Use-It-or-Lose-It

Study: For better memory and thinking skills at age 70 (and beyond), play cards and board games from age 11

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Cards, board games could ward off cog­ni­tive decline (UPI):

“Play­ing cards and board games like chess, bin­go and Scrab­ble might be the men­tal work­out you need to keep your wits as you age, Scot­tish researchers suggest.

Peo­ple in their 70s who reg­u­lar­ly play board games score high­er on tests of mem­o­ry and think­ing skills than those who don’t. And 70-some­things who step up their game-play­ing are more like­ly to main­tain think­ing skills as they age [Read more…] about Study: For bet­ter mem­o­ry and think­ing skills at age 70 (and beyond), play cards and board games from age 11

What a brain, what a life: Marian Diamond, neuroplasticity pioneer, dies at 90

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Mar­i­an Dia­mond, neu­ro­sci­en­tist who gave new mean­ing to ‘use it or lose it,’ dies at 90 (The Wash­ing­ton Post):

“Mar­i­an Dia­mond, a path­break­ing neu­ro­sci­en­tist whose research — includ­ing a study of Albert Einstein’s pre­served brain — showed that the body’s three-pound seat of con­scious­ness was a dynam­ic struc­ture of beau­ti­ful com­plex­i­ty, capa­ble of devel­op­ment even in old age, died July 25 at an assist­ed-liv­ing com­mu­ni­ty in Oak­land, Calif. She was 90 [Read more…] about What a brain, what a life: Mar­i­an Dia­mond, neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty pio­neer, dies at 90

Understanding the “It” in “Use It or Lose It”

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From Macro to Micro: A Visu­al Guide to the Brain (IEEE Spectrum)

In the human brain, high­er-lev­el infor­ma­tion pro­cess­ing occurs in the neo­cor­tex, neur­al tis­sue that forms the out­er lay­er of the cere­bral cor­tex. In its intri­cate folds, brain cells work togeth­er to inter­pret sen­so­ry infor­ma­tion and to form thoughts and plans. The neo­cor­tex is divid­ed into regions that take the lead on dif­fer­ent types of pro­cess­ing. How­ev­er, much of today’s neu­ro­science research focus­es on map­ping the con­nec­tome: the neur­al con­nec­tions between regions…Keep Read­ing Arti­cle.

To learn more:

Goodreads selects twenty winners of SharpBrains’ book giveaway

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goodreads_bannerBelow are the names of the 20 Goodreads give­away win­ners, ran­dom­ly select­ed from 1,137 par­tic­i­pants. Each win­ner will receive a free print copy of the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age.

Con­grat­u­la­tions, and enjoy the read! [Read more…] about Goodreads selects twen­ty win­ners of Sharp­Brains’ book giveaway

How to properly “Use it or Lose it”: Kundalini Yoga vs. Crossword Puzzles

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yoga_wellnessYoga bet­ter than cross­words for pre­vent­ing pre-Alzheimer’s mem­o­ry loss (The Telegraph):

“His­tor­i­cal­ly and anec­do­tal­ly, yoga has been thought to be ben­e­fi­cial in age­ing well, but this is the sci­en­tif­ic demon­stra­tion of that benefit…We’re con­vert­ing his­tor­i­cal wis­dom into the high lev­el of evi­dence required for doc­tors to rec­om­mend ther­a­py to their patients. [Read more…] about How to prop­er­ly “Use it or Lose it”: Kun­dali­ni Yoga vs. Cross­word Puzzles

How to Optimize Brain Health and Performance at Any Age

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You can now enjoy the slide deck Alvaro Fer­nan­dez used to present the new book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness: How to Opti­mize Brain Health and Per­for­mance at Any Age (April 2013; 284 pages),  at the 2013 Sharp­Brains Vir­tu­al Sum­mit on Sep­tem­ber 27th.

Descrip­tion: While most of us have heard the phrase “use it or lose it,” very few under­stand what “it” real­ly means, or how to prop­er­ly “use it” in order to opti­mize brain health and per­for­mance at any age. This book clos­es this gap by pro­vid­ing com­pre­hen­sive and up-to-date infor­ma­tion, insight and guidance.