Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e-newsletter. This time we focus on how much the brain health and behav­ioral health fields are chang­ing, as they upgrade tra­di­tional toolk­its with dig­i­tal plat­forms to bet­ter mon­i­tor, assess and enhance cog­ni­tion. Often dri­ven by a grow­ing con­sumer demand for improved brain fit­ness, as you can see in this 3-minute clip (opens YouTube video).

We are proud to report that our lat­est mar­ket report is prov­ing to be valu­able to a range of exec­u­tives and inno­va­tors work­ing along those lines, as you can read here.

New Sci­ence

• Neu­ro­sci­en­tists: Develop dig­i­tal games to improve brain func­tion and well-being
• Mis­use & Abuse of ADHD Meds among col­lege stu­dents: Updated review of a grow­ing concern
• Beyond hel­mets: con­cus­sions require proac­tive, indi­vid­u­al­ized mon­i­tor­ing and rehab

New Tools

• Work­ing mem­ory train­ing can improve emo­tional reg­u­la­tion and behav­ioral health
• Cam­bridge Cog­ni­tion, devel­oper of com­put­erised neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal tests, to go pub­lic in the UK
• The future of biosen­sors and nanotechnology

New think­ing

• Debunk­ing 10 Brain Fit­ness and Brain Train­ing Myths
• Rais­ing aware­ness about the dis­tracted mind (PBS special)
• Drugs for Early-Stage Alzheimer’s?
• New guide­lines for neu­rol­o­gists pre­scrib­ing cog­ni­tive enhance­ment drugs

Have a great month of April!

Time for Sharp­Brains’ Feb­ru­ary 2013 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing this time new sci­ence and analy­sis on Alzheimer’s Dis­ease, ADHD, men­tal well-being, brain health, and more. Enjoy!

New sci­ence:

• Alzheimer’s Dis­ease pop­u­la­tion to triple: We need smarter research, pub­lic health ini­tia­tives and lifestyles, by Pas­cale Mich­e­lon, PhD
• National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion report: Can inter­ac­tive media boost atten­tion and well-being?
• Study: Mind­ful­ness train­ing for chil­dren with ADHD and their par­ents, by David Rabiner, PhD
• New $1 mil­lion grant to study work­ing mem­ory train­ing in chil­dren with frag­ile X

New analy­sis:

• Using Your Head: What is the Future of Brain Health?, where David Coleiro inter­views Alvaro Fernandez
• Biofeed­back is a “Level 1 — Best Sup­port” Inter­ven­tion for Atten­tion and Hyper­ac­tiv­ity Behaviors
• Is the Inter­net Good or Bad for Your Brain?, by Alvaro Fernandez

Upcom­ing events:

• ESCoNS2 (LA), Har­vard, WEF (Lima), Neu­rogam­ing (San Fran­cisco), mesh13 (Toronto):  Alvaro Fer­nan­dez will be speak­ing at sev­eral events in the next few months. If you’re a Sharp­Brains friend and speak­ing at/ attend­ing any, please make sure to say Hello!

Have a great month of March.

Time for Sharp­Brains’ Novem­ber 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing lat­est sci­ence, tools and think­ing to upgrade brain health. Before we start, do you believe these 32 neu­romyths? Do we only use 10% of our brain?

New Sci­ence:

• Fast cycling can help Parkinson’s Dis­ease patients strengthen brain con­nec­tiv­ity for motor ability
• There’s no sin­gle sil­ver bul­let to treat depres­sion (not even aer­o­bic exercise)
• The cog­ni­tive and brain fit­ness ben­e­fits of being bilingual
• New­born neu­rons in the adult brain are crit­i­cal for learn­ing and memory
• Call­ing high school students/ teach­ers to design cre­ative exper­i­ments on the human brain

New Tools:

• Brain health cen­ters adding cog­ni­tive coach­ing services
• Study: Emerg­ing brain com­puter inter­face can mon­i­tor and train atten­tion in unmed­icated ADHD children
• 10–12 hours of med­i­ta­tion train­ing can improve daily-life emo­tional regulation
• On the lim­its of Citi­co­l­ine and the need for com­pre­hen­sive brain injury rehabilitation

New Think­ing:

• Do you believe these neu­romyths? Do we only use 10% of our brain?
• Smart pills as cog­ni­tive enhance­ment? Let’s first mon­i­tor neg­a­tive cog­ni­tive side-effects of com­mon medications
• Brains shape tech­nol­ogy as tech­nol­ogy shapes brains

Finally, a request to  reporters, ana­lysts and blog­gers read­ing this. As we’re prepar­ing to release a major mar­ket report, we’d like to ensure you are in our Media List. If you’re inter­ested in brain health & inno­va­tion and want to be noti­fied as soon as the report becomes avail­able, please Fill This Form and let us know a bit about the publication/s you are writ­ing for. Thank you!

We often view mem­ory, think­ing, emo­tions, as com­pletely sep­a­rate enti­ties, but they truly are part of the same process. So, if we want to improve brain health, we need to pay atten­tion to the “weak link” in that process. In today’s soci­ety, man­ag­ing stress and neg­a­tive emo­tions is often that weak link, as we dis­cuss dur­ing Octo­ber Q&A ses­sion with par­tic­i­pants in Sharp­Brains’ new e-course. Time now for Sharp­Brains’ Octo­ber 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing new sci­ence, new resources and new thinking.

New sci­ence:

• Why Both aer­o­bic and cog­ni­tive exer­cise pro­mote brain health
• Beta amy­loid build-up in the brain may increase risk of cog­ni­tive impair­ment more than hav­ing “Alzheimer’s gene”
• Sur­vey: 40% who dis­con­tinue ADHD med­ica­tion treat­ment con­cerned about loss of self
• Dri­ving with satel­lite nav­i­ga­tion con­tributes to inat­ten­tional blindness
• SSRI anti­de­pres­sants linked to increased risk of stroke

New tools:

• Can biofeedback-based videogames help kids reg­u­late anger and emotions?
• Mon­i­tor­ing cog­ni­tion via mobile appli­ca­tions: iPad app analyzed
• Biofeed­back now a “Level 1 — Best Sup­port” inter­ven­tion for atten­tion & hyper­ac­tiv­ity behaviors
• Com­bin­ing non-invasive brain stim­u­la­tion with cog­ni­tive train­ing to treat Alzheimer’s Disease
• The Dig­i­tal Future of Men­tal Health
• New self-paced course: How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach

New think­ing:

• Can brain train­ing reduce can­cer risk?
• Har­ness­ing neu­ro­plas­tic­ity to drive and repair brain development
• Mas­ter a new lan­guage and grow hip­pocam­pus and cere­bral cortex
• Mea­sur­ing and treat­ing Chemo Brain
• Medicare to update reim­burse­ment cri­te­ria for degen­er­a­tive dis­eases such as Alzheimer’s, MS, Parkinson’s disease
• Octo­ber Q&A ses­sion with par­tic­i­pants in Sharp­Brains new e-course

That’s it for now. Have a Happy Halloween!

Pic cour­tesy of Big­Stock­Photo

Time for Sharp­Brains’ March 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing in this occa­sion thought-provoking  per­spec­tives on emo­tions, ADHD, health and the brain, and a brief sta­tus update of the upcom­ing 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (June 7-14th, 2012).

Fea­tured Perspectives:

• The Emo­tional Life of Your Brain, by Richard David­son and Sharon Begley
• Is ADHD over­diag­nosed? Find­ings from a new study in Ger­many, by David Rabiner
• Tran­script: Online Q&A on the Future of Brain Health with Alvaro Fernandez

New Research and Resources:

• One size does not fit all: Does the brain ‘remem­ber’ antidepressants?
• Should Hos­pi­tals Mon­i­tor, and Work to Main­tain, Patients’ Cog­ni­tive Function?
• The Life of Your Next Neuron
• Info­graphic: Retool­ing Brain Health for the 21st Century
• Not all men­tal activ­ity is cre­ated equal (quick brain teaser)

Update on 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (June 7-14th):

• Pre­lim­i­nary Agenda: with 30+ Speak­ers and 5 Edu­ca­tional Workshops
• Spon­sors: Learn about Gold Spon­sors  The Arrow­smith Pro­gram and Brain Resource; Learn how to Sponsor/ Exhibit
• Part­ners: Learn about 10+ Sum­mit Part­ners; Learn how to Partner
• Reg­is­ter: very-early-bird rates apply until next Tues­day, April 3rd. Don’t miss them!

Time for Sharp­Brains’ Feb­ru­ary 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing in this occa­sion mul­ti­ple and com­ple­men­tary per­spec­tives on how to har­ness neu­ro­plas­tic­ity: with enthu­si­asm, BOTH phys­i­cal AND cog­ni­tive exer­cise, and (once tools become bet­ter stan­dard­ized and widely avail­able) brain-based per­son­al­ized medicine.

Fea­tured Per­spec­tives:

• To Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity, Start with Enthu­si­asm, by Dr. Helena Popovic
• Q&A with Dr. Yaakov Stern on Brain Reserve, Exer­cise, Cog­ni­tive Train­ing, Angry Birds, YMCA and more
• 3-part series writ­ten by Dr. Evian Gor­don to sum­ma­rize and build on the Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine World Con­gress 2012:
1. The State of Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine: The Role of Biomarkers
2. Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine in Psy­chi­a­try: from DSM to brain-based RDoC, iSPOT-D and biomarkers
3. Work­ing with Health­care Stake­hold­ers towards Brain-Based Per­son­al­ized Medicine

• To Be (Your Con­nec­tome), or Not to Be (Your Genome), by Dr. Sebas­t­ian Seung
• Enhance Metacog­ni­tion and Problem-Solving by Talk­ing Out Loud to Your­self, by Dr. Judith Tingley
• Final Meet­ing Report @ 2011 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit: Retool­ing Brain Health for the 21st Cen­tury, by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, Dr. Luc Beau­doin, Muki Hansteen-Izora, Mar­garet Mor­ris, Dr. Joshua Stein­er­man, Dr. Peter Whitehouse.
• (Want to con­tribute arti­cles like these? Learn details here)

What’s New and Mean­ing­ful:

• Learn­ing to Cope with Google/ Infor­ma­tion Overload
• An Emerg­ing Era of Big Data (in Men­tal Health too)
• When and Why Should Dri­vers with Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment Stop Driving
• Diag­nos­ing early Alzheimer’s and Mild Cog­ni­tive Impairment
• Global Pop­u­la­tion Age­ing: Peril or Promise? (New WEF eBook)
• Luria Con­gress on Mod­ern Neuropsychology

Sharp­Brains News:

• Syl­labus for online course, How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach (starts March 7th)
• Save The Date (June 7-8th, 2012), 28 Con­firmed Speak­ers: 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit — Opti­miz­ing Health through Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity & Dig­i­tal Innovation

Finally, let us men­tion that Brain Aware­ness Week is approach­ing (March 12-18th, 2012), and that you can now add com­ments to Sharp­Brains arti­cles via Face­book (see below). Look­ing for­ward to a great month of March!

Time for Sharp­Brains’ Jan­u­ary 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing in this occa­sion mul­ti­ple thought-provoking per­spec­tives on how emerg­ing neu­ro­science can and should make us rethink pre­vail­ing prac­tices in edu­ca­tion, healthy aging and pre­ven­tive medicine.

Fea­tured Perspectives:

• The Future of Pre­ven­tive Brain Med­i­cine: Break­ing Down the Cog­ni­tion & Alzheimer’s Dis­ease Alpha­bet Soup, by Dr. Dharma Singh Khalsa
• When 1 + 1 = 5: Dyscal­cu­lia and Work­ing Mem­ory, by Dr. Tracy Alloway
• New Review of Neu­ro­feed­back Treat­ment for ADHD — Cur­rent State of the Sci­ence, by Dr. David Rabiner
• The Busi­ness and Ethics of the Brain Fit­ness Boom, by Alvaro Fernandez
• (How to con­tribute arti­cles like these to SharpBrains.com)

New Research: 

• Brain func­tion can start declin­ing as early as age 45
• Edu­ca­tion for Men­tal Fit­ness: “A Sharper Mind, Mid­dle Age and Beyond”
• Life­long cog­ni­tive exer­cise may ward off Alzheimer’s pro­tein beta amyloid
• Cog­ni­tive Train­ing & Brain Teasers Can Increase Open­ness Among Older Adults
• Cog­ni­tive Train­ing in Mild Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment (MCI)
• Does Nin­tendo Brain Age work as a brain train­ing game?
• Brain Injury Care: Treat­ment and Reim­burse­ment Challenges

Resources:

• The Ten Habits of a Sharp Brain
• Brain Teasers and Games, for Kids and Adults
• Upcom­ing Talk & Book Sign­ing in Wash­ing­ton, DC

Have a great month of February.