Brain-Plasticity

Promote brain plasticity and keep your mind at ease by taking your daily “exercise pill”

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As with many oth­er physi­cians, rec­om­mend­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty to patients was just a doc­tor chore for me – until a few years ago. That was because I myself was not very active. Over the years, as I picked up box­ing and became more active, I got first­hand expe­ri­ence of pos­i­tive impacts on my mind. I also start­ed research­ing the effects of dance and move­ment ther­a­pies on trau­ma and anx­i­ety in refugee chil­dren, and I learned a lot more about the neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gy of exer­cise. [Read more…] about Pro­mote brain plas­tic­i­ty and keep your mind at ease by tak­ing your dai­ly “exer­cise pill”

Systematic review calls for early targeted interventions to help babies and toddlers with cerebral palsy harness time window with maximum brain plasticity

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Ear­ly tar­get­ed inter­ven­tion ‘crit­i­cal’ for improv­ing out­comes in cere­bral pal­sy (Healio):

Ear­ly inter­ven­tion for chil­dren with or at high risk for cere­bral pal­sy should begin “as soon as pos­si­ble” in order to build on “a crit­i­cal devel­op­men­tal time,” accord­ing to results of a sys­tem­at­ic review pub­lished in JAMA Pedi­atrics. [Read more…] about Sys­tem­at­ic review calls for ear­ly tar­get­ed inter­ven­tions to help babies and tod­dlers with cere­bral pal­sy har­ness time win­dow with max­i­mum brain plasticity

How COVID-related stress can disrupt your brain circuits and nine tips to prevent it

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COVID-19 has touched each of us some­how. Many now rec­og­nize that car­ing for our men­tal health is as essen­tial as address­ing the virus if we are to emerge stronger, more con­nect­ed and more resilient.

The Ancient Greeks said “know thy­self” to live sound­ly, but it is only now that we have the tech­nol­o­gy to start under­stand­ing how our indi­vid­ual expe­ri­ences arise from the com­plex­i­ty of our brains. [Read more…] about How COVID-relat­ed stress can dis­rupt your brain cir­cuits and nine tips to pre­vent it

A limerick a day hopefully keeps the neurologist away

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– Hat tip to Bar­bara Arrowsmith-Young

Mark Rosenzweig’s classic 1996 paper on neuroplasticity:

Psy­chobi­ol­o­gy of plas­tic­i­ty: effects of train­ing and expe­ri­ence on brain and behav­ior (Behav­iour­al Brain Research):

Abstract: Sup­port­ing Heb­b’s 1949 hypoth­e­sis of use-induced plas­tic­i­ty of the ner­vous sys­tem, our group found in the 1960s that train­ing or dif­fer­en­tial expe­ri­ence induced neu­ro­chem­i­cal changes in cere­bral cor­tex of the rat and region­al changes in weight of cor­tex. Fur­ther stud­ies revealed changes in cor­ti­cal thick­ness [Read more…] about A lim­er­ick a day hope­ful­ly keeps the neu­rol­o­gist away

How to remember what you read: Eight tips to improve reading speed and cognitive ability

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You read a lot. Now, do you remem­ber much of what of you read?

Whether it is books, blog, mag­a­zines, or pro­fes­sion­al man­u­als, we still need to read. Now and in years ahead. And, much of it is non­fic­tion mate­r­i­al, where it’s cru­cial to first under­stand and then remem­ber what you are read­ing. [Read more…] about How to remem­ber what you read: Eight tips to improve read­ing speed and cog­ni­tive ability

Study: Psychedelics can promote neural plasticity in the prefrontal cortex and expand pathways for mental health

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– Cred­it: Cell Reports 2018 23, 3170–3182DOI: (10.1016/j.celrep.2018.05.022). Copy­right © 2018 The Authors

Psy­che­delics in Neu­rol­o­gy: Poten­tial for Improv­ing Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty (Neu­rol­o­gy­Times):

“Back in the 1950s, research was prov­ing that psy­che­del­ic agents could be effec­tive in the treat­ment of var­i­ous neu­ropsy­chi­atric dis­or­ders. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, just as sci­ence was explor­ing their ben­e­fi­cial effects, the coun­ter­cul­ture was explor­ing and embrac­ing their effects. Slow­ly but sure­ly, psy­che­delics were asso­ci­at­ed with rebel­lious youth and the tumul­tuous anti-war move­ment. As a result, the gov­ern­ment shut down most of the research.

The 1990s saw renewed inter­est in psy­che­del­ic com­pounds as a means to address neu­ropsy­chi­atric dis­or­ders. Research explored the ben­e­fits of MDMA and ket­a­mine to treat mood dis­or­ders and post­trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der. Now, a new study sheds even more light on the promise these agents might pro­vide. [Read more…] about Study: Psy­che­delics can pro­mote neur­al plas­tic­i­ty in the pre­frontal cor­tex and expand path­ways for men­tal health