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Cognitive-functions

On cognitive training, muscle mass, neurostimulation, brain teasers, apps, and more

October 31, 2022 by SharpBrains

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain & inno­va­tion news and a few fun teasers to test your work­ing memory.

#1. Study: Build­ing mus­cle mass helps delay cog­ni­tive decline beyond the val­ue of exer­cise itself

“Teas­ing out exact­ly how mus­cle helps the brain remains a chal­lenge. There are plen­ty of indi­rect links … But Dr. Chevalier’s results sug­gest there may be more direct mech­a­nisms too. One pos­si­bil­i­ty is the role of myokines, a set of hor­mone-like mol­e­cules pro­duced by mus­cle cells that can trav­el to the brain and influ­ence mood, learn­ing and oth­er cog­ni­tive func­tions. Greater mus­cle mass may also help keep blood glu­cose lev­els in check, pro­tect­ing the brain from damage.”

#2. Clin­i­cians and aca­d­e­mics should engage users when review­ing apps, study finds

“More than half of the app rat­ings showed dis­agree­ment between par­tic­i­pants and pro­fes­sion­als … Par­tic­i­pants par­tic­u­lar­ly val­ued cer­tain aspects of men­tal health apps, which appear to be over­looked by pro­fes­sion­al review­ers. These includ­ed func­tions such as the abil­i­ty to track and mea­sure men­tal health and pro­vid­ing gen­er­al men­tal health edu­ca­tion. The cost of apps was among the most impor­tant fac­tors for participants.”

#3. Com­bined tDCS neu­rostim­u­la­tion and cog­ni­tive train­ing found to improve work­ing mem­o­ry among old­er adults–especially those with low­er start­ing capacity

“… indi­vid­ual char­ac­ter­is­tics influ­enced the out­come of com­bined cog­ni­tive train­ing and tDCS reg­i­mens, with the inter­ven­tion selec­tive­ly ben­e­fit­ing old-old adults with low­er work­ing mem­o­ry capac­i­ty. Future work should con­sid­er devel­op­ing indi­vid­u­al­ized treat­ments by con­sid­er­ing indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences in cog­ni­tive profiles.”

#4. Head­space Health’s Leslie Witt on the future of men­tal health

“I fun­da­men­tal­ly believe in the pow­er of mind­ful­ness and med­i­ta­tion tools, but they can’t serve all men­tal health needs. And par­tic­u­lar­ly when someone’s in a state of acute anx­i­ety, acute depres­sion, they need access to pro­fes­sion­al, human services…We are build­ing out what I often call the mid­dle piece, the bridge that exists between the self-serve con­tent in the Head­space app and the text-based coach­ing, telether­a­py and telepsy­chi­a­try of the Gin­ger service.”

#5. Study: Prac­tic­ing grat­i­tude helps low­er phys­i­o­log­i­cal stress lev­els of the “express­er” AND the “receiv­er”

“The impli­ca­tion here is that you should let your grat­i­tude out when you feel it … That’s not to say that you should go around and make up grat­i­tude expres­sions for no rea­son. But, when you gen­uine­ly feel grat­i­tude, you should express it.” — Christo­pher Oveis, Direc­tor of the Empa­thy & Emo­tion Lab at UCSD

#6. Tak­ing your brain vitals: Sto­ries from a tech­no-opti­mist invent­ing the future of human performance

“My vision for DANA has always been that every time you go to the doc­tor, in addi­tion to tak­ing your height, weight, blood pres­sure, and tem­per­a­ture, they will take your DANA brain vital. When mea­sur­ing your brain health becomes sec­ond nature—as com­mon as check­ing your blood pressure—it will empow­er every­one, no mat­ter their age, to spot changes soon­er and take action.” — Cori Lath­an, CEO of Anthro­Tron­ix, in her great new book.

#7. UK agen­cies to review and update reg­u­la­tion of dig­i­tal men­tal health tools

Time­ly and impor­tant work to be done by the Med­i­cines and Health­care prod­ucts Reg­u­la­to­ry Agency (MHRA) and the Nation­al Insti­tute for Health and Care Excel­lence (NICE).

#8. Last but not least, let us share a few quick brain teasers to exer­cise your work­ing mem­o­ry … enjoy!

 

Wish­ing you and yours a healthy and warm month of November

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Filed Under: Brain Teasers, Brain/ Mental Health, SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: app ratings, Brain Teasers, brain vitals, cognitive decline, cognitive profiles, Cognitive-functions, Cognitive-Training, DANA brain vital, digital mental health, exercise, Ginger, Gratitude, Headspace, mental health apps, muscle mass, regulation, tDCS neurostimulation, Working-memory

The frontal lobes, the little brain down under and “Stayin’ Alive” (3/3)

April 9, 2020 by Dr. Jerome Schultz

__

[Editor’s note: Con­tin­ued from Explor­ing the human brain and how it responds to stress (1/3) and On World Health Day 2020, let’s dis­cuss the stress response and the Gen­er­al Adap­ta­tion Syn­drome (2/3)]

More on the Cor­tex, the Lim­bic Sys­tem, and Stress:

The cor­tex is made up of four major sec­tions, arranged from the front to the back. These are called the frontal, pari­etal, occip­i­tal, and tem­po­ral lobes. Each of the four lobes is found in both hemi­spheres, and each is respon­si­ble for dif­fer­ent, spe­cial­ized cog­ni­tive func­tions. For exam­ple, the occip­i­tal lobe con­tains the pri­ma­ry visu­al cor­tex, and the tem­po­ral lobe (locat­ed by the tem­ples, and close to the ears) con­tains the pri­ma­ry audi­to­ry cortex.

The frontal lobes are posi­tioned at the front most region of the cere­bral cor­tex and are involved in move­ment, deci­sion mak­ing, prob­lem solv­ing, and plan­ning. There are [Read more…] about The frontal lobes, the lit­tle brain down under and “Stayin’ Alive” (3/3)

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Peak Performance Tagged With: amygdala, brain, Cerebral Cortex, cognition, Cognitive-functions, cortex, emotion, frontal-lobes, Limbic-System, prefrontal-cortex

Dance training: The ultimate way to delay brain decline by combining physical, cognitive, and social engagement

April 3, 2017 by SharpBrains

Study: Danc­ing may off­set some effects of aging in the brain (CSU release):

“A new study led by a Col­orado State Uni­ver­si­ty researcher shows that kick­ing up your heels can actu­al­ly be good for your noggin.

The research team demon­strat­ed for the first time that decline in the brain’s “white mat­ter” can be detect­ed over a peri­od of only six months in healthy aging adults [Read more…] about Dance train­ing: The ulti­mate way to delay brain decline by com­bin­ing phys­i­cal, cog­ni­tive, and social engagement

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Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: Aga Burzynska, aging adults, brain, brain decline, Brain-health, cognitive-fitness, cognitive-functioning, Cognitive-functions, dance, dancing, delay brain decline, exercise, healthy, healthy aging adults, Learning, neuroplasticity, social-interaction, white matter integrity, white-matter

Survey of key scientific, technological and investment trends revolutionizing Brain Health in our Digital Age

January 23, 2017 by Apoorv Mathur

—–

Last year I got very inter­est­ed in the func­tion­ing of the human brain and the sci­ence behind mind­ful­ness and learn­ing [1], so was quite excit­ed  to attend the Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit [2] in Decem­ber, indulging in the lat­est trends in applied neu­ro­science and dig­i­tal innovation.

The Sum­mit focused on the theme of rein­vent­ing brain health in the dig­i­tal age, and brought togeth­er lead­ing researchers, entre­pre­neurs, financiers and pol­i­cy­mak­ers pas­sion­ate with the mis­sion of mov­ing neu­ro­science and cog­ni­tive research from sci­ence labs towards appli­ca­tions in Health, Well­ness and Edu­ca­tion. Here’s a sum­ma­ry of the many things I dis­cov­ered. [Read more…] about Sur­vey of key sci­en­tif­ic, tech­no­log­i­cal and invest­ment trends rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing Brain Health in our Dig­i­tal Age

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: addiction, adhd, aging, Akili Interactive Labs, anxiety, Applied Neuroscience, autism. Autism Spectrum disorder, Baycrest, Behavior Imaging Solutions, Big-Pharma, blood-flow, Brain-health, brain-injury, Bridge Builders Collaborative, CC-ABHI, Claritas, Cogito, Cogniciti, cognitive, cognitive disabilities, cognitive therapeutics, cognitive-decline, Cognitive-functions, Cognitive-impairment, concussions, dementia, depression, digital, digital age, digital brain health, digital health, digital innovation, eMindful, entrepreneurs, FDA-approved, Fourth Industrial Revolution, frontal-lobes, gamification, Happify, Headspace, human-brain, Interaxon, investors, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Jazz Ventures, Johnson & Johnson, Learning, lifespan, McKesson, Mental-Health, Merck, Merck Ventures, mind training, mindfulness, MindMaze, NIMH, OCD, Pear Therapeutics, PTSD, SBIR, sharpbrains, Stress, STTR, substance-abuse, UT-Dallas, virtual-reality, World-Economic-Forum, Xhale

The American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN) launches Disruptive Technology Initiative to shape the future of Neuropsychology

November 30, 2016 by SharpBrains

aacn_box-logoTech­no­log­i­cal break­throughs are cre­at­ing enor­mous poten­tial for the future of neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy and trig­ger­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to cre­ate nov­el strate­gies for both assess­ment and inter­ven­tion. Cog­ni­tive fit­ness is grow­ing into a mul­ti-bil­lion dol­lar indus­try. Tar­gets have shift­ed from diag­no­sis and treat­ment of estab­lished dis­eases to ear­ly inter­ven­tion, pre­ven­tion, and cog­ni­tive enhance­ment. Ubiq­ui­tous mobile devices enable both active and pas­sive sens­ing of our cog­ni­tive and emo­tion­al states, and “the Inter­net of things” promis­es to [Read more…] about The Amer­i­can Acad­e­my of Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy (AACN) launch­es Dis­rup­tive Tech­nol­o­gy Ini­tia­tive to shape the future of Neuropsychology

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: clinical neuropsychology, cognitive, cognitive-enhancement, cognitive-fitness, Cognitive-functions, disruptive technologies, emotional, Neuropsychology

Brain hacking study: Train your cingulate cortex to reduce bias and regulate emotions

September 21, 2016 by SharpBrains

faces

———-

Don’t Like Their Faces? Train Your Brain to Feel More Pos­i­tive (IEEE Spectrum):

“Like it or not, we often have pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive feel­ings about a total stranger based sole­ly on the looks of his or her face…Last week, researchers described, in the jour­nal PLOS Biol­o­gy, a brain train­ing sys­tem that [Read more…] about Brain hack­ing study: Train your cin­gu­late cor­tex to reduce bias and reg­u­late emotions

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Filed Under: Education & Lifelong Learning Tagged With: behavior, brain training system, Brain-Training, cingulate cortex, Cognitive-functions, DecNef, fMRI, neural activation, Neurofeedback

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