• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Self-paced Course: How to Be Your Own Brain Fitness Coach ($75)

Register brain fitness courseCourse Objective

By the end of this online course you will have gained the under­stand­ing and infor­ma­tion required to apply emerg­ing sci­ence and tools to enhance your own brain health and func­tion­al­i­ty across the lifespan.

Reg­is­tered par­tic­i­pants can log into the course here, and gain access to four record­ed lectures–each last­ing two hours– and to online mate­ri­als and discussions. 

  • Ses­sion I. Debunk­ing Brain and Brain Fit­ness Myths.
  • Ses­sion II. How to Address the Basics.
  • Ses­sion III. How to Build Brain-Based Capacities.
  • Ses­sion IV. How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach. 

brain fitness program

Course Descrip­tion

brain training tipsSum­ma­ry: Infor­ma­tion over­load and longer lives expose our brains to more demands than even before. This self-paced and inter­ac­tive online course will exam­ine the emerg­ing sci­ence of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and cog­ni­tive reserve and sur­vey lat­est tools and best prac­tices to equip you to become your own ‘brain fit­ness coach’ and address your very own pri­or­i­ties in your per­son­al and/ or pro­fes­sion­al life. Avail­able online from any­where with an Inter­net con­nec­tion, this course will help you pin­point ways to opti­mize brain health and func­tion­al­i­ty and delay decline, nav­i­gat­ing the maze of frag­ment­ed research, super­fi­cial media cov­er­age and exag­ger­at­ed mar­ket­ing claims. The course is based on The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness –recent­ly named a Best Book by AARP– and Sharp­Brains’ new ABBC frame­work (Address Basics, Build Capac­i­ties), and includes week­ly read­ings and activities.

Mechan­ics: The course con­sists of four record­ed two-hour-long lec­tures, and an online pri­vate com­mu­ni­ty for par­tic­i­pants to access all mate­ri­als and to interact.

Who this is for

This course is open to the gen­er­al pub­lic, and ide­al for any­one with at least a bach­e­lor’s degree (in any field) who wants to under­stand how emerg­ing brain and cog­ni­tive sci­ence can be applied to enhance one’s brain health and per­for­mance. This is nei­ther an over­sim­pli­fied self-help course, nor a very technical/ med­ical one.

Instruc­tor and Guest Lecturers

Alvaro FernandezInstruc­tor: Alvaro Fer­nan­dez is the cofounder of Sharp­Brains, an inde­pen­dent mar­ket researcher and think tank help­ing orga­ni­za­tions and indi­vid­u­als nav­i­gate applied neu­ro­science, and the  coau­thor of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: 18 Inter­views with Sci­en­tists, Prac­ti­cal Advice, and Prod­uct Reviews, to Keep Your Brain Sharp, recent­ly named a Best Book by AARP. He is a nation­al­ly-known speak­er and expert, quot­ed by The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, New Sci­en­tist, CNN, and oth­er media out­lets. Alvaro also pro­duces the largest annu­al glob­al and vir­tu­al con­fer­ence where sci­en­tists, tech­nol­o­gists and pro­fes­sion­als dis­cuss lat­est devel­op­ments in the field. Alvaro holds an MBA and an MA in Edu­ca­tion from Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, and was recent­ly named a Young Glob­al Leader by the World Eco­nom­ic Forum.

Alvaro Pascual-LeoneGuest Lec­tur­er: Alvaro Pas­cual-Leone, MD, PhD, is the Direc­tor of the Beren­son-Allen Cen­ter for Non-Inva­sive Brain Stim­u­la­tion and a Pro­fes­sor of Neu­rol­o­gy at Har­vard Med­ical School. Dr. Pas­cual-Leone research­es the phys­i­ol­ogy of high­er cog­ni­tive func­tions with empha­sis on the study of brain plas­tic­ity in skill acqui­si­tion and recov­ery from injury across the lifes­pan. Dr. Pas­cual-Leone obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Neu­ro­phys­i­ol­ogy from the Fac­ulty of Med­i­cine of Albert Lud­wigs Uni­ver­sity in Ger­many, and trained at the Uni­ver­sity of Min­nesota and the US Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health. He great­ly enjoys teach­ing and is the recip­i­ent of numer­ous awards.

Robert BilderGuest Lec­tur­er: Robert M. Bilder, PhD, ABPP-CN is the Michael E. Ten­nen­baum Fam­i­ly Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chi­a­try and Biobe­hav­ioral Sci­ences at the UCLA David Gef­fen School of Med­i­cine. Dr. Bilder is also the Chief of Med­ical Psy­chol­o­gy-Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy at the Semel Insti­tute for Neu­ro­science and Human Behav­ior, directs the Ten­nen­baum Cen­ter for the Biol­o­gy of Cre­ativ­i­ty; is Co-Direc­tor of an NIMH-spon­sored Cen­ter for Inter­ven­tion Devel­op­ment and Applied Research focus­ing on trans­la­tion­al research to enhance cog­ni­tive control.

.

.

Required tech­nol­o­gy

  • All you need is a com­put­er with Inter­net access

Mate­ri­als

Course reg­is­tra­tion includes:

  • Access to four record­ed course ses­sions and to an online library with resources
  • A pri­vate online com­mu­ni­ty to enable stu­dents to interact

Syl­labus

Ses­sion I. Debunk­ing Brain and Brain Fit­ness Myths: We will first debunk pop­u­lar mis­con­cep­tions that stand in the way of mak­ing informed deci­sions to spend our time and mon­ey wise­ly. We will explore hot top­ics such as genet­ics vs. envi­ron­ment vs. lifestyle, intel­li­gence, left/ right brain hemi­spheres, “brain age”, cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, sup­ple­ments, learn­ing styles, brain train­ing, neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis, neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, cog­ni­tive reserve, and Alzheimer’s Dis­ease. Addi­tion­al­ly we’ll con­trast the find­ings from a major recent sci­en­tif­ic study with their media cov­er­age, equip­ping par­tic­i­pants to become bet­ter informed read­ers of news and sci­en­tif­ic findings.

Read­ing:

  • Intro­duc­tion, Chap­ter 1 and 2 of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fitness
  • Agency for Health­care Research and Qual­i­ty (AHRQ). 2010. Alzheimer’s Dis­ease and Cog­ni­tive Decline, Struc­tured Abstract and Evi­dence Report. April 2010. www.ahrq.gov/clinic/tp/alzcogtp.htm

Ses­sion II. How to Address the Basics: In this ses­sion we will dis­cuss the com­ple­men­tary roles and mech­a­nisms under­pin­ning the major lifestyle pil­lars for brain fit­ness: healthy nutri­tion, aer­o­bic exer­cise, stress man­age­ment and men­tal stim­u­la­tion that incor­po­rates nov­el­ty, vari­ety and chal­lenge. We’ll explore how the human brain is a dynam­ic sys­tem to opti­mize and enhance, and how each of the major lifestyle pil­lars plays a fun­da­men­tal role in devel­op­ing, enhanc­ing, and main­tain­ing key cog­ni­tive, exec­u­tive and emo­tion­al self-reg­u­la­tion func­tions require to thrive at every stage of life (“brain fitness”).

Read­ing:

  • Chap­ters 3–6 of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fitness.

Activ­i­ty: five-fin­ger meditation.

Register brain fitness courseSes­sion III. How to Build Brain-Based Capac­i­ties: What are some of the most promis­ing research-based “brain train­ing” meth­ods (hint: med­i­ta­tion, cog­ni­tive train­ing, biofeed­back, cog­ni­tive ther­a­py) and what are emerg­ing best prac­tices and guide­lines on how and when to use each of them to build core capac­i­ties such as atten­tion, work­ing mem­o­ry, emo­tion­al self-reg­u­la­tion, infor­ma­tion pro­cess­ing, cog­ni­tive mon­i­tor­ing and reap­praisal? This ses­sion will sur­vey the val­ue and lim­i­ta­tions of avail­able tools and sug­gest appro­pri­ate sce­nar­ios of use.

Read­ing:

  • Chap­ters 7 and 8 of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fitness.

Activ­i­ty: par­tic­i­pants choose biofeed­back-based exer­cise or cog­ni­tive training.

Ses­sion IV. How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach: This ses­sion will equip you with the frame­works and check­lists required to inte­grate the knowl­edge and tools intro­duced dur­ing the whole course to meet your spe­cif­ic per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al pri­or­i­ties. “No one size fits all” applies to brain fit­ness, and this course is designed to help you build your own per­son­al “brain fit­ness toolk­it” to meet the pri­or­i­ties you are fac­ing today and will face tomorrow.

Read­ing:

  • Chap­ter 9 of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fitness.

Activ­i­ty: devel­op your own “brain fit­ness plan.”

Top 40 Ques­tions Addressed by the Course

Here are 40 com­mon brain fit­ness and brain train­ing ques­tions that will get answered dur­ing the course, sequenced by their approx­i­mate order of appear­ance in the syllabus.

  • How can one define brain fitness
  • What is link between stress, focus and memory
  • Does “brain age” even exist
  • How to enhance over­all men­tal pro­duc­tiv­ity, vs just IQ
  • Is there some “ceil­ing” to my improve­ment or can I always try more things
  • How brain func­tions evolve with age. What improves, what declines, what should I be pay­ing atten­tion to
  • Can life­long learn­ing delay dementia
  • What are spe­cific guide­lines to lead a lifestyle that max­i­mizes brain fitness
  • How to increase my chances to avoid Alzheimer’s Disease
  • How do I know what is part of the nor­mal aging process and what isn’t
  • What are the main pil­lars to enhance  cog­ni­tion, and how do they work
  • What are the “active ingre­di­ents” for expe­ri­ences to build new neur­al pathways
  • Are dietary sup­ple­ments ben­e­fi­cial? How does nutri­tion and exer­cise improve cog­ni­tive skills?
  • What is the state of the sci­ence of cog­ni­tive fit­ness? What types of claims make sense?
  • Can videogames  pro­tect from dementia
  • Does stress kill neurons?
  • Can we increase the capacity/ plas­tic­ity of the brain?
  • What are the best pre­ven­tive steps that can be tak­en today to main­tain brain health over many years?
  • What are the types of activ­i­ties shown to build cog­ni­tive reserve
  • How can brain  train­ing prin­ci­ples can be APPLIED to every­day work and life and learn­ing, not just while doing programs
  • Can I improve mem­ory and focus capabilities
  • What’s the best evi­dence for what helps in brain training
  • How can I train my brain to focus/concentrate more when I need to focus/concentrate and shut down when I need to or want to sleep
  • How to effec­tively use new prod­ucts to improve brain func­tion. How do I choose between prod­uct A or B?
  • How brain train­ing works and the ben­e­fits we can expect to receive from it
  • How can I eval­u­ate whether the claims are evidence-based
  • Is med­i­ta­tion bet­ter than yoga for the brain?
  • How does brain train­ing gen­er­al­ize to every day life? Is there research to sup­port claims?
  • How I can pre­vent age-relat­ed cog­ni­tive dete­ri­o­ra­tion/ loss/ dementia
  • How to enhance men­tal flexibility?
  • How do I mea­sure progress and results? How can I track that what I try real­ly works?
  • How I go about being my own Brain Fit­ness Coach
  • How do I get started?
  • How to eval­u­ate whether real change has occurred?
  • How to set up a con­sis­tent prac­tise with say 20 min­utes everyday
  • Will any of this help me at work? How?
  • Register brain fitness courseHow can the aver­age per­son devel­op and self-man­age a struc­tured coach­ing plan in all phas­es of life that is valid and a good time investment
  • What are the three or four things one can do on a dai­ly basis to improve health and pre­vent impair­ment with age?
  • What can I do in my every­day expe­ri­ences to keep my brain in great con­di­tion, as I have/had sev­eral cas­es of demen­tia and Alzheimer’s in my family?
  • How do I know what’s my base­line and how do I track/maintain pos­i­tive progress over time?

 

Com­mon Ques­tions & Answers About the eCourse

Q: Do I need a Pay­Pal account to pay for the course?
A: No. You can pay with your cred­it or deb­it card (VISA, Mas­ter­Card, Amer­i­can Express, Dis­cov­er), or you can log in to your Pay­Pal account if you already have one.

Q: How many hours may it take me to com­plete the course?
A: Around 10–12 hours total. The four lec­tures, com­bined, last 8 hours, and we rec­om­mend at least 2–4 hours to go through read­ings, activ­i­ties, discussions…

brain training onlineQ: Can I down­load the lectures?
A: No, they can only be streamed/ watched online.

Q: How can I learn more after watch­ing the lectures?
There are mul­ti­ple resources avail­able via the eCourse plat­form (see image). You can click on the Activ­i­ties tab in the nav­i­ga­tion bar and find activ­i­ties to per­form after watch­ing each ses­sion. You can also read the addi­tion­al resources avail­able in the Lec­tures & Mate­ri­als tab, and dis­cuss your impres­sions and open ques­tions with oth­er course par­tic­i­pants at the Dis­cus­sion Forum.

Q: How do I know who else is tak­ing or has tak­en the course and how do I inter­act with them?
You can “meet” oth­er par­tic­i­pants and inter­act with them via the Par­tic­i­pants and Dis­cus­sion tabs.

If you have any oth­er ques­tions or would like fur­ther details about the course please Con­tact Us.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 12,620 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2022 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy