Brain Fitness articles: on brain change, being sharp, and plasticity

Today we want to share some of the best arti­cles we have read over the last year in the pop­u­lar press, cat­e­go­rized by top­ic so you can quick­ly iden­ti­fy your inter­est and find a good read. Enjoy! 

Great arti­cles in the busi­ness and gen­er­al media
— Change or Die (Fast Com­pa­ny): a fas­ci­nat­ing look into how to change behav­iors and the brain
— Want a sharp mind for your gold­en years? Start now (USA Today): one of the first good pop­u­lar press reports we saw on the Cog­ni­tive Reserve and the val­ue of men­tal stimulation
— You’re Wis­er Now (AARP): “A new look at the sur­pris­ing resilience and growth poten­tial of the human brain”

On how new neu­rons are born and grow in the adult brain:
- Salk Sci­en­tists Demon­strate For The First Time That New­ly Born Brain
  Cells Are Func­tion­al In The Adult Brain (Salk Insti­tute for Bio­log­i­cal Studies)
- Old Brains, New Tricks (Time): “ground­break­ing exper­i­ment that neu­rons are con­stant­ly being born, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the learn­ing and mem­o­ry centers”

On the sur­pris­ing plas­tic­i­ty and devel­op­ment poten­tial through­out life:
- Brain Plas­tic­i­ty, Lan­guage Pro­cess­ing and Read­ing (Soci­ety for Neu­ro­science ): ” the brain nev­er stops chang­ing and adjusting.”
- Jug­gling Jug­gles the Brain (Neu­ro­science for kids): “learn­ing to jug­gle can change brain struc­ture”. Literally
- Suc­cess­ful Aging of the Healthy Brain (Con­fer­ence of the Amer­i­can Soci­ety on Aging): fas­ci­nat­ing overview of neu­ro­science find­ings and impli­ca­tions by Mar­i­an Dia­mond, with empha­sis on  the need for Diet, Exer­cise, Chal­lenge, New­ness, and Human Love

On Train­ing the Brain to help peo­ple with ADD/ ADHD:
- Train­ing the Brain: Cog­ni­tive ther­a­py as an alter­na­tive to ADHD drugs (Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can): great intro­duc­tion to Brain Fit­ness Pro­grams, cog­ni­tive train­ing and work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing, intro­duc­ing Cogmed’s RoboMemo