Do “Brain-Training” Programs Work?

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How could two teams of scientists examine the same literature and come to conflicting “consensus” views about the effectiveness of brain training?

The disagreement might result from different standards used when evaluating the evidence. To date, the field has lacked a comprehensive review of the brain-training literature, one that examines both the quantity and the quality of the evidence according to a well-defined set of best practices. This article provides such a review.

Read the article at Psychological Science in the Public Interest</em>.

The Weak Evidence Behind Brain-Training Games

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Seven psychologists reviewed every single scientific paper put forward to support these products—and found them wanting.

Read the full article at The Atlantic.

Brain Game Claims Fail A Big Scientific Test

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Want to be smarter? More focused? Free of memory problems as you age? If so, don’t count on brain games to help you.

That’s the conclusion of an exhaustive evaluation of the scientific literature on brain training games and programs. It was published Monday in the journal Psychological Science in the Public Interest.

Read the full article at National Public Radio (NPR).

9/14/2016 – How Technology Will Take Care of My Aging Brain

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“Technology holds great promise to prevent aging’s high-octane dramas if we’re willing to surrender some of our autonomy to it before we’re cognitively impaired. It’s now possible to monitor remotely and unobtrusively our driving and financial transactions, monitoring that could allow us to live with the confidence that problems will be detected and necessary interventions will be taken before a problem becomes a drama and that drama becomes a crisis.”

Read the full article at Forbes.

9/13/2016 – A call for intergenerational engagement

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Bringing older adults and children together can offer both groups big benefits, a new Stanford report concludes.

“There is growing reason to think that older people may be just the resource children need,” said Laura Carstensen, PhD, who led the report and is the founding director of the Stanford Center for Longevity.

Read the full article at Scope (Stanford School of Medicine blog).

9/12/2016 – Reports Detail How to Help Older Adults Avoid Financial Fraud

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The world’s population of older adults is expected to double to 2 billion by 2050. With these unprecedented demographic changes, the potential for fraud associated with cognitive decline is becoming a pressing issue in the financial services industry. Two reports published online today by the World Economic Forum (WEF) found that new technologies can assist in protecting older adults from fraud, and that financial services organizations are uniquely positioned to capitalize on gains in longevity using technology.

Read more at World Economic Forum.

9/12/2016 – 7 Ways To Prepare For Death That Will Change Your Life

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For many people, a good death means having the chance to say goodbye to loved ones, making sure to let them know what they’ve meant to you. But, of course, no one can plan when or how they’re going to die, so this communication doesn’t always happen.

To make sure that your friends and loved ones know how much they meant to you when the time comes, Dr. V.J Periyakcil, director of the Stanford Palliative Care Education and Training Program, believes she has developed a solution: On September 7, she released the Friends and Family letter ― a template of seven questions meant to help prompt the kind of poignant goodbye that makes death feel a little bit easier.

Read the full article at Huffington Post.

9/8/2016 – Older people offer the resource that children need, Stanford report says

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New Center on Longevity research shows that aging adults play critical roles in the lives of young people, especially the most vulnerable in society. Volunteering is one way to bring older adults and young people together. The key is to change social norms to encourage relationship building between generations.

Read the full article at Stanford Report.

9/6/2016 – Vitamin B12 as Protection for the Aging Brain

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“A B12 vitamin deficiency as a cause of cognitive issues is more common than we think, especially among the elderly who live alone and don’t eat properly,” says Dr. Rajaprabhakaran Rajarethinam, a psychiatrist at Wayne State University School of Medicine.

Read the full article at The New York Times.

9/5/2016 – Researchers Confront an Epidemic of Loneliness

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Loneliness, which Emily Dickinson described as “the Horror not to be surveyed,” is a quiet devastation. But in Britain, it is increasingly being viewed as something more: a serious public health issue deserving of public funds and national attention.

Read the full article at The New York Times.