New book encourages readers to embrace uncertainty in order to improve decision-making, mental health, and more

Life is uncer­tain. We nev­er know what will hap­pen, and many things are unknow­able. This can make us feel stressed or wor­ried, since the unknown is asso­ci­at­ed with dan­ger. But as jour­nal­ist Mag­gie Jack­son argues in her new book, Uncer­tain: The Wis­dom and Won­der of Being Unsure, there are many ben­e­fits to allow­ing our­selves to…

Read More

Trend: Despite concerns, large US employers deploy apps, AI chatbots, other digital tools to boost workplace mental health

Employ­ers Are Offer­ing a New Work­er Ben­e­fit: Well­ness Chat­bots (The Wall Street Jour­nal): More work­ers feel­ing anx­ious, stressed or blue have a new place to go for men­­tal-health help: a dig­i­tal app. Chat­bots that hold ther­a­pist-like con­ver­sa­tions and well­ness apps that deliv­er depres­sion and oth­er diag­noses or iden­ti­fy peo­ple at risk of self-harm are snow­balling across…

Read More

Time for a universal “exercise prescription” for kids and adults to boost cognition and mental health?

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of brain research find­ings, tools and con­tro­ver­sies plus some brain teasers to chal­lenge your (and our) work­ing mem­o­ry. #1. Major evi­dence review sup­ports an “exer­cise pre­scrip­tion” for most adults to boost men­tal health “High­er inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activ­i­ty was asso­ci­at­ed with greater improvements”…

Read More

Major evidence review supports an “exercise prescription” for most adults to boost mental health and well-being

When you head to your week­ly yoga class or lift weights at the gym, you’re doing some­thing good for your phys­i­cal health: get­ting more fit today, and so pro­tect­ing your body into the future. What you may not always think about, though, is that you’re also pro­tect­ing your­self from anx­i­ety and depression—about as much as…

Read More

Harnessing mindfulness and virtual reality simulations to maximize sports performance

Ath­letes at the very high­est lev­el of their sport face the chal­lenge of per­form­ing con­sis­tent­ly under pres­sure amid many poten­tial dis­trac­tions, includ­ing per­for­mance anx­i­ety, crowd behav­iour, their own and oth­ers’ expec­ta­tions, and the respons­es of their oppo­nents. The per­for­mance of play­ers in the 2023 Aus­tralian Open, for exam­ple, demon­strat­ed the psy­cho­log­i­cal fac­tors need­ed to succeed…

Read More

UC study finds near-transfer of cognitive training to be necessary (yet not sufficient) for far-transfer, broader benefits

Who ben­e­fits from brain train­ing, and why? (UCI release): If you are skilled at play­ing puz­zles on your smart­phone or tablet, what does it say about how fast you learn new puz­zles, or more broad­ly, how well can you focus in school or at work? In the lan­guage of psy­chol­o­gists, does “near trans­fer” pre­dict “far…

Read More