A fifth misconception: Our functional abilities at any stage of life are a handoff from Mother Nature or the Creator of the Universe

If you haven’t done your homework (haven’t read “misconceptions 1-4”), go do it, then read this one. You’ll find those entries on November 7th, December 5th, April 29th, and May 1st. Which lead us to: Misconception 5. Our functional abilities at any stage of life are a handoff from Mother Nature or the Creator of…

“The Brain Fitness Program” on PBS

Many of you may have seen this program.  At last count, it has been shown several thousand times. Almost every PBS station has repeatedly aired it.  Moreover, like a bad penny, it’ll show up again, in the next pledge-break period!  All of this attention stems from its success. PBS viewers have made this one of…

A fourth misconception about getting older: If we fix memory, it’s clear sailing.

Before I talk about this misconception, if you’re new to this argument I ask you to go back and start at the beginning by reviewing misconceptions 1-3.  They are described in posts made on October 7th, December 5th, and April 29th.  After you read them, you’re ready for #4! Misconception 4:  <strong>Cognitive fitness is all…

A third misconception about cognitive losses in aging

Several months ago, I promised you a “TOP TEN LIST” OF “Misconceptions, by scientists and the public, about the neurological bases of memory/cognitive losses in aging”.  So far, I’ve only managed to write down two of them — even while some of you visitors have repeatedly chided me for not keeping my promise!  Okay, okay,…

Big Brains in Oregon

This past weekend I visited two outstanding programs in Portland designed to inform Oregon educators (and through them, school-age children) and an interested citizenry about advances in neuroscience. I was very much impressed by these programs; they are good models of what SHOULD be happening, all across America.  <strong>Brain Awareness</strong> (www.oregonbrains.org) targets teachers and school…

An Insight for Successful Aging

Many of you may not be aware that Posit Science has launched another wonderful suite of brain fitness exercises, for visual training in BrainHQ, that focuses on improving visual perception, attention, memory/cognition, and fast-responding abilities (see www.positscience.com). We are very proud of this new training program suite. It was created with the help and assistance…

An insight into INSIGHT

I spent a little time yesterday, describing the obvious virtues of our new <strong>INSIGHT</strong> brain fitness training program. Here’s two more: 1) Visual cognition is language independent. If your native language is German or Italian or Tagalog or Swahili or Bengali, it should work, for YOU! You need to read a little English to follow…

The Posit Brain Plasticity Institute

Over the past decade, I have visited a large number of the great (and lesser) research institutions in the world where scientists are focused on practical (therapeutic) extensions of brain plasticity research. Especially over the past year, I’ve witnessed a great ground-swell of activity generated by scientists employing the principles of brain plasticity to drive…

Misconception (about the neurology of aging) 2

Memory (cognitive ability, executive control, motor control, whatever) resides in a place(s). If we fix that (those) place(s), we fix memory (our failing faculties). For MEMORY, as an example, most scientists focus on one of three places: the hippocampus, for ‘episodic’ or ‘long-term memory’; the inferior/medial temporal or lateral frontal cortex, for ‘immediate’ or ‘working…