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Brain stimulators are a hot item in sports training … do they help?
The San Francisco Giants just happen to be the baseball team that I usually root for.  Unfortunately, they’re having a terrible year, and after a 7-game losing streak (and counting) are currently deep in the cellar in the National League West.   “There’s always next year” is the baseball fan’s old lament.  But alas, the Giants have 6 minor league affiliates, and all of those teams are ALSO in their respective cellars.  Just a year ago, the Giants made the playoffs, and their minor teams were at least hanging in there. This year, for this old baseball fan, now and into the future, all is darkness. In Spring T...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - June 21, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Brain Fitness Brain Plasticity Brain Science BrainHQ Source Type: blogs

At the Cusp of Solving Cognitive Aging?
  It’s Brain Awareness Week, and we’ll be hearing about breakthroughs in basic science that could lead to big advances in how we live. Yet, most of the discoveries will require decades of further work, before they help people. But, what if we had a time machine and could travel ahead to see which of these discoveries actually becomes important in our lives? Well, we don’t have a time machine, but the two of us do have decades of experience in turning basic science discoveries into products that change lives.  We want to tell you about that journey — from what we discovered in basic research decades ago to...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - March 16, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Plasticity BrainHQ Source Type: blogs

8 Practical Ways to Keep Your Mind Sharp
Dr. Michael Merzenich conducted the seminal experiments that led to the discovery of lifelong plasticity — that the brain changes chemically, physically, and functionally based on sensory and other inputs at any age. Last year, Dr. Merzenich was made a Kavli Laureate, the highest honor in neuroscience. He has been elected to both the US National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. There’s a lot you can do to engage the brain’s machinery in ways that help keep it healthy as an organ. The brain’s plasticity — its ability to change not just functionally, but physically and chemically, t...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - March 13, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Fitness Brain Plasticity BrainHQ Source Type: blogs

Rising, Down Under
I just spent several days talking with scientists and lecturing in Australia.  The summer months (our winter months) are a wonderful time to travel Down Under.  The cities are lively, the sun is out, and people are in cheerful mood—which is amplified just a little more in Australia than I most places in the world. I’ve been trying to help an Australian team operating in Queensland and New South Wales develop a new model for a treatment center designed to address the neurological distortions that impact children that just happen to have had very difficult childhoods.  Such efforts there and in the US, are, alternativ...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - March 6, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Brain Plasticity Brain Trauma, Injury BrainHQ Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Source Type: blogs

A very serious video game addiction in South Korea
I just returned from a week spent talking with therapists and educational specialists in Seoul, South Korea.  As in visits to many places in the world, it is exciting to see the enthusiasm that therapists have for applying our brain training tools to help children and adults who struggle—even while they have not really been adapted to meet the special challenges that an arise for an individual operating in a language that is so different from ours.  They’ve seen it work, over and over again; more than 30,000 children have already been trained using Posit Science and Scientific Learning brain training software. Still,...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - February 15, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Brain Science Featured Video games Source Type: blogs

Insights from a Brain Training Study on Tinnitus
In this study, patients spent 40 hours working on the exercises embodied in the BrainHQ                                  [ http://www.brainhq.com ] ‘course’ titled “Auditory Intensive” http://www.brainhq.com/welcome#challenges/auditoryrehab_1_challenge/intro If you complete that “Challenge, I would recommend you consider adding “Focus on Auditory Memory”  http://www.brainhq.com/welcome#challenges/auditory_memory_1_challenge/intro The post Insights from a Brain Training Study on Tinnitus appeared first on "On the Brain" with Dr. Michael Merzenich. (Source: On the Br...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - January 31, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: BrainHQ Posit Science Tinnitus Source Type: blogs

Under attack: Our Science Voices Must Be Heard
Scientists usually avoid extending their arguments into politics.  Politics is all about persuasion and belief.  Science is all about evidence-informed conclusion.  In science, we continuously measure the strength of the evidence supporting initially-tentative hypotheses.  Evidence often gradually accumulates in support of a great general conclusion or theory.  On this basis, one can now state, with almost absolute certainty, that your brain is plastic, shaped by what you do continuously, throughout the course of your life.  So too, on this basis, one can now state, with almost absolute certainty that the climate of ...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - November 17, 2016 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Neuroscience Source Type: blogs