Our eyes take in a lot of information from the world, but limitations in brain processing means that we can only pay attention to a small portion of it. As a consequence we often fail to notice important information that is clearly in our field of view because our attention is focused elsewhere. One compelling [...]

This week, we learned that Brain Plasticity Inc. (BPI), a new “technology incubator”, has received $3.65 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to conduct research on software-based programs. They have been awarded $3 million to work on creating and testing a cognitive program for people with schizophrenia, as well as $650,000 for people [...]

I’d like to let you know that  this fall and winter, Norman Doidge is doing a speaking tour that includes visits to Toronto, Denver, Beijing, and several stops throughout Australia. You can see schedule and registration information here, on his website. This is one of my favorite presentations on brain plasticity by Dr. Doidge, author [...]

Published research shows improvement in visual working memory by training with InSight’s SweepSeeker exercise.

You can decide how to react to situations … the brain is much more connected to your emotional responses than you realize.

Ed. Note: this article originally appeared on Dr. Merzenich’s blog On The Brain on August 11, 2008. It references an article by Nicholas Carr, who has recently tackled the topic in greater depth in a new book The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. In light of the recent book release, we thought [...]

Ed. Note: this article originally appeared on Dr. Merzenich’s blog On The Brain on June 13, 2009. Millions of individuals (2% of humankind) are plagued by continuous sounds generated in their skulls, not coming from the real world. Because these ringing or roaring sounds are inescapable and because they strongly influence emotional-control processes in the brain, they [...]

2:00 PM: We are wrapping up. Thank you to everyone who attended the webinar and followed along here. We will be posting a video of the webinar on our website next week. Special thanks to Dr. Rourke, Maggie Atkinson, and Greg Robinson for your contributions. In closing, Dr. Rourke recommends an article by Maggie in [...]

We are so excited to be sponsoring a webinar entitled HIV-Related Cognitive Decline: Can Brain Training Help? The webinar will be held this Thursday, June 10, from 1-2 PM Pacific time. It is free, and all are welcome to join. REGISTER NOW. Our esteemed host will be Sean Rourke, PhD, a professor in the department [...]

Ed. Note: this article originally appeared on Dr. Merzenich’s blog On The Brain on May 26, 2010. I had the great pleasure of attending a symposium held in the College of Education at my alma mater, the University of Portland, focused on this interesting subject, and the implications that it bears for effective learning and teaching. My [...]