Lifestyle and neurotechnology over genetics

By SharpBrains | May 31, 2018

?” Dear col­league, It’s remark­able how quick­ly things are chang­ing, final­ly, in brain health and men­tal health — see for exam­ple what’s new with Inter­ax­on, Akili, Neu­raMetrix, Apple, Calm, Halo Neu­ro­science, Mind­strong Health, Novar­tis, Pear Ther­a­peu­tics, and life­long neu­ro­ge­n­e­sis, all in the last 6 months! Please enjoy the May edi­tion of Sharp­Brains eNewslet­ter below, and con­sid­er join­ing the…

Read More

Initial study finds promise and limitations in using virtual reality (VR) to treat ADHD

By Dr. David Rabiner | May 9, 2018

___ Giv­en the lim­i­ta­tions of exist­ing evi­­dence-based ADHD treat­ments, i.e., stim­u­lant med­ica­tion and behav­ior ther­a­py — research on nov­el inter­ven­tion approach­es con­tin­ues to be impor­tant. Cog­ni­tive train­ing is one such approach that has been sug­gest­ed as a poten­tial adjunct or even replace­ment for med­ica­tion treat­ment. While cog­ni­tive train­ing takes dif­fer­ent forms, e.g., com­put­er­ized atten­tion training,…

Read More

Cognitive training, diet, exercise, and vascular management seen to improve cognition even in people with genetic predisposition for dementia (APOE e4)

By SharpBrains | May 7, 2018

___ How do genet­ics impact ear­ly inter­ven­tion for demen­tia? (Med­ical News Bul­letin): “Car­dio­vas­cu­lar and neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­eases, such as demen­tia, have been linked to dys­func­tion of a vari­a­tion of the apolipopro­tein E, or APOE, gene, called the APOE e4 allele…The Finnish Geri­atric Inter­ven­tion Study to Pre­vent Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment and Dis­abil­i­ty (FINGER) eval­u­at­ed whether the effec­tive­ness of…

Read More

Update: Study finds continued birth of new neurons (neurogenesis) well into our 70s

By SharpBrains | April 25, 2018

___ Time for Sharp­Brains eNewslet­ter, bring­ing you the lat­est in in brain health and men­tal health research, tools and think­ing. Also, a quick heads-up for those based in the UK: the Impe­r­i­al Col­lege Cen­tre for Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy will host a keynote by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez in Lon­don on Wednes­day, May 30th, titled Why the Future of Brain Enhance­ment & Men­tal Health is Dig­i­tal & Per­va­sive (free;…

Read More

Evidence review finds that computer-based cognitive training can significantly improve memory in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS)

By SharpBrains | April 6, 2018

___ Com­put­er-Based Cog­ni­tive Train­ing Improves Mem­o­ry Domains in Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis (Neu­rol­o­gy Advi­sor): “Com­put­er-based cog­ni­tive train­ing may assist in improv­ing mem­o­ry in patients with mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis (MS), accord­ing to a sys­tem­at­ic review pub­lished in Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis and Relat­ed Dis­or­ders. A total of 9 stud­ies report­ing the use of com­put­er-based cog­ni­tive train­ing in patients with MS were…

Read More

Research trend: Combining brain stimulation with cognitive training to enhance attention and memory

By Tessa Abagis | April 2, 2018

In 47 CE, Scri­bo­nius Largus, court physi­cian to the Roman emper­or Claudius, described in his Com­po­si­tiones a method for treat­ing chron­ic migraines: place tor­pe­do fish on the scalps of patients to ease their pain with elec­tric shocks. Largus was on the right path; our brains are com­prised of elec­tri­cal sig­nals that influ­ence how brain cells…

Read More