On Awe, Healthy Eating, Mental Health, Ethical Neurotech, and more

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Time to wrap-up anoth­er very active month with our Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter sum­ma­riz­ing excit­ing devel­op­ments in brain research, health­care and tech­nol­o­gy — plus a cou­ple fun brain teasers to spark curios­i­ty and innovation :-)

New brain research:

• Brain scans shed light on the brain net­works sup­port­ing Awe
• For World Men­tal Health Day let’s review how a healthy diet can pro­mote men­tal well-being
• Stren­u­ous phys­i­cal exer­cise may lead to cog­ni­tive –not just phys­i­cal– fatigue

New thinking about brain & mental health:

• The Nation­al Acad­e­my of Med­i­cine (NAM) shares dis­cus­sion paper to help empow­er 8 bil­lion minds
• A call to action: We need the right incen­tives to guide eth­i­cal inno­va­tion in neu­rotech and healthcare
• Qan­tas mon­i­tors brain­waves of pilots and pas­sen­gers to test 19.5‑hour flight from NY to Sydney
• UW Med­i­cine cre­ates new Insti­tute for Brain Health Solutions

Emerging neurotech and digital brain health:

• Bay­er to sup­port 11 dig­i­tal health star­tups, 5 of which are devel­op­ing behavioral/ cognitive/ men­tal health solutions
• BrainCheck rais­es $8 mil­lion to dig­i­tize cog­ni­tive assess­ments and bet­ter serve the aging population
• Novar­tis dis­solves agree­ment to mar­ket Pear Ther­a­peu­tics’ pre­scrip­tion dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics for substance/ opi­oid abuse
• After 8‑year fol­low-up, study finds robust and sus­tained anti­de­pres­sant response to deep brain stim­u­la­tion (DBS)

Finally, a couple fun brain teasers:

• Quick: Answer this to stretch your mind and rec­og­nize your biases
• Which train is going the wrong way?

Have a excel­lent Halloween…

The Sharp­Brains Team