Study: Actual, sustained practice–not mere knowledge–is needed to harness neuroplasticity and improve cognition over time

By SharpBrains | September 14, 2020

Lifestyle improve­ments may lessen cog­ni­tive decline (Wiley): ” … 19 indi­vid­u­als old­er than 65 years of age who were expe­ri­enc­ing cog­ni­tive decline were ran­dom­ized to a con­trol group or an inter­ven­tion group for 8 weeks. The con­trol group received online infor­ma­tion relat­ed to demen­tia and lifestyle risk fac­tors, Mediter­ranean diet, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, and cog­ni­tive engagement.…

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Anticholinergic drugs found to significantly increase risk of cognitive decline, especially among those with Alzheimer’s Disease biomarkers or genetic predisposition

By SharpBrains | September 11, 2020

Com­mon Class of Drugs Linked to Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s Dis­ease (UC San Diego release): A team of sci­en­tists, led by researchers at Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia San Diego School of Med­i­cine, report that a class of drugs used for a broad array of con­di­tions, from aller­gies and colds to hyper­ten­sion and uri­nary incon­ti­nence, may be…

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

By SharpBrains | July 21, 2020

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…

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Large UC study to investigate when and how brain training transfers (or does not) to broader cognitive and health benefits

By SharpBrains | July 16, 2020

Nation­wide project seeks to under­stand how brain exer­cis­es pro­duce cog­ni­tive ben­e­fits (UC press release): How does mem­o­ry train­ing lead to cog­ni­tive ben­e­fits? Aaron Seitz, direc­tor of the Brain Game Cen­ter for men­tal fit­ness and well-being at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia, River­side, has wres­tled with this ques­tion for sev­er­al years. Now he and Susanne Jaeg­gi, an asso­ciate professor…

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Repetitive negative thinking may increase (or perhaps be caused by) cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s pathology

By The Conversation | June 16, 2020

Demen­tia: neg­a­tive think­ing linked with more rapid cog­ni­tive decline, study indi­cates Demen­tia affects an esti­mat­ed 54 mil­lion peo­ple world­wide. There no cure, but reports indi­cate that approx­i­mate­ly a third of demen­tia cas­es may be pre­ventable, which is why many researchers have begun to focus on iden­ti­fy­ing risk fac­tors. This would allow for bet­ter per­son­alised interventions…

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Study: Antidepressant vortioxetine combined with cognitive training may help delay cognitive decline

By SharpBrains | June 2, 2020

Can Phar­ma­co­log­i­cal Aug­men­ta­tion of Cog­ni­tive Train­ing Reme­di­ate Age-Relat­ed Cog­ni­tive Decline? (The Amer­i­can Jour­nal of Psy­chi­a­try): A grad­ual decline of cog­ni­tive func­tion and con­cur­rent loss of brain vol­ume is an expect­ed process even in healthy aging. What if, how­ev­er, this process could be delayed, reversed, or even pre­vent­ed? This ques­tion has become increas­ing­ly rel­e­vant as the…

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