Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Brain health innovators needs to escape from the “efficiency trap”

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Fun to (remote­ly) talk at the Start­up Impact Sum­mit in Hong Kong to dis­cuss the lat­est on brain health and men­tal fit­ness and to high­light a key point: in such a rapid­ly-and-pro­found­ly-evolv­ing field, we need to pri­or­i­tize effec­tive­ness over effi­cien­cy; oth­er­wise we sim­ply keep doing –faster, cheap­er– the wrong things time and again.

Think of the many ways we (mis)diagnose and (mis)treat depres­sion and Alzheimer’s Dis­ease for exam­ple.

Let’s escape from the “effi­cien­cy trap” and pro­mote brain health for all.

Event in Context:

Study: Across all ideological groups, higher cognitive ability and intellectual humility predicts support for free speech

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Free­dom of Speech: A Right for Every­body, or Only for Like-Mind­ed Peo­ple? (Het­ero­dox Acad­e­my):

Free­dom of speech is often con­sid­ered key to a well-func­tion­al democ­ra­cy. In many coun­tries, free­dom of speech is con­sid­ered a more impor­tant demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ue than reg­u­lar elec­tions. But do peo­ple gen­uine­ly believe in the virtues of open debates by sup­port­ing free­dom of speech for every social group? Or do they sup­port free speech only for their own groups? In a recent­ly pub­lished paper in Social Psy­cho­log­i­cal and Per­son­al­i­ty Sci­ence, we aimed to answer these ques­tions, and we sought to explore whether high­er cog­ni­tive abil­i­ty was asso­ci­at­ed with more prin­ci­pled posi­tions on free speech. We expect­ed that peo­ple with high­er cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties would be more inclined to embrace the open exchange of ideas, where­in view­points can be scru­ti­nized and chal­lenged in order to fos­ter informed deci­sion mak­ing and knowl­edge…

[Read more…] about Study: Across all ide­o­log­i­cal groups, high­er cog­ni­tive abil­i­ty and intel­lec­tu­al humil­i­ty pre­dicts sup­port for free speech

Volunteering can not only strengthen your community but boost your mental well-being by the equivalent of $1,100

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The coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic has led to the prac­tice of social dis­tanc­ing, cre­at­ing feel­ings of stress and iso­la­tion in many of us. Some groups have been hit par­tic­u­lar­ly hard, includ­ing the elder­ly, par­ents jug­gling work and child care, and peo­ple who have lost their jobs. Against this back­drop, many peo­ple have turned to vol­un­teer­ing to help make a dif­fer­ence, even at a dis­tance.

New research sug­gests that vol­un­teers aren’t just help­ing the com­mu­ni­ties they serve. Peo­ple who vol­un­teer actu­al­ly expe­ri­ence a boost in their men­tal health—good news at a time when [Read more…] about Vol­un­teer­ing can not only strength­en your com­mu­ni­ty but boost your men­tal well-being by the equiv­a­lent of $1,100

Survey finds ischaemic stroke and altered mental status as most common neurological complications in severe COVID-19 cases

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Brain dam­age, psy­chi­atric prob­lems report­ed in severe coro­n­avirus cas­es, study says (Mia­mi Her­ald):

A new study shows that severe cas­es of the coro­n­avirus can cause strokes and oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal issues, or an “altered men­tal state” for patients.

The research, pub­lished in the British med­ical jour­nal Lancet Psy­chi­a­try, looked at a small pool of severe COVID-19 cas­es. The researchers found more than 100 patients who had either neu­ro­log­i­cal or psy­chi­atric prob­lems from the coro­n­avirus.

[Read more…] about Sur­vey finds ischaemic stroke and altered men­tal sta­tus as most com­mon neu­ro­log­i­cal com­pli­ca­tions in severe COVID-19 cas­es

Debate the Future of Mental Health in North America: In ten years, will we see DSM‑6 or Something Much Better (SMB‑1)?

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Wow, that was quite a fas­ci­nat­ing dis­cus­sion over at Face­book groups on Neu­ro­science, Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, Psy­chi­a­try & Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gy, Neu­ro­science and beyond, in response to our post The way we approach Men­tal Health today is bro­ken beyond repair. The ques­tion is, what comes next, and how fast can we get there?

Here are (light­ly edit­ed, ran­dom­ly ordered, anonymized) some of the most inter­est­ing and rep­re­sen­ta­tive com­ments among the 100+ shared and dis­cussed: [Read more…] about Debate the Future of Men­tal Health in North Amer­i­ca: In ten years, will we see DSM‑6 or Some­thing Much Bet­ter (SMB‑1)?