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Dear read­er,

Time for Sharp­Brains month­ly e-newslet­ter, dis­cussing lat­est think­ing, research and tools for life­long brain health and men­tal health.

Enjoy!

New thinking:

• Study finds clear–yet sur­pris­ing­ly different–benefits in 3 types of med­i­ta­tion-based men­tal train­ing
• Tech­nol­o­gy and the Cog­ni­tion Cri­sis
• Think twice before tak­ing Ader­all for cog­ni­tive enhance­ment: It may actu­al­ly impair work­ing mem­o­ry and oth­er cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties

New research:

• Prac­tice effect due to repeat­ed test­ing can delay detec­tion of cog­ni­tive impair­ment and demen­tia
• Meta-analy­sis finds sus­tained ben­e­fits of neu­ro­feed­back for kids with ADHD
• One in eight chil­dren in India aged 2–9 may have neu­rode­vel­op­men­tal dis­or­ders

New tools:

• Per­spec­tive: How brain train­ing games could help patients with Huntington’s dis­ease
• Sanofi Ven­tures leads $17M invest­ment in Click Ther­a­peu­tics, final­ist @ 2017 Brain­no­va­tions Pitch Con­test
• Save the Date for 2018 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Invest­ing in Brain Health for All (Decem­ber 4–6th)

Last but not least, we invite you try these 25 brain teasers and games when you have some down­time dur­ing the sum­mer — fas­ci­nat­ing, aren’t they?

Have a great month of August,

The Sharp­Brains Team

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Why tech­nol­o­gy — not med­ica­tion — is the future of treat­ing old­er adults with depres­sion (McKnight’s Long-term Care News):

“The go-to treat­ment for many cas­es of depres­sion is med­ica­tion.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this treat­ment option can cause as many issues as the prob­lem it is try­ing to solve. Anti­de­pres­sants can put res­i­dents at greater risk of falls, neg­a­tive health com­pli­ca­tions and oth­er poor con­di­tions. Some stud­ies indi­cate that anti­de­pres­sants may not be effec­tive for most old­er Amer­i­cans. Read the rest of this entry »

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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 the rest of this entry »

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This car tech makes you a bet­ter dri­ver by read­ing your mind. We gave it a test dri­ve (The Wash­ing­ton Post):

“Might the car of the future be able to read your mind?

At CES, the big tech trade show, cars dom­i­nat­ed much of the con­ver­sa­tion. But one expe­ri­ence stood out because it was so far-out: I donned an exper­i­men­tal cap from Nis­san that inter­pret­ed sig­nals from my brain with the goal of mak­ing me a bet­ter dri­ver. Read the rest of this entry »

What are the most promis­ing lifestyle and tech options to har­ness life­long neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, and what are key road­blocks ahead? (record­ing requires reg­is­tra­tion; view slid­edeck above or Here)

• Dr. Álvaro Pas­cual-Leone, Direc­tor of the Beren­son-Allen Cen­ter for Non­in­va­sive Brain Stim­u­la­tion at Beth Israel Dea­coness Med­ical Cen­ter
• Dr. David Bartrés-Faz, Prin­ci­pal Inves­ti­ga­tor of the Barcelona Brain Health Ini­tia­tive (BBHI)
• Dr. Simone Schurle, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor for Respon­sive Bio­med­ical Sys­tems at the Swiss Fed­er­al Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy
• Chaired by: Dr. David Bach, Founder and Pres­i­dent of the Platy­pus Insti­tute

Slid­edeck above sup­port­ed ses­sion held dur­ing the 2017 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Brain Health & Enhance­ment in the Dig­i­tal Age (Decem­ber 5–7th).