In honor of Brain Aware­ness Week 2013, which starts today, let’s debunk ten myths about brain fit­ness and brain train­ing that remain sur­pris­ingly popular.

Top 10 brain fit­ness and brain train­ing myths, debunked:

Myth 1. Genes deter­mine the fate of our brains.
Fact: Life­long brain plas­tic­ity means that our lifestyles and behav­iors play a sig­nif­i­cant role in how our brains (and there­fore our minds) phys­i­cally evolve.

Myth 2. We are what we eat. Read the rest of this entry »

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.

As we announced last Octo­ber, Prac­tice­Wise, the com­pany that main­tains the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Pedi­atrics “Evidence-based Child and Ado­les­cent Psycho-social Inter­ven­tions,” has ele­vated biofeed­back to “Level 1 — Best Sup­port” as an inter­ven­tion for Atten­tion & Hyper­ac­tiv­ity Behav­iors. Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing stays at Level 2. It is impor­tant to note that those lev­els do not con­trast effect sizes or clin­i­cal effi­cacy per se, but qual­ity and over­all direc­tion of under­ly­ing research.

To check out the cur­rent edi­tion of the report: click HERE.  Read the rest of this entry »

(Editor’s Note: every month we host an online Q&A with par­tic­i­pants in the e-course How To Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach. This is the lightly edited and anonymized tran­script from the Jan­u­ary Q&A ses­sion; the Feb­ru­ary Q&A will take place on Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 12th)

2:02
OK, ready to go! Happy 2013 again. You can start writ­ing your ques­tions and com­ments in the box at the bot­tom, and hit Send.

2:04
Ques­tion 
Which activ­i­ties or games or web­sites do you rec­om­mend to improve mem­ory? Read the rest of this entry »

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

Reg­is­tered par­tic­i­pants in the new e-course How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach can take part in a monthly online Q&A ses­sion to dis­cuss progress and open ques­tions with the course fac­ulty and with fel­low par­tic­i­pants. Below is the tran­script of the Octo­ber 30th Q&A ses­sion, lightly edited and anonymized.

Course Fac­ulty (or F): OK, we are ready to start. You can start writ­ing and sub­mit­ting any ques­tions and com­ments!  Read the rest of this entry »

Video Game With Biofeed­back Teaches Chil­dren to Curb Their Anger (Sci­ence Daily):

“Chil­dren with seri­ous anger prob­lems can be helped by a sim­ple video game that hones their abil­ity to reg­u­late their emo­tions, finds a pilot study at Boston Children’s Hos­pi­tal. Results were pub­lished online Octo­ber 24 in the jour­nal Ado­les­cent Psy­chi­a­try Read the rest of this entry »