Time for a universal “exercise prescription” for kids and adults to boost cognition and mental health?

By SharpBrains | August 31, 2023 |

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing this time a range of brain research find­ings, tools and con­tro­ver­sies plus some brain teasers to chal­lenge your (and our) work­ing mem­o­ry. #1. Major evi­dence review sup­ports an “exer­cise pre­scrip­tion” for most adults to boost men­tal health “High­er inten­si­ty phys­i­cal activ­i­ty was asso­ci­at­ed with greater improvements”…

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Reading for pleasure during childhood may lead to higher brain/ cognitive development and mental well-being during adolescence

By The Conversation | July 19, 2023 |

Ear­ly child­hood is a crit­i­cal peri­od for brain devel­op­ment, which is impor­tant for boost­ing cog­ni­tion and men­tal well­be­ing. Good brain health at this age is direct­ly linked to bet­ter men­tal heath, cog­ni­tion and edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment in ado­les­cence and adult­hood. It can also pro­vide resilience in times of stress. But, sad­ly, brain devel­op­ment can be hampered…

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Ten resources, brain teasers and illusions to celebrate Brain Awareness Week 2023

By SharpBrains | March 15, 2023

We invite you to cel­e­brate Brain Aware­ness Week (March 13–19th, 2023) by learn­ing more about that key yet often-over­looked organ and by putting it to good use via some fun brain teasers and illu­sions :-) Can you con­nect these pairs of words? Try these quick teasers to chal­lenge your work­ing mem­o­ry Three clas­sic opti­cal illu­sions, explained Test…

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On cognitive training, muscle mass, neurostimulation, brain teasers, apps, and more

By SharpBrains | October 31, 2022

Wel­come to a new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing time­ly brain & inno­va­tion news and a few fun teasers to test your work­ing mem­o­ry. #1. Study: Build­ing mus­cle mass helps delay cog­ni­tive decline beyond the val­ue of exer­cise itself “Teas­ing out exact­ly how mus­cle helps the brain remains a chal­lenge. There are plen­ty of indirect…

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Combined tDCS neurostimulation and cognitive training found to improve working memory among older adults–especially those with lower starting capacity

By SharpBrains | October 25, 2022

Giv­ing mem­o­ry a lift: Can games and brain stim­u­la­tion do it? (Med­ical­New­sTo­day): A person’s work­ing mem­o­ry may decline with age or if they have demen­tia, Parkinson’s dis­ease, or have had a stroke. When this occurs, the loss can affect their day-to-day qual­i­ty of life, turn­ing even sim­ple tasks into often-demor­­al­iz­ing challenges.

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Study finds that playing videogames may be more cognitively beneficial for children than other forms of screentime (social media, watching videos/ TV)

By The Conversation | June 1, 2022

Many par­ents feel guilty when their chil­dren play video games for hours on end. Some even wor­ry it could make their chil­dren less clever. And, indeed, that’s a top­ic sci­en­tists have clashed over for years. In our new study, we inves­ti­gat­ed how video games affect the minds of chil­dren, inter­view­ing and test­ing more than 5,000 children…

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