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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 the rest of this entry »

—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 the rest of this entry »

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 the rest of this entry »

Neu­ro Chip Records Brain Cell Activ­i­ty (R&D):

“Brain func­tions are con­trolled by mil­lions of brain cells. How­ev­er, in order to under­stand how the brain con­trols func­tions, such as sim­ple reflex­es or learn­ing and mem­o­ry, we must be able to record Read the rest of this entry »

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Had a good night’s sleep?

We hope you did, so you can ful­ly enjoy all the fas­ci­nat­ing arti­cles and brain teasers in the new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ eNewslet­ter…includ­ing excel­lent advice on how to com­bine gen­er­al sleep hygiene with mind­ful and cog­ni­tive tech­niques, and a book give­away.

Hap­py read­ing!

New thinking:

• For a good night’s rest, com­bine gen­er­al sleep hygiene with mind­ful and cog­ni­tive tech­niques
• Book review: Grit is a tool in the tool­box, not the sil­ver bul­let
• To boost atten­tion and oth­er cog­ni­tive skills, learn AND con­tin­u­al­ly prac­tice a sec­ond lan­guage
• Scal­able, med­ica­tion-free relief of cog­ni­tive symp­toms relat­ed to Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis (MS)

New research:

• How to prop­er­ly “Use it or Lose it”: Kun­dali­ni Yoga vs. Cross­word Puz­zles
• Sta­tus quo is not enough: Com­mon tests for Mild Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment lack both sen­si­tiv­i­ty and speci­fici­ty
• Dis­cour­ag­ing new find­ings about pedi­atric care for chil­dren with ADHD: Often, best-prac­tice guide­lines are not fol­lowed
• Busy sched­ules linked to bet­ter mem­o­ry and cog­ni­tion among mid­dle-aged and old­er adults

New tools:

• FDA clears use of online cognitive/ behav­ioral assess­ment to inform ADHD diag­no­sis
• Large mul­ti-cen­ter study to test videogame-like dig­i­tal ther­a­py as (poten­tial­ly) FDA-cleared ADHD treat­ment
• Brain train­ing fran­chisor Learn­ingRx set­tles FTC com­plaint about its mar­ket­ing claims
• Sur­vey finds sig­nif­i­cant promise for home-based, data-rich cog­ni­tive ther­a­py among stroke sur­vivors

Books and other educational resources:

• Goodreads give­away: 20 copies of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness
• Book dis­count to hon­or Men­tal Health Aware­ness Month/ Ofer­ta de libro en hon­or del Mes de la Salud Men­tal
• Lec­ture Record­ing: 25 Must-Know Facts to Har­ness Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty & Tech­nol­o­gy For Bet­ter Brain Health
• Online Course: How to Nav­i­gate Con­ven­tion­al and Com­ple­men­tary ADHD Treat­ments for Healthy Brain Devel­op­ment

Finally, some fun Brain teasers:

• The Her­mann grid opti­cal illu­sion, explained
• Hard brain teas­er to chal­lenge your pat­tern recog­ni­tion

Have a great month of June!

The Sharp­Brains Team