rehabilitation

News you can use: To improve memory, exercise brain and body at the same time

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Time for Sharp­Brains’ eNewslet­ter  track­ing the lat­est think­ing, research and tools for brain health.

This month we fea­ture five fas­ci­nat­ing inter­views at the fron­tier of applied neu­ro­science and a recent study sug­gest­ing that “Per­form­ing mem­o­ry train­ing exer­cis­es at the same time as ped­al­ing a sta­tion­ary bike led to bet­ter gains in mem­o­ry than doing the train­ing exer­cis­es after work­ing up a sweat…”

Enjoy the read!

New thinking:

New research:

New tools:

 

Final­ly, you may want to learn about cog­ni­tion and men­tal self-rota­tion with these quick brain teasers.

Have a great month of March,

The Sharp­Brains Team

Dr. Albert Kwon, CEO of Brainnovations Winner AUGMENTx, wants to harness Augmented Reality to significantly ease access to Neurological Rehabilitation Therapies

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Albert, what sur­prised you the most from the Judges’ ques­tions and feed­back dur­ing the Brain­no­va­tions Pitch Contest?

It was a pleas­ant sur­prise to receive so many votes and such great feed­back, which solid­i­fied my con­vic­tion that there is a great need to cre­ate new ther­a­py options for stroke patients and oth­er neu­ro­log­i­cal injuries, espe­cial­ly giv­en our aging pop­u­la­tion.  Med­ical sys­tems world­wide will strug­gle to han­dle the grow­ing bur­den of chron­ic ill­ness­es unless we start act­ing soon.

In a nut­shell, what is the core idea behind AUG­MEN­Tx?

The core idea is to lever­age visu­al-cog­ni­tive and visu­al-motor/sen­so­ry con­nec­tions of the brain to enhance per­for­mance in dis­ease states.  For exam­ple, mir­ror ther­a­py takes advan­tage of the mir­ror neu­ron path­way to improve post-stroke motor recov­ery and to alle­vi­ate phan­tom limb pain in limb amputees.  And we believe that these ther­a­pies can be deliv­ered on dig­i­tized AR plat­forms, instead of being always con­fined to few spe­cial­ized phys­i­cal reha­bil­i­ta­tion cen­ters.  Why not have them be acces­si­ble from the patient’s home [Read more…] about Dr. Albert Kwon, CEO of Brain­no­va­tions Win­ner AUG­MEN­Tx, wants to har­ness Aug­ment­ed Real­i­ty to sig­nif­i­cant­ly ease access to Neu­ro­log­i­cal Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Therapies

Study: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) can reduce fatigue in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS)

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Leigh Charvet, PhD and a mem­ber of her research team use the tran­scra­nial direct cur­rent stim­u­la­tion (tDCS) equip­ment. Cred­it: NYU Lan­gone Health

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Tran­scra­nial Direct Cur­rent Stim­u­la­tion Shown to Reduce Fatigue Asso­ci­at­ed with Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis (NYU Lagone Health press release):

“Peo­ple with mul­ti­ple scle­ro­sis (MS) who under­went a non-inva­sive form of elec­tri­cal brain stim­u­la­tion expe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tions in fatigue, a com­mon and often debil­i­tat­ing symp­tom of the dis­ease [Read more…] about Study: Tran­scra­nial Direct Cur­rent Stim­u­la­tion (tDCS) can reduce fatigue in patients with Mul­ti­ple Scle­ro­sis (MS)

Survey finds significant promise for home-based, data-rich cognitive therapy among stroke survivors

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ConstantTherapyTele­health Sees Suc­cess in Ther­a­py (MHealth Intelligence):

“Tele­health-based ther­a­py pro­grams for stroke sur­vivors have helped increase cog­ni­tive and lan­guage skills and enabled patients to receive ther­a­py five times more often, accord­ing to one com­pa­ny. [Read more…] about Sur­vey finds sig­nif­i­cant promise for home-based, data-rich cog­ni­tive ther­a­py among stroke survivors

Cardiac Surgery Can Impact Long-term Cognitive Functioning, Suggesting Need for Monitoring and Rehab

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Post-Op Delir­i­um’s Toll on Men­tal Func­tion May Linger: Study (US News):

“Delir­i­um after car­diac surgery has been thought of as a brief, reversible con­di­tion, but new research is sug­gest­ing that [men­tal] recov­ery for some peo­ple may take much longer than thought, and that there are long-term cog­ni­tive con­se­quences,” said study co-lead author Jane Saczyn­s­ki, [Read more…] about Car­diac Surgery Can Impact Long-term Cog­ni­tive Func­tion­ing, Sug­gest­ing Need for Mon­i­tor­ing and Rehab

Dr. Sheryl Flynn on Getting Evidence-Based Rehab Video Games Into the Hands of Users

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Dr. Fly­nn will dis­cuss her entre­pre­neur­ial jour­ney to get Evi­dence-Based Rehab Video Games Into the Hands of Users, at the upcom­ing 2012 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit (June 7–14th, 2012).

Dr. Sheryl Fly­nn is the founder and CEO of Blue Mar­ble Game Co, a seri­ous games com­pany that focus­es design and devel­op­ment of video games to enhance [Read more…] about Dr. Sheryl Fly­nn on Get­ting Evi­dence-Based Rehab Video Games Into the Hands of Users