Brain Fitness

How COVID-19 Stress Compromises Children’s Brains

By Jude O’Brien It is a strange new world, and we are all doing the best we can to manage and minimize COVID-19. Top of the list: masks and social distancing. For most of us, these steps, and larger ones like self-quarantining and working and learning from home, all can understandably amplify fear and stress. A recent OpEd in the Hechinger Report by Goldie ...

Disrupted Circadian Rhythms May Protect the Brain from Disease

While it has long been understood that disturbed sleep patterns can be a precursor to neurodegenerative disease (often appearing before any other symptoms), surprising new research suggests that disrupting circadian rhythms may actually protect neurons.  Scientists at Northwestern University are exploring the link between circadian cycles and neurodegenera...

Learning about the Science Behind Yoga Inspires New Services for Incarcerated Parents and Correctional Officers

Sue Radcliffe, a mental health clinician in Dorchester County, Maryland, attended the 2015 BrainFutures conference and left feeling inspired. The evidence-based information on yoga and meditation especially resonated with her. She had practiced yoga for many years but wasn’t aware of the brain science behind its effectiveness. Sue felt compelled to bring ...

The Cardiovascular System and the Brain: How Inflammation May Be Linked to Heart Disease and Depression

Research shows that people who have a heart attack are at a significantly higher risk for experiencing depression. Scientists are further investigating whether these conditions share common genetic factors or shared environmental factors. To determine the connection between the two conditions, Dr. Golam Khandaker and Dr. Stephen Burgess led a team of resea...

'When Neurons Are Out of Shape, Antidepressants May Not Work'

Salk Institute researchers may be a step closer to discovering why 30% of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not respond to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). Their hypothesis is this: “When neurons are out of shape, antidepressants may not work.” Understanding why some patients respond to SSRIs, while others do not, has on...

Make Better Brain Health Your New Year’s Resolution

As your environment and lifestyle changes, so does your brain. Healthy brain function depends on what you eat and drink, how well you sleep, the way you socialize and how well you manage stress. Thanks to a growing body of evidence, we now have more knowledge about what it takes to maintain and improve cognitive function. Striving for better brain health c...

Regaining Control Over Our Distracted Minds

Dr. Adam Gazzaley is a professor of neurology, physiology and psychiatry at the University of California – San Francisco and founding executive director of Neuroscape, a translational neuroscience center at UCSF. At the BrainFutures conference, he discussed how technology impacts our cognitive controls. Cognitive controls such as attention, working memo...

How Stress Can Rewire Your Brain

If you’ve noticed changes in your memory, stress could be a factor. Long-term stress may eventually change your brain in ways that affect your memory. To understand why stress affects thinking and memory, it's important to understand a little about how the brain works. Neuroplasticity (also known as brain plasticity) allows the brain to reconstruct and r...

The Exercise that Helps Mental Health the Most

Researchers are examining different types of exercises as scientific understandings about the relationships between physical and mental health become more prevalent. A recent study published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal found that physical activity typically performed in groups, such as team sports and gym classes, provided greater benefits than indivi...

A Futuristic Look at Assessing Learning

“How do we enhance cognition?” Dr. Adam Gazzaley, who spoke at our 2017 BrainFutures Conference, is working relentlessly to find out. Gazzaley has identified key areas where he feels our education system is lacking, including poor initial assessments, lack of personalization, and a one-size-fits-all unimodal approach. Perhaps the greatest deficiency is that o...