brain-heath

How the Human Brain Project can drive brain health innovation

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You can now enjoy the slide deck from this ses­sion, which took place at the 2013 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit (Sep­tem­ber 19–20th). [Read more…] about How the Human Brain Project can dri­ve brain health innovation

New market report analyzing the growing Digital Brain Health market 2012–2020

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We are proud to release today what we believe is our best mar­ket intel­li­gence report so far, track­ing how ful­ly auto­mat­ed appli­ca­tions designed to assess, mon­i­tor and/ or enhance cog­ni­tion and brain func­tion­ing are trans­form­ing brain health, and health overall.

Here are a few exam­ples of what we mean by Dig­i­tal Brain Health, select­ed from among the 5 Mar­ket Lead­ers and 10 Com­pa­nies to Watch in 2013/2014 iden­ti­fied through our com­pre­hen­sive analysis.

  • A 30-minute online brain health assess­ment and per­son­al­ized brain fit­ness pro­gram used by large com­pa­nies like Nation­wide Insur­ance and Accen­ture to improve employee’s pro­duc­tiv­i­ty and men­tal wellness
  • An online cog­ni­tive train­ing pro­gram offered by sev­er­al large AAA chap­ters to mem­bers age 50+ to improve dri­ving safety
  • A com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py offered by the NHS in the UK as a first-line inter­ven­tion for anx­i­ety and depression
  • A ful­ly dig­i­tal head­set and plat­form that mea­sures basic brain states (such as lev­el of atten­tion) and is being used to help peo­ple med­i­tate bet­ter and reduce ADHD symptoms
  • An iPad-based assess­ment that tracks cog­ni­tive per­for­mance over time to help detect con­cus­sions among football/ hock­ey play­ers and mil­i­tary per­son­nel [Read more…] about New mar­ket report ana­lyz­ing the grow­ing Dig­i­tal Brain Health mar­ket 2012–2020

Brain and Mind News and Articles

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BrainHere you have a col­lec­tion of recent news cov­er­age on brain heath, fit­ness and train­ing topics:

1- Great Mem­o­ry Spe­cial in Nation­al Geo­graph­ic, including

- Inter­ac­tive 3D map of the brain

- Mem­o­ry Game

2- Fas­ci­nat­ing What the Bea­t­les Gave Sci­ence, by Sharon Beg­ley at Newsweek

- “Even in novices, med­i­ta­tion leaves its mark. An eight-week course in com­pas­sion med­i­ta­tion, in which vol­un­teers focus on the wish that all beings be free from suf­fer­ing, shift­ed brain activ­i­ty from the right pre­frontal cor­tex to the left, a pat­tern asso­ci­at­ed with a greater sense of well-being.”

3- One of the best edi­tions of Sci­en­tif­ic Amer­i­can Mind

- Solv­ing the IQ Puz­zle “The 20th cen­tu­ry saw the Fly­nn effect: mas­sive gains in IQ from one gen­er­a­tion to anoth­er. Now Fly­nn explains why”

- Anx­i­ety and Alzheimer- A life­time of stress could lead to mem­o­ry prob­lems and dis­ease: “Over a peri­od of up to 12 years, vol­un­teers who were anx­i­ety-prone had a 40 per­cent high­er risk of devel­op­ing mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment than more easy­go­ing indi­vid­u­als did. Mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment is thought to be a pre­cur­sor for Alzheimer’s.”

4- Exer­cise builds strong brains, too — USATODAY.com

- “Phillip Tom­porows­ki, a study co-author and exer­cise psy­chol­o­gist at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Geor­gia in Athens, says exer­cise “may well improve the under­ly­ing men­tal process­es that are involved in a lot of behav­iors and aca­d­e­m­ic tasks.”

5- Dai­ly com­put­er game boosts maths- BBC, report­ing pre­lim­i­nary results from a small pilot

- “Play­ing a dai­ly com­put­er game has helped a class of pri­ma­ry school chil­dren improve their maths and con­cen­tra­tion, a study says.”

6- ADHD and Brain Devel­op­ment- Wash­ing­ton Post

- “Devel­op­ing more slow­ly in ADHD young­sters — the lag can be as much as three years — are brain regions that sup­press inap­pro­pri­ate actions and thoughts, focus atten­tion, remem­ber things from moment to moment, work for reward, and con­trol movement.”