Update: Moderate lifetime drinking may lead to lower Alzheimer-related beta amyloid deposits in the brain

__ Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter. #1. First of all, it’s not all bad news this month. Study finds that mod­er­ate life­time drink­ing may lead to low­er Alzheimer-relat­ed beta amy­loid deposits in the brain #2. And, talk about per­son­al­ized med­i­cine! This fas­ci­nat­ing study show­ing how brain imag­ing (fMRI) + machine learn­ing + inten­sive, non-invasive…

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Study finds mixed results of Adderall as cognitive enhancer (seems to boost emotion more than cognition)

Over the past 15 years there has been grow­ing aware­ness that many col­lege stu­dents with­out an ADHD diag­no­sis use ADHD drugs. On some cam­pus­es, rates of self-report­ed non-med­i­cal use have exceed­ed 30% of stu­dents. The pri­ma­ry rea­son stu­dents report tak­ing ADHD drugs is to enhance their aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance. And, the strong major­i­ty of students —…

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Large multi-center study to test videogame-like digital therapy as (potentially) FDA-cleared ADHD treatment

Akili Labs recruits for ADHD tri­al with ambi­tions of FDA clear­ance for dig­i­tal med­i­cine (Med­C­i­ty News) “Akili Labs has kicked off open enroll­ment for a clin­i­cal tri­al of its Project EVO video game plat­form in a quest to secure for 510(k) clear­ance from the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion for its lead indication

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Use and misuse of ADHD drugs and nootropics among teenagers and toddlers

Rital­in may pose brain risks for young peo­ple with­out ADHD, study shows (Fox News): “Smart” drugs, like Rital­in, also known as nootrop­ics, are known to increase a person’s atten­tion span, mem­o­ry and abil­i­ty to stay alert. As a result, they have become increas­ing­ly abused by stu­dents seek­ing an extra edge in their stud­ies. Accord­ing to a…

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Study: Neurofeedback brain training can complement ADHD stimulant medications

School-based brain train­ing shown to alle­vi­ate ADHD (The Boston Globe): “With more than one in 10 chil­dren diag­nosed with atten­tion deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der, par­ents and doc­tors alike have been eager to find alter­na­tives to pre­scrip­tion stim­u­lant med­ica­tions like Rital­in or Adder­all. Some of these options include 

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