biofeedback

Virtual-reality gaming + affordable biofeedback = Anxiety therapy for all?

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Videogame Tech­nol­o­gy Could Bring Biofeed­back Ther­a­py to the Liv­ing Room (The Wall Street Journal):

For decades, use of biofeed­back to help suf­fer­ers of anx­i­ety, among oth­er psy­cho­log­i­cal con­di­tions, has large­ly been lim­it­ed to clin­i­cal set­tings with expensive—and some­what tedious—medical equip­ment. Now, with an assist from devel­op­ers of vir­tu­al-real­i­ty games, effec­tive ther­a­peu­tic biofeed­back is becom­ing more afford­able, acces­si­ble and engaging.

Tests of a new gen­er­a­tion of prod­ucts that com­bine advances in wear­able bio­met­ric sen­sors with the immersive—and fun—qualities of vir­tu­al-real­i­ty gam­ing have increas­ing­ly demon­strat­ed effec­tive­ness in help­ing anx­ious sub­jects achieve states of calm, among oth­er ther­a­peu­tic uses.

[Read more…] about Vir­tu­al-real­i­ty gam­ing + afford­able biofeed­back = Anx­i­ety ther­a­py for all?

February 26–28th: Save the Date for the 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit and help shape the Future of Brain Health

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Imag­ine a free annu­al brain check-up — who should take it, and how could it help prevent/ delay/ treat cog­ni­tive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease?

Imag­ine your smart­phone can detect ear­ly signs of depres­sion or Parkinson’s Dis­ease — would you like to know? Who else should know … or not know?

Imag­ine a videogame cleared by the FDA to treat ADHD or sub­stance abuse — how will doc­tors pre­scribe it, patients access it, and insur­ers pay for it?

Imag­ine being respon­si­ble for the health & well­ness of 100,000 peo­ple — how will you help them nav­i­gate inter­ven­tions such as breathing/ exercise/ meditation/ apps/ biofeedback/ tDCS to reg­u­late stress?

Imag­ine invest­ing $100 mil­lion in star­tups devel­op­ing non­in­va­sive, dig­i­tal neu­rotech­nolo­gies — where, and how, will you find great oppor­tu­ni­ties to gen­er­ate finan­cial and social returns?

The 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit (Feb­ru­ary 26–28th, 2019)  will fea­ture over forty of the world’s top experts, inno­va­tors and investors aim­ing to improve brain health and per­for­mance for all in light of grow­ing neu­ro­science and dig­i­tal tech.

Learn More and Reserve your Spot HERE

Learn More and Save the Date for the 2018 SharpBrains Virtual Summit (December 4–6th)

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Imag­ine a videogame cleared by the FDA to treat ADHD, depres­sion, or sub­stance abuse — how will doc­tors pre­scribe it, patients access it, and insur­ers pay for it?

Imag­ine a free “annu­al brain check-up” — what may it look like, and how can it lead into per­son­al­ized inter­ven­tions to improve func­tion and prevent/ delay/ treat cog­ni­tive decline and Alzheimer’s Disease?

Imag­ine being respon­si­ble for the health & well­ness of a mil­lion peo­ple — how will you edu­cate them to nav­i­gate most-like­ly-to-help inter­ven­tions, such as breathing/ exercise/ meditation/ apps/ biofeedback/ tDCS to reg­u­late stress?

Imag­ine invest­ing $100 mil­lion in star­tups devel­op­ing non­in­va­sive, dig­i­tal neu­rotech­nolo­gies — where, and how, will you find great oppor­tu­ni­ties to gen­er­ate finan­cial and social returns? 

The 2018 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit (Decem­ber 4–6th, 2018)  will fea­ture over forty of the world’s top experts, inno­va­tors and investors aim­ing to improve brain health and per­for­mance for all in light of grow­ing neu­ro­science and dig­i­tal tech.

Learn More and Reserve your Spot HERE

Ohio Opioid Technology Challenge funds program testing neurofeedback-based brain training to reduce cravings and battle opioid addiction

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Soft­ware engi­neer Kel­ly Cash­ion (right) adjusts a wire­less EEG head­set on research engi­neer Nilesh Powar. Cred­it: The Uni­ver­si­ty of Day­ton Research Institute

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Bat­tling Addic­tion With Brain­pow­er (Uni­ver­si­ty of Day­ton press release):

“The Uni­ver­si­ty of Day­ton Research Insti­tute has won a $10,000 Ohio Opi­oid Tech­nol­o­gy Chal­lenge award for a pro­gram that will teach peo­ple with opi­oid addic­tions how to reduce their crav­ings by regain­ing con­trol of their brains.

“Using neu­ro­feed­back, we’ll work with our vol­un­teers to help them learn to reg­u­late activ­i­ty in the part of their brain asso­ci­at­ed with crav­ings and rewire some of those path­ways, allow­ing them to reduce their crav­ings and expe­ri­ence a more ‘nor­mal’ state even with­out opi­oids.” [Read more…] about Ohio Opi­oid Tech­nol­o­gy Chal­lenge funds pro­gram test­ing neu­ro­feed­back-based brain train­ing to reduce crav­ings and bat­tle opi­oid addiction

Study debunks 4 common myths about brain training and lifelong cognitive enhancement

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If the media is your main source of infor­ma­tion about brain train­ing and cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, you will prob­a­bly believe the following:

1) All brain train­ing is the same…

2) …and it sim­ply does­n’t work.

3) Com­mer­cial brain train­ing pro­grams, espe­cial­ly, don’t work.

4) How could they work? Genet­ics is des­tiny, aging is a pre­de­ter­mined process…so by age 60 or 70 or 80, “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.”

If you tracked and ana­lyzed the sci­en­tif­ic lit­er­a­ture around cog­ni­tive train­ing, cog­ni­tive ther­a­pies, biofeed­back, med­i­ta­tion, brain reserve and neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty in gen­er­al, you’d know those 4 beliefs are wrong. They are myths that pre­vent a more nuanced con­ver­sa­tion about brain-enhanc­ing lifestyles and about the emerg­ing brain train­ing and neu­rotech­nol­o­gy toolkit.

Good news is, a just-pub­lished study should help debunk those myths–especially with regards to com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive training–and pro­vide a bet­ter [Read more…] about Study debunks 4 com­mon myths about brain train­ing and life­long cog­ni­tive enhancement

20 Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

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holdingbrain——-

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Aware­ness Month, so let me share these 20 Must-Know Facts to Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty & Improve Brain Health that come from the hun­dreds of sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical stud­ies we ana­lyzed  [Read more…] about 20 Must-Know Facts to Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and Improve Brain Health