Researchers use brain imag­ing and machine learn­ing to pre­dict which high-risk infants will devel­op autism. Cred­it: Car­oli­na Insti­tute for Devel­op­men­tal Dis­abil­i­ties.

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Time for Sharp­Brains’ June e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing sci­en­tif­ic find­ings, promis­ing assess­ments, ther­a­pies and brain health mon­i­tor­ing tools…and some fun opti­cal illu­sions 🙂

New research

• Study com­bines neu­roimag­ing with machine learn­ing to pre­dict, with 96% accu­ra­cy, whether high-risk 6‑month-old babies will devel­op autism spec­trum dis­or­der (ASD) by age 2
• Cog­ni­tive Train­ing or Gingko Bilo­ba to pre­vent cog­ni­tive decline and demen­tia? New com­pre­hen­sive report by the Nation­al Acad­e­mies of Sci­ences, Engi­neer­ing, and Med­i­cine clar­i­fies pri­or­i­ties for pub­lic health and for future research
• Neu­roimag­ing study finds exten­sive brain rewiring–in just six months–among illit­er­ate adults learn­ing to read and write
• Chil­dren with ADHD should be reeval­u­at­ed each year, since atten­tion prob­lems per­ceived by teach­ers are far less sta­ble than we imag­ine

New tools

• Mind­strong Health rais­es $14 mil­lion to mod­ern­ize the diag­no­sis and treat­ment of neu­ropsy­chi­atric dis­or­ders via arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI) and smart­phones
• The FDA cre­ates new Dig­i­tal Health unit to reimag­ine reg­u­la­to­ry paths in the age of scal­able, AI-enhanced inno­va­tion
• Neu­rotech start-up Rythm rais­es $11 mil­lion more to devel­op and com­mer­cial­ize sleep-mon­i­tor­ing head­band Dreem
• Savonix rais­es $5.1 mil­lion to com­mer­cial­ize mobile neu­rocog­ni­tive assess­ment in the US, Chi­na and Japan
• The dual chal­lenge ahead of Facebook’s Typ­ing-by-Brain project: 1) devel­op the neu­rotech­nol­o­gy, 2) devel­op the sci­ence

New thinking

• In hon­or of Alzheimer’s & Brain Aware­ness Month, let’s dis­cuss 10 Key Facts To Har­ness Brain Plas­tic­i­ty And Pro­long Brain Health
• 11 ear­ly-stage neu­rotech entre­pre­neurs receive award by The Ontario Brain Insti­tute (OBI)
• Com­ing soon near you: Smart­phones, fridges and cars with emo­tion­al intel­li­gence
• 5 Must-Read Arti­cles, and an Online Course, to Help Chil­dren with ADHD
• Mea­sur­ing phys­i­o­log­i­cal responses–including brain activity–to design stim­u­lat­ing, “con­scious” cities

Upcoming Events

• Brain Health Chal­lenge by MIT Solve (Sub­mis­sions due August 1st)
• Brain­Fu­tures 2017: Sep­tem­ber 6–7th in Wash­ing­ton, DC
• 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Brain Enhance­ment in the Dig­i­tal Age (Decem­ber 5–7th, 2017)

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Final­ly, you may want to Test your Brain and Mind with these 9 Clas­sic Opti­cal Illu­sions 🙂

Have a great sum­mer!

The Sharp­Brains Team

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In hon­or of Alzheimer’s & Brain Aware­ness Month, let’s dis­cuss 10 Key Facts To Har­ness Brain Plas­tic­i­ty And Pro­long Brain Health (Huff­Post):

June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Aware­ness Month, so let me share 10 Key Facts to har­ness brain plas­tic­i­ty & pro­long brain health that come from the hun­dreds of sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical stud­ies we ana­lyzed to pre­pare the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Improve Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age:

1. Genes do not deter­mine the fate of our brains (not even the infa­mous APOE4). Thanks to life­long neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, our lifestyles are as impor­tant as our genes-if not even more impor­tant- in deter­min­ing how our brains grow and our minds evolve.

Keep read­ing arti­cle over at Huff­Post

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Learn­ing to read and write rewires adult brain in six months (New Sci­en­tist):

“Learn­ing to read can have pro­found effects on the wiring of the adult brain – even in regions that aren’t usu­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with read­ing and writ­ing.

That’s what Michael Skei­de of the Max Planck Insti­tute for Human Cog­ni­tive and Brain Sci­ences in Leipzig, Ger­many, and his col­leagues found when they taught a group of illit­er­ate adults in rur­al India to read and write Read the rest of this entry »

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June is Alzheimer’s & Brain Aware­ness Month, so let me share 10 Key Facts to har­ness brain plas­tic­i­ty & pro­long brain health that come from the hun­dreds of sci­en­tif­ic and med­ical stud­ies we ana­lyzed to Read the rest of this entry »

DARPA Funds Brain-Stim­u­la­tion Research to Speed Learn­ing (DoD news):

“The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is work­ing with sev­en U.S. uni­ver­si­ties and ele­ments of the Air Force and Army on research that seeks to stim­u­late the brain in a non-inva­sive way to speed up learn­ing.

DARPA announced the Tar­get­ed Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty Train­ing, or TNT, pro­gram Read the rest of this entry »