You can teach an old dog new tricks, say UCLA scientists who found that middle-aged and older adults with little Internet experience were able to trigger key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning after just one week of surfing the Web.

The findings, presented Oct. 19 at the 2009 meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, suggest that Internet training can stimulate neural activation patterns and could potentially enhance brain function and cognition in older adults. It further reinforces the notion that new neural networks respond to  new and novel activities for people of any age. Read about the study findings here

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 changes in regions of the brain’s white matter that are linked with reaching, grasping, and peripheral vision, independently from the acquired level of juggling skill.

These results suggest that it is not how well a person learns to do something that matters, but rather that the time spent practising and training is the key to improving the brain function. So, when engaging in such an activity as brain training, it is essential to do it over a period of time to realise the positive changes and benefits.   You can read more about the findings here.

Chemo brain is a common term used by cancer survivors to describe thinking and memory problems that can occur after cancer treatment. Chemo brain can also be called chemo fog, cognitive changes or cognitive dysfunction.

If you or someone you know has been dealing with Chemo Fog, you might refer them to a recently published book by Dan Silverman, MD, Ph.D. of UCLA and journalist, Idelle Davidson called Your Brain after Chemo. The book addresses several strategies for dealing with chemo fog.  One approach is to look at how fear, stress and depression may factor into, and potentially intensify, memory loss and other cognitive challenges.

Dealing with cancer can be one of the most difficult experiences of a person’s life — in fact the American Psychiatric Association lists the diagnosis of a life threatening illness as one criteria for identifying post-traumatic stress disorder.

So in Your Brain After Chemo, several exercises are introduced to first deal with identifying issues of fear, stress and more.  Your Brain After Chemo also offers advise for stimulating your mind and organizing your life in a  nine-step program.

HAPPYneuron’s Dr. Bernard Croisile and Scientific Brain Training’s Dr. Michel Noir have published their latest brain exercise book through education book publisher McGraw-Hill.  It is sure to get your mental wheels churning while you enjoy hours of fun. Develop a six-pack brain with more than 301 games, puzzles, and exercises that provide the ultimate mind-blowing workout and keep your brain sharp and alert.

Bench press your brain into shape…
» Stretch and warm up your concentration
» Perform brain curls for increased attention span and sharper focus
» Bulk up on memory power
» Increase your mental reps and ward off brain decline.

Click here to get your copy of Beef Up Your Brain now!

See all 5 Brain Exercise books from Drs. Croisile and Noir.

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 makes for very interesting reading here…

Is it true? What do you think?

In addition to good nutrition and regular exercise, researchers recommend that seniors also keep their minds active. According to a National Institute on Aging four year study, keeping the brain actively stimulated across a variety of areas reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease. Read more here….

We are delighted to bring you our latest memory game called Restaurant. Waiters have notoriously great memory - they train day after day. They remember who ordered specific dishes sometimes even after the guests have shuffled seats. They do this despite the distractions of restaurant noise and kitchen conversations. Is your memory as good as a waiter’s?

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 we age, our brains do change, and one of the normal changes is that our ability to multitask decreases.  Elderly drivers need to pay attention on the road and not use the phone—especially dialing numbers. (This is  true for younger drivers as well, but is a much harder sell, I’m afraid). This month, the Dana Foundation summarizes some recent articles on this topic that’s worth a read here.

Do you have trouble remembering things? Of course, working on memory strategies can help a lot. But what if you even forget to do your memory workout? Now, with the new “Workout Reminders” feature, you can tell the HAPPYneuron Coach to email your personalized workout on a schedule that suits you.  You may never forget your brain workout again!

To schedule your workout reminder, Login and click “My Workout Reminders”. You can select as many days a week as you like and any type of workout. Of course, to be sure you receive your reminders, you may need to make coach@happy-neuron.com a ’safe recipient’ in your email program. The FAQ can tell you how for your particular email program.

As always, to see sustainable cognitive improvements, workouts are recommended up to 45 minutes, 3 times per week and continue for 10+ weeks. Staying on track with your cognitive workout program just got little easier.

Don’t forget to tell us if you like the feature.

The Cognitive Progress graphs have been upgraded this week, showing more of your  progressive improvements since the beginning of your cognitive training with HAPPYneuron.

There are six progress charts – one showing your overall HAPPYneuron Performance Index (HPI) progress, and one for each of your cognitive functions of Memory, Language, Attention, Visual-Spatial skills and Executive Function. As always, you can drill down for more detailed information in each area. Check it out and give us your comments.