Can brain training reduce cancer risk?

Penn Researchers Receive Major Grant to Explore Use of Brain Train­ing To Help Peo­ple Change Behav­iors that Increase Can­cer Risk (press release):

“Most peo­ple know that smok­ing, a bad diet, and phys­i­cal inac­tiv­i­ty can lead to cat­a­stroph­ic per­son­al health con­se­quences, includ­ing can­cer. Yet mil­lions con­tin­ue to smoke, eat poor­ly, and fail to get enough exer­cise. A new project led by researchers from the Perel­man School of Med­i­cine and the School of Arts and Sci­ences at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia aims to devise pro­grams that help them change these risky behav­iors and cut their risk of cancer…Caryn Ler­man, PhD and Joseph Kable, PhD have been award­ed a $4.9 mil­lion grant through the Nation­al Can­cer Insti­tute ini­tia­tive called “Provoca­tive Ques­tions,” which will allow them to study how the brain’s cog­ni­tive con­trol sys­tem can be enhanced to improve deci­sion-mak­ing process­es that con­tribute to risky behaviors…The study’s authors aim to show if tak­ing part in the neu­rocog­ni­tive train­ing results in bet­ter deci­sion-mak­ing and behav­iors on the part of par­tic­i­pants. Will they, for instance, forego the short-term, risky reward of smok­ing a cig­a­rette or eat­ing a fast food meal, or use their new­found brain train­ing to make deci­sions that pave the way to bet­ter long-term health?”

To Learn More:

• Major Grant to Explore Use of Brain Train­ing To Help Peo­ple Change Behav­iors that Increase Can­cer Risk
• Provoca­tive Ques­tions — Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health
• Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person
• Brain Train­ing Top 10 Future Trends