Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

neuroscientist

Neuroscience tips about gratitude, aging, pain and the brain: An interview with Dr. Daniel Levitin

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About 13 years ago, I watched my very vital moth­er die a slow death from Lewy-Body demen­tia. For me, it was a wake­up call. If there were any­thing I could do to stay healthy myself—to avoid the slow decline of an aging brain—I want­ed to do it. But what real­ly helps us stay sharp longer? And how can we sep­a­rate fad ideas from sol­id, evi­dence-based advice around aging? [Read more…] about Neu­ro­science tips about grat­i­tude, aging, pain and the brain: An inter­view with Dr. Daniel Levitin

BrainCheck raises $8 million to digitize cognitive/ neuropsychological assessments and better serve the aging population

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This start­up just raised $8 mil­lion to help busy doc­tors assess the cog­ni­tive health of 50 mil­lion seniors (TechCrunch):

“…star­tups increas­ing­ly rec­og­nize oppor­tu­ni­ties to cater to this aging pop­u­la­tion. Some are devel­op­ing prod­ucts to sell to indi­vid­u­als and their fam­i­ly mem­bers direct­ly; oth­ers are com­ing up with ways to empow­er those who work direct­ly with old­er Americans.

BrainCheck, a 20-per­son, Hous­ton-based start­up whose cog­ni­tive health­care prod­uct aims to help physi­cians assess and track the men­tal health of their patients, is among the lat­ter. Investors like what it has put togeth­er, too. Today, the start­up is announc­ing $8 mil­lion in Series A fund­ing co-led by S3 Ven­tures and Ten­sil­i­ty Ven­ture Part­ners. [Read more…] about BrainCheck rais­es $8 mil­lion to dig­i­tize cognitive/ neu­ropsy­cho­log­i­cal assess­ments and bet­ter serve the aging population

Executive Functions in Health and Disease: New book to help integrate Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology

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Neu­ro­science used to be the monop­oly of a few elite uni­ver­si­ties locat­ed in a hand­ful of coun­tries. Neu­ropsy­chol­o­gy used to be a quaint niche dis­ci­pline rel­a­tive­ly uncon­nect­ed to the larg­er world of neu­ro­science and con­tent in its meth­ods with paper-and-pen­cil tests. [Read more…] about Exec­u­tive Func­tions in Health and Dis­ease: New book to help inte­grate Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science and Neuropsychology

What a brain, what a life: Marian Diamond, neuroplasticity pioneer, dies at 90

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Mar­i­an Dia­mond, neu­ro­sci­en­tist who gave new mean­ing to ‘use it or lose it,’ dies at 90 (The Wash­ing­ton Post):

“Mar­i­an Dia­mond, a path­break­ing neu­ro­sci­en­tist whose research — includ­ing a study of Albert Einstein’s pre­served brain — showed that the body’s three-pound seat of con­scious­ness was a dynam­ic struc­ture of beau­ti­ful com­plex­i­ty, capa­ble of devel­op­ment even in old age, died July 25 at an assist­ed-liv­ing com­mu­ni­ty in Oak­land, Calif. She was 90 [Read more…] about What a brain, what a life: Mar­i­an Dia­mond, neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty pio­neer, dies at 90

European neuroscientists challenge the Human Brain Project as is

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pyramidalcellsNeu­ro­sci­en­tists attack ‘off-course’ human brain project (BBC News):

“Senior neu­ro­sci­en­tists have attacked the Human Brain Project, a bil­lion-pound Euro­pean Com­mis­sion ini­tia­tive aim­ing to sim­u­late the human brain. An open let­ter to the EC from over 200 sci­en­tists says the project is “not on course”, [Read more…] about Euro­pean neu­ro­sci­en­tists chal­lenge the Human Brain Project as is

The Science of Optimism: a Conversation on ‘The Optimism Bias’ with neuroscientist Tali Sharot

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I like to think of myself as a pos­i­tive and opti­mistic per­son. It seems to me to make for an eas­i­er and more enjoy­able jour­ney through life. So I was intrigued when I read of neu­ro­sci­en­tist Tali Sharot’s research into the Opti­mism Bias, which has shown that despite all the bad news sto­ries we are bom­bard­ed with on a dai­ly basis: war, vio­lence, wrong-doing and finan­cial melt­down, the major­i­ty of us are opti­mistic by nature; our brains are hard­wired to be so. It’s a fas­ci­nat­ing con­cept and one I had to find out more about, so I bought the book and met with Tali in her office at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don for an enthralling dis­cus­sion. [Read more…] about The Sci­ence of Opti­mism: a Con­ver­sa­tion on ‘The Opti­mism Bias’ with neu­ro­sci­en­tist Tali Sharot