News & Updates

BrainFutures Launches Multi-Part Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Initiative

BrainFutures, a citizen advocacy nonprofit dedicated to improving human outcomes by assessing and advancing the practical applications of new scientific understanding of the brain, announces the launch of an issue brief series and coalition building effort focused on psychedelic-assisted therapy.  Psychedelic-assisted therapies hold promise for treating some of...

Major Associations Endorse BrainFutures’ Recent Report on Neurofeedback Treatment for ADHD and Anxiety

Recent Research Shows Neurofeedback as an Efficacious Treatment for ADHD with Sustained Results at 12-Month Follow Up, and Efficacious for Treating Anxiety BALTIMORE – BrainFutures’ latest report that outlines a clear case for neurofeedback (NFB) as an efficacious treatment for ADHD and symptoms of anxiety has gained the endorsements of three of the most ...

Childhood Education International Explores COVID, Executive Function, and Building Back Better

Around the world, we face unprecedented conditions in education. COVID-19 and the ensuing safety protocols, particularly social distancing, have had an unparalleled impact on learning. In the U.S. and many countries, students are often now online during school hours, interfacing with a screen, rather than benefiting from in-person instruction. However, even wit...

Executive Function in Children’s Academic and Life Outcomes

On September 30, 2020, BrainFutures’ Holly McCormack facilitated a powerful conversation between Goldie Hawn and Bruce Wexler as part of the Aspen Brain Institute’s Expert Series. The conversation explored the current state of education, young student brain development, and brain fitness interventions that can increase executive function (EF), a set of comp...

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 ...

Brain Fitness Could Help Raise NAEP Reading Scores

Last week the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, announced that two out of three children did not meet the standards for reading proficiency set by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The average eighth-grade reading score declined in more than half of the states compared with 2017...

Embarking on an Audacious Plan to Double Brain Health and Performance

By Linda Raines, BrainFutures CEO This week I was privileged to be among remarkable leaders who are working in concert to double brain health and performance over the next decade. I am speaking of the October 21 preview event for The BrainHealth Project, conceptualized and led by Dr. Sandi Chapman, Director of the Center for BrainHealth at The University of Te...

Magnetic Stimulation Improves Concussion Symptoms in Mice

Research from the University of Saskatchewan (USask) shows that low-frequency magnetic stimulation can reverse concussion-related cognitive impairment in mice. Concussions, also known as mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), affect millions of people a year and cost billions in treatment and lost income. Concussions can cause chronic headache, loss of balance, co...

Lack of Sleep May Be a Risk Factor for Dementia

Recent research supports the belief that sleep deprivation leads to the accumulation of substances in the brain which trigger and/or exacerbate Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia. While scientists have long known that sleep is critical to well-being, new studies confirm the vital link between sleep and brain health. Recent research, featured in Psycholog...

Every School Should Adopt a Program that Supports Key Executive Function Skills

Over the past decade, research has shown that brain fitness activities stimulate cognitive development and prime the brain for learning by improving key executive function skills of working memory, self-control and cognitive flexibility. These skills are also inextricably linked to social-emotional learning (SEL). Brain fitness interventions targeti...