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 »

Just a quick note: we’ll host a webi­nar on Jan­u­ary 30th to dis­cuss key mar­ket pre­dic­tions based on “The Dig­i­tal Brain Health Mar­ket 2012–2020: Web-based, mobile and biometrics-based tech­nol­ogy to assess, mon­i­tor and enhance cog­ni­tion and brain func­tion­ing”, our new mar­ket report.

Here are 10 pre­dic­tions, many of which will likely be real­ized before the end of 2013: 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 »

Prac­tice­Wise, the com­pany that main­tains the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Pedi­atrics “Evidence-based Child and Ado­les­cent Psycho-social Inter­ven­tions” (see cur­rent edi­tion here) has just announced it will ele­vate biofeed­back to “Level 1 — Best Sup­port” as an inter­ven­tion for Atten­tion & Hyper­ac­tiv­ity Behav­iors in the next edi­tion. Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing Read the rest of this entry »

Pre­dict­ing How Patients Respond to Ther­apy (press release):

“A new study led by MIT neu­ro­sci­en­tists has found that brain scans of patients with social anx­i­ety dis­or­der can help pre­dict whether they will ben­e­fit from cog­ni­tive behav­ioral therapy…Social anx­i­ety is usu­ally treated with either cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­apy or med­ica­tions. How­ever, Read the rest of this entry »

Time for Sharp­Brains’ August 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing in this occa­sion mul­ti­ple insight­ful per­spec­tives on how emerg­ing brain and cog­ni­tive sci­ence can be applied to  improve edu­ca­tion, clin­i­cal prac­tice, pro­duc­tiv­ity and daily living.

Fea­tured Perspectives:

• Does Brain Fit­ness Require Med­ical­iza­tion? (or, Is Hav­ing a Brain a Med­ical Con­di­tion?), by Dr. Philip Toman
• New Study shows Teens with ADHD helped by Cog­ni­tive Behav­ioral Ther­apy, by Dr. David Rabiner
• In the Age of Google, Should Schools Teach Mem­o­riza­tion Skills?, by Dr. Bill Klemm



• Nav­i­gat­ing The Many Dan­gers of Expe­ri­ence and Think Fresh: When Is a Ham­mer Not a Ham­mer?, by Dr. Shlomo Breznitz & Collins Hemingway

Research and News:

• Why Man­ag­ing Stress is Cru­cial for Brain Fitness
• The Men­tal Game: How High-Level Ath­letes Remain Calm and Focused
• Brain train­ing (cog­ni­tive behav­ioural ther­apy) seen as most cost-effective treat­ment for chronic fatigue syndrome
• Lumos Labs (devel­oper of lumosity.com) raises $31.5 million
• The (Tai­lored) Future of New Dri­ver Training

Have a nice Labor Day Weekend!

(Source of brain pic: BigStockPhoto)

You may have read a new wave of arti­cles claim­ing that “brain train­ing doesn’t work”, based on the recent research meta-analytic review Is Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing Effec­tive? (Devel­op­men­tal Psy­chol­ogy, May 2012), whose abstract says:

“It has been sug­gested that work­ing mem­ory train­ing pro­grams are effec­tive both as treat­ments for attention-deficit/hyperactivity dis­or­der (ADHD) and other cog­ni­tive dis­or­ders in chil­dren and as a tool to improve cog­ni­tive abil­ity and scholas­tic attain­ment in typ­i­cally devel­op­ing chil­dren and adults… Read the rest of this entry »