Brilliant Blog

Here you are have the twice-a-month newsletter with our 10 most popular blog posts. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, simply by submitting your email at the top of this page.

Our first Brain Training/ Fitness Webinar Series was a success with several hundred participants and great feedback. If you could not participate, you can still review the presentation slides by clicking Here. A key message from the series: it is exciting that our brains remain more flexible, at all ages, than was once thought possible. The implications? Every single owner of a brain can benefit from learning more about how to maintain the "It" in "Use It or Lose It." And which tools, if any, can be helpful. But, remember, there are no magic pills for cognitive health and performance.

Market News

National Neurotechnology Initiative: Neurotech leaders ask for help to support a pending bill on funding for applications of brain research.

Lumos Labs raises $3 m in venture capital:  This website provides a stimulating user experience at a reasonable cost. However, there is no clinical validation showing the efficacy of their specific brain training program. If you are in the market for programs than make brain-related claims, please check out our 10-Question Evaluation Checklist. Click Here.

Report for Brain Fitness Centers: We are happy to see more organizations, from retirement communities to health systems, benefit from our market report to navigate the brain fitness field and make better informed decisions.  

Research

Executive Functions, Education and Alzheimer’s Disease: What we find exciting is the growing amount of research showing how specific cognitive skills (attention, memory, etc….) can be improved. An important reason why the search for a "magic pill" will prove elusive is because there is a variety of brain structures and functions to care care of, not just one. An area that deserves more attention: our frontal lobes and so-called executive functions.

Promising Cognitive Training Studies for ADHD: Dr. David Rabiner reports the results from two recent scientific studies highlighting that "cognitive training interventions may provide an important complement to traditional medication treatment and behavior therapy" to help children with attention deficits. 

Education

Cognitive and Emotional Development Through Play: Enough about "exercise" and "training". Dr. David Elkind, author of The Power of Play: Learning That Comes Naturally, discusses the need to build a more "playful culture."

Health & Wellness

Physical or Mental Exercise for Brain Health?: Both are important.  Advice for a couch potato: Be Active. For a teenager: Don’t Drop Out of School, Go To College. For a middle age person: Make Sure you Have a Stimulating Job. For a retired person: Find and Try to Master A New Hobby Every Few Years.

Professional Development

Your Trading Brain: Expert or Novice: Information is power, yet, how often do we ask ourselves, "how does my brain work?". Trader and neuropsychologist Dr. Janice Dorn provides an in-depth discussion to help traders make better decisions and be more successful.

Brain Teasers

Brain Games: Spot the Difference. You can exercise your brain without spending a dime. In fact, you may well already be. 

We hope you enjoy this newsletter. Please stay tuned for the next one at the end of June. It will include a fascinating interview with Dr. Arthur Kramer on the cognitive benefits of physical exercise and his cutting-edge cognitive training work with the Navy and air controllers.

 

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Several hundred people participated in our first Brain Fitness Webinar Series, and are glad how the experiment well. We are already thinking of topics and speakers for a second one, so stay tuned!

In case you couldn’t attend them, we are sharing the slides we used (we did not record the webinar sessions). Here you go:

—-ATTENTION!!: the external website we are using to share the slides is not working right now for reasons beyond our control. Please leave a comment below, or email us: support at sharpbrains dot com, and we will send you an email when the links are working. My apologies for this!—

1) Webinar #1: Presentation Slides Here.

In “The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market, 2008,” I provided an overview of the science, market, and vendor landscape of the emerging brain fitness software market, based on our recent market report.
- Target audience: Executives, professionals, investors, reporters and bloggers interested in learning more about the brain fitness market.
- More information: Market Report.
 

2) Webinar #2: Presentation Slides Here.

In “Brain Rules for Thinking Smarter,” John Medina, developmental molecular biologist

 and author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Striving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School emphasized the importance of physical exercise, stress management…and avoiding multitasking altogether.
- Target audience: Anyone who wants to learn more about brain health and performance.
- More information: The Science of Thinking Smarter, by John Medina.
 

3) Webinar #3: Presentation Slides Here.

In “The Science and Practice of Brain Fitness,” I provided an overview of the Brain 101, latest research findings and implications for how to improve brain health and performance based on my classes and speaking engagements.
- Target audience: Anyone who wants to learn more about brain health and performance
Have a good day!

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As noted in our Market Report, we expect  the field of cognitive training (or "brain fitness") software to grow in a variety of education and health-related areas over the next years. One of the most promising areas in our view: helping children and adults with attention deficits improve brain function to reduce ADHD symptoms.

I am glad to present this in-depth discussion on the results of two recent high-quality scientific studies. Let me start with Dr. Rabiner’s conclusion:

"Results from these two cognitive training studies highlight that cognitive training interventions may provide an important complement to traditional medication treatment and behavior therapy. Both studies included appropriate control groups, employed random assignment, and had outcome measures provided by individuals who were "blind" to which condition children were assigned to. They are thus well-designed studies from which scientifically sound conclusions can be drawn. They add to the growing research base that intensive practice and training focused of key cognitive skills can have positive effects that extend beyond the training situation itself."

Without futher ado…enjoy the article!

——————

Two New Cognitive Training Studies for ADHD Yield Promising Findings  

– By Dr. David Rabiner

Although medication treatment is effective for many children with ADHD, there remains an important need to explore and develop interventions that can complement or even substitute for medication. This is true for a variety of reasons including:

1) Not all individuals with ADHD benefit from medication.
2) Among those who benefit, many have residual difficulties that need to be addressed via other means.
3) Some individuals experience adverse effects that prevent them from remaining on medication.
4) Medication treatment does not result in benefits that extend beyond when medication is being taken.

Except for #3 above, the same limitations hold for behavior therapy, which is the other intervention for ADHD that is widely considered to have a strong evidence base at this time.

Because of these limitations, some researchers have pursued cognitive training as an alternative method of treatment. The basic idea behind cognitive training is that important cognitive skills such as attention and working memory can – like any other skill – be strengthened and enhanced with intensive and focused practice. Furthermore, when an individual builds these skills the benefits may endure beyond the time when the actual training is provided.

Although this is a logical and compelling idea, the research base as it applies to individuals with ADHD is rather limited and the idea that attention is a skill that could be strengthened by focused training has not been carefully studied. In fact, when I was preparing a grant application several years ago for an attention training study, I was surprised to locate fewer than 5 studies of this issue. Furthermore, these were generally small preliminary studies that would be considered pilot investigations.

In recent years, however, researchers in the ADHD field have devoted greater attention to examining the potential benefits of cognitive training for ADHD. Below, I review 2 recent studies that highlight the potential value of training oriented approaches.

- Study 1: Computerized Progressive Attentional Training for Children with ADHD –

This study was conducted with 36 6-13-year-old children in Israel who were diagnosed with ADHD. Results from this study were published last year in Child Neurospsychology [Shalev, Tsal, & Mevorach (2007). Computerized progressive attentional training: Effective direct intervention for children with ADHD. Child Neuropsychology, 13, 382-388.]

Participants were randomly assigned to receive 8 weeks of computerized attention training (one hour sessions two times per week) or to a control group. The basic premise of computerized attention training is simple: the program requires children to attend to a variety of computer exercises and to make different responses depending on the stimuli presented. For example, a particularly simple task would require the child to press the space bar each time the number 2 was flashed but to refrain from responding when any other number is flashed. To perform well, the child must sustain their attention and refrain from responding impulsively.

Although other tasks may be far more complicated, and place demands on both problem solving skills and working memory, all tasks require sustained attention to do well. They also become more difficult and longer as the child moves through the training program. Thus, the child receives repeated practice in sustaining attention to increasingly challenging tasks that last for longer time periods. Ideally, the difficulty level adjusts to match the child’s ongoing performance so that the child is constantly challenged to perform at their best possible level – not too easy but not too hard.

By succeeding in the program, the child is demonstrating an increasing ability to sustain their attention to challenging cognitive activities. Although children may get better at attending to the actual computer exercises, however, the important question is whether this generalizes to the classroom and other settings where focused attention is critical for success. If not, become better at attending to the attention training exercises would be of little value.

The attention training program tested in this study was designed to train 4 different aspects of attention: sustained attention (the ability to maintain attention and persist on task until completion), selective attention (the ability to maintain a specific cognitive set in the face of competing distractions), orienting attention (directing one’s attention to critical stimuli), and executive attention (allocating attentional resources between competing demands and choosing what to attend to). During each session children were trained on these different types of attention and the tasks become more difficult as children’s performance improved.

Children in the control group played computer games – rather then receiving attention training – for the same amount of time. These games also required children to sustain their attention to succeed and became more difficult as children progressed. Thus, the amount of time children spent under adult supervision working on computer activities that became more difficult as they progressed was the same for each group. Unlike children randomly assigned to the attention training group, however, children in the video game control condition were not exposed to activities that focused on training specific components of attention.

Before and immediately following training, parents rated their child’s ADHD symptoms using a standardized behavior rating scale (the authors report that parents were blind to which group their child was in). In addition, academic performance was tested pre- and post-training using math problems, reading comprehension problems, and passage copying problems taken directly from children’s school books. Standard achievement tests were not used because such tests are not available in Hebrew. Information about whether any children were on medication during the training or during testing was not provided.

- Results -

Encouraging results were obtained. Parents of children in the attention training group reported a significant decline in their child’s inattentive symptoms compared to parents of children in the control group. The change in hyperactive-impulsive symptoms was in the same direction but was not significant.

After controlling for academic performance before training, children who received attention training did significantly better than controls in reading comprehension and in their speed of copying passages. Math performance was in the same direction but was not significant.

- Summary and Implications -

The authors conclude that their attention training program produced significant improvements in parents’ ratings of inattentive symptoms and on academic tests. This is the first demonstration I am aware of that suggests attention training may improve academic performance.

The authors note several important limitations to their study. First, the sample is relatively small. Second, no behavioral data was obtained from children’s teachers. Third, there was no extended follow-up so the duration of the benefits observed at post-test is unknown. To these concerns I would add that the academic results would be stronger if a standardized achievement measure had been used. Finally, I wonder if parents truly remained blind to whether their child was receiving attention training or was in the video game control group.

These limitations not withstanding, these are promising results that highlight the potential of attention training procedures for children with ADHD. A larger controlled trial that addresses the limitations of the current work is certainly warranted.

Note – To my knowledge, this attention training program is not currently available outside of Israel.

 

- Study 2: The impact of different types of working memory training for children with ADHD –

Working memory is a key cognitive function that allows individuals to hold information in mind for brief periods of time. This ability plays an important role in countless daily tasks including following directions, accurately tracking conversations, reading comprehension, solving complex math problems, and staying focused on a project. Current theories of ADHD that emphasize the critical role of executive functions highlight working memory deficits as an important aspect of the disorder; in fact, research has shown that many individuals with ADHD have poor working memory compared to same age peers without the disorder.

A study published several years ago reported evidence that working memory is a skill that can be improved with intensive training. In a randomized controlled trial conducted with 53 children diagnosed with ADHD, working memory training was found to yield significant gains in non-trained working memory tasks and a reduction in ADHD symptoms as reported by parents (you can find a review of this study Here). Additional controlled studies of working memory training have reported positive results in other groups including younger and older adults without ADHD, typically developing preschoolers, and stroke victims. Until recently, however, additional controlled studies documenting positive effects in children with ADHD have not been reported.

At the May 2008 recent meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, Dr. Christopher Lucas and his colleagues at NYU Medical School presented new data on the use of working memory training in children diagnosed with ADHD. Their study reported on the results of 2 different types of working memory training – auditory training or visual-spatial training – conducted with 46 children aged 7-12 who were participating in an intensive summer treatment program for ADHD.

Participants were randomly assigned to received either auditory or visual spatial working memory training using the computerized training program developed by Cogmed. The idea behind assigning children to these different types of training was to see whether one was more effective then the other; the researchers had hypothesized that children who received visual-spatial training would achieve better results.

A typical auditory training exercise would involve the computer presenting the child with a string of digits, and the child had to subsequently indicate the correct order – either forward or backward – via the keyboard. In a typical visual spatial working memory training task, the child would be required to recall the location of different objects that lit up on the screen. You can view actual examples of the working memory training tasks Here.

Training took place for 30-35 minutes per day, 4 days per week, over a 6-week period so that a target of 25 training days could be provided. Both auditory and visual-spatial training protocols automatically increased the difficulty level of the working memory tasks depending on how well the child is performing, becoming more difficult when the child is successful and easier when the child is struggling. These adjustments are made on nearly a trial by trial basis by increasing or decreasing the number of items to recall. As a result, the child is consistently challenged to work at their maximum performance level without the task becoming so difficult that they become frustrated and give up.

The researchers were interested in 2 basic questions. First, did children who received visual-spatial training show greater gains in working memory performance on non-trained tasks than children who received the auditory working memory training? This was assessed by having children complete a comprehensive working memory assessment before and after training using tasks that differed from what they were actually trained with. It is important to evaluate training using tasks that differ from training activities to see whether training improvements extend to non-trained activities.

The second question was whether visual-spatial working memory training was also associated with behavioral improvements. To answer this question, the researchers examined the number of positive behavior points, i.e., points awarded for behaving appropriately and following camp rules, that children in both groups received from camp counselors between weeks 4 and 6 of the training. The counselors who awarded points were not aware of which training condition children had been assigned to.

This represents a stringent test of working memory training on behavior for several reasons. First, the ratings were being made by blind observers. Second, most children were being treated with medication, and their behavior would already have improved because of this. Third, all children were involved in an intensive behavioral therapy program designed to promote positive behavior. Thus, any improvement from working memory training would be above and beyond gains achieved from treatments that were already in place.

- Results -

Before and after the training, children were tested on several non-trained measures of working memory. Consistent with the researchers’ prediction, children who received visual-spatial training performed significantly better on several of these tasks than children who received auditory working memory training.

Of particular interest is that children who received visual-spatial working memory training earned significantly more positive behavior points from the camp counselors. Thus, these children were rated as doing a better job of consistently following camp rules and behaving appropriately.

- Summary and Implications –

Results from this study support the benefits of working memory training for children with ADHD and indicate that training of visual-spatial working memory is especially important. The fact that this training was associated with an increase in positive behavior above and beyond medication and behavior treatments already in place is a very encouraging result.

As with Study 1, this study has several limitations to consider. Although the behavior improvements noted by camp counselors is important, it would also be important to document that such behavioral gains were also observed by parents and teachers. This, however, was not examined in the study. As with Study 1, there was no extended follow-up so the duration of training benefits can not be determined.

- Overall Summary -

Results from these two cognitive training studies highlight that cognitive training interventions may provide an important complement to traditional medication treatment and behavior therapy. Both studies included appropriate control groups, employed random assignment, and had outcome measures provided by individuals who were "blind" to which condition children were assigned to. They are thus well-designed studies from which scientifically sound conclusions can be drawn. They add to the growing research base that intensive practice and training focused of key cognitive skills can have positive effects that extend beyond the training situation itself.

As noted above, however, each study has limitations that should be addressed in subsequent work. It is encouraging to see the momentum for such work building and I look forward to reviewing other studies in this important area as they become available.

— Dr. David Rabiner is a child clinical psychologist and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. His research focuses on various issues related to ADHD, the impact of attention problems on academic achievement, and attention training. He also publishes Attention Research Update, a complimentary online newsletter that helps parents, professionals, and educators keep up with the latest research on ADHD.

For related reading, you may enjoy:

- Mindfulness Meditation for Adults & Teens with ADHD

- Working Memory Training: Interview with Dr. Torkel Klingberg

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How many differences can you spot?

You have seen and maybe tried that exercise or game in the Sunday paper many times: find 5 differences between the two images.

You may like it or not. You may think it is only for kids. But it is a GREAT brain exercise!

Let’s see what cognitive processes and which brain areas are involved in this exercise:

- You have to identify the objects that you see: this involves your occipital lobes (in red, below)
- You have to analyzed the spatial relationships between the objects that you see: this involves your occipital and parietal (in green) lobes
- You have to remember what you see in one picture and compare it to what you see in the other picture, that is you have to use your short-term memory: this involves your frontal (in blue) and parietal lobes
- You have to mark down the locations where you see a difference: this involves mostly your frontal lobes (for the movement)

Did you realize that so much was going on in your brain during that seemingly simple exercise?

I bet not! So… why not give it a try??

 

Can you find 5 differences between the two pictures below?

 

 

Answers:

- One of the characters on the white sign (top right)
- Sign on the grey wall (bottom left)
-Tail of the big fish on the left side of the building
- Posting on the sign leaning on the building on the right side of the building
- One of the small wooden characters on the left side of the building, under the big fish

 

You can enjoy these additional Brain Teasers.

— This article was written by Pascale Michelon, Ph. D., for SharpBrains.com. Dr. Michelon, Copyright 2008. Dr. Michelon has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and has worked as a Research Scientist at Washington University in Saint Louis, in the Psychology Department. She conducted several research projects to understand how the brain makes use of visual information and memorizes facts. She is now an Adjunct Faculty at Washington University, and teaches Memory Workshops in numerous retirement communities in the St Louis area.

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Our fellow blogger Jeremy over at PsyBlog has written a thoughtful post comparing the value of a number of cognitive enhancing tools. His overall verdict?

"The evidence for exercise boosting cognitive function is head-and-shoulders above that for brain training, drugs, nutritional supplements and meditation. Scientifically, on the current evidence, exercise is the best way to enhance your cognitive function. And as for its side-effects: yes there is the chance of an injury but exercise can also reduce weight, lower the chance of dementia, improve mood and lead to a longer life-span. Damn those side-effects!"

Article: Which Cognitive Enhancers Really Work: Brain Training, Drugs, Vitamins, Meditation or Exercise?

Jeremy, I started writing this as a comment to your post in your blog, but then it got too long. Let me write my reaction to your post here. 

While I appreciate your analysis and share most of your points, I think the "ranking" effort (this type of intervention is better than that one) is ultimately misleading.  It is based on a faulty search for a general solution/ magic pill for everyone and everything.

If only things were so simple. Perhaps one day there will be research to support that view, but certainly not today. A number of interventions have shown their value. In different populations, and contexts. For "exercise is the best way to enhance your cognitive function" to be true, one needs to have a pretty narrow understanding of "best", "your" and "cognitive function".

First of all, the main motivator for many people interested in cognitive enhancement interventions is to reduce the probability of developing Alzheimer’s symptoms. For that, leading a mentally stimulating life, or true Lifelong Learning, through Education, Occupation and Leisure activities has been shown (ok, perhaps correlated) to be the strongest variable in a variety of studies, via the so-called Cognitive Reserve. Not so much physical exercise (which brings many other benefits for other reasons, as you point out). In other words, research-based advice would probably be, for a teenager: Don’t Drop Out of School. For a middle age person: Make Sure you Have a Stimulating Job. For a retired person: Find and Try to Master A New Hobby Every Few Years.

Second, the case for physical exercise is mostly based on moving people from being Sedentary to Doing a Bit (2-3 times/ a week, 20 minutes "sweating"). Now, there are millions of people already doing that. Is there nothing else they can do to improve their cognitive fitness?

You may also have seen this Interview with Prof. Daniel Gopher on cognitive simulations for high-performing individuals. Do military pilots and basketball athletes really need to hear "Please do aerobic activities at least twice a week…".

What about traders, bankers or consultants who already frequent the gym often, but need help with stress management/ emotional self-regulation in order to remain "cool" when they need to? Would you tell them "Please stop trading/ that Board meeting when things get difficult, leave your desk/ room for 30-40 minutes to take a quick run, and everything will be fine when you come back". Or would they better learn the cognitive skills needed to manage stress real-time via biofeedback or meditation, for example.

Third, as you point out, there are studies on specific groups of people (add/ adhd, dyslexia, stroke/ TBI) where well-directed cognitive exercise has shown an effect in well-designed trials, whereas physical exercise, to my knowledge, hasn’t to the same degree. We are talking about over 25 million individuals in the US in those 3 categories alone. What do you tell them?

Fourth, the ACTIVE trial. Yes, that study is not perfect. But the results of the 3 different types of cognitive exercise (one computerized, two not) are pretty spectacular, in my view. Can you show me one similarly controlled clinical trial where 10 hours of physical exercise today produces cognitive gains not only now but also 5 years from now?

Fifth, while physical exercise has shown clear value in improving some cognitive abilities, such as some executive functions, it hasn’t show comparable value in others, such as information processing or memory. Which is one crucial reason why, in my view, looking for cure-alls will probably prove elusive.

In summary, you have written a very worthy article, with good analysis but drawing, in my opinion, the wrong conclusion and implications. I have to disagree with the approach, artificial in my view, to "rank" different interventions as if they were mutually exclusive. And as if everyone had the same needs and goals.

There is no research today to back or imply a claim asking people to just do X (physical exercise) and forget for the time being Y (mental exercise). Or the other way. Both play their role.

In our work we try to integrate all these concepts by saying that the 4 main "pillars" for cognitive health are: good nutrition, physical exercise, stress management and mental exercise. In the absence of perfect research, we encourage consumers and the professionals helping them to identify, by themselves, the area to work on next. Based on available research and tools, their specific context, needs and goals.

This conversation exemplifies why we believe that better and more widely available cognitive assessments are needed, and fast, to help set up valid baselines and help users of those "cognitive enhancers" measure their own progress in independent, reliable ways.

Thank you for opening a good conversation…and helping me exercise my brain by composing this answer.

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We sometimes neglect to mention a very basic yet powerful method of cognitive and emotional development, for children and adults alike: Play.

Dr. David Elkind, author of The Power of Play: Learning That Comes Naturally, discusses the need to build a more "playful culture" in this great article brought to you thanks to our collaboration with Greater Good Magazine.

——————–

Can We Play?

– By Dr. David Elkind

Play is rapidly disappearing from our homes, our schools, and our neighborhoods. Over the last two decades alone, children have lost eight hours of free, unstructured, and spontaneous play a week. More than 30,000 schools in the United States have eliminated recess to make more time for academics. From 1997 to 2003, children’s time spent outdoors fell 50 percent, according to a study by Sandra Hofferth at the University of Maryland. Hofferth has also found that the amount of time children spend in organized sports has doubled, and the number of minutes children devote each week to passive leisure, not including watching television, has increased from 30 minutes to more than three hours. It is no surprise, then, that childhood obesity is now considered an epidemic.

But the problem goes well beyond obesity. Decades of research has shown that play is crucial to physical, intellectual, and social-emotional development at all ages. This is especially true of the purest form of play: the unstructured, self-motivated, imaginative, independent kind, where children initiate their own games and even invent their own rules.

In infancy and early childhood, play is the activity through which children learn to recognize colors and shapes, tastes and sounds—the very building blocks of reality. Play also provides pathways to love and social connection. Elementary school children use play to learn mutual respect, friendship, cooperation, and competition. For adolescents, play is a means of exploring possible identities, as well as a way to blow off steam and stay fit. Even adults have the potential to unite play, love, and work, attaining the dynamic, joyful state that psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls "flow."

With play on the decline, we risk losing these and many other benefits. For too long, we have treated play as a luxury that kids, as well as adults, could do without. But the time has come for us to recognize why play is worth defending: It is essential to leading a happy and healthy life.

Play and development

Years of research has confirmed the value of play. In early childhood, play helps children develop skills they can not get in any other way. Babbling, for example, is a self-initiated form of play through which infants create the sounds they need to learn the language of their parents. Likewise, children teach themselves to crawl, stand, and walk through repetitious practice play. At the preschool level, children engage in dramatic play and learn who is a leader, who is a follower, who is outgoing, who is shy. They also learn to negotiate their own conflicts.

A 2007 report from the American Academy of Pediatrics documents that play promotes not only behavioral development but brain growth as well. The University of North Carolina’s Abecedarian Early Child Intervention program found that children who received an enriched, play-oriented parenting and early childhood program had significantly higher IQ’s at age five than did a comparable group of children who were not in the program (105 vs. 85 points).

A large body of research evidence also supports the value and importance of particular types of play. For example, Israeli psychologist Sara Smilansky’s classic studies of sociodramatic play, where two or more children participate in shared make believe, demonstrate the value of this play for academic, social, and emotional learning. "Sociodramatic play activates resources that stimulate social and intellectual growth in the child, which in turn affects the child’s success in school," concludes Smilansky in a 1990 study that compared American and Israeli children. "For example, problem solving in most school subjects requires a great deal of make believe, visualizing how the Eskimos live, reading stories, imagining a story and writing it down, solving arithmetic problems, and determining what will come next."

Other research illustrates the importance of physical play for children’s learning and development. Some of these studies have highlighted the importance of recess. Psychologist Anthony Pellegrini and his colleagues have found that elementary school children become increasingly inattentive in class when recess is delayed. Similarly, studies conducted in French and Canadian elementary schools over a period of four years found that regular physical activity had positive effects on academic performance. Spending one third of the school day in physical education, art, and music improved not only physical fitness, but attitudes toward learning and test scores. These findings echo those from one analysis of 200 studies on the effects of exercise on cognitive functioning, which also suggests that physical activity promotes learning.

In recent years, and most especially since the 2002 passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, we’ve seen educators, policy makers, and many parents embrace the idea that early academics leads to greater success in life. Yet several studies by Kathy Hirsch-Pasek and colleagues have compared the performance of children attending academic preschools with those attending play-oriented preschools. The results showed no advantage in reading and math achievement for children attending the academic preschools. But there was evidence that those children had higher levels of test anxiety, were less creative, and had more negative attitudes toward school than did the children attending the play preschools.

So if play is that important, why is it disappearing?

The perfect storm

The decline of children’s free, self-initiated play is the result of a perfect storm of technological innovation, rapid social change, and economic globalization.

Technological innovations have led to the all-pervasiveness of television and computer screens in our society in general, and in our homes in particular. An unintended consequence of this invasion is that childhood has moved indoors. Children who might once have enjoyed a pick-up game of baseball in an empty lot now watch the game on TV, sitting on their couch.

Meanwhile, single and working parents now outnumber the once-predominant nuclear family, in which a stay-at-home mother could provide the kind of loose oversight that facilitates free play. Instead, busy working parents outsource at least some of their former responsibilities to coaches, tutors, trainers, martial arts teachers, and other professionals. As a result, middle-income children spend more of their free time in adult-led and -organized activities than any earlier generation. (Low-income youth sometimes have the opposite problem: Their parents may not have the means to put them in high-quality programs that provide alternatives to playing in unsafe neighborhoods.)

Finally, a global economy has increased parental fears about their children’s prospects in an increasingly high-tech marketplace. Many middle-class parents have bought into the idea that education is a race, and that the earlier you start your child in academics, the better. Preschool tutoring in math and programs such as the Kumon System, which emphasizes daily drills in math and reading, are becoming increasingly popular. And all too many kindergartens, once dedicated to learning through play, have become full-day academic institutions that require testing and homework. In such a world, play has come to be seen as a waste of precious time. A 1999 survey found that nearly a third of kindergarten classes did not have a recess period.

As adults have increasingly thwarted self-initiated play and games, we have lost important markers of the stages in a child’s development. In the absence of such markers, it is difficult to determine what is appropriate and not appropriate for children. We run the risk of pushing them into certain activities before they are ready, or stunting the development of important intellectual, social, or emotional skills.

For example, it is only after the age of six or seven that children will spontaneously participate in games with rules, because it is only at that age that they are fully able to understand and follow rules. Those kinds of developmental markers fall by the wayside when we slot very young kids into activities such as Little League. When Little League was founded in 1939, the adult organizers looked to children themselves in setting the starting age, which ended up being about age nine or older. But the success of Little League was not lost on parents eager to find supervised activities for young children. Before long, team soccer was promoted for younger children because it was an easier and less complex game for the six- to nine-year-old age group. The rapid growth of soccer leagues challenged the popularity of Little League. This led to the introduction of Tee Ball, a simplified version of baseball for children as young as four.

By pushing young children into team sports for which they are not developmentally ready, we rule out forms of play that once encouraged them to learn skills of independence and creativity. Instead of learning on their own in backyards, fields, and on sidewalks, children are only learning to do what adults tell them to do. Moreover, one study found that many children who start playing soccer at age four are burned out on that sport by the time they reach adolescence, just the age when they might truly enjoy and excel at it.

Bring back play

Play is motivated by pleasure. It is instinctive and part of the maturational process. We cannot prevent children from self-initiated play; they will engage in it whenever they can. The problem is that we have curtailed the time and opportunities for such play. Obviously we cannot turn the clock back and reverse the technological, social, and economic changes that have helped silence children’s play. Television, computers, new family models, and globalization are here to stay.

What is important is balance. If a child spends an hour on the computer or watching TV, equal time should be given to playing with peers or engaging in individual activities like reading or crafts. It is important to involve the child in making these decisions and setting the parameters for how they spend their time. If we give children some ownership of the rules, they are usually more willing to follow them than when they are simply imposed from above. It is also important to appreciate individual differences. You will not be able to keep some children from playing sports, while others prefer more sedentary activities.

Another way we can help bring play back into children’s lives is to have schools restore recess for at least half an hour. As research demonstrates, academics are unlikely to suffer from this change; if anything, they’ll benefit. Schools also argue that they cannot afford recess because of high insurance costs and parents’ greater appetite for litigation. But when I speak with insurance officers about this issue, they claim that argument is overblown. Either way, children could still be taken outside, or to the gym, for calisthenics to exercise their bodies.

We must also address the more general problem of test-driven curricula in today’s schools. When teachers are forced to teach to the test, they become less innovative in their teaching methods, with less room for games and imagination. More creative teaching methods build upon children’s interests and attitudes—their playful disposition—and this encourages them to enjoy their teachers, which in turn enhances their interest in the subject matter. Though computers are one of the forces limiting play, they can be creatively used in the service of playful learning. As more young teachers who are proficient in technology enter the schools, we will have the first true educational reform in decades, if not centuries.

But you don’t have to be a teacher to help bring back play. Many neighborhoods badly need more playgrounds. This was also the case in the 1930s; in response, we saw the "playground movement," when local communities set up their own playgrounds. A new playground movement is long overdue, especially for our inner city neighborhoods, where safe play spaces are often in short supply. A playground should be required of any new large-scale housing development.

We could go further. In Scandinavian countries, there are play areas in even the best restaurants, as well as in airports and train stations. These countries appreciate the importance of play for healthy development, and we could well follow their example.

Finally children do as we do, not as we say. That gives us incentive to bring play back into our adult lives. We can shut off the TVs and take our children with us on outdoor adventures. We should get less exercise in the gym and more on hiking trails and basketball courts. We can also make work more playful: Businesses that do this are among the most successful. Seattle’s Pike Fish Market is a case in point. Workers throw fish to one another, engage the customers in repartee, and appear to have a grand time. Some companies, such as Google, have made play an important part of their corporate culture. Study after study has shown that when workers enjoy what they do and are well-rewarded and recognized for their contributions, they like and respect their employers and produce higher quality work. For example, when the Rohm and Hass Chemical company in Kentucky reorganized its workplace into self-regulating and self-rewarding teams, one study found that worker grievances and turnover declined, while plant safety and productivity improved.

When we adults unite play, love, and work in our lives, we set an example that our children can follow. That just might be the best way to bring play back into the lives of our children—and build a more playful culture.

David Elkind, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus of child development at Tufts University and the author of the books The Hurried Child, Miseducation, and, most recently, The Power of Play: Learning That Comes Naturally. Copyright Greater Good. Greater Good Magazine, based at UC-Berkeley, is a quarterly magazine that highlights ground breaking scientific research into the roots of compassion and altruism.

academic performance, brain growth, brain research, cognitive development, David Elkind, early childhood, emotional development, flow, games, google, Greater Good Magazine, higher IQ, importance of recess, intellectual development, Learning, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, No Child Left Behind, play, playful culture, playground movement, Preschool tutoring, problem solving, Smilansky, Technological innovation, test anxiety, the power of play, Tufts University

I just read a very interesting article in Newsweek: Executive Functions: The School Skill That May Matter More Than IQ. A few quotes:

- "But recent advances in psychology and brain science are now suggesting that a child’s ability to inhibit distracting thoughts and stay focused may be a fundamental cognitive skill, one that plays a big part in academic success from preschool on. Indeed, this and closely related skills may be more important than traditional IQ in predicting a child’s school performance."

- "EF (executive functions) comprises not only effortful control and cognitive focus but also working memory and mental flexibility—the ability to adjust to change, to think outside the box."

- "When the teacher holds up a circle they clap, with a triangle they hop, and so forth. The kids are taught to talk themselves through the mental exercise: "OK, now clap." "Twirl now." This has been shown to flex and enhance the brain’s ability to switch gears, to suppress one piece of information and sub in a new one. It takes discipline; it’s the elementary school equivalent of saying "I really need stop thinking about next week’s vacation and focus on this report."

The main points: executive functions are crucial for success in life, AND they can be trained. I couldn’t agree more with the article in that cognitive training should be part of the education curriculum and receive more research dollars to determine exactly how to best do so.

I read another very interesting article on Alzheimer’s Disease. Which may look like a completely different topic than the one above…but please bear with me. There is more in common than may meet the eye.

Earlier diagnosis giving Alzheimer’s a new voice (Yahoo News):

- "Hayen is part of a growing new movement in Alzheimer’s: Patients diagnosed early enough to still be articulate and demand better care and better research."

- "They are giving a voice to a disease whose victims until now have remained largely silent, and powerless."

- "It’s a shift with big ramifications."

- "Diagnosis can be difficult. There is no single test for dementia. Memory problems aren’t always even the obvious first symptom; Hayen cites unprovoked anger and disorientation."

Those symptoms can be seen as deficits in executive functions, common in Alzheimer’s patients, and the brain’ frontal lobes get weakened.

What are Executive Functions? What are the Frontal Lobes? Executive Functions are a set of cognitive skills involved in planning and self-regulation, mostly involving our frontal lobes (behind our forehead). This area is the most recent part of our brains in evolutionary terms, and the least hard-wired (or the most "plastic"). The latest to mature, the earliest to decline. Some executive functions include:

- Planning: foresight in devising multi-step strategies.

- Flexibility: capacity for quickly switching to the appropriate mental mode.

- Inhibition: the ability to withstand distraction, and internal urges.

- Anticipation: prediction based on pattern recognition.

- Critical evaluation: logical analysis.

- Working memory: capacity to hold and manipulate information "on-line" in our minds in real time.

- Fuzzy logic: capacity to choose with incomplete information.

- Divided attention: ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.

- Decision-making: both quality and speed.

A highly recommended book, if you are interested in learning more about Executive Functions and Frontal Lobes, is The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind, by our co-founder Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg. You can read an in-depth interview with him here.

What is exciting about the Cognitive/ Brain Fitness field is the growing amount of research and interventions to improve cognitive skills. I am interviewing Dr. Arthur Kramer in a few days. He will tell us about his research on how to improve executive functions. Please stay tuned!

Alzheimers disease, Arthur Kramer, cognitive ability, cognitive fitness, cognitive skill, Cognitive Training, dementia, Education, Elkhonon Goldberg, Executive Functions, frontal lobes, IQ, memory problems, Mental flexibility, planning, school performance, self regulation, the executive brain, Working memory

I just read a very interesting article in Newsweek: Executive Functions: The School Skill That May Matter More Than IQ. A few quotes:

- "But recent advances in psychology and brain science are now suggesting that a child’s ability to inhibit distracting thoughts and stay focused may be a fundamental cognitive skill, one that plays a big part in academic success from preschool on. Indeed, this and closely related skills may be more important than traditional IQ in predicting a child’s school performance."

- "EF (executive functions) comprises not only effortful control and cognitive focus but also working memory and mental flexibility—the ability to adjust to change, to think outside the box."

- "When the teacher holds up a circle they clap, with a triangle they hop, and so forth. The kids are taught to talk themselves through the mental exercise: "OK, now clap." "Twirl now." This has been shown to flex and enhance the brain’s ability to switch gears, to suppress one piece of information and sub in a new one. It takes discipline; it’s the elementary school equivalent of saying "I really need stop thinking about next week’s vacation and focus on this report."

The main points: executive functions are crucial for success in life, AND they can be trained. I couldn’t agree more with the article in that cognitive training should be part of the education curriculum and receive more research dollars to determine exactly how to best do so.

I read another very interesting article on Alzheimer’s Disease. Which may look like a completely different topic than the one above…but please bear with me. There is more in common than may meet the eye.

Earlier diagnosis giving Alzheimer’s a new voice (Yahoo News):

- "Hayen is part of a growing new movement in Alzheimer’s: Patients diagnosed early enough to still be articulate and demand better care and better research."

- "They are giving a voice to a disease whose victims until now have remained largely silent, and powerless."

- "It’s a shift with big ramifications."

- "Diagnosis can be difficult. There is no single test for dementia. Memory problems aren’t always even the obvious first symptom; Hayen cites unprovoked anger and disorientation."

Those symptoms can be seen as deficits in executive functions, common in Alzheimer’s patients, and the brain’ frontal lobes get weakened.

What are Executive Functions? What are the Frontal Lobes? Executive Functions are a set of cognitive skills involved in planning and self-regulation, mostly involving our frontal lobes (behind our forehead). This area is the most recent part of our brains in evolutionary terms, and the least hard-wired (or the most "plastic"). The latest to mature, the earliest to decline. Some executive functions include:

- Planning: foresight in devising multi-step strategies.

- Flexibility: capacity for quickly switching to the appropriate mental mode.

- Inhibition: the ability to withstand distraction, and internal urges.

- Anticipation: prediction based on pattern recognition.

- Critical evaluation: logical analysis.

- Working memory: capacity to hold and manipulate information "on-line" in our minds in real time.

- Fuzzy logic: capacity to choose with incomplete information.

- Divided attention: ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.

- Decision-making: both quality and speed.

A highly recommended book, if you are interested in learning more about Executive Functions and Frontal Lobes, is The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind, by our co-founder Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg. You can read an in-depth interview with him here.

What is exciting about the Cognitive/ Brain Fitness field is the growing amount of research and interventions to improve cognitive skills. I am interviewing Dr. Arthur Kramer in a few days. He will tell us about his research on how to improve executive functions. Please stay tuned!

Alzheimers disease, Arthur Kramer, cognitive ability, cognitive fitness, cognitive skill, Cognitive Training, dementia, Education, Elkhonon Goldberg, Executive Functions, frontal lobes, IQ, memory problems, Mental flexibility, planning, school performance, self regulation, the executive brain, Working memory

I just read a very interesting article in Newsweek: Executive Functions: The School Skill That May Matter More Than IQ. A few quotes:

- "But recent advances in psychology and brain science are now suggesting that a child’s ability to inhibit distracting thoughts and stay focused may be a fundamental cognitive skill, one that plays a big part in academic success from preschool on. Indeed, this and closely related skills may be more important than traditional IQ in predicting a child’s school performance."

- "EF (executive functions) comprises not only effortful control and cognitive focus but also working memory and mental flexibility—the ability to adjust to change, to think outside the box."

- "When the teacher holds up a circle they clap, with a triangle they hop, and so forth. The kids are taught to talk themselves through the mental exercise: "OK, now clap." "Twirl now." This has been shown to flex and enhance the brain’s ability to switch gears, to suppress one piece of information and sub in a new one. It takes discipline; it’s the elementary school equivalent of saying "I really need stop thinking about next week’s vacation and focus on this report."

The main points: executive functions are crucial for success in life, AND they can be trained. I couldn’t agree more with the article in that cognitive training should be part of the education curriculum and receive more research dollars to determine exactly how to best do so.

I read another very interesting article on Alzheimer’s Disease. Which may look like a completely different topic than the one above…but please bear with me. There is more in common than may meet the eye.

Earlier diagnosis giving Alzheimer’s a new voice (Yahoo News):

- "Hayen is part of a growing new movement in Alzheimer’s: Patients diagnosed early enough to still be articulate and demand better care and better research."

- "They are giving a voice to a disease whose victims until now have remained largely silent, and powerless."

- "It’s a shift with big ramifications."

- "Diagnosis can be difficult. There is no single test for dementia. Memory problems aren’t always even the obvious first symptom; Hayen cites unprovoked anger and disorientation."

Those symptoms can be seen as deficits in executive functions, common in Alzheimer’s patients, and the brain’ frontal lobes get weakened.

What are Executive Functions? What are the Frontal Lobes? Executive Functions are a set of cognitive skills involved in planning and self-regulation, mostly involving our frontal lobes (behind our forehead). This area is the most recent part of our brains in evolutionary terms, and the least hard-wired (or the most "plastic"). The latest to mature, the earliest to decline. Some executive functions include:

- Planning: foresight in devising multi-step strategies.

- Flexibility: capacity for quickly switching to the appropriate mental mode.

- Inhibition: the ability to withstand distraction, and internal urges.

- Anticipation: prediction based on pattern recognition.

- Critical evaluation: logical analysis.

- Working memory: capacity to hold and manipulate information "on-line" in our minds in real time.

- Fuzzy logic: capacity to choose with incomplete information.

- Divided attention: ability to pay attention to more than one thing at a time.

- Decision-making: both quality and speed.

A highly recommended book, if you are interested in learning more about Executive Functions and Frontal Lobes, is The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind, by our co-founder Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg. You can read an in-depth interview with him here.

What is exciting about the Cognitive/ Brain Fitness field is the growing amount of research and interventions to improve cognitive skills. I am interviewing Dr. Arthur Kramer in a few days. He will tell us about his research on how to improve executive functions. Please stay tuned!

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We had the fortune to interview Dr. Brett Steenbarger on Enhancing Trader Performance and The Psychology of Trading as we launched our Neuroscience Interview Series.

Below, Expert Contributor Dr. Janice Dorn provides an in-depth brain-based discussion of the topic, concluding that "The brain is the most powerful structure in the known universe and the only trading tool that the trader needs to become an expert."

No matter whether you are a Pro or Amateur Trader…this will certainly exercise your brain! (Dr. Dorn is preparing more articles on trading performance and the brain…so stay tuned).

This is Your Brain On Trading

– By Dr. Janice Dorn 

The opening bell sounds, and sixty million traders enter the greatest arena in the world to do battle with each other. They put their money, beliefs and skills on the line as they make decisions to buy and sell. Welcome to the financial markets where billions of dollars are won and lost every day. Volatility compels all to engage their brains in the continuous process of decision making. What separates the winning from losing traders is the way they use their most powerful trading tool—the human brain.

The average time and effort required to achieve expertise in trading is 10 years and 10,000-20,000 hours of practice. Moreover, it is the quality of the practice, the complete immersion in the subject and the ability to profit through ever-changing market cycles that separates trading winners from losers. It takes a lot of falling down, making mistakes, learning, re-learning and getting up again to make an expert trader. Most of all, it takes pure passion and total commitment to the process.

How do excellent traders become that way and stay that way? How do they perceive, interpret and act on the barrage of information they receive during the trading day? How do master traders make decisions in a rapidly moving, ambiguous environment where they are confronted with massive amounts of information and data? These questions pose more questions as we attempt to understand and model the thoughts, feelings and behaviors that are patterned in the brains of successful traders.

YOUR TRADING BRAIN 101

The human brain is the basis for decision-making in every aspect of trading, from the initial desire to learn to trade, choice of trading instrument, development of trading plan, strategy and trade execution. It is the human brain that makes decisions and causes these decisions to be put into action. Trading is, from start to finish, 100% neurobehavioral, and the human brain is the most powerful trading tool. To even begin to understand what separates the excellent trader from the rest, we must look for answers within the brain. The human brain is the most powerful, complex and sophisticated information-processing system in the known universe. One hundred thousand years old and weighing about three pounds, it is a dynamic, opportunistic, self-organizing system of systems. It sits quietly inside of a closed, dark space and knows nothing except what it is told by electrochemical impulses streaming into it. The brain contains some 100 billion nerve cells called neurons (Figure 1, to the right) which branch out to form over one quadrillion connections called synapses. (Figure 2, to the left). The easiest way to conceptualize this is that there are more synapses in the human brain than there are stars in the known universe. Memory and learning occur when the neurons and synapses reorganize and strengthen themselves through repeated usage.

Although the exterior of the human brain is quite unremarkable with few visible landmarks, there is a long tradition of drawing the brain with labels indicating different “areas” of structure and function (Figure 3). Although highly oversimplified, these offer a road map for beginning to understand brain localization and organization.

A simple map of the exterior surface of the brain. The occipital lobe serves vision, the frontal lobe is for movement and the prefrontal lobe governs higher thinking and processing.

LOOK INSIDE YOUR TRADING BRAIN

In recent years, these colored illustrations have been increasingly replaced by real-time depictions of the human brain in action. Through various neuroimagining techniques, such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), PET (positron emission tomography) and MEG (magnetoencephalography), we have the opportunity to study the internal structure and function of the living brain in the process of carrying out various tasks, including those involving decision making for monetary rewards. Although not ideal, and still in developmental phases, these studies offer novel insights into the way the brain processes information and they promise hope for the future of unraveling the mysteries of the brain. Figure 4 (right below) is an fMRI of the brain showing areas that are believed to “light up”, i.e. become activated, in the process of making trading decisions.

THINKING AND FEELING WITH YOUR TRADING BRAIN

For our purposes, the brain has two major structural and functional divisions: the thinking brain (neocortex) and the feeling/emotional brain (limbic cortex). These two areas of the brain are in constant communication as the neocortex attempts to interpret and modulate powerful impulses from the limbic brain. Figure 5 (to the right) is a simple drawing of the relationship between the neocortex (beige color) and the limbic structures (shown in color).

Limbic structures such as the amygdala and hippocampus shown here in color lie deep within the neocortex (beige color). In the process of development of the brain, the neocortical areas grew up and folded over the limbic areas.

Thus, the limbic areas are called “old brain” and the neocortical areas are called “new brain.” In terms of functional decision making, the neocortical areas are reasoned, slow, deliberate, and cognitive, i.e. they think (cogitate). The limbic areas are fast, less than rational, appetitive, and not self-aware, i.e., they feel (affect). There is a constant battle going on between these two areas that may lead to agreement or conflict. Such states are called dissonance (which may be cognitive or affective) and consonance (which may be cognitive or affective).

With this basic information, we can now appreciate that the brain communicates with itself through neurons and their synaptic connections that travel up, down and laterally from one brain region to another. Moreover, the brain uses stored memories to create, recreate and recognize patterns. These patterns allow us to solve problems, make decisions and engage in effective behaviors. Crucial to this discussion is that decision precedes behavior. For example, the motor activity involved in clicking the computer mouse to send a trading order is not the decision; rather it is a behavioral response to the decision that has already been made in the brain. Trade execution is, then, the end result of a circuit of neurobehavioral processing which goes on inside of the brain.

YOUR TRADING BRAIN: SYNAPTIC STRATEGIES

With this fundamental backdrop, we may now begin to imagine the possible course of processing and communication that goes on within the brains of traders. The illustrations in Figure 6 and Figure 7 are highly simplified and incomplete. They do not show the myriad of synaptic connections, internal feedback, modulating mechanisms, partial pattern representations or temporal aspects of brain processing. They are a template from which to begin the journey to understanding that it is synaptic strategies that differentiate trading success from trading failure.

Figures 6 and 7 use visual input to the brain because the majority of traders employ vision as their primary mode of perception. One could substitute auditory or perceptual input, but I have chosen to use the visual mode. Also, I am making the assumption that the trader is using synaptic and neuronal mechanisms to visualize, interpret, process and respond to what is seen on the trading screen as a signal. The flow is as follows:

The signal is seen;
The signal is remembered or not remembered;
The signal is interpreted from a feeling (affective) of either consonance or dissonance;
The signal is interpreted from a thinking (cognitive) state of either consonance or dissonance;
Bodily reactions of excitement or calming occur;
The trade is executed or not executed.

THE EXPERT TRADER: SYNAPTIC STRATEGIES

Figure 6 shows an experienced trader who sees a signal, processes it through his brain and acts quickly to execute. He has seen this before, has gone through the same procedure many times such that his synaptic strategies are laid down and strengthened through repeated brain training stimulation. There is little or no cognitive or affective dissonance in the course of receiving a signal, processing the pattern, making a decision and executing it.

In Figure 6 (left), the synaptic strategy is such that the signal:

- Enters the brain through the eyes;
- Goes from the eyes to the visual area of the neocortex where it is represented as a pattern;
- Travels as a pattern from the visual cortex to the hippocampus where it is remembered;
- Moves from the hippocampus to the amygdala and limbic structures where it is given affect (mood and feeling). In this case there is affective consonance, i.e. the trader feels good about the signal;
- Transmits between the limbic area and the hypothalamus to send messages to the body for calming and quieting. Although there may be some anxiety or fear involved, these tend to be minimal. Blood pressure, heart rate and breathing, which are controlled through these mechanisms, remain unchanged or slightly elevated;
- Communicates from limbic structures to the prefrontal thinking areas where there is cognitive agreement. There is little thinking time involved here and there is cognitive consonance;
- Goes to the motor area of the neocortex where the signal is sent to the hand to click the mouse;
- Is executed as a trade.

In this instance, due to repeated, constant and intense conscious practice and experience in a variety of market conditions, the trader knows and feels the possible outcome of taking the trade. His synaptic strategy causes him little if any bodily discomfort and he is aware at all times that the market could prove him wrong. He knows this from constant repetition and already has plans to exit if it does not work out. This is a winning synaptic strategy based on continual conscious practice which trains the brain in such as way as to allow the synaptic connections to act rapidly and in harmony with each other. There is little, if any, cognitive or affective dissonance.

THE NOVICE TRADER: FLAWED SYNAPTIC STRATEGY

In Figure 7, the synaptic strategy is that of an inexperienced, novice or poorly trained trader. In this case, the signal:

Enters the brain through the eyes;
Goes from the eyes to the visual area of the neocortex where it is represented as a pattern;
- Travels as a pattern from the visual cortex to the hippocampus where it is not remembered or partially remembered. The hippocampus becomes very “chatty” and starts sending the pattern up to higher and higher levels of the visual cortex asking for help in the task of pattern recognition;
- Moves from the hippocampus to the amygdala and limbic structures where it is given affect (mood and feeling). In this case there is affective dissonance, i.e. the trader feels badly about the signal;
- Transmits actively between the limbic area and the hypothalamus to send messages to the body for arousal. Physical manifestations of anxiety or fear may appear. Blood pressure, heart rate and breathing that are controlled through these mechanisms may be elevated and sweating may occur;
- Goes back and forth from limbic structures to the prefrontal thinking areas where there is cognitive dissonance. There is a lot of thinking, questioning, second guessing and internal cross-talk;
- Does not go to the motor cortex and is not executed as a trade;
- Due to lack of adequate practice or a dearth of experience in this market condition, the trader is synaptically short-circuited. There is so much going on inside his brain that the cross-talk causes both cognitive and affective dissonance. This is a state of confusion and “dis-ease”. The trade is not executed. 

The process of pattern distortion or non-recognition in an inexperienced trader leads to “freezing” and not taking the trade as shown in Figure 7. There is one other possibility not shown in Figure 7 that happens with some regularity. Owing to the large amount of confusion and anxiety that is going on inside of his brain, the trader may actually execute the trade in order to alleviate his anxiety. In actual fact, this process of attempting to alleviate anxiety likely leads to more anxiety, more internal questioning and more cognitive and affective dissonance. In other words, it can become a vicious cycle that leads to losses and may be one of the reasons that so many individuals do not stay the course with trading.

TRAIN YOUR TRADING BRAIN

In summary, it is my opinion that all trading strategies and decision making are brain-based synaptic strategies. Because the human brain has an infinite capacity to change, organize and reorganize itself, progression to trading excellence is possible. It is only through intense, diligent and totally committed practice through many years and many market cycles that the trader advances to the state of disciplined excellence. This excellence is the result of training the synaptic connections within the thinking and feeling areas of the brain. As a consequence of this training, the trader will be able to recognize, process instantly and execute the trade with little or no cognitive or affective dissonance.

The brain is the most powerful structure in the known universe and the only trading tool that the trader needs to become an expert.

For the past twelve years, Janice Dorn, M.D., Ph.D., has focused her attention on trading, mentoring and commentary in the financial markets, with emphasis on Behavioral NeuroFinance, Mass NeuroPsychology and Trading NeuroPsychology. She has traded the gold futures markets full time since 1996, and has coached and mentored over 600 traders and investors. She is the Global Risk Strategist for Ingenieux Consulting Group Pty Ltd. You can reach Dr. Dorn at The Trading Doctor. © Copyright 2007, Janice Dorn.

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A few quick updates: 

1)  Yesterday we had a fun webinar with John Medina, author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School.

You may enjoy checking out the slides we discussed.

2) Please remember that there is another webinar coming, next Tuesday. I hope you can join us!

Webinar: In “The Science and Practice of Brain Fitness,” I will provide an overview of the Brain 101, latest research findings and implications for how to improve brain health and performance based on my class at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning Institute and speaking engagements.
- Target audience: Anyone who wants to learn more about brain health and performance. This is designed to be not a technical session, but a fun, stimulating hour.
- Date and time: Tuesday June 10th, 2pm EDT/ 11am PDT
Register: Here

3) We often get asked "How do I evaluate whether any program is good for me or my clients, patients or residents?"

We typically start answering something like: Ask what cognitive skills you want trained. Some programs present the benefits in such a nebulous way that it is impossible to tell whether or not they will yield any results. The general wording "Brain training" itself is of limited benefit because such activities as gardening or learning a new language "train" the brain, too.

More at my Huffington Post article Brain Training: Fact or Fiction?.

Good night!

Brain Fitness, Brain health, brain performance, brain rules, Brain Training, cognitive skills, John Medina, Lifelong Learning Institute

Press release: Here 

– "Lumos Labs, developer of Lumosity.com, the leading web-based provider of scientifically-tested brain training games, today announced that it has raised $3 million of equity financing from Pequot Ventures, Norwest Venture Partners (NVP), and existing investors including Michael Dearing. The investor group brings expertise that will catalyze the ongoing development of Lumosity.com and support Lumos Labs’ mission to improve lives by enhancing brain fitness.

– “Lumos Labs is at the center of a booming interest in cognitive exercise and the emerging science about the remarkable plasticity of the brain, said Amish Jani of Pequot Ventures. Lumosity.com has seen tremendous demand from users and partners alike by leveraging the power of the web to deliver a unique platform for brain fitness.

Great news for the sector. The more tools available for leading mentally stimulating lives, the better we will all be.

Lumosity.com (click Here to get a sense of their games) provides a great user experience at a reasonable cost. From an investor’s perspective, we believe Lumos Labs is a very serious contender in the brain fitness space, and it has indeed been executing a very smart online strategy.

Now, I am not sure what "scientifically-tested brain training games" really means. While preparing our Brain Fitness Software Market Report we reviewed all published research on the efficacy behind different programs, and didn’t find any for Lumosity (which has some very interesting internal, but not published, data).

We gave Lumosity a score of 2 ouf of 10 in Clinical Validation (with Nintendo Brain Age getting a score of 1, and NovaVision, cleared by the FDA for use with stroke/ TBI patients, getting a 5).

Consumers, educators and health professionals will be reading more and more about programs like Nintendo Brain Age, Posit Science, Dakim, Cogmed, Fast ForWord, MindFit, Lumosity, Happy Neuron, FitBrains, MyBrainTrainer, and more. The bad news is that it is difficult to separate marketing from scientific claims, and to understand which program, if any, may be a good complement to other healthy lifestyle choices.

The reality is that, in this emerging field, no single company or product has an overwhelming amount of efficacy research behind. There is no General Solution, but useful tools for specific groups of people with specific goals, and budgets. 

And, interestingly enough, one of the brain games that has recently shown very significant in a recently published scientific study (Can Intelligence Be Trained? Martin Buschkuehl shows how) is available for free: Here.

To help them navigate this process, we published the SharpBrains Checklist, based on dozens of interviews with scientists, experts and consumers:

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? What specific cognitive skill is the program training?

(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?

(Cognitive training, or "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

brain fitness program, brain training games, cogmed, cognitive exercise, Dakim, educators, Fast ForWord, fitbrains, Happy Neuron, health professionals, lumos labs, Lumosity, MindFit, MyBrainTrainer, neuropsychologists, Nintendo Brain Age, Norwest Venture Partners, NovaVision, Pequot Ventures, Posit Science

Our Market Report has received some recent additional accolades: 

"This is the first clear, concise and comprehensive overview and analysis I have seen of the emerging Brain-Training marketplace. It is a great market research for every investor, entrepreneur, manager, researcher and others who seek an understanding of the subject. Personally, I was waiting such a review for quite a while. The SharpBrains staff, led by Alvaro Fernandez, really did a great job here."

– Danny Dankner, CEO, Applied Cognitive Engineering (ACE).

"Neuroscience is at a crossroads, and The State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 by SharpBrains, points the way forward. Our understanding of how the brain works is just beginning to yield real fruit in the form of products that truly improve the function of the brain. This reports gives anyone interested in how to understand which products are truly in a position to make a difference in brain function, and which markets will be interested and profitable for such products an invaluable guide. We found the analysis clear, precise, loaded with substantive insight. One would be foolhardy not to use this publication as the best guide to this market."

– Dr. Arthur Lavin, Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics, Case Medical School, and Medical Director of A Working Mind.

"As we begin the task of developing a Brain Fitness Center at our Sunrise Senior Living Community, this Brain Fitness Market Report is proving helpful in numerous ways to develop our “road map” to navigate through the maze of information, myths and confusion that exists as Brain Fitness. It has helped us define a Brain Fitness destination for our community.

• The accurate and unbiased information regarding the science behind “Brain Fitness” provides the foundation for educating our residents.
• The comparisons noting similarities, differences, formats and expectations of available programs assists us in choosing the program(s) that are best suited to the individual needs, interests and goals. It helps us stay within our budget to create a library of programs and a resource for assisting each resident in finding a program appropriate for him/her.
• The interviews with experts in the field of Brain Health are informative, yet easy to comprehend.
• The report goes beyond presenting basic information by exploring clinical applications for the present and future. It defines the potential applications for preventive health care. The interests, confusion, generalizations, misconceptions and expectations of consumers, educators, health care and insurance providers are addressed. It helps clarify the truths from the myths of brain fitness based on the most current research and knowledge.
• The software company profiles are clear and concise. The graphs throughout the report are easy to interpret.
• The specific checklist for selecting brain fitness software helps define the parameters and objectives of each program thereby providing excellent guidelines for matching the needs and expectations of the user to the appropriate program.

 

For any organization considering Brain Fitness Programs and wondering, “But where do we begin?”, and “How can we acquire expert advice and proceed to create a center that meets the needs of those interested in pursuing this activity?”, The State of The Brain Fitness Software Market 2008 report provides comprehensive and insightful answers and frameworks to make informed decisions."

– Douglas C. Buttner, Executive Director, The Jefferson Sunrise Senior Living.

 

For more information, check out our Brain Fitness Software Market Report.

You can also view a PowerPoint presentation by clicking on State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008.

ACE, Applied Cognitive Engineering, Arthur Lavin, Brain Fitness Center, brain fitness roadmap, brain function, Brain health, Brain Training, Case Medical School, cognitive, Danny Dankner, entrepreneur, investor, manager, marketplace, neuroscience, researcher, software, Sunrise, Sunrise Senior Living, working mind

Zack Lynch asks for support to Write Congress Today in Support of the National Neurotechnology Initiative Act, explaining:

 

"With the recent introduction of the National Neurotechnology Initiative (NNTI) Act in the House (H.R. 5989) and the Senate (S.2989) earlier this month, the time has come to ramp up a national grassroots campaign in support of the NNTI and I would like to ask for your help. It is imperative that we get a substantive amount of Congressional support as quickly as possible as we are targeting Congressional hearings prior to the August break.

Take action: We need to flood Congressional fax machines and mail boxes with individual letters of support from key constituents like you over the next four weeks. I urge you to visit NIO’s Take Action webpage.

Here you can download sample letters to customize and send. Full instructions appear on that webpage, as well as a link to help access your representatives’ contact information and fax numbers.

Spread the word: Because of limited resources and an aggressive legislative schedule, it is absolutely vital that we build a network of support for this bill. Please forward this appeal along with a personal note of support to your network of contacts and ask that they express their support to Congress and share with their networks as well. Please forward onto co-workers, board members, researchers, clinicians, nurses, patients, advocacy groups, friends, family, anyone with a stake in elevating therapies and cures for brain related illnesses.

We need your help – and ten minutes of your time – to secure Congressional support for newly introduced legislation designed to dramatically accelerate new treatments for brain and nervous system injuries and illnesses. This legislation stands to significantly improve the lives of more than 100 million Americans. Take 10 minutes to protect your future brain."

You can think of it as great brain exercise: if you had your Congressperson and Senator in front of you right now, what one application of brain research would you ask them to support? and how would you measure the impact of any additional research dollars?.

Once you have thought about that, why not actually let them know what you think? 

brain, brain exercise, brain related illnesses, Congress, National Neurotechnology Initiative Act, Neurotechnology, NIO, Senate, Zack Lynch

Here you are have the twice-a-month newsletter with our 10 most popular blog posts. Please remember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, simply by submitting your email at the top of this page.

A crucial topic we cover is, "How can we use emerging technologies to keep our brains healthy and productive as long as possible?"  The American Society on Aging asked Alvaro to exercise his brain…and here are his thoughts on the current state and future of the brain fitness market: Brain Health Business Grows With Research and Demand

 

Announcements

Brain Training Presentation and Seminars: We had an informative webinar this Tuesday. Click here to view the presentation and learn about upcoming events.

New "Exercise Your Brain" Widget: A widget is basically a box you can embed in your blog or webpage (like Facebook) to easily share articles with your readers and friends. We have just released a SharpBrains one!

Research

Mysteries of Brain and Mind: Several recent New York Times articles highlight fascinating frontiers of brain science, exploring mindfulness, perceptual capacities, and the power of placebo.

Brain Games or Drugs for Cognitive Enhancement: "In conclusion, it looks like one can use training to boost one’s fluid intelligence," says Dr. Pascale Michelon, based on a recent study.

Education and Training

Try Thinking and Learning Without Working Memory: Quick! Can you recite backwards the 7 digits of your phone number? Bill Klemm answers some key questions on thinking and working memory, in one of the most insightful articles on the subject we have seen.

Health and Wellness

Manage Stress for Your Brain Health: Insightful essay on stress management and brain health written by Landon, as part of one of our student essay contests.

Study: Meditation Against ADHD: In order to fight attention deficits…does it make sense to develop the "mental muscles" to pay attention? Take a quick look at the topic, posted at the Huffington Post (if you have an account there, and can leave a comment, please do).

Mindfulness Meditation for Adults & Teens with ADHD: Dr. David Rabiner shares with us a detailed review of a new study that analyzes the benefits of mindfulness for adolescents and adults with attention deficits.

Brain Teasers

Expanded Brain Teasers Section: we have re-organized the Brain Teasers section in our website. You can now easily enjoy our Top 50 brain games or check out our Latest challenges.

Have a stimulating weekend!

adhd, attention deficits, brain exercise, Brain Fitness, Brain games, brain health market, brain health research, brain science, Brain teasers, brain training seminars, cognitive enhancement, emerging technologies, healthy brains, manage stress, mindfullness meditation, productive brains, stress management

We had an informative webinar this Tuesday, discussing the State of the Brain Fitness Software market today, based on the findings in our Market Report. In case you missed it, you can find below a link to check out and download the PowerPoint slides I presented (just the visuals, without audio) to cover these areas:

1- The Four Pillars for Brain Health

2- Cognitive Abilities can Be Assesed and Trained

3- An emerging field, and poised to grow

4- A confusing player landscape. Think "What For", not "Best".

Link: State of the Brain Fitness Software Market 2008

Please remember that we have 2 upcoming webinars, and you can still register!:

Webinar #2: In “Brain Rules for Thinking Smarter,” John Medina, developmental molecular biologist and author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Striving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School will emphasize the importance of physical exercise, stress management…and avoiding multitasking altogether.
- Target audience: Anyone who wants to learn more about brain health and performance.
- More information: The Science of Thinking Smarter, by John Medina.
- Date and time: Tuesday June 3rd, 2pm EDT/ 11am PDT
Register: Here

Webinar #3: In “The Science and Practice of Brain Fitness,” I will provide an overview of the Brain 101, latest research findings and implications for how to improve brain health and performance based on my classes and speaking engagements.
- Target audience: Anyone who wants to learn more about brain health and performance
- Date and time: Tuesday June 10th, 2pm EDT/ 11am PDT
Register: Here

I hope you find this series stimulating.

assess cognitive abilities, brain fitness program, Brain health, brain performance, brain rules, brain training market, cognitive abilities, John Medina, pillars brain health, seminars, the brain 101, train cognitive abilities, webinar

Several recent NYT articles focus on several fascinating frontiers of brain science. We know much more about brain and mind than only 20 years ago, yet exponentially less than 20 years from now.

A few worthy explorations on mindfulness, perceptual capacities, and the power of placebo:

Lotus Therapy

Mindfulness meditation is easy to describe. Sit in a comfortable position, eyes closed, preferably with the back upright and unsupported. Relax and take note of body sensations, sounds and moods. Notice them without judgment. Let the mind settle into the rhythm of breathing. If it wanders (and it will), gently redirect attention to the breath. Stay with it for at least 10 minutes.

After mastering control of attention, some therapists say, a person can turn, mentally, to face a threatening or troubling thought — about, say, a strained relationship with a parent — and learn simply to endure the anger or sadness and let it pass, without lapsing into rumination or trying to change the feeling, a move that often backfires.

At workshops and conferences across the country, students, counselors and psychologists in private practice throng lectures on mindfulness. The National Institutes of Health is financing more than 50 studies testing mindfulness techniques, up from 3 in 2000, to help relieve stress, soothe addictive cravings, improve attention, lift despair and reduce hot flashes.

Since mindfulness meditation may have different effects on different mental struggles, the challenge for its proponents will be to specify where it is most effective — and soon, given how popular the practice is becoming.

Read article: Lotus Therapy.

 

 

A Superhighway to Bliss

Her perceptions changed, too. She could see that the atoms and molecules making up her body blended with the space around her; the whole world and the creatures in it were all part of the same magnificent field of shimmering energy.

“My perception of physical boundaries was no longer limited to where my skin met air,” she has written in her memoir, “My Stroke of Insight,” which was just published by Viking.

Dr. Taylor shows the less mystically inclined, she said, that this experience of deep contentment “is part of the capacity of the human mind.”

Read article: A Superhighway to Bliss (includes link to fantastic video).

Experts Question Placebo Pill for Children

With the help of her husband, Dennis, she founded a placebo company, and, without a hint of irony, named it Efficacy Brands. Its chewable, cherry-flavored dextrose tablets, Obecalp, for placebo spelled backward, goes on sale on June 1 at the Efficacy Brands Web site. Bottles of 50 tablets will sell for $5.95. The Buettners have plans for a liquid version, too.

This is designed to have the texture and taste of actual medicine so it will trick kids into thinking that they’re taking something,” Ms. Buettner said. “Then their brain takes over, and they say, ‘Oh, I feel better.’ ”

Even if Obecalp proved helpful, some doctors worry that giving children “medicine” for every ache and pain teaches that every ailment has a cure in a bottle.

“Kids could grow up thinking that the only way to get better is by taking a pill,” Dr. Brody said. If they do that, he added, they will not learn that a minor complaint like a scraped knee or a cold can improve on its own.

Read article: Experts Question Placebo Pill for Children.

brain, Jill Bolte Taylor, mind, mindfulness meditation, National Institutes of Health, new york times, nyt, Obecalp, Placebo Effect, psychologists, therapy, train attention

Quck heads up: Two excellent editions of these ongoing blog carnivals.

- Encephalon 46th Edition: selection of neuroscience and psychology blog. posts

- Grand Rounds 36th Edition: all things medical and healthy. 

Blog Carnivals, encephalon, encephalon carnival, Grand Rounds, grand rounds carnival, neuroscience, Psychology

Hello, I hope you have been enjoying the long weekend (for folks in the US).

Creating a SharpBrains Widget was in my To Do list for a good while, to make it easier to share our content via other blogs and social sites (Facebook…). Finally, it is done!. And surprisingly easy.

What it is: A widget is basically a box you can embed in your blog or webpage. For example, after creating our Exercise Your Brain widget, I just embedded it into our own blog: you can see it in the right column, titled Share Our Blog. There are several options (size, color…), very easy to customize.

Description: Exercise Your Brain. Research-based information on Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health, authored by SharpBrains staff and over 10 neuroscientists, spiced up with fun Brain Teasers.

What you can do: if you have any website or blog where you’d like the widget to appear, you can simply Get your Widget by clicking Here. Choose the options (box size, color theme, article text…) that better fit your site, and copy and paste the HTML. It literally takes 3-5 minutes.

Thank you. I hope we’ll see it appear in a variety of blogs and websites interested in brain topics, so we can expand the conversation!

 

Brain Fitness, brain widget, cognitive health, Exercise your brain, Facebook widget, mind widget, widget, widgets