Mas­ter­ing emo­tions by sharp­en­ing mem­ory? It just might work (Los Ange­les Times):

“Emo­tional reg­u­la­tion — the abil­ity to take neg­a­tive feel­ings and rec­og­nize, accept and chan­nel them prop­erly — is an Achilles’ heel for many peo­ple, but espe­cially for those with anxiety-related dis­or­ders, Read the rest of this entry »

Time for Sharp­Brains’ Feb­ru­ary 2013 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing this time new sci­ence and analy­sis on Alzheimer’s Dis­ease, ADHD, men­tal well-being, brain health, and more. Enjoy!

New sci­ence:

• Alzheimer’s Dis­ease pop­u­la­tion to triple: We need smarter research, pub­lic health ini­tia­tives and lifestyles, by Pas­cale Mich­e­lon, PhD
• National Sci­ence Foun­da­tion report: Can inter­ac­tive media boost atten­tion and well-being?
• Study: Mind­ful­ness train­ing for chil­dren with ADHD and their par­ents, by David Rabiner, PhD
• New $1 mil­lion grant to study work­ing mem­ory train­ing in chil­dren with frag­ile X

New analy­sis:

• Using Your Head: What is the Future of Brain Health?, where David Coleiro inter­views Alvaro Fernandez
• Biofeed­back is a “Level 1 — Best Sup­port” Inter­ven­tion for Atten­tion and Hyper­ac­tiv­ity Behaviors
• Is the Inter­net Good or Bad for Your Brain?, by Alvaro Fernandez

Upcom­ing events:

• ESCoNS2 (LA), Har­vard, WEF (Lima), Neu­rogam­ing (San Fran­cisco), mesh13 (Toronto):  Alvaro Fer­nan­dez will be speak­ing at sev­eral events in the next few months. If you’re a Sharp­Brains friend and speak­ing at/ attend­ing any, please make sure to say Hello!

Have a great month of March.

As we announced last Octo­ber, Prac­tice­Wise, the com­pany that main­tains the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Pedi­atrics “Evidence-based Child and Ado­les­cent Psycho-social Inter­ven­tions,” has ele­vated biofeed­back to “Level 1 — Best Sup­port” as an inter­ven­tion for Atten­tion & Hyper­ac­tiv­ity Behav­iors. Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing stays at Level 2. It is impor­tant to note that those lev­els do not con­trast effect sizes or clin­i­cal effi­cacy per se, but qual­ity and over­all direc­tion of under­ly­ing research.

To check out the cur­rent edi­tion of the report: click HERE.  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 »

MIND Insti­tute researchers receive $1 mil­lion grant to study cog­ni­tive train­ing in chil­dren with frag­ile X (UC Davis Health Sys­tem News):

“Researchers at the UC Davis MIND Insti­tute will exam­ine whether chil­dren and youth with frag­ile X syn­drome can improve their work­ing mem­ory, cog­ni­tion and behav­ior by using an online computer-based cog­ni­tive train­ing pro­gram, through a new $1 mil­lion grant from The John Merck Fund.

To con­duct the inno­v­a­tive study, the researchers will travel to the homes of school-aged chil­dren around the coun­try to instruct their fam­i­lies on how to use the pro­gram and deliver the inter­ven­tion, called Cogmed, soft­ware designed to improve work­ing mem­ory that is mar­keted by Pear­son Edu­ca­tion.” Keep read­ing here.

–> We iden­ti­fied Cogmed/ Pear­son as one of the Top 10 Com­pa­nies to Watch in 2013–2014 based on the analy­sis in our lat­est mar­ket report.

Prac­tice­Wise, the com­pany that main­tains the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Pedi­atrics “Evidence-based Child and Ado­les­cent Psycho-social Inter­ven­tions” (see cur­rent edi­tion here) has just announced it will ele­vate biofeed­back to “Level 1 — Best Sup­port” as an inter­ven­tion for Atten­tion & Hyper­ac­tiv­ity Behav­iors in the next edi­tion. Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing Read the rest of this entry »

Time for Sharp­Brains’ July 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing in this occa­sion an in-depth arti­cle on why and how to Invest in Brain Health to Drive Inno­va­tion and Pros­per­ity, by Veronika Litinski.

Fea­tured Perspectives:

• Invest in Brain Health to Drive Inno­va­tion and Pros­per­ity, by Veronika Litinski
• Under­stand­ing, and Nur­tur­ing, Resilience, by Andrew Zolli
• How Do Words, such as Yes and No, Change Our Brains and Lives?, by Dr. Andrew New­berg and Mark Waldman
• Study: Adap­tive Work­ing Mem­ory Train­ing Can Reduce ADHD-related Off-Task Behav­ior, by Dr. David Rabiner
• Pro­mot­ing Men­tal Agility through Cog­ni­tive Con­trol and Men­tal Rep­re­sen­ta­tion, by Judith Tin­gley, PhD

• Cog­ni­tive Mon­i­tor­ing Emerg­ing as Crit­i­cal for Health
• Gait Changes as Indi­ca­tor of Cog­ni­tive Health Decline
• New & Excel­lent Review of Com­put­er­ized Cog­ni­tive Train­ing with Older Adults
• Brain Dam­age, Ther­a­peu­tics and the Blood-Brain Barrier
• Necomimi Avail­able in USA
• Car­diac Surgery Can Impact Long-term Cog­ni­tive Functioning
• Cog­ni­tive Deficits May Hin­der Self Care in Patients with Heart Failure
• Brain Researchers Start Map­ping the Human ‘Connectome’

Sharp­Brains News:

• More Thumbs Up for 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tual Sum­mit (23 and counting!)
• Seven Most Pop­u­lar 2012 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit Record­ings Now Avail­able at $75 each

Have a great month of August!