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US-Army

10 Non-invasive Neurotechnologies About to Transform Brain Enhancement and Brain Health

November 10, 2015 by Alvaro Fernandez

BrainComputerInterface.

30,000+ sci­en­tists and pro­fes­sion­als gath­ered for the annu­al Soci­ety for Neu­ro­science con­fer­ence in Chica­go last month, prov­ing the grow­ing inter­est and activ­i­ties to bet­ter under­stand the inner work­ings of the human brain, and to dis­cov­er ways and tech­nolo­gies to enhance its health and performance.

Now, which of all those ongo­ing efforts are clos­er to touch­ing our lives, to empow­er con­sumers, patients and health pro­fes­sion­als? [Read more…] about 10 Non-inva­sive Neu­rotech­nolo­gies About to Trans­form Brain Enhance­ment and Brain Health

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Peak Performance, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Accenture, Advanced Brain Monitoring, Applied-Cognitive-Engineering, AT&T, big data, BodyMedia, Brain-Computer Interfaces, brain-enhancement, Brain-health, brain-stimulation, Brainlab, CNS Response, digital health, digital neurotechnology, Emotiv, Freer Logic, intellectual property, Interaxon, Jawbone, lumos-labs, Medtronic, Microsoft, neuromonitoring, Neuronetics, NeuroPace, neurotechnologies, Neurotechnology, Nielsen, non-invasive neurotechnology, patents, Phillips, Posit-Science, St. Jude Medical, Thync, US-Army, virtual-reality

Digital health–with a brain twist–sees increased military adoption

March 26, 2015 by SharpBrains

BrainAssessmentApp

.

Mobile mashup: The mil­i­tary’s pro­lif­er­at­ing mix of smart­phones and tablets (Defense Systems):

“Smart­phones and tablets are rapid­ly mak­ing their way into mil­i­tary oper­a­tions, trim­ming costs and giv­ing warfight­ers tight­ly focused capa­bil­i­ties. But these ben­e­fits raise a host of chal­lenges, rang­ing from secu­ri­ty and the need for ruggedi­za­tion, to require­ments for [Read more…] about Dig­i­tal health–with a brain twist–sees increased mil­i­tary adoption

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: apps, brain thermometer, concussion evaluation, digital health, military, neurobehavioral assessment, neurocognitive, smartphones, tablets, US-Army

Update: Live Well to 100 by Using Your Brain

November 30, 2009 by Alvaro Fernandez

Here you have the Novem­ber edi­tion of our month­ly newslet­ter cov­er­ing 107px-gray1197thumbnailcog­ni­tive health and brain fit­ness top­ics. Please remem­ber that you can sub­scribe to receive this Newslet­ter by email, using the box at the top of this page.

Liv­ing Well to 100

100 is the new 65: Why do some peo­ple live, and well, to 100? Researchers are try­ing to find out, reports Meera Lee Sethi at Greater Good Mag­a­zine. They are dis­cov­er­ing that genet­ic fac­tors may account for only 20 to 30 per­cent of a per­son­’s lifes­pan, while envi­ron­men­tal and behav­ioral fac­tors can dic­tate the oth­er 70 to 80 percent.

Does cof­fee boost cog­ni­tive func­tions over time? Dr. Pas­cale Mich­e­lon weighs the evi­dence and reports good and bad news. The good news: long-term effects seem more pos­i­tive than neg­a­tive, so cof­fee leads to no clear harm. The bad news: there are no clear ben­e­fi­cial effects on gen­er­al brain func­tions (impli­ca­tion for pro­po­nents of “smart pills”: don’t use cof­fee as the analogy).

10 Inno­va­tions for the Aging Soci­ety: In the Thanks­giv­ing’s spir­it, we want to thank 10 pio­neers for emerg­ing inno­va­tions that may help mil­lions of peo­ple alive today to keep our brains in top shape per­haps till we are 100 or more. Many of those pio­neers will par­tic­i­pate in the inau­gur­al Sharp­Brains Sum­mit.

In Autopi­lot?

Train your autopilot.…and how to turn it off: Madeleine Van Hecke, Ph.D shares an excerpt from The Brain Advan­tage, in which she encour­ages main­tain­ing men­tal “autopi­lot” when it’s work­ing well, yet shift­ing to more con­scious delib­er­a­tions when needed.

Sci­en­tia Pro Pub­li­ca:  A good way to turn off autopi­lot is to enjoy some great sci­ence and nature blog­ging, cour­tesy of Sci­en­tia Pro Pub­li­ca blog car­ni­val. Addi­tion­al­ly, you can enjoy read­ing some of the best neu­ro­science, psy­chol­o­gy and med­ical blog­ging at the first ever com­bined Grand Rounds/ Encephalon edi­tion.

Games for Health

Games for Health Research: The Robert Wood John­son Foun­da­tion announced more than $1.85 mil­lion in grants for research teams to study how dig­i­tal games can improve play­ers health. One of the grantees is UCS­F’s Adam Gaz­za­ley (who will be speak­ing at the Sharp­Brains Sum­mit) to devel­op a dri­ving game for cog­ni­tive fit­ness among younger and old­er adults.

Smart indus­try-research col­lab­o­ra­tion: Lumos Labs and researchers Susanne Jaeg­gi and Mar­tin Buschkuehl announce a col­lab­o­ra­tion to make the orig­i­nal Dual N‑Back work­ing mem­o­ry train­ing pro­gram avail­able online and use it for ongo­ing research.

News

Mar­i­an C. Dia­mond to open Sharp­Brains Sum­mit: Kick­ing off our Jan­u­ary 2010 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit is Mar­i­an C. Dia­mond, one of the pio­neers of neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty research since the 1960s. She will intro­duce us to the human brain, its anato­my and func­tion, and impli­ca­tions of  neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty for brain health and per­for­mance at any age.

The Sharp­Brains Guide’s reviews and inter­views: a col­lec­tion of links to inter­views and reviews of The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fitness.

Net­work for Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion (mem­bers-only): Dis­cus­sion on the future of com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py; Unit­ed BioSource acquires Cog­ni­tive Drug Research; inno­v­a­tive part­ner­ship between Nav­i­gen­ics and Posit Sci­ence; new research on brain impact of Tetris; how a drop in visu­al skills may pre­cede Alzheimer’s Dis­ease;  excel­lent report by the Nation­al Acad­e­mies for the US Army avail­able for free now.

Brain Teas­er

Who will you believe, me or your own eyes? dis­cov­er the 3 Win­ners of the 2009 Best Visu­al Illu­sion of the Year Con­test. Neu­ro­sci­en­tists Susana Mar­tinez-Conde and Stephen Mack­nik, who help orga­nize the con­test, will give a fun demo on Mag­ic and the Brain at Sharp­Brains Sum­mit, to dis­cuss the lim­its of human per­cep­tion and cognition.

Enjoy the final month of 2009!

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Filed Under: Brain Teasers, Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, SharpBrains Monthly eNewsletter Tagged With: Alzheimers-disease, Blog-Carnivals, boost cognitive functions, brain, Brain-Plasticity, brain-teaser, coffee, cognitive, Cognitive-Drug-Research, Cognitive-functions, encephalon, games for health research, Games-for-Health, genetic factors, Grand-Rounds, innovation, lumos-labs, magic, Martin-Buschkuehl, National Academies, neuroplasticity, RWJF, Scientia Pro Publica, smart pills, Susanne-Jaeggi, Tetris, United-BioSource, US-Army

United BioSource Corporation Announces Acquisition of Cognitive Drug Research (computerized cognitive testing)

September 14, 2009 by Alvaro Fernandez

Press release: “Leader in cog­ni­tion mea­sure­ment inte­grates into UBC to max­i­mize mea­sure­ment pre­ci­sion of piv­otal end­points and ensure data integri­ty. Unit­ed BioSource Cor­po­ra­tion (UBC) today announced the acqui­si­tion of CDR”

Press release (09/10/09): Here

Analy­sis for mem­bers of Sharp­Brains Net­work for Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion: Here

For con­text, see our pre­vi­ous arti­cle titled Com­put­er­ized Cog­ni­tive Assess­ments: oppor­tu­ni­ties and con­cerns, focused on the OptumHealth — Brain­Re­source part­ner­ship and inno­v­a­tive work by the US Army.

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Filed Under: Technology & Innovation Tagged With: brain-fitness-innovation, Brain-Resource, CDR, cognition, cognition-measurement, cognitive-assessments, Cognitive-Drug-Research, computerized-cognitive-testing, OptumHealth, UBC, United-BioSource, United-BioSource-Corporation, US-Army

Update: Preparing Society for the Cognitive Age, and Industry Webinar

August 13, 2009 by Alvaro Fernandez

Here you have the August edi­tion of our month­ly newslet­ter cov­er­ing cog­ni­tive health and Brain Fitnessbrain fit­ness top­ics. Please remem­ber that you can sub­scribe to receive this Newslet­ter by email, using the box at the top of this page.

Sci­en­tif­ic pub­li­ca­tion Fron­tiers in Neu­ro­science recent­ly pub­lished a spe­cial issue on Aug­ment­ing Cog­ni­tion, and invit­ed me to con­tribute with an arti­cle titled Prepar­ing Soci­ety for the Cog­ni­tive Age. Ground­break­ing brain research has occurred over the last 20 years. The oppor­tu­ni­ty to improve brain health and per­for­mance is immense, but we need to ensure the mar­ket­place matures in a ratio­nal and sus­tain­able man­ner, both through health­care and non-health­care chan­nels. Click Here to read my article.

Announce­ments

In May 2009 Sharp­Brains pub­lished The State of the Brain Fit­ness Soft­ware Mar­ket 2009, the main indus­try report for lead­ing orga­ni­za­tions prepar­ing their mem­bers, their clients, and their patients for the cog­ni­tive age. 150-pages long, the report includes a mar­ket sur­vey with 2,000+ respon­dents, detailed analy­sis of 20+ ven­dors, research briefs writ­ten by 12 lead­ing sci­en­tists and data and trends for 4 major cus­tomer segments.webinar

Below we share the full Exec­u­tive Sum­ma­ry of the report and announce an exclu­sive webi­nar on Sep­tem­ber 29th to dis­cuss the State of the Mar­ket in more depth with buy­ers of the report.

To order the report and access both the report and the webi­nar, you can click Here. (Only $975 ‑a 25% dis­count- using Dis­count Code Frontiers2009 before Sep­tem­ber 28th).

State of the Market

The brain fit­ness field holds excit­ing promise for the future while pre­sent­ing clear oppor­tu­ni­ties and chal­lenges today. The good news is that there are more tools avail­able than ever before to assess and train a vari­ety of cog­ni­tive skills. The bad news is that there are no mag­ic pills and that con­sumers, while sat­is­fied over­all, seem con­fused by com­pet­ing claims on how to reduce one’s “brain age.” We do see signs that this ear­ly-stage mar­ket can mature in a more ratio­nal, struc­tured man­ner; but there is much work to be done. We esti­mate that the size of the U.S. brain fit­ness soft­ware (i.e., appli­ca­tions designed to assess or enhance cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties) mar­ket in 2008 was [Read more…] about Update: Prepar­ing Soci­ety for the Cog­ni­tive Age, and Indus­try Webinar

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Education & Lifelong Learning, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Advanced-Brain-Technologies, Allstate, Applied-Cognitive-Engineering, brain-age, Brain-Center-America, brain-fitness-market, brain-fitness-training, Brain-Resource, brain-training-market, CNS-Vital-Signs, cogmed, cognifit, cognitive, cognitive-abilities, Cognitive-Age, Cognitive-Drug-Research, cognitive-reserve, cognitive-screenings, CogState, Dakim, Houghton-Mifflin, innovation, Learning-Enhancement-Corporation, lumos-labs, nintendo, NovaVision, OptumHealth, Posit-Science, readmissions, scientific-brain-training, Scientific-Learning, software, TransAnalytics, US-Army, USA-Hockey-League, videogames, Vigorous-Mind, Vivity-Labs

Brain Teasers on Brain Training/ Games for Health Conference

June 16, 2009 by Alvaro Fernandez

Giv­en the whole dis­tract­ing “con­tro­ver­sy” of whether Nin­ten­do Brain Age “works” or not, I have start­ed to use the fol­low­ing “brain teasers” in my talks in order to help the audi­ence gain a more use­ful per­spec­tive of what is going on. They worked great both in the Medicare Read­mis­sions Sum­mit in DC a few weeks ago, and at the Games for Heath Con­fer­ence last week.

Q: How many sol­diers in the US Army have gone through com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive test­ing before being deployed, and why?
A: Over 150,000, in order to estab­lish an objec­tive start­ing base­line and iden­ti­fy poten­tial Post Trau­mat­ic Stress Dis­or­der (PTSD) and Trau­mat­ic Brain Injury (TBI) prob­lems upon their return.

Q: How big is the ongo­ing invest­ment by OptumHealth, a divi­sion of Unit­ed­Health Group (UNH), in devel­op­ing com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive assess­ments to inform clin­i­cal decision-making?
A: over $6m.

Q: How many All­state pol­i­cy-hold­ers over the age of 50 have received a com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing pro­gram to improve their dri­ving safety?
A: Over 8,000, in the state of Pennsylvania.

Q: How many res­i­den­tial com­mu­ni­ties are offer­ing com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive train­ing pro­grams to their residents?
A: Over 700, in the US alone, cov­er­ing inde­pen­dent and assist­ed living.

Q: How much mon­ey has the Gov­ern­ment of Ontario invest­ed in set­ting up a new Cen­tre for Brain Fit­ness as part of Bay­crest research cen­ter in order to devel­op and com­mer­cial­ize tech­nolo­gies to assess and enhance cog­ni­tive functions?
A: $10m, matched with anoth­er 10m from local investors.

For more on our Cog­ni­tive Health Track at Games for Health Con­fer­ence last week, see this USA Today article:

More doc­tor’s pre­scrip­tions may include brain games to improve men­tal acuity

(pret­ty good over­all, but please note that Sharp­Brains did­n’t orga­nize the whole con­fer­ence, “only” the cog­ni­tive health track, which was a lot of stim­u­lat­ing fun. Ben Sawyer and team did over­all conference).

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Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health, Technology & Innovation Tagged With: Allstate, Brain Teasers, brain-age, Centre-for-Brain-Fitness, cognitive-health, Cognitive-Training, computerized-cognitive-assessments, driving-safetycognitive-testing, enhance-cognitive-functions, Games-for-Health, Government-of-Ontario, improve-mental-acuity, nintendo, Nintendo-Brain-Age, OptumHealth, PTSD, residential-communities, TBI, UNH, UnitedHealth-Group, US-Army

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