University-of-Pennsylvania

Under what conditions does brain training work?

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Please con­sid­er join­ing us at Sharp­Brains’ upcom­ing vir­tu­al con­fer­ence (Novem­ber 17–19th), fea­tur­ing this fan­tas­tic session:

Wednesday November 18th, 12.30 — 1.45 pm. Under what conditions does brain training work?

Despite ongo­ing con­tro­ver­sies, the evi­dence is clear: Some brain train­ing inter­ven­tions work, and some don’t. What explains the dif­fer­ence? What con­di­tions max­i­mize the prob­a­bil­ity of trans­fer into real-life ben­e­fits? Under­stand­ing these con­di­tions, as out­lined in The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness, is cru­cial to sep­a­rate wheat from chaff.

  • Chair: Dr. Peter White­house, Pro­fes­sor of Neu­rol­o­gy at Case West­ern Reserve University
  • Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, CEO & Co-Founder of SharpBrains
  • Dr. Bruce E. Wexler, Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chi­a­try at Yale University
  • Dr. Glenn Mor­ri­son, Direc­tor of Clin­i­cal Tri­als at Lumosity
  • Dr. Roy Hamil­ton, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor in Neu­rol­o­gy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pennsylvania

–> To learn more and reg­is­ter, vis­it the 2015 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit: Mon­i­tor­ing & Enhanc­ing Brain Health in the Per­va­sive Neu­rotech­nol­o­gy Era (Novem­ber 17–19th). 10%-off pro­mo code: sharp2015

Can brain training reduce cancer risk?

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Penn Researchers Receive Major Grant to Explore Use of Brain Train­ing To Help Peo­ple Change Behav­iors that Increase Can­cer Risk (press release):

“Most peo­ple know that smok­ing, a bad diet, and phys­i­cal inac­tiv­i­ty can lead to cat­a­stroph­ic per­son­al health con­se­quences, includ­ing can­cer. Yet mil­lions con­tin­ue to smoke, eat poor­ly, and fail to get enough exer­cise. A new project [Read more…] about Can brain train­ing reduce can­cer risk?

A Course Correction for Positive Psychology: A Review of Martin Seligman’s Latest Book

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(Editor’s Note: we are pleased to bring you this arti­cle thanks to our col­lab­o­ra­tion with Greater Good Sci­ence Cen­ter).

A Course Cor­rec­tion for Pos­i­tive Psychology

A review of Mar­tin Seligman’s lat­est book, Flour­ish: A Vision­ary New Under­stand­ing of Hap­pi­ness and Well-Being.

- By Jill Suttie

As pres­i­dent of the Amer­i­can Psy­cho­log­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion in 1998, Mar­tin Selig­man chal­lenged the psy­cho­log­i­cal com­mu­ni­ty to rad­i­cal­ly change its approach. For too long, he charged, psy­chol­o­gy had been pre­oc­cu­pied sole­ly with reliev­ing symp­toms of men­tal ill­ness; instead, he believed it should explore how to thrive in life, not just sur­vive it. He called for a psy­chol­o­gy that would uncov­er what makes peo­ple cre­ative, resilient, opti­mistic, and, ulti­mate­ly, hap­py. The “pos­i­tive psy­chol­o­gy” move­ment was born.

Yet in his lat­est book, Flour­ish, Selig­man tries to pro­vide some­thing of a course cor­rec­tion for pos­i­tive psy­chol­o­gy. [Read more…] about A Course Cor­rec­tion for Pos­i­tive Psy­chol­o­gy: A Review of Mar­tin Seligman’s Lat­est Book

Neuroscience Boot Camp: For Anybody who Needs to Understand, Predict or Influence Human Behavior

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I am writ­ing to share some infor­ma­tion about our third annu­al “Neu­ro­science Boot Camp,” which I think the read­ers of the Sharp­Brains blog will find interesting.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of Penn­syl­va­nia announces their 3rd annu­al Neu­ro­science Boot Camp, July 31-August 10, 2011!

Why Neu­ro­science Boot Camp?

Neu­ro­science is increas­ing­ly rel­e­vant to a num­ber of pro­fes­sions and aca­d­e­m­ic dis­ci­plines beyond its tra­di­tion­al med­ical appli­ca­tions. Lawyers, edu­ca­tors, econ­o­mists and busi­ness­peo­ple, [Read more…] about Neu­ro­science Boot Camp: For Any­body who Needs to Under­stand, Pre­dict or Influ­ence Human Behavior