The Brain Clock Blog: October 2013

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Article: NSF REAL funding to Kane to study effects of mind-wandering

NSF REAL funding to Kane to study effects of mind-wandering
http://research.uncg.edu/spotlight/nsf-real-funding-to-kane-to-study-effects-of-mind-wandering/

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Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Article: A Tale of Two BRAINS: #BRAINI and DARPA's SUBNETS

A Tale of Two BRAINS: #BRAINI and DARPA's SUBNETS
http://neurocritic.blogspot.com/2013/10/a-tale-of-two-brains-braini-and-darpas.html

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Article: Jump-Starter Kits for the Mind

Jump-Starter Kits for the Mind
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/science/jump-starter-kits-for-the-mind.html

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Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics

IAP

www.themindhub.com

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Article: Does brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions

Does brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
http://sharpbrains.com/blog/2013/05/22/does-brain-training-work-yes-if-it-meets-these-5-conditions/

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Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, Institute for Applied Psychometrics

IAP

www.themindhub.com

******************************************************

Daniel Ferguson: Big Data opens a world of opportunity in health, psychology, neuroscience [feedly]

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Daniel Ferguson

Please tell us about your interest in applied brain science. What areas are you most interested in?
I am mostly intrigued by brain training and behavioral response using neuro/biofeedback and augmented/virtual reality.

What is one important thing you are working on now, and where can people learn more about it?
We are working on ways to leverage augmented reality for fully immersive experiences that can impact mood. This will allow us to work with patients even if they are on the other side of the world.

What excites you the most about your current line of work?
As the Founder of the New Dawn Advanced Mind and Body Research and Development, I am passionate about helping people that suffer with depression, bipolar, pain and childhood issues that the current health system often wipes off as ""too hard."

What are 1–2 key things you'd like every person to understand regarding his/ her own brain and mind, that you think is commonly misrepresented or not addressed in the popular media?
I believe few people understand that anyone can refine mind state easily, either via meditation, EEG technology or even a single breath.

Where do you see clear "low-hanging fruit" to enhance behavioral and brain health based on neuroscience and innovation?
Using cutting edge technology, we can envision producing an interactive virtual reality that responds to the user's mind state using neuro/biofeedback. We are looking at a whole new world of brain training and human machine interaction.

What surprised you the most at the 2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit?
The big data elements of the technology that is already available, which can open a world of opportunity in health, psychology and neuroscience.

Finally, what do YOU do to stay sharp?
Biofeedback for mind state training.

2013 SharpBrains Summit —This conversation is part of the interview series with Speakers and Participants in the 2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit (September 19-20th). Previous interviews include:

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Friday, October 25, 2013

Article: Top 50 Brain Teasers and Games

Top 50 Brain Teasers and Games
http://sharpbrains.com/brainteasers/brain-games-and-teasers-top-50/

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

DARPA allocates $70 million for improving deep brain stimulation technology [feedly]

Shared via feedly // published on The Neurocritic // visit site

In what appears to be an exclusive story, the New York Times has reported that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) will spend $70 million over the next 5 years to further develop and improve deep brain stimulation (DBS) techniques. This funding is part of President Obama's BRAIN Initiative.

Agency Initiative Will Focus on Advancing Deep Brain Stimulation

By JAMES GORMAN
Published: October 24, 2013

. . .

The federal Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, known as Darpa, announced Thursday that it intended to spend more than $70 million over five years to jump to the next level of brain implants, either by improving deep brain stimulation or by developing new technology.

Justin Sanchez, Darpa program manager, said that for scientists now, "there is no technology that can acquire signals that can tell them precisely what is going on with the brain."

And so, he said, Darpa is "trying to change the game on how we approach these kinds of problems."

The new program, called Systems-Based Neurotechnology and Understanding for the Treatment of Neuropsychological Illnesses, is part of an Obama administration brain initiative, announced earlier this year, intended to promote innovative basic neuroscience. Participants in the initiative include Darpa, as well as the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation.

The announcement of Darpa's goal is the first indication of how that research agency will participate in the initiative. The money is expected to be divided among different teams, and research proposals are now being sought.

I couldn't find a news announcement on DARPA's website or a request for research proposals. The program hasn't even been mentioned in their Twitter feed!

On the other hand, the NIH Director's BRAIN Advisory Committee issued its Interim Report (PDF) on September 16. The report is focused primarily on animal models, including improved technologies for recording neuronal activity and manipulating circuit function. Section 6d mentions Devices for Monitoring and Stimulating the Human Brain, but mostly in the context of recruiting patients as research participants.¹

DARPA tends to fund, shall we say, very ambitious (and unorthodox) research projects. For BRAIN, they want to develop a device that can monitor and detect the symptoms of a psychiatric illness, deliver appropriate DBS, and record neural activity to determine whether the treatment was successful.² The article continues:

Darpa's goal would require solving several longstanding problems in neuroscience, one of which is to develop a detailed model of how injuries or illnesses like depression manifest themselves in the systems of the brain.

The next step is to create a device that can monitor the signs of illness or injury in real time, treat them appropriately and measure the effects of the treatment. The result would be something like a highly sophisticated pacemaker for a brain disorder.

Darpa is asking for research teams to produce a device ready to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval within five years.

"Is it overambitious? Of course," said Dr. Mayberg, adding that working with the brain is "a slow process." But she said that it was an impressive first investment and that the clear emphasis on human illness was "stunning."

The driving force of the research program is to improve treatments for combat veterans who suffer from mental and physical conditions. These are pressing needs for DARPA, problems that warrant immediate solutions. This is one government agency that doesn't want to wait around for "a slow process" to yield results...

Footnotes

¹ Oddly, the NYT article says NIH "has not decided on its emphasis, appears to be aiming for basic research, based on the recommendations from a working committee advising the agency." I thought the 58 page report provided detail on NIH's emphasis.

² Perhaps they would also like a device to predict (and prevent) criminal offending, like in this rough sketch:

Is it possible for a brain scan to predict whether a recently paroled inmate will commit another crime within 4 years? A new study by Aharoni et al. (2013) suggests that the level of activity within the anterior cingulate cortex might provide a clue to whether a given offender will be rearrested.

Dress this up a bit and combine with a miniaturized brain-computer interface that continuously uploads EEG activity to the data center at a maximum security prison. There, machine learning algorithms determine with high accuracy whether a given pattern of neural oscillations signals the imminent intent to reoffend that will trigger deep brain stimulation in customized regions of prefrontal cortex, and you have the plot for a 1990s cyberpunk novel.

Visit website

*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Thursday, October 24, 2013

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU) [feedly]

Shared via feedly // published on Neuroethics & Law Blog // visit site

Last Edition's Most Popular Article(s): Evolution and Bad Boyfriends, New York Times Sunday Review In The Popular Press Perceiving Is Believing, PLoS Blogs Memory Modification, Emotions, and Social "Collective" Memory I (by Greg Caramenico), Neuroethics & Law Blog Tibetan monastics...

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Article: Learning to modulate one's own brain activity: the effect of spontaneous mental strategies.

Learning to modulate one's own brain activity: the effect of spontaneous mental strategies.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24151462?dopt=Abstract

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Attentional control in early and later bilingual children [feedly]

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

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Sunday, October 13, 2013

Article: Finnish Doctors Are Prescribing Video Games for ADHD

Finnish Doctors Are Prescribing Video Games for ADHD
http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/finnish-doctors-are-prescribing-video-games-for-adhd

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Saturday, October 12, 2013

Article: Picking up mistakes

Picking up mistakes
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-09-picking-up-mistakes.html

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Friday, October 11, 2013

Article: How can we harness the Human Brain Project to maximize its futur...

How can we harness the Human Brain Project to maximize its futur...
http://www.slideshare.net/AlvaroF/how-can-we-harness-the-human-brain-project-to-maximize-its-future-health-and-wellbeing-benefits

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Thursday, October 10, 2013

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU) [feedly]

Shared via feedly // published on Neuroethics & Law Blog // visit site

Last Edition's Most Popular Article(s): The Shocking Truth of the Notorious Milgram Obedience Experiments, The Crux In The Popular Press Dogs Are People, Too, New York Times Are Dolphins Not as Smart as We Thought?, Discover Magazine The Crux Blog...

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Wednesday, October 09, 2013

Available: All 2013 SharpBrains Summit slide decks [feedly]

Shared via feedly // published on SharpBrains // visit site

Thanks to the generous support from our Summit Sponsors we are glad to share all slide decks from the 2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit: How Can Neuroscience-based Innovation Enhance Behavioral and Brain Health (September 19-20th). We hope you enjoy them!

–> You can check out all slide decks HERE

–> As an example, you can check out the slide deck corresponding to the session below, simply by clicking on the image.

10:15–11:45am. How can organizations maximize the resilience and productivity of their human resources? Historically, human resource departments have not had the toolkit to develop the most human resource of all – our brains. What are some large employers and insurers doing to apply emerging science and best practices in this domain, via wellness and training initiatives, and HR benefits?

Chair: Andrew Lee, Vice President at Aetna, YGL Class of 2011
Hyong Un, Head of Employee Assistance Programs at Aetna
Evian Gordon, Executive Chairman of Brain Resource
David Nill, Chief Medical Officer at Cerner Corporation

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

New Cognitive Training Study Takes on the Critics [feedly]

Shared via feedly // published on Scientific American - Mind & Brain // visit site

Brain training: yay or nay? It's not so simple. [More]

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Article: ‘Brain training’ may boost working memory, but not intelligence

'Brain training' may boost working memory, but not intelligence
http://www.psypost.org/2013/10/brain-training-may-boost-working-memory-but-not-intelligence-20669

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Human Brain Project: Let’s understand basic mechanisms behind cognition and behaviour [feedly]

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neurons Billion pound brain project under way (BBC News):

"Scientists from 135 institutions, mostly in Europe, are participating in The Human Brain Project (HBP). Co-funded by the EU, it aims to develop the technology needed to create a computer simulation of the brain. It will also build a database of brain research from the tens of thousands of neuroscience papers published annually.

"The Human Brain Project is an attempt to build completely new computer science technology that will enable us to collect all the information we have built up about the brain over the years," said Prof Henry Markram, Director of the HBP at EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne), in Switzerland.

"We should begin to understand what makes the human brain unique, the basic mechanisms behind cognition and behaviour, how to objectively diagnose brain diseases, and to build new technologies inspired by how the brain computes."

To Learn More:

Watch Presentation by Sean Hill at 2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit (requires log-in)

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

The Neuroplasticity Revolution With Dr. Norman Doidge [feedly]

Shared via feedly // published on The Science of Learning Blog // visit site

Norman Doidge, M.D., discusses why the concept of brain plasticity—the brain's ability to grow and change in structure and function in response to experience—is "the most important change in our understanding of the brain in 400 years."

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Sunday, October 06, 2013

Article: Stroop Test - Best Brain Teaser Game

Stroop Test - Best Brain Teaser Game
http://sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/10/05/brain-exercise-the-stroop-test/

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Friday, October 04, 2013

FDA guidelines for mobile health apps relevant to cognitive/ mental health [feedly]

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21 types of health apps the FDA could regulate but won't (MobiHealthNews):

"The FDA final guidance finally published last week and it included very few surprises. One new section in the final guidelines — that was not included in the draft guidance — is a list of the types of apps that the FDA says will fall under its enforcement discretion. That means that these apps may meet the definition of a medical device, but the "FDA intends to exercise enforcement discretion for these mobile apps because they pose lower risk to the public…In the pages to follow is a roundup of the FDA's list of apps that it does not intend to regulate even though they meed the definition of a medical device."

product-moodhacker #1 Some Psychiatric Apps

"According to the FDA's guidance, some psychiatric apps might meet the definition of a mobile device, but it will choose not to regulate some of these apps: "Mobile apps that help patients with diagnosed psychiatric conditions (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder) maintain their behavioral coping skills by providing a 'Skill of the Day' behavioral technique or audio messages that the user can access when experiencing increased anxiety"

#8 Preventative screening apps from established medical sources

"Mobile apps that use patient characteristics such as age, sex, and behavioral risk factors to provide patient-specific screening, counseling and preventive recommendations from well-known and established authorities;"

#15 Tethered PHR apps

"Mobile apps that provide patients a portal into their own health information, such as access to information captured during a previous clinical visit or historical trending and comparison of vital signs (e.g., body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, or respiratory rate);"

#21 Many fitness and wellness apps

"Mobile apps that are intended for individuals to log, record, track, evaluate, or make decisions or behavioral suggestions related to developing or maintaining general fitness, health or wellness,…"

–> Full article: 21 types of health apps the FDA could regulate but won't (MobiHealthNews)

–> Read the FDA's final guidance for mobile medical apps (PDF)

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

PEBS Neuroethics Roundup (JHU) [feedly]

Shared via feedly // published on Neuroethics & Law Blog // visit site

Last Edition's Most Popular Article(s): Neuroscientists in court, Nature Reviews Neuroscience In The Popular Press The Art and Science of Recognizing Yourself, Wellcome Trust Studying How The Blind Perceive Race, National Public Radio Code Switch Fewer Drugs Being Prescribed to...

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Article: How Intense Study May Harm Our Workouts

How Intense Study May Harm Our Workouts
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/how-intense-study-may-harm-our-workouts/

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*******************************************

Kevin McGrew, PhD

Educational Psychologist

Director, IAP

www.themindhub.com

*******************************************

Tuesday, October 01, 2013

Top 30 Highlights from the 2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit: The latest on Brain Research, Health and Innovation | SharpBrains

Top 30 Highlights from 2013 Summit/ Recordings Now Available

Special Announcement

,

Over 30 speakers and 170 registered participants discussed the latest on brain research, health and innovation at the fourth annual SharpBrains Virtual Summit, held in September 2013. Here are some of the fascinating highlights that can help identify emerging opportunities and prepare for significant changes likely to occur in the next 3-5 years.

What surprised/ impressed us the most:

Click to read the Top 30 Highlights from the 2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit: The latest on Brain Research, Health and Innovation

Which of those highlights seem more surprising or relevant to you?

Important Note: All 15 SharpBrains Summit sessions were recorded, and 15+ hours of recordings are available now.

--> Learn Here How to Access the Recordings, so you can understand those 30 highlights in more depth, and discover many more. Registered Summit participants can use same login and password used during Summit. Others can purchase access to the full recordings (USD $175).

Sincerely,

--The Steering Group of the 2013 SharpBrains Virtual Summit

Alvaro Fernandez, CEO & Co-Founder, SharpBrains

Andrew Lee, Vice President at Aetna

Corinna Lathan, Founder and CEO of AnthroTronix

Hilal Lashuel, Associate Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology-Lausanne (EPFL)

Jayne Plunkett, Head of Casualty Reinsurance at Swiss Re

Matthew Bishop, New York Bureau Chief of The Economist

Olivier Oullier, Professor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at Aix-Marseille University

Tan Le, CEO of Emotiv Lifesciences

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