On centenarians, memory, Mars, tDCS, ADHD, digital health, beautiful brains, and more

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing ten time­ly resources and research find­ings for life­long brain and men­tal fit­ness. #1. Let’s start with a fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ry and study :-) Study with 330 cen­te­nar­i­ans finds that cog­ni­tive decline is not inevitable … (Henne Hol­stege, PhD, assis­tant pro­fes­sor at Ams­ter­dam Uni­ver­si­ty Med­ical Cen­ter) said her inter­est in researching…

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Next in NASA’s path to Mars: Overcoming astronauts’ cognitive and mental health challenges

Space Between the Ears (Cere­brum): A few short months ago, news pro­grams around the globe showed NASA engi­neers and sci­en­tists cel­e­brat­ing as a robot named Per­se­ver­ance suc­cess­ful­ly land­ed on the sur­face of Mars. The mis­sion: cap­ture and share images and audio that have nev­er been seen or heard before. As impressed as most observers were…

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Growing research supports Heart Rate Variability (HRV) biofeedback training to lower stress and anxiety, increase sports performance

What’s HRV? An impor­tant health met­ric every golfer should pay atten­tion to (Golf.com): As ama­teur golfers, we’d love to play like the pros. There’s no doubt that you would trade your banana slice for Dustin Johnson’s pen­e­trat­ing 300-yard dri­ve down the mid­dle of the fair­way or Collin Morikawa’s impec­ca­ble ball strik­ing in a heart­beat. Unfortunately,…

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Tip: To manage stress, sleep better. To sleep better, keep a good routine and manage stress.

Dis­rupt­ed rou­tines and wor­ries about coro­n­avirus have made it hard­er for us to sleep this year. For exam­ple, reports sug­gest there was a 15% increase in pre­scrip­tions for sleep med­ica­tion pre­scrip­tions at the begin­ning of the pan­dem­ic in the U.S., and a 37% increase in insom­nia in Chi­na. Impor­tant­ly, if you’ve been feel­ing out of sorts…

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Debate: Can mindfulness and meditation be harmful?

Yes (in per­haps 8% of indi­vid­u­als). Can mind­ful­ness and med­i­ta­tion be harm­ful? (Sci­ence Focus): Med­i­ta­tion has escaped both the reli­gious cells of monks and nuns and the labs of sci­en­tists. An increas­ing num­ber of peo­ple are using med­i­ta­tion apps to deal with men­tal health prob­lems, such as depres­sion and anx­i­ety. Although there is no clear estimate…

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