The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Applied Neuroscience and Neurotechnology

After a very busy month, it’s time now for Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter to sum­ma­rize the lat­est ini­tia­tives, tools and ideas for life­long brain health and men­tal fit­ness — and to share a few puz­zles and illu­sions to tease your brain.

A grow­ing num­ber of class­rooms in Chi­na are equipped with arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence cam­eras and brain-wave track­ers. Video: Crys­tal Tai for The Wall Street Journal.

New neuro-infused education and healthcare initiatives:

• Chi­na is har­ness­ing brain-wave track­ers and arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence to raise bet­ter (and more com­pli­ant?) students
• Report calls for wide class­room-based adop­tion of ten brain fit­ness pro­grams designed to improve foun­da­tion­al exec­u­tive functions
• The Nation­al Health Ser­vice (NHS) in the UK con­sid­ers adding a 5‑minute cog­ni­tive test to its annu­al health check-up
• CVS Health: Cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT) apps may help you more than sleep­ing pills

New neurotech and digital health tools:

• What does the Face­book acqui­si­tion of CTRL-Labs mean for Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy and Aug­ment­ed & Vir­tu­al Reality?
• Start­up Aur­al Ana­lyt­ics rais­es $4.3M to mon­i­tor neu­ro­log­i­cal health by ana­lyz­ing speech patterns
• Will per­son­al­ized med­i­ta­tion apps be able to repli­cate the expe­ri­ence of work­ing with a coach?
• IBM, VA and Total Brain to test dig­i­tal men­tal health plat­form for vet­er­ans and reservists

New thinking on brain and mental health:

• Two great pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties with renowned neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg
• Apple/ Eli Lilly’s bet: Wear­able and mobile con­sumer devices may well help us detect cog­ni­tive impair­ment and dementia
• May “indus­try review boards” con­tribute to the wider adop­tion of vir­tu­al and aug­ment­ed real­i­ty for phys­i­cal and men­tal health?

Finally, a few fun brain teasers for adults and kids alike :-)

• Tease your brain with the Her­mann Grid illusion
• Brain teas­er to test your pat­tern recog­ni­tion: Fill the void
• Math brain teas­er requir­ing no math — just per­cep­tion and cognition

Have a great month of October,

The Sharp­Brains Team