In many ways, last year was a rollercoaster, especially due to COVID. But that didn’t slow down research on BrainHQ! Over the course of 2021, more than two dozen journal articles were published on BrainHQ exercises and assessments. Most of these were conducted by independent researchers, and they covered a variety of areas—including traumatic brain injury, cognitive aging, and schizophrenia, all of which showed positive benefits of using the BrainHQ exercises. You can learn about these results in this recent press release and, in even more detail, in this blog post from our CEO. With more hundreds of additional studies currently underway, we hope to see more great results in 2022! |
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Best regards, Jeff Zimman Co-founder Posit Science |
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| | Broken Hearted: The Science of Social Pain Social pain—the feeling of being rejected (perhaps after being fired from a job or broken up with by a partner) or ostracized (left out or cut from a group)—is something most of us have experienced. And it can really hurt. In fact, scientists have found a significant overlap between the areas of the brain that process physical pain and those that process social pain. Learn more. |
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Can Cash Improve Children’s Brain Development? A new study showed that giving poor mothers $333 per month resulted in better cognitive development in their babies. “This is the first study to show that money, in and of itself, has a causal impact on brain development,” notes one of the study researchers. Although the benefit was relatively modest, the direct correlation between money and childhood brain development is potentially groundbreaking. Learn more. |
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Cataract Correction for Dementia Prevention A new analysis of a large-scale, longitudinal study showed that people who got their cataracts removed were 30% less likely to develop dementia. That may be because sensory loss is associated with dementia, and restoring vision can have a positive preventative effect. Learn more. |
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Hating the Sound of Chewing, and More Misophonia is a fairly common condition, affecting at least 6%, and perhaps as many as 20%, of people. It’s an unusually negative reaction (from distaste to disgust) to certain sounds—often produced by another person, like chewing or breathing. Recent research shows that the auditory cortices of people with and without misophonia react similarly to a sound. What’s different is the activation in the motor control areas of the brain related to the face, mouth, and throat. Learn more. |
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How Does Exercise Prevent Dementia? Several studies have shown that regular exercise promotes brain health and reduces dementia risk. Now, a new study sheds light on why that might be. The study showed that exercise changes brain chemistry in active older adults: it boosts production of a protein that helps neurons communicate with one another. This protein production helped people retain healthier cognition even if their brains showed the hallmark plaques and tangles associated with Alzheimer’s. Learn more. |
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What’s New in BrainHQ We’ve expanded on one of the BrainHQ progress features: medals! Starting this week, when you train by choosing “Explore All Exercises” rather than the Personal Trainer, you’ll see how many gold, silver, and bronze medals you have earned in each category and stage. Learn all about this feature! |
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Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking (2022) By Leonard Mlodinow What is the relationship between “thinking” and “feeling”? That’s the question that Leonard Mlodinow tackles in his latest book. Calling on cutting-edge research in psychology and neuroscience, as well as fascinating real-world examples, Mlodinow shows that emotions drive thought and decision-making more than you might realize. Ultimately, Emotional helps readers in the complicated lifelong project of understanding and managing their own feelings. Learn more. |
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