cognitive-development

To maintain lifelong mental acuity, avoid early retirement and repetitive jobs

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retirement_roadThis is your brain on retire­ment — not near­ly as sharp, stud­ies are find­ing (The Wash­ing­ton Post):

“Retir­ing at 55 and spend­ing the rest of your life relax­ing on the front porch may sound appeal­ing, but if you want your brain to keep work­ing, it’s prob­a­bly not a good idea. Mount­ing evi­dence shows that stay­ing in the work­force into old age is good not only for our bank accounts, but also for our health and men­tal acu­ity [Read more…] about To main­tain life­long men­tal acu­ity, avoid ear­ly retire­ment and repet­i­tive jobs

Update: 40% of ADHD diagnoses, 70% of treatment plans, fall short of AAP guidelines

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ADHDTime for Sharp­Brains’ Decem­ber e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing a wide range of insights on brain health and inno­va­tion, and a deep analy­sis of this new study that found large gaps between research and prac­tice in ADHD diag­no­sis and treat­ment. Did you know, for exam­ple, that over 40% of diag­noses, and over 70% of the treat­ment plans, fall short of the guide­lines estab­lished by the Amer­i­can Acad­emy of Pediatrics?

New research:

New think­ing:

New tools:

Final­ly, we are proud to share that The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance is Ama­zon’s #1 Best­seller in Pre­ven­tive Med­i­cine (and the Span­ish edi­tion is #1 en Med­i­c­i­na).

Have a great 2015! Feliz 2015!

Cognitive development across the lifespan (young minds’ edition)

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cognitivedevelopment

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Cog­ni­tive devel­op­ment (great arti­cle at Fron­tiers for Young Minds; a new pub­li­ca­tion “edit­ed for kids, by kids”):

“…The dis­tinc­tion between flu­id and crys­tal­lized intel­li­gence is impor­tant because the two are influ­enced by dif­fer­ent fac­tors. While the for­mer is more bio­log­i­cal­ly deter­mined and genet­i­cal­ly pre­dis­posed, the lat­ter is shaped more by expe­ri­ence. This is a lit­tle bit sim­i­lar to what we know of sports [Read more…] about Cog­ni­tive devel­op­ment across the lifes­pan (young minds’ edition)

On brain development, socioeconomic status and parenting styles

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wheelRich Man, Poor Man: Socioe­co­nom­ic Adver­si­ty and Brain Devel­op­ment (Cere­brum):

“..While ear­ly expo­sure to addi­tion­al lan­guages or music may lead to ben­e­fi­cial changes in brain devel­op­ment, ear­ly adver­si­ty can like­wise have impor­tant but detri­men­tal effects on the brain. For exam­ple, [Read more…] about On brain devel­op­ment, socioe­co­nom­ic sta­tus and par­ent­ing styles

Study: Questioning the cognitive benefits of music classes

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BabyMusicThe ‘Mozart effect’ of hav­ing kids study music? It’s only a myth, researchers find (Wash­ing­ton Post):

  • “Chil­dren get plen­ty of ben­e­fits from music lessons: Learn­ing to play an instru­ment can be a great out­let for a child’s cre­ativ­i­ty, and the repeat­ed prac­tice can teach much-need­ed focus and dis­ci­pline. What’s more, the pay­off, whether it’s learn­ing a new song or just mas­ter­ing a new chord, is often a boost of self-esteem. But Har­vard researchers now say that one oft-cit­ed ben­e­fit — that study­ing music improves intel­li­gence — is a myth… [Read more…] about Study: Ques­tion­ing the cog­ni­tive ben­e­fits of music classes

Debunking 10 Cognitive Health and Fitness Myths

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As part of the research behind the book The Sharp­Brains Guide for Brain Fit­ness we inter­viewed dozens of lead­ing cog­ni­tive health and fit­ness sci­en­tists and experts world­wide to learn about their research and thoughts, and have a num­ber of take-aways to report.

What Santiago Ramon y Cajal can we clear­ly say today that we could­n’t have said only 10 years ago? That what neu­ro­science pio­neer San­ti­a­go Ramon y Cajal claimed in the XX cen­tu­ry, “Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculp­tor his own brain”, may well become real­i­ty in the XXI.

And trans­form Edu­ca­tion, Health, Train­ing, and Gam­ing in the process, since [Read more…] about Debunk­ing 10 Cog­ni­tive Health and Fit­ness Myths