To boost brainpower, ignore “smart drugs” and focus on experiences that harness neuroplasticity the right way

Tra­di­tion­al sci­en­tif­ic ideas cast the human brain as a fixed and essen­tial­ly lim­it­ed sys­tem that only degrades with age. This view saw the brain as a rigid machine in many ways, pret­ty much set after child­hood. By con­trast, we have now come to appre­ci­ate that the human brain is actu­al­ly a high­ly dynam­ic and constantly…

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Transcript: Q&A with Alvaro Fernandez about The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness

You can now read the full tran­script of yes­ter­day’s Q&A ses­sion on a vari­ety of brain health and fit­ness top­ics, from mem­o­ry improve­ment to heart rate mon­i­tors, exer­cise, med­i­ta­tion, “Grain Brain,” brain train­ing, and more. A cou­ple of good exchanges: Ques­tion by Stephen Jep­son What spe­cif­ic phys­i­cal activ­i­ties con­tribute to the great­est changes in the brain…

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Newborn neurons in the adult brain are critical for learning and memory

New­born Neu­rons — Even in the Adult Aging Brain — Are Crit­i­cal for Mem­o­ry (Sci­ence Dai­ly): “New­ly gen­er­at­ed, or new­born neu­rons in the adult hip­pocam­pus are crit­i­cal for mem­o­ry retrieval, accord­ing to a study led by Stony Brook Uni­ver­si­ty researchers…Previous research… has demon­strat­ed that new­born neu­rons form con­nec­tions with exist­ing neurons 

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Aerobic Exercise or Weight Training to Boost Brain Function?

Aer­o­bic exer­cise is the kind of exer­cise that has been con­sis­tent­ly shown to trig­ger the growth of both brain cells and new con­nec­tions between them, boost­ing cog­ni­tive func­tions. It has also been asso­ci­at­ed with low­er risks of devel­op­ing Alzheimer’s Dis­ease. Is it the case that oth­er types of phys­i­cal exer­cise can also ben­e­fit the brain?…

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