Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e-newsletter. This time we focus on how much the brain health and behav­ioral health fields are chang­ing, as they upgrade tra­di­tional toolk­its with dig­i­tal plat­forms to bet­ter mon­i­tor, assess and enhance cog­ni­tion. Often dri­ven by a grow­ing con­sumer demand for improved brain fit­ness, as you can see in this 3-minute clip (opens YouTube video).

We are proud to report that our lat­est mar­ket report is prov­ing to be valu­able to a range of exec­u­tives and inno­va­tors work­ing along those lines, as you can read here.

New Sci­ence

• Neu­ro­sci­en­tists: Develop dig­i­tal games to improve brain func­tion and well-being
• Mis­use & Abuse of ADHD Meds among col­lege stu­dents: Updated review of a grow­ing concern
• Beyond hel­mets: con­cus­sions require proac­tive, indi­vid­u­al­ized mon­i­tor­ing and rehab

New Tools

• Work­ing mem­ory train­ing can improve emo­tional reg­u­la­tion and behav­ioral health
• Cam­bridge Cog­ni­tion, devel­oper of com­put­erised neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal tests, to go pub­lic in the UK
• The future of biosen­sors and nanotechnology

New think­ing

• Debunk­ing 10 Brain Fit­ness and Brain Train­ing Myths
• Rais­ing aware­ness about the dis­tracted mind (PBS special)
• Drugs for Early-Stage Alzheimer’s?
• New guide­lines for neu­rol­o­gists pre­scrib­ing cog­ni­tive enhance­ment drugs

Have a great month of April!

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 »

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.

(Editor’s Note: every month we host an online Q&A with par­tic­i­pants in the e-course How To Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach. This is the lightly edited and anonymized tran­script from the Jan­u­ary Q&A ses­sion; the Feb­ru­ary Q&A will take place on Tues­day, Feb­ru­ary 12th)

2:02
OK, ready to go! Happy 2013 again. You can start writ­ing your ques­tions and com­ments in the box at the bot­tom, and hit Send.

2:04
Ques­tion 
Which activ­i­ties or games or web­sites do you rec­om­mend to improve mem­ory? 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!

For a num­ber of rea­sons, there remains an impor­tant need to develop research sup­ported treat­ments for ADHD in addi­tion to med­ica­tion and behav­ior therapy.

Regard­ing med­ica­tion, not all chil­dren ben­e­fit from tak­ing it, some expe­ri­ence intol­er­a­ble side effects, and many con­tinue to strug­gle even when med­ica­tion pro­vides some ben­e­fit. Behav­ior ther­apy can be dif­fi­cult for par­ents and teach­ers Read the rest of this entry »

The neu­ro­science of lan­guage, con­scious­ness, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion raises many fun­da­men­tal ques­tions, the answers to which con­sis­tently defy def­i­n­i­tion. For exam­ple: when we speak, where do our words come from? Our brain, or our mind? And what do we mean by mind? Sim­i­lar dilem­mas arise when we try to study the nature of con­scious­ness. What is it, and where is it? Is it gen­er­ated solely by neural activ­ity, or is it a sep­a­rate force that influ­ences the activ­ity of the brain? Hypothe­ses abound, but nobody seems to know for certain.

How­ever, we do have a few clues that illu­mi­nate the rela­tion­ship between the brain, the mind, and Read the rest of this entry »