Brilliant Blog

A quick FYI — I will be speaking at the following events. Please do come and say Hello if you get the chance!

> Sep­tem­ber 19-20th, San Fran­cisco, CA: Trans­lat­ing Neu­ro­science Into Mar­ketable Ther­a­peu­tic Inter­ven­tions, at the Entertainment Software and Cognitive Neurotherapeutics Society (ESCoNS). Details Here.

> Sep­tem­ber 23rd, Los Gatos, CA: The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness, at Los Gatos Pub­lic Library. Details Here.

> Novem­ber 8th, San Fran­cisco, CA: Brain Fit­ness for Adap­tive Orga­ni­za­tions, at the 2011 Neu­roLead­er­ship Sum­mit. Details Here.

The New York Times has recently published several very good and seemingly unrelated articles…let’s try and connect some dots. What if we questioned the very premise behind naming some classrooms the “classrooms of the future” simply because they have been adding technology in literally mindless ways? What if the Education of the Future (sometimes also referred to as “21st Century Skills”) wasn’t so much about the How we educate but about the What we want students to learn and develop, applying what we know about mind and brain to the needs they are likely to face during the next 50–70 years of their lives?

In Classroom of Future, Stagnant Scores:

• “The digital push here aims to go far beyond gadgets to transform the very nature of the classroom, turning the teacher into a guide instead of a lecturer, wandering among students who learn at their own pace on Internet-connected devices.”
• “Hope and enthusiasm are soaring here. But not test scores.”

School Curriculum Falls Short on Bigger Lessons:

• “Now that children are back in the classroom, are they really learning the lessons that will help them succeed?”
• “Many child development experts worry that the answer may be no. They say the ever-growing emphasis on academic performance and test scores means many children aren’t developing life skills like self-control, motivation, focus and resilience”

Steve Pinker’s review of WILLPOWER: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength

• “Ever since Adam and Eve ate the apple, Ulysses had himself tied to the mast, the grasshopper sang while the ant stored food and St. Augustine prayed “Lord make me chaste — but not yet,” individuals have struggled with self-control. In today’s world this virtue is all the more vital, because now that we have largely tamed the scourges of nature, most of our troubles are self-inflicted. We eat, drink, smoke and gamble too much, max out our credit cards, fall into dangerous liaisons and become addicted to heroin, cocaine and e-mail.”

A couple of in-depth interviews on What the education of the future could deal with in more explicit and targeted ways:

• Dr. Michael Posner on Training Attention and Emotional Self-Regulation
• Dr. Arthur Lavin on Working Memory Training from a pediatrician perspective

We are pleased to announce that full recordings for all presentations delivered during the 2011 SharpBrains Summit: Retooling Brain Health for the 21st Century (March 30 — April 1, 2011) are now available both to Summit Participants and to non-Participants.

You can Learn More Here and Access 40+ Talks and 20+ hours of up-to-date information and analysis of brain science, technology and innovation, delivered by nothing short of a world-class faculty.

–> Reg­is­tered Sum­mit Par­tic­i­pants can access all Ses­sion Record­ings by click­ing on the ses­sion titles in the Agenda page and using the same Username and Password they used to participate in the Summit.

–> Didn’t Reg­is­ter to Par­tic­i­pate in the 2011 Sharp­Brains Sum­mit but want to access all Ses­sion Record­ings (20+ hours, 40+ speak­ers) Now? You can secure your log-in here.

We hope the information and analysis provided by these 40+ world-class speakers addressing this 3-day agenda provide excellent value to you:

Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier, Assis­tant Sec­re­tary for Voca­tional and Adult Edu­ca­tion, US Depart­ment of Education

Brenda Dann-Messier was nom­i­nated by Pres­i­dent Obama as assis­tant sec­re­tary for voca­tional and adult edu­ca­tion on July 14, 2009. On Oct. 5, 2009 she was con­firmed by the U.S. Sen­ate and began her offi­cial duties on Oct. 13, 2009. As the first assis­tant sec­re­tary for the Office of Voca­tional and Adult Edu­ca­tion (OVAE) who is also an adult edu­ca­tor, Dann-Messier leads the Department’s efforts in adult edu­ca­tion and career and tech­ni­cal edu­ca­tion, as well as efforts sup­port­ing com­mu­nity col­leges and cor­rec­tional edu­ca­tion. She over­sees the admin­is­tra­tion of 11 grant pro­grams in these areas, total­ing approx­i­mately $1.9 bil­lion annu­ally. Dann-Messier is com­mit­ted to col­lab­o­ra­tion, both within the Depart­ment and across fed­eral agen­cies, includ­ing work­ing with the U.S. Depart­ments of Labor, Agri­cul­ture, Health and Human Ser­vices, Home­land Secu­rity and Com­merce. OVAE’s vision is for all youths and adults to have mul­ti­ple oppor­tu­ni­ties to obtain life­long edu­ca­tion and train­ing in order to achieve reward­ing careers and fam­ily lives, par­tic­i­pate in their com­mu­ni­ties, and attain their per­sonal goals. You can read more Here.

Dr. Molly Wag­ster, Chief of the Behav­ioral and Sys­tems Neu­ro­science Branch in the Divi­sion of Neu­ro­science, National Insti­tute on Aging (NIA)

Dr. Wag­ster over­sees admin­is­tra­tion and devel­op­ment of research in cog­ni­tive and emo­tional change with age and in sen­sory and motor dis­or­ders of aging. She directly man­ages a port­fo­lio of research in mech­a­nisms of cog­ni­tive (mem­ory, learn­ing, atten­tion, lan­guage) and affec­tive (emo­tion) change with age that spans research from mol­e­cules to behav­ior. She serves as the NIH Project Offi­cer for the devel­op­ment of the NIH Tool­box for Assess­ment of Neu­ro­log­i­cal and Behav­ioral Func­tion (con­tract sup­ported by the NIH Blue­print for Neu­ro­science Research) and directs the trans-NIH Cog­ni­tive and Emo­tional Health Project. Dr. Wag­ster received her MS and PhD in Biopsy­chol­ogy from Tulane Uni­ver­sity and com­pleted a post­doc­toral fel­low­ship in Neu­ropathol­ogy at The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity School of Medicine.

Michael Merzenich, Emer­i­tus Pro­fes­sor, UCSF

For more than three decades, Dr. Merzenich has been a lead­ing pio­neer in brain plas­tic­ity research. In the late 1980s, Dr. Merzenich was on the team that invented the cochlear implant, now dis­trib­uted by Advanced Bion­ics. In 1996, Dr. Merzenich was the found­ing CEO of Sci­en­tific Learn­ing Cor­po­ra­tion (Nas­daq: SCIL), and in 2004 became co-founder and Chief Sci­en­tific Offi­cer of Posit Sci­ence. Dr. Merzenich has pub­lished more than 200 arti­cles, received numer­ous awards and prizes, and been granted more than 50 patents for his work. His work was fea­tured on the PBS spe­cials “The Brain Fit­ness Pro­gram” and “Brain Fit­ness 2: Sight and Sound.” Dr. Merzenich earned his BS degree at the Uni­ver­sity of Port­land and his PhD at Johns Hop­kins. He retired from his long career as Fran­cis A. Sooy Pro­fes­sor and Co-Director of the Keck Cen­ter for Inte­gra­tive Neu­ro­science at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia at San Fran­cisco in 2007. He was elected to the National Acad­emy of Sci­ences, the Insti­tute of Med­i­cine, and recently launched the research/ tech­nol­ogy incu­ba­tor Brain Plas­tic­ity Inc.

Tracy Pack­iam Alloway, PhD, Direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Mem­ory and Learn­ing in the Lifes­pan, the Uni­ver­sity of Stir­ling, UK

Tracy was recently awarded the pres­ti­gious Joseph Lis­ter Award by the British Sci­ence Asso­ci­a­tion for her con­tri­bu­tion to sci­ence. Tracy has devel­oped the only stan­dard­ized working-memory tests for edu­ca­tors pub­lished by Psy­cho­log­i­cal Cor­po­ra­tion, which to date has been trans­lated into 15 lan­guages and used to screen for work­ing mem­ory prob­lems in stu­dents with dyslexia, motor dys­praxia (Devel­op­men­tal Coor­di­na­tion Dis­or­der), ADHD and Autis­tic Spec­trum Dis­or­der. She pro­vides con­sul­tancy to the World Bank and her research has received wide­spread inter­na­tional cov­er­age in hun­dreds of media out­lets, includ­ing Sci­en­tific Amer­i­can, the BBC, Reuters, ABC News, and NBC.

Daphne Bave­lier, Pro­fes­sor, Depart­ment of Brain and Cog­ni­tive Sci­ences at the Uni­ver­sity of Rochester

Daphne Bave­lier is a Pro­fes­sor in the Depart­ment of Brain and Cog­ni­tive Sci­ences at the Uni­ver­sity of Rochester. Her work focuses on brain plas­tic­ity and exam­ines the role of expe­ri­ence in shap­ing the func­tional orga­ni­za­tion of the human brain as well as in push­ing the bound­aries of behav­ior. She stud­ies pop­u­la­tions with altered expe­ri­ence such as deaf indi­vid­u­als, video game play­ers or indi­vid­u­als using a visual rather than a spo­ken lan­guage (e.g. users of Amer­i­can Sign Lan­guage), and asks basic ques­tions such as: Do deaf indi­vid­u­als see bet­ter? What is the impact of video gam­ing on vision and cog­ni­tion? How does the use of a visual, rather than spo­ken lan­guage, change the cere­bral orga­ni­za­tion for language?

Pro­f. Cary Cooper, Sci­ence Co-ordination Chair, Fore­sight Project on Men­tal Cap­i­tal and Wellbeing

Pro­fes­sor Cooper chaired the Sci­ence Co-ordination team of the Fore­sight Project on Men­tal Cap­i­tal and Well­be­ing. He is a Pro­fes­sor of Orga­ni­za­tional Psy­chol­ogy and Health at the Lan­caster Uni­ver­sity Man­age­ment School, Pres­i­dent of the British Asso­ci­a­tion for Coun­selling and Psy­chother­apy, and Direc­tor and founder of Robert­son Cooper Ltd. Prof. Cooper is recog­nised as a world-leading expert on stress and work­place issues, and received his BS and MBA degrees from the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Los Ange­les, and his PhD from the Uni­ver­sity of Leeds.

Dr. David Darby, Chief Med­ical Offi­cer, CogState

Dr. David Darby is a Founder and Chief Med­ical Offi­cer at CogState Ltd devel­op­ing com­put­er­ized cog­ni­tive test­ing instru­ments includ­ing for early detec­tion of demen­tia and con­cus­sion in sports, and is also adjunct Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor at the Cen­tre for Neu­ro­science, and Senior Research Fel­low of the Flo­rey Neu­ro­sciences Insti­tute, Uni­ver­sity of Mel­bourne. Prof Darby com­pleted a PhD in neu­rol­ogy and neu­ropsy­chol­ogy and neu­rol­ogy train­ing in 1991, and served as an instruc­tor in Behav­ioral Neu­rol­ogy at Beth Israel Hos­pi­tal, Har­vard Med­ical School from 1992 to 1995.

Jerri Edwards, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor, Uni­ver­sity of South Florida

Dr. Edwards’ research is aimed toward dis­cov­er­ing how cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties can be main­tained and even enhanced with advanc­ing age. Ulti­mately, the goals of Dr. Edwards’ research are to extend the mobil­ity and inde­pen­dence of older adults thereby improv­ing their qual­ity of life. She is par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in how cog­ni­tive inter­ven­tions may help older adults to avoid or at least delay func­tional dif­fi­cul­ties and thereby main­tain inde­pen­dence. Much of her work has focused upon the func­tional abil­ity of dri­ving includ­ing assess­ing dri­ving fit­ness among older adults and reme­di­a­tion of cog­ni­tive decline that results in dri­ving difficulties.

Dr. Martha Farah, Direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Neu­ro­science and Soci­ety, Uni­ver­sity of Pennsylvania

Dr. Farah is the Direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Neu­ro­science and Soci­ety at the Uni­ver­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia and Annen­berg Pro­fes­sor of Nat­ural Sci­ences. Much of her career has been devoted to under­stand­ing the mech­a­nisms of vision, mem­ory, and exec­u­tive func­tion in the human brain. In recent years she shifted her research focus to a new set of issues that lie at the inter­face between cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science and “the real world.” These new issues of inter­est to me include the effects of socioe­co­nomic adver­sity on children’s brain devel­op­ment and emerg­ing social and eth­i­cal issues in neu­ro­science (“neu­roethics”), mood reg­u­la­tion, and deci­sion making.

Alvaro Fer­nan­dez, CEO, SharpBrains

Alvaro Fer­nan­dez is Sharp­Brains’ co-founder and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer. He has been quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, CNN, and oth­ers. Alvaro is a mem­ber of the Global Agenda Coun­cils ini­tia­tive run by the World Eco­nomic Forum, and recently co-authored The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness. He started his career at McK­in­sey & Com­pany and led the launch of sev­eral pub­lish­ing and edu­ca­tion com­pa­nies in the US and Europe. Alvaro has an MBA and MA in Edu­ca­tion from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity, and enjoys teach­ing The Sci­ence of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Osher Life­long Learn­ing Institute.

Lind­say Gask­ins, CEO, Mar­ble: the Brain Store

Lind­say started Mar­bles: The Brain Store in 2008 with the sim­ple idea of find­ing the best brain games out there and putting them all in one place. Not just prod­ucts for aging baby boomers con­cerned about mem­ory loss and vic­tims of brain dis­or­ders, but also any­one who wanted to improve focus and atten­tion, enhance cre­ativ­ity, become bet­ter multi-taskers. Mar­bles opened three more Chicagoland stores in 2009 and four more stores in 2010. Pre­vi­ously, Lind­say was a Vice Pres­i­dent at Sand­box Indus­tries, a Chicago-based ven­ture cap­i­tal fund and incubator.

Adam Gaz­za­ley, Direc­tor of the Neu­ro­science Imag­ing Cen­ter at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, San Francisco

Dr. Gaz­za­ley is a fac­ulty mem­ber in the Neu­rol­ogy, Phys­i­ol­ogy and Psy­chi­a­try depart­ments, and prin­ci­pal inves­ti­ga­tor of a cog­ni­tive neu­ro­science lab­o­ra­tory that con­ducts research on the neural mech­a­nisms of atten­tion and mem­ory. A major focus of his research has been to expand our under­stand­ing of the alter­ations in the aging brain that lead to cog­ni­tive decline. His most recent stud­ies explore how we can pre­serve and improve atten­tion and mem­ory as we get older. He has received many awards and hon­ors for his research, includ­ing the 1997 Cor­ti­cal Scholar Award, Pfizer/AFAR Inno­va­tions in Aging Award and the Elli­son Foun­da­tion New Scholar Award in Aging.

Ken Gib­son, Pres­i­dent, LearningRx

In 2002, Dr. Gib­son founded Learn­ingRx, a net­work of more than 60 cen­ters across the United States and abroad offer­ing cog­ni­tive skills test­ing and train­ing. The com­pany has been named to Fran­chise Times “Fast 55” and Fran­chise Mar­ket­ing Magazine’s “Top 100 New Fran­chises,” as well as an hon­or­able men­tion on the Fran­chise 50 list put out by Fran­chise Busi­ness Review.

Prof. James Gior­dano, Direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Neu­rotech­nol­ogy Stud­ies and Vice Pres­i­dent for Aca­d­e­mic Pro­grams, Potomac Institute

Prof. James Gior­dano is Direc­tor of the Cen­ter for Neu­rotech­nol­ogy Stud­ies and Vice Pres­i­dent for Aca­d­e­mic Pro­grams at the Potomac Insti­tute for Pol­icy Stud­ies. He is also a Senior Research Asso­ciate, Well­come Cen­tre for Neu­roethics and Uehiro Cen­tre for Prac­ti­cal Phi­los­o­phy, Uni­ver­sity of Oxford, Oxford, UK, and Vis­it­ing Pro­fes­sor of Neu­rophi­los­o­phy and Neu­roethics at Rheinis­che Friedrich Wil­helms’ Uni­ver­sität, Bonn, Ger­many. Prof. Gior­dano is Editor-in-Chief of the jour­nal Phi­los­o­phy, Ethics and Human­i­ties in Med­i­cine, and author of more than 120 pub­li­ca­tions in neu­ro­science, pain, neu­rophi­los­o­phy, and neu­roethics. His ongo­ing research addresses the role of neu­ro­science and tech­nol­ogy in med­i­cine, social, and national defense appli­ca­tions, and explores the neu­roethics of pain, pain care, and impli­ca­tions for the treat­ment of human and non-human organisms.

Evian Gor­don, CEO, Brain Resource

Dr Evian Gor­don, PhD, MBBCh, is the Chair­man and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of Brain Resource. Dr Gor­don has over 20 years of expe­ri­ence in human brain research. He was the found­ing direc­tor of the Brain Dynam­ics Cen­tre at West­mead Hos­pi­tal and a senior lec­turer in the Depart­ment of Psy­cho­log­i­cal Med­i­cine at the Uni­ver­sity of Syd­ney. He edited the first book on “Inte­gra­tive Neu­ro­science” and has more than 160 publications.

Dr. Wal­ter Green­leaf, CEO, Vir­tu­ally Better

Wal­ter Green­leaf, Ph.D. is a research sci­en­tist trained in Neuro– and Behav­ioral Sci­ences at Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity, and founder and CEO of Vir­tu­ally Bet­ter. His research, writ­ing, and pre­sen­ta­tions focus on the use of sim­u­la­tion tech­nol­ogy to improve phys­i­cal med­i­cine and neu­ro­log­i­cal and cog­ni­tive reha­bil­i­ta­tion. Dr. Green­leaf is known inter­na­tion­ally as a pio­neer in med­ical appli­ca­tions for advanced com­puter tech­nol­ogy, and he has designed and devel­oped sev­eral inno­v­a­tive prod­ucts in clin­i­cal med­i­cine in areas such as vir­tual real­ity, telemed­i­cine tech­nol­ogy, clin­i­cal infor­mat­ics, point-of-care data col­lec­tion via hand­held devices, ergonomic eval­u­a­tion tech­nol­ogy, as well as reha­bil­i­ta­tion technologies.

Muki Hansteen-Izora, Senior Design Researcher and Strate­gist, Intel’s Dig­i­tal Health Group

Muki is also the Intel lead and co-PI for the Tech­nol­ogy Research for Inde­pen­dent Liv­ing (TRIL) Centre’s Cog­ni­tive Func­tion research strand, which is inves­ti­gat­ing how inter­ac­tive media and gam­ing tech­nolo­gies can sup­port cog­ni­tion in older pop­u­la­tions. Prior to join­ing Intel, Muki served as a lead researcher at Philips Research Labs. He holds a degree in Cul­tural Anthro­pol­ogy from the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia at Santa Cruz, and com­pleted his grad­u­ate train­ing in Learn­ing, Design, and Tech­nol­ogy at Stan­ford University.

Dr. Joe Hardy, Senior Direc­tor of Research and Devel­op­ment, Lumos Labs

Dr. Hardy works with a net­work of research col­lab­o­ra­tors from insti­tu­tions such as Stan­ford and Har­vard to val­i­date and improve the Lumosity.com cog­ni­tive train­ing pro­grams. Dr. Hardy has over 15 years of expe­ri­ence study­ing the brain, and has pub­lished 20 peer-reviewed sci­en­tific arti­cles on neu­ro­science and cog­ni­tion. He received his Ph.D. from the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Berke­ley in Cog­ni­tive Psy­chol­ogy and com­pleted a Post­doc­toral Research Fel­low­ship at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Davis Med­ical Center.

Kath­leen Herath, Asso­ciate Vice Pres­i­dent Health & Pro­duc­tiv­ity, Nation­wide Insurance

Kath­leen Herath, RN, BSN CRRN, over­sees the Health and Pro­duc­tiv­ity strat­egy at Nation­wide for the company’s 33,000 asso­ciates. She is respon­si­ble for the company’s inte­grated health and pro­duc­tiv­ity pro­gram, which includes: health screen­ings, well­ness pro­grams, dis­abil­ity and dis­ease man­age­ment, health edu­ca­tion, work life resources and walk­ing pro­grams and occu­pa­tional health clin­ics. The Health and Pro­duc­tiv­ity pro­gram at Nation­wide has been awarded more than six awards in the last three years includ­ing the pres­ti­gious C. Everett Koop National Health Award and Sharp­Brains’ Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion Award.

Jonas Jendi, CEO, Cogmed

Jonas Jendi joined Cogmed in 2001 as its chief exec­u­tive offi­cer. In 2007, Jendi opened Cogmed’s North Amer­i­can head­quar­ters in Naperville, IL, where he is now based. Prior to Cogmed, Jendi pro­vided strate­gic con­sult­ing for the Boston Con­sult­ing Group in Stock­holm and Paris, and held man­age­ment and con­sult­ing roles for var­i­ous tech­nol­ogy start-ups. He holds a MS from the Stock­holm School of Economics.

Dr. Jef­frey Kaye, Direc­tor, NIA — ORCATECH

Dr. Kaye is Pro­fes­sor of Neu­rol­ogy and Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing at Ore­gon Health and Sci­ence Uni­ver­sity (OHSU). He directs the NIA — Lay­ton Aging and Alzheimer’s Dis­ease Cen­ter at OHSU and the Port­land Vet­er­ans Affairs Med­ical Cen­ter. He also directs ORCATECH — the Ore­gon Cen­ter for Aging and Tech­nol­ogy. He cur­rently leads a large NIH study using ubiq­ui­tous, unob­tru­sive tech­nolo­gies for assess­ment of elders in their homes to detect changes sig­nal­ing cog­ni­tive decline is imminent.

Dharma Singh Khalsa, M.D., Pres­i­dent and Med­ical Direc­tor, Alzheimer’s Research and Pre­ven­tion Foundation

He is a grad­u­ate of Creighton Uni­ver­sity School of Med­i­cine in Omaha, Nebraska. Dr. Khalsa received his train­ing in Anes­the­si­ol­ogy at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, San Fran­cisco, where he was Chief Res­i­dent. He is also a grad­u­ate of the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, Los Ange­les Med­ical Acupunc­ture for Physi­cians Pro­gram and has stud­ied mind/body med­i­cine at Har­vard Med­ical School’s Mind/Body Med­ical Institute.

Robin Klaus, Chair­man and CEO, Club One

Robin has more than 20 years of exec­u­tive man­age­ment expe­ri­ence in the fit­ness indus­try, includ­ing being pres­i­dent and chief oper­at­ing offi­cer of fit­ness man­u­fac­turer Star Trac, chair­man of Planet Fit­ness, and for­mer chair­man of Amer­i­can Sports Insti­tute. Mr. Klaus cur­rently serves on the board of direc­tors of Napa Sonoma Sum­mer Search. Mr. Klaus holds a bachelor’s in inter­na­tional rela­tions from Amer­i­can Uni­ver­sity, a master’s in inter­na­tional eco­nom­ics from Uni­ver­sity of Pitts­burgh and a master’s in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion from Stanford.

Ken­neth Kosik, Co-Director, UC Santa Bar­bara Neu­ro­science Research Institute

Dr. Kosik is the Co-Director of UCSB Neu­ro­science Research Insti­tute and Founder of CFIT. He received his M.D. degree from the Med­ical Col­lege of Penn­syl­va­nia, com­pleted a neu­rol­ogy res­i­dency from Tufts New Eng­land Med­ical Cen­ter, and held var­i­ous appoint­ments at the Har­vard Med­ical School. In the fall of 2004 he assumed the co-directorship of the Neu­ro­science Research Insti­tute and the Har­ri­man Chair at the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Santa Bar­bara. He has received mul­ti­ple awards, includ­ing a Whitaker Health Sci­ences Award from Mass­a­chu­setts Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy, the Derek Denny-Brown Neu­ro­log­i­cal Scholar Award from the Amer­i­can Neu­ro­log­i­cal Asso­ci­a­tion, the Zenith Award from the Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion, and a NASA Group Achieve­ment Award.

Veronika Litin­ski, Direc­tor, MaRS Ven­ture Group

Veronika Litin­ski coor­di­nates the MaRS ven­ture ser­vices pro­grams deliv­ered to entre­pre­neurs, investors and high-growth com­pa­nies. She also pro­vides advi­sory ser­vices to entre­pre­neurs and high growth com­pa­nies, with a spe­cial focus on life sci­ences mar­kets, spe­cial­iz­ing in cor­po­rate finance and busi­ness devel­op­ment. Veronika started her career as a research sci­en­tist at Lawrence Liv­er­more Lab in Berke­ley, Cal­i­for­nia. Tran­si­tion­ing to the busi­ness world, Veronika founded a med­ical jour­nal, earned her MBA (Finance) at the Uni­ver­sity of San Fran­cisco, and worked in cor­po­rate finance with Union Bank and GATX Finan­cial Cor­po­ra­tion. Veronika is a mem­ber of Finan­cial Women Asso­ci­a­tion (FWA) and Finan­cial Exec­u­tives Inter­na­tional (FEI).

Alexan­dra More­house, Chief Mar­ket­ing Offi­cer, AAA NorCal

Alexan­dra More­house is a vet­eran of membership-driven orga­ni­za­tions hav­ing spent more than a decade with Amer­i­can Express, as well as a stint at Charles Schwab before join­ing AAA nearly nine years ago, where she became Chief Mar­ket­ing Offi­cer of AAA’s second-largest club, North­ern Cal­i­for­nia Nevada and Utah, with 4.2-million members.

Mar­garet Mor­ris, Senior Researcher in Intel’s Dig­i­tal Health Group

Mar­garet stud­ies the ways that emerg­ing tech­nolo­gies can enhance men­tal and phys­i­cal well­be­ing. She con­ducts ethno­graphic research to iden­tify needs and works with engi­neers to develop and eval­u­ate exploratory pro­to­types. Prior to join­ing Intel in 2002, she stud­ied tech­nol­ogy adop­tion in Sapient’s Expe­ri­ence Mod­el­ling group. Margie com­pleted her Ph.D. in Clin­i­cal Psy­chol­ogy with a minor in Behav­ioural Neu­ro­science at the Uni­ver­sity of New Mex­ico, her clin­i­cal intern­ship at the San Fran­cisco VA Med­ical Cen­tre, and her post­doc­toral fel­low­ship at Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity. She has a B.A. in Eng­lish from Haver­ford College.

Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Direc­tor of the Berenson-Allen Cen­ter for Non-Invasive Brain Stim­u­la­tion, Har­vard Med­ical School

Dr. Pascual-Leone researches the phys­i­ol­ogy of higher cog­ni­tive func­tions and the study of brain plas­tic­ity in skill acqui­si­tion and recov­ery from injury. He is also the Pro­gram Direc­tor of the Harvard-Thorndike Clin­i­cal Research Cen­ter of the Beth Israel Dea­coness Med­ical Cen­ter. Dr. Pascual-Leone obtained an M.D. and a Ph.D. in Neu­ro­phys­i­ol­ogy from the Fac­ulty of Med­i­cine of Albert Lud­wigs Uni­ver­sity in Ger­many, and trained at the Uni­ver­sity of Min­nesota and the US National Insti­tutes of Health. He greatly enjoys teach­ing and is the recip­i­ent of numer­ous awards.

Lena Perel­man, Direc­tor Com­mu­nity Out­reach, SCAN Health Plan

At SCAN Health Plan, one of the largest not-for-profit Medicare Advan­tage plans in the United States, Lena over­sees SCAN’s com­mu­nity involve­ment pro­gram­ming, includ­ing the recently launched SCAN Van, the first mobile resource cen­ter built specif­i­cally for seniors and their care­givers. Perel­man has more than 10 years of expe­ri­ence in health­care and senior ser­vices, hav­ing worked at Tal­bert Med­ical Group, Secure Hori­zons and Los Ange­les County Com­mu­nity and Senior Ser­vices. Perel­man earned a master’s degree in geron­tol­ogy and a master’s degree in pub­lic admin­is­tra­tion from the Uni­ver­sity of South­ern California.

Paula Psyl­lakis, Senior Pol­icy Advi­sor, Ontario Min­istry of Research and Innovation

Paula Psyl­lakis is a Senior Pol­icy Advi­sor at the Ontario Min­istry of Research and Inno­va­tion, in Canada. From 2007–2009 Paula served as Chair of the Board of Direc­tors of the Advo­cacy Cen­tre for the Elderly. Prior to join­ing gov­ern­ment, Paula worked for the Alzheimer Soci­ety of Toronto as the Edu­ca­tion Coor­di­na­tor and before that, with indi­vid­u­als with demen­tia. She has a Mas­ters degree in Applied Lin­guis­tics and is pri­mar­ily inter­ested in lan­guage processes and dementia.

Patty Pur­pur, Direc­tor, Stan­ford Health Pro­mo­tion Network

The Stan­ford Health Pro­mo­tion Net­work (SHPN) is an asso­ci­a­tion of employ­ers, health plans, med­ical care providers, and local gov­ern­ment offi­cials who aim to improve employee health and pro­duc­tiv­ity through focused health pro­mo­tion ini­tia­tives and strate­gies. Patty grad­u­ated with a BA in Psy­chol­ogy from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity in 1989. In 1992, she founded Time­Out Ser­vices to offer per­sonal fit­ness ser­vices and expanded to Cor­po­rate Well­ness Pro­gram design and man­age­ment. Her com­pany grew to 100 employ­ees and over 5 mil­lion in sales in 2008.

William Reich­man, Pres­i­dent, Baycrest

Dr. William E. Reich­man is Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer of Bay­crest, one of the world’s pre­mier aca­d­e­mic health sci­ences cen­tres focused on aging and brain func­tion. Dr. Reich­man, an internationally-known expert in geri­atric men­tal health and demen­tia is also Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chi­a­try on the Fac­ulty of Med­i­cine at the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto. He is a noted author­ity on the deliv­ery of men­tal health and demen­tia ser­vices in nurs­ing home set­tings. His pre­vi­ous aca­d­e­mic activ­i­ties have focused on the phar­ma­co­log­i­cal treat­ment of Alzheimer’s dis­ease and its asso­ci­ated apa­thy and neg­a­tive symp­toms. Dr. Reich­man is a for­mer Pres­i­dent of the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion for Geri­atric Psy­chi­a­try and the Geri­atric Men­tal Health Foundation.

Peter Reiner, Co-Founder, National Core for Neu­roethics at the Uni­ver­sity of British Columbia

Dr. Reiner’s cur­rent focus lies in the area of neu­roethics, spe­cial­iz­ing in the non-medical impact of tech­nol­ogy on the brain, with par­tic­u­lar inter­ests in the neu­roethics of cog­ni­tive enhance­ment as well as the impact of mod­ern tech­no­log­i­cal soci­ety upon brain func­tion. Dr. Reiner has a dis­tin­guished track record as a bench research sci­en­tist study­ing the neu­ro­bi­ol­ogy of behav­ioural states and neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­ease, and also was the Pres­i­dent & CEO of Active Pass Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, a drug dis­cov­ery com­pany that he founded to tackle the scourge of Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. John Rep­pas, Direc­tor of Pub­lic Pol­icy, Neu­rotech­nol­ogy Indus­try Organization

Pre­vi­ously, Dr. Rep­pas was a fel­low in the Depart­ment of Neu­ro­bi­ol­ogy, Howard Hughes Med­ical Insti­tute, and Bio-X pro­gram at the Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity School of Med­i­cine. Rep­pas is an expert in next-generation neu­ro­mod­u­la­tion tech­nolo­gies, brain-machine inter­faces, and human brain imag­ing. He is an advi­sor to early-stage life sci­ence com­pa­nies and their investors, and also an angel investor. He grad­u­ated from Oxford Uni­ver­sity with a Bach­e­lors of Med­i­cine, received his MD from the Harvard-MIT Divi­sion of Health Sci­ences and Tech­nol­ogy, and a PhD from the Depart­ment of Neu­ro­bi­ol­ogy at Har­vard Med­ical School.

Car­los Rodriguez, Chief Tech­nol­ogy Offi­cer, CogniFit

Mr. Rodriguez earned an Indus­trial Engi­neer­ing Mas­ter Degree from the Poly­tech­nic Uni­ver­sity Car­los III of Madrid, and is a grad­u­ate of the Grande Ecole INSA Lyon, France. Car­los began his pro­fes­sional career at Peu­geot Group before join­ing the Uralita Group as a con­sul­tant in the New Tech­nolo­gies depart­ment in Madrid. Fol­low­ing this, Car­los joined the Con­sumer and Mar­ket Knowl­edge depart­ment at Proc­ter & Gam­ble for 5 years, ini­tially work­ing in the West­ern Europe head­quar­ters in Geneva before mov­ing to Madrid, where he was respon­si­ble for over­all con­sumer strat­egy design for sev­eral Euro­pean brands and key dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels. Today Car­los is part­ner at Milk Cap­i­tal in Paris and leads the Cog­niFit oper­a­tions in Spain & South America.

Bev­erly San­born, Vice Pres­i­dent of Activ­i­ties and Mem­ory Pro­grams, Bel­mont Vil­lage Senior Living

Bev­erly has over two decades of expe­ri­ence design­ing and man­ag­ing older adult ser­vices across the con­tin­uum of care, includ­ing healthy aging, Mild Cog­ni­tive Impair­ment and demen­tia. She is a grad­u­ate of U.C. Berke­ley with a Mas­ters in Social Work from UCLA.

Lisa Schooner­man, Co-founder, vibrantBrains

Lisa held a vari­ety of tech­ni­cal and edi­to­r­ial posi­tions with the Thom­son Cor­po­ra­tion in the Legal Pub­lish­ing divi­sion (now Thom­son­Reuters), begin­ning in Rochester, NY and then com­ing to San Fran­cisco to work for what was then Ban­croft Whit­ney. Lisa’s work for Thom­son included a 3-year assign­ment in the UK, where she was Edi­to­r­ial Direc­tor of the group pro­vid­ing con­tent for West­law UK, the first inter­na­tional appli­ca­tion of the West­law database.

Dr. Gary Small, Direc­tor of the Cen­ter on Aging, UCLA Semel Insti­tute for Neu­ro­science & Human Behavior

Dr. Small is a pro­fes­sor of psy­chi­a­try and his research, sup­ported by the National Insti­tute of Health, has made head­lines in the Wall Street Jour­nal, New York Times, and USA Today. Sci­en­tific Amer­i­can mag­a­zine named him one of the world’s lead­ing inno­va­tors in sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy. Dr. Small lec­tures through­out the world and fre­quently appears on The Today Show, Good Morn­ing Amer­i­can, PBS, and CNN. He has writ­ten five books, includ­ing The New York Times best seller, The Mem­ory Bible.

Nigel Smith, Strat­egy and Inno­va­tion Direc­tor, AARP

Nigel is respon­si­ble for devel­op­ing decen­tral­ized inno­va­tion mod­els for AARP and for con­sult­ing with busi­ness units in the exe­cu­tion of inno­va­tion processes. Prior to AARP, Nigel was the Direc­tor or Prod­uct Inno­va­tion for Visa USA. Other pro­fes­sional expe­ri­ences have been with McK­in­sey & Com­pany, Gold­man Sachs Group, and KPMG. Nigel holds a Mas­ters in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion degree from Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity and a Bach­e­lors in Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion degree from Howard University.

Joshua Stein­er­man, Asst. Pro­fes­sor, Albert Ein­stein Col­lege of Med­i­cine – Mon­te­fiore Med­ical Center

Edu­cated and trained at Har­vard, Yale, Colum­bia, and the State Uni­ver­sity of New York, Dr. Stein­er­man is a behav­ioral neu­rol­o­gist and neu­ropsy­chi­a­trist who com­bines patient care with clin­i­cal research in brain aging and cog­ni­tion. Dr. Stein­er­man co-directs the Einstein-Montefiore Cen­ter for Healthy Brain Aging and is the sci­en­tific founder of ProG­evity Neuroscience.

Yaakov Stern, Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science Divi­sion Leader, Colum­bia University

Dr. Stern directs the Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science Divi­sion of the Sergievsky Cen­ter and is Direc­tor of Neu­ropsy­chol­ogy for the Mem­ory Dis­or­ders Clinic at the New York State Psy­chi­atric Insti­tute. He also directs the post-doctoral train­ing pro­gram Neu­ropsy­chol­ogy and Cog­ni­tion in Aging, and is a Pro­fes­sor of Clin­i­cal Neu­ropsy­chol­ogy in the Depart­ments of Neu­rol­ogy, Psy­chi­a­try, and Psy­chol­ogy, as well as the in Sergievsky Cen­ter and the Taub Insti­tute for the Research on Alzheimer’s Dis­ease and the Aging Brain, at Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity Col­lege of Physi­cians and Surgeons.

Kate Sul­li­van, Direc­tor of the Brain Fit­ness Cen­ter, Wal­ter Reed Army Med­ical Center

Kate Sul­li­van M.S., CCC-SLP, CBIS com­pleted her under­grad­u­ate and grad­u­ate degrees in Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Sci­ences and Dis­or­ders at James Madi­son Uni­ver­sity. She has been a speech-language pathol­o­gist at Wal­ter Reed Army Med­ical Cen­ter for 10 years where she recently helped launch the Brain Fit­ness Cen­ter (BFC), located in the WRAMC’s Mil­i­tary Advanced Train­ing Cen­ter, to com­ple­ment tra­di­tional care approaches.

Dr Michael Valen­zuela, Leader of the Regen­er­a­tive Neu­ro­science Group, UNSW

Dr Michael Valen­zuela is a Research Fel­low at the School of Psy­chi­a­try, Uni­ver­sity of New South Wales and Leader of the Regen­er­a­tive Neu­ro­science Group at UNSW. His cur­rent research is aimed at under­stand­ing the com­pet­ing forces of neu­ro­plas­tic­ity and degen­er­a­tion in the human brain, and includes stud­ies of adult stem cells, ani­mal mod­els, neu­roimag­ing, clin­i­cal tri­als and epi­demi­ol­ogy. In 2006, he was awarded the pres­ti­gious Eureka Prize for Med­ical Research for his research on the rela­tion­ship between demen­tia and com­plex men­tal activity.

Sophia Vino­gradov, Interim Vice Chair of Depart­ment of Psy­chi­a­try, UCSF

Dr. Vino­gradov is a Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chi­a­try in Res­i­dence; Interim Asso­ciate Chief of Staff for Men­tal Health, Asso­ciate Chief for Edu­ca­tion and Research, Men­tal Health Ser­vice, at the San Fran­cisco VA Med­ical Cen­ter; and Research Co-Director of the Pro­drome Assess­ment, Research, and Treat­ment pro­gram at Lan­g­ley Porter Psy­chi­atric Insti­tute, Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia, San Fran­cisco. She received her M.D. from Wayne State Uni­ver­sity School of Med­i­cine, obtained her psy­chi­a­try res­i­dency train­ing at Stan­ford Uni­ver­sity School of Med­i­cine, and com­pleted a Psy­chi­atric Neu­ro­sciences Research Fel­low­ship at the Palo Alto VA Med­ical Cen­ter and Stan­ford University.

Thomas M. War­den, Vice Pres­i­dent, Allstate’s Research and Plan­ning Cen­ter (ARPC)

Mr. War­den is Vice Pres­i­dent and Leader of Allstate’s Research and Plan­ning Cen­ter (ARPC), where he helps set ARPC’s research agenda and man­age its exe­cu­tion by 60-member ARPC staff, lead­ing the devel­op­ment of sig­nif­i­cant inno­va­tions that con­tribute to Allstate’s prof­itable growth. In 2010 All­state received Sharp­Brains’ Brain Fit­ness Inno­va­tion Award.  Tom is a Char­tered Finan­cial Ana­lyst and has an M.B.A. from Har­vard University.

Keith Wesnes, Prac­tice Leader, United BioSource Corporation

In 1986 Pro­fes­sor Wesnes founded Cog­ni­tive Drug Research (acquired in 2009 by United BioSource) to offer this sys­tem as a ser­vice in clin­i­cal tri­als. Pro­fes­sor Wesnes has pub­lished over 270 peer-reviewed research arti­cles as well as more than 20 chap­ters and lit­er­a­ture reviews. He holds Pro­fes­sor­ships at the Human Cog­ni­tive Neu­ro­science Unit at Northum­bria Uni­ver­sity, New­cas­tle, UK and the Brain Sci­ences Insti­tute at Swin­burne Uni­ver­sity, Mel­bourne, Australia.

Malpractice Methodology (New York Times OpEd by Peter Orszag)

Right now, health care is more evidence-free than you might think. And even where evidence-based clinical guidelines exist, research suggests that doctors follow them only about half of the time. One estimate suggests that it takes 17 years on average to incorporate new research findings into widespread practice. As a result, any clinical guidelines that exist often have limited impact. How might we encourage doctors to adopt new evidence more quickly?

If this is the case with health care overall, despite much progress over the last 30–40 years, imagine how worse it may be when we talk about brain health, when neuroscience and cognitive neuroscience are relatively more recent disciplines.

This is a key insight to keep in mind as we debate the value and limitations of innovative brain health solutions, especially those that are non-invasive and have no negative side effects:  what matters most to actual human beings living today is how those tools and solutions seem to perform, based on best evidence, compared to alternatives available today — not compared to Platonic ideals about research and practice which may exist in our minds but not in the real, empirical world. Of course we then need to guide research so that we have better evidence in the future, but progress must occur in parallel and reinforce each other: progress in practice and in research.

The OpEd author then proceeds to defend malpractice reform as the primary way to do so. This may well be so with healthcare as a whole, but when we are talking about brain care I believe his next 2 proposals are more directly relevant:

Better technology would help, too. Your doctor’s computer should be able to not only pull up your health records (after you have approved such access) but also quickly suggest best-practice methods of treatment. The doctor should then be able to click through to read the supporting research. Subsidies in the stimulus act help doctors pay for this kind of technology.

A final step toward improving standard medical practice will be to better align financial incentives for delivering higher-quality care. Hospitals now lose Medicare dollars, for example, if they succeed in reducing readmissions. Medical professionals should be given incentives for better care rather than more care.

A couple of recent interviews in our expert series elaborate on these points, showcasing how innovation is already taking place:

• “…putting good evi­dence to work in prac­tice requires more than pub­lish­ing good research. I’d say that sci­en­tific evi­dence is directly rel­e­vant to per­haps 15% of clin­i­cal deci­sions…we require tech­nolo­gies that trans­late emer­gent knowl­edge into prac­tice.” - Dr. John Docherty, Adjunct Pro­fes­sor of Psy­chi­a­try at Weill Med­ical Col­lege, and for­mer Branch Chief at NIMH. Full Inter­view Notes.
• “We should be think­ing about the brain through its whole life­time…We need to break the silos, to aggre­gate knowl­edge, to help advance our knowl­edge of the brain 50 years in 5 years.” — Patrick Dono­hue, founder of the Sarah Jane Brain Project. Full Inter­view Notes.

Enabling and accelerating such innovation is of course why we are launching the SharpBrains Council for Brain Fitness Innovation.

Quick note: I will be speaking at the UCLA Technology & Aging Conference on Friday, October 29th, in Los Angeles. Please drop me a line or introduce yourself if you are planning to attend.

The Schedule features many good sessions, including one on Brain Fitness:

• Description: Growing scientific evidence suggests that such strategies as physical and mental exercise can improve brain health and cognitive performance. This session will review the latest research supporting brain fitness methods, highlight new cognitive training devices, and discuss the challenge of determining the effectiveness of these technologies.
• Speakers: Bill Reichman (Baycrest), Steven Aldrich (Posit Science), Gary & Rita Considine (Garri Productions), Alvaro Fernandez of (SharpBrains).
• Moderator: Gary Small (UCLA Center on Aging).

To learn more and register: click Here.

Welcome to the 186th edition of the Carnival of Education, the weekly virtual gathering of dozens of bloggers to discuss all things education.

Q: Why do you say this edition is "brain-based"?
A: Because the Q&A frame we are using is inspired by how Chris at Ouroboros recently hosted Encephalon Brain and Mind blog carnival. (Is classic Greek making a comeback?).

Q: As educators, what inspires us to do what we do?
A: Tracy suggests, "Hope for the future".

Q: And what may happen in the future?
A: Eric proposes that the field can learn much about how athletes train their minds and bodies to maximize performance.

Q: What should not happen in the future?
A: Dave hopes we stop the Textbook Insanity, killing trees to create books not everyone uses.

Q: What comes first, subject or learner?
A: Bogusia has "switched sides". She now centers her teaching around her students, to make sure they appreciate the beauty of the subject.

Q: How do you know if something is developmentally appropriate? 
A: Science Goddess is still waiting for more of us to visit her blog and answer (btw, the visit is worth if only to admire her blog spectacular design).

Q: Should Social-Emotional Learning be part of academic curriculum?
A: Daniel introduces us to the research supporting that view.

Q: Why is NYC's city's graduation rate for ELLs so low?
A: Mary Ann shows that 45.5 percent in grades 8-12 were newcomers, who have to learn the language and the culture on top of the academic curriculum. (Note: I added "in grades 8-12" as a correction, to reflect Mary Ann's full quote accurately).
Q:  Now, are newcomers really motivated to learn and succeed?
A: Joanne responds that work is the motivator for low-income and working-class Mexican-American students, who want an education so they can get decent jobs, live in a safe neighborhood and drive a car that starts reliably.

Q: Who is the person behind Eduwonkette?
A: Jennifer Jennings, unmasked.

Q: Is college a waste of time and resources?
A: Dana reminds us that the goal of liberal arts education is to "enable every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his freedom". Hence, she disagrees with  the thesis from Charles Murray's last book that asks for the substitution of the current system for a system of certification tests, modeled after the CPA (certified public accountant) test.

Q: Is the book Sweating the Small Stuff: Inner-City Schools and the New Paternalism, by David Whitman, any good?
A: Carey likes much of the thought-provoking analysis and the focus on instilling self-discipline, but is turned off by the "paternalism" word.

Q:What does "paternalistic" really mean in this context?
A: Michael suggests "authoritative".

Q: Will Google revolutionize education by letting everyone write and access authoritative content for free?
A: Probably not. At least not with the knols initiative, Ben says.

Q: What does lifelong neurogenesis and neuroplasticity mean?
A: Let me show you these informational resources on the brain, begs Laurie.

Q: Is physical exercise  that important for lifelong learning and brain development?
A; It is. Exercising the body is exercising the mind, says Adrian.

Q: Is the US school funding system the most rational one?
A: Jim replies probably not, which may result, in Illinois, in a boycott and lawsuit.

Q: How old are you in Jupiter years?
A: Cherish doesn't know, and doesn't even what to know. But  she shows us how to calculate it (Government-Issued Warning: "All you need are the following: your age in earth days, the mass of sun and the distance between the planets and sun. And Math!")

Q: Is there really something called "egocentric spacial transformation"?
A: Indeed, Pascale assures us. Also called mental self-rotation. You can put the concept to practice with this brain teaser.

Q: Where do returning military veterans go and get their college education?
A: Darren is happy to report that Sacramento State is one good option.

Q: Why will 50% of today's teachers have left the profession 5 years from now?
A: Travis summarizes a number of reasons and offers recommendations to lower turnover.

Q: What happens in a typical First day of the school year?
A: Mister Teacher shows us.

Q: What does "The Road to heaven is Paved with Good intentions" mean?
A: Andrew provides an example.

Q: How can we improve South Carolina-Australia bilateral relations?
A: Technology can help improve communications among educators and students, says Pay.

Q: Is that Sales Rep your best friend?
A: Tweenteacheer, whose New Interactive Whiteboard will be delivered with a significant delay, warns us not to think so.

Q: How will video be integrated in classroom instruction?
A: First of all, by allowing educators use YouTube Videos, suggests Carol.

Q: Any new cool way to motivate my students?
A: Easy, says Larry. Use a game like Mia Cadaver’s Tombstone Timeout to create, within seconds, your private “virtual room” where only your students compete against each other.

Q: Has Open Court Reading been found to be effective ?
A: Matthew reports that Open Court doesn't have the research needed to qualify inclusion in the WhatWorks Clearinghouse.

Q: Can informal learning activities support school work?
A: Matt invites us to play Football. Sorry, soccer.

Q: Can you suggest other informal activities more closely aligned with academic standards?
A: Steve (the Mentos Geyser Experiment guy), has a few DIY ideas to improve science education.

Q: Does homeschooling make sense?
A: Suzanne reviews  Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense by David Guterson.

Q: Who is Marva Collins?
A: An inspiring school pioneer, Christine tells us.

Q: Can teachers walk on water?
A: Many do everyday. But asking them to walk across bricks as a team-building exercise may be going too far, says Betty.

Q: How can I contribute to future Carnival of Education editions?
A: Easy! Submit your posts using this form this handy submission form.

Have a great day!

BusinessWeek covers a best practice in a topic of growing importance: how large companies can retain older workers in productive ways beyond a set arbitrary retirement age.

Issue: Retiring Employees, Lost Knowledge (Business Week)
A pilot program at American Express gives soon-to-be retirees less work and more time to pass along their expertise to younger generations

- "Before long, the group made an important discovery: Not only would a huge number of employees become eligible for retirement in the next five to 10 years, the company had done little to retain the wealth of institutional knowledge they would be taking with them. From the intricacies of key client relationships to mainframe computer languages no longer being taught in school, many experienced workers possessed critical know-how that, if lost, would be costly—if not impossible—for the company to replace."

- "These parameters helped shape the American Express phased-retirement program, an initiative launched in pilot mode during the first quarter of 2008. Rather than retiring and leaving the company at once, participants gradually give up their day-to-day responsibilities, while replacing some of their free time with activities like mentoring and teaching master classes to their successors. In addition, they get more time out of the office doing whatever they want—be it planning for life in retirement or doing charity work. The phased retiree continues to receive a portion of his previous salary, benefits as usual, and the company in turn gets to hold on to some of its most valuable employees a year or more past traditional retirement age."

Comment: beautiful initiative. For an increasing number of workers, there is no real hard reason why retirement must happen at some arbitrary date, be it 60 or 65. American Express is looking for a win/ win arrangement, including coverage of very important health benefits.

For context on how older workers can remain productive in areas where they have accumulated significant experience, let's revisit some of the notes of my recent conversation with researcher Art Kramer:

Alvaro Fernandez: In any case, your study reinforces an important point: older brains can, and do, learn new skills.

Art Kramer: Yes. The rate of learning by older adults may be slower, and they may benefit from more explicit instruction and technology training, but, as a society, it is a massive waste of talent not to ensure older adults remain active and productive.

Another recent study we conducted, this one still under review, is titled Experience-Based Mitigation of Age-Related Performance Declines: Evidence from Air Traffic Control. It deals with the question: “Can Age Itself Be an Obstacle for someone to perform as an Air Controller? And the Answer is: age itself, within the age range that we studied, is not an obstacle. Our results suggest that, given substantial accumulated experience, older adults can be quite capable of performing at high levels of proficiency on fast-paced demanding real-world tasks.

PS: reader Catherine just helped us see and fix a typo in this post...thank you, Catherine!

Here are the dates and locations of some upcoming events where I will be presenting. Please introduce yourself if you are attending!

>> September 4-5th, San Francisco, CA: several Brain Health Promotion sessions, at the American Society on Aging conference.

>> October 11th, San Jose, CA: The Science and Practice of Brain Fitness, at San Jose State University's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. (Information here).

>> October 23rd, Pocatello, Idaho: Cognitive and Emotional Training for Healthy Aging, at the Idaho Conference on Health Care. (Information here).

>> November 1st, Berkeley, CA: The Science and Practice of Brain Fitness, at UC-Berkeley's Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. (Information here).

>> November 7-9th, Dubai: Global Agenda Councils Inaugural Summit in Dubai, organized by the World Economic Forum. (Information here).

>> November 17th, New York City: The Emerging Brain Fitness Field: Research and Implications, at New York Public Library.

>> December 5th, San Antonio, Texas: The Emerging Brain Fitness Field: Overview of Research and Tools, at the International Council on Active Aging conference. (Information here).

As always, I will share the main take-aways via this blog. I hope to meet some of you down the road!

There were a few interesting research papers presented at the last  American Psychological Association conventions around the theme:

Playing Video Games Offers Learning Across Life Span, Say Studies
Skills Transfer to Classroom, Surgical Procedures, Scientific Thinking (press release).

Probably the most interesting study was that of 303 laparoscopic surgeons, which "showed that surgeons who played video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity and then performed a drill testing these skills were significantly faster at their first attempt and across all 10 trials than the surgeons who did not the play video games first."

The note goes further to explain the implications from this research:

"The big picture is that there are several dimensions on which games have effects, including the amount they are played, the content of each game, what you have to pay attention to on the screen, and how you control the motions," said Gentile. "This means that games are not "good' or bad,' but are powerful educational tools and have many effects we might not have expected they could."

Very thoughtful quote. Please note a few elements about the study and the quote itself:

- "video games requiring spatial skills and hand dexterity": meaning, that precise type of videogame. Other types may have other effects on cognition, depending on, as the note says, "the content of each game", defining content as what players need to do in order to succeed at the game.
- "laparoscopic surgeons": it is clear that these are important skills for a surgeon and not so important, say, for an economist. Perhaps more economists should be playing Age of Empires?

-  "are powerful educational tools": yes, and in fact that is the premise of the Serious Games field, but there also an unspoken factor here: efficiency. If the main goal is entertainment, then the more hours of fun, the better. If the goal is a functional outcome (cognitive or real-life), then one would want the intervention that works in the least amount of time. In other words, could a videogame be specifically designed for laparoscopic surgeons to improve the cognitive skills they need most for their jobs, and would that be more efficient than spending X amount of hours playing a variety of general games? Probably, as you can explore in this interview with Prof. Daniel Gopher on cognitive simulations.

Schools are beginning to offer an increasing number of courses in social and emotional intelligence, teaching students how to better understand their own emotions and the emotions of others.

It sounds warm and fuzzy, but it's a trend backed up by hard data. Today, new studies reveal that teaching kids to be emotionally and socially competent boosts their academic achievement. More precisely, when schools offer students programs in social and emotional learning, their achievement scores gain around 11 percentage points.

That's what I heard at a forum held last December by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL). (Disclosure: I'm a co-founder of CASEL.) Roger Weissberg, the organization's director, gave a preview of a massive study run by researchers at Loyola University and the University of Illinois, which analyzed evaluations of more than 233,000 students across the country.

Social-emotional learning, they discovered, helps students in every way.

Their analysis reveals that students receiving lessons in social and emotional skills improved on every measure of positive behavior;such as classroom discipline, attendance, and liking school—and were less likely to engage in anti-social behavior, from bullying and fights to substance abuse. Among these students, there was also a drop in the number who were depressed, anxious, and alienated.

What's more, the study showed that the positive gains were biggest among "at-risk" kids, who are most likely to fail in their education. In the era of No Child Left Behind, where schools are rated on how well students score on standardized tests, that's a huge advantage for individual students and schools alike.

Teaching students skills like empathy, self-awareness, and how to manage distressing emotions makes them better learners, says Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin and a presenter at the CASEL forum. He pointed to data showing that when the brain's centers for distress are activated, they impair the functioning of the areas involved in memory, attention, and learning. In other words, because of the way our brains are wired, our emotions can either enhance or inhibit our ability to learn.

Courses in social and emotional learning also make great sense, Davidson argues, because of neuroplasticity—the fact that repeated experiences shape the brain. The more a child practices self-discipline, empathy, and cooperation, the stronger the underlying circuits become for these essential life skills.

These results don't surprise film director and producer George Lucas (of Star Wars fame), whose main philanthropic efforts focus on schools through the George Lucas Educational Foundation. (Editor's Note: Daniel Goleman is now conducting a great series of audio interviews, including one with George Lucas on Educating Hearts and Minds: Rethinking Education.)
Lucas sees social-emotional learning as vital to the future of education. As computers take over teaching raw knowledge to kids, teachers will have more time to help students with motivation, cooperation, and other elements of emotional intelligence. "Anybody who's an adult, working in the adult world, realizes that your ability to encourage other people, form groups, and get the best out of everybody is the secret to success," says Lucas, who I interviewed at the forum.

Lucas argues that learning must consist of more than just assigned reading and lectures. Instead, we must embed social and emotional lessons into the educational process, for example, by assigning students to work with others and grading the group on teamwork and emotional relationships with each other, as well as their individual achievement. "These are the things, ultimately in the real world, that are the main factors in getting hired and getting fired," says Lucas.

Research supports these observations. For example, when Claudio Fernando-Araoz, head of research for the executive recruitment firm Egon Zehnder International, looked at CEOs who had succeeded and those who had failed, he found the same pattern in America, Germany, and Japan: Those who failed were hired on the basis of their drive, IQ, and business expertise, but were fired for their lack of emotional intelligence. They simply could not win over, or sometimes even just get along with, their board of directors, or their direct reports, or others on whom their own success depended.

And yet, these human skills—how to get along, how to cooperate, how a group can exhibit emotional intelligence—are absent from the standard academic curriculum. As initiatives like CASEL—along with similar organizations, such as the Committee for Children and the Open Circle Program—spread social-emotional learning curricula to schools, I think we'll see more and more hard evidence that these programs are helping students succeed.

-- Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., is the author of the bestsellers Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence. His website is www.danielgoleman.info. Goleman’s full conversation with Daniel Siegel can be heard as part of the audio series Wired to Connect: Dialogues on Social Intelligence, available through More than Sound Productions.

We bring you this post thanks to our collaboration with Greater Good Magazine, a UC-Berkeley-based quarterly magazine that highlights ground breaking scientific research into the roots of compassion and altruism.

We are hosting here at SharpBrains the next editions of several great blog carnivals. If you blog about these topics, please submit your best recent posts using our Contact Us form:

- August 27th: Carnival of Education.

- September 9th: Carnival of Biogerontology.

- September 17th: Carnival of HR.

Enjoy the  weekend!

Good article on the August edition of Military Officer magazine:

Mental Floss (August 2008) (link opens a PDF-life document, you can read the text by Zooming In).

My 2 favorite quotes, both by Dr. Molly Wagster, chief of the Neuropsychology of Aging Branch, National Institute on Aging (NIA) in Bethesda, Md:

- "Certainly as we age there are declines with brain functions and cognition. But there's evidence that the aging brain can adapt and change more than we ever thought".

- "We don't know how it happens or how long changes last, but even in the face of these unanswered questions, there is the chance to maintain our cognitive function".

Let me add a  reflection: who among us won't be tomorrow one day older than he/she is today? The good news about the "aging brain" doesn't only refer to adults over 70!

To explore these concepts in more depth, you may enjoy visiting our Neuroscience Interview Series.

A couple of quick notes about our blog:

1- We have just added a Search box to allow you easily find content in our 600+ article archive. Take a look at the top of the right sidebar, and let us know if you have any feedback! Btw, feel free to say Thank You to our reader Luc...whose feedback gave a new impetus to this Search option.

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As always, any feedback is welcome.

Interesting market news:

Dakim’s [m]Power Adopted by 150 Senior Living Communities ... (Business Wire)

- "Dakim Inc. announced today that its [m]Power® Cognitive Fitness System has now been adopted by more than 150 senior living communities"

- "Users include Sunrise Senior Living, Front Porch Communities, Diakon Lutheran Services, Ecumen, Eskaton, Benchmark Assisted Living, and Los Angeles Jewish Home for the Aging. Several neurologists and a local Alzheimer’s Association chapter office have also purchased the system."

- “Other products are static. You buy a CD, put it in the computer, and that’s it. People get bored and stop using them. Dakim has found a way to keep people coming back to challenge their ability, and that’s what our residents are doing.” (said said Douglas Edwards, Director of Fund Development for Westminster Gardens in Duarte, California, part of the Southern California Presbyterian Homes)

Comment: senior living is one of the obvious areas where computerized cognitive training (or "brain fitness programs") has a brighter future to complement and enhance existing health and wellness programs in scalable ways, as we covered in our Market Report. We are no longer surprised by the weekly press releases announcing a new "brain fitness center" in community XYZ. Now, what I find interesting is that last quote by Douglas Edwards, which I interpret as a direct commentary on the Posit Science Brain Fitness program, the other leading vendor for the senior living communities market.

For related articles,

- Report Highlights: including our estimate of 400 residential facilities offering these kind of tools by end of 2007

- 10-Question Evaluation Checklist: for anyone considering buying a program

- Build Your Cognitive Reserve-Yaakov Stern: interview with a leading Cognitive Reserve researcher, on the potential value and limitations of computerized "brain fitness programs".

Just read an article on clean tech, including a couple of quotes by Kleiner Perkins' John Doerr suggesting that

"Remember the Internet? Green tech is bigger... This could be the biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century"

because

"Energy is the mother of all markets".

Well, if Energy is the mother of all markets...who would be the father of all markets?

The Human Brain, perhaps?

So, I may both agree and disagree with John Doerr: yes, clean tech should be bigger than the Internet, and perhaps the biggest economic opportunity in the next 10-15 years...but BrainTech, technologies aimed at helping our brains be more productive and sustainable throughout their lifespans, may become the biggest opportunity of the 21st century. We'll see.

Chris hosts a superb edition of Encephalon, presenting the articles as an engaging and pretty comprehensive Q&A session. If you want to read the answers, to the questions below, by some of the best neuroscience and psychology bloggers, simply visit Encephalon 52: Q&A.

Q: What is the relationship between neurogenesis and depression?

Q: For that matter, is there a relationship between depression and diabetes?

Q: What is the molecular basis of bipolar disorder?

Q: Can brain stimulation make you a better driver?

Q: What is the perceptual defect underlying tone deafness?

Q: What determines plasticity in the visual cortex?

Q: Can we do anything to control our own brain’s plasticity?

Q: Are concepts encoded in single neurons?

Q: Speaking of dear old granny, how are social attachments encoded in the brain?

Q: Should you smoke pot? (Actually: What are the effects of the various active ingredients in cannabis?)

Q: Does culture determine the neural substrates of cognition?

Q: Why do we sleep?

Q: Is there a correlation between the percent coverage of women’s bodies by clothes, and the hours of coverage they receive on television? If so, is that correlation positive or negative?

Again, answers to those questions at Encephalon 52: Q&A.

The article Clumsy kids more likely to become obese adults: study (CBC)...

- "The study was based on tests of about 11,000 people in Britain who were tested for hand control, co-ordination and clumsiness at age seven and 11, and were then followed until age 33."

- "Prof. Scott Montgomery of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm and his colleagues at Imperial College London in England said they purposely chose measurements of fine hand control such as picking up matches, rather than those likely to be influenced by participating in sports, such as catching balls."

- "While it is often assumed that the cognitive impairments seen in adult obesity are a consequence of excess weight, that could be putting the chicken before the egg, the researchers say"

...reminds me of Judith Beck's words on how to "Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person"

- "The main message of cognitive therapy overall, and its application in the diet world, is straight-forward: problems losing weight are not one’s fault. Problems simply reflect lack of skills--skills that can be acquired and mastered through practice. Dieters who read the book or workbook learn a new cognitive or behavioral skill every day for six weeks. They practice some skills just once; they automatically incorporate others for their lifetime."

- "That is exactly my goal: to show how everyone can learn some critical skills. The key ones are:"

- "1) How to motivate oneself. The first task that dieters do is to write a list of the 15 of 20 reasons why they want to lose weight and read that list every single day."

- "2) Plan in advance and self-monitor behavior. A typical reason for diet failure is a strong preference for spontaneity. I ask people to prepare a plan and then I teach them the skills to stick to it."

- "3) Overcome sabotaging thoughts. Dieters have hundreds and hundreds of thoughts that lead them to engage in unhelpful eating behavior. I have dieters read cards that remind them of key points, e.g., that it isn’t worth the few moments of pleasure they’ll get from eating something they hadn’t planned and that they’ll feel badly afterwards; that they can’t eat whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever quantity they want, and still be thinner; that the scale is not supposed to go down every single day; that they deserve credit for each helpful eating behavior they engage in, to name just a few."

- "4) Tolerate hunger and craving. Overweight people often confuse the two. You experience hunger when your stomach feels empty. Craving is an urge to eat, usually experienced in the mouth or throat, even if your stomach is full."

 

A problem like the obesity epidemic is, no doubt, a result of many factors, where chicken and egg are often mixed. What matters, though, is how to set up public health policies and specific plans that take into account the Cognitive dimension: if people cannot regulate their own eating and exercise habits, half the battle is lost.

From a recent article:

Brain Training dominates '08 Euro sales (CVG Online)

- "Overall, four of the ten bestselling DS games in both countries during the first six months of 2008 were in the brain training genre."

- "According to data released by sales monitor Media Control GfK International, the DS's heavyweight status in the European console market is closely tied to the popularity of Nintendo's Brain Training series and other brain training titles."

- "The biggest demand for brain games is in Germany and Holland", the company said. More Brain Training was the bestselling title in Germany during the first six months of the year, while Brain Training topped the Dutch chart during the same period.

Fascinating. Will brain-training-induced employee-productivity-increase help turn around the looming recession? we'll track closely the performance of German and Dutch economies!