Posts Tagged ‘brain’
Brain Fitness Frontiers
Top 21 Books on Brain Health, Fitness and Training, Neuroplasticity and Neurogenesis
Copyright (c) 2008 SharpBrains
Given the growing media coverage of Brain Fitness and brain training, we have produced this compilation of the Top 21 Books that help understand these trends, the research behind them, and the implications for all of us.
For your easy browsing, we have categorized them into seven groups:
1) Fascinating books on neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to rewire itself through experience):
- Train Your Mind, Change Your Brain: How a New Science Reveals Our Extraordinary Potential to Transform Ourselves – by Sharon Begley.
- The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science – by Norman Doidge.
- The Executive Brain: Frontal Lobes and the Civilized Mind – by Elkhonon Goldberg).
- The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows Older – by Elkhonon Goldberg.
2) User-friendly scientific books on the brain:
- Best of the Brain from Scientific American: Mind, Matter, and Tomorrow’s Brain by Floyd E. Bloom.
- A User’s Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain – by John J. Ratey.
- In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind – by Eric Kandel.
- Mapping the Mind – by Rita Carter.
- Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind – by V. S. Ramachandran.
- Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: An Updated Guide To Stress, Stress Related Diseases, and Coping – by Robert M. Sapolsky.
3) On how to apply all this to education and learning:
- Magic Trees of the Mind: How to Nurture Your Child’s Intelligence, Creativity, and Healthy Emotions from Birth Through Adolescence – by Marian Diamond and Janet Hopson.
- The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning – by James Zull.
- Enriching the Brain: How to Maximize Every Learner’s Potential – by Eric Jensen.
4) On how to apply cognitive and positive psychology to solve other real-world problems:
- Thanks: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier – by Robert Emmons.
- The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person – by Judith Beck.
- Enhancing Trader Performance: Proven Strategies From the Cutting Edge of Trading Psychology – by Brett Steenbarger.
5) With a health/medical angle:
- The Brain Trust Program: A Scientifically Based Three-Part Plan – by Larry McCleary.
- The Memory Prescription: Dr. Gary Small’s 14-Day Plan to Keep Your Brain and Body Young – by Gary Small.
- Brain Longevity: The Breakthrough Medical Program that Improves Your Mind and Memory – by Dharma Singh Khalsa.
6) Reference manual:
- The Dana Guide to Brain Health: A Practical Family Reference from Medical Experts by Floyd E. Bloom, M. Flint Beal, and David J. Kupfer.
7) Good combination of information and activities:
- Building Mental Muscle: Conditioning Exercises for the Six Intelligence Zones – by David Gamon and Allen D. Bragdon.
Enjoy!
About the Author
Alvaro Fernandez is the CEO and Co-Founder of SharpBrains.com, which covers the brain training and brain health fields. SharpBrains has been recognized by Scientific American Mind, Newsweek, Forbes. Alvaro holds MA in Education and MBA from Stanford University, and teaches The Science of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning Institute. You can learn more at http://www.sharpbrains.com/
BRAIN FITNESS FRONTIERS promo
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Brain Fitness Frontiers $12.19 Studio: Pbs Release Date: 02/09/2010… |
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The Brain Fitness Program $6.75 Studio: Pbs Release Date: 04/16/2009… |
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Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound $7.00 Studio: Public Media Distribution Release Date: 03/18/2009 Run time: 60 minutes… |
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Quantum Healing: Exploring the Frontiers of Mind/Body Medicine $6.25 Here is an extraordinary new approach to healing by an extraordinary physician-writer — a book filled with the mystery, wonder, and hope of people who have experienced seemingly miraculous recoveries from cancer and other serious illnesses.Dr. Deepak Chopra, a respected New England endocrinologist, began his search for answers when he saw patients in his own practice who completely recovered afte… |
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Brain: The Last Frontier: An Exploration of the Human Mind and Our Future $15.95 … |
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Assessment of the Behavioral Consequences of Head Trauma (Frontiers of Clinical Neuroscience) $99.95 … |
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Dakim Brain Fitness Software $249.99 With an easy-to-use interface, engaging content that features vibrant imagery, videos, music, humor, storytelling, and sophisticated game formats and new brain games installed almost every night, clinically-tested Dakim Brain Fitness Software is the ultimate in brain fitness for people over 60. Based on standardized neurological tests and exercises developed by brain scientists, Dakim Brain Fitness Software cross-trains the brain in all six cognitive domains, including long-term memory, short-term memory, language, computation, visuospatial orientation and critical thinking to give you a comprehensive brain fitness workout to help keep your mind vital and healthy. This intuitive system self-adjusts for users with normal brain function, mild cognitive impairment and even those with dementia.In early 2010, UCLA completed a large-scale clinical trial of Dakim’s software involving more than 100 participants. The findings of the trial showed that individuals who used Dakim BrainFitness experienced significant improvements in memory retention and delayed recall. |
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PositScience Brain Fitness Program $199.99 The Brain Fitness Program from Posit Science sharpens the auditory system of the brain for faster thinking, sharper focus and better memory. By improving the quantity and quality of the information you take in from your ears, this 40-hour program will help you communicate more effectively, pick up more details in conversation and remember what you hear. In clinical trials, The Brain Fitness Program speeds up auditory processing by 131% and improves memory by an average of 10 years. Need more proof? Based on our own (admittedly unscientific) research, customers who purchase the Brain Fitness Program from our stores report the biggest personal change of any other product.Two user license.Works on Mac and PC. Not compatable with Mac OS X. |
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PBS Brain Fitness Program DVD $24.99 Pssst, it’s me your brain. And, frankly, I could use a workout. I recommend getting The Brain Fitness Program DVD from PBS. This 100 minute report explains a relatively new concept called neuroplasticity, which means the brain can change, adapt and even rewire itself. Dr. Michael Merzenich of the University of California and his colleagues share their scientifically based exercises that drive beneficial chemical, physical and functional changes in the brain. Peter Coyote hosts this innovative presentation. |
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PBS Brain Fitness 2: Sight and Sound DVD $24.99 We make countless decisions based on the information we take in through our eyes and ears. That’s why it’s so important to keep our vision and hearing healthy and fully functional throughout our lives. Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound is PBS’s provocative follow-up to The Brain Fitness Program. Hosted by Peter Coyote, Brain Fitness 2: Sight & Sound takes an in-depth look at the advances in neuroplasticity and how the brain’s ability to change and grow can help people get the most from their vision and hearing as they age. |
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Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot $13.95 As it turns out, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Not that we’re comparing anyone’s brain to a dog, because that would be, well, inappropriate. But if you want to give the ol’ noggin a workout, Dr. Richard Restak has 28 tricks to help you improve your mental fitness, memory, concentration, creativity and analytical ability. In Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot, the neuropsychiatrist and clinical professor of neurology at George Washington University Medical Center asserts that you can increase interconnections between the brain’s functions and keep it growing through exercise, reading, logic problems, learning to play a musical instrument and more. |
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Keep Your Brain Alive $8.95 If taking a different route to work or brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand could increase brain activity and help prevent memory loss, would you do it? Hint: the smart answer is “yes.� Keep Your Brain Alive by Dr. Lawrence Katz and Manning Rubin features 83 neurobic exercises that use your five senses in unexpected ways to shake up your everyday routine and fire up your brain’s neurons. This straightforward book explains how simple, do-anywhere exercises can stimulate the production of nutrients that grow brain cells, help ward off the effects of mental aging, prevent memory loss and increase mental fitness. |
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30 Days to Total Brain Health $9.99 In this remarkably effective, scientifically-grounded plan, Dr. Cynthia Green, a clinical psychologist and one of the country’s most notable experts on brain health, has just what you need to start on the road to better brain fitness. Based on her multi-dimensional, integrated Total Brain Health® model, Dr. Green has laid out 30 days of simple tips certain to boost your everyday memory and reduce yoru dementia risk. In just 10 minutes a day or less, you’ll use Dr. Green’s unique Body/Mind/Spirit approach to build your brainpower in ways you’d never imagined. |
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Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship $127.73 The conscious mind defines human existence. Many consider the brain as a computer, and they attempt to explain consciousness as emerging at a critical, but unspecified, threshold level of complex computation among neurons. The brain-as-computer model, however, fails to account for phenomenal experience and portrays consciousness as an impotent, after-the-fact epiphenomenon lacking causal power. And the brain-as-computer concept precludes even the remotest possibility of spirituality. As described throughout the history of humankind, seemingly spiritual mental phenomena including transcendent states, near-death and out-of-body experiences, and past-life memories have in recent years been well documented and treated scientifically. In addition, the brain-as-computer approach has been challenged by advocates of quantum brain biology, who are possibly able to explain, scientifically, nonlocal, seemingly spiritual mental states. "Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship" argues against the purely physical analysis of consciousness and for a balanced psychobiological approach. This thought-provoking volume bridges philosophy of mind with science of mind to look empirically at transcendent phenomena, such as mystic states, near-death experiences and past-life memories, that have confounded scientists for decades. Representing disciplines ranging from philosophy and history to neuroimaging and physics, and boasting a panel of expert scientists and physicians, including Andrew Newberg, Peter Fenwick, Stuart Hameroff, Mario Beauregard, Deepak Chopra, and Chris Clarke the book rigorously follows several lines of inquiry into mind-brain controversies, challenging readers to form their own conclusions or reconsider previous ones. Key coverage includes: Objections to reductionistic materialism from the philosophical and the scientific tradition.Phenomena and the mind-brain problem.The neurobiological correlates of meditation and mindfulness.The quantum soul, a view from physics.Clinical implications of end-of-life experiences.Mediumistic experience and the mind-brain relationship. "Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-Brain Relationship" is essential reading for researchers and clinicians across many disciplines, including cognitive psychology, personality and social psychology, the neurosciences, neuropsychiatry, palliative care, philosophy, and quantum physics. " This book brings together some precious observations about the fundamental mystery of the nature of consciousness It raises many questions that serve to invite each of us to be more aware of the uncertainty of our preconceptions about consciousness This book on the frontiers of mind-body relationships is a scholarly embodiment of creative and open-minded science. " C. Robert Cloninger, MD Wallace Renard Professor of Psychiatry, Genetics, and Psychology, Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis MO |
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Brain Fitness: Breakthrough Training for Those Who Mind $7.79 Brain Fitness: Breakthrough Training for Those Who Mind |
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Brain Fitness Program $14.63 Rated: NASynopsis: The Brain Fitness Program is based on the brain’s ability to change and adapt, even rewire itself. In the past two years, a team of scientists has developed computer-based stimulus sets that drive beneficial chemical, physical and functional changes in the brain. Dr. Michael Merzenich of the University of California and his colleagues share their scientifically based set of brain exercises in this life-altering program. Peter Coyote narrates. |
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BRAIN FITNESS $38.95 No Synopsis Available |
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NeuroActive Memory $69.99 Turbo-charge memory, increase confidence, reduce stress and maximize multitasking skills in one fell swoop with the NeuroActive Memory Booster software. Whether you want to optimize your performance at work or school, this user-friendly software is loaded with exercises and tips to help you keep your brain youthful and remember names, faces and facts with encyclopedic ease. In fact, NeuroActive Memorycan increase your brain processing speed by 20%. (That’s your cue to be impressed.) Combine this brain fitness software with a healthy diet and regular physical exercise for truly life-altering results. |
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Frontiers in Brain and Dream Research $97.45 No Synopsis Available |
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PositScience InSight $199.99 Visual processing is important for overall brain fitness because what we see defines many of our experiences and memories. With InSight Brain Training from Posit Science, you can improve the quality and quantity of the information your brain absorbs from your eyes with five game-like exercises. InSight is clinically proven to increase visual processing speed by an average of 300%, increase useful field of view by 200% and reduce dangerous driving maneuvers by 38%. InSight Brain Training won’t give you x-ray vision and the power to see through concrete, but we’re pretty sure even the Man of Steel would be impressed with those numbers.This is a two-user licesnse. Mac/PC (Does not work with MAC OS X) |
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Neuroactive Mental Coach Pro Golf $149.99 Does missing a key shot affect the way you play the rest of your game? Isn’t it time you take a few minutes to bring your mental game up to par? Pro Mental Coach is the program golfers of all skills have always been looking for in order to play better, enjoy the game more and manage stress in general. Complete with assessments and skill building exercises, Pro Mental Coach can help anyone looking to improve their brain fitness. |
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Happy Neuron $69.99 Say you have 20 minutes to spare. What do you do? Maybe watch TV or forward funny dog videos to your friends? Or, you could spend just 20 minutes per day doing fun exercises to help you remember more, concentrate better, think sharper, react quicker, build confidence and improve processing speed. Developed by neuropsychologists, the HAPPYneuron Brain Fitness Software offers hundreds of hours of unique exercises designed to train all five major cognitive functions. This innovative brain training software offers customized workouts and lets you track your results and compare your performance to other HAPPYneuron users worldwide. Much more productive than TV or dog videos, don’t you think? |
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The Sharp Brains Guide to Brain Fitness $15.9 Selected by AARP as part of its Best Books Series, The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness is an invaluable guide that helps readers navigate growing brain research and identify the lifestyle factors and products that contribute to brain fitness. By gathering eighteen of the top scientists and offering insight, tools, and detailed descriptions of over twenty products, this text is an essential guide to the field of neuroplasticity and cognitive health. An accessible and thought-provoking read, this book also engages readers on emerging trends and forecasts of what the future will hold. While most of us have heard the phrase "use it or lose it," very few understand what "it" means, or how to properly "use it" in order to maintain brain function and fitness. The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness is designed to fill this gap. |
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Spark $24.99 In SPARK, John J. Ratey, M.D., embarks upon a fascinating and entertaining journey through the mind-body connection, presenting startling research to prove that exercise is truly our best defense against everything from depression to ADD to addiction to aggression to menopause to Alzheimer’s. Filled with amazing case studies (such as the revolutionary fitness program in Naperville, Illinois, which has put this school district of 19,000 kids first in the world of science test scores), SPARK is the first book to explore comprehensively the connection between exercise and the brain. It will change forever the way you think about your morning run—or, for that matter, simply the way you think |
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Brainware Safari $149.99 An entertaining video game format. Clinically proven cognitive development techniques. And a fun jungle theme. What’s not to like about Brainware Safari? This award-winning brain fitness program for children aged 6-12 uses an approach called “cognitive loading� to drive mental processing skills to an automatic level more quickly. Translation: your kid will be genius of the jungle faster than you can wrap your head around the idea of a two-headed snapping turtle. With Brainware Safari’s 168 progressively challenging levels, children make dramatic gains in attention, memory, visual processing, auditory processing, sensory integration and thinking. |
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The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science $9.19 An astonishing new science called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries- old notion that the human brain is immutable. In this revolutionary look at the brain psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Norman Doidge M.D. provides an introduction to both the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed. From stroke patients learning to speak again to the remarkable case of a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole The Brain That Changes Itself will permanently alter the way we look at our brains human nature and human potential. |
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Exploring Frontiers of the Mind-brain Relationship $125.78 No Synopsis Available |
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Frontiers in Cognitive Neuroscience $6.7 "Frontiers in Cognitive Neuroscience" provides students and researchers entering the field of cognitive neuroscience with a foundation for examining how brain function gives rise to mental activities such as perception, memory, and language. The 55 readings are grouped in sections that cover attention, vision, auditory and somatosensory systems, memory, and higher cortical functions. |
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The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories Of Personal Triumph From The Frontiers Of Brain Science $22.09 An astonishing new scientific discovery called neuroplasticity is overthrowing the centuries-old notion that the adult human brain is fixed and unchanging. It is instead able to change its own structure and function even into old age. Psychiatrist and researcher Norman Doidge MD travelled around the United States to meet the brilliant scientists championing neuroplasticity and the people whose lives they’ve transformed people whose mental limitations or brain damage were previously seen as unalterable and whose conditions had long been dismissed as hopeless. We see a woman born with half a brain that rewired itself to work as a whole; a woman labelled retarded who cured her deficits with brain exercises and now cures those of others; blind people who learn to see; learning disorders cured; IQs raised; ageing brains rejuvenated; stroke patients recovering their faculties; children with cerebral palsy learning to move more gracefully; entrenched depression and anxiety disappearing; and lifelong character traits changed. Doidge takes us onto terrain that might seem fantastic. We learn that our thoughts can switch our genes on and off altering our brain anatomy. We learn how people of average intelligence can with brain exercises improve their cognition and perception develop muscle strength or learn to play a musical instrument simply by imagining doing so. Using personal stories from the heart of this neuroplasticity revolution Dr Doidge has written an immensely moving inspiring book that will permanently alter the way we look at our brains human nature and human potential. |
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BRAIN FITNESS PROGRAM (DVD) $26.65 Genre: Health/Nutrition Rating: NR Release Date: 29JAN2008 |
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PBS Explorer Brain Fitness $23.4 Rated: NASynopsis: NA |
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Brain Fitness Frontiers $24.99 Eli Brown, Peter Coyote,Dr. Michael Merzenich,Dr. Skip Rizzo,Dr. John Donoghue, DVD,PBS (DIRECT), Running Time: 01:00:00 ***Usually ships within 24 hours*** 20120518110027050 |
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Brain Fitness Frontiers DVD $20.49 A panel of neuroscience experts expands on the phenomenon of “neuroplasticity”, i.e., the process the human brain undergoes while completing various transformations, such as aging or recovering fro… |