Update: Only 5% of US children ages 8–11 follow guidelines recommended for brain development

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Dear read­er,

Time for Sharp­Brains month­ly e‑newsletter, dis­cussing the lat­est inno­va­tions for brain health and men­tal health, and open­ing in this occa­sion with an impor­tant wake-up call.

New research:

• Only 5% of US chil­dren ages 8–11 fol­low screen time, sleep and exer­cise guide­lines rec­om­mend­ed for brain development
• Neu­ro­feed­back or med­ica­tion to treat ADHD?
• New study rein­forces need for proac­tive cog­ni­tive mon­i­tor­ing after heart surgery
• One-week brain train­ing can increase cog­ni­tive flex­i­bil­i­ty and reduce OCD symptoms

New tools:

• Tran­scra­nial Direct Cur­rent Stim­u­la­tion shows ear­ly promise to ame­lio­rate depres­sion, espe­cial­ly if com­bined with oth­er ther­a­pies and dosage optimized
• 10-minute cog­ni­tive test MoCA helps pre­dict long-term motor, cog­ni­tive and mor­tal­i­ty out­comes after stroke
• The Ontario Brain Insti­tute selects 6 neu­rotech start-ups for ONtre­pre­neurs program
• Antic­i­pat­ing eth­i­cal impli­ca­tions of DARPA’s neu­rotech­nol­o­gy push

New thinking:

• Time to adopt Mind­ful­ness-Based Cog­ni­tive Ther­a­py (MBCT) as a pub­lic health inter­ven­tion to ease depression?
• Towards a new cul­ture of Brain Health and Brain Fitness
• Best pre­dic­tor of sus­tained weight-loss? Pre­frontal cor­tex activation
• Helius Med­ical and HealthTech Con­nex part­ner to devel­op neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty clin­ics in Canada

Hap­py Hal­loween and have a great month of November,

The Sharp­Brains Team