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. Read the rest of this entry »

We are pleased to announce that, after much hard work and three global sum­mits to dis­cuss the lat­est sci­ence and best prac­tices, The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age (April 2013; 284 pages), is now avail­able for pur­chase as paper­back ($15.95) and e-book ($9.95)!

Writ­ing a fore­word to this book against a tight dead­line is a some­what chal­leng­ing task. As you will learn later in the book though, there is rea­son to believe that such men­tally stim­u­lat­ing, novel activ­i­ties are ben­e­fi­cial for keep­ing my brain sharp as I gain in wis­dom — and in years. Like many peo­ple, I have noticed changes with aging since my younger adult years. And while we all wish for a magic pill, at least for the time being it is our behav­iors, per­haps aided by tech­nol­ogy, which can help us to age well phys­i­cally, emo­tion­ally, and cognitively.

Indeed, novel infor­ma­tion, Read the rest of this entry »

Brain Games Aim to Make Kids Smarter (SciAm Mind, requires sub­scrip­tion):
“Sci­en­tists have con­cocted men­tal fit­ness reg­i­mens to strengthen weak think­ing skills in students—in effect, mak­ing kids smarter…Psychologists have long believed that think­ing capac­i­ties such as atten­tion, mem­ory and rea­son­ing were fixed, but Read the rest of this entry »

White House BRAIN Ini­tia­tive is a nice start, but it’s too small and timid (Ven­ture Beat): ”…it’s unlikely to move the nee­dle because, unlike pre­vi­ous national projects, it lacks ade­quate fund­ing and action­able objec­tives that can cap­ture the imag­i­na­tion of inno­va­tors and the pub­lic at large…Is there an alter­na­tive approach? Yes. Start with the soci­etal goal in mind, and chart the most likely path to make a ground­break­ing dif­fer­ence there…Although the BRAIN Ini­tia­tive is often com­pared to the moon project, per­haps the bet­ter oppor­tu­nity would be for it to draw inspi­ra­tion from JFK’s fit­ness ini­tia­tive. In announc­ing that pro­gram, Pres­i­dent Kennedy said, “The strength of our democ­racy and our coun­try is really no greater in the final analy­sis than the well-being of our cit­i­zens.” Read full article

Heads up: these are some of my upcom­ing talks, start­ing tomor­row with a brief insight blast on Upgrad­ing edu­ca­tion and health with the brain in mind at the World Eco­nomic Forum on Latin Amer­ica. If you’re a Sharp­Brains friend and speak­ing at/ attend­ing any, please let me know so we can connect.

• April 23–25, Lima, Peru: Upgrad­ing edu­ca­tion and health with the brain in mind, at the World Eco­nomic Forum on Latin Amer­ica 2013
• May 1–2, San Fran­cisco: Think, Think, Think: Cog­ni­tive Gam­ing Plat­forms, at Neu­rogam­ing
• May 15–16, Toronto:  The Web as a Gym for the Brain, at mesh13
• May 20, Wash­ing­ton, DC: Inno­vat­ing for the 50+, at Aging 2.0
• June 12, Vic­to­ria, BC, Canada: 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

Phys­i­cal exer­cise and men­tal exer­cise are both ben­e­fi­cial for the brain. Each can improve brain func­tions and decrease risks of cog­ni­tive decline over time. This raises the ques­tion of their com­par­a­tive and com­bined effects: Is one bet­ter than the other? Are their ben­e­fits addi­tive (1 + 1 =2) or per­haps even syn­er­gis­tic (1 + 1 =3)? Read the rest of this entry »