Brilliant Blog

The MIT Technology Review September/ October edition brings an article by Daniel Dennett titled Higher Games: It's been 10 years since IBM's Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in chess. A prominent philosopher asks what the match meant (subscription required), which is creating a lot of buzz on the science blogosphere on whether humans or machines are "smarter".  

• Chess computers beat humans: Does this mean computers are "creative"? (Cognitive Daily)
• Is Deep Blue Human? (The Frontal Cortex)
• The Intelligence of Game-Playing Software (Aardvarchaeology)
• Chess and Artificial Intelligence (The Questionable Authority)

All this begs the question, what does "being smart" means? "Is it possible to improve intelligence and become "smarter" and what does it really mean to be "smarter?" (question asked by Patricia, one of our readers).

Today we bring you an answer to those questions provided by David Gamon, author of Building Mental Muscle: Conditioning Exercises for the Six Intelligence Zones:

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As we age, our brains accumulate an ever larger collection of patterns. This gives us a kind of mental quickness that compensates for the slowing of processing speed. Instead of having to piece together the pattern bit by bit from scratch by associating individual pieces of data, you need only a few pieces of data to make you realize that they fit a pattern you already know, much the way a few bars of melody are all you need to recognize an entire song.

The more experience we accumulate, the more of these patterns we hold in our brains, and the less effort we have to make to piece together new pieces of data in new ways. With that comes a danger. We get lazy. It’s a lot easier to recognize a pattern than to piece the pattern together in the first place.

It also happens that we become limited by the patterns we accumulate in our brains. Instead of having new insights – new patterns – we tend to assume that old patterns are sufficient to handle new data. Maybe in some cases they are, but maybe in some cases we would piece together new patterns if only we were open to the idea that the old patterns might not be all there is. So on the one hand, we have a richer array of patterns to draw on in processing information and figuring things out, and we can come up with creative insights by making connections between patterns that we might at first had thought were completely different. (That's what metaphors are.)

But one thing we have to guard against as we age is a loss of mental flexibility. Mental flexibility – the ability to switch rapidly between two things at once, or change cognitive horses in mid-stream, or see old things in a brand-new way – naturally tends to decline as we age. So it’s important to do more than just rely on old familiar patterns as we get older. The more patterns we have, the easier it is to get away with relying on them, but the more important it is that we do MORE than just rely on them.

A part of your brain responsible for mental flexibility and really effortful problem-solving is called the prefrontal cortex, which is right up at the front of your brain behind your forehead. This is a part of your brain that tends to decline the most with age. So it's important to do things that give this part of your brain a lot of exercise. Fortunately, it's not hard to do it in a way that's fun rather than just unpleasant. Doing mental arithmetic gives your prefrontal cortex a workout, but it may not be much fun. You'd need an awful lot of willpower to do a lot of mental arithmetic exercises every day, and sooner or later you’d probably just give up.

The trick is to take advantage of all those patterns without JUST relying on them. The thing you need to do is process new data in new ways, and form new patterns all the time, instead of just falling back on the old ones. This is the importance of novelty – not just doing new things with your brain, but also learning new tricks for making sure you’re not just falling back on old patterns when processing new data. So you can keep all those old songs in your mind, but learn new ones too, so your inventory grows larger every day instead of stopping in your 20s or 30s.

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These keywords (pattern recognition, mental flexibility, processing speed, creative connections, effortful problem-solving, dealing with novelty) illuminate what intelligence is more than the still popular IQ. We will be talking more about intelligence, cognitive skills and IQ over the next weeks.

Enjoy the long holiday weekend (if you are in the US).

(pattern recognition, artificial intelligence, Being Smart, brain, chess, creative connections, Daniel Dennett, dealing with novelty, deep blue, effortful problem solving, Mental flexibility, On Intelligence, processing speed, smarter

Today we have a number of industry announcements:

1) New editions of these Blog Carnivals (collections of blog posts around specific topics)

• Encephalon (neuroscience)
• Grand Rounds (medicine)
• Education (guess!)
• Happiness

2) The Neurotechnology Industry Organization has launched a Neurotech Job Board dedicated to commercial neuroscience (mostly focused on clinical applications, like drugs and devices, not so much on prevention, health & wellness). And the Kaiser Foundation Rehabilitation Center is looking for a Research Project Manager.

3) The American Association for the Advancement of Science has finally released a report of the human enhancement workshop that took place in June 2006. Read more about it at Zack's blog.

4) Stephanie West Allen and Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz announce the Schedule of Events for their Brains On Purpose™ Seminars ("looking at conflict and the process of conflict resolution through the lens of neuroscience"): Colorado in October and Portland in November.

5) Registration is now open for my class on The Science of Brain Health and Brain Fitness (more here), October 9–30, at UC Berkeley Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI). 

6) A couple of great events

• The Aspen Health Forum by the Aspen Institute, October 3-6th
• The Society for Neuroscience conference in San Diego, November 4-7th

7) The Mind & Life Institute announces 2 CDs released by Daniel Goldman and available here

• Paul Ekman, on the CD Knowing Our Emotions, Improving Our World, "describes the great impact his participation as a presenting scientist in the 2000 Mind & Life meeting has had on his subsequent personal and professional life, and what he continues to learn from his ongoing collaboration with the Dalai Lama." 
• Daniel Siegel, on the CD Better Lovers, Better Parents, Better People, "elaborates on the therapeutic implications of a concept central to Mind and Life’s research program: neuroplasticity, the maxim that the brain sculpts itself through repeated experiences throughout our lives."

Aren't we living interesting times?

brains on purpose, Daniel Goleman, Daniel Siegel, Education, health, human enhancement, Jeffrey Schwartz, medicine, mind & life, neuroscience, Neurosoftware, Neurotechnology, Paul Ekman, seminar, wellness

Fascinating 4 articles over the weekend in both "Times" newspapers: the New York Times and the UK-based Times. 

1) Mind Over Matter, With a Machine’s Help: great article on a start-up called Omneuron that combines cognitive therapy with fMRI (an advanced neuroimaging technique that enables movie-like visual feedback on what areas of the brain are getting activated-like the image on the right). 

• Quotes: "Omneuron... uses fMRI to teach people how to play with their own heads...Using a variety of mental techniques — for instance, imagining that a painful area is being flooded with soothing chemicals — most people can, with a little concentration, make the flame wax or wane...Doctors and drug-abuse experts are particularly excited about the idea of treating addiction using fMRI"
• Comments: fMRI can be a great new source of feedback to support people learning new skills, and augment more mature technologies such as biofeedback. Now, what "treats" people is not really fMRI itself, but the cognitive "mental technique" described as "for instance, imagining that a painful area is being flooded with soothing chemicals" that we all can use to overcome pain and challenges in our daily life and doesn't require multi-million dollar machines (which may be helpful for people with specific medical conditions).
• If you want to learn more: an example of a mental technique we can all use

2) Calisthenics for the Older Mind, on the Home Computer: good overview of one of the growing areas for cognitive training, "healthy aging", that unfortunately misses the big picture of the field.

• Quotes: "In the past year, some half-dozen programs, with names like Brain Fitness Program 2.0, MindFit and Brain Age2, have aimed at aging consumers eager to keep their mental edge. “The scientific evidence for those commercial products is still very weak,” said Timothy A. Salthouse, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia... Recent research in neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to change in response to information and new activities — shows that brain cells and new pathways continue to develop throughout life...there is little evidence that such programs offer tangible benefits over learning Spanish or taking up the tango... The results persuaded Marc Agronin, a geriatric psychiatrist, to adopt MindFit as part of the new “brain gym” at the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged, where he is director of mental health services. “For an early study, the data is really promising for individuals with mild memory changes,” he said. “I do want to see more data, but I’m not waiting for that.”
• Comments:  True, when some manufacturers make claims that their programs are "scientifically-proven" to do things such as "rejuvenate your brain" 10, 20, 30 years...they are stretching science in ways that may harm not only their own reputation but the overall credibility of the cognitive training field. Having said that, some of the mentioned programs like Posit Science (focused on training auditory processing) and MindFit (focused on assessing and training 14 different cognitive skills) have preliminary data that they train and help improve specific skills in ways that it is difficult to believe that learning Spanish or tango will do (and can someone please show me how learning either can cost $149?). They are not the panacea, but a great complement to a mix of "healthy brain" habits that include good nutrition, physical exercise, stress management and lifelong learning/ mental stimulation. Computer-based cognitive training programs have been used for years in military training, stroke rehabilitation, ADD/ ADHD...why shouldn't they work with people beyond certain age? And, from the data available today, both of those programs work better in their respective areas than Nintendo Brain Age or Dakim, which to the best of our knowledge have not conducted clinical trials.
• If you want to learn more: Evaluation Checklist and review of our own skepticism regarding some claims. Interview notes with neuroscientists behind military and basketball training applications and working memory training for kids with ADD/ ADHD.

3) Top scientist backs workout for the brain: announcement that a respected UK neuroscientist is endorsing one of those programs, MindFit. 

• Quotes: "Baroness Susan Greenfield, the neuroscientist, is to launch an exercise programme for the brain that she claims is proven to reverse the mental decline associated with ageing...Greenfield, who is also director of the Royal Institution, maintains that Britain’s baby-boomers are discovering that concentrating on physical fitness is no longer sufficient preparation for old age...“What concerns me is preserving the brain too,” she said. “There is now good scientific evidence to show that exercising the brain can slow, delay and protect against age-related decline.”..Greenfield will launch MindFit, a PC-based software program, at the House of Lords next month, for the “worried but well” - people in their middle years who are healthy and want to stay that way.
• Comments: we have been talking about MindFit for months, because we see it as a great entry point for people who want a quite comprehensive software-based brain fitness program. We are happy to see that someone of Greenfield's reputation is now endorsing it. Now, remember, what tool -if any- may be helpful for each person depends on one's context and priorities. 
• If you want to learn more: check some of MindFit Demos

4) Stop Making Sense: David Brooks reviews a new political book and plugs-in very well Damasio's research on decision-making and emotions.  

• Quotes: "The core problem with Westen’s book is that he doesn’t really make use of what we know about emotion. He builds on the work of Antonio Damasio, without applying Damasio’s conception of how emotion emerges from and contributes to reason. In this more sophisticated view, emotions are produced by learning. As we go through life, we learn what cause leads to what effect. When, later on, we face similar situations, the emotions highlight possible outcomes, drawing us toward some actions and steering us away from others. In other words, emotions partner with rationality. It’s not necessary to dumb things down to appeal to emotions. It’s not necessary to understand some secret language that will key certain neuro-emotional firings. The best way to win votes — and this will be a shocker — is to offer people an accurate view of the world and a set of policies that seem likely to produce good results."
• Comments: no comments.
• If you want to learn more: some highlights on Damasio's research.

Looking forward next weekend  

Baroness Susan Greenfield, Brain Fitness Program 2.0, brain gym, Brain Training, Calisthenics aging, cognitive therapy, Cognitive Training, dakim, fMRI, Greenfield, healthy brain, mental technique, MindFit, neuroimaging, neuroplasticity, neuroscience, Nintendo Brain Age, Omneuron, Posit Science

We survived. The Digg Tsunami has brought over 40,000 visitors so far...and it continues! We need to thank Andrey for his excellent technical work in helping us ride such a beautiful wave.Let me give you an overview of what you can find in our blog, bridging neuroscience research and brain health/ "brain exercise" practice. First, here you have a few of my favorite quotes from the 10 interviews we have done with neuroscience and psychology experts in cognitive and emotional training in our Neuroscience Interview Series. You can read the in-depth interview notes for each if you want to stimulate those neurons...

• “Learning is physical. Learning means the modification, growth, and pruning of our neurons, connections–called synapses– and neuronal networks, through experience...we are cultivating our own neuronal networks.”- Dr. James Zull, Professor of Biology and Biochemistry at Case Western University: Read Interview Notes
• “Exercising our brains systematically ways is as important as exercising our bodies. In my experience, “Use it or lose it” should really be “Use it and get more of it”.- Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, neuropsychologist, clinical professor of neurology at New York University School of Medicine, and disciple of the great neuropsychologist Alexander Luria: Read Interview Notes
• “Individuals who lead mentally stimulating lives, through education, occupation and leisure activities, have reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms. Studies suggest that they have 35-40% less risk of manifesting the disease”- Dr. Yaakov Stern, Division Leader of the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Sergievsky Center at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, New York: Read Interview Notes

“What research has shown is that cognition, or what we call thinking and performance, is really a set of skills that we can train systematically." - Dr. Daniel Gopher, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Human Factors Engineering at Technion Institute of Science: Read Interview Notes

“Elite performers are distinguished by the structuring of their learning process...You need to protect and optimize that practice, learning time… It is important to understand the role of emotions: they are not “bad”. They are very useful signals. It is important to become aware of them to avoid being engulfed by them, and learn how to manage them.” - Dr. Brett Steenbarger, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, SUNY Medical University, and author of Enhancing Trader Performance: Read Interview Notes

• “We have shown that working memory can be improved by training” – Dr. Torkel Klingberg, Professor at Karolinska Institute, and Director of the Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, part of the Stockholm Brain Institute: Read Interview Notes
• “I don't see that schools are applying the best knowledge of how minds work. Schools should be the best place for applied neuroscience, taking the latest advances in cognitive research and applying it to the job of educating minds.” - Dr. Arthur Lavin, Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western School of Medicine, pediatrician in private practice: Read Interview Notes

Over the next 2 weeks we will publish new interviews with

•  Dr. Judith S. Beck, Director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, and author of The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person
• Dr. Robert Sylwester, Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Oregon. His most recent book is The Adolescent Brain: Reaching for Autonomy. The Education Press Association of America has given him two Distinguished Achievement Awards for his syntheses of cognitive science research.

Other areas in our site you may enjoy

• - A selection of Hot Topics in Brain Health and Fitness, including this Brain Fitness Glossary
• - Our collection of Brain Teasers and Puzzles, including these Top 10 Brain Teasers and Games, with a neuroscience angle
• - You can also sign up for our free brain fitness newsletter that keeps you up to date with the latest articles and events, once a month
• Of course, you can also sign up to our RSS Feed

But most of all, enjoy yourself, learn something new, and let us know what you think!

alzheimers symptoms, Arthur Lavin, brain, Brett Steenbarger, cognition, Cognitive Training, Daniel Gopher, Education, Elkhonon Goldberg, Emotions, Exercise, feed brain, fitness, health, James Zull, Judith Beck, Learning, medicine, Memory Training, Neurons, Neuropsychology, neuroscience, Robert Sylwester, thinking, Torkel Klingberg, Working memory, Yaakov Stern

The LA Times just completed a wonderful 4-part series on how learning and memory work. The NYT re-emphasized the importance of physical exercise for neurogenesis (the creation of new neurons). To put this news in better perspective, let's review some good lifestyle options we can follow to maintain, and improve, our vibrant brains. You can click on the links below for more information:

1. Learn what is the "It" in "Use It or Lose It". A basic understanding will serve you well to appreciate your brain's beauty as a living and constantly-developing dense forest with billions of neurons and synapses, full of what Marian Diamond calls the magic trees of the mind. Devote time to practicing mentally stimulating habits.
2. Take care of your nutrition. Did you know that the brain only weights 2% of body mass but consumes over 20% of the oxygen and nutrients we intake? As a general rule, you don't need expensive ultra-sophisticated nutritional supplements, just make sure you don't stuff yourself with the "bad stuff".
3. Remember that the brain is part of the body. Things that exercise your body can also help sharpen your brain: physical exercise enhances neurogenesis.
4. Practice positive, future-oriented thoughts until they become your default mindset and you look forward to every new day in a constructive way. Stress and anxiety, no matter whether induced by external events or by your own thoughts, actually kills neurons and prevent the creation of new ones. You can think of chronic stress as the opposite of exercise: it prevents the creation of new neurons.
5. Thrive on Learning and Mental Challenges. The point of having a brain is precisely to learn and to adapt to challenging new environments. Once new neurons appear in your brain, where they stay in your brain and how long they survive depends on how you use them. "Use It or Lose It" does not mean "do crossword puzzle number 1,234,567". It means, "challenge your brain often with fundamentally new activities". 
6. We are (as far as we know) the only self-directed organisms in this planet. Aim high, listen to inspiring commencement speeches. Once you graduate from college, keep learning. The brain keeps developing, no matter your age, and it reflects what you do with it.
7. Explore, travel. Adapting to new locations forces you to pay more attention to your environment. Make new decisions, use your brain.
8. Don't Outsource Your Brain. Not to media personalities, not to politicians, not to your smart neighbour... Make your own decisions, and mistakes. And learn from them. That way, you are training your brain, not your neighbour's.
9. Develop and maintain stimulating friendships. We are "social animals", and need social interaction. Which, by the way, is why 'Baby Einstein' has been shown not to be the panacea for children development.
10. Laugh. Often. Especially to cognitively complex humor, full of twists and surprises. Better, try to become the next John Stewart.

Now, remember that what counts is not reading this article-or any other-, but practicing a bit every day until small steps snowball into unstoppable, internalized habits...so, pick your next battle and try to start improving at least one of these 10 habits today!

effective brain, healthy brain, highly effective, Humor, learning and memory, mental challenge, Neurogenesis, Nutrition, physical exercise, pillars brain health, use it or lose it

Developmental Perspectives on Embodiment and Consciousness

• Edited by Willis Overton, Ulrich Mueller, Judith Newman

Until recently, the body has been largely ignored in theories and empirical research in psychology, particularly in developmental psychology. Recently however, several conceptions of the relation between body and mind have been developed. Common among these conceptions is the idea that the body plays an important role in our emotional, social, and cognitive lives.

This latest volume in the Jean Piaget Society Symposia Series illustrates different ways in which the concept of embodiment can be used in developmental psychology and related disciplines. It explores the role of the body in the development of meaning, consciousness, and psychological functioning. The overall goal is to demonstrate how the concept of embodiment can deepen our understanding of developmental psychology by suggesting new possibilities of integrating biological, psychological, and socio-cultural approaches.

Developmental Perspective on Embodiment and Consciousness explores embodiment in two ways. First, embodiment is examined as a condition of and influencing the particular shape of psychological experience. This sense of embodiment reflects the effort to put the mind back into the body. Second, embodiment is examined as a reflective experience in the sense that the mind forms particular images about the body. This sense of embodiment reflects the effort to put the body into the mind.

The book opens with a discussion of embodiment from a meta-theoretical perspective. Then the role of embodiment in grounding conceptual meaning is examined. This is followed by discussions of the role of embodiment in strengthening our understanding of emotions, cognitive development, religious experiences, and social development. Then the role of the body in spatial cognition and the role of language in the development of complex forms of consciousness are explored. The final chapters examine the impact of culture on the conceptualization of the embodied self. The book concludes with an overview of the historical context of the mind-body dualism and a discussion of how the idea of embodiment transcends this dualism.

Intended for researchers and advanced students in developmental, cognitive, and social psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, anthropology, biology, and sociology, this new book also serves as a reference for advanced courses on cognition and development.

ISBN: 9780805850697

Published November 02 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

...that understanding how our brains and minds work may contribute to all of them.

Here you have some of the best blog carnivals (collections of blog posts on specific topics) we have contributed to this week:

• Grand Rounds: "brain exercise" is as important as nutrition, physical exercise and stress management.
• Green Living: let's start the conversation about "sustainable brains".
• Human Resources: isn't it obvious, yet often neglected, that "human capital" rests on brain development and learning how to learn?.
• Brain Fitness Carnival: fully devoted to our topic.
• Video Game Bloggers: "games" can be good vehicles for cognitive and emotional training, if properly developed and used.
• Gene Genie: our genes are not destiny.

You can also check the Medicine 2.0 carnival that we hosted.

blog carnival, Brain Fitness, Genes, Green living, HR, human resources, medicine, videogames

Memory and Mind

A Festschrift for Gordon H. Bower

• Edited by Mark A. Gluck, John R. Anderson, Stephen M. Kosslyn

A comprehensive overview of the current state of research on memory and mind, this book captures the career and influence of Gordon H. Bower (as told by 22 of his students and colleagues), showing how Bower's research and mentoring of students has broadly and deeply affected modern research. In addition to many personal reminisces about Bower's research and graduate training in the 1950s through 1990s, this book illustrates how Bower's early research and ideas lay the groundwork for much of modern psychological studies of memory, expertise, psychological assessment, and mental imagery.

ISBN: 9780805863444

Published October 02 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Over the months we have received many requests for good articles that could be reused in a variety of places, from a hospital newsletter to a corporate wellness e-newsletter and a number of websites. We want to reach as many people as possible, so tomorrow we are launching a free Content "Brain Feed", and also custom content services.

In short, we are going to offer a weekly article in the new SharpBrains free content feed. This feed is designed to help website and newsletter publishers disseminate good information on brain exercise and fitness. 20 articles are available immediately (check them in our Articles section), building on the content we have written in this blog.

And, if an organization wants good content on brain health/ training/ fitness to distribute internally or externally, we can help.

On a related note, we just joined the BlogBurst network to offer our blog content to a variety of newspapers. Let's see how these initiatives work!

blogburst, brain exercise, Brain health, brain health content, Brain Training, brain training articles, Cognitive Training, emotional training

Single-Word Reading

Behavioral and Biological Perspectives

• Edited by Elena L. Grigorenko, Adam J. Naples

As the first title in the new series, New Directions in Communication Disorders Research: Integrative Approaches, this volume discusses a unique phenomenon in cognitive science, single-word reading, which is an essential element in successful reading competence. Single-word reading is an interdisciplinary area of research that incorporates phonological, orthographic, graphemic, and semantic information in the representations suitable for the task demands of reading. Editors Elena L. Grigorenko and Adam J. Naples have organized a collection of essays written by an outstanding group of scholars in order to systematically sample research on this important topic, as well as to describe the research within different experimental paradigms.

Single-Word Reading provides an introduction to unfamiliar areas of research, and is an inspiration for future study. The introductory chapter sets up a contextual stage for connections between spoken and written word processing, the stage-based nature of their development, and the role of education. Succeeding chapters address visual word processing; the role of morphology in word recognition; the role of lexical representation; the biological bases of single-word reading and related processes; and more.

Reading researchers will take interest in this substantial book, as will professionals and practitioners linked to the teaching of reading in the departments of school psychology, special education, communication disorders, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, and reading.

ISBN: 9780805853506

Published August 20 2007 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Medicine 2.0? Yes, some pioneers are already making good use of Web 2.0 tools to improve Medicine in a new, collaborative way. This blog carnival seems to me to be, in itself, living proof.

Let's see.

You may wonder, what exactly is "Medicine 2.0"? well, Constructive Medicine takes a stab at it, showing how it may be much older than we thought.

Some bloggers provide great overview posts:

• A Beginner's Guide to Reading Medical Blogs (Vitum Medicinus) provides a fantastic resource covering everything you need to know about medical blogs and blogs in general, including why to subscribe to RSS feeds (for How, keep reading).
• Nursing and Web 2.0 (Universal Health) is a thoughtful post on the gap between nursing research and practice…and how blogging and 2.0 can help.
• Essay on the effect of Web 2.0 on the future of medical practice and education (Medical Journal of Australia), that provides a great overview of medicine 2.0, defining and listing blogs, wikis, podcasts and more.
• Social science as infectious disease (Mining Drug Space) is an essay on how blogs are contributing to knowledge creation and exchange, and includes the writer's reflections on blogging.

...while others are already addressing some of the important points raised:

• There is a need for a better way for bloggers to identify peer-reviewed research, a solution is already here (organized by the great Cognitive Daily).
• Fun tutorials on Social Bookmarking in Plain English (David Rothman) and how to use RSS to easily subscribe and read many blogs
• Study On The Go With Medical e-Books: great overview on how to use e-books.
• Open Access Tissue Engineering, posted at Hope for Pandora, says, "Health providers are increasingly familiar with open access publishing like PLoS, but what about open access courses? The Harvard/MIT Division of Health Sciences & Technology now offers many of its courses online through MIT's OpenCourseWare project. I reflect on the impact of this development on academia and the accessibility of information to the interested public."

...and others keep us updated on latest developments in the field

• Ranking of english-written medblogs (Medgadget nl).
• Can a personal genome sequence get a creative commons license? (Personal Genome). Preliminary andwer: No.
• Skyscape on the iPhone (Medgadget) offers a list of available resources available via iPhone.
• The Annals of Internal Medicine Launches Podcast and Audio Summaries (Clinical Cases).
• X:Map, a Genome Browser (Yokofakun): click the 2 links at the bottom if you want to see what a "genome browser" is.

Now, there would be no Medicine 2.0 without the Sharing Culture that Web 2.0 and Medicine describes. And there would be no Medicine at all without all the people making it possible-so, let's pay attention to the information and advice offered in these posts.

• JavaJive: The Older You Get, the More that Coffee Helps Your Brain (GrrlScientist) on how "Recent research has shown that women older than 65 years old who drink more than three cups of coffee per day were protected from some types of age-related memory declines."
• Bone Hormone Linked to Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes, posted at Living the Scientific Life, on why osteocalcin might be an effective treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes.
• More of coffee: Cancer and Coffee posted at Healthoma.com.
• Have you been reading about the growing "medical tourism" field? here you have a very upbeat post on how you can Boost your Healthcare and Reap the Cost Savings! (nomad4ever).
• LifeTwo introduces us to Mild Cognitive Decline.
• And we provide some guidance on evaluating the claims of Brain Training Games.

There are many more areas to cover and contribute in...so we always welcome new blogs:

• On Medical simulations
• On health informatics

That's all for this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of medicine 2.0 using this carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on the blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags: medicine 2.0, blog carnival.

Credit for the picture goes to David Brown (no website yet...), who sent some beautiful pics.

health care blogs, Medical Blogs, medical education, Medicine 2.0

The Articulate Mammal

An Introduction to Psycholinguistics

• By Jean Aitchison

An established bestseller, The Articulate Mammal is a concise and highly readable introduction to the main topics in psycholinguistics. This fifth edition brings the book up to date with recent theories, including new material on:

• The possibility of a �language gene�
• Post-Chomskyan ideas
• Language within an evolutionary framework
• Spatial cognition and how this affects language
• How children become acclimatized to speech rhythms before birth
• The acquisition of verbs
• Construction and cognitive grammar
• Aphasia and dementia

Requiring no prior knowledge of the subject, chapter by chapter, The Articulate Mammal tackles the basic questions central to the study of psycholinguistics. Jean Aitchison investigates these issues with regard to animal communication, child language and the language of adults, and includes in the text full references and helpful suggestions for further reading.

ISBN: 9780415420167

Published September 06 2007 by Routledge.

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? which ones are simply entertaining Games vs. which ones look like "Games" but are really Training, improving, specific cognitive and emotional skills? Well, that's why we are publishing the SharpBrains Checklist below, to help you navigate through the overwhelming and conflicting media reports and company announcements.

We have spent over 18 months interviewing scientists and reviewing available Brain Fitness and Exercise Programs worldwide, and want to share with you, right now, the research-based criteria we use to evaluate them.

10 Questions to Choose the Right Brain Fitness Program for You (and a brief explanation of why each question is important)

* 1. Are there scientists, ideally neuropsychologists, and a scientific advisory board behind the program?

(Neuropsychologists specialize in measuring and understanding human cognition and brain structure and function.)

* 2. Are there published, peer-reviewed scientific papers in PubMed written by those scientists? How many?

(Pubmed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes millions of citations science journals. If a scientist has not published a paper that appears in that database, he or she cannot make scientific claims.)

* 3. What are the specific benefits claimed for using this program?

(Some programs present the benefits in such a nebulous way that it is impossible to tell if they will have any results or not..."brain training" itself is a limited benefit, because activities like gardening or learning a new language provide "brain training too"...you need to see something more specific, like what cognitive or emotional skill that program is aimed at)

* 4. Does the program tell me what part of my brain or which cognitive skill I am exercising, and is there an independent assessment to measure my progress?

(The question is whether the improvement experienced in the program will transfer into real life. For that to happen we need assessments that are distinct from the exercises themselves.)

* 5. Is it a structured program with guidance on how many hours per week and days per week to use it?

(Brain exercise is not a magic pill. You have to do the exercises in order to benefit, so you need clarity on the effort required.)

* 6. Do the exercises vary and teach me something new?

(The only way to exercise important parts of our brain is by tackling novel challenges.)

* 7. Does the program challenge and motivate me, or does it feel like it would become easy once I learned it?

(Good brain exercise requires increasing levels of difficulty)

* 8. Does the program fit my personal goals?

(Each individual has different goals/ needs when it comes to brain health. For example, some want to manage anxiety, others to improve short-term memory...)

* 9. Does the program fit my lifestyle?

(Some brain exercise programs have great short-term results but are very intense. Others may be better over time)

* 10. Am I ready and willing to do the program, or would it be too stressful?

(Excess stress reduces, or may even inhibit, neurogenesis-the creation of new neurons-. So, it is important to make sure not to do things that stress us in unhealthy ways.)

We hope this information is useful. Feel free to share it!

For more information on each question and printable layouts, see:

	10 Questions to Choose the Right Brain Fitness Program for You Download
	10 Questions to Choose the Right Brain Fitness Program for You (bookmark size) Download

 

You can also find more information in our Brain Fitness Topics section. Specifically, you may enjoy these 2 relevant interviews with neuroscientists:

• Dr. Yaakov Stern on Why and How To Build Your Cognitive Reserve-Yaakov Stern
• Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg on Cognitive Training and Brain Fitness overall

Finally, if you look for specific Tips and Advice, you can check these steps to Improve Brain Health Now based on four key pillars, and view this clip.

brain age 2, brain exercise software, brain training games, cognitive skills, emotional skills, memory assessment, MindFit, Neuropsychology, Nintendo Brain Age, online brain games, pillars brain health, Posit Science

I'd love to know what was going in your mind just a few seconds ago, when you started reading the title of this post. That will help us understand your mindset, priorities, questions, concerns, interests, and keep improving our blog!

Thank you

concerns, interests, mind, mindset, priorities, questions

As every Monday, we bring you many blog carnivals (collections of blog posts around specific topics) we have contributed to. But before we do so, we have 2 announcements: 

• Learning, The Gravy Way will host the next edition of the Brain fitness carnival on August 20th. You still have a few days to submit your post on anything related to brain exercise and mental training. And let me know if you want to host future editions.
• We will host the medicine 2.0 carnival on August 19th. Please submit your great posts if you want to participate!

Here are our favorite carnivals today

• Tangled Bank (science)
• Encephalon (neuroscience)
• Grand Rounds (medicine)
• Gene Genie (genes and DNA)

 

Other good ones on Atraction and Retention of Employees, Change of Shift, Anecdotes and Stories for Business, Nonprofit Leadership, COTC, Brain Blogging, Satire.

blogs, brain, Business, health, medicine, neuroscience, Science

The field of computer-based cognitive training (part of what we call "Brain Fitness") is starting to get traction in the media and becoming an emerging industry, and we are happy to see how a growing number of researchers and science-based companies are leading studies that will allow to better measure results and refine the brain exercise software available.

Published new research

• Computerized working memory training after stroke-A pilot study. A published study on how Cogmed working memory training may help stroke patients. See the reference at Cogmed Research page (and full article here)
• The Journals of Gerontology published a series of related papers in their June issue, including this by Karlene Ball, Jerri D. Edwards, and Lesley A. Ross on The Impact of Speed of Processing Training on Cognitive and Everyday Functions, J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci 2007 62: 19-31.  Abstract: "We combined data from six studies, all using the same speed of processing training program, to examine the mechanisms of training gain and the impact of training on cognitive and everyday abilities of older adults. Results indicated that training produces immediate improvements across all subtests of the Useful Field of View test, particularly for older adults with initial speed of processing deficits. Age and education had little to no impact on training gain. Participants maintained benefits of training for at least 2 years, which translated to improvements in everyday abilities, including efficient performance of instrumental activities of daily living and safer driving performance."

Ongoing/ starting research

• MindWeavers set to launch new ‘brain health’ software in the UK. "The company’s move into the adult brain health market follows its acquisition of BrainBoost, a business that develops software to protect against cognitive decline, founded by Baroness Susan Greenfield, world expert in neuro-development and degeneration." (See the very interesting profile of science educator Susan Greenfield). “We are also currently undertaking a clinical study of the MindWorks software we developed jointly with CogniFit, which aims to protect brain health in patients who have been diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment and early Alzheimer’s.”
• This is the first time we hear about MindWeavers and BrainBoost, but the product they are starting to distribute in the UK for healthy individuals is the same as one of the products we have had in our Shop for a while: MindFit.
• Lumosity by Lumos Labs: Research underway with Stanford University Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research to determine if Lumos Labs exercises can be effective in ameliorating cognitive impairment due to chemotherapy.
• Posit Science will be used in a Pilot project works with brain-injured veterans. Easter Seals is launching a pilot project to help veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with mild to moderate Traumatic Brain Injury.

brain exercise software, Brain health, BrainBoost, chemobrain, chemotherapy rehabilitation, Cogmed, Cognitive training research: MindFit, early Alzheimers, Lumos Labs, Lumosity, mild cognitive impairment, mindweavers, Posit Science, Speed of Processing Training, stroke rehabilitation, Susan Greenfield, TBI rehabilitation, working memory training

Alice Snell kindly brings to our attention her nice post, Baby Boomers: The Beat Goes On, commenting on several reports and articles on the aging workforce challenge.  This is a very important topic, and directly related to what we are doing. Let me provide an overview with these 10 points. First, some context: 1) The Conference Board published [...]

1) Are you attending the American Psychological Association Convention in San Francisco next week? if you are, please let us know! 2) NYT Article: Mental Abilities: Good Readers Better Able to Retain Brain Skills 3) SF Chronicle article: Zen and the art of lawyering  4) Medical News article: ADHD Seems To Be Linked To Low Dopamine Brain ActivityPS: this [...]

Dr. Ginger Campbell just published a nice podcast interview with our co-founder and chief scientific advisor Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg, whom we also interviewed some months ago on brain improvement research and ideas. The first half of the 30-minute interview is a bit technical, including a nice introduction to the field of neuropsychology as the convergence of neurology [...]

Some of the blog carnivals, and other post collections, we have contributed to this week. Enjoy these collections of posts on a variety of topics, where we have added a cognitive neuroscience perspective. Favorites: Blogging on the Brain (neuroscience) Mendel's Garden (genetics) Medicine 2.0  COTC (business) Non-Profit Leadership Family Life Other good ones are: Entrepreneurs, Stocks, Creative Growth, Personal Development, Health and Fitness [...]