Think Fresh: When Is a Hammer Not a Hammer?

By Shlomo Breznitz & Collins Hemingway | August 21, 2012

Though the human brain is the most inno­v­a­tive instru­ment on earth, we remain a con­ser­v­a­tive species. Most of us relapse to old ways of think­ing even when we think we are doing some­thing new. Our brain’s “sim­i­lar equals iden­ti­cal” mech­a­nism, which comes from expe­ri­ence, is both a good and bad adap­ta­tion. Rely­ing on expe­ri­ence, which…

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Cognitive Fitness for Financial Decision-Making

By SharpBrains | July 11, 2011

Issues with aging can be cost­ly for retirees’ mon­ey (Asso­ci­at­ed Press). Quotes: — “With age comes wis­dom about mon­ey — up to a point.” — “Years of han­dling your own finances and invest­ments sharp­en the abil­i­ty to make sound deci­sions. But fail­ing to pre­pare for the day when 

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Love Your Brain

By Dr. Pascale Michelon | February 14, 2011 |

What bet­ter way to cel­e­brate Valen­tines’ day than to accom­pa­ny Mar­i­an Dia­mond on her search for love and wis­dom in the brain? Dr. Dia­mond is Pro­fes­sor of Neu­ro­science and Anato­my at UC-Berke­­ley  and one of the world’s fore­most researchers on neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and enrich­ment. In the 60s, her  pio­neer work demon­strat­ed the impact of phys­i­cal and…

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Elderhostel’s Marty Knowlton and Lifelong Learning

By Alvaro Fernandez | March 22, 2009

A per­son who helped rein­vent “aging”, “retire­ment” and “learn­ing”, con­tribut­ing to the cog­ni­tive health of mil­lions of indi­vid­u­als as a result: Mar­tin P. ‘Mar­ty’ Knowl­ton dies at 88; co-founder of Elder­hos­tel (Los Ange­les Times) — “Mar­tin P. “Mar­ty” Knowl­ton, a world trav­el­er who fought ageism by co-found­ing Elder­hos­tel, a pro­gram that pio­neered learn­ing vaca­tions for mature…

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Distracted in the Workplace? Meet Maggie Jackson’s Book

By Alvaro Fernandez | March 7, 2009

Today we’ll dis­cuss some of the cog­ni­tive impli­ca­tions of “always on” work­places and lifestyles via a fas­ci­nat­ing inter­view with Mag­gie Jack­son, an award-win­n­ing author and jour­nal­ist. Her lat­est book, Dis­tract­ed: The Ero­sion of Atten­tion and the Com­ing Dark Age, describes the impli­ca­tions of our busy work and life envi­ron­ments and offers impor­tant reflec­tions to help…

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