This is a Brain Fitness Center.

– Sharp­Brains Is the First Online Brain Fit­ness Cen­ter to Offer Eval­u­a­tions, Men­tal Exer­cise Pro­grams and Per­son­al Coach­ing to Improve Mem­o­ry, Con­cen­tra­tion, and Stress Man­age­ment –

SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Getting in shape is at the top of almost every­one’s list of New Year’s res­o­lu­tions. How­ev­er, this hol­i­day sea­son, lead­ing experts are encour­ag­ing Amer­i­cans to join a dif­fer­ent kind of health club: one for their brains.SharpBrains.com is the first online brain fit­ness cen­ter ded­i­cat­ed to pro­vid­ing per­son­al­ized brain fit­ness eval­u­a­tions; men­tal exer­cise pro­grams to stim­u­late the brain and improve stress man­age­ment; and per­son­al online men­tal exer­cise coach­ing. Sim­i­lar to a train­er at a phys­i­cal fit­ness cen­ter, Sharp­Brains’ cus­tomers can ini­tial­ly under­go an eval­u­a­tion of their needs fol­lowed by sub­se­quent rec­om­men­da­tions for a suit­able com­put­er-based pro­gram to tar­get and strength­en essen­tial core “men­tal muscles.“      

“Research has shown that con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, the brain is con­stant­ly under­go­ing neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis, the devel­op­ment of new neu­rons and den­drites,” said Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg, Clin­i­cal Pro­fes­sor of Neu­rol­o­gy at New York Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine and Chief Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­sor & Co-Founder of Sharp­Brains. “Learn­ing and tar­get­ed men­tal exer­cise pro­motes neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis – the cre­ation of new neu­rons – just as mus­cle growth is pro­mot­ed through phys­i­cal exercise.” 

“More than a decade of clin­i­cal stud­ies have shown that struc­tured brain fit­ness train­ing that uti­lizes nov­el­ty and vari­ety, and reg­u­lar­ly increas­es its chal­lenge to the brain, will active­ly stim­u­late neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis and improve mem­o­ry, con­cen­tra­tion, deci­sion-mak­ing and plan­ning skills, reac­tion time, stress man­age­ment, and oth­er core capa­bil­i­ties as well as help delay the onset of age-relat­ed decline and even demen­tias,” he added.

Sharp­Brains present­ly offers sev­er­al inter­ac­tive com­put­er pro­grams tar­get­ing dif­fer­ent men­tal muscles:

• Mind­Fitâ„¢ is designed to help adults main­tain a sharp, agile mind through exer­cis­es for mem­o­ry, prob­lem-solv­ing, plan­ning, and oth­er skills.
• Freeze-Framer® Inter­ac­tive Learn­ing Sys­tem is a biofeed­back-based soft­ware pro­gram designed to teach users to pre­vent and man­age the neg­a­tive effects of stress, which have been linked with mem­o­ry loss and sub-opti­mal per­for­mance in school, work, and sports.
• Intel­li­Gymâ„¢ teach­es “game-intel­li­gence” skills to pro­fes­sion­al and ama­teur bas­ket­ball play­ers includ­ing coor­di­na­tion, atten­tion con­trol, periph­er­al vision, per­cep­tion, and men­tal stamina.
• RoboMemoâ„¢ is a work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing pro­gram shown to help chil­dren with atten­tion deficits improve their over­all con­di­tion and exec­u­tive functioning

More pro­grams are sched­uled for future release.

“New Year’s is the time most peo­ple resolve to improve their health, and we believe men­tal well-being is com­ple­men­tary to phys­i­cal well-being,” said Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, CEO & Co-Founder of Sharp­Brains. “Because Sharp­Brains does not man­u­fac­ture the prod­ucts it sells, we can be objec­tive in select­ing the high­est qual­i­ty ser­vices and pro­grams to pro­vide our mem­bers. We only rec­om­mend a prod­uct after study­ing the sci­ence and results sup­port­ing the effec­tive­ness of each pro­gram. With the help of our unpar­al­leled Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­so­ry Board, we look for the best pro­grams world­wide, read peer-reviewed jour­nal arti­cles, inter­view the sci­en­tists that cre­at­ed the pro­grams as well as oth­er experts, speak with users, and test the prod­ucts ourselves.”

Time com­mit­ment varies with each pro­gram, but gen­er­al­ly only 30 min­utes three times a week is need­ed to achieve sig­nif­i­cant results. And unlike a phys­i­cal work­out, the user’s brain will feel invig­o­rat­ed imme­di­ate­ly after, not drained and tired.

All Sharpbrains.com vis­i­tors have access to an abun­dance of edu­ca­tion­al infor­ma­tion regard­ing the sci­ence of brain fit­ness and the tech­nol­o­gy behind the pro­grams, includ­ing a Brain Fit­ness for Sharp Brains Q&A that address­es the top 25 ques­tions about brain fit­ness. There is also a fre­quent­ly updat­ed Sharp­Brains blog offer­ing vis­i­tors a mix of fun brain teasers, seri­ous com­men­tary on brain fit­ness, and inter­views with experts.

Mem­bers of the brain fit­ness cen­ter can addi­tion­al­ly con­sult with Sharp­Brains’ head coach and oth­er expert brain coaches.

ABOUT SHARPBRAINS

Sharp­Brains is an online brain fit­ness cen­ter with state-of-the-art sci­ence-based infor­ma­tion and pro­grams to help peo­ple of all ages find and fol­low the best pro­grams to meet their spe­cif­ic objec­tives. Thou­sands of indi­vid­u­als and dozens of cen­ters are using the pro­grams that Sharp­Brains is now offer­ing. Sharp­Brains’ unpar­al­leled Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­so­ry Board is led by Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg, Clin­i­cal Pro­fes­sor of Neu­rol­o­gy at New York Uni­ver­si­ty School of Med­i­cine, Diplo­mate of The Amer­i­can Board of Pro­fes­sion­al Psy­chol­o­gy in Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy, author of The Exec­u­tive Brain and The Wis­dom Para­dox, and Chief Sci­en­tif­ic Advi­sor & Co-Founder of Sharp­Brains. Part­ner­ships include Applied Cog­ni­tive Engi­neer­ing (ACE), Cogmed, Vig­or­ous Mind, The Insti­tute of Heart­Math and the San Fran­cis­co Osh­er Life­long Learn­ing Insti­tute (OLLI), through which Sharp­Brains has been offer­ing the pop­u­lar Exer­cis­ing Our Brains class. For more infor­ma­tion about Brain Fit­ness, Sharp­Brains and its asso­ci­at­ed prod­ucts, please vis­it www.SharpBrains.com.