In honor of every­one with a brain and an ebook reader, we are mak­ing the Kin­dle edi­tion of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness free to down­load until this Fri­day. You will notice that a few sec­tions require updat­ing (we’re work­ing on a sec­ond edi­tion) but the book has aged pretty well since 2009. Descrip­tion: Named a Best Book by AARP, The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness is an invalu­able guide that helps read­ers nav­i­gate grow­ing brain research and iden­tify the lifestyle fac­tors and prod­ucts that Read the rest of this entry »

We are pleased to offer the first self-paced course designed to equip life­long learn­ers with the under­stand­ing and infor­ma­tion required to apply neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and cog­ni­tive reserve find­ings and tools to enhance their own brain health and functionality.

Detailed infor­ma­tion is avail­able at How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach. Reg­is­tered par­tic­i­pants can imme­di­ately log into the course and gain access to four recorded lectures–each last­ing two hours– and to online mate­ri­als and dis­cus­sions. Reg­is­tra­tion fees are $95, and stu­dents have six months to com­plete course.

TOP 40 QUESTIONS ON BRAIN HEALTH, BRAIN FITNESS AND BRAIN TRAINING TO BE ADDRESSED BY THE COURSE: Read the rest of this entry »

Time for Sharp­Brains’ Sep­tem­ber 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing leading-edge research and insights to help con­nect the dots among tech­nol­ogy, healthy liv­ing, healthare, con­cus­sions, and–our protagonist–the brain.

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• Is the Inter­net mak­ing us dumber? (Nope, just different)
• Increas­ing cog­ni­tive loads on min­ers’ brains: good exam­ple of where soci­ety is heading
• Brain fit­ness meets HRV and EEG biometrics
• Employee Assis­tance Pro­grams enhance cor­po­rate well­ness with brain training
• The NIH Toolbox:First Com­pre­hen­sive & Stan­dard­ized Tests of Brain Function
• MMSE®/MMSE®-2™ Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment Screener, Now a Mobile App

Healthy Liv­ing & the Brain:

• Why do Super­Agers Main­tain Mem­ory and a Thick Cortex?
• Will Medicare’s Annual Well­ness Visit enhance phys­i­cal & cog­ni­tive health? Prob­a­bly — if peo­ple go
• Health value of Omega-3 sup­ple­ments is increas­ingly questioned
• Good Q&A on Mild Cog­ni­tive Impairment

Health­care & the Brain:

• Map­ping the Brain To Bet­ter Enhance and Treat the Mind
• Cog­ni­tive ther­apy or med­ica­tion? Brain scans may help per­son­al­ize treatments
• Mon­i­tor­ing EEG Brain Activ­ity to Per­son­al­ize Mem­ory Training
• Train­ing Atten­tion and Mem­ory after Bypass Surgery
• MRI scan tech­ni­cians can expe­ri­ence neg­a­tive neu­rocog­ni­tive effects

Con­cus­sions & the Brain:

• Retool­ing cog­ni­tive reha­bil­i­ta­tion for mil­i­tary patients with trau­matic brain injury
• NFL donates $30 mil­lion to improve con­cus­sion & brain injury care

Pic cour­tesy of Big­Stock­Photo

The annual well­ness visit: An oppor­tu­nity to improve rev­enue and patient care (PhysBizTech):

“Medicare recently intro­duced the Annual Well­ness Visit (AWV) to keep Medicare ben­e­fi­cia­ries healthy, or help Medicare ben­e­fi­cia­ries become health­ier, by pro­mot­ing pos­i­tive health habits and a healthy lifestyle. Unlike Read the rest of this entry »

“The annual Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit is a con­ve­nient and sur­pris­ingly com­pelling forum for catch­ing up on applied cog­ni­tive research from lead­ers in the field and for help­ing shape future brain health care.” — Dr. Yaakov Stern, Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science Divi­sion Leader, Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity. Read the rest of this entry »

Time for Sharp­Brains’ July 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing in this occa­sion an in-depth arti­cle on why and how to Invest in Brain Health to Drive Inno­va­tion and Pros­per­ity, by Veronika Litinski.

Fea­tured Perspectives:

• Invest in Brain Health to Drive Inno­va­tion and Pros­per­ity, by Veronika Litinski
• Under­stand­ing, and Nur­tur­ing, Resilience, by Andrew Zolli
• How Do Words, such as Yes and No, Change Our Brains and Lives?, by Dr. Andrew New­berg and Mark Waldman
• Study: Adap­tive Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing Can Reduce ADHD-related Off-Task Behav­ior, by Dr. David Rabiner
• Pro­mot­ing Men­tal Agility through Cog­ni­tive Con­trol and Men­tal Rep­re­sen­ta­tion, by Judith Tin­gley, PhD

• Cog­ni­tive Mon­i­tor­ing Emerg­ing as Crit­i­cal for Health
• Gait Changes as Indi­ca­tor of Cog­ni­tive Health Decline
• New & Excel­lent Review of Com­put­er­ized Cog­ni­tive Train­ing with Older Adults
• Brain Dam­age, Ther­a­peu­tics and the Blood-Brain Barrier
• Necomimi Avail­able in USA
• Car­diac Surgery Can Impact Long-term Cog­ni­tive Functioning
• Cog­ni­tive Deficits May Hin­der Self Care in Patients with Heart Failure
• Brain Researchers Start Map­ping the Human ‘Connectome’

Sharp­Brains News:

• More Thumbs Up for 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (23 and counting!)
• Seven Most Pop­u­lar 2012 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit Record­ings Now Avail­able at $75 each

Have a great month of August!

New Research Links Mild Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment (MCI) to Increased Iso­la­tion and Risk of Death (AAIC press release):

- “Two stud­ies pre­sented today at the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion Inter­na­tional Con­fer­ence® 2012 (AAIC® 2012) in Van­cou­ver pro­vide evi­dence of con­nec­tions between mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (MCI) and neg­a­tive health out­comes – increased iso­la­tion and death.” Read the rest of this entry »