performance

Study: Strenuous physical exercise may lead to cognitive –not just physical– fatigue

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Too Much Exer­cise Can Tire Our Brains Out, Too (Dis­cov­er Mag­a­zine D‑brief):

“For years, the Nation­al Insti­tute of Sports, Exer­cise and Per­for­mance (INSEP) in France had been study­ing an unusu­al phe­nom­e­non. If an athlete’s work­out reg­i­ments were ramped up, it didn’t always lead to a bet­ter per­for­mance — even if that ath­lete felt like they were work­ing hard­er than before.

The orga­ni­za­tion called this phe­nom­e­non over­reach­ing, and knew what the phys­i­cal symp­toms were. But the orga­ni­za­tion want­ed to know if any symp­toms of fatigue were appear­ing in the brain, too. New research says yes. [Read more…] about Study: Stren­u­ous phys­i­cal exer­cise may lead to cog­ni­tive –not just phys­i­cal– fatigue

“I am excited”: Making Stress Work for You, Instead of Against You

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Image: The Yerkes-Dod­son Law (YDL)

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How much stress is good for you?

In 1908, Robert Mearns Yerkes and John Dilling­ham Dod­son designed an exper­i­ment that would begin to tack­le the ques­tion, “How much stress is good for you?” 

The researchers tracked mice to see how stress would affect their abil­i­ty to learn. Simple—yet painful, because how do you stress out mice? [Read more…] about “I am excit­ed”: Mak­ing Stress Work for You, Instead of Against You

Study: Neuroscientists pinpoint the brain and performance impact of a (perceived) judgmental audience

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brain_scans_anxietyWhy your brain makes you slip up when anx­ious (Sci­ence Daily):

“As musi­cians, fig­ure skaters and any­one who takes a dri­ving test will know, the anx­i­ety of being watched can have a dis­as­trous effect on your performance…

In the new study, pub­lished in Sci­en­tif­ic Reports, par­tic­i­pants’ brain activ­i­ty was mon­i­tored while [Read more…] about Study: Neu­ro­sci­en­tists pin­point the brain and per­for­mance impact of a (per­ceived) judg­men­tal audience

Study: Are neuromarkers on the cusp of transforming education and mental health?

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brain-activity.

Brain Scans May Help Pre­dict Future Prob­lems, And Solu­tions (NPR):

“Brain scans may soon be able to help pre­dict a per­son­’s future — some aspects of it, anyway.

Infor­ma­tion from these scans increas­ing­ly is able to sug­gest whether a child will have trou­ble with [Read more…] about Study: Are neu­ro­mark­ers on the cusp of trans­form­ing edu­ca­tion and men­tal health?

Update: Four Essential Yet Overlooked Facts About Your Brain

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brainstormingTime for Sharp­Brains’ Decem­ber 2013 e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing a vari­ety of resources, brain teasers and arti­cles. Enjoy the reading…and Hap­py Holidays!

Fea­tured resources:

Brain teasers:

Research and indus­try news:

Please remem­ber that we are host­ing a num­ber of webchats in Jan­u­ary to dis­cuss your impres­sions and ques­tions about  The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age (284 pages; 2013), so we hope you can spend some time read­ing the book over the hol­i­days, and per­haps even dis­cuss it with friends and relatives.

We wish you Hap­py Hol­i­days and a Pros­per­ous 2014!

Nintendo Brain Training, bestseller in Europe

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From a recent article:

Brain Train­ing dom­i­nates ’08 Euro sales (CVG Online)

- “Over­all, four of the ten best­selling DS games in both coun­tries dur­ing the first six months of 2008 were in the brain train­ing genre.”

- “Accord­ing to data released by sales mon­i­tor Media Con­trol GfK Inter­na­tion­al, the DS’s heavy­weight sta­tus in the Euro­pean con­sole mar­ket is close­ly tied to the pop­u­lar­i­ty of Nin­ten­do’s Brain Train­ing series and oth­er brain train­ing titles.”

- “The biggest demand for brain games is in Ger­many and Hol­land”, the com­pa­ny said. More Brain Train­ing was the best­selling title in Ger­many dur­ing the first six months of the year, while Brain Train­ing topped the Dutch chart dur­ing the same period.

Fas­ci­nat­ing. Will brain-train­ing-induced employ­ee-pro­duc­tiv­i­ty-increase help turn around the loom­ing reces­sion? we’ll track close­ly the per­for­mance of Ger­man and Dutch economies!