The latest new features have been out there now for over 4 weeks. We’ve been hearing from you and are delighted with your responses.  Seems like like we got a few things right and we always appreciate the positive feedback. Thank You!

“I love the new features!” - Susan

“I like the new look, it’s an exciting improvement” - Ishman

“The changes to the interface look great” - Lisa

“Excellent feed back.  Thank you for the improvement.” - George

“I love the new format!” - Judy

We have an insatiable appetite for feedback so please keep sending it (both the positive, the not so positive, suggestions, etc.). We really do listen and strive for continual improvement.  Send it to us as always at feedback@happy-neuron.com.

They say that human beings are social animals. It seems intuitive (even for introverts!) that social contact has benefits. Obviously we need other people to fulfill basic needs such making sure that our genes outlive us. Maybe less obviously, we seem to need other people to maintain adequate levels of mental well-being and motivation. Even less obviously still, social contact may help us improve our brain functions…

Mental fitness seems to depend on a large part on being connected with other people. A study published in 2008 by Ybarra and his colleagues showed that socializing and mental exercises have very similar effects in terms of improving brain functions! Ybarra hypothesized that social interaction could facilitate cognitive functioning.

First, they collected data from 3600 people aged 24 to 96. They assessed how often these people talked on the phone with friends, neighbors and relatives and how often they got together with the same parties. They also assessed mental functioning of their sample using the mini-mental exam. It was found that the more socially engaged people were, the higher their cognitive performance. Great news, right? Stay connected and your neurons will stay healthy!

One limitation of this type of study is that is shows a CORRELATION. The result shows that people who are socially engaged are also doing well in terms of brain function. This does not mean that being socially engaged results or CAUSES good brain functioning.
This correlation can be interpreted in several ways:

1. being socially engaged results in good brain functioning
2. Good brain functioning results in being socially engaged
3. being wealthy (for instance) may result both in being socially engaged and good brain functioning

As a consequence, Ybarra and colleagues proceeded to conduct another study to show that social interaction indeed CAUSES better cognitive performance.
They randomly assigned participants (aged 18-21) to three groups:

1. a social group, in which the participants engaged in a discussion of a social issue for 10mn
2. an intellectual activities group, in which the participants solved stimulating tasks (crossword puzzles and the likes) for 10mn
3. a control group, in which the participants watched a 10mn clip of Seinfeld

After they participated in the discussion or watched the clip or solved the puzzles, the cognitive functioning of all the participants was assessed. Two tasks were used (for those you are interested: these were a speed of processing task and a working memory task). Here is what Ybarra et al. found:

• People in the intellectual activities group did better in the cognitive tasks than people who merely watched a movie. This shows one more time that stimulating your neurons is a great way to boost your performance

• People who were in the social group did better in the cognitive tasks than people who merely watched a movie. This is the first time that social interaction is shown to directly CAUSE better cognitive functioning. This is a very exciting result. Remember that participants engaged in discussion for only 10m!

The benefit from social interaction was as great as the benefit from intellectual activities.

Why would social interaction boost brain function?
Ybarra and colleagues offer the following reasoning. Social interaction involves many behaviors that require memory, attention and control. These mental processes are also involved in many cognitive tasks. Thus social interaction would act as a prime, it would “oil” these processes so that they are ready to be used when a cognitive task is to be solved. This is a tentative explanation that may require some refinement but the results are here! Social interaction seems to benefit the brain.

Read the original article:

Ybarra, O., Burnstein, E., Winkielman, P., Keller, M. C., Manis, M., Chan, E., & Rodriguez, J. (2008). Functioning Mental Exercising Through Simple Socializing: Social Interaction Promotes General Cognitive. Pers Soc Psychol Bull., 34, 248.

Woman’s Day Radio Host Barbara Brody, Health Editor at Woman’s Day Magazine, interviews Dr. Coleman of the Alzheimer’s Association and Dr. Robert Bender of the Johnny Orr Memory Center and HAPPYneuron Scientific Contributor, on the topic of keeping our brain’s young. The program is about 30 minutes long. Definitely worth a listen! Click here to go to WD Radio and hear the show.

The “tip of the tongue” phenomenon just got a little more help. You’ll be pleased to learn that 25 new word categories and over 2,500 new words have been added to this addictive game. Click here to play now….

We continue to add more and more categories to this Language Cognitive Exercise all the time. If you have a favorite hobby or interest, why not let us know and we’ll look to add it. If there’s a category that you have an interest in, be sure that others will too and enjoy de-splitting the words! Make your suggestions to feedback@happy-neuron.com.

As you may have seen, this week we announced a relationship with the French National Research Center and the Pierre & Marie Curie University (UPMC) at La Pitié-Salpétrière Hospital in Paris. The research program aims to measure the positive effects of HAPPYneuron‘s products on the cognitive rehabilitation of patients suffering from depression and Alzheimer’s disease. We are talking not just about preventative training activities to defer the onset of age related brain decline, but the actual regaining of cognitive function through rehabilitation. This is a very exciting prospect for so many who suffer from the debilitating effects of Alzheimer’s disease.

The team at the Pierre & Marie Curie University Hospital are indeed dedicated and committed to this project which we are very optimistic about the positive outcomes and we are excited to be working hand-in-hand with them.

A second objective of the collaboration is to develop distance therapy procedures that can be applied and used by practitioners in the rehabilitation of patients without the patient’s need too visit the doctor’s office in person. This will have huge implications for people located in rural areas and those that may be house bound or find it difficult to get to a doctor’s office for therapy. For the medical practitioner, the goal is to guide the patient’s therapy through phone interaction with the assistance of a cognitive informational dashboard to assess the patient’s compliance and progress.

Lastly, we expect to focus on further research on emotional rehabilitation.

We look forward to sharing the results of this research as it evolves.

I was reading a government report on aging related statistics, and was intrigued to note that about 15% of men aged 65+ report memory loss compared with only 11% of women of the same age group and the gap widens significantly after the age of 85. So I ponder….why is it that women have a higher propensity to take preventative measures to engage in brain training at higher rate then men, with a view to staying sharp and deferring decline? So here’s a brain teaser - which is the cause and which is the effect? Interested in your thoughts…

AMERICANS may worry about heart disease, stroke and diabetes, but they downright dread Alzheimer’s disease, a recent survey found. For good reason. One in eight adults over 65 is affected by the disease.

Those who are spared know they may end up with the burden of caring for a parent or a spouse who is affected. Even though the number of older adults with dementias is rising rapidly, only a few drugs that have been approved to treat symptoms are on the market, and they slow down the disease but do not cure it. Researchers, however, are more optimistic than ever about the potential of the aging brain, because recent evidence has challenged long-held beliefs by demonstrating that the brain can grow new nerve cells and that Brain Training can be a big help. Read the informative New York Times article here…..

I thought to share with you a recent interview with Founder Dr. Bernard Croisile, Neurologist, Neuropsychologist and Happy Neuron’s Chief Scientist, about age related brain decline and what can be done.

As we age, what issues do people most complain about?

When we age, certain cognitive difficulties are usually more annoying than really hindering. These difficulties are usually due to a greater sensitivity to interferences (noise, conversations with several persons), a lesser attention and greater amount of time to simultaneously analyze several pieces of informations (cooking and understanding a slightly technical conversation at the same time). Information processing is often more superficial, organizing and sorting data to be memorized occurs more slowly and producing mental images becomes more difficult. Hence, it can become more difficult to remember information and it takes more time to recall memories (names) or recent events (e.g. the reason why you actually went into a room).

Why should cognitive abilities be trained?

By training cognitive abilities, the difficulties we sometimes painfully experience in everyday life can be corrected. Studies have also shown that rich and varied cognitive stimulation can delay onsets of age related decline and Alzheimer’s Disease by a number years. Cognitive training consists of reinforcing brain plasticity which forms new connections between brain neurons, strengthens neural networks and, as scientists have recently discovered, regenerate new neural pathways.

How can cognitive functions be trained?

For a start, simple things such as having a rich social life, reading, doing crosswords or playing cards, cooking or gardening, already constitute natural and effective stimulation situations. Most important are variety, enthusiasm and motivation. However, one should be aware that cognitive functions cannot be trained like leg muscles. Even if playing bridge stimulates long-term memory for game rules and crosswords train word memory (spelling, definitions), playing cards will not help anyone find their keys or their car! It is therefore necessary to train all aspects of cognitive functions, especially those neglected by the routine of hobbies we are accustomed to. It should also added that training can only relevant when the lessons learned are applied to everyday life.

How often should one perform focused brain exercises?

We advise two to three training sessions a week, of about 45 minutes each, in order to maintain interest and alertness. Variety and frequency are most important.

When should one start worrying and see a doctor?

Memory difficulties occur at any age and under any circumstances: remembering a surname or a recipe, finding one’s glasses… These difficulties are just ordinary consequences of normal aging or of a fragile emotional state. Difficulties to concentrate are often due to anxiety, depression and stress. However, when aging, cultural knowledge and automatic movements (riding a bike, playing tennis, driving a car…) are not forgotten. Many of our actions are also often automatic, which explains the fact that one cannot always remember properly whether they have locked their door or not.

One should start worrying , as soon as these difficulties become a real handicap in daily life and occur repeatedly, such as people who cannot manage their schedule or budget any more, who always get lost and systematically forget what they have been told. In such a situation, one should seek medical advice to decide whether the person needs to see a neurologist or a geriatrician.

Thank you Dr. Croisile.

We are happy to offer this new game for preview to our members. Click here, login and play!

Game Description
Learn to recognize bird species by their song. You’ll need to discriminate between images of different species of birds and also between different types of songs. At times, these differences may be subtle, which makes this task especially challenging.

Cognitive Function Trained
This is a cross-modal task mainly involving the right tempo-parietal regions of the brain. The purpose of this game is to draw upon our working memories of visual and auditory characteristics of each bird, to practice visual-spatial scanning of the images on the screen, and to practice concentration for this type of material. In some cases, deductive reasoning is needed in order to choose the right match, eliminating the choices that have already been made and those that are most obviously wrong.

Benefit to Daily Life
In an increasingly noisy world, the ability to detect meaningful sounds in the midst of general background noise becomes very important. Our ability to distinguish such sounds can become less precise as we age. This game helps train the characteristics necessary to stay sharp in this area.