Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Five fun brain teasers to thank evolution for our human brains and minds

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To cel­e­brate this quite-chal­leng­ing Thanks­giv­ing, here are five fun brain teasers and games that read­ers have enjoyed the most this year so far. It is always good to learn more about (and appre­ci­ate) that most pre­cious resource we all (yes, all) have up there!

#1. First of all, these days it’s always impor­tant to test your stress level

#2. You say you know the col­ors? Try the Stroop Test

#3. Check out this clas­sic atten­tion experiment

#4. What do you know about men­tal self-rota­tion?

#5. Last but not least, here are ten clas­sic illu­sions to tease your mind.

 

Thank you in advance for try­ing them, enjoy­ing them, and shar­ing them 🙂

 

To explore more brain teasers, games and puzzles:

Studies identify key ethical concerns raised by invasive and non-invasive neurotechnologies

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Stud­ies out­line key eth­i­cal ques­tions sur­round­ing brain-com­put­er inter­face tech (NCSU release):

Brain-com­put­er inter­face (BCI) tech­nolo­gies are no longer hypo­thet­i­cal, yet there are fun­da­men­tal aspects of the tech­nol­o­gy that remain unad­dressed by both ethi­cists and pol­i­cy-mak­ers. Two new papers address these issues by out­lin­ing the out­stand­ing eth­i­cal issues, offer­ing guid­ance for address­ing those issues, and offer­ing par­tic­u­lar insight into the field of BCI tech for cog­ni­tive enhance­ment. [Read more…] about Stud­ies iden­ti­fy key eth­i­cal con­cerns raised by inva­sive and non-inva­sive neurotechnologies

Next: Analyzing typing speed, speech and sleep patterns to identify cognitive decline, dementia, Parkinson’s, and more

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AI May Help Iden­ti­fy Patients With Ear­ly-Stage Demen­tia (The Wall Street Journal):

Researchers are study­ing whether arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence tools that ana­lyze things like typ­ing speed, sleep pat­terns and speech can be used to help clin­i­cians bet­ter iden­ti­fy patients with ear­ly-stage demen­tia. [Read more…] about Next: Ana­lyz­ing typ­ing speed, speech and sleep pat­terns to iden­ti­fy cog­ni­tive decline, demen­tia, Parkinson’s, and more

New book shares science and techniques to breathe better and promote calmness not anxiety

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Scrolling social media, amid fran­tic elec­tion-relat­ed posts and news of esca­lat­ing COVID-19 cas­es, you may have come across a friend remind­ing every­one to just breathe.

But can just-breath­ing real­ly make a difference?

In his new book Breath: The New Sci­ence of a Lost Art, jour­nal­ist James Nestor argues that mod­ern humans have become pret­ty bad at this most basic act of liv­ing. We breathe through our mouths and into our chests, and we do it way too fast. There’s even a phe­nom­e­non called “email apnea,” where mul­ti­task­ing office work­ers breathe irreg­u­lar­ly and shal­low­ly, or even hold their breath, for half a minute or more while glued to their devices.

Besides all the wor­ri­some health prob­lems this may cause—detailed point­ed­ly in Nestor’s book—our inep­ti­tude at breath­ing may have anoth­er big con­se­quence: con­tribut­ing to our anx­i­ety and oth­er men­tal health prob­lems. [Read more…] about New book shares sci­ence and tech­niques to breathe bet­ter and pro­mote calm­ness not anxiety

FDA grants clearance for NightWare app designed to reduce PTSD-related nightmares

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FDA grants De Novo clear­ance to pre­scrip­tion Apple Watch app for night­mare dis­or­der (Mobi­Health News):

The FDA grant­ed Min­neapo­lis-based Night­Ware a De Novo clear­ance on Fri­day for its Apple Watch and iPhone app designed to improve the sleep qual­i­ty of those expe­ri­enc­ing night­mare dis­or­der and night­mares relat­ed to PTSD. [Read more…] about FDA grants clear­ance for Night­Ware app designed to reduce PTSD-relat­ed nightmares

Debate: How should doctors prescribe exercise to ensure compliance and engagement?

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Table 2. Neu­ro­bi­o­log­i­cal ben­e­fits of exercise.

How to Effec­tive­ly Pre­scribe Exer­cise (Psy­chi­atric Times):

Exer­cise can be a use­ful tool in man­ag­ing symp­toms of anx­i­ety and depres­sion. Learn how you can inte­grate exer­cise pre­scrip­tions into your treat­ment plans. [Read more…] about Debate: How should doc­tors pre­scribe exer­cise to ensure com­pli­ance and engagement?