Independent Living

Study: Brain training game can improve prospective memory and activities of daily living

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virtualweekb‘Vir­tu­al Week’ brain game has poten­tial to help old­er adults remain inde­pen­dent longer (press release):

“An inter­na­tion­al team of sci­en­tists has demon­strat­ed that just one month of train­ing on a “Vir­tu­al Week” com­put­er brain game helps old­er adults sig­nif­i­cant­ly strength­en prospec­tive mem­o­ry — a type of mem­o­ry that is cru­cial for plan­ning, every­day func­tion­ing and inde­pen­dent liv­ing [Read more…] about Study: Brain train­ing game can improve prospec­tive mem­o­ry and activ­i­ties of dai­ly living

Let’s Define Brain Fitness and Physical Fitness

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Bev­er­ly San­born, Vice Pres­i­dent of Pro­gram Devel­op­ment at Bel­mont Senior Liv­ing and sched­uled 2011 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit Speak­er, could not final­ly speak at the Sum­mit (she was very well replaced by col­league Jeff DeBevec), but for­tu­nate­ly we can share her thought­ful answers to the fol­low­ing four crit­i­cal questions.

1. How would you define “brain fit­ness” vs. “phys­i­cal fitness”?
Brain fit­ness and phys­i­cal fit­ness are inter­linked. Each enhances the oth­er and both are essen­tial com­po­nents of suc­cess­ful aging. As we age, the abil­i­ty to cope with inex­orable chal­lenge to social-emo­tion­al-eco­nom­ic well-being is root­ed in hav­ing a high lev­el of men­tal alert­ness and a phys­i­cal body that func­tions effi­cient­ly. But fit­ness is not just a hap­py con­se­quence of a hardy gene pool. Fit­ness for both brain and brawn requires a com­mit­ted effort, a lot of stretch and sweat, and the con­stant push to reach beyond the com­fort zone. [Read more…] about Let’s Define Brain Fit­ness and Phys­i­cal Fitness

The Future of Cognitive Health Tech – Intel’s Perspective

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We just announced a new ses­sion at upcom­ing Sharp­Brains Sum­mit:

Mon­day Jan­u­ary 18th, 2010, 3.30–4pm: The Future of Cog­ni­tive Health Tech – Intel’s Perspective
Two researchers at Intel Cor­po­ra­tion and the Tech­nol­o­gy Research for Inde­pen­dent Liv­ing (TRIL) Cen­tre will pro­vide an overview of why and how Intel Cor­po­ra­tion is sup­port­ing R&D ini­tia­tives to help devel­op home-based auto­mat­ed appli­ca­tions to assess, mon­i­tor and help main­tain cog­ni­tion among old­er adults. They will also share key lessons learned so far, and out­line chal­lenges and poten­tial guide­lines for the field at large based on ethno­graph­ic research and first-hand prod­uct development.

* Mar­garet Mor­ris, Senior Researcher, Intel’s Dig­i­tal Health Group
* Muki Hansteen-Izo­ra, Prod­uct Research and Incu­ba­tion Divi­sion Strate­gist, Intel’s Dig­i­tal Health Group

Muki Hansteen-IzoraMuki Hansteen-Izo­ra, Senior Design Researcher and Strate­gist with the Prod­uct Research and Incu­ba­tion divi­sion of Intel’s Dig­i­tal Health Group. Muki is also the Intel lead and co-PI for the Tech­nol­o­gy Research for Inde­pen­dent Liv­ing (TRIL) Centre’s Cog­ni­tive Func­tion research strand, which is inves­ti­gat­ing how inter­ac­tive media and gam­ing tech­nolo­gies can sup­port cog­ni­tion in old­er pop­u­la­tions. Pri­or to join­ing Intel, Muki served as a lead researcher at Philips Research Labs. He holds a degree in Cul­tur­al Anthro­pol­o­gy from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia at San­ta Cruz, and com­plet­ed his grad­u­ate train­ing in Learn­ing, Design, and Tech­nol­o­gy at Stan­ford University.

Margaret MorrisMar­garet Mor­ris, Senior Researcher in Intel’s Dig­i­tal Health Group. Mar­garet stud­ies the ways that emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies can enhance men­tal and phys­i­cal well­be­ing. She con­ducts ethno­graph­ic research to iden­ti­fy needs and works with engi­neers to devel­op and eval­u­ate explorato­ry pro­to­types. Pri­or to join­ing Intel in 2002, she stud­ied tech­nol­o­gy adop­tion in Sapient’s Expe­ri­ence Mod­el­ling group. Margie com­plet­ed her Ph.D. in Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­o­gy with a minor in Behav­iour­al Neu­ro­science at the Uni­ver­si­ty of New Mex­i­co, her clin­i­cal intern­ship at the San Fran­cis­co VA Med­ical Cen­tre, and her post­doc­tor­al fel­low­ship at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty. She has a B.A. in Eng­lish from Haver­ford College.

To learn more and reg­is­ter: click on Sharp­Brains Sum­mit.