Boomer Coverage, Continued

This past weekend the New York Times continued its coverage of the Boomers reaching retirement age. Interestingly, they tracked down and profiled the first boomer (at least one of the early ones) to reach retirement age; click the link to read more about this generation and one of its first born, Aloysius Nachreiner. Oliver Sacks [...]

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Posted January 5, 2011 by Sharon Delman under Benefits of Brain Fitness, Brain plasticity, Neuroscience

When Toddlers Have Talents Far Beyond Their Years

There are quite a few videos out there of little kids doing things at an extremely advanced level, given their age. Like this one, where a girl who’s not yet two years shows she knows the world map better than most adults, from Zimbabwe to Ecuador. (It’s pretty amazing.)

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Posted October 19, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Brain plasticity, Odds and Ends

Simple, Clear Advice from Harvard Health on Protecting Memory

I ran across a very clear explanation from Harvard Health about how to protect the brain’s abilities. (Note: that link is a summary press release; to get the full report, you can purchase it here.) They talk about building your “brain bank” by challenging your mind and staying physically active.  It’s great to see a simple [...]

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Posted October 11, 2010 by Steven Aldrich under Benefits of Brain Fitness, Brain plasticity

Brain Plasticity Inc. to Receive $3.65 Million Funding for Schizophrenia & Stroke Research

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 [...]

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Posted August 19, 2010 by Karen Merzenich under Brain exercise, Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Research studies

Kids, TV, Video Games, and Attention

Viewing television and playing video games each are associated with increased subsequent attention problems in childhood.

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Posted July 9, 2010 by Steven Aldrich under Neuroscience, Research studies

Chemobrain and cognitive training

Multiple studies have shown that Posit Science training programs produce many benefits for healthy adults by improving cognitive performance. There is also great interest in the science community for using our products to address cognitive decline in clinical populations. The goal of brain plasticity based training programs is to re-normalizing brain function through rigorous and [...]

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Posted March 24, 2010 by Peter Delahunt under Benefits of Brain Fitness, Brain Fitness Program, Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Research studies

Optimizing Brain Function

It has become clear over the last few years that one of the many benefits of regular physical exercise is a better functioning brain. In a recent review paper Erickson and Kramer (2009) noted the following: People who exercise regularly have larger volumes of grey matter in important regions of the brain, including the prefrontal, [...]

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Posted March 10, 2010 by Peter Delahunt under Brain exercise, Exercise, Physical exercise, Posit Science software, Research studies

New Web Resource: “About the Brain”

About the Brain is a new section on the Posit Science website that’s chock-full of great information about the brain and brain fitness. You can choose from these areas of interest: Brain Facts helps you understand how your brain and brain plasticity work. It answers all kinds of questions, like “Are crosswords really good for [...]

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Posted March 2, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Benefits of Brain Fitness, Brain exercise, Exercise, Memory, Neuroscience

Research and the Media – Reading Between the Lines

Recently, I read an article about the promise of a nutritional drink called Souvenaid for Alzheimer’s treatment. (My co-worker wrote a great blog post about it a couple of weeks ago.) As reported in CNN, early studies showed the drink had the potential to improve certain types of memory in Alzheimer’s patients. Then I found [...]

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Posted February 18, 2010 by Marghi Merzenich under Brain Fitness Marketing, Brain plasticity, Neuroscience, Odds and Ends, Research studies

The Tipping Point?

If you ever get a chance to talk to Dr. Mike Merzenich, be assured he’ll fill you with a missionary’s zeal for brain fitness.  You’ll leave the conversation wondering why everyone isn’t taking advantage of their brains’ natural abilities to improve.  However, we know good habits aren’t embraced by our society overnight.  It’s taken decades [...]

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Posted January 8, 2010 by Sharon Delman under Brain exercise, Exercise