neurological

Study with 330 centenarians finds that cognitive decline is not inevitable

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Hen­drik­je van Andel Schip­per (1890–2005)

Age-Relat­ed Cog­ni­tive Decline May Not Be Inevitable (Web­MD):

It is often assumed that a decrease in mem­o­ry and brain func­tion are inevitable parts of aging, but a new study of cen­te­nar­i­ans sug­gests otherwise.

Inves­ti­ga­tors found that despite the pres­ence of neu­ro­log­i­cal issues gen­er­al­ly asso­ci­at­ed with Alzheimer’s dis­ease (AD), many cen­te­nar­i­ans main­tained high lev­els of cog­ni­tive performance.

(Henne Hol­stege, PhD, assis­tant pro­fes­sor at Ams­ter­dam Uni­ver­si­ty Med­ical Cen­ter) said her inter­est in research­ing aging and cog­ni­tive health was inspired by the “fas­ci­nat­ing” sto­ry of Hen­drik­je van Andel Schip­per, who died at age 115 in 2005 “com­plete­ly cog­ni­tive­ly healthy.” Her moth­er, who died at age 100, was also cog­ni­tive­ly intact at the end of her life. [Read more…] about Study with 330 cen­te­nar­i­ans finds that cog­ni­tive decline is not inevitable

Can COVID-19 coronavirus “invade” human brain tissue? (Quick answer: evidence so far is mixed)

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Brain scans show low­er part of a COVID-19 patient’s brain stem, post­mortem. Arrows point to light and dark spots sug­gest­ing blood ves­sel dam­age, with­out signs of infec­tion by the coro­n­avirus that caus­es COVID-19. Cred­it: Nation­al Insti­tute of Neu­ro­log­i­cal Dis­or­ders and Stroke, NIH

Tak­ing a Clos­er Look at COVID-19’s Effects on the Brain (NIH Direc­tor’s blog):

While pri­mar­i­ly a res­pi­ra­to­ry dis­ease, COVID-19 can also lead to neu­ro­log­i­cal prob­lems. The first of these symp­toms might be the loss of smell and taste, while some peo­ple also may lat­er bat­tle headaches, debil­i­tat­ing fatigue, and trou­ble think­ing clear­ly, some­times referred to as “brain fog.” All of these symp­toms have researchers won­der­ing how exact­ly the coro­n­avirus that caus­es COVID-19, SARS-CoV­‑2, affects the human brain. [Read more…] about Can COVID-19 coro­n­avirus “invade” human brain tis­sue? (Quick answer: evi­dence so far is mixed)

Update: Should candidates to high office should pass a cognitive/ mental fitness test?

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Wow, that was a cou­ple of very insight­ful dis­cus­sions, via social media no less.

#1. The first one was about whether heads of state and can­di­dates to high office should pass a cognitive/ men­tal fit­ness test. Click HERE to read and dis­cuss some of the sharpest com­ments, such as…

  • “I won­der what brought this up.”
  • “Def­i­nite­ly. We rou­tine­ly screen appli­cants for a wide range of jobs.”
  • “Then the bal­ance of polit­i­cal pow­er would shift towards the design­ers of those tests.”
  • “That’s what debates are for.”
  • “Yes, but prob­a­bly nobody would pass it.”
  • “No, because if we can’t judge that for our­selves, then what busi­ness do we have vot­ing at all?”

#2. The sec­ond debate cen­tered on the future of men­tal health: In ten years, will we see DSM‑6 or Some­thing Much Bet­ter (SMB‑1)? Would you say “Some­thing bet­ter hope­ful­ly” or “Well con­sid­er­ing we approach men­tal health from a dis­ease model.…that’s the first prob­lem” or “DSM is a tool, and a very use­ful one. As any oth­er tool it depends on the use you make of it,” or some­thing else.

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing as always new think­ing, research and tools for life­long brain health and men­tal fitness.

#3. Study: Across all ide­o­log­i­cal groups, high­er cog­ni­tive abil­i­ty and intel­lec­tu­al humil­i­ty pre­dicts sup­port for free speech

#4. Let’s under­stand how to increase resis­tance to tau and amy­loid pro­teins so we can all become “super-agers.”  Brain scans show low­er accu­mu­la­tion of tau and amy­loid pathol­o­gy among cog­ni­tive “super-agers”

#5. For exam­ple: Jobs with low phys­i­cal stress and good work­ing con­di­tions linked to larg­er hip­pocam­pus and bet­ter memory

#6. Want­ed: 30,000 vol­un­teers! Large UC study to inves­ti­gate when and how brain train­ing trans­fers (or does not) to broad­er cog­ni­tive and health benefits

#7. Time­ly ques­tions: “How com­mon are neu­ro­log­i­cal and psy­chi­atric com­pli­ca­tions in patients with COVID-19? What pro­por­tion of neu­ro­log­i­cal and psy­chi­atric com­pli­ca­tions affect the (cen­tral ner­vous sys­tem) ver­sus the periph­er­al ner­vous sys­tem, and are nov­el syn­dromes emerg­ing? And who is most at risk?” Sur­vey finds ischaemic stroke and altered men­tal sta­tus as most com­mon neu­ro­log­i­cal com­pli­ca­tions in severe COVID-19 cases

#8. “Our mind is one of the only things that we can­not con­sis­tent­ly mea­sure and quan­ti­fy. And humans do remark­able things when we can mea­sure some­thing.”  Ker­nel rais­es $53 mil­lion to ease access to rich neur­al data and mar­ket Neu­ro­science as a Ser­vice (NaaS)

#9. “We are tak­ing proven cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­pies and ful­ly automat­ing them to deliv­er the care scal­ably and con­sis­tent­ly as drugs.” Start­up Big Health rais­es $39M to uni­ver­sal­ize access to cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT) for anx­i­ety and poor sleep

#10. Build­ing on Bill Gates’ orig­i­nal goal of ‘a com­put­er on every desk,’ per­haps it’s time for ‘real-time men­tal health sup­port on every phone.’ Microsoft announces sup­port for three inno­v­a­tive men­tal health ser­vices har­ness­ing arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence (AI)

#11. Res­o­nance. Empa­thy. Aware­ness. Com­pas­sion. Hope. And our favorite… Humor. Six tips to help reg­u­late stress lev­els in our organizations

#12. Final­ly, a fun brain teas­er. What do you see, rec­tan­gles or cir­cles?

 

Wish­ing you a good and safe August,

The Sharp­Brains Team

Survey finds ischaemic stroke and altered mental status as most common neurological complications in severe COVID-19 cases

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Brain dam­age, psy­chi­atric prob­lems report­ed in severe coro­n­avirus cas­es, study says (Mia­mi Herald):

A new study shows that severe cas­es of the coro­n­avirus can cause strokes and oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal issues, or an “altered men­tal state” for patients.

The research, pub­lished in the British med­ical jour­nal Lancet Psy­chi­a­try, looked at a small pool of severe COVID-19 cas­es. The researchers found more than 100 patients who had either neu­ro­log­i­cal or psy­chi­atric prob­lems from the coronavirus.

[Read more…] about Sur­vey finds ischaemic stroke and altered men­tal sta­tus as most com­mon neu­ro­log­i­cal com­pli­ca­tions in severe COVID-19 cases

Exploring the human brain and how it responds to stress (1/3)

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Wor­ry is like a rock­ing chair. It gives you some­thing to do, but it gets you nowhere.
— Erma Bombeck

The brain is the con­trol cen­ter for all of our thoughts, actions, atti­tudes, and emo­tions. It’s the pilot­house on the river­boat of our lives. It’s Mis­sion Con­trol for all of our flights into space or time. It’s the air traf­fic con­troller that helps us nav­i­gate and reroute our paths based on incom­ing and out­go­ing infor­ma­tion and how we’re feel­ing about it at the time. It’s the John Williams of our per­son­al sym­pho­ny. It’s the Moth­er Ship to our Starfleet; it’s … (Uh, sor­ry, I got car­ried away there, but I think you get my point!)

As I was work­ing on the drafts of my lat­est book book, my own brain was very active, to say the least. [Read more…] about Explor­ing the human brain and how it responds to stress (1/3)

Let’s anticipate the potential misuse of neurological data to minimize the risks–and maximize the benefits

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The per­ils of open­ing the mind (Boston Globe):

“For­get the joy­stick. Today you can use your mind alone to nav­i­gate vir­tu­al envi­ron­ments or fly real-world drones. You can buy sleek head­bands that read your brain sig­nals and help you med­i­tate or stay focused. Or you can get them for your kids to make sure they’re work­ing, not day­dream­ing [Read more…] about Let’s antic­i­pate the poten­tial mis­use of neu­ro­log­i­cal data to min­i­mize the risks–and max­i­mize the benefits