cortical-thickness

Study finds training-induced neuroplasticity even in patients with chronic traumatic brain injury (TBI)

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Images show pre­frontal con­nec­tiv­i­ty pat­terns after cog­ni­tive train­ing in indi­vid­u­als who suf­fered trau­mat­ic brain injury. Kih­wan Han et al (2018)

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Cog­ni­tive train­ing reduces depres­sion, rebuilds injured brain struc­ture & con­nec­tiv­i­ty after trau­mat­ic brain injury (UT-Dal­las release):

“New research from the Cen­ter for Brain­Health at The Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Dal­las shows that cer­tain cog­ni­tive train­ing exer­cis­es can help reduce depres­sion and improve brain health in indi­vid­u­als years after they have suf­fered a trau­mat­ic brain injury (TBI).

The recent study [Read more…] about Study finds train­ing-induced neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty even in patients with chron­ic trau­mat­ic brain injury (TBI)

The Mediterranean Diet seen to substantially reduce brain shrinkage among older adults

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mediterraneandiet_brain

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Less shrink­age: This is your aging brain on the Mediter­ranean diet (Los Ange­les Times):

“The aging brain is a shrink­ing brain, and a shrink­ing brain is, gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, a brain whose per­for­mance and reac­tion time are declin­ing: That is a harsh real­i­ty of grow­ing older.

But new research shows that brain shrink­age is less pro­nounced in old­er folks whose diets [Read more…] about The Mediter­ranean Diet seen to sub­stan­tial­ly reduce brain shrink­age among old­er adults

Gaming and Neuroscience: Opportunities and Challenges

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A cou­ple weeks ago I attend­ed the Enter­tain­ment Soft­ware and Cog­ni­tive Neu­rother­a­peu­tics Con­fer­ence, ESCoNS, at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia San Fran­cis­co. The speak­ers’ talks were insight­ful, sur­pris­ing, and inspir­ing in many regards. The pur­pose of this meet­ing was to bring togeth­er great minds in a vari­ety of fields from neu­ro­science to game design and to come up with some ideas how to make game based cog­ni­tive train­ing a real­i­ty as an effec­tive ther­a­py for many of today’s most chal­leng­ing dis­or­ders and deficits. Many of the sci­en­tists also thought that game based ther­a­pies for cog­ni­tive deficits could be used as enhance­ment tools for healthy indi­vid­u­als as well. [Read more…] about Gam­ing and Neu­ro­science: Oppor­tu­ni­ties and Challenges

Study: Cognitive Markers or Biomarkers to manage Cognitive Health across the Lifespan?

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Pre­dict­ing Alzheimer’s Dis­ease More Accu­rate Through Cog­ni­tive Changes Than Bio­mark­ers (Med­ical News):

Memory Training Reduces Brain Atrophy

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Numer­ous stud­ies show ben­e­fits of cog­ni­tive train­ing in old­er adults, despite a recent study ques­tion­ing their valid­i­ty. The debate on the effects of spe­cif­ic cog­ni­tive inter­ven­tions is not settled.

A find­ing that researchers do seem to agree on is that aging is accom­pa­nied by brain and cog­ni­tive decline. These reduc­tions seem to be mod­i­fi­able through cog­ni­tive and phys­i­cal exer­cise. In this vein, our lab recent­ly demon­strat­ed that old­er adults involved in an 8‑week mem­o­ry train­ing pro­gram show less brain atro­phy. This gives some hope for old­er adults won­der­ing whether their train­ing efforts are real­ly worth­while. [Read more…] about Mem­o­ry Train­ing Reduces Brain Atrophy