Question: Do genes determine the fate of our brains?

By SharpBrains | June 27, 2016

———- Answer: No, not even close. Thanks to life­long neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, our lifestyles are as impor­tant as our genes–if not more–in how our brains grow and our minds evolve. Keep read­ing 20 Must-Know Facts To Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty And Improve Brain Health over at The Cre­ativ­i­ty Post.

Read More

Update: Dementia rates in the UK significantly lower than forecasted, highlighting the protective role of lifestyle and education

By SharpBrains | April 27, 2016

    Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ eNewslet­ter, full of fas­ci­nat­ing brain stud­ies and emerg­ing think­ing and tools for life­long men­tal health and per­for­mance. Hap­py read­ing! New research: Demen­tia rates in the UK sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er than forecasted–especially for men–highlighting the pro­tec­tive role of lifestyle and edu­ca­tion Sys­tem­at­ic evi­dence review finds cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py as effective…

Read More

UK study: Dementia rates significantly lower than forecasted–especially for men–highlighting the protective role of lifestyle and education

By SharpBrains | April 20, 2016

Drop in demen­tia rates sug­gests dis­ease can be pre­vent­ed, researchers say (The Guardian): “In the UK, demen­tia has fall­en by a fifth over the past 20 years, pos­si­bly down to lifestyle and edu­ca­tion changes, high­light­ing ben­e­fits of pre­ven­ta­tive action… A team from three British uni­ver­si­ties con­clud­ed that as a result the num­ber of new cases…

Read More

NIH outlines global research agenda to tackle brain disorders–from cognitive impairments to depression and dementia

By SharpBrains | November 24, 2015

Heads-up: There’s an excellent–and open-access– research sup­ple­ment in Nature, result of an NIH-led effort to advance the glob­al brain dis­or­ders research agen­da. Descrip­tion: Infants are starved of oxy­gen dur­ing dif­fi­cult births. Children’s cog­ni­tive func­tion is per­ma­nent­ly dam­aged due to mal­nu­tri­tion or expo­sure to infec­tions or tox­ins. Adults suf­fer from 

Read More

To reach your cognitive potential across the whole lifespan, augment healthy lifestyle with brain training

By SharpBrains | October 26, 2015

Can You Get Smarter? (The New York Times): “A few years back, a joint study by BBC and Cam­bridge Uni­ver­si­ty neu­ro­sci­en­tists put brain train­ing to the test…There was, how­ev­er a glim­mer of hope for sub­jects age 60 and above…Unlike the younger par­tic­i­pants, old­er sub­jects showed a sig­nif­i­cant improve­ment in ver­bal reasoning

Read More