Update: The placebo effect works even when people know they are taking a placebo

By Alvaro Fernandez | August 27, 2020

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing 14 research find­ings, resources and tips for brain health … and start­ing with this fas­ci­nat­ing study: #1. Wow. The place­bo effect works even when peo­ple know they are tak­ing a place­bo #2. Beat­ing Alzheimer’s Dis­ease will require a com­bined physical/ men­tal approach: From the ten fac­tors found…

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Debate: How and when will the telemedicine surge reach mental healthcare?

By Alvaro Fernandez | August 25, 2020

Covid-19 Pan­dem­ic Dri­ves Patients—and Deal Makers—to Telemed­i­cine (The Wall Street Jour­nal): The coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has put the once-niche cat­e­go­ry of telemed­i­cine in the spot­light and is now dri­ving a flur­ry of deal activ­i­ty involv­ing vir­tu­al health-care providers … Patients have embraced vir­tu­al care as a way to stay in touch with doc­tors for urgent care or…

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Dr. Michael Merzenich: To harness Neuroplasticity for cognitive enhancement, we need to think “Fitness” more than “Games”

By SharpBrains | June 7, 2016

(Edi­tor’s Note: In order to help read­ers famil­iar­ize them­selves with the work and think­ing of Dr. Michael Merzenich, one of the win­ners of the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neu­ro­science for ground­break­ing work on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, we are con­dens­ing and repub­lish­ing the com­pre­hen­sive con­ver­sa­tion that Dr. Merzenich and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez had in 2009, in prepa­ra­tion for the inaugural…

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Survey: Growing demand for digital psychotherapies to help veterans deal with substance abuse, depression, problem solving and insomnia

By SharpBrains | October 6, 2015

Vet­er­ans go for dig­i­tal psy­chother­a­py (Health­care IT News): “Com­put­er­ized psy­chother­a­pies, or CPTs, hold great inter­est for vet­er­ans receiv­ing out­pa­tient treat­ment, accord­ing to a study pub­lished in Telemed­i­cine and e‑Health. The study, rely­ing on infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed by 151 vet­er­ans receiv­ing treat­ment in a Vet­er­ans Health Admin­is­tra­tion sub­stance use dis­or­der out­pa­tient clin­ic, showed vet­er­ans were 

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Emerging digital technologies to maintain autonomy and health

By SharpBrains | October 17, 2012

Quick heads-up: Inter­est­ing upcom­ing event (Oct. 25–26th) in Nice, France, orga­nized by the French Amer­i­can Biotech­nol­o­gy Sym­po­sium, focused on “Con­tri­bu­tion of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies to main­tain the auton­o­my of aging peo­ple,” and dis­cussing inno­va­tion around telemed­i­cine, med­ical devices in home care, bio­engi­neer­ing, neu­rostim­u­la­tion, neur­al implants. The orga­niz­ers want to engage French and Amer­i­can aca­d­e­m­ic researchers, students,…

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Michael Merzenich on Brain Training, Assessments, and Personal Brain Trainers

By Alvaro Fernandez | December 17, 2009 |

Inter­view with Dr. Michael Merzenich, Emer­i­tus Pro­fes­sor at UCSF, a lead­ing pio­neer in brain plas­tic­i­ty research. In the late 1980s, Dr. Merzenich was on the team that invent­ed the cochlear implant. In 1996, he was the found­ing CEO of Sci­en­tif­ic Learn­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (Nas­daq: SCIL), and in 2004 became co-founder and Chief Sci­en­tif­ic Offi­cer of Posit Sci­ence. He was elect­ed to the Nation­al Acad­e­my of Sci­ences in 1999 and to the Insti­tute of Med­i­cine this year. He retired as Fran­cis A. Sooy Pro­fes­sor and Co-Direc­tor of the Keck Cen­ter for Inte­gra­tive Neu­ro­science at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia at San Fran­cis­co in 2007. You may have learned about his work in one of PBS TV spe­cials, mul­ti­ple media appear­ances, or neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty-relat­ed books.

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