January Update: The Federal Trade Commission orders Focus Education to stop making unsubstantiated brain training claims

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Time for Sharp­Brains’ Jan­u­ary e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing a wealth of brain health insights, neu­ro­science research reports, a land­mark action by the Fed­er­al Trade Commission…and some quick brain teasers. Enjoy!

New research:

• Brain health research study by AARP: Con­sumers pur­sue brain train­ing to sup­port a more enjoy­able, self-man­aged life
• Can self-mon­i­tor­ing help pro­mote aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess, and reduce ADHD symp­toms, in col­lege stu­dents with ADHD
• Stud­ies point toward clear ben­e­fits to cul­ti­vat­ing mind­ful­ness in the workplace
• In the New Year, toss a coin or trust Dr. Oz for med­ical advice?
• To help chil­dren with ADHD improve aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance, com­bine med­ica­tion AND behav­ioral treatment
• Har­ness­ing a vir­tu­al real­i­ty brain train­ing game to diag­nose mild cog­ni­tive impairment

New think­ing:

• New book on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty by Nor­man Doidge: The Brain’s Way of Healing
• New online course: How to Nav­i­gate Con­ven­tion­al and Com­ple­men­tary ADHD Treat­ments for Healthy Brain Devel­op­ment (10%-off dis­count code: sharp2015)
• Are neu­ro­mark­ers on the cusp of trans­form­ing edu­ca­tion and men­tal health?
• Gen­er­al Chiarel­li: “We have a total­ly dys­func­tion­al research sys­tem (for brain and men­tal health)”

New tools:

• The Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion orders Focus Edu­ca­tion to stop mak­ing unsub­stan­ti­at­ed brain train­ing claims
• Trend: Mobile apps to improve vision via per­cep­tu­al learning
• E‑therapy step­ping up to fill men­tal health gaps
• For col­lege stu­dents, men­tal health screen­ing kiosks offer ‘Check-Up from the Neck Up’
• Deal­ing with oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges from mood-alter­ing con­sumer wearables
• Expand­ing the brain health toolk­it with mobile neu­robe­hav­ioral tests — aka a “brain thermometer”?
• Vir­tu­al Expo day: Dig­i­tal Arte­facts (Brain­Base­line), Heart­Math, Sleep Genius, The Alzheimer’s Research and Pre­ven­tion Foundation

Final­ly, when you have a few min­utes you may want to try these quick brain teasers to test your cog­ni­tive skills…and your cog­ni­tive bias­es.

Have a great month of February!