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!

Each blue dot below rep­re­sents one of the 300 peo­ple reg­is­tered so far in 27 coun­tries to watch the lat­est on neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and brain health, access­ing the pre­sen­ta­tions by 40+ sci­en­tists and pio­neers recorded dur­ing the 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit.

You can check out the full Agenda here. And this is what par­tic­i­pants had to say about the qual­ity of the pre­sen­ta­tions: Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Thank you to the 118 sharp minds who have already ordered their $15 tick­ets to cel­e­brate Brain Aware­ness Week by watch­ing the lat­est on neu­ro­plas­tic­ity, brain health and inno­va­tion. We need many more well-informed ambas­sadors of brain health and cog­ni­tive fit­ness, and Read the rest of this entry »

How will you be cel­e­brat­ing Brain Aware­ness Week next week (March 11^th–17^th , 2013)?

Here’s a sug­ges­tion: you can start watch­ing, at a spe­cial 95% pric­ing dis­count, more than 25 hours of exclu­sive pre­sen­ta­tions from over 40 lead­ing minds as they dis­cuss the lat­est on applied neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and brain health.  These pre­sen­ta­tions, which took place dur­ing the 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit, shed light on some of the most impor­tant pri­or­i­ties for brain health today and in the future: Read the rest of this entry »

“Behav­ioral train­ing inter­ven­tions have received much inter­est as poten­tially effi­cient and cost-effective ways to main­tain brain fit­ness or enhance skilled per­for­mance with impact rang­ing from health and fit­ness to edu­ca­tion and job train­ing. In par­tic­u­lar, neu­ro­science research has doc­u­mented the impor­tance of explic­itly train­ing (i) atten­tional con­trol, in order to enhance per­cep­tual and cog­ni­tive fit­ness as well as (ii) kind­ness and com­pas­sion, to Read the rest of this entry »

Much of health­care deliv­ery has tra­di­tion­ally been set-up to deal with a ‘brain­less body’; yet we con­sis­tently com­plain that we can­not change patient and con­sumer behav­iours and main­tain adher­ence to treat­ment pro­grammes. Health­care sys­tems are now recog­nis­ing the lim­its of this model and that there are major ben­e­fits to bet­ter com­pre­hend­ing and engag­ing cog­ni­tive func­tion Read the rest of this entry »