mood

Large study finds that placebo works as well as vitamin D supplements to prevent depression and improve mood

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Large Study Con­firms Vit­a­min D Does Not Reduce Risk of Depres­sion in Adults (Mass Gen­er­al press release):

Vit­a­min D sup­ple­men­ta­tion does not pro­tect against depres­sion in mid­dle-age or old­er adult­hood accord­ing results from one of the largest ever stud­ies of its kind … “There was no sig­nif­i­cant ben­e­fit from the sup­ple­ment for this pur­pose. It did not pre­vent depres­sion or improve mood,” says Olivia I. Okereke, MD, MS, of the Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal (MGH) Psy­chi­a­try Department.

[Read more…] about Large study finds that place­bo works as well as vit­a­min D sup­ple­ments to pre­vent depres­sion and improve mood

Four ways hiking promotes cognitive and emotional health

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I’m a hiker—“born to hike,” as my hus­band likes to joke. It does my heart and soul good to strap on a pack and head out on a trail, espe­cial­ly when I’m alone and can let my mind wan­der where it will.

The expe­ri­ence of hik­ing is unique, research sug­gests, con­vey­ing ben­e­fits beyond [Read more…] about Four ways hik­ing pro­motes cog­ni­tive and emo­tion­al health

Maker of “neuro” functional drinks settles false advertising complaint

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neuro-drinksFol­low­ing Civ­il Com­plaint, Neu­ro to Update Labels and Change Mar­ket­ing Prac­tices (BevNet):

“Neu­ro­brands LLC, the mak­er of Neu­ro drinks, has agreed to set­tle a civ­il com­plaint alleg­ing the com­pa­ny engaged in false adver­tis­ing and vio­lat­ed fed­er­al food safe­ty laws and reg­u­la­tions. The com­plaint was filed by the city of San­ta Mon­i­ca [Read more…] about Mak­er of “neu­ro” func­tion­al drinks set­tles false adver­tis­ing complaint

Harnessing virtual reality to practice meditation?

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Med­i­tat­ing in vir­tu­al real­i­ty (Penin­su­la Press):

“Imag­ine you are on a beach in Bali prac­tic­ing yoga at dawn, watch­ing the sun rise beyond the lagoon. The image is so vivid that you almost for­get you are actu­al­ly sit­ting in an office in San Fran­cis­co, wear­ing a vir­tu­al real­i­ty (VR) head­set. [Read more…] about Har­ness­ing vir­tu­al real­i­ty to prac­tice meditation?

The Federal Trade Commission challenges brain health claims by Procera AVH dietary supplement

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ProceraAVH

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Pro­cera AVH Mar­keters Can For­get About Claim­ing to Reverse Mem­o­ry Loss (Nation­al Law Review):

“It turns out that there is not a mag­ic pill capa­ble of revers­ing the effects of aging on the human brain, includ­ing mem­o­ry loss, or at least not one we can remem­ber right now. The FTC recent­ly remind­ed the mar­keters of Pro­cera AVH, a dietary sup­ple­ment that alleged­ly com­bats mem­o­ry loss and cog­ni­tive decline, of their respon­si­bil­i­ties as [Read more…] about The Fed­er­al Trade Com­mis­sion chal­lenges brain health claims by Pro­cera AVH dietary supplement

Daniel Ferguson: Big Data opens a world of opportunity in health, psychology, neuroscience

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Daniel Ferguson
Daniel Fer­gu­son

Please tell us about your inter­est in applied brain sci­ence. What areas are you most inter­est­ed in? 
I am most­ly intrigued by brain train­ing and behav­ioral response using neuro/biofeedback and augmented/virtual reality.

What is one impor­tant thing you are work­ing on now, and where can peo­ple learn more about it? 
We are work­ing on ways to lever­age aug­ment­ed real­i­ty for ful­ly immer­sive expe­ri­ences that can impact mood. [Read more…] about Daniel Fer­gu­son: Big Data opens a world of oppor­tu­ni­ty in health, psy­chol­o­gy, neuroscience