Time for Sharp­Brains’ May 2013 e-newsletter, which fea­tures a vari­ety of arti­cles offer­ing a more opti­mistic and evidence-based approach to brain and men­tal health than cur­rent practices.

First of all, let us high­light that Sci­en­tific Amer­i­can just pub­lished an excel­lent review of our new book. The author sums it up by say­ing that “…I wish I had read this awe­some guide when I was much younger…I find the emerg­ing field of neu­ro­plas­tic­ity immensely excit­ing, and guides like this one are both hope­ful and rea­son­able.” As a reader points out, the word “awe­some” does not appear often in science-oriented publications…so we are espe­cially proud to see the book merit such treatment.

New think­ing:

• Founder of Sharp­Brains talks about brain health
• Six tips to build resilience and pre­vent brain-damaging stress
• Time to revamp psy­chi­a­try and men­tal health in light of mod­ern neuroscience?
• A new type of cog­ni­tive sci­ence think tank
• Why invest­ment in brain research is an intel­li­gent investment

New sci­ence:

• White House BRAIN Ini­tia­tive is a nice start, but too small and unfocused
• Demen­tia costs more than heart dis­ease, and can­cer. And it will balloon.
• Chal­leng­ing med­ical dogma: Men­tal exer­cise vs drugs, sup­ple­ments and phys­i­cal exer­cise to pre­vent cog­ni­tive decline
• What is the com­bined effect of phys­i­cal and men­tal training?
• Mon­i­tor­ing stress-related use of antipsy­chotic drugs in the military

New tools:

• Does brain train­ing work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
• Cog­ni­tive enhance­ment in the future: elec­tric brain stim­u­la­tion plus cog­ni­tive training?
• The future of intu­itive tech­nol­ogy and neu­rocog­ni­tive care
• Train your brain with tar­geted videogames, not with cross­word puzzles
• Great Kirkus Review of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness (“A stim­u­lat­ing, chal­leng­ing resource, full of solid infor­ma­tion and prac­ti­cal tips for improv­ing brain health.”)

That’s it for now. Have a stim­u­lat­ing June!

Trans­form­ing Diag­no­sis (arti­cle by Thomas Insel, Direc­tor of the NIMH): “In a few weeks, the Amer­i­can Psy­chi­atric Asso­ci­a­tion will release its new edi­tion of the Diag­nos­tic and Sta­tis­ti­cal Man­ual of Men­tal Dis­or­ders (DSM-5)…While DSM has been described as a “Bible” for the field, it is, at best, a dic­tio­nary, cre­at­ing Read the rest of this entry »

Mind­ful­ness train­ing is an approach for enhanc­ing men­tal health and alle­vi­at­ing men­tal health dif­fi­cul­ties that is based on east­ern med­i­ta­tion tech­niques. The focus of mind­ful­ness train­ing is to increase one’s aware­ness of the present moment, enhance the non-judgmental obser­va­tion of one’s sur­round­ings, and decrease impul­sive and Read the rest of this entry »

(Editor’s Note: this is Part 2 of the con­ver­sa­tion between David Coleiro and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez on the future of brain health. You can read Part 1 Here)

Non-invasive tech­nolo­gies
There is now a grow­ing toolkit of non-invasive tech­nolo­gies which can be used in brain train­ing. Exam­ples of these include: 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

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 »

Fun futur­is­tic vision over at The Atlantic, titled The Extremely Per­sonal Com­puter: The Dig­i­tal Future of Men­tal Health:

“It’s 2018, and you’re not feel­ing your best. Yes­ter­day, on the phone with Com­cast, you for­got your social secu­rity num­ber, and had to call your mom to get it…You fire up your PC and dig out your bio­mon­i­tor wrist strap. Read the rest of this entry »