While the hip­pocam­pus tends to shrink with age, which con­tributes to cog­ni­tive decline, a recent study shows that this is not always the case (see all those blue lines), sug­gest­ing it can be pos­si­ble to main­tain hip­pocam­pus vol­ume and cog­ni­tive func­tion into our lat­er years.

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What Sci­ence Tells Us About Pre­vent­ing Demen­tia (The Wall Street Jour­nal):

“When it comes to bat­tling demen­tia, the unfor­tu­nate news is this: Med­ica­tions have proven inef­fec­tive at cur­ing or stop­ping the dis­ease and its most com­mon form, Alzheimer’s dis­ease. But that isn’t the end of the sto­ry. Accord­ing to a recent wave of sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies, we have more con­trol over our cog­ni­tive health than is com­mon­ly known. We just have to take cer­tain steps—ideally, ear­ly and often—to live a health­i­er lifestyle.

In fact, accord­ing to a recent report com­mis­sioned by the Lancet, a med­ical jour­nal, around 35% of demen­tia cas­es might be pre­vent­ed if Read the rest of this entry »

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Get­ting kids out­side and active could help with brain health: Par­tic­i­paction report (The Globe and Mail):

“The phys­i­cal ben­e­fits of kids lead­ing an active lifestyle, includ­ing bet­ter heart health and a decreased risk of devel­op­ing Type 2 dia­betes, are well known. But a grow­ing body of research sug­gests there are sig­nif­i­cant men­tal ben­e­fits as well, whether it’s low­er­ing stress lev­els or help­ing to treat anx­i­ety and depres­sion. A new report released by Par­tic­i­paction on Tues­day draws atten­tion to this link, Read the rest of this entry »

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 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit this Decem­ber to dis­cuss the lat­est and help shape the next 🙂

New research:

• Cog­ni­tive train­ing, diet, exer­cise, and vas­cu­lar man­age­ment seen to improve cog­ni­tion even in peo­ple with genet­ic pre­dis­po­si­tion for demen­tia (APOE e4)
• Brain imag­ing show that patients with Alzheimer’s dis­ease can still remem­ber and enjoy their favorite songs
• Phys­i­cal exer­cise doesn’t slow down demen­tia once it appears, study shows

New tools:

• Ini­tial study finds promise and lim­i­ta­tions in using vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR) to treat ADHD
• tDCS com­ing to an Equinox gym near you: Good, Bad or Depends?
• Could tech­nol­o­gy help cure depres­sion among old­er adults? (Short answer: Yes)

New thinking:

• Six tips for social-emo­tion­al learn­ing (SEL) to trans­fer into real-world skills
• Large study to assess impact on ear­ly brain devel­op­ment of finan­cial assis­tance to low-income moth­ers
• New book high­lights con­tin­ued brain devel­op­ment through­out ado­les­cence, even into our 20s
• Pre­sen­ta­tion on Neu­ro­science, Edu­ca­tion and Life­long Learn­ing (in Span­ish)

Have a great month of June,

The Sharp­Brains Team

How will the Clin­i­cians, Patients and Con­sumers of the Future ensure appro­pri­ate use of brain enhance­ment meth­ods encom­pass­ing lifestyle, sup­ple­ments, brain train­ing, med­i­ta­tion, bio/ neu­ro­feed­back, tDCS and more? (record­ing requires reg­is­tra­tion; view slid­edeck above or Here)

• Dr. Eddie Mar­tuc­ci, Co-Founder and CEO of Akili Inter­ac­tive Labs
• Dr. Anna Wexler, sci­ence writer, film­mak­er and post­doc fel­low at the Depart­ment of Med­ical Ethics and Health Pol­i­cy at UPenn’s Perel­man School of Med­i­cine
• Dr. Olivi­er Oul­li­er, Pres­i­dent of EMOTIV 
• Dr. Peter Rein­er, Co-Founder of the Nation­al Core for Neu­roethics at the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia
• Chaired by: Dr. Ali­son Fen­ney, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy Indus­try Orga­ni­za­tion (NIO)

Slid­edeck above sup­port­ed ses­sion held dur­ing the 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Brain Health & Enhance­ment in the Dig­i­tal Age (Decem­ber 5–7th).

What are the most promis­ing lifestyle and tech options to har­ness life­long neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, and what are key road­blocks ahead? (record­ing requires reg­is­tra­tion; view slid­edeck above or Here)

• Dr. Álvaro Pas­cual-Leone, Direc­tor of the Beren­son-Allen Cen­ter for Non­in­va­sive Brain Stim­u­la­tion at Beth Israel Dea­coness Med­ical Cen­ter
• Dr. David Bartrés-Faz, Prin­ci­pal Inves­ti­ga­tor of the Barcelona Brain Health Ini­tia­tive (BBHI)
• Dr. Simone Schurle, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor for Respon­sive Bio­med­ical Sys­tems at the Swiss Fed­er­al Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy
• Chaired by: Dr. David Bach, Founder and Pres­i­dent of the Platy­pus Insti­tute

Slid­edeck above sup­port­ed ses­sion held dur­ing the 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Brain Health & Enhance­ment in the Dig­i­tal Age (Decem­ber 5–7th).