new book Make Your Brain Smarter (Free Press; Jan­u­ary 2013). Enjoy!

1:59

AlvaroF: You can start writ­ing ques­tions so we have a few to choose from as we start in a cou­ple of min­utes. Thank you!

2:03
AlvaroF: Just one sec­ond and we’ll be ready. Already get­ting great questions!

2:05
AlvaroF: Let me first thank Dr. San­dra Chap­man for being with us today. She was one of the best speak­ers at our 2012 Sum­mit, and since then we wanted to share her research and think­ing with all Sharp­Brains read­ers. Read the rest of this entry »

 We are pleased to announce that Dr. San­dra Chap­man, Direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Brain­Health at The Uni­ver­sity of Texas at Dal­las and one of the most thought-provoking speak­ers at the 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit, will be answer­ing ques­tions from Sharp­Brains read­ers on Jan­u­ary 4th, 2013.

When: Fri­day, Jan­u­ary 4th, 2013. 11am-noon US Pacific Time/ 2-3pm US East­ern Time.

Who: As a cog­ni­tive neu­ro­sci­en­tist with more than 40 funded research grants, Dr. San­dra Bond Chapman’s sci­en­tific study elu­ci­dates and applies novel approaches to advance cre­ative and crit­i­cal think­ing, strengthen healthy brain devel­op­ment, and incite inno­va­tion through­out life. Dr. Chapman’s research record and brain health break­throughs have led to Read the rest of this entry »

We have always thought that “our brain shapes us.” I wrote my new book, The Woman Who Changed Her Brain (May 2012; Free Press, Fore­word by Nor­man Doidge), to prove that the reverse is equally true. I wanted to demon­strate how “we can shape our brains.”

Imag­ine hav­ing a brain that is capa­ble and inca­pable at the same time. Grow­ing up, I had severe learn­ing dis­abil­i­ties. I lived in a world that was con­fus­ing and incom­pre­hen­si­ble. As I was to later dis­cover, a crit­i­cal part of my brain was not work­ing prop­erly, the end result being that all lan­guage was expe­ri­enced as for­eign and my trans­la­tor was Read the rest of this entry »

So Much for Snap Deci­sions (The Wall Street Jour­nal):
– “How is it that so many peo­ple make deci­sions that, from their per­spec­tive, seem so right—and turn out so wrong? Blame it, in part, on think­ing “fast.”

- “On some occa­sions, when the stakes are high, exam­in­ing the evi­dence more systematically—especially the evi­dence that makes you uncomfortable—is likely to be worthwhile.”

- “This is how sci­en­tists often oper­ate in eval­u­at­ing their own ideas. They imag­ine a severe reviewer who will be search­ing for weak­nesses in their argument.”

To Learn More:

• Think­ing, Fast and Slow (book)
• Great con­ver­sa­tion between Daniel Kah­ne­man and Char­lie Rose (video)
• Brain Teaser with fun cog­ni­tive bias: Con­sider Linda

If you believe most self-help books, pop-psychology arti­cles, and tele­vi­sion ther­a­pists, then you prob­a­bly assume that how peo­ple respond to sig­nif­i­cant life events is pretty pre­dictable.  Most of us, accord­ing to the “experts,” are affected in just about the same way by a given experience—there is a griev­ing process that every­one goes through, there is a sequence of events that hap­pens when we fall in love, there is a stan­dard response to being jilted, and there are fairly stan­dard ways almost every nor­mal per­son reacts to the birth of a child, to being unap­pre­ci­ated at one’s job, to hav­ing an unbear­able work­load, to the chal­lenges of rais­ing teenagers, and to the inevitable changes that occur with aging.

Read the rest of this entry »

Build­ing Blocks for a Bet­ter Future

The best alter­na­tive for tomor­row should be bet­ter than the best alter­na­tive avail­able today. How do we get there, when “cog­ni­tion” and “brain fit­ness” remain elu­sive con­cepts in pop­u­lar cul­ture? I believe that the lack of pub­lic edu­ca­tion is the major obsta­cle that lim­its the brain fit­ness field’s poten­tial to deliver real-world ben­e­fits, since only informed demand will ensure the ongo­ing devel­op­ment of ratio­nal, struc­tured “rules of the road.” What could be done to address this and other par­tic­u­lar obsta­cles? Read the rest of this entry »

Engag­ing peo­ple where they are in the life-course

Eighty per­cent of the 38,000 adults over age 50 who were respon­ders in the 2010 AARP Mem­ber Opin­ion Sur­vey indi­cated “stay­ing men­tally sharp” was their top ranked inter­est and con­cern (Dinger, 2010). What exactly does this phrase mean? And what role can tech­nol­ogy play in “stay­ing men­tally sharp”? Intel CEO Paul Otellini has said, “You have to start by think­ing about what peo­ple want to do… and work back­ward.” Read the rest of this entry »