Update: New tools, research and insights to reinvent Brain Health and Mental Health in the Digital Age

———- Time for a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, explor­ing a range of tech­nolo­gies, sci­en­tif­ic find­ings and insights for brain health and men­tal health to bet­ter respond to the oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges ahead. Hap­py read­ing, and Hap­py Thanks­giv­ing! New tools: Brain Health in the Dig­i­tal Age (opens 24-slide pre­sen­ta­tion) Har­ness­ing brain scans to per­son­al­ize autism-relat­ed behav­ioral inter­ven­tions UNICEF…

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Dr. Michael Merzenich: To harness Neuroplasticity for cognitive enhancement, we need to think “Fitness” more than “Games”

(Edi­tor’s Note: In order to help read­ers famil­iar­ize them­selves with the work and think­ing of Dr. Michael Merzenich, one of the win­ners of the 2016 Kavli Prize in Neu­ro­science for ground­break­ing work on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, we are con­dens­ing and repub­lish­ing the com­pre­hen­sive con­ver­sa­tion that Dr. Merzenich and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez had in 2009, in prepa­ra­tion for the inaugural…

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Why brain training needs to be better targeted, and more widely available

— ADHD, sub­stance abuse and con­duct dis­or­der devel­op from the same neu­rocog­ni­tive deficits (Med­ical Xpress): “Researchers at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Mon­tre­al and CHU Sainte-Jus­­tine Research Cen­tre have traced the ori­gins of ADHD, sub­stance abuse and con­duct dis­or­der, and found that they devel­op from the same neu­rocog­ni­tive deficits, which in turn explains why they often occur…

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Does mindfulness meditation work? (Hint: First, define “work”)

How con­vinc­ing is the sci­ence dri­ving the pop­u­lar­i­ty of mind­ful­ness med­i­ta­tion? Brown Uni­ver­si­ty researcher has some sur­pris­ing answers (tri­cy­cle): “Giv­en the wide­spread belief that med­i­ta­tion prac­tice is sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly cer­ti­fied to be good for just about every­thing, the results of a recent major analy­sis of the research might come as some sur­prise… (Ques­tion) As a sci­en­tist and…

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FDA clears use of EEG-based ADHD test

First ADHD brain wave test approved by FDA (CBS News): “Diag­nos­ing some­one with atten­tion deficit hyper­ac­tiv­i­ty dis­or­der (ADHD) is often a tricky sci­ence because it relies heav­i­ly on psy­chi­atric and behav­ioral exam­i­na­tions. For the first time, the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion has approved a device that 

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