Cour­tesy of the recent study Neu­romyths in edu­ca­tion: Preva­lence and pre­dic­tors of mis­con­cep­tions among teach­ers, by Sanne Dekker et al, here you have 32 brain-related state­ments. Are they cor­rect or incorrect?

1. We use our brains 24 h a day (C ).
2. Chil­dren must acquire their native lan­guage before a sec­ond lan­guage is learned. If they do not do so nei­ther lan­guage will be fully acquired (I).
3. Boys have big­ger brains than girls (C ). Read the rest of this entry »

‘Chemo Brain’ After Breast Can­cer Backed by Study (US News):

“Breast can­cer patients treated with chemother­apy are at risk for mild men­tal deficits known col­lec­tively as “chemo brain,” a new study finds. Researchers at the Mof­fitt Can­cer Cen­ter in Tampa, Fla., reviewed exist­ing research on brain func­tion (“cog­ni­tive” func­tion­ing) in Read the rest of this entry »

The 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit: Opti­miz­ing Health through Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity, Inno­va­tion and Data, held June 7-14th, con­cluded with a call to enhance brain health by har­ness­ing neuroplasticity-based appli­ca­tions, big data plat­forms and con­sumer inter­est to aug­ment the tra­di­tional reliance on disease-based phar­ma­co­log­i­cal inter­ven­tions and frag­mented clin­i­cal trials.

All ses­sions held dur­ing the 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit were recorded, and all audio­vi­sual record­ings are avail­able now for online access until July 31th, 2013. How to Watch 2012 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit Recordings:

1. If you already have login infor­ma­tion, you can sim­ply visit the Sum­mit Agenda and click on the ses­sion you want to watch
2. If you want to order 1-year access to Sum­mit Record­ings, Click HERE. You can order the Full Record­ings for all 4-Days of 2012 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit (includ­ing 2 days of Sum­mit, Expo Day, and Edu­ca­tional Work­shops; all for $325), or order the Record­ings cor­re­spond­ing to one par­tic­u­lar day ($150).

We are proud to report that 95% of respon­dents in a post-Summit sur­vey expressed a High or Very High level of sat­is­fac­tion with their Sum­mit expe­ri­ence and with the Qual­ity of Con­tent. We are even prouder to have started receiv­ing glow­ing endorse­ments from research lead­ers and indus­try inno­va­tors includ­ing: Read the rest of this entry »

Once the 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (June 7-14th, 2012) was over, we sent all par­tic­i­pants an anony­mous online sur­vey ask­ing for feed­back; we also requested brief quotes to help con­vey the value of the Summit.

The chart to the left show­cases the high lev­els of sat­is­fac­tion with the Sum­mit Over­all. And below you can read a num­ber of state­ments by participants.

“The Sharp­Brains Sum­mit is a rare vehi­cle for get­ting mul­ti­ple expert per­spec­tives on cur­rent devel­op­ments in improv­ing brain func­tion in a con­cise and clear way. The Sum­mit is a valu­able resource for both experts and non-experts.”  - Dr. Michael Pos­ner, Pro­fes­sor Emer­i­tus, Uni­ver­sity of Oregon

“The 2012 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit was fan­tas­tic– it is clear that we are mov­ing into a new phase in study­ing human per­for­mance using big data. Our bod­ies are out­liv­ing our brains– what we need most now is evidence-driven design to develop appli­ca­tions to help our brains remain as strong as our bod­ies! Fan­tas­tic con­fer­ence, can’t wait for next year!” - Sheryl Flynn PT, PhD, CEO, Blue Mar­ble Games Keep Read­ing »

Ad by 2012 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit Spon­sor Brain Resource

Time for Sharp­Brains’ May 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing in this occa­sion an OpEd by Dr. Peter White­house and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez on the urgency to shift atten­tion and resources From Anti-Alzheimer’s “Magic Bul­lets” to True Brain Health. Please read, add your two cents, and share!

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More Fea­tured Perspectives

• Why Agile Minds Deploy Both Ratio­nal and Intu­itive Problem-Solving, by Judith Tin­gley, PhD
• Aer­o­bic Exer­cise or Weight Train­ing to Boost Brain Func­tion?, by Pas­cale Mich­e­lon, PhD
• Is There a For­mula for Smart Think­ing?, by Art Mark­man, PhD
• Music as Ther­apy: Music, Move­ment, Cog­ni­tion! and On Music, Dopamine, and Mak­ing Sense of Sound, by Lau­rie Bartels

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In the News

• Mind-Controlled Videogames Become Reality
• Brain Spa Trend: Travel for Men­tal Fitness

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Upcom­ing event next week

• 10 Fre­quently Asked Ques­tions about the 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (June 7-14th, 2012)

Please remem­ber that you are still in time to join the 150+ par­tic­i­pants next week @ 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit: Opti­miz­ing Health through Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity, Inno­va­tion and Data! You can Reg­is­ter Here and get 15% off by using pro­mo­tional code sharp2012

39% We had sev­eral read­ers high­light this strik­ing sta­tis­tic from yesterday’s blog post, Is ADHD over­diag­nosed? Find­ings from a new study in Germany

This is but another exam­ple on the grow­ing need to base behavioral/ men­tal health pre­ven­tion, diag­nos­tic and treat­ment not on symp­toms alone, but to mea­sure and incor­po­rate objec­tive mark­ers of brain func­tion, as dis­cussed in our pre­vi­ous arti­cle Neurofeedback/ Quan­ti­ta­tive EEG for ADHD diag­no­sis and in Thomas Insel’s blog post on big data.

Brain func­tion can start declin­ing ‘as early as age 45′ (BBC Health):

“The brain’s abil­ity to func­tion can start to dete­ri­o­rate as early as 45, sug­gests a study in the British Med­ical Jour­nal.  Uni­ver­sity Col­lege Lon­don researchers found a 3.6% decline in men­tal rea­son­ing in women and men aged 45–49. They assessed the mem­ory, vocab­u­lary and com­pre­hen­sion skills of 7,000 men and women aged 45 to 70 over 10 years.

The Alzheimer’s Soci­ety said research was needed into how changes in the brain could help demen­tia diag­noses.  Read the rest of this entry »