Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions

In a mod­ern soci­ety we are con­front­ed with a wide range of increas­ing­ly abstract and inter­con­nect­ed prob­lems. Suc­cess­ful­ly deal­ing with such an envi­ron­ment requires a high­ly fit brain, capa­ble of adapt­ing to new sit­u­a­tions and chal­lenges through­out life. Con­se­quent­ly, we expect cross-train­ing the brain to soon become as main­stream as cross-train­ing the body is today,…

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Invest in Brain Health to Drive Innovation and Prosperity

In an increas­ing­ly knowl­­edge-based and inno­­va­­tion-dri­ven econ­o­my, human brains—not finan­cial capital—are becom­ing the pri­ma­ry dri­vers of busi­ness suc­cess. Engaged, cre­ative cit­i­zens and work­ers mean the dif­fer­ence between suc­cess and fail­ure at the orga­ni­za­tion­al and soci­etal lev­els. Look­ing at the prob­lem from the per­spec­tive of brain health, there are 

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Update: Harness Neuroplasticity with Enthusiasm, Exercise & Personalized Medicine

Time for Sharp­Brains’ Feb­ru­ary 2012 eNewslet­ter, fea­tur­ing in this occa­sion mul­ti­ple and com­ple­men­tary per­spec­tives on how to har­ness neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty: with enthu­si­asm, BOTH phys­i­cal AND cog­ni­tive exer­cise, and (once tools become bet­ter stan­dard­ized and wide­ly avail­able) brain-based per­son­al­ized med­i­cine. Fea­tured Per­spec­tives: To Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, Start with Enthu­si­asm, by Dr. Hele­na Popovic Q&A with Dr. Yaakov Stern on Brain Reserve,…

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Lifelong cognitive exercise may ward off Alzheimer’s protein beta amyloid

Very sig­nif­i­cant find­ings report­ed today. Keep­ing brain sharp may ward off Alzheimer’s pro­tein (Reuters): “Peo­ple who chal­lenge their brains through­out their life­times — through read­ing, writ­ing and play­ing games — are less like­ly to devel­op pro­tein deposits in the brain linked with Alzheimer’s, researchers said on Monday.”

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Scientia Pro Publica: Answers to 28 popular and not-so-popular questions

Wel­come to the XL edi­tion of Sci­en­tia Pro Pub­lica (or, since we are try­ing to speak Eng­lish, the 40th edi­tion of “Sci­ence for the Peo­ple”), the rotat­ing blog car­ni­val that show­cases the finest sci­ence, med­ical and envi­ron­ment writ­ing pub­lished in the blo­gos­phere. Quick now — ask a ques­tion, any ques­tion, that comes to mind. Chances…

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