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Brain-Imaging

FDA-approved, Cybin-sponsored clinicial trial to measure ketamine’s impact on the brain via Kernel Flow neuroimaging helmet

November 22, 2021 by SharpBrains

Kernel’s Brain-Imag­ing Hel­met Approved For Clin­i­cal Tri­al On Patients Using Ket­a­mine (Forbes):

The U.S. Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion has approved a clin­i­cal tri­al using a neu­roimag­ing hel­met made by Los Ange­les-based Ker­nel to track what hap­pens in the brain when a human takes a psy­che­del­ic dose of ket­a­mine. [Read more…] about FDA-approved, Cybin-spon­sored clin­i­cial tri­al to mea­sure ketamine’s impact on the brain via Ker­nel Flow neu­roimag­ing helmet

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Brain-Imaging, Cerebral Cortex, Clinical-Trial, Consciousness, Cybin, drug development, FDA, human cognition, Kernel, ketamine, neuroimaging, neuroimaging helmet, neurological activity, placebo, psychedelic

Flexibility is good except when it isn’t: Study finds how scientists can reach different conclusions analyzing the same brain scans

August 4, 2020 by SharpBrains

Neu­roimag­ing: Many Ana­lysts, Dif­fer­ing Results (Dana Foundation):

For decades, both the research and med­ical com­mu­ni­ties have relied on neu­roimag­ing tools like func­tion­al mag­net­ic res­o­nance imag­ing (fMRI) to give them a win­dow into the liv­ing human brain. Such scans have pro­vid­ed unprece­dent­ed insights into the brain’s struc­ture and func­tion – and the field, as a whole, has used this tech­nique to bet­ter under­stand how the brain gives rise to thoughts, emo­tions, and actions. But as neu­roimag­ing tech­nol­o­gy has advanced, so have the dif­fer­ent analy­sis tools and the num­ber of ways one can eval­u­ate the result­ing data. Now, the results of unique research project, the Neu­roimag­ing Analy­sis, Repli­ca­tion, and Pre­dic­tion Study (NARPS), sug­gest that dif­fer­ent analy­ses can lead to strik­ing­ly dif­fer­ent results from the same data set.

[Read more…] about Flex­i­bil­i­ty is good except when it isn’t: Study finds how sci­en­tists can reach dif­fer­ent con­clu­sions ana­lyz­ing the same brain scans

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: brain scans, Brain-Imaging, cognitive-neuroscientist, flexibility, fMRI, functional magnetic resonance imaging, Imaging, Imaging Techniques, NARPS, neuroimaging, scientific method

Jobs with low physical stress and good working conditions linked to larger hippocampus and better memory

July 21, 2020 by SharpBrains

CSU study links phys­i­cal stress on the job with brain and mem­o­ry decline in old­er age (press release):

A new study out of Col­orado State Uni­ver­si­ty has found that phys­i­cal stress in one’s job may be asso­ci­at­ed with faster brain aging and poor­er memory.

Aga Burzyn­s­ka, an assis­tant pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of Human Devel­op­ment and Fam­i­ly Stud­ies, and her research team con­nect­ed occu­pa­tion­al sur­vey respons­es with brain-imag­ing data from 99 cog­ni­tive­ly nor­mal old­er adults, age 60 to 79. They found that those who report­ed high lev­els of phys­i­cal stress in their most recent job had small­er vol­umes in the hip­pocam­pus and per­formed poor­er on mem­o­ry tasks. The hip­pocam­pus is the part of the brain that is crit­i­cal for mem­o­ry and is affect­ed in both nor­mal aging and in dementia.

[Read more…] about Jobs with low phys­i­cal stress and good work­ing con­di­tions linked to larg­er hip­pocam­pus and bet­ter memory

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Peak Performance Tagged With: Brain-Imaging, Cognitive Aging, cognitive decline, cognitive-health, hippocampus, jobs, memory, occupation, occupational stress, occupational survey, physical stress, working conditions

Update: Moderate lifetime drinking may lead to lower Alzheimer-related beta amyloid deposits in the brain

April 24, 2020 by SharpBrains

__

Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter.

#1. First of all, it’s not all bad news this month. Study finds that mod­er­ate life­time drink­ing may lead to low­er Alzheimer-relat­ed beta amy­loid deposits in the brain

#2. And, talk about per­son­al­ized med­i­cine! This fas­ci­nat­ing study show­ing how brain imag­ing (fMRI) + machine learn­ing + inten­sive, non-inva­sive neu­rostim­u­la­tion = tar­get­ed treat­ments that can max­i­mize effi­ca­cy and min­i­mize side effects: Rein­vent­ing depres­sion treat­ment via tran­scra­nial mag­net­ic brain stim­u­la­tion (TMS)

#3. Also, not a minute too soon … Med­i­ta­tion apps have gone main­stream in the covid-19 era and Dig­i­tal health start-ups raised a record $3.1 bil­lion in Q1; focus will like­ly evolve from providers to con­sumers and employers

#4. Fyi, a very time­ly vir­tu­al event com­ing Tues­day April 28th, online: Explore strate­gies and tools to boost men­tal well­be­ing dur­ing (and after) Covid-19

#5. Now, “While Pear has an advan­tage over the com­pe­ti­tion in that its prod­ucts are backed by ran­dom­ized clin­i­cal tri­als, physi­cians and health plans are still work­ing out how to pre­scribe and pay for dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics.” The FDA clears Som­ryst, Pear’s dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic to treat chron­ic insomnia

#6. Net net, now is the time for indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive action to shift to a health­i­er “new nor­mal” for all: 3 ways to pro­tect your men­tal health dur­ing –and after– COVID-19 (in Span­ish: Tres hábitos de higiene men­tal para vencer al COVID-19 y crear un futuro más salud­able). Want more? Enjoy these Three tips for wise minds to calm coro­n­avirus anxiety

#7. A small but impor­tant study for that hope­ful near future when uni­ver­si­ties and col­leges reopen their doors: Study finds mixed results of Adder­all as cog­ni­tive enhancer (seems to boost emo­tion more than cognition)

#8. But, first things first. “The Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” reached #1 on the pop charts in 1977. Maybe it was the beat, maybe it was John Travolta’s danc­ing. Or maybe it’s that the Gibb broth­ers’ cen­tral lyric is quite lit­er­al­ly always play­ing in our head. Keep­ing us safe —that is, “stayin’ alive ”— is the pri­ma­ry mis­sion of the brain”

  • Explor­ing the human brain and how it responds to stress (1/3)
  • On World Health Day 2020, let’s dis­cuss the stress response and the Gen­er­al Adap­ta­tion Syn­drome (2/3)
  • The frontal lobes, the lit­tle brain down under and “Stayin’ Alive” (3/3)

Enough with coro­n­avirus out­break. Any­thing else going on? Yes!

#9. The Right to Per­son­al Iden­ti­ty. The Right to Free Will. The Right to Men­tal Pri­va­cy. The Right to Equal Access to Men­tal Aug­men­ta­tion. The Right to Pro­tec­tion from Algo­rith­mic Bias. Will these five Neu­roR­ights help har­ness emerg­ing neu­rotech­nolo­gies for the com­mon good?

#10. “Today, the sci­en­tif­ic inves­ti­ga­tion of tran­scen­dent expe­ri­ences is, in my view, one of the most excit­ing fron­tiers in the sci­ence of well-being.” Tran­scend­ing Maslow’s famous “hier­ar­chy of needs” through Maslow’s own research on Peak Experiences

#11. You CAN have your cake and eat it too: Here’s a brain teas­er to stim­u­late your men­tal imagery, spa­tial rota­tion … and appetite

#12. Ques­tion: My first thought after con­grat­u­lat­ing myself on being so clever about some­thing? Tease your brain with these eight fun rid­dles…

 

Wish­ing you and yours a great month of May,

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

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Filed Under: Attention & ADD/ADHD, Brain Teasers, Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Adderall, Alzheimer-disease, Alzheimers-disease, beta-amyloid, brain, brain teaser for adults, Brain Teasers, Brain-Imaging, brain-teaser, cognitive-enhancer, depression, digital health, digital therapeutics, meditation apps, mental health, neurorights, neurostimulation, personalized-medicine, riddles, Stress, Transcend

On Mental Health and the advent of Digital Phenotyping

December 4, 2018 by SharpBrains

___

Build­ing the Ther­mome­ter for Men­tal Health (The Dana Foundation):

“Imag­ine that you vis­it your physi­cian com­plain­ing of a fever and, rather than tak­ing out a ther­mome­ter, they begin hov­er­ing their “edu­cat­ed hands” over you. Grad­u­al­ly, they press down against your arm to gain a full impres­sion of your skin’s tem­per­a­ture and the “deep­er seat­ed com­bus­tions.” Remov­ing their hand, they look close­ly at your appear­ance and pro­nounce their assess­ment: you do, in fact, have a fever. You might (jus­ti­fi­ably) be dubi­ous [Read more…] about On Men­tal Health and the advent of Dig­i­tal Phenotyping

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Filed Under: Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Brain-health, Brain-Imaging, digital phenotyping, Mental-Health, mental-illness, thermometer

Lifestyle and neurotechnology over genetics

May 31, 2018 by SharpBrains

”

Dear col­league,

It’s remark­able how quick­ly things are chang­ing, final­ly, in brain health and men­tal health — see for exam­ple what’s new with Inter­ax­on, Akili, Neu­raMetrix, Apple, Calm, Halo Neu­ro­science, Mind­strong Health, Novar­tis, Pear Ther­a­peu­tics, and life­long neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis, all in the last 6 months!

Please enjoy the May edi­tion of Sharp­Brains eNewslet­ter below, and con­sid­er join­ing the Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit this Decem­ber to dis­cuss the lat­est and help shape the next 🙂

New research:

  • Cog­ni­tive train­ing, diet, exer­cise, and vas­cu­lar man­age­ment seen to improve cog­ni­tion even in peo­ple with genet­ic pre­dis­po­si­tion for demen­tia (APOE e4)
  • Brain imag­ing show that patients with Alzheimer’s dis­ease can still remem­ber and enjoy their favorite songs
  • Phys­i­cal exer­cise doesn’t slow down demen­tia once it appears, study shows

New tools:

  • Ini­tial study finds promise and lim­i­ta­tions in using vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR) to treat ADHD
  • tDCS com­ing to an Equinox gym near you: Good, Bad or Depends?
  • Could tech­nol­o­gy help cure depres­sion among old­er adults? (Short answer: Yes)

New thinking:

  • Six tips for social-emo­tion­al learn­ing (SEL) to trans­fer into real-world skills
  • Large study to assess impact on ear­ly brain devel­op­ment of finan­cial assis­tance to low-income mothers
  • New book high­lights con­tin­ued brain devel­op­ment through­out ado­les­cence, even into our 20s
  • Pre­sen­ta­tion on Neu­ro­science, Edu­ca­tion and Life­long Learn­ing (in Spanish)

 

Have a great month of June,

 

The Sharp­Brains Team

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Akili, Apple, Brain-health, Brain-Imaging, Calm, Cognitive-Training, dementia, diet, exercise, Genetics, Halo Neuroscience, Interaxon, lifestyle, Mindstrong Health, NeuraMetrix, neuro, Neurogenesis, neurotech, Neurotechnology, Novartis, Pear Therapeutics, tDCS, vascular management, virtual-reality

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