Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

memory

Study suggests canola oil is not as beneficial as advertised; sustained use may cause memory problems and brain damage

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Canola oil could cause weight gain and mem­o­ry loss (Los Ange­les Times):

“Accord­ing to a recent study con­duct­ed on mice, just two table­spoons of canola oil per day can cause weight gain and severe pro­gres­sion of Alzheimer’s dis­ease. The new results are call­ing into ques­tion pre­vi­ous rec­om­men­da­tions of canola oil as a health­ful alter­na­tive to sat­u­rat­ed fats.

“Canola oil is appeal­ing because it is less expen­sive than oth­er veg­etable oils, and it is adver­tised as being healthy,” said lead researcher Domeni­co Prat­icò, M.D. “Very few stud­ies, how­ev­er, have exam­ined that claim, espe­cial­ly in terms of the brain.” [Read more…] about Study sug­gests canola oil is not as ben­e­fi­cial as adver­tised; sus­tained use may cause mem­o­ry prob­lems and brain dam­age

Pending FDA review and approval, research findings pave way for Akili’s EVO to become first brain training platform prescribed for ADHD

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Akili Achieves Pri­ma­ry Effi­ca­cy End­point in ADHD Tri­al (MD mag­a­zine):

“Boston-based Akili Inter­ac­tive has announced top-line results from the STARS-ADHD piv­otal study of its inves­ti­ga­tion­al dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tic med­i­cine AKL-T01, in treat­ment of pedi­atric atten­tion-deficit/hy­per­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD)…The dig­i­tal med­i­cine, AKL-T01, is a video game for patients to play on tablet devices. It uses the same sto­ry­telling and reward mech­a­nisms as stan­dard videogames; how­ev­er, it fea­tures mech­a­nisms to act on neur­al sys­tems and algo­rithms that dial the lev­el of stim­u­lus up or down, meet­ing the needs of the patient. [Read more…] about Pend­ing FDA review and approval, research find­ings pave way for Akili’s EVO to become first brain train­ing plat­form pre­scribed for ADHD

Great news: The New York Times acknowledges that (as clearly documented for 10+ years) Exercise and Brain Training are BOTH crucial for Lifelong Brain Fitness

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Exer­cise May Enhance the Effects of Brain Train­ing (The New York Times):

“..an inter­est­ing new study pub­lished in the Jour­nal of Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science sug­gests that com­bin­ing intense exer­cise and brain train­ing might, over time, ampli­fy the ben­e­fits of both for the brain, even in peo­ple whose minds already are work­ing well…scientists at McMas­ter Uni­ver­si­ty in Hamil­ton, Ontario, began to won­der recent­ly whether brain train­ing and exer­cise train­ing might be com­ple­men­tary, with exer­cise prompt­ing the cre­ation of baby neu­rons that brain train­ing would then strengthen…the study’s find­ings sug­gest that exer­cis­ing both our bod­ies and minds may pro­vide the great­est boost to our mem­o­ries…” [Read more…] about Great news: The New York Times acknowl­edges that (as clear­ly doc­u­ment­ed for 10+ years) Exer­cise and Brain Train­ing are BOTH cru­cial for Life­long Brain Fit­ness

Challenge your mind with this logic brain teaser: Which direction is the bus going?

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Can you see the bus above?

Assum­ing it is mov­ing for­ward, in which direc­tion do you think it’s trav­el­ing, right or left?

Please try answer­ing on your own before check­ing below… [Read more…] about Chal­lenge your mind with this log­ic brain teas­er: Which direc­tion is the bus going?

Study: Brain scans mapping language and memory areas can help guide epilepsy-related surgeries

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---Language task fMRI and resting-state fMRI data from a presurgical patient with left temporal lobe epilepsy. Copyright Bradley Goodyear, Einat Liebenthal and Victoria Mosher.
—Lan­guage task fMRI and rest­ing-state fMRI data from a presur­gi­cal patient with left tem­po­ral lobe epilep­sy. Copy­right Bradley Goodyear, Einat Lieben­thal and Vic­to­ria Mosh­er.

Can brain scans help doc­tors nav­i­gate epilep­sy surgery? (UPI)

“…When med­ica­tion does­n’t effec­tive­ly con­trol epilep­sy, surgery may be rec­om­mend­ed. Doc­tors can remove the part of the brain that trig­gers seizures or use cer­tain pro­ce­dures to con­trol seizure activ­i­ty.

Before surgery, how­ev­er, the brain must be “mapped” to ensure the regions respon­si­ble for lan­guage and mem­o­ry aren’t dam­aged dur­ing [Read more…] about Study: Brain scans map­ping lan­guage and mem­o­ry areas can help guide epilep­sy-relat­ed surg­eries

Study: Computerized cognitive training may help patients with mild cognitive impairment (less so once diagnosed with dementia)

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cognitive_performance

Brain Gain: Com­put­er­ized Train­ing May Boost Cog­ni­tion in MCI (Med­scape):

“Com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing (CCT) for patients with mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (MCI) appears to have a ben­e­fi­cial effect on glob­al cog­ni­tion, mem­o­ry, and atten­tion and improves psy­choso­cial func­tion­ing, includ­ing depres­sive symp­toms, [Read more…] about Study: Com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing may help patients with mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (less so once diag­nosed with demen­tia)