Lifestyle and neurotechnology over genetics

Dear col­league,

It’s remark­able how quick­ly things are chang­ing, final­ly, in brain health and men­tal health — see for exam­ple what’s new with Inter­ax­on, Akili, Neu­raMetrix, Apple, Calm, Halo Neu­ro­science, Mind­strong Health, Novar­tis, Pear Ther­a­peu­tics, and life­long neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis, all in the last 6 months!

Please enjoy the May edi­tion of Sharp­Brains eNewslet­ter below, and con­sid­er join­ing the Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit this Decem­ber to dis­cuss the lat­est and help shape the next :-)

New research:

• Cog­ni­tive train­ing, diet, exer­cise, and vas­cu­lar man­age­ment seen to improve cog­ni­tion even in peo­ple with genet­ic pre­dis­po­si­tion for demen­tia (APOE e4)
• Brain imag­ing show that patients with Alzheimer’s dis­ease can still remem­ber and enjoy their favorite songs
• Phys­i­cal exer­cise doesn’t slow down demen­tia once it appears, study shows

New tools:

• Ini­tial study finds promise and lim­i­ta­tions in using vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR) to treat ADHD
• tDCS com­ing to an Equinox gym near you: Good, Bad or Depends?
• Could tech­nol­o­gy help cure depres­sion among old­er adults? (Short answer: Yes)

New thinking:

• Six tips for social-emo­tion­al learn­ing (SEL) to trans­fer into real-world skills
• Large study to assess impact on ear­ly brain devel­op­ment of finan­cial assis­tance to low-income mothers
• New book high­lights con­tin­ued brain devel­op­ment through­out ado­les­cence, even into our 20s
• Pre­sen­ta­tion on Neu­ro­science, Edu­ca­tion and Life­long Learn­ing (in Spanish)

Have a great month of June,

The Sharp­Brains Team