SharpBrains @ New York Public Library
09/25/09
http://www.sharpbrains.com/book/
Presentation Redistribution allowed, under Creative Commons
Attribution-No Derivative Works License

Draw a circle with the right hand and a square
with the left one

Debunking 10 Myths
1. Genes determine the fate of our brains.
2. Aging means automatic decline.
3. Medication is the only hope for cognitive enhancement.
4. We will soon have a Magic Pill or General Solution.
5. There is only one “it” in “Use It or Lose it”.
6. All mental activity is equal.
7. After age X, no new neurons are generated in the human brain.
8. We all have something called “Brain Age”.
9. That “brain age” can be reversed by 10, 20, 30 years.
10. All human brains need the same mental exercise.

Games I am playing…
© SharpBrains

An introduction to SharpBrains
 SharpBrains (www.sharpbrains.com) is a Market
Research & Publishing firm, co-founded in 2005 by
Alvaro Fernandez and Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg
 SharpBrains doesn’t develop or sell products
 SharpBrains has been quoted in The New York
Times, WSJ, CNN, Scientific American Mind, …
 Dozens of neuroscientists collaborate with
SharpBrains

SharpBrains.com

5 Data Points
© SharpBrains

5 Data Points
© SharpBrains

5 Data Points
© SharpBrains

Chapters
I. The Brain and Brain Fitness 101
II. The 4 Pillars of Brain Maintenance
III. Mental Exercise vs. Mental Activity
IV. How to Evaluate and Choose Products
V. Emerging Research and Applications
VI. Ready For the Future?
VII. Opening the Debate

What is this? How many do we have?

A complex system
Goal-oriented
Emotions, Breathing,
behavior,
memory movement
thinking
Source: Rita Carter, Mapping the Mind

Parts of the cortex
by Morphonix

What is Brain Fitness
 The general state of feeling alert, in control,
productive.
 Having fit brain functions, as required to function in
society, in our occupations, in our communities. It is
about attention, information processing, memory,
emotional self-regulation, planning…
 It is not about “IQ”.
 It is not (mainly) about Alzheimer’s Disease.
 Can it be measured today?

Five-fingered relaxation
 Travel back to a time
 Index: when you felt a healthy exhaustion
 Middle: loving exchange
 Ring: most caring gesture you have ever received
 Little: most magnificient place you have seen
Source: Five Good minutes, by Jeffrey Brantley

Which one doesn’t fit

Cognition and Aging
 Some areas that typically improve as we age
 Self-regulation
 Emotional functioning
 Wisdom: from problem-solving to pattern recognition
 Some areas that typically decline as we age
 Processing speed
 Attention: selective, divided
 Memory: working, recall, source
 Effortful problem-solving

What is lifelong learning?
“Learning is physical. Learning means the
modification, growth, and pruning of our
neurons, connections–called synapses–
and neuronal networks, through
experience...When we do so, we are
cultivating our own neuronal networks.
We become our own gardeners”
- Dr. James Zull, Professor of Biology and
Biochemistry at Case Western University

What is attention and how to train it
“…we have found no ceiling for abilities
such as attention, including among adults.
The more training, even with normal
people, the higher the results.“
- Dr. Michael Posner, Emeritus Professor at
the University of Oregon, and first recipient
of the Dogan Prize

Recovering from traumatic brain injury
“There is much more optimism and hope
today …about how many traumatic brain
injury patients can improve, if given the
opportunity to.”
- Lee Woodruff, co-author of In An Instant
with husband, reporter and TBI survivor
Bob Woodruff

Chapters
I. The Brain and Brain Fitness 101
II. The 4 Pillars of Brain Maintenance
III. Mental Exercise vs. Mental Activity
IV. How to Evaluate and Choose Products
V. Emerging Research and Applications
VI. Ready For the Future?
VII. Opening the Debate

Brain Maintenance
 Neuroplasticity = The brain lifelong capacity to
reorganize itself according to one’s experiences
 Drive good neuroplasticity through:
 Balanced Diet
 Physical Exercise
 Stress Management
 Mental Stimulation
© SharpBrains

Brain Maintenance: Mental Stimulation
The 3 key principles for good mental stimulation are:
1. Novelty
2. Variety
3. Challenge
© SharpBrains

What is this?

Building a cognitive reserve to delay
Alzheimer’s symptoms
“Individuals who lead mentally stimulating
lives, through education, occupation and
leisure activities, seem to have 35-40%
less risk of manifesting Alzheimer’s
Disease”
- Dr. Yaakov Stern, Division Leader of the
Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the
Sergievsky Center at the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia
University, New York.

A multi-pronged approach to brain health
“…components of a well-rounded approach
to brain health involve:
A) Appropriate nutrition
B) Stimulating brain activity
C) Physical activity
D) Stress reduction
E) Be Aware of side effects of medications”
- Dr. Larry McCleary, former acting Chief of
Pediatric Neurosurgery at Denver
Children's Hospital

Why we need both physical and mental
exercise
“Ideally, combine both physical and
mental stimulation along with social
interactions. Why not take a good walk
with friends to discuss a book?"
- Dr. Arthur Kramer, Professor of
Psychology and Director of the Biomedical
Imaging Center at the University of Illinois
© SharpBrains

Chapters
I. The Brain and Brain Fitness 101
II. The 4 Pillars of Brain Maintenance
III. Mental Exercise vs. Mental Activity
IV. How to Evaluate and Choose Products
V. Emerging Research and Applications
VI. Ready For the Future?
VII. Opening the Debate

Mental Exercise vs. Mental Activity
Which job would you choose?
Source: Maguire, Woollett, & Spiers, 2006
© SharpBrains

Meditation
“…meditation requires practice and
dedication. It is not an easy fix… You need
to match practice with need: understand
the specific goals you have in mind, your
schedule and lifestyle, and find something
practical.”
- Dr. Andrew Newberg, Associate Professor
in the Department of Radiology and
Psychiatry at the University of
Pennsylvania

Cognitive therapy
“Thanks to fMRI and other neuroimaging
techniques we are starting to
understand the impact our actions can
have on specific parts of the brain.“
- Dr. Judith S. Beck, Director of the Beck
Institute for Cognitive Therapy and
Research, and author of The Beck Diet
Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a
Thin Person

Biofeedback
“It is important to understand the role of
emotions: they are not “bad”. They are
very useful signals. It is important to
become aware of them to avoid being
engulfed by them, and learn how to
manage them.”
- Dr. Brett Steenbarger, Associate
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences, SUNY Medical University
© SharpBrains

The value and limitations of targeted training
"What was very surprising was that there
was also a clear benefit in auditory
memory, which wasn’t directly trained. In
other words, people who were 75-years-old
performed auditory memory tasks as well
as average 65-year-olds, so we can say
they reversed 10 years of aging for that
cognitive ability."
- Dr. Liz Zelinski, Professor of Psychology
at the University of Southern California
Andrus Gerontology Center
© SharpBrains

Chapters
I. The Brain and Brain Fitness 101
II. The 4 Pillars of Brain Maintenance
III. Mental Exercise vs. Mental Activity
IV. How to Evaluate and Choose Products
V. Emerging Research and Applications
VI. Ready For the Future?
VII. Opening the Debate

Does Brain Training “Work”?
 Randomized controlled studies show improvements of
targeted functions that last beyond training itself
 Most programs have not been on the market long enough to
show direct long term effects vs. overall mental stimulation
 Whether a program “works” will depend on:
 What functions one wants to enhance and why
 Which program one selects and amount of practice
 Realistic expectations – there is no silver bullet

Brain-based outcomes
Source: Klingberg et al.

One shoe doesn’t fit all
Overall Maintenance Targeted Training Stress Management
 Nintendo Brain Age  Brain Fitness Classic  emWave PC
 BrainWare Safari  CogMed WMT
 emWave Handheld
 FitBrains.com  DriveFit
 Journey Wild Divine
 Happy-Neuron.com  Earobics
 RESPeRATE
 Lumosity.com  Fast Forword
 Insight with Cortex  Stress Eraser
 MindFit
 Intelligym
 (m)Power
 Vision Restoration Therapy

Evaluation checklist (www.sharpbrains.com)
1. Are neuropsychologists behind the program?
2. What peer-reviewed research supports it?
3. Is there a solid Scientific Advisory Board?
4. What are the specific benefits claimed?
5. What cognitive function does it train?
6. How many hours/ days per week to use it?
7. Do the exercises teach something new?
8. Always challenging?
9. Does the program fit user’s specific goals?
10. Is it more fun/ engaging than stressful?

Chapters
I. The Brain and Brain Fitness 101
II. The 4 Pillars of Brain Maintenance
III. Mental Exercise vs. Mental Activity
IV. How to Evaluate and Choose Products
V. Emerging Research and Applications
VI. Ready For the Future?
VII. Opening the Debate
© SharpBrains

Emerging Trends 2008-2015
Brain Fitness goes Mainstream
1. Increasing Focus on Brain Maintenance
2. Better Integration of Physical and Mental Exercise
3. Public policy initiatives to drive adoption
Leveraging Better Tools
4. Wide Use of Cognitive Assessments as Baseline
5. More and Refined computer-based programs
6. Low-tech options to play increasing role
A Growing Eco-System
7. Need for Professional Development
8. Insurance companies will introduce incentives
9. Transfer from military research and applications
10. Corporate Wellness adds a Brain component

A New Era
“We have shown that working memory
can be improved by training...I think that
we are seeing the beginning of a new era”
– Dr. Torkel Klingberg, Director of the
Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
Lab at Karolinska Institute

Brain Fitness Culture: from Magic Pills to
Addressing Lifestyle and Bottlenecks
Bottleneck
Lifestyle  Emotional self-regulation
 Visual/ auditory
processing
 Balanced diet  Attention
 Aerobic exercise  Executive functions
 Stress management  Working memory
 Mental activity/ exercise  Long-term memory
 Medication management
 Sleep

The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
 "This is the only book that I know of that seamlessly
integrates latest information about cognitive health across
the lifespan. Very useful to anyone interested in brain
care.” —Arthur Kramer, Ph.D., leading researcher
1) For more information:
http://www.sharpbrains.com/, free
monthly eNewsletter
2) To read book:
Library, www.Amazon.com
3) To contact us:
information@sharpbrains.com