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

How a new approach to fund­ing Alzheimer’s research could pay off (MIT News):

“More than 5 mil­lion Amer­i­cans suf­fer from Alzheimer’s dis­ease, the afflic­tion that erodes mem­o­ry and oth­er men­tal capac­i­ties, but no drugs tar­get­ing the dis­ease have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion since 2003…Lo and three co-authors pro­pose Read the rest of this entry »

Two good recent pieces in The New York Times bring to the fore­front the need to ques­tion sta­tus quo mind­set and prac­tices about how to mea­sure and enhance brain health.

Sleep Ther­a­py Seen as an Aid for Depres­sion

• “Cur­ing insom­nia in peo­ple with depres­sion could dou­ble their chance of a full recov­ery, sci­en­tists are report­ing. The find­ings, based on an insom­nia treat­ment that uses talk ther­a­py rather than drugs, are Read the rest of this entry »