On neuroplasticity, cognition, aging, medication, Alzheimer’s, board games, brain teasers, and more

By SharpBrains | October 26, 2023

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing research find­ings on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, cog­ni­tion, aging, med­ica­tion, Alzheimer’s, board games, and more, plus some brain teasers to get you in great shape for Hal­loween. #1. Study: Play­ing board games like Chess, Mahjong, Go, helps slow cog­ni­tive decline as we age (but with clear dif­fer­ences in…

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Four reasons to question “new generation” monoclonal antibody Alzheimer’s drugs such as aducanumab (Aduhelm), lecanemab (Leqembi), donanemab

By SharpBrains | September 25, 2023

New Alzheimer’s Drugs Don’t Deserve the Hype (Being Patient): A promi­nent child­hood mem­o­ry is of my grand­par­ents liv­ing with and then dying from demen­tia. As is uni­ver­sal with demen­tia, there was a dou­ble blow: watch­ing my grand­par­ents lose their iden­ti­ty and see­ing the suf­fer­ing of those clos­est to them.

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CMS: anti-amyloid drug Leqembi (lecanemab) doesn’t meet the “reasonable and necessary” standard required for wider Medicare coverage

By SharpBrains | February 28, 2023

CMS Sticks to Sharply Lim­it­ed Cov­er­age of New Alzheimer’s Drug, Leqem­bi (Man­aged Health­care Exec­u­tive): For now, CMS (Note: Cen­ters for Medicare & Med­ic­aid Ser­vices) is stick­ing to the cov­er­age deci­sion it made for Aduhelm (adu­canum­ab) and apply­ing it Leqem­bi (lecanemab). The deci­sion lim­its Medicare cov­er­age of the two Alzheimer disease’s drugs to Medicare ben­e­fi­cia­ries who…

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Could I be wrong? Exploring cognitive bias, curiosity, intellectual humility, and lifelong learning

By SharpBrains | November 30, 2021

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing eight time­ly sci­en­tif­ic and indus­try news plus a few fun teasers to appre­ci­ate our unique human brains. #1. Could I be wrong? Explor­ing research on cog­ni­tive bias, curios­i­ty, intel­lec­tu­al humil­i­ty, and life­long learn­ing “None of us thinks that our beliefs and atti­tudes are incor­rect; if we…

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Amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) found in approximately 40% of patients taking “Alzheimer’s drug” Aduhelm

By SharpBrains | November 29, 2021

Study: Biogen’s Aduhelm Caused Brain Swelling in Over One-Third of Study Par­tic­i­pants (Bio­Space): Atten­tion is being focused on a side effect of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm (adu­canum­ab). Even before its con­tro­ver­sial approval on June 7, there were cas­es of amy­loid-relat­ed imag­ing abnor­mal­i­ties (ARIA‑E), or cere­bral ede­ma, observed in the trials.

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On physical activity, neuroplasticity, depression, screen time, neuromodulation and more

By SharpBrains | October 29, 2021

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time eight sci­en­tif­ic reports and indus­try resources plus a few fun brain teasers. #1. Study finds ulti­mate hack to pro­tect teen brains from harm­ful screen time: Exer­cise (and good role-mod­­el­ing): “Girls who spent less than an hour on screens and boys who spent less than…

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