Update: Meditation-based mental training can lead to clear –yet surprisingly varied– cognitive and emotional benefits

_____ Dear read­er, Time for Sharp­Brains month­ly e‑newsletter, dis­cussing lat­est think­ing, research and tools for life­long brain health and men­tal health. Enjoy! New think­ing: Study finds clear–yet sur­pris­ing­ly different–benefits in 3 types of med­i­­ta­­tion-based men­tal train­ing Tech­nol­o­gy and the Cog­ni­tion Cri­sis Think twice before tak­ing Ader­all for cog­ni­tive enhance­ment: It may actu­al­ly impair work­ing mem­o­ry and…

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Study finds clear–yet surprisingly different–benefits in 3 types of meditation-based mental training

___ As cit­i­zens of the 21st cen­tu­ry, we face many prob­lems that come with an indus­tri­al­ized and glob­al­ized world. I’m not a lawyer or a politi­cian, but a psy­chol­o­gist and neu­ro­sci­en­tist. So research on how to train help­ful men­tal and social capac­i­ties is my way to con­tribute to a more healthy, com­mu­nal, and coop­er­a­tive civ­i­liza­tion. For…

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eNewsletter: Aerobic and mental training, combined, can significantly improve brain and cognitive health

. Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ eNewslet­ter, cov­er­ing a range of brain, health and inno­va­tion top­ics. Enjoy! New think­ing: What Every­one Should Know About Stress, Brain Health, and Dance Vir­tu­al “Brain Games” round­table: Why we can–and should–train our brains Why shouldn’t behav­ioral ther­a­py, instead of med­ica­tion, be first-line treat­ment for ADHD? Iden­ti­fy­ing and treat­ing the brain…

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Study: Combining aerobic and mental training can significantly improve mental and cognitive health

(Edi­tor’s Note: Hat tip to co-author Tj Shors for bring­ing this fas­ci­nat­ing new study to our atten­tion) “It is wide­ly accept­ed that aer­o­bic exer­cise and med­i­ta­tion train­ing are use­ful behav­ioral ther­a­pies for reme­di­at­ing clin­i­cal symp­toms of depres­sion. How­ev­er, no study to date has assessed the com­bined effects of the two behav­ioral inter­ven­tions. Here, we present data indi­cat­ing that 

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Study: Aerobic exercise improves memory, brain function

Study Finds Aer­o­bic Exer­cise Improves Mem­o­ry, Brain Func­tion and Phys­i­cal Fit­ness (press release): “A new study con­duct­ed by researchers at the Cen­ter for Brain­Health at The Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Dal­las pub­lished online in the open-access jour­nal Fron­tiers in Aging Neu­ro­science found that engag­ing in a phys­i­cal exer­cise reg­i­men helps healthy aging adults improve their…

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