Update: The Future of Brain Assessments

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News and Analysis

Com­put­er­ized Cog­ni­tive Assess­ments: oppor­tu­ni­ties and con­cerns: health com­pa­nies and the mil­i­tary are start­ing to use new tools to assess brain func­tions in con­texts that nei­ther neu­roimag­ing nor tra­di­tion­al neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal test­ing can reach. This is a crit­i­cal piece of the brain fit­ness puz­zle that is worth keep­ing track of, full of oppor­tu­ni­ties, but also pri­va­cy concerns.

Cog­ni­tive Health News Roundup: recent news cov­er­ing stud­ies on men­tal train­ing and DNA, on nutri­tion and the brain, and more. 

Sci­ence

Improve Mem­o­ry with Sleep, Prac­tice, and Test­ing: There are whole mar­kets (think cross­word puz­zles, herbal sup­ple­ments, drugs, brain fit­ness soft­ware, etc.) aimed at help­ing us improve our mem­o­ry. Now, what is “mem­o­ry”? how does the process of mem­o­ry work? Dr. Bill Klemm, Pro­fes­sor of Neu­ro­science at Texas A&M Uni­ver­si­ty, explains the very impor­tant con­cept of “con­sol­i­da­tion.”

Brain Sci­ence: “Brain Rules” Pod­cast We are fans of the Brain Sci­ence Pod­cast series host­ed by Gin­ger Camp­bell. We are pleased to announce that Dr. Camp­bell will start offer­ing Sharp­Brains´ read­ers, peri­od­i­cal­ly, the high­lights of her most inter­est­ing pod­casts. Fea­tured here is her inter­view with John Medina.

PBS: Secret Life of the Brain and Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty: We just watched a very nice PBS series titled The Secret Life of the Brain, that cov­ers brain devel­op­ment accross the lifes­pan: babies, kids, teenagers, adults, seniors. It is a bit dat­ed (2002) but is excel­lent watch­ing even today.

Edu­ca­tion and Learning

10 Brain Tips To Teach and Learn: “If you agree that our brains are designed for learn­ing, then as edu­ca­tors it is incum­bent upon us to be look­ing for ways to max­i­mize the learn­ing process for each of our stu­dents, as well as for our­selves,” writes edu­ca­tor Lau­rie Bar­tels. We hope you enjoy her first con­tri­bu­tion to Sharp­Brains as much as we do.

When Empa­thy moves us to Action-By Daniel Gole­man: In this col­umn, Daniel Gole­man out­lines some very impor­tant dis­tinc­tions brought forth by Paul Ekman: what is cog­ni­tive vs. emo­tion­al vs. com­pas­sion­ate empathy?.

Brain Teasers to Exer­cise Our Minds: Our Top Five: Here you have 4 of the most pop­u­lar brain games in our blog, plus a bonus stress man­age­ment tip.

Have a stim­u­lat­ing week