Study:  Long-Term Enhancement of Brain Function and Cognition Using Cognitive Training and Brain Stimulation (Current Biology)

• Abstract: Noninvasive brain stimulation has shown considerable promise for enhancing cognitive functions by the long-term manipulation of neuroplasticity. However, the observation of such improvements has been focused at the behavioral level, and enhancements largely restricted to the performance of basic tasks… Five consecutive days of TRNS-accompanied cognitive training enhanced the speed of both calculation– and memory-recall-based arithmetic learning…Testing 6 months after training revealed long-lasting behavioral and physiological modifications in the stimulated group relative to sham controls for trained and nontrained calculation material. These results demonstrate that, depending on the learning regime, TRNS can induce long-term enhancement of cognitive and brain functions. Such findings have significant implications for basic and translational neuroscience, highlighting TRNS as a viable approach to enhancing learning and high-level cognition by the long-term modulation of neuroplasticity.

Related articles:

• Can Direct Brain Stimulation Boost Performance?
• When 1 + 1 = 5: Dyscalculia and Working Memory

Will be back up in Canada on June 12th, in Vic­to­ria, BC, to deliver a keynote on How Can We Invest In Our Brains To Boost Inno­va­tion and Resilience, at the Con­fer­ence Board of Canada’s Annual Coun­cil of Human Resource Executives. It’s been fascinating to observe the growing interest in Canada in how brain research can be applied to enhance living and well-being, in some aspects well ahead of us here in the US. This is one of the slides I’ll be making most emphasis on, as it captures the opportunity well:

Relevant recent study: Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA)-Psychometric Properties of a New Field-Deployable Neurocognitive Assessment Tool (Military Medicine)

• Abstract: The Defense Automated Neurobehavioral Assessment (DANA) is a new neurocognitive assessment tool that includes a library of standardized cognitive and psychological assessments, with three versions that range from a brief 5-minute screen to a 45-minute complete assessment. DANA is written using the Android open-source operating system and is suitable for multiple mobile platforms. This article presents testing of DANA by 224 active duty U.S. service members in five operationally relevant environments (desert, jungle, mountain, arctic, and shipboard). DANA was found to be a reliable instrument and compared favorably to other computer-based neurocognitive assessments. Implications for using DANA in far-forward military settings are discussed.

Transforming Diagnosis

Patients with mental disorders deserve better. NIMH has launched the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and other levels of information to lay the foundation for a new classification system…”

No One Is Abandoning the DSM, but It Is Almost Time to Transform It (SciAm blog post): “Let me be clear: mental illness is real, but the discrete categories of illness in the DSM might not exist outside its pages…NIMH has, however, been working on an endeavor known as the Research Domain Criteria Project, or RDoC for short, which encourages psychologists, neuroscientists and other scientists to think outside the DSM box—to begin transitioning away from established DSM disorders and instead study fundamental biological and cognitive processes underlying mental illness. The important distinction here is between clinical practice and research. The NIMH is not in any way saying that clinicians should stop using the DSM, but it does think that the DSM has constrained research…

Insel echoed these comments in a separate e-mail: “We cannot ‘ditch’ or ‘reject’ terms like schizophrenia or bipolar. We just need to view them as constructs, perhaps including many different disorders that require different treatments or obscuring disorders than cut across the current categories. A symptom-only system will not be sufficient for identifying brain disorders—whether the initial label is dementia or schizophrenia…”

Related articles:

• The State of Per­son­al­ized Medicine: The Role of Biomarkers
• Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine in Psychiatry: from DSM to brain-based RDoC, iSPOT-D and biomarkers
• Working with Healthcare Stakeholders towards Brain-Based Personalized Medicine

Pic courtesy of BigStockPhoto

Study shows mental agility game slows cognitive decline in older people

Study: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Cognitive Training Using a Visual Speed of Processing Intervention in Middle Aged and Older Adults (PLOS ONE)

• Background: Age-related cognitive decline is common and may lead to substantial difficulties and disabilities in everyday life. We hypothesized that 10 hours of visual speed of processing training would prevent age-related declines and potentially improve cognitive processing speed.
• Methods: Within two age bands (50–64 and≥65) 681 patients were randomized to (a) three computerized visual speed of processing training arms (10 hours on-site, 14 hours on-site, or 10 hours at-home) or (b) an on-site attention control group using computerized crossword puzzles for 10 hours. The primary outcome was the Useful Field of View (UFOV) test, and the secondary outcomes were the Trail Making (Trails) A and B Tests, Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT), Stroop Color and Word Tests, Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT), and the Digit Vigilance Test (DVT), which were assessed at baseline and at one year. 620 participants (91%) completed the study and were included in the analyses. Linear mixed models were used with Blom rank transformations within age bands.
• Conclusion: Visual speed of processing training delivered on-site or at-home to middle-aged or older adults using standard home computers resulted in stabilization or improvement in several cognitive function tests. Widespread implementation of this intervention is feasible.

–> To learn more about cognitive training and personalized brain training, check out our new book The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: How to Optimize Brain Health and Performance at Any Age

Let us share a special promotion you may be interested in: you can now gain complimentary 6-month access to the self-paced course How to Be Your Own Brain Fitness Coach when you order two copies of the new book The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness: How to Optimize Brain Health and Performance at Any Age (284 pages; April 2013) before next Friday, May 10th. The e-course features 8 hours of recordings by Faculty Alvaro Fernandez (SharpBrains), Dr. Robert Bilder (UCLA) and Alvaro Pascual-Leone (Harvard), and other resources around these four topics:

• I. Debunk­ing Brain and Brain Fit­ness Myths.
• II. How to Address the Basics.
• III. How to Build Brain-Based Capacities.
• IV. How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach.

To benefit from this promotion:

1. BUY 2 BOOK COPIES before next Friday, May 10th. (If you already bought one, simply buy one more)
2. Forward your order confirmation email/s to bookpromotion@sharpbrains.com
3. We will email you course registration information by next business day

We hope you enjoy the book!

Indeed, novel infor­ma­tion, com­mu­ni­ca­tions, net­work­ing, and inter­face tech­nolo­gies are poised to trans­form the way we approach our life­long health and well-being, includ­ing our very under­stand­ing of what it means to be healthy and well. As a pro­gram offi­cer at the National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion, I have been wit­ness­ing mul­ti­ple dis­cov­er­ies and advances stim­u­lated by the NSF Smart Health and Well­be­ing pro­gram that may bring sub­stan­tial improve­ments to how we enhance health. With rapid progress in sen­sor, online and mobile tech­nol­ogy, advances in the domain of Smart Health open a new world of pos­si­bil­ity for the sys­tem­atic mon­i­tor­ing and man­ag­ing of long-term health out­comes, going far beyond the spo­radic treat­ment of acute con­di­tions. The notion of Smart Health places greater empha­sis on the man­age­ment of well­ness, rather than heal­ing ill­ness; it acknowl­edges the role of home, fam­ily, and com­mu­nity as sig­nif­i­cant con­trib­u­tors to indi­vid­ual health and well­be­ing; and it rec­og­nizes the cen­tral role of an individual’s cog­ni­tion in dri­ving and main­tain­ing healthy habits over time.

Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and I first met at a 2009 sci­en­tific sym­po­sium hosted by Ari­zona State Uni­ver­sity. I was there to give a talk about the promis­ing poten­tial in using com­puter games as a way to mon­i­tor and per­haps main­tain cog­ni­tion over time. Alvaro gave an insight­ful overview of the state of the sci­ence and mar­ket­place for cog­ni­tive fit­ness. Mutual inter­ests nat­u­rally led to a dis­cus­sion after the talks and many exchanges there­after. Since then, it has been my plea­sure to par­tic­i­pate in all three annual Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mits held so far – they pro­vide a unique oppor­tu­nity to engage with col­leagues at the fore­front of the sci­ence, tech­nol­ogy, and mar­ket­place to sup­port brain health and fit­ness across the lifes­pan. Our inter­ac­tions included a Sep­tem­ber 2012 work­shop on com­puter games, atten­tion and well-being hosted by the White House Office of Sci­ence and Tech­nol­ogy Pol­icy and the National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion that brought together neu­ro­sci­en­tists, cog­ni­tive sci­en­tists and game designers.

The need for such trans­dis­ci­pli­nary col­lab­o­ra­tion has long been rec­og­nized by Sharp­Brains, the pio­neer­ing orga­ni­za­tion bring­ing you this book, which has for a num­ber years been bring­ing together a com­mu­nity of neu­ro­sci­en­tists and cog­ni­tive sci­en­tists work­ing towards a bet­ter under­stand­ing of the human brain, tech­nol­o­gists devis­ing ways to scale plat­forms and solu­tions, as well prac­ti­tion­ers and con­sumers look­ing for prac­ti­cal ways to make real changes in behav­ior and lifestyle to improve brain health and health over­all. This book reflects this diver­sity, cov­er­ing top­ics rang­ing from the com­plex­ity of the brain and its mech­a­nisms to the sig­nif­i­cance of dif­fer­ent types of sci­en­tific stud­ies to prac­ti­cal aspects of exer­cis­ing, nutri­tion, and training.

A resource like this book in your hands pro­vides a great start­ing point: although there is no “final word” on this still nascent topic, an impor­tant trans­for­ma­tion is under­way that peo­ple need to be aware of and pre­pared for. This book is a great start for mak­ing sense of it all and for tak­ing active steps towards smart health, at the indi­vid­ual level, and Smart Health, at the soci­etal level. And while this book was writ­ten to be acces­si­ble to a wide audi­ence, it remains a worth­while and inter­est­ing read for experts as it pro­vides a thought­ful and well-integrated sum­mary of emerg­ing find­ings and hypothe­ses. This com­bined value — for the gen­eral and the expert reader — is in part achieved through the inclu­sion of can­did inter­views with top researchers and lead­ers in var­i­ous rel­e­vant fields as well as suc­cinct sum­maries and very clear struc­ture and writing.

In short, no mat­ter who you are, this is an impor­tant read. I hope you enjoy it.

Misha Pavel, PhD

Pro­fes­sor of Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing, Ore­gon Health and Sci­ence Uni­ver­sity, and Pro­gram Direc­tor for the National Sci­ence Foundation’s Smart Health and Well­be­ing Program.

–> To Learn More and Buy Book, click HERE.

Brain Games Aim to Make Kids Smarter

To Learn More:

• Training Attention and Emotional Self-Regulation — Interview with Michael Posner
• Working Memory Training — Interview with Dr. Torkel Klingberg