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brain fitness tagged articles (0-50 of 17009)

  • Brain Fitness for Seniors - Brain Fitness for Seniors? Not sure where you are in the Senior Continuum, but I am 61, which I believe qualifies me, and I want to nurture my neurons. I began to notice some worrisome changes in my ability to recall words awhile back. I feel a great deal of fear when I contemplate not being able to discern danger in the world around me, or perhaps being dependent on the good will and intentions of others, who may not want to extend that much of themselves 24/7, and I also know that I cannot stop the inexorable changes associated with aging. So I want to nurture my neurons, and keep them at their best.
  • Five Easy Ways To Increase Your Brain Power - Neurogenesis is a word being tossed around a lot lately. It means that your brain is growing new neurons - and not just while you're young.
  • Brain Fitness Tools - What is in your brain fitness kit? It could impact what is in your wallet as well, to paraphrase the Capital One commercials. For all these years, about 5.5 decades, I have been putting words into my head from lots of books, and that was the brain fitness kit I was instructed to use as a kid.
  • Stay Sharp for Life: Debunk Ten Brain Myths - Have you noticed that every week some article seems to say exactly the opposite to what another article said the week before? Do supplements improve memory? Are physical and brain activity important and complementary or is either enough? Which brain training approach, if any, is worth one's time and money? First of all, we need to debunk several popular myths on mental fitness and cognitive health.
  • Discover How Brain Fitness Exercizes Work - It turns out that brain fitness exercises work in at least three ways, depending on the kind of exercise we are doing, a thinking exercise or a physical exercise, or a computerized training. Exercize could mean running or lifting weights or practicing one of the new brain exercise programs or monitoring and changing cognitions, which is what Dr. Judith Beck has shown to be effective in her diet solution plan.
  • Brain Tips - Have you been searching for just the right brain tips, the ones that get you a raise, or fame and fortune? A magic potion or a magic wand, or like the super villins of cartoon land, the machine which makes your skull twice as large? Unfortunately, I have not discovered any brain tips like that either, but I have learned that the brain can be worked with, exercised, even trained, fed, and rested, to be the brain which provides the maximum level of neurons firing in tight synchrony, the kind of brain which grows new neurons, and new synapsess and dendrites because that brain receives novel challenge regularly. That is a brain tip that I can use.
  • Is the Brain Fitness Program Dull? - What do the words "brain fitness program" bring to mind? I know when I think of fitness programs, I think of the aerobics classes I see at my YMCA, which looks like a fun dancing type of movement, led by an instructor with a microphone, and disco or dance music playing. But brain fitness brings to mind term papers and reports and drudgery. Interesting association of brain fitness with drudgery.
  • Use More of Your Brain to Get Things Done - Recent advancements in brain imaging show us that older people use more of their brain to perform tasks than younger people do. Scientists interpret this to mean one of two opposite things: First, older people recruit more brain activity to do the same things in order to compensate for degeneration of specific brain circuits that can no longer get the job done by themselves. This is the compensation hypothesis. Think of it like one brain region asking for help from another brain region in order to do something that, in its younger days, it could do on its own.
  • Brain Classes - I could see brain classes in community college schedule books soon, perhaps as a continuing education class, and as research continues to advance what we can legitimately claim for brain fitness, perhaps even four year schools or graduate schools would include a brain class, or an improve your brain class. Research is advancing the concept rapidly, and brain salons and brain fitness programs are popping up at senior centers around the country. What might a brain class include?

  • 10-Question Checklist to Select the Right Brain Fitness Program for You - Unless you have been living in a cave, you have read by now multiple articles about the brain training and brain exercise craze: sudoku, Nintendo BrainAge, multiple online games, software like MindFit and Posit Science... How do you know which of them can help you more, or whether you need any of them?
  • Brain Fitness Vacations for Baby Boomers: Tips for Staying Sharp - A year ago we wrote a Glossary where we defined Brain Fitness as "the general state of good, sharp, brain and mind, especially as the result of mental and physical...
  • Variety is the Spice of Brain Fitness: Part I – EPIQ performance - When it comes to the fitness of your brain (or your body) variety is key. Your brain health depends on many factors including: everything you put in your mouth;
  • Use It or Lose It: The Theory and Practice of Brain Exercise and Fitness for Cognitive Health - Who has not heard "Use It or Lose It". Now, what is "It"? Last week I gave a talk at the Italian Consulate in San Francisco, and one of the areas attendants seemed to enjoy the most was learning what our brains are and how they work, peaking into the "black box" of our minds. Without understanding at least the basics, how can we make good decisions about our own brain health and fitness? Let's review at a glance: The brain is composed of 3 "brains" or main sub-systems, each named after the evolutionary moment in which the sub-system is believed to have appeared. 1) Neocortex, or Human Brain, is the most recent area, where we perform high-level thinking and complex integrative tasks.
  • Ten Findings on the State of the Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health Software Market - You probably have been reading much about "brain training" and "brain fitness" and wondered, "What is all the Fuss About?
  • Top Ten Tips for Women Who Lead Men - Ellen recently wrote a nice post titled Top Ten Tips for Men Who Lead Women, and asked for volunteers to offer a complementary perspective. I hope you enjoy! 1- Stress management: We men know we are hard to lead, and that can be stressful for you and for us. You should know that stress affects short term memory, so it is important to be able to manage stress well, with meditation, breathing or other methods. Also, please remember, laughing is good for your brain. 2- Don't overthink: Don't think too much-we don't. If we do, we try to find ways to self-talk us out of that uncomfortable state. 3- We like toys: Please remember our humble origins, men are just evolved apes... We are tool-using animals, which is why we like playing with all kinds of toys, from a car to that blackberry.
  • Valentine Brain Fitness - A recent article in the New York Times highlighted new studies directed at figuring out how long-time married couples can keep their romance alive. The answer was very simple. Do something different. In one ten-week study, researchers worked with 53 couples. They instructed one third of them to spend 90 minutes per week doing familiar but enjoyable activities, like going to dinner or a movie. Researchers instructed another third to spend 90 minutes doing something exciting that they both enjoyed. This group spent time doing new things or things they didn't do very often. The final group received no specific instructions. After the study was over, researchers interviewed the couples to rate the quality of their relationships. The couples that spent time doing new things scored higher than the other two groups. This may all be common sense.
  • Brain Neuroplasticity - Is it possible to self-direct brain neuroplasticity? As I have explored the concept of brain fitness, two words keep popping up over and over, neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. Neurogenesis describes the birth of new neurons in the human brain. The discovery of neurogenesis not too many years ago overthrew a lot of previous dogma and theory about the human brain and the human experience. And I think it gives some of us Boomers a bit more confidence as we age into our 60's and 70's about our ability to maintain our mental effectiveness.
  • Eating - When Your Brain Won’t Say STOP - To eat or not to eat – what does your brain say? The desire to eat comes from many factors monitored by, and instructions put out by your brain – in essence your level of Brain Fitness. One specific brain region involved in monitoring nutrition signals is the hypothalamus.
  • Brain Fitness and Your New Year's Resolutions - New Brain for the New Year! Brain Fitness Programs. It is January 1, 2009, and today is the day you will be doing your New Year's Resolutions, if you are done with the excesses of New Years's Eve anyway. Perhaps you have done resolutions before, generated a great deal of excitement anticipating all the neat changes you were going to manifest, like the new physique, the reduced debt, no more cigarettes, a return to school, and then you were disappointed about the slow drain of excitement, and the continuation of old habits you wanted to change.
  • Causes Of A Brain Injury - The Brain is the centre of the nervous system and one of the most complex organs in the human body, if damaged it is one of the hardest organs to repair. If you find yourself suffering from any form of brain injury it can be scary enough without having to decipher what the medical jargon means or understand what the doctors are talking about. This article explains the basics of how a brain injury can be sustained and what implications that injury can have.
  • Harry Potter and the Unfit Brain - Okay, I'm not trying to add another title to J.K. Rowling's astoundingly successful series. I just want to use the main characters to make a point. Still, if you don't want any kind of clue as to how the last Harry Potter book ends, then don't read this article. Why did Harry always seem to get the best of his evil arch nemesis, Lord Voldemort? I suggest that Harry had a fitter brain. In my last couple of posts, I started to introduce a concept around variety in Brain Fitness, which I'm calling EPIQ performance – standing for Emotional, Physical and Intellectual intelligences (or Quotients). I say that the Dark Lord Voldemort excelled in one of these but wasn't very well balanced.
  • New Research Unlocks a Key Ingredient to Increasing Brain Power - Want to lose 3 pounds right now? Stop using your brain. I'll bet someone you know probably comes to mind. Your mind weighs approximately 3 pounds and if you don't use it, you lose it. Well maybe not the weight, but its amazing ability to help you move, to think and remember. Most of us have it backwards. We age and therefore stop moving. It's more like, stop moving and you age. If you could hear your body-mind talk, the conversation would go something like this, "Get a move on and stimulate my brain cells to grow, connect and keep me young." Contrary to age old beliefs, aging does not have to come with loss of memory, mental decline and decreased brain functioning.
  • Brain Fitness and Diabetes - An interesting paper came out recently in Nature talking about a newly discovered link between the brain and metabolism in type II diabetes. I thought the paper was interesting, not just for the new data, but because it supports the underlying concept of Brain Fitness – and more specifically, in this case, physical intelligence, which I have defined before as your brains ability to control your body. Type II Diabetes in the Body Type II diabetes is a condition where your body is unable to regulate blood sugar appropriately. Typically, when you eat and your blood sugar goes up from the sugars in the food, your pancreas senses a rise in blood sugar and releases insulin into your bloodstream.
  • Brain Fitness Case Study: Kris Kringle - How BrainFit is the man in the big red suit? Does old St. Nick adhere to the four cornerstones of brain fitness to take good care of his egg's noggin? All in all he seems to do a fairly good job, but let's take a closer look. First off is Nutrition. I'd guess that the diet up in the north pole has to be similar to the Eskimos. Even though they eat a lot of fat from whale blubber, they get huge doses of omega-3s from all the fish. I've heard that Santa enjoys a lot of ice fishing during his downtime.
  • Brain Training: It Works (to Improve Mental Skills) and It Doesn't (to reduce Brain Age) - Researchers from the Mayo Clinic and USC Davis have just announced publication of their IMPACT study at the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The press release announces: - "Of the 487 healthy adults over the age of 65 who participated in a randomized controlled trial, half used the Brain Fitness Program for 40 hours over the course of eight weeks.
  • Ready, Set, Think - Studies are piling up showing how exercising your body boosts the fitness of you brain as well. Exercise has documented benefits for learning and memory, executive decision making function, mood regulation, and even protection against brain injury from an accident. The latest piece comes from Dr.
  • Brain Age Mythology Compared to What Really Improves Cognitive Health - Many people have been asking us recently about whether we all have a "Brain Age" and how we can reduce our "brain ages". This concept is a myth, fueled by the (very fun) Nintendo game and a recent PBS campaign promoting a program produced by Posit Science. The concept of having a "brain age" is, itself, profoundly unscientific, despite the radio ads for the PBS program titled Brain Fitness Program, where listeners of all ages get the impression (as many friends and colleagues have reported) that, should they buy the Posit Science Brain Fitness Program, they can expect their brains "rejuvenated" by 10 years. This, I hear often, must be true, coming from PBS. Unfortunately, it isn't.
  • 10 Truths About Aging You May Mot Know - With no exception, all of us age. Now, why is "aging" such a bad word? What about growing? and lifelong development? If you are a caregiver, you know this process is not always easy, but the good news from neuroscience these days is that there is much each of us can do. 1- Change: We should talk more about change than about decline, as we discussed recently with Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, who wrote his great book The Wisdom Paradox precisely on this point. 2- Improvement: Some skills improve as we age-In our brain fitness classes, we typically explain how some areas typically improve as we age, such as self-regulation, emotional functioning and Wisdom (which means moving from Problem solving to Pattern recognition).
  • Top 21 Books on Brain Health, Fitness and Training, Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis - Given the growing media coverage of brain fitness and brain training, we have produced this compilation of the Top 21 Books that help understand these trends, the research behind them, and the implications for all of us. For your easy browsing, we have categorized them into seven groups: 1) Fascinating books on neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to rewire itself through experience): - Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves - by Sharon Begley. - The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science - by Norman Doidge.
  • How to Think Young and Stay Young - Ben Douglas, professor at the University of Mississippi Medical School at Jackson, once said, "You're as young as you think." Apparently, if you think you are young, you will stay young. Thinking young is a self-fulfilling prophecy. But the problem is: How to think young and stay young. Aging is gradual, but inevitable. Aging has a direct debilitating effect on your brain. Free radicals can damage your brain over decades of changes: when you reach 65, your brain cells undergo many more mutations than they did in your younger years. These cumulative changes may bring about a neurological disease, such as dementia. If that is the case, then how do you think young? Firstly, you need to understand that age does not affect your intelligence. Intelligence is general cognitive power in processing new information and making logical decisions based on the information acquired.
  • What Causes ADHD Symptoms? - The general idea out there is that ADD and ADHD are caused by social problems. Very often, people hear their family members or neighbors telling them that Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder is caused by: video games, TV, music videos, single parent families, parents who work too much, computers, inexperienced teachers, etc. While many people talk about ADHD being due to many problems in society, they are not only wrong, they are actually doing a real disservice to people with ADHD. Research has proven that these factors do NOT cause Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. In fact, it is a real medical condition, and as such, it is found in the body. The first place to start when talking about what causes ADHD symptoms is the fact that ADHD is a brain disorder.
  • Brain Injury May Cause Onset of Alzheimer's, Report Finds - Washington D.C. researchers at Georgetown University may have found a link between the onset of Alzheimer's disease among patients who have suffered previously from a brain injury. According to a Reuter's news report on the study, Alzheimer's disease is "associated with accumulations of an abnormal protein, amyloid beta, in the brain. Traumatic brain injury triggers accumulation of enzymes required for production of amyloid-beta.
  • Does Cognitive Decline Begin at Age 27? - Has your Cognitive Decline begun? Are you older than age 27? According to a recent interpretation of Professor Timothy Salthouse's work, cognitive decline has begun for us, in some tests, even earlier than age 27. According to Professor Salthouse at the University of Virginia, therapies designed to prevent or reverse age-related conditions may need to start earlier than we thought, long before people become pensioners. In other words, that old adage about "use it or lose it" applies to our brain fitness much earlier in our lives than previously thought. So what can you do today, especially if you are beyond the ripe old age of 27, to not only prevent cognitive decline but enhance cognitive performance?
  • This is Your Brain on Stress - Remember the Bugs Bunny cartoons where Yosemite Sam would get so angry and stressed out that steam would come out of his ears. In fact, this seemed to happen to a lot of cartoon characters that lost there cool. Were these guys actually frying there brains? If so, could they get those fried brain cells back after they calmed down? It seems that cartoonists may have correctly predicted some neurobiology of stress. Stress biology has been a hot topic in neuroscience for many years and research emerges all the time to further our understanding of why stress is so bad for the brain.
  • Brain Gym Exercises - Can They Really Increase My Brainpower? - Brain Gym® is a national organization that brings together folks that are interested in improving their brain function for multi-day retreats in states across the country.
  • Brain Training Program - Curious about brain training programs? Is there anything to them besides smoke and mirrors? I have been using four of them, and I like them, but here is information from two University of Michigan researchers who offer an e-book which draws on their professional expertise to explain in a humorous way that brain fitness is certainly something we can cultivate. Everything starts in the brain. After all, thoughts are things. They are electrical and chemical pulses that change your brain by their very existence. Brain fitness training can give you the tools to change your brain for the better and achieve life-long brain health and fitness." Thoughts about your perceptions do change your life, and fast. You change your hormonal bath with a thought twice as fast as you can blink your eyes.
  • Brain Exercise - To Work Your Brain, Work Your Body The problem: I lost my car keys. What kind of brain exercise will make my brain work better? The solution: Brain-boosting software programs are a booming business. And studies show that both computer exercises and old-fashioned mental activities-reading or crafting - can affect memory. But the best thing you can do for your brain is to move your body. "If I had to pick between fitness training and brain training, I'd go with fitness," said Sam Wang, an associate professor of neuroscience and molecular biology at Princeton University. So far, he said, exercise has been shown to have an effect several times larger than computer-brain exercise. So are we talking about physical activity or physical exercise? According to Simon Evans, Ph.D.
  • Climbing the Corporate Ladder of Brain Fitness - Does your job have anything to do with your odds of getting Alzheimer's disease down the road? Studies have come out recently linking intellectually challenging careers to reduced risk of dementia. Other studies link education level to cognitive health in later years. Overall, people with more education have lower rates of Alzheimer's disease than those with less education. This really isn't that surprising if you think about it.
  • Can Your Conscience Protect You from Alzheimer’s Disease? - Conscientiousness refers to your willful desire to work in a dependable manner with attention to detail. Since the 1940s, the psychology field has considered conscientiousness as one of five major personality traits, the others being neuroticism, extraversion, openness and agreeableness. Now, new research shows that your level of conscientiousness may affect your level of Brain Fitness. A little extra effort may be good for your brain Researchers tested nearly a thousand older adults that were free of any kind of dementia, rated them on the five personality traits and then followed them for 12 years.
  • Brain Health - Brain Health probably brings to mind images of Sigmund Freud for most folks, and worries about their oedipal complex, whatever that might be. Mr. Freud was concerned with your mental health, and I am writing about your brain's physical health. After all, it is an organ, and while it has incredible talents, skills, and abilities in all of us, it has some special needs also.
  • Is there Science Behind the Growing Brain Fitness Industry? - To address this question, we interview today Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, one of the earliest proponents of the Brain Fitness and Exercise field. He is a clinical professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine, and author of The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind and The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older. Alvaro Fernandez (AF): We are witnessing the birth of a whole new brain training industry. I understand that one of the key foundations is the new neuroimaging techniques we have today. Elkhonon Goldberg (EG): Precisely.
  • Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks - Most people think of aging in association with a decline of the brain and body. While it's true that your body systems tend to breakdown faster the older you get, this is not out of your control.
  • An Apple a Day Keeps the Brain Doctor Away - Age-old wisdom tells us that we should eat fruit to stay healthy. Once again, science catches up to the old adage. A new study suggests that compounds in fruit, especially apples, may promote brain fitness as you age. Specifically, researchers found that phenolics, extracted from apples, bananas and oranges protected neuron-like cells from dying in a dish. But before we get into the new results let's cover a little background on what the fruits may be doing to protect your brain. Too much oxidative stress can lead to Alzheimer's disease One of the things that can damage bodily tissues and cause disease is oxidative stress. This is essentially a process that usually happens during the manufacturing of energy.
  • Top 10 Brain Training Future Trends: New Mind/Body Focus, Brain Trainers, and More - In an emerging, dynamic, high growth market, like brain training, it is difficult to make precise projections. But, we can observe a number of trends that executives, consumers, public policy makers, and the media should watch closely in the coming years, as brain fitness and training becomes mainstream, new brain trainers appear, and an ecosystem grows around it. 1. We predict an increased emphasis on brain maintenance in locations ranging from retirement communities to gyms. As a computer-savvy baby boomer population looks for ways to stay mentally fit, brain fitness, or brain training, is becoming part of their vocabulary and concern. 2. Physical and mental exercise will be better integrated. Physical exercise has been shown to increase the rate of neurogenesis, whereas mental exercise helps ensure the survival of any newly created neurons.
  • Low Income Children Suffer From Stroke-Similar Brain Activity - Recent research shows that socioeconomic status may severely affect the brain activity level of nine and 10 year olds, according to research conducted by the University of California (UC) Berkeley. According to Cognitive Neuroscience, where the study will be published, and Science Daily, "kids from lower socioeconomic levels show brain physiology patterns similar to someone who actually had damage in the frontal lobe as an adult." The research showed that the lower income children had brain activity similar to that of a stroke victims, according to results from an electroencephalograph (EEG) machine, which is an electrode-filled cap that is also used to measure epilepsy or seizures, brain tumors and sleep disorders, according to news reports.
  • Nap Today, Perform Better Tomorrow. - A couple of new reports came out this week addressing sleep in our culture. Everyone knows that they feel a little cranky when they don’t get enough sleep. It’s therefore no surprise that sleep affects your mood.
  • Are Kid's Growing Bellies Increasing Their Odds of Alzheimer's? - The title question may be a bit of a stretch, but you only need to connect a couple of research dots to get from childhood obesity to reduced brain fitness in...
  • Losing Your Memory From A Traumatic Brain Injury - Depictions of head-injury patients in movies and television almost always show the patient experiencing some type of amnesia, or memory loss. Indeed, memory loss is the most common cognitive side effect of a severe traumatic brain injury. In patients with a milder TBI, memory loss is still one of the most common symptoms. And the more severe the patient's memory loss is, the more severe the brain damage is likely to be. Temporary Memory Loss and TBI Some traumatic brain injury-related amnesia is temporary; such patients are usually unable to recall what happened directly before, during and after their accidents. This is often caused by edema, or a swelling of the brain in response to the damage it sustained.
  • Variety is the Spice of Brain Fitness: Part II – Nutrition and IQ - This is not going to be an article about all the good foods you should eat and the stuff you should avoid. Many articles, including some of my own, have already beaten that horse. Most people know that carrots are better than cheeseburgers and I'm not going to get into that again at this time. What I want to do instead is give you a different perspective on the value of nutrition in improving and maintaining brain fitness – and what that really means.
  • Cognitive Fitness and Health: 10 Debunked Myths on How Your Mind Works. - Over the last year we have interviewed more than 10 leading neuroscientists and psychologists worldwide to learn about their research and thoughts, and have news to report. What can we say today that we couldn't have said only 10 years ago? That what neuroscience pioneer Santiago Ramon y Cajal claimed in the XX century, "Every man can, if he so desires, become the sculptor his own brain", may well become reality in the XXI. Let's now debunk 10 myths, still too prevalent, that may prevent us from seeing the full potential of this emerging field: Myth 1: It’s all in our genes.

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