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Some brain-boost­ing sup­ple­ments con­tain an unap­proved drug that could harm users, study warns (STAT news):

“Promis­ing to lift brain fog or improve mem­o­ry, brain-boost­ing sup­ple­ments have joined sex­u­al-enhance­ment and weight-loss reme­dies in the light­ly reg­u­lat­ed world of dietary sup­ple­ments. These prod­ucts may be sold legal­ly with broad-brush come-ons like these, as long as they don’t make spe­cif­ic claims about treat­ing a dis­ease — or con­tain actu­al drugs.

New research led by Dr. Pieter Cohen of Har­vard Med­ical School doc­u­ments five sup­ple­ment brands for sale in the U.S. that con­tain var­i­ous amounts of pirac­etam Read the rest of this entry »

While the hip­pocam­pus tends to shrink with age, which con­tributes to cog­ni­tive decline, a recent study shows that this is not always the case (see all those blue lines), sug­gest­ing it can be pos­si­ble to main­tain hip­pocam­pus vol­ume and cog­ni­tive func­tion into our lat­er years.

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Time to wrap-up anoth­er stim­u­lat­ing month with Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of promis­ing news for every­one with a (human) brain 🙂

New tech for brain health:

• Neu­ro­engi­neer­ing meets neu­roethics to address treat­ment-resis­tant depres­sion
• Study: Hear­ing aids may help old­er adults delay demen­tia, depres­sion, anx­i­ety, and falls
• Four guide­lines for smart use of smart­phones

New brain and mind research:

• Reminder: A brain-friend­ly lifestyle is the best approach to delay cog­ni­tive decline and demen­tia
• Study chal­lenges the “seduc­tive” amy­loid hypoth­e­sis of Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD)
• Study finds a key ingre­di­ent in mind­ful­ness train­ing: Accep­tance (not acqui­es­cence)

New thinking to shape education and healthcare:

• What are the ethics of dis­cour­ag­ing much-need­ed inno­va­tion giv­en poten­tial pri­va­cy con­cerns?
• Help select the cam­paign stick­er for Brain Aware­ness Week 2020
• Sharp­Brains y El Cere­bro Que Cura se pre­sen­tan en Madrid
• Grow­ing con­cern and hope about astro­nauts’ cog­ni­tive health dur­ing space­flight

Finally, a few riddles to tease your brain:

• Nine great rid­dles about Life and Death
• Sev­en sharp rid­dles to cel­e­brate Thanks­giv­ing in per­fect har­mo­ny

Have a great Thanks­giv­ing and Decem­ber,

The Sharp­Brains Team

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Q: What’s far more harm­ful to your health than NOT keep­ing up with the news?
A: Keep­ing up with the news and dis­cussing the lat­est over Thanks­giv­ing din­ner.

Q: What is a sure way of sus­tain­ing a friend­ly and socia­ble feel­ing towards the whole world?
A: Con­sort only with strangers.

Q: What beats regret­ting what you DID say?
A: Trea­sur­ing what you DIDN’T say. Read the rest of this entry »

CNN’s Ana Maria Mon­tero inter­views Ned Sahin. The dis­cus­sion about the impact of EU pri­va­cy laws starts in minute 10.

Sto­ry descrip­tion (CNN Mon­ey): Ned Sahin is founder and CEO of neu­rotech­nol­o­gy start-up Brain Pow­er, whose tool “Empow­er Me” uses smart glass­es like Google Glass to coach those with autism. It helps school­child­ren learn social and cog­ni­tive skills and can even guide adults through an inter­view process. Brain Power’s prod­uct is sold to many schools in the U.S. but may nev­er make it to mar­ket in Switzer­land Read the rest of this entry »