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 [...]

1. Person of the Year
2. The Ultimate D.I.Y. Project
3. New Web Resource: “About the Brain”

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.) Or there’s this video, showing a [...]

1. The Surprising Talents of the Middle Aged Mind
2. Kids, TV, Video Games, and Attention
3. Man Regains Speech after 19 Years

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 [...]

1. Giving Health Advice for Older People? Don’t Forget the Brain!
2. Multiple Sclerosis and Memory
3. Chemobrain and cognitive training

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 [...]

1. Brain Plasticity Cuts Both Ways: How Does Technology Affect The Brains of Children?
2. Research and the Media – Reading Between the Lines
3. Tinnitus, Music, and Brain Plasticity

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

1. More Evidence: Playing the Right Type of Video Game Improves Real-world Brain Performance
2. Brain Plasticity Cuts Both Ways: How Does Technology Affect The Brains of Children?
3. Unlocking Alzheimer’s in the Mountains of Colombia

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 [...]

1. Brain Scan Study Provides Further Evidence of Chemotherapy-Related Cognitive Decline
2. After Chemotherapy, Brain Can Be Impaired For 5+ Years
3. Liveblogging “HIV-Related Cognitive Decline: Can Brain Training Help?” – Webinar with Dr. Sean Rourke

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, [...]

1. UFOV Training Reduces Medical Expenditures
2. Move Aside, Drugs: Non-invasive Brain Therapies
3. Dog Owners Excel in Physical and Cognitive Fitness

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 [...]

1. The Tipping Point?
2. Gentlemen: Start Your Engines! It’s Men’s Health Week
3. UFOV Training Reduces Medical Expenditures

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 [...]

1. Brain Plasticity Inc. to Receive $3.65 Million Funding for Schizophrenia & Stroke Research
2. Move Aside, Drugs: Non-invasive Brain Therapies
3. Pom Reading: Myths & Facts About Pomegranate Juice & Your Health (Part 1 of 2)

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 [...]

1. Barbara Strauch Speaks on the Middle Aged Brain
2. The Surprising Talents of the Middle Aged Mind
3. Person of the Year