SharpBrains Summit participant Peter Reiner, from the National Core for Neuroethics at the University of British Columbia, shares his main Summit take-aways on the potential and challenges of non-invasive technologies for brain fitness.
He synthesizes the opportunity well: 1) Cognition is not monolithic 2) Software is adaptive 3) and seems safe, elaborating that:
“Will brain fitness software [...]
Improvisation is the main feature of Jazz that distinguishes it from other forms of music making. Improvisation is the spontaneous musical performance within a relevant musical context. It consists of novel melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical elements. This unique feature of jazz offers the opportunity for neurobiological research or even creativity. What they did was do a functional MRI brain scan on 6 highly skilled professional jazz musicians.
These jazz musicians had to play a simple musical tune and an improvisation on this tune with the restriction to the use of C major scale quarter notes within the same octave of the simple tune. Next they had to play a memorized original jazz composition with the accompagnement of a pre-recorded jazz quartet followed by an improvisation of the ...The SharpBrains Summit is ongoing, with 242 participants in 15 countries! thanks to the IT brains at the Institute for The Future and collaborators such as Anett Gyurak, Pascale Michelon and Camille Finley, event is going great.
If you Twitter, you can follow my updates here. The Summit hashtag/ feed is #sharp2010. Participants who were actively [...]
Pregnancy requires many adaptations to new situations. These changes are accompanied by massive neuroendocrine changes leading to adaptations organized by the mother’s brain. These changes are necessary for the different phases of pregnancy and motherhood.
First optimization is needed for the growth and protection of the fetus, next parturition has to be timely and uncomplicated, next maternal behavior such as caring and defending the young is important together with the start of lactation. It’s not easy to understand the complex interaction between female- and pregnancy hormones and their interaction with the maternal brain.
At the start of pregnancy the brain controls the increased appetite necessary for the pregnancy and the expansion of the blood volume as well as deeper br...Working memory is the ability to hold information in your head and
manipulate it mentally. You use this mental workspace when adding up two numbers spoken to you by someone else without being able to use pen and paper or a calculator. Children at school need this memory on a daily basis for a [...]In this study, typically developing students were tested for their IQ and working memory at 5 years old and again when they were 11 years old. They were also tested on their academic attainments in reading, spelling and maths.
Findings and Educational Implications
The findings revealed that a child’s success in all aspects of learning is down to how good their working memory is regardless of IQ score. Critically, working memory at the start of formal education is a more powerful predictor of subsequent academic success than IQ in the early years.
This unique finding is important as it addresses concerns that general intelligence, still viewed as a key predictor of academic success, is unreliable. An individual can have an average IQ score but perform poorly in learning.
Some psychologist...
[Image by neurollero.]
Science Face To Face
Nobel laureate Eric Kandel talks about neuroscience history and his career in this intimate interview conducted for radio and webcast by Ira Flatow. (Source: Channel N)In this January issue of our eNewsletter, we will first brief you on the enlightening demos that will take place on Wednesday, January 20th, as part of the SharpBrains Summit, and then present the 15 most stimulating SharpBrains articles of 2009.
Expo Day
If you want to see and discuss the latest programs and technologies for brain [...]In this January issue of our eNewsletter, we will first brief you on the enlightening demos that will take place on Wednesday, January 20th, as part of the SharpBrains Summit, and then present the 15 most stimulating SharpBrains articles of 2009.
Expo Day
If you want to see and discuss the latest programs and technologies for brain fitness, presented by Summit Sponsors, Wednesday January 20th is your day. Each demo will last 30 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q&A.
9am. Baycrest/ Cogniciti will introduce the new Memory@Work workshop, designed to teach what memory is, how lifestyle factors such as distraction and stress can affect memory, and how to enhance memory performance at work with the use of enabling strategies.
10am. CogniFit will demo CogniFit Personal Coach and CogniFit Sen...Back to work after nice mini-break…let’s all have a great 2010, and a fruitful decade.
We are proud to announce a new sponsor and several partners who are helping make the SharpBrains Summit a reality.
Sponsor
The Arrowsmith Program is a comprehensive suite of cognitive programs for students with learning disabilities that targets 19 areas of the brain [...]Back to work after nice mini-break…let’s all have a great 2010, and a fruitful decade.
We are proud to announce a new sponsor and several partners who are helping make the SharpBrains Summit a reality.
Sponsor
The Arrowsmith Program is a comprehensive suite of cognitive programs for students with learning disabilities that targets 19 areas of the brain that are most commonly involved in learning. It integrates two lines of neuroscience research, that of Russian neuropsychologist, A.R. Luria and the American psychologist, Mark Rosenzweig, into a methodology with a multitude of practical applications for addressing learning disabilities. The Arrowsmith Program identifies and strengthens the weak cognitive areas that affect learning and each student works on cognitive programs...