brain training programs

Study: Why Super Mario 3D World may train your brain better than Angry Birds

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Stark_151124_01_1500_szPlay­ing 3‑D video games can boost mem­o­ry for­ma­tion, UCI study finds (UCI News):

“…Craig Stark and Dane Clemen­son of UCI’s Cen­ter for the Neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gy of Learn­ing & Mem­o­ry recruit­ed non-gamer col­lege stu­dents to play either a video game with a pas­sive, two-dimen­sion­al envi­ron­ment (“Angry Birds”) or one with an intri­cate, 3‑D set­ting (“Super Mario 3D World”) for 30 min­utes per day over two weeks. [Read more…] about Study: Why Super Mario 3D World may train your brain bet­ter than Angry Birds

Brain health research study by AARP: Consumers pursue brain training to support a more enjoyable, self-managed life

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aarp.

AARP just released a very inter­est­ing brain health research study based on 1,200 online inter­views con­duct­ed in August 2014. Key find­ings include:

Cognitive maintenance 2.0: From crossword puzzles to targeted mental stimulation

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neuroimagingThe Sil­ver Econ­o­my: Brain train­ing fired up by hard evi­dence (Finan­cial Times):

“Not so long ago, peo­ple kept age­ing brains active through read­ing and writ­ing, talk­ing with friends and fam­i­ly, and per­haps play­ing cards or doing puz­zles. Now a rapid­ly grow­ing num­ber are tak­ing a high-tech approach to cog­ni­tive main­te­nance, through com­put­er pro­grams designed to stim­u­late the brain… [Read more…] about Cog­ni­tive main­te­nance 2.0: From cross­word puz­zles to tar­get­ed men­tal stimulation

Maximizing brain fitness and mental well-being improves both public health and individual quality of life

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 We’re hav­ing a good con­ver­sa­tion among Sharp­Brains Sum­mit par­tic­i­pants, prompt­ed by the blog post Life­long brain well­ness and performance–not med­ical disease–drives grow­ing demand for dig­i­tal brain health solu­tions. In what is a beau­ti­ful exam­ple of the need to see both the for­est and the trees [Read more…] about Max­i­miz­ing brain fit­ness and men­tal well-being improves both pub­lic health and indi­vid­ual qual­i­ty of life

Can Brain Training and Biofeedback Help Prevent Depression

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In two inno­v­a­tive pilot stud­ies, Ian Gotlib and his col­leagues at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, Cal­i­for­nia, showed that brain train­ing can be used to help elim­i­nate depres­sion, even before it starts. They stud­ied young girls (10 to 14 year old) whose moth­ers were depressed and who thus were at high­er risk of devel­op­ing depres­sion them­selves lat­er-on. The girls had not expe­ri­enced depres­sion per se but already showed behav­iors typ­i­cal of depressed brains, such as over­re­ac­tion to neg­a­tive stim­uli. [Read more…] about Can Brain Train­ing and Biofeed­back Help Pre­vent Depression