Safe-driving

Why Brain Training Can Help Older Drivers

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A study just pub­lished in the Jour­nal of the Amer­i­can Geri­atric Soci­ety has been much pub­li­cized recent­ly (see for instance, this L.A. Times arti­cle). The study showed that a com­put­er-based brain train­ing pro­gram suc­ceed­ed in reduc­ing at-fault car crash­es for old­er dri­vers. The effects of the train­ing last­ed over 6 years.

This result made the news as one of the rare trans­fers of brain train­ing ben­e­fits to every­day life.  Why was this train­ing suc­cess­ful and not oth­ers? Prob­a­bly because brain train­ing needs to be spe­cif­ic and not gen­er­al. If you prac­tice play­ing base­ball you do not expect to get bet­ter at play­ing bas­ket­ball, right? The same is true of brain func­tions: If you train your lan­guage skills, do not expect to get bet­ter at mem­o­riz­ing num­bers. [Read more…] about Why Brain Train­ing Can Help Old­er Drivers

Maximize the Cognitive Value of Your Mental Workout

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Phys­i­cal fit­ness. Cognitive/ brain fit­ness. Both require nov­el­ty, vari­ety and chal­lenge. Pro­fes­sor Schlo­mo Breznitz, a sci­en­tif­ic and busi­ness leader in the cog­ni­tive fit­ness field, explains why, elo­quent­ly, below. Per­haps “we want change” real­ly means “we need change”. Enjoy!

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Why are every­day life chal­lenges not suf­fi­cient to keep our brains fit?

– By Prof. Shlo­mo Breznitz

Often, when describ­ing the ben­e­fits of Mind­Fit to brain health, I am asked by peo­ple in the audi­ence whether this soft­ware is real­ly need­ed. After all, so they argue, life pro­vides con­tin­ues cog­ni­tive chal­lenges, which should suf­fice for ensur­ing brain fit­ness. From the moment we wake up until we go to sleep our brains have to attend to com­plex stim­uli, plan many activ­i­ties, some of them quite com­plex, and car­ry us through what­ev­er the day offers. These tasks should pro­vide suf­fi­cient “brain exer­cise” with­out the need to engage in spe­cif­ic men­tal workout.

This line of argu­ment sounds odd­ly famil­iar, since it is an exact dupli­ca­tion of claims made in the recent past against the need for phys­i­cal exer­cise. One jumps into the car and from the car and per­haps even climbs a few stairs before sit­ting in the chair, which should be enough to burn the calo­ries and keep fit.

[Read more…] about Max­i­mize the Cog­ni­tive Val­ue of Your Men­tal Workout

Neuroscience for lawyers and leaders

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Stephanie, our lawyer-blog­ger friend, alert­ed us of 2 great arti­cles co-authored by her and Dr. Jef­frey M. Schwartz, a research psy­chi­a­trist at the School of Med­i­cine at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Cal­i­for­nia at Los Ange­les and one of the world’s lead­ing experts in neuroplasticity.
We high­ly rec­om­mend them for lawyers, busi­ness pro­fes­sion­als, and lead­ers in general.
I. A Blue­print For Self-lead­er­ship (or “Lead Your Brain Instead Of Let­ting It Lead You”)
“For years, top ath­letes like Tiger Woods, Jack Nick­laus and many oth­ers have been using neu­ro­sci­en­tif­ic tech­niques to fuel their excel­lence. By draw­ing on five prin­ci­ples of neu­ro­science, you can become a bet­ter leader of your­self and others”
By Stephanie West Allen and Jef­frey M. Schwartz

You can go straight to some sec­tions: [Read more…] about Neu­ro­science for lawyers and leaders