Physical and Mental Exercise: Why Pitch One Against the other?

By Alvaro Fernandez | December 11, 2007 |

Read­er There­sa Cerul­li just for­ward­ed this Let­ter to the Edi­tor that she had sent to the New York Times and went unpub­lished. The let­ter address­es the OpEd men­tioned here (pitch­ing phys­i­cal vs. men­tal exer­cise), and refers to the Cogmed work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing pro­gram, whose results have been stud­ied in mul­ti­ple papers pub­lished in top medical…

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Marian Diamond on the brain

By Alvaro Fernandez | November 5, 2007 |

Quotes from a great arti­cle, Pro­fes­sor, 81, proves brain stays young: — In 1960, Dia­mond became the first female fac­ul­ty mem­ber in Cal’s sci­ence depart­ment, achiev­ing full pro­fes­sor­ship in 1974. She still teach­es anato­my with her 81st birth­day two weeks away. — Dia­mond, a pro­fes­sor of anato­my at UC Berke­ley, deter­mined that the brain can stay…

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Brain Fitness Program 2.0, MindFit, and much more on Brain Training

By Alvaro Fernandez | August 27, 2007 |

Let’s quick­ly review 4 recent arti­cles in both “Times” news­pa­pers: the New York Times and the UK-based Times, on brain fit­ness and a cou­ple of programs.  1) Cal­is­then­ics for the Old­er Mind, on the Home Com­put­er: good overview of one of the grow­ing areas for cog­ni­tive train­ing, “healthy aging”. Quotes: — “In the past year,…

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Alzheimer’s Disease: too serious to play with headlines

By Alvaro Fernandez | June 21, 2007 |

We just came across an arti­cle titled Best Com­put­er Brain Games for Senior Cit­i­zens to Delay Alzheimer’s Dis­ease. The head­line makes lit­tle sci­en­tif­ic sense-and we observe this con­fu­sion often. The arti­cle men­tions a few pro­grams we have dis­cussed often in this blog, such as Posit Sci­ence and Mind­Fit, and oth­ers we haven’t because we haven’t…

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Posit Science, Nintendo Brain Training, Dakim…WebMD on Brain Fitness.

By Alvaro Fernandez | November 21, 2006 |

Good Web­MD 4‑page arti­cle on Brain Fit­ness pro­grams for seniors. Check Keep­ing Your Brain Fit for Life:Software com­pa­nies are offer­ing new pro­grams that promise to keep your brain sharp as you get old­er. Some quotes: — “The notion of brain fit­ness has even invad­ed pop­u­lar cul­ture. In April, Nin­ten­do released Brain Age, a Japan­ese-inspired, hand­held video…

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