Aerobic Exercise or Weight Training to Boost Brain Function?

By Dr. Pascale Michelon | May 1, 2012

Aer­o­bic exer­cise is the kind of exer­cise that has been con­sis­tent­ly shown to trig­ger the growth of both brain cells and new con­nec­tions between them, boost­ing cog­ni­tive func­tions. It has also been asso­ci­at­ed with low­er risks of devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s Dis­ease. Is it the case that oth­er types of phys­i­cal exer­cise can also ben­e­fit the brain?…

Read More

May Update: Brain Training in Mental Health Toolkits for Prevention and Rehabilitation

By SharpBrains | May 31, 2011

The use of a vari­ety of brain train­ing inter­ven­tions is grow­ing in the area of men­tal health. Emerg­ing evi­dence sug­gests that in the near future tar­get­ed brain train­ing may even be used to pre­vent sub­stance abuse. For exam­ple, train­ing work­ing mem­o­ry may reduce sub­stance abusers’ dis­count­ing of long-term rewards and pun­ish­ments — such dis­count­ing is…

Read More

Exercise Improves the Cognition of Overweight Children

By Dr. Pascale Michelon | May 16, 2011

Chil­dren who exer­cise vig­or­ous­ly tend to have bet­ter grades. In con­trast, over­weight chil­dren tend to under­achieve. With this in mind, Davis and her col­leagues from Med­ical Col­lege of Geor­gia test­ed whether par­tic­i­pat­ing in an exer­cise pro­gram would help over­weight chil­dren, not only phys­i­cal­ly but also men­tal­ly. Specif­i­cal­ly, they hypoth­e­sized that the chil­dren exec­u­tive func­tions would…

Read More

What is Brain Fitness? How to Enhance Brain Fitness?

By SharpBrains | June 25, 2010 |

We define Brain Fit­ness as hav­ing the brain-based cog­ni­tive, emo­tion­al and self-reg­u­la­­tion capac­i­ties required to suc­ceed in one’s envi­ron­ment. Not every­one is exposed to the same men­tal demands nor do we all have the same start­ing points. This means we need to stop look­ing for ‘mag­ic pills’ and invest more resources in devel­op­ing toolk­its and…

Read More

Brain Quiz: Do You Have a Brain?

By Dr. Pascale Michelon | September 7, 2009

Have you already read The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness? Let’s see… 1. Pick the only part of your body that does not con­tain fat: a. Arm b. Thigh c. Brain d. None Answer: d) Fats are also present in the brain: in neu­rons’ mem­branes to keep them flex­i­ble. These fats are the omega 3 and omega 6 fatty…

Read More