Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Rationality doesn’t equal efficiency: Cellphone data shows how we navigate cities

by Leave a Comment

The paths peo­ple take are record­ed by their cell­phones. Anony­mous data from thou­sands of phones shows the paths peo­ple take in Boston (above) and San Fran­cis­co (below). Car­lo Rat­ti, CC BY-ND

Think of your morn­ing walk to work, school or your favorite cof­fee shop. Are you tak­ing the short­est pos­si­ble route to your des­ti­na­tion? Accord­ing to big data research that my col­leagues and I con­duct­ed, the answer is no: People’s brains are not wired for opti­mal navigation.

Instead of cal­cu­lat­ing the short­est path, peo­ple try to point straight toward their des­ti­na­tions – we call it the “pointi­est path” – even if it is not the most effi­cient way to walk. [Read more…] about Ratio­nal­i­ty doesn’t equal effi­cien­cy: Cell­phone data shows how we nav­i­gate cities

Studies find growing evidence linking weight, physical activity, neuroplasticity and depression

by Leave a Comment

Being over­weight can cause depres­sion — and exer­cise is an anti­dote, dual stud­ies con­firm (Run­ner’s World):

A large-scale study from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Exeter has found ‘robust evi­dence’ that being over­weight hikes up your risk of devel­op­ing depres­sion – but as fresh evi­dence con­firms, log­ging your morn­ing miles is one of the most effec­tive ways to fight back. Exer­cise jolts your brain into action, and not just because of the endor­phin high … ‘Obe­si­ty and depres­sion are both major glob­al health chal­lenges, and our study pro­vides the most robust evi­dence to date that high­er BMI caus­es depres­sion,’ said lead author Jess O’Lough­lin. ‘Under­stand­ing whether phys­i­cal or social fac­tors are respon­si­ble for this rela­tion­ship can help inform effec­tive strate­gies to improve men­tal health and well­be­ing.’ [Read more…] about Stud­ies find grow­ing evi­dence link­ing weight, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and depression

Six guidelines to navigate the Aduhelm controversy and (hopefully) help patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and early-stage Alzheimer’s Disease

by Leave a Comment

The approval of a con­tro­ver­sial new drug for Alzheimer’s dis­ease, Aduhelm, is shin­ing a spot­light on mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment — prob­lems with mem­o­ry, atten­tion, lan­guage or oth­er cog­ni­tive tasks that exceed changes expect­ed with nor­mal aging.

After ini­tial­ly indi­cat­ing that Aduhelm could be pre­scribed to any­one with demen­tia, the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion now spec­i­fies that the pre­scrip­tion drug be giv­en to indi­vid­u­als with mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment or ear­ly-stage Alzheimer’s, the groups in which the med­ica­tion was studied.

Yet this nar­row­er rec­om­men­da­tion rais­es ques­tions. What does a diag­no­sis of mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment mean? Is Aduhelm appro­pri­ate for all peo­ple with mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment, or only some? And who should decide which patients qual­i­fy for treat­ment: demen­tia spe­cial­ists or pri­ma­ry care physi­cians? [Read more…] about Six guide­lines to nav­i­gate the Aduhelm con­tro­ver­sy and (hope­ful­ly) help patients with Mild Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment and ear­ly-stage Alzheimer’s Disease

Dr. Judith Beck on the future of cognitive therapy and psychotherapy

by Leave a Comment

Dr. Awais Aftab: What do you think the future of psy­chother­a­py is? What would you like it to be?

Dr. Judith Beck: A num­ber of years ago, a col­league asked my dad whether he expect­ed cog­ni­tive ther­a­py to even­tu­al­ly dom­i­nate the field of psy­chother­a­py. He respond­ed, “I hope good ther­a­py even­tu­al­ly dom­i­nates the field of psy­chother­a­py. Just good ther­a­py.” My father has always said, and I agree, that if sig­nif­i­cant research demon­strates greater sup­port for the the­o­ret­i­cal frame­work and treat­ment of a dif­fer­ent psy­chother­a­py, then that psy­chother­a­py should sup­plant CBT. So far that has not hap­pened. To the con­trary, as the years have gone by, there is more and more sup­port for CBT con­cep­tu­al­ly and in treat­ment efficacy.

In terms of the future of CBT, I think we will con­tin­ue to use research from oth­er fields (such as neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gy, evo­lu­tion­ary biol­o­gy, and cog­ni­tive sci­ence) to refine the­o­ry and guide ther­a­py. We will con­tin­ue to seek out what treat­ments work best for whom under what con­di­tions. We will have a stronger empha­sis on iden­ti­fy­ing key process­es to tar­get core medi­a­tors and mod­er­a­tors based on testable the­o­ries. [Read more…] about Dr. Judith Beck on the future of cog­ni­tive ther­a­py and psychotherapy

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) hardens data security rules for health apps and devices

by Leave a Comment

FTC says it will fine dig­i­tal health com­pa­nies that don’t dis­close data breach­es (mobi­health­news):

With data breach­es on the rise, the FTC is look­ing to make health apps more account­able for telling patients when their data has been exposed.

The FTC released a new state­ment spec­i­fy­ing that all health apps that cap­ture sen­si­tive patient infor­ma­tion noti­fy users, the com­mis­sion itself and in some cas­es the media when a secu­ri­ty breach has com­pro­mised iden­ti­fi­able health data. If the com­pa­ny fails to do so it could face a fine of $43,792 per day of vio­la­tion. [Read more…] about The Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion (FTC) hard­ens data secu­ri­ty rules for health apps and devices

Study: Personalized, closed-loop neuromodulation can (one day) become a “pacemaker for the brain”

by Leave a Comment

Click image above to watch 2‑minute video explain­ing the study

Treat­ing Severe Depres­sion with On-Demand Brain Stim­u­la­tion (UCSF press release):

UCSF Health physi­cians have suc­cess­ful­ly treat­ed a patient with severe depres­sion by tap­ping into the spe­cif­ic brain cir­cuit involved in depres­sive brain pat­terns and reset­ting them using the equiv­a­lent of a pace­mak­er for the brain.

“This study points the way to a new par­a­digm that is des­per­ate­ly need­ed in psy­chi­a­try,” said Andrew Krys­tal, PhD, pro­fes­sor of psy­chi­a­try and mem­ber of the UCSF Weill Insti­tute for Neu­ro­sciences. “We’ve devel­oped a pre­ci­sion-med­i­cine approach that has suc­cess­ful­ly man­aged our patient’s treat­ment-resis­tant depres­sion by iden­ti­fy­ing and mod­u­lat­ing the cir­cuit in her brain that’s unique­ly asso­ci­at­ed with her symp­toms.” [Read more…] about Study: Per­son­al­ized, closed-loop neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion can (one day) become a “pace­mak­er for the brain”