Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

On perception, cognitive bias and cultivating humility ahead of next week’s vote

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Many Amer­i­cans wor­ry about the polit­i­cal divide tear­ing our coun­try apart. A large per­cent­age are unwill­ing to engage with peo­ple who have oppos­ing polit­i­cal views, and that’s cre­at­ing more ani­mos­i­ty.

This is espe­cial­ly wor­ry­ing con­sid­er­ing how many crises we’re fac­ing that require coop­er­a­tion, trust, and solu­tions a diverse cit­i­zen­ry can get behind. How can we find a way across our divide and come togeth­er for com­mon cause? [Read more…] about On per­cep­tion, cog­ni­tive bias and cul­ti­vat­ing humil­i­ty ahead of next week’s vote

On cutting “empty brain calories” by reading a book instead of social media

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Stop doom­scrolling on social media and read a book (For­tune):

2020 is the year I decid­ed to cut back on emp­ty brain calo­ries. That’s right, I swore off the mind­less junk from social media. Because we are all like­ly to con­duct more and more doom­scrolling as the elec­tion nears and 2020 con­tin­ues its infamy, I urge you to stop ingest­ing dig­i­tal junk, and start read­ing a book. [Read more…] about On cut­ting “emp­ty brain calo­ries” by read­ing a book instead of social media

What will the ‘Peloton for mental health’ look like five years from now? And, who will develop it?

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Mind­Labs rais­es £1.4M for its new plat­form, a ‘Pelo­ton for men­tal health’ (TechCrunch):

Ide­al­ly, men­tal well­ness should be con­sid­ered part of a healthy dai­ly rou­tine, like exer­cise. But even exer­cise is dif­fi­cult to turn into a reg­u­lar habit. Pelo­ton addressed phys­i­cal fit­ness by com­bin­ing smart sta­tion­ary bikes with live class­es and com­mu­ni­ty fea­tures to cre­ate an engag­ing expe­ri­ence. Now a new start­up, Mind­Labs, is tak­ing a sim­i­lar approach to men­tal well­ness [Read more…] about What will the ‘Pelo­ton for men­tal health’ look like five years from now? And, who will devel­op it?

The FDA clears AppliedVR headset to help treat fibromyalgia and chronic pain

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FDA Des­ig­nates First Vir­tu­al Real­i­ty Device for Chron­ic Pain (Pain News Net­work):

Applied­VR, a Los Ange­les-based vir­tu­al real­i­ty com­pa­ny, has announced that its EaseVRx head­set has received Break­through Device Des­ig­na­tion from the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion for treat­ing fibromyal­gia and chron­ic intractable low back pain. [Read more…] about The FDA clears Applied­VR head­set to help treat fibromyal­gia and chron­ic pain

Study: Over-the-counter “brain enhancement” supplements in the US found both to a) contain multiple unapproved drugs and b) lack some ingredients listed on the label

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Study: Your Brain Sup­ple­ments Could Con­tain Dan­ger­ous, Ille­gal Ingre­di­ents (Being Patient):

Brain sup­ple­ments that claim to boost cog­ni­tive func­tion are increas­ing­ly pop­u­lar, grow­ing from a $4 bil­lion indus­try of about 4,000 unique prod­ucts to a $40 bil­lion indus­try with as many as 80,000 dif­fer­ent prod­ucts on the mar­ket. [Read more…] about Study: Over-the-counter “brain enhance­ment” sup­ple­ments in the US found both to a) con­tain mul­ti­ple unap­proved drugs and b) lack some ingre­di­ents list­ed on the label

Study: A combined teaching + app gratitude program helps adolescents address anxiety and improve mental health

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Stu­dents and edu­ca­tors have start­ed a new school year in the midst of a pan­dem­ic, an eco­nom­ic cri­sis, a reck­on­ing with racial injus­tice, and a divi­sive polit­i­cal cli­mate. Everyone’s men­tal health is at risk, and schools are search­ing for ways to sup­port young people’s well-being in addi­tion to their aca­d­e­m­ic learn­ing. [Read more…] about Study: A com­bined teach­ing + app grat­i­tude pro­gram helps ado­les­cents address anx­i­ety and improve men­tal health