Time for a universal “exercise prescription” for kids and adults to boost cognition and mental health?

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of brain research find­ings, tools and con­tro­ver­sies plus some brain teasers to chal­lenge your (and our) work­ing mem­o­ry. #1. Major evi­dence review sup­ports an “exer­cise pre­scrip­tion” for most adults to boost men­tal health “High­er inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activ­i­ty was asso­ci­at­ed with greater improvements”…

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On schools, mental health, digital surveillance, student privacy and parental input

Op-Ed: School sur­veil­lance on stu­dents’ lap­tops will not help solve the youth men­tal health cri­sis (Los Ange­les Times): In the past year, school dis­tricts in Cal­i­for­nia and else­where have con­tract­ed with dig­i­tal sur­veil­lance com­pa­nies to spy on stu­dents at school and home, cit­ing the need for men­tal health sup­port dur­ing the pan­dem­ic. Despite being a vigilant…

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Studies identify key ethical concerns raised by invasive and non-invasive neurotechnologies

Stud­ies out­line key eth­i­cal ques­tions sur­round­ing brain-com­put­er inter­face tech (NCSU release): Brain-com­put­er inter­face (BCI) tech­nolo­gies are no longer hypo­thet­i­cal, yet there are fun­da­men­tal aspects of the tech­nol­o­gy that remain unad­dressed by both ethi­cists and pol­i­­cy-mak­ers. Two new papers address these issues by out­lin­ing the out­stand­ing eth­i­cal issues, offer­ing guid­ance for address­ing those issues, and offering…

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Lessons from Covid-19: Could a New Normal lead to better brains, bodies and societies?

__ In the age of Covid-19, what is the new nor­mal? How many of us have been expe­ri­enc­ing the heady cock­tail of con­fu­sion, anx­i­ety, and even some sur­pris­ing moments of respite from our recent-past busy rise-and-grind, hus­tle cul­ture rou­tines? Our social media feeds are filled with urgent and often con­flict­ing imper­a­tives to change our routines…

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Will better neurotech regulations be enough to address privacy, effectiveness and potential harm concerns?

How to address pri­va­cy, eth­i­cal and reg­u­la­to­ry issues: Exam­ples in cog­ni­tive enhance­ment, depres­sion and ADHD from Sharp­Brains See above the fas­ci­nat­ing pre­sen­ta­tions by Dr. Anna Wexler, Dr. Karen Rom­melfanger and Jacque­line Stud­er on pri­va­cy and ethics dur­ing the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit. We still lack clear stan­dards and tax­onomies for neu­rotech­nol­o­gy but sev­er­al ini­tia­tives are…

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