These days, we all live under tremendous stress -- economic challenges, job demands, family tension, always-on technology and the 24-hour news cycle all contribute to ceaseless worry, many times over things that are completely beyond our personal control. While many have learned to simply "live with it," this ongoing stress...

Let's debunk 10 myths about brain fitness and brain training that remain enterprisingly popular.

Top 10 brain fit­ness and brain train­ing myths, debunked:

Myth 1. Genes deter­mine the fate of our brains.
Fact: Life­long brain plas­tic­ity means that our lifestyles and behav­iors play a sig­nif­i­cant role in how our...

Click here to read an original op-ed from the TED speaker who inspired this post and watch the TEDTalk below.

While sophisticated neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) provide a significant boost in our understanding of the brain -- and sexy research frequently...

Compared to physical fitness, the fitness of the brain is often overlooked by both individuals and health systems, but it is easy to see positive and broad changes on how brain health is defined, monitored, maintained, and enhanced across the lifespan, and digital platforms are going to play a key...

Open a weekend New York Times or Wall Street Journal, and you'll find a whole section with detailed information and advice for individuals looking to invest wisely. What you will not find, however, is comparable information and advice for investing in your most important asset of all: your brain. Precisely...

If you followed latest headlines surrounding the release of the National Alzheimer's Plan, you'd probably conclude that the likely solution to maintain lifelong brain health is simple: Simply wait until 2025 for a "magic bullet" to be discovered to cure (or end or prevent) Alzheimer's disease and aging-associated cognitive decline....

According to Peter Orszag's New York Times OpEd, Mal­prac­tice Method­ol­ogy:

Right now, health care is more evidence-free than you might think. And even where evidence-based clin­i­cal guide­lines exist, research sug­gests that doc­tors fol­low them only about half of the time. One esti­mate sug­gests that it takes 17 years...

Yesterday was World Alzheimer's Day. To raise awareness and funds, associations worldwide organized multiple activities including important Memory Walks, and a new report helped quantify the growing personal and economic burden of the disease.

Among the report findings:

• Close to 36 million people worldwide...

Dr. John Docherty is an Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the Weill Medical College, Cornell University and Chief Medical Officer of Brain Resource. Trained as a clinical research fellow in neuropsychopharmacology at NIMH, he later returned as Chief of the Psychosocial Treatments Research Branch, responsible for all federally supported psychosocial...

The Boston Globe has a good article/ book review on the latest quasi-luddite attack on the Internet (an attack in the name of brain science no less, and with cool brain scans). The new book in question: "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains."

Please join us in congratulating USA Hockey, Allstate, and Nationwide, for reaching the podium of the 2010 Brain Fitness Innovation Awards, unveiled today.

The podium's top position went to USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP), a full-time development program aimed at preparing student-athletes for participation on...

Unless you live in a cave (and without wireless connection), you know Apple is about to announce its new Tablet.

Is that a good thing? A bad thing?

SharpBrains collaborator Luc Beadouin asks an important question that seems to have been neglected so far: Will the Apple Tablet Enhance...

Recently I had the fortune to interview Dr. Michael Merzenich, a leading pioneer in brain plasticity research, in his office at UCSF. In the late 1980s, Dr. Merzenich was on the team that invented the cochlear implant, and later founded Scientific Learning Corporation and Posit Science. You may have...

We recently ran an online survey among subscribers of our SharpBrains eNewsletter, and over 500 people said we have helped them make better personal or professional decisions on how to maintain and improve brain fitness. Most gave very illuminating examples, which we are reading and enjoying as we speak.

Respondents...

In the midst of much healthcare reform talk, not enough attention seems focused on ensuring health care systems' preparedness to deal with cognitive health issues -- with Alzheimer's Disease as the most dramatic example -- which are predicted to grow given aging population trends.

Today, September 21st, is World Alzheimer's...

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a new elderly driver bill to improve driving safety, following a number of unfortunate accidents this year. You can expect a growing number of similar bills in the next few years, given our aging population, and also more focus on preventive measures to help older drivers...

Groundbreaking cognitive neuroscience research has occurred over the last 20 years - without parallel growth of consumer awareness and appropriate professional dissemination. "Cognition" remains an elusive concept with unclear implications outside the research community.

Earlier this year, I presented a talk to health care professionals at the New York Academy...

There are many recent studies and articles on the brain and how to maintain it in top shape -- let me connect a few dots and highlight several key resources and developments.

Public libraries have long offered the public more than books. And now, recent demographic and scientific trends are...

Think about this: How can anyone take care of his or her brain when every week brings a new barrage of articles and studies which seem to contradict each other?

Do supplements improve memory? Do you need both physical and mental exercise -- or is one of them enough? Which...

My wife and I just came back from an inspiring Goldman Prize Award ceremony, where seven grassroots environmental change-makers were recognized for their work and resiliency, and shared their passion and purpose with everyone attending the event. We did hear too from Al Gore, Tracy Chapman, Robert Redford, and the...