Dr. Michael Merzenich: To harness Neuroplasticity for cognitive enhancement, we need to think “Fitness” more than “Games”

(Edi­tor’s Note: In order to help read­ers famil­iar­ize them­selves with the work and think­ing of Dr. Michael Merzenich, one of the win­ners of the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neu­ro­science for ground­break­ing work on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, we are con­dens­ing and repub­lish­ing the com­pre­hen­sive con­ver­sa­tion that Dr. Merzenich and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez had in 2009, in prepa­ra­tion for the inaugural…

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Study: High television viewing and low physical activity can significantly worsen long-term cognitive function

. Too much TV, low phys­i­cal activ­i­ty may wors­en cog­ni­tive func­tion (Med­ical News Today): “The team’s study includ­ed more than 3,200 adults aged 18–30…Over 25 years, the researchers record­ed par­tic­i­pants’ tele­vi­sion view­ing time and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty levels…In the study, high tele­vi­sion view­ing was defined as more than 4 hours dai­ly, while low phys­i­cal activ­i­ty was defined…

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McLean Hospital Corp: #16 Holder of Pervasive Neurotech Intellectual Property*

McLean Hos­pi­tal is the third old­est psy­chi­atric hos­pi­tal in the Unit­ed States and is affil­i­at­ed with Har­vard Med­ical School. McLean’s research efforts in neu­ro­science and psy­chi­a­try span 66 lab­o­ra­to­ries and near­ly 400 research staff — it claims to have the largest research pro­gram of any pri­vate psy­chi­atric hospital. 

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Can better cognitive testing platforms accelerate pharma’s Alzheimer’s research and development efforts?

. Alzheimer’s cure behind the boom in brain sci­ence (Finan­cial Review): “Bio­gen is one of many mem­bers of big phar­ma seek­ing the block­buster drug which will inevitably be worth mul­ti­ple bil­lions of dol­lars. Big phar­ma in the US spends about $US5 bil­lion a year on Alzheimer’s research and devel­op­ment. Expo­nen­tial growth in the dis­ease over…

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