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

— Time for Sharp­Brains’ August 2014 e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing a wealth of insights, sci­ence and tech­nol­o­gy reports…and this brain teas­er to exer­cise your men­tal rota­tion abil­i­ties. Enjoy! New trends: How to incor­po­rate mind­ful­ness into psy­chother­a­py Chal­leng­ing the out­dat­ed “fixed brain” dog­ma, the cog­ni­tive train­ing mar­ket keeps grow­ing Increased aware­ness and use of cog­ni­tive assess­ments seen as demen­­tia-relat­ed pri­or­i­ties by…

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How to incorporate mindfulness into psychotherapy

Mind­ful­ness is good for you. In thou­sands of stud­ies, moment-to-moment, non-judg­­men­­tal atten­tion has been shown to improve well-being, strength­en rela­tion­ships, increase focus and atten­tion, and even boost our immune sys­tems. So it’s no sur­prise that ther­a­pists have tak­en an inter­est in using mind­ful­ness with their patients. The poten­tial for ben­e­fit is clear­ly great. But how…

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Who will be the personal brain trainers of the future?

Brain-fit­­ness indus­try caters to wor­ried boomers (Crain’s): “Mr. Fernandez…compares the brain-fit­­ness indus­try of today with the phys­i­­cal-fit­­ness indus­try of half a cen­tu­ry or more ago. Where­as once there were no health clubs or per­son­al train­ers, today they’re ubiq­ui­tous. “Who will be the per­son­al brain train­ers of the future?” he says. “Are they going to be…

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BrainTech: Six Take-aways on Neuroplasticity and Cognitive training

Israel’s first inter­na­tion­al Brain­Tech con­fer­ence took place this week, on Octo­ber 14 and 15th. It was orga­nized by Israel Brain Tech­nolo­gies (IBT), a non-prof­it orga­ni­za­tion whose mis­sion is to posi­tion Israel as a glob­al brain tech­nol­o­gy and research cen­ter. The con­fer­ence includ­ed talks rep­re­sent­ing mul­ti­ple stake­hold­ers in the neu­rotech­nol­o­gy sec­tor world­wide – patients, clin­i­cians, academic…

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The importance of Context for Cognitive/ Emotional Health

For­tu­nate­ly, our field has moved beyond par­ti­san, and some­times polit­i­cal, pref­er­ence and now asks, What treat­ment is most effec­tive for which patients in what con­text?” — Ray­mon A. Levy and J. Stu­art Ablon, clin­i­cal direc­tor and direc­tor of the psy­chother­a­py research pro­gram in the depart­ment of psy­chi­a­try at Mass­a­chu­setts Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. Yes­ter­day’s New York Times…

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