Challenge ahead: Harnessing technology for good mental health

Mak­ing tech­nol­o­gy an ally in men­tal health care (Fun­dación Inno­vación Bank­in­ter): Inter­est in using tech­nol­o­gy for men­tal health dates back to the mid twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry. “Stud­ies began back in the 1960s, giv­en the grow­ing con­cern about addic­tion in chil­dren (espe­cial­ly) and adults,” clar­i­fies Álvaro Fer­nán­dez Ibáñez about the begin­ning of this dis­ci­pline. Sesame Street, the…

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Studies identify key ethical concerns raised by invasive and non-invasive neurotechnologies

Stud­ies out­line key eth­i­cal ques­tions sur­round­ing brain-com­put­er inter­face tech (NCSU release): Brain-com­put­er inter­face (BCI) tech­nolo­gies are no longer hypo­thet­i­cal, yet there are fun­da­men­tal aspects of the tech­nol­o­gy that remain unad­dressed by both ethi­cists and pol­i­­cy-mak­ers. Two new papers address these issues by out­lin­ing the out­stand­ing eth­i­cal issues, offer­ing guid­ance for address­ing those issues, and offering…

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Fast Forward to 2040: How to prepare for the new era in brain enhancement that will change the way we think, work, and heal

Decades from now when our aug­ment­ed brains have enhanced our cog­ni­tive func­tion and trans­formed near­ly every aspect of our lives, many of us will look back and won­der why we didn’t do more to pre­pare for these inevitable changes. Gov­ern­ment lead­ers may grap­ple with the run­away effects of AI and brain enhance­ment on geopol­i­tics. Companies…

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Eight brain tech insights and a special offer to honor Brain Awareness Week 2020

__ Every March, Brain Aware­ness Week (BAW) unites hun­dreds of orga­ni­za­tions world­wide in a cel­e­bra­tion of the brain for peo­ple of all ages. Activ­i­ties typ­i­cal­ly include open days at neu­ro­science labs, exhi­bi­tions about the brain, lec­tures on brain-relat­ed top­ics, dis­plays at libraries and com­mu­ni­ty cen­ters, class­room work­shops, and more. Brain Aware­ness Week 2020 starts today, Monday…

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Latest brain research, tools and teasers to think outside the mental health status quo box

__ Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing a range of  research find­ings, resources, brain teasers and rid­dles to help trans­late emerg­ing neu­ro­science into real-world appli­ca­tions and improve our col­lec­tive brain & men­tal health. New think­ing: Neu­ro­science tips about grat­i­tude, aging, pain and the brain: An inter­view with Dr. Daniel Lev­itin What’s normal?…

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U.S. Army develops novel way to analyze brain imaging data and shape emerging non-invasive neurotechnology

Army devel­ops big data approach to neu­ro­science (press release): “A big data approach to neu­ro­science promis­es to sig­nif­i­cant­ly improve our under­stand­ing of the rela­tion­ship between brain activ­i­ty and per­for­mance. To date, there have been rel­a­tive­ly few attempts to use a big-data approach with­in the emerg­ing field of neurotechnology. 

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