Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

mental health

Four trends accelerating mental health innovation in the COVID/ post-COVID era

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The mon­ey behind men­tal health: How the pan­dem­ic increased inno­va­tion, invest­ment in behav­ioral health care (Fierce Healthcare):

Ear­li­er this month, Mod­ern Health marked a mile­stone few com­pa­nies ever reach: uni­corn status.

With the help of its lat­est $74 mil­lion fund­ing round, the start­up, which serves as a men­tal health ben­e­fits plat­form for employ­ers, topped a $1 bil­lion val­u­a­tion. [Read more…] about Four trends accel­er­at­ing men­tal health inno­va­tion in the COVID/ post-COVID era

Survey finds concerns AND hope to address growing mental health needs due to the covid pandemic

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Dig­i­tal providers come to the fore to sup­port glob­al men­tal health dur­ing pan­dem­ic (press release):

Research pub­lished today shows how dig­i­tal providers are com­ing togeth­er to sup­port the men­tal health needs of mil­lions of users unable to access tra­di­tion­al ser­vices dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic. [Read more…] about Sur­vey finds con­cerns AND hope to address grow­ing men­tal health needs due to the covid pandemic

Neuroimaging, big data and mental health: A survey of the land

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This fig­ure shows how dif­fer­ent brain net­works func­tion togeth­er; the lines mea­sur­ing the strength of com­mu­ni­ca­tion among var­i­ous net­works. By using such dis­plays, we can eval­u­ate what is called the human func­tion­al connectome—and also how men­tal ill­ness is dis­rupt­ed. [Fig­ure cour­tesy of Vince Calhoun]

Men­tal and degen­er­a­tive dis­or­ders are among the most cost­ly and com­mon caus­es of dis­abil­i­ty in soci­ety today. Because the brain is the most com­plex organ in the human body, diag­nos­ing and treat­ing prob­lems when things go wrong pos­es enor­mous chal­lenges. Even before the 1990s was des­ig­nat­ed the Decade of the Brain, the poten­tial of neuroimaging—the tech­nol­o­gy that makes it pos­si­ble to see inside the work­ing brain—was a major focus in [Read more…] about Neu­roimag­ing, big data and men­tal health: A sur­vey of the land

The new frontier in neurocognitive monitoring and dementia screening: the Apple Watch

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Bio­gen to Launch Pio­neer­ing Study to Devel­op Dig­i­tal Bio­mark­ers of Cog­ni­tive Health Using Apple Watch and iPhone (press release):

Bio­gen Inc. (Nas­daq: BIIB) today announced a new vir­tu­al research study, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Apple, to inves­ti­gate the role Apple Watch and iPhone could play in mon­i­tor­ing cog­ni­tive per­for­mance and screen­ing for decline in cog­ni­tive health includ­ing mild cog­ni­tive impair­ment (MCI). [Read more…] about The new fron­tier in neu­rocog­ni­tive mon­i­tor­ing and demen­tia screen­ing: the Apple Watch

Update: Understanding Brain Health via Cosmological Health, and vice versa

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LEFT: SECTION OF CEREBELLUM, WITH MAGNIFICATION FACTOR 40X, OBTAINED WITH ELECTRON MICROSCOPY (DR. E. ZUNARELLI, UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL OF MODENA); RIGHT: SECTION OF A COSMOLOGICAL SIMULATION, WITH AN EXTENSION OF 300 MILLION LIGHT-YEARS ON EACH SIDE (VAZZA ET AL. 2019 A&A). CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing find­ings, books and resources for life­long brain health.

#1. “The human brain (sec­tion; left image above) func­tions thanks to its wide neu­ronal net­work that is deemed to con­tain approx­i­mate­ly 69 bil­lion neu­rons. On the oth­er hand, the observ­able uni­verse (sec­tion sim­u­la­tion; right image) can count upon a cos­mic web of at least 100 bil­lion galax­ies. With­in both sys­tems, only 30% of their mass­es are com­posed of galax­ies and neu­rons. With­in both sys­tems, galax­ies and neu­rons arrange them­selves in long fil­a­ments or nodes between the fil­a­ments. Final­ly, with­in both sys­tems, 70% of the dis­tri­b­u­tion of mass or ener­gy is com­posed of com­po­nents play­ing an appar­ent­ly pas­sive role: water in the brain and dark ener­gy in the observ­able Uni­verse.” Under­stand­ing Brain Health via Cos­mo­log­i­cal Health, and vice versa

#2. One very smart and gen­er­ous brain to bright­en your day: Indi­an teacher Ran­jitsinh Disale wins annu­al $1M Glob­al Teacher Prize; shares half with 9 finalists

#3. “Of all the qual­i­ties par­ents can cul­ti­vate in their chil­dren, hope and opti­mism are the most pre­cious. We can nur­ture hope and opti­mism in our kids by demon­strat­ing that we always have some con­trol over our envi­ron­ment and our­selves. The future isn’t a tide that’s going to crush us, it’s a wave we’re a part of.” — Made­line Levine, author of Ready or Not. Three favorite 2020 books on par­ent­ing and men­tal health

#4. A superb mem­oir on becom­ing a psy­chother­a­py pio­neer and best­selling writer: Becom­ing Myself, by Irvin D. Yalom

#5. This sur­vey of 2500 fam­i­lies about what ADHD treat­ments seem to work/ not work finds that 49% of par­ents report Exer­cise to be ‘Extreme­ly or Very Effec­tive;’ above any oth­er treatment.

#6. On the dan­gers of “pro­duc­tiz­ing” lifestyle guide­lines that help build brain reserve and delay cog­ni­tive prob­lems; Buy­er beware: The sto­ry of a pricey and “cre­den­tialled” pro­gram to end Alzheimer’s Disease

#7. Now, giv­en that “In a new McK­in­sey report, 62% of employ­ees con­sid­er men­tal health issues a top chal­lenge,” it is good to see grow­ing resources and approach­es aimed at address­ing the chal­lenge: Calm rais­es $75 mil­lion, expands into cor­po­rate men­tal health and wellness

#8. And, step by step, dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics are going main­stream: Click Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $30 mil­lion in debt to advance com­mer­cial­iza­tion of smok­ing ces­sa­tion app Clickotine

#9. Nev­er two with­out three: Pear Ther­a­peu­tics rais­es $80M; finds cost sav­ings of $2,150 per patient with opi­oid use disorder

#10. Final­ly, we asked our team and trust­ed advi­sors to com­pile a list of ideas to stay sane and healthy in the months ahead, pri­or­i­tiz­ing habits shown to pro­mote brain health, resilience and pos­i­tive neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty: Enjoy these 3 New Year Res­o­lu­tions and 36 Ideas for a Hap­pi­er & Health­i­er 2021

Wish­ing you a safe, healthy and hap­py New Year

Three favorite 2020 books on parenting and mental health

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For a lot of fam­i­lies, par­ent­ing has nev­er been hard­er than it was this year. Many have been strug­gling for months try­ing to pro­vide child care and school­ing at home while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly work­ing either along­side their chil­dren or as essen­tial work­ers in the com­mu­ni­ty, if they haven’t already lost their jobs.

The theme that emerges across our favorite par­ent­ing books of the year is how impor­tant con­nec­tion and com­mu­ni­ca­tion are. These 2020 books offer sci­ence-based prac­ti­cal tips and sam­ple scripts to help you com­mu­ni­cate bet­ter with your chil­dren, build clos­er rela­tion­ships, and set them up for hap­pi­ness and resilience in life. [Read more…] about Three favorite 2020 books on par­ent­ing and men­tal health