These days, you can’t go any­where with­out hear­ing about how tech­nol­o­gy is ruin­ing every­thing, includ­ing our hap­pi­ness. There is some truth to this, but it’s not the whole sto­ry.

Tech­nol­o­gy can be bad for us—for exam­ple, when social media gives us FOMO (fear of miss­ing out) or traps us in fil­ter bub­bles that pre­vent us from see­ing mul­ti­ple points of view on impor­tant issues. As a soci­ety, we are increas­ing­ly con­cerned that tech­nolo­gies like smart­phones and social media result in more social com­par­i­son, bul­ly­ing, and loneliness—all stum­bling blocks to hap­pi­ness. Tech­nol­o­gy seems to be bad for our hap­pi­ness when it inter­feres with the men­tal, social, emo­tion­al, and behav­ioral process­es that con­tribute to well-being.

But we often fail to real­ize (and dis­cuss) the ways that tech­nol­o­gy can also sup­port hap­pi­ness and well-being—for exam­ple Read the rest of this entry »

Our newest #NAM­Per­spec­tives paper out­lines the eight key actions need­ed to scale the use of men­tal health tech­nol­o­gy in sup­port­ing men­tal health care pro­fes­sion­als world­wide. Read about this pro­posed path for­ward: https://t.co/vnKAQzrSaS pic.twitter.com/JRd8fKQP80

— Nation­al Acad­e­my of Med­i­cine (@theNAMedicine) Octo­ber 28, 2019

Tech­nol­o­gy has much to offer in terms of pro­vid­ing and improv­ing access to bet­ter men­tal health care. Why, then, has more not been done to take advan­tage of these tools?

The newest dis­cus­sion paper from #NAM­Per­spec­tives, Read the rest of this entry »

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Quick heads-up about a great event next month for those based in the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area.

• When: Tues­day, Sep­tem­ber 17, 2019 / 8:30 AM – 6:00 PM PDT
• Where: Pauley Ball­room, UC Berke­ley
• What: 2019 UC Berke­ley Aging Research & Tech­nol­o­gy Sum­mit: Dis­rupt­ing Neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive Dis­eases

Alzheimer’s and neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­eases are Read the rest of this entry »

Excit­ed to announce the three ground­break­ing star­tups that will get to pitch their idea and solu­tions at the Brain­no­va­tions Pitch Con­test on May 8th, dur­ing Day 2 of the 2019 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit (May 7–9th).

These are the select­ed Final­ists, togeth­er with their sum­ma­ry ele­va­tor pitch. Please join us in cel­e­brat­ing their work so far and in wish­ing them all the best at the pitch con­test!

Final­ist: eQui­l­i­ty

• Ele­va­tor pitch: Our vision is to devel­op dig­i­tal ther­a­pies heal­ing mind and body, lever­ag­ing inno­va­tion in con­sumer tech­nol­o­gy to deliv­er advanced, non-drug clin­i­cal inter­ven­tions for a wide range of con­di­tions in CNS and Inflam­ma­tion. We will com­bine con­sumer-fac­ing bio­elec­tron­ic devices with proven dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics in a mobile plat­form.
• Pre­sen­ter: Kate Sharadin, Founder & CEO

Final­ist: Brain­Patch

• Ele­va­tor pitch: We are devel­op­ing a brain-com­put­er com­put­er-brain inter­face that utilis­es lat­est tech­nolo­gies for deliv­er­ing safe, effec­tive and trust­wor­thy non-inva­sive brain stim­u­la­tion for appli­ca­tions rang­ing from focus and con­cen­tra­tion to med­i­ta­tion and beyond.
• Pre­sen­ter: Nick­o­lai Vysokov,  Co-Founder & CEO

Final­ist: Sana Health

• Ele­va­tor pitch: Sana is a neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion device for pain, addic­tion and anx­i­ety. The device uses puls­es of light and sound to guide the user into a deep state of relax­ation, and increase neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty. We have com­plet­ed suc­cess­ful tri­als in Opi­oid use dis­or­der and fibromyal­gia, and aim to pass FDA in Sep­tem­ber.
• Pre­sen­ter: Richard Han­bury, Founder & CEO

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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