Category Archives: Brain Research

Living Life Purposefully Might Ward Off Alzheimer’s

March 12, 2010 – 7:13 pm

A new study published in this month’s issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry uncovers that people who say their lives have a purpose are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or its precursor, mild cognitive impairment.
The study was designed to test whether a positive attitude and purposeful life has a positive effect on decreasing [...]

By Michael Rucker | Also posted in Alzheimers, Cognitive Impairment, Seniors, mild cognitive impairment | Tagged , , , , | Comments (3)

Alzheimer’s Disease 2010 Facts & Figures

March 11, 2010 – 9:11 pm

This week the Alzheimer’s Association issued its 2010 Fact and Figures and the numbers show no surprises. That is, we were all expecting the numbers to be on a continual increase year over year and that was pretty evident in the reading. Let’s review the basic numbers:

As the 7th leading cause of death in the [...]

By Laura Fay | Also posted in Alzheimers, Brain Decline, Brain health, Mental Health, Seniors, dementia | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Naps: A Great Way to Boost Brain Power

March 4, 2010 – 4:52 pm

A new research study out of the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that taking a one hour nap has a positive effect on brain power. This benefit occurs as a result of allowing your mind to clear out temporary storage space when you rest. When this “storage space” is available it increases your ability to [...]

By Dr. Bernard Croisile | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Progressing from MCI to Alzheimer’s Disease

February 5, 2010 – 2:13 pm

It’s long been known by the medical and scientific community that not all people with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) will go on to develop Alzheimer’s Disease. We do know, however, that MCI is typically a precursor to all Alzheimer’s Disease cases.  For patients with MCI, predicting their likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s Disease can be a [...]

By Sandrine Belier Ph.D. | Also posted in Alzheimers, Cognitive Impairment, mild cognitive impairment | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

HAPPYneuron Featured Guest at SharpBrains Summit

January 22, 2010 – 9:33 pm

A highlight of the SharpBrains Summit was a talk given by Michel Noir from HAPPYneuron about the remediation and rehabilitation of neurocognitive deficits.

By Michael Rucker | Also posted in Aging Well, Brain Training, Brain Training Science, Brain health, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Rehabilitation, Events, cognitive remediation | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Juggle your Way to a Sharper Brain

October 23, 2009 – 2:28 pm

Early in October a team of researchers from the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council of the University of Oxford in England, U.K. , published the results of a new study discussing how juggling and similar activities increase brain connections.
In brain scans of 48 subjects made after an extensive 6-week practice period, the researchers observed [...]

By Dr. Bernard Croisile | Also posted in Brain Training, Brain health, Visual and Spatial Skills, neural connections | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Brain Training Makes You More Desirable

October 15, 2009 – 3:24 pm

Unbelievable for some, but true:  Apparent smarts makes men more attractive in women’s eyes!
Scientists from Elon University  conducted a study on female  students, asking them to choose the most desirable males from videos showing them accomplishing athletic and cognitive tasks. It turned out that the women picked those men who appeared the most intelligent!  It [...]

By Laura Fay | Also posted in Brain Training, Brain exercises, Brain health, Cognitive Training | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Driving with Your Brain

August 25, 2009 – 8:02 pm

Some time back I wrote about the cognitive skills necessary for safe driving.  It’s ever more clear that abilities such as vision, reaction times, attention, judgment and ability to multitask, that is, to focus on more than one task at a time are all essential to our ability to be safe on the road. As [...]

By Dr. Bernard Croisile | Also posted in Brain Decline, Brain Training, Cognitive Skills for Driving, Cognitive Training | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

New Memory Training Study Launched

August 2, 2009 – 9:36 pm

A new controlled study using HAPPYneuron exercises has been launched at the prestigious University of Zurich, Institute of Psychology, Switzerland under the supervision of Dr. Anne Echen. The goal of the study is to evaluate the effectiveness of episodic memory training consisting of personalized adaptive computer exercises. 40 subjects between the ages of 60 [...]

By Dr. Bernard Croisile | Also posted in Brain Training Science, Brain exercises, Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Training, Seniors, memory loss | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)

More Clues to a Lucid Old Age

May 28, 2009 – 12:35 am

In recent years scientists have become intensely interested in what could be called a super memory club. At a retirement community in Southern California fewer than one in 200 persons out of 20,000 are living past 90 without a trace of dementia. It is a group that, for the first time, is large enough to [...]

By Dr. Bernard Croisile | Also posted in Alzheimers, Brain Decline, Brain exercises, Brain health, Casual Games, Cognitive Neuroscience, Health & Wellness, Lifelong learning, Mind Games, Seniors | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (0)