Cognitive Reserve and Intellectually Demanding Jobs

By Alvaro Fernandez | December 26, 2007 |

I hope you are hav­ing hap­py hol­i­days, and are get­ting ready for New Year cel­e­bra­tions. Best wish­es to you and your loved ones. Via Med­Jour­nal­Watch we just found this inter­est­ing paper, Asso­ci­a­tions of job demands and intel­li­gence with cog­ni­tive per­for­mance among men in late life. Guy G. Pot­ter PhD*, Michael J. Helms BS, and Bren­da L. Plassman…

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Neuroplasticity 101 and Brain Health Glossary

By Alvaro Fernandez | September 10, 2007 |

Giv­en the grow­ing num­ber of arti­cles in the pop­u­lar press men­tion­ing words such as “neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty”, “fMRI” and “cog­ni­tive reserve”, let’s review some key find­ings, con­cepts and terms. First, a pre­scient quote by Span­ish neu­ro­sci­en­tist San­ti­a­go Ramon y Cajal (1852–1934): “Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculp­tor his own brain”. Thanks to new neuroimaging…

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I am busy executive with a challenging job. How is brain fitness relevant to me?

By Caroline Latham | March 29, 2007 |

How is brain fit­ness rel­e­vant to me?Key Points: Reduce your stress to improve con­cen­tra­tion and learn­ing readi­ness and reduce distractions.Increase your men­tal stim­u­la­tion to help main­tain a healthy, flex­i­ble brain.Answer:Executives, or any­one involved in com­plex and rapid­ly evolv­ing envi­ron­ments, need to make pres­sured deci­sions based on sound log­ic, instead of emo­tion­al impuls­es.… Stress can also lim­it our men­tal flex­i­bil­i­ty and abil­i­ty to see alter­na­tive solu­tions, there­by pre­vent­ing us from adapt­ing to, and suc­ceed­ing in, new circumstances.

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Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and other stress management techniques

By Alvaro Fernandez | February 26, 2007 |

We have explained before how men­tal stim­u­la­tion is impor­tant if done in the right sup­port­ive and engag­ing envi­ron­ment. Stan­ford’s Robert Sapol­sky and oth­ers’ have shown that chron­ic stress and cor­ti­cal inhi­bi­tion, which may be aggra­vat­ed due to imposed men­tal stim­u­la­tion, may prove coun­ter­pro­duc­tive. Hav­ing the right moti­va­tion is essen­tial. A promis­ing area of sci­en­tif­ic inquiry…

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