Wel­come to a brand new edi­tion of Sharp­Brains e‑publication, fea­tur­ing fas­ci­nat­ing analysis discover­ings on neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, cog­ni­tion, getting older, med­ica­tion, Alzheimer’s, board video games, and extra, plus some mind teasers to get you in nice form for Halloween.

#1. Research: Play­ing board video games like Chess, Mahjong, Go, helps gradual cog­ni­tive decline as we age (however with clear dif­fer­ences in neu­ro­bi­ol­o­gy and improved perform)

So … let’s play all three!

#2. The Thoughts­ful Physique argues in opposition to thoughts­much less­ly settle for­ing age-relat­ed decline in cog­ni­tion and well being as inevitable

“Per­haps Langer’s most provoca­tive recommendation is reserved for doc­tors and oth­ers who deal with sick­ness, males­tal or phys­i­cal. When deliv­er­ing information to sufferers, she writes, prac­ti­tion­ers would do effectively to current diag­noses and prog­noses in ten­ta­tive methods, permit­ing for the pos­si­bil­i­ty of being incorrect and for extra opti­mistic out­appears to be like. By doing so, she says, prac­ti­tion­ers might assist sufferers maintain unfastened­ly the labels that make them see them­selves in mounted methods and turn into, as an alternative, extra thoughts­ful, energetic par­tic­i­pants in their very own well being care.”

#3. Har­ness­ing Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty, Med­ica­tion AND Psy­chother­a­py to deal with males­tal well being situations

Nice sum­ma­ry: “… enhanc­ing or mod­u­lat­ing plas­tic­i­ty with a bio­log­i­cal inter­ven­tion like med­ica­tion could not solely scale back symp­toms however can also professional­vide a win­dow of oppor­tu­ni­ty for behav­ioral inter­ven­tions like psy­chother­a­py to be extra effec­tive. Be taught­ing-based inter­ven­tions like cog­ni­tive-behav­ioral or expo­positive ther­a­py, if prop­er­ly timed, might har­ness the improved neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty that bio­log­i­cal inter­ven­tions induce and enhance long-term outcomes.”

#4. Ques­tions develop in regards to the legitimate­i­ty and use­ful­ness of direct-to-con­sumer blood assessments for Alzheimer’s Illness

“…sci­en­tists and clin­i­cians wor­ry that Quest hasn’t pub­lished any peer-reviewed stud­ies doc­u­ment­ing the take a look at’s legitimate­i­ty. The corporate’s pre­lim­i­nary knowledge launched on the 2022 Alzheimer’s Asso­ci­a­tion Inter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence in San Diego sug­gests there’s a rel­a­tive­ly excessive probability of false-pos­i­tive outcomes … Specialists additionally ques­tion the use­ful­ness of the take a look at since a pos­i­tive outcome (indi­cat­ing abnor­mal lev­els of amy­loid within the blood) doesn’t imply an indi­vid­ual will def­i­nite­ly devel­op Alzheimer’s dis­ease. Amy­loid within the mind accu­mu­lates gradual­ly over the course of a long time, typ­i­cal­ly start­ning in mid­dle age, and turns into extra com­mon as peo­ple age.”

#5. 4 rea­sons to ques­tion “new gen­er­a­tion” mon­o­clon­al anti­physique Alzheimer’s medication comparable to adu­canum­ab (Aduhelm), lecanemab (Leqem­bi), donanemab

1. Tiny advantages
2. Unwanted side effects
3. Excessive costs
4. Excessive­ly selec­tive trials

#6. Non-inva­sive Tran­scra­nial Elec­tri­cal Stim­u­la­tion (TES) exhibits ear­ly promise to deal with ADHD symp­toms in youngsters

“…promis­ing outcome have been obtained in that chil­dren receiv­ing energetic deal with­ment confirmed sig­nif­i­cant reduc­tions in par­ent-rat­ed ADHD symp­toms com­pared to those that obtained sham deal with­ment. … Fur­ther­extra, these dif­fer­ences per­sist­ed throughout the three?week followup.”

#7. The NHS Con­fed­er­a­tion releas­es dig­i­tal males­tal well being whitepaper

“To do noth­ing isn’t an possibility. If we don’t make extra progress we miss a key oppor­tu­ni­ty to make enhance­ments to males­tal well being ser­vices comparable to improv­ing entry; professional­vid­ing ear­ly inter­ven­tion and pre­ven­tion at scale; imple­ment­ing new methods of attain­ing peo­ple; and assist­ing to fulfill the demand sup­ply hole; and on the similar time open­ing up entry in order that inequal­i­ties in entry to well being­care and sup­port for males­tal well being are lowered.”

#8. Past the clin­ic: Can dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics (DTx) assist enhance males­tal well being within the work­pressure at scale?

“The dig­i­tal ther­a­peu­tics (DTx) indus­strive is at a cross­roads after one of the vital promi­nent com­pa­nies within the area, Pear Ther­a­peu­tics, filed for financial institution­rupt­cy ear­li­er this 12 months … there’s a transfer­ment away from get­ting these prod­ucts cov­ered like a phar­ma­cy ben­e­match. As a substitute, many com­pa­nies are look­ing to make offers with the make use of­er market.”

#9. Cel­e­brate Hal­loween with 9 nice rid­dles about Life and Demise

Ques­tion: What is filled with hope, usually considered, however doesn’t exist?

#10. Mind Teas­er: What shirt dimension you want now?

Have a terrific month of November