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Bay­er inks deals with eleven star­tups under G4A Dig­i­tal Health Part­ner­ships pro­gram (press release):

“Bay­er announced today that the com­pa­ny has signed col­lab­o­ra­tion agree­ments with eleven dig­i­tal health star­tups. As part of the pro­gram, Bay­er will sup­port these start­up com­pa­nies aim­ing for longer-term col­lab­o­ra­tions to dri­ve for­ward the devel­op­ment of spe­cif­ic dig­i­tal solu­tions to improve patients’ health Read the rest of this entry »

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Should you eat an apple—or a bag of Ore­os? Go to McDonald’s—or the veg­e­tar­i­an restau­rant on the cor­ner?

When we make these every­day food choic­es, many of us think first of our phys­i­cal health and appear­ance. But there’s anoth­er fac­tor we may want to con­sid­er in pick­ing foods: their impact on our men­tal health. Read the rest of this entry »

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$50 mil­lion gift is foun­da­tion for brain dis­or­ders research (UW press release):

“UW Med­i­cine is cre­at­ing the Gar­vey Insti­tute for Brain Health Solu­tions to devel­op effec­tive new treat­ments for brain dis­or­ders, such as depres­sion, post-trau­mat­ic stress dis­or­der, addic­tion and Alzheimer’s dis­ease. The foun­da­tion­al $50 mil­lion gift to estab­lish the insti­tute was made by local phil­an­thropists Lynn and Mike Gar­vey Read the rest of this entry »

After a very busy month, it’s time now for Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter to sum­ma­rize the lat­est ini­tia­tives, tools and ideas for life­long brain health and men­tal fit­ness — and to share a few puz­zles and illu­sions to tease your brain.

A grow­ing num­ber of class­rooms in Chi­na are equipped with arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence cam­eras and brain-wave track­ers. Video: Crys­tal Tai for The Wall Street Jour­nal.

New neuro-infused education and healthcare initiatives:

• Chi­na is har­ness­ing brain-wave track­ers and arti­fi­cial-intel­li­gence to raise bet­ter (and more com­pli­ant?) stu­dents
• Report calls for wide class­room-based adop­tion of ten brain fit­ness pro­grams designed to improve foun­da­tion­al exec­u­tive func­tions
• The Nation­al Health Ser­vice (NHS) in the UK con­sid­ers adding a 5‑minute cog­ni­tive test to its annu­al health check-up
• CVS Health: Cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT) apps may help you more than sleep­ing pills

New neurotech and digital health tools:

• What does the Face­book acqui­si­tion of CTRL-Labs mean for Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy and Aug­ment­ed & Vir­tu­al Real­i­ty?
• Start­up Aur­al Ana­lyt­ics rais­es $4.3M to mon­i­tor neu­ro­log­i­cal health by ana­lyz­ing speech pat­terns
• Will per­son­al­ized med­i­ta­tion apps be able to repli­cate the expe­ri­ence of work­ing with a coach?
• IBM, VA and Total Brain to test dig­i­tal men­tal health plat­form for vet­er­ans and reservists

New thinking on brain and mental health:

• Two great pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties with renowned neu­ropsy­chol­o­gist Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg
• Apple/ Eli Lilly’s bet: Wear­able and mobile con­sumer devices may well help us detect cog­ni­tive impair­ment and demen­tia
• May “indus­try review boards” con­tribute to the wider adop­tion of vir­tu­al and aug­ment­ed real­i­ty for phys­i­cal and men­tal health?

Finally, a few fun brain teasers for adults and kids alike 🙂

• Tease your brain with the Her­mann Grid illu­sion
• Brain teas­er to test your pat­tern recog­ni­tion: Fill the void
• Math brain teas­er requir­ing no math — just per­cep­tion and cog­ni­tion

Have a great month of Octo­ber,

The Sharp­Brains Team

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Sleep Ther­a­py for the Mass­es May Be Com­ing to You Soon (The New York Times):

“CVS Health wants to help mil­lions of Amer­i­can work­ers improve their sleep. So for the first time, the big phar­ma­cy ben­e­fits man­ag­er is offer­ing a pure­ly dig­i­tal ther­a­py as a pos­si­ble employ­ee ben­e­fit.

The com­pa­ny is encour­ag­ing employ­ers to cov­er the costs for their work­ers to use Read the rest of this entry »