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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

Busy schedules linked to better memory and cognition among middle-aged and older adults

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Being Super Busy May* Be Good For Your Brain (Smith­son­ian Magazine):

“There has­n’t been much sci­en­tif­ic research on busy­ness itself, although it’s some­thing that we talk about so often,” explains Sara Fes­ti­ni, a cog­ni­tive neu­ro­sci­en­tist at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Texas at Dal­las Cen­ter for Vital Longevi­ty, a co-author of the new research pub­lished this week [Read more…] about Busy sched­ules linked to bet­ter mem­o­ry and cog­ni­tion among mid­dle-aged and old­er adults

Must-read interview with George Rebok, PhD: Can cognitive training help aging brains?

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george_rebokCan Train­ing Help Aging Brains? (Web­MD):

George Rebok, PhD, con­duct­ed one of the largest stud­ies to date look­ing at how cog­ni­tive train­ing affects old­er adults. Rebok, a pro­fes­sor at the Cen­ter on Aging and Health at Johns Hop­kins School of Pub­lic Health, talks about the study find­ings, com­mer­cial­ly avail­able brain train­ing, and what he rec­om­mends for brain health.

“What we found was I think very encour­ag­ing and also some­what sur­pris­ing [Read more…] about Must-read inter­view with George Rebok, PhD: Can cog­ni­tive train­ing help aging brains?

Study: Shift work chronically impairs cognition

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Long-Term Shift Work Linked To Impaired Brain Func­tion (Forbes):

“Accord­ing to results of a new study, long-term shift work may lead to impaired brain pow­er which could involve cog­ni­tive skills such as think­ing, rea­son­ing and memory…The impact was much greater after a peri­od of 10 or more years of such a work pat­tern — and seen to be much greater for those work­ing a rotat­ing shift pat­tern [Read more…] about Study: Shift work chron­i­cal­ly impairs cognition

Research: Brain function can start declining as early as age 45

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Brain func­tion can start declin­ing ‘as ear­ly as age 45’ (BBC Health):

“The brain’s abil­i­ty to func­tion can start to dete­ri­o­rate as ear­ly as 45, sug­gests a study in the British Med­ical Jour­nal.  Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don researchers found a 3.6% decline in men­tal rea­son­ing in women and men aged 45–49. They assessed the mem­o­ry, vocab­u­lary and com­pre­hen­sion skills of 7,000 men and women aged 45 to 70 over 10 years.

The Alzheimer’s Soci­ety said research was need­ed into how changes in the brain could help demen­tia diag­noses.  [Read more…] about Research: Brain func­tion can start declin­ing as ear­ly as age 45

New Interview Series (Part 1 of 10): Why Care About Brain Fitness Innovation?

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Every Mon­day dur­ing the next 10 weeks we’ll dis­cuss here what lead­ing indus­try, sci­ence and pol­i­cy experts –all of whom will speak at the upcom­ing 2011 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit (March 30th — April 1st, 2011)– have to say about emerg­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges to address, over the next 10 years, the grow­ing brain-relat­ed soci­etal demands.

With­out fur­ther ado, here you have what four Sum­mit Speak­ers say…

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Alvaro Pas­cual-Leone is the Direc­tor of the Beren­son-Allen Cen­ter for Non-Inva­sive Brain Stim­u­la­tion at Har­vard Med­ical School.

1. How would you define “brain fit­ness” vs. “phys­i­cal fitness”?

Phys­i­cal fit­ness can refer to an over­all or gen­er­al state of health and well-being. How­ev­er, it is also often used more specif­i­cal­ly to refer to the abil­i­ty to per­form a giv­en activ­i­ty, occu­pa­tion, or sport.

Sim­i­lar­ly brain fit­ness might be used to refer to a gen­er­al state of healthy, opti­mized brain func­tion, or a more spe­cif­ic brain-based abil­i­ty to process cer­tain, spe­cif­ic infor­ma­tion, enable cer­tain motor actions, or sup­port cer­tain cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties. Impor­tant­ly though, I would argue [Read more…] about New Inter­view Series (Part 1 of 10): Why Care About Brain Fit­ness Innovation?