Must-read article: Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging

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As the con­cept of brain fit­ness (or, the brain’s abil­ity to func­tion effi­ciently and effec­tively in per­sonal and pro­fes­sional life) goes main­stream, the pro­lif­er­a­tion of sci­en­tific find­ings, media reports, and com­mer­cial claims is gen­er­at­ing much noise and con­fu­sion. Know­ing what to believe and what to do presents a real-life puz­zle, lead­ing many peo­ple to either inac­tion or toward a focus on the wrong priorities.

This past Octo­ber, six­ty-nine sci­en­tists, con­vened by the Stan­ford Cen­ter on Longevi­ty, released an announce­ment stat­ing that there is a sci­en­tific con­sen­sus that brain train­ing does not work (Allaire et al., 2014). By Decem­ber, 127 sci­en­tists world­wide had signed anoth­er state­ment, chal­leng­ing the pre­vi­ous “con­sen­sus” and sup­port­ing the val­ue of brain train­ing (Alescio-Lau­ti­er et al., 2014).

The prob­lem here is not see­ing the for­est for the trees.

–> Keep read­ing the new arti­cle by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez for the Spring 2015 spe­cial issue of Gen­er­a­tions:  Solv­ing the Brain Fit­ness Puz­zle Is the Key to Self-Empow­ered Aging.