Is it necessary to train under the supervision of a doctor or other specialist?

By Caroline Latham | January 22, 2007

Sci­ence is being pub­lished that shows how brain exer­cise can lead to enhanced neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty (growth of new neu­rons and con­nec­tions between them) through­out life.Answer:Although some knowl­edge about the brain has been around since the days of Ancient Greece and Rome, it real­ly got a boost in the 19th cen­tu­ry with some major dis­cov­er­ies in brain local­iza­tion.… Yet, due to tech­ni­cal and eco­nom­ic con­straints, many of the tools to under­stand cog­ni­tion stayed with­in uni­ver­si­ty, med­ical, and mil­i­tary research labs where they were inac­ces­si­ble to most people.With recent sci­en­tif­ic devel­op­ments, it has become much eas­i­er and cheap­er to learn more.

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Brain Fitness Blog Carnival #1

By Alvaro Fernandez | January 19, 2007 |

Wel­come to the inau­gur­al edi­tion of the Brain Fit­ness Blog Car­ni­val. The tim­ing could­n’t be bet­ter  you have prob­a­bly seen the fea­tured CBS News/TIME Series on Brain Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty. Thanks to the over 40 peo­ple who sub­mit­ted posts. We have had to select the posts we enjoyed the most to help facil­i­tate an engag­ing and informed…

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Improving Your Brain Tools: Reading Emotional Messages in the Face

By Caroline Latham | January 16, 2007 |

Con­cealed emo­tions, microex­pres­sions, are the fleet­ing expres­sions that peo­ple make when they are con­scious­ly or uncon­scious­ly try­ing to hide their true emo­tion­al response.In con­scious microex­pres­sions they may be try­ing to lie, while with uncon­scious expres­sions, they may not even be aware of what they are tru­ly feeling.Ekman has made a study of these microex­pres­sions and can pro­vide you the train­ing you need to rec­og­nize them, and the coun­sel­ing you need on how to use that insight appropriately.According to Ekman, “These expres­sions tend to be very extreme and very fast. Eighty to 90 per­cent of peo­ple we test­ed don’t see them.”

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Some Weekend Reading

By Caroline Latham | January 12, 2007 |

Don’t wor­ry, even if you’re a guy, there’s plen­ty there to get you start­ed and keep you moti­vat­ed on a fit­ness plan — for your body and your mind.… Kev­in’s sug­ges­tions also make for good brain fit­ness — most of his sug­ges­tions include nov­el­ty and chal­lenge, both of which are good for moti­va­tion and brain fitness.

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Daniel Goleman and Social Intelligence

By Alvaro Fernandez | January 6, 2007 |

The Finan­cial Times has a fun inter­view today as part of their “Lunch with the FT” series. Daniel Gole­man is the author of best­seller Emo­tion­al Intel­li­gence and is now pro­mot­ing his recent book Social Intel­li­gence. An quote from the inter­view: — The jour­nal­ist asks, “So how do the rest of us get bet­ter?”. — The…

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2007 New Year Resolution: Carnival of Brain Fitness

By Alvaro Fernandez | January 1, 2007

Hap­py 2007 to every­one! We have just for­mu­lat­ed our New Year Res­o­lu­tion: make 2007 the year when brain plas­tic­i­ty and Brain Fit­ness became main­stream con­cepts. How do we start? well, let’s announce the launch of the Car­ni­val of Brain Fit­ness (a Blog Car­ni­val is basi­cal­ly the vehi­cle that blogs use to share posts around specific…

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