Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

neuroplasticity

Studies find growing evidence linking weight, physical activity, neuroplasticity and depression

by Leave a Comment

Being over­weight can cause depres­sion — and exer­cise is an anti­dote, dual stud­ies con­firm (Run­ner’s World):

A large-scale study from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Exeter has found ‘robust evi­dence’ that being over­weight hikes up your risk of devel­op­ing depres­sion – but as fresh evi­dence con­firms, log­ging your morn­ing miles is one of the most effec­tive ways to fight back. Exer­cise jolts your brain into action, and not just because of the endor­phin high … ‘Obe­si­ty and depres­sion are both major glob­al health chal­lenges, and our study pro­vides the most robust evi­dence to date that high­er BMI caus­es depres­sion,’ said lead author Jess O’Lough­lin. ‘Under­stand­ing whether phys­i­cal or social fac­tors are respon­si­ble for this rela­tion­ship can help inform effec­tive strate­gies to improve men­tal health and well­be­ing.’ [Read more…] about Stud­ies find grow­ing evi­dence link­ing weight, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty and depression

Integrating music, movement and stroke rehabilitation, MedRhythms raises $25M to develop and commercialize digital therapeutic

by Leave a Comment

MedRhythms rais­es 25m to get patients back in tune after a stroke (TechCrunch):

MedRhythms secured $25 mil­lion in Series B fund­ing to advance its dig­i­tal ther­a­py plat­form aimed at mea­sur­ing and improv­ing someone’s abil­i­ty to walk after they have expe­ri­enced a neu­ro­log­ic injury or dis­ease … Com­pa­ny co-founder and CEO Bri­an Har­ris was a neu­ro­log­ic music fel­low at Spauld­ing Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Hos­pi­tal in Boston, treat­ing peo­ple with stroke and brain deficits with music. He began get­ting ques­tions from patients and fam­i­lies on how they could access sim­i­lar care out­side of the hos­pi­tal. Not see­ing a suit­able alter­na­tive, he start­ed MedRhythms with entre­pre­neur Owen McCarthy in 2016. [Read more…] about Inte­grat­ing music, move­ment and stroke reha­bil­i­ta­tion, MedRhythms rais­es $25M to devel­op and com­mer­cial­ize dig­i­tal therapeutic

Promote brain plasticity and keep your mind at ease by taking your daily “exercise pill”

by Leave a Comment

As with many oth­er physi­cians, rec­om­mend­ing phys­i­cal activ­i­ty to patients was just a doc­tor chore for me – until a few years ago. That was because I myself was not very active. Over the years, as I picked up box­ing and became more active, I got first­hand expe­ri­ence of pos­i­tive impacts on my mind. I also start­ed research­ing the effects of dance and move­ment ther­a­pies on trau­ma and anx­i­ety in refugee chil­dren, and I learned a lot more about the neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gy of exer­cise. [Read more…] about Pro­mote brain plas­tic­i­ty and keep your mind at ease by tak­ing your dai­ly “exer­cise pill”

Study shows promising results of EEG-based brain training in helping adults with ADHD

by

Man­ag­ing atten­tion deficit dis­or­der by train­ing the brain (Sci­enceDai­ly):

Atten­tion Deficit Hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty Dis­or­der (ADHD) affects about 7% of chil­dren, with a two out of three chance of per­sist­ing into adult­hood. This neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­der is char­ac­terised by con­cen­tra­tion dif­fi­cul­ties, increased dis­tractibil­i­ty, impul­siv­i­ty and hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty. Today, ADHD is treat­ed with phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal drugs that may have unwant­ed side effects. This is why sci­en­tists from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Gene­va (UNIGE) and the Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tals of Gene­va (HUG), Switzer­land, explored a new tech­nique called ‘neu­ro­feed­back’, which enables ADHD patients to train their atten­tion, based on instant feed­back from the lev­el of their brain activ­i­ty. [Read more…] about Study shows promis­ing results of EEG-based brain train­ing in help­ing adults with ADHD

Systematic review calls for early targeted interventions to help babies and toddlers with cerebral palsy harness time window with maximum brain plasticity

by

Ear­ly tar­get­ed inter­ven­tion ‘crit­i­cal’ for improv­ing out­comes in cere­bral pal­sy (Healio):

Ear­ly inter­ven­tion for chil­dren with or at high risk for cere­bral pal­sy should begin “as soon as pos­si­ble” in order to build on “a crit­i­cal devel­op­men­tal time,” accord­ing to results of a sys­tem­at­ic review pub­lished in JAMA Pedi­atrics. [Read more…] about Sys­tem­at­ic review calls for ear­ly tar­get­ed inter­ven­tions to help babies and tod­dlers with cere­bral pal­sy har­ness time win­dow with max­i­mum brain plasticity

Study in China finds that retirement may accelerate cognitive decline, even for those with stable income

by

Peo­ple who retire ear­ly suf­fer from accel­er­at­ed cog­ni­tive decline and may even encounter ear­ly onset of demen­tia, accord­ing to a new eco­nom­ic study (Note: opens PDF) I con­duct­ed with my doc­tor­al stu­dent Alan Adelman.

To estab­lish that find­ing, we exam­ined the effects of a rur­al pen­sion pro­gram Chi­na intro­duced in 2009 that pro­vid­ed peo­ple who par­tic­i­pat­ed with a sta­ble income if they stopped work­ing after the offi­cial retire­ment age of 60. We found that peo­ple who par­tic­i­pat­ed in the pro­gram and retired with­in one or two years expe­ri­enced a cog­ni­tive decline equiv­a­lent to a drop in gen­er­al intel­li­gence of 1.7% rel­a­tive to the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion. This drop is equiv­a­lent to about three IQ points and could make it hard­er for some­one to adhere to a med­ica­tion sched­ule or con­duct finan­cial plan­ning. The largest neg­a­tive effect was in what is called “delayed recall,” which mea­sures a person’s abil­i­ty to remem­ber some­thing men­tioned sev­er­al min­utes ago. Neu­ro­log­i­cal research links prob­lems in this area to an ear­ly onset of demen­tia. [Read more…] about Study in Chi­na finds that retire­ment may accel­er­ate cog­ni­tive decline, even for those with sta­ble income