Cognitive Labs

Is it time to check your brain's relative 'power?' or brain age? If so, this scientifically-designed exercise can provide a numerical ranking of your speed and accuracy, closely linked to your "real" brain age rather than your calendar age. It's like the "RealAge" folks are getting around to brain quizzes.

By combining physical and cognitive fitness, it is possible to have a brain for the ages, with greater quickness and flexibility than other people who don't maintain their brains. The theory is, those who engage in mental cross-training build cognitive reserve. If you haven't taken this test, now's your chance.

Let me take the test | No wait, I really want to take it.



Everyone wants to find out. It seems like people can't resist a challenge.

Cognitive reserve has been theorized as relevant in populations as diverse as nuns and London taxi cab drivers, as well as engineers, teachers, scientists, and academics.In each case, people have inculcated large amounts of information.

Is there a connection between brain power and freedom? Amongst those in history most opposed to developing cognitive reserve, the most notorious is Hitler, who criticized mental exercise and cognitive development as a waste of time.

Labels: age, brain, brainage, cognitive, power, reserve

Labels: brain, brain.com, braindotcom, new, simple, test, white, widget

Scientists know that exercise is healthy for our hearts and lungs: what about our brains? If exercise improves brain function, then it also is likely beneficial for mood, cognition, and overall mental performance. Within the Cognitive Labs universe, look at Dr. Ashford, a leading Alzheimer's researcher - he runs for at least one hour every day and is in top shape.

Research studies have shown that moderately intense physical activity, and especially aerobic exercise like brisk walking and running, can lead to improvements in cognitive functions like attention, reasoning, and decision making. Experiments have compared groups of people who exercised regularly with others who did not. The improvements in brain function were most dramatic in older adults, but all ages appeared to benefit from increased physical exercise.

One recent analysis looked at the combined results of 18 different studies of the possible cognitive effects of fitness training in older adults. Although the results showed gains in all types of cognitive activity among the fitness-training groups, the greatest advances were found in the exercisers' executive functioning, which controls higher-level decision making skills like planning, scheduling, multi-tasking, and dealing with ambiguity.

We need executive functioning to be able to select appropriate social behaviors and inhibit inappropriate actions. Other types of cognitive activity include reaction time, the ability to remember or interpret visual information, and lower-level decision-making.

Surveys also show that people who are physically active throughout their lives are less likely to experience cognitive decline later in life. And those who exercise regularly are less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.

Some clues may explain how physical activity can help the cognitive functioning of our brains. It has been shown, for example, that fitness training can improve blood flow in the brain and increase the number of capillaries carrying the blood.

Exercise also increases levels of neurochemicals that stimulate the interconnections among neurons. And exercise may increase the size of some areas of the brain or, at least, slow their rate of decrease as we age. Many of these changes are most prominent in the brain's frontal cortex, the area most important for executive functioning.

So remember, even modest increases in physical activity can be beneficial for your brain and for the important things that organ does for you. How much exercise is enough?

That depends on your age and health, but vigorous walking for 20 to 30 minutes a few days a week is a good start.

Labels: alzheimers, brain, exercise, improves, running

The rich latte, double decaf with a twist, americano, or hand-picked, massaged, rinsed, organic, towel-dried super-premium ecophreak blend may alter the activity of some genes in the brain, reducing the effects of sleep deprivation, even if you don't imbibe the liquid.

As LiveScience reports, coffee has been a part of the human diet for more than 1,000 years, and is now the most widely consumed beverage worldwide.

Scientists have conducted numerous studies that investigate both the beneficial and adverse effects that coffee can have on health, from the antioxidants it possesses to the possible detriments of too much caffeine. Much of coffee's lift has been attributed to its caffeine content.

Dr. Han-Seok Seo and colleagues at Seoul National University allowed lab rats, some of which were stressed by sleep deprivation, to inhale the aroma of coffee. The researchers then compared the expression of certain genes and proteins in the rats' brains. Some of the genes expressed in the coffee-sniffing, stressed rats expressed proteins that have healthful antioxidant properties known to protect nerve cells from stress-related damage. Their stressed out counterparts who weren't allowed to smell coffee didn't show these gene expressions.

More from LiveScience

Labels: brain, caffeine, coffee, genes

Your brain changes during space travel.

In fact, this change begins at high elevations within earth's atmosphere and continues as you approach the vacuum. This is something the space entrepreneurs and budding hoteliers/inflatable condo marketers need to get a bead on.

Even with artificial pressurization and atmosphere, low and zero gravity appears to cause structures in the brain to morph.

Whether or not perception is altered relativistically in proportion to the level or duration of the exposure to such conditions is unknown. Protocols require astronauts to undergo a Windows-based cognitive battery assessment periodically on the I.S.S. Another threat vector is cosmic rays, which may induce a cancerous reaction in body systems. (See video below)

NASA has known this going back to the Mercury and Apollo missions and before, to the 'right stuff' era of 1950's U.S. test pilots and before that, Luftwaffe aces who flew the jet and rocket powered German concept planes of the 1940's. In the design process for these high-speed, high G vehicles Nazi aeronautical engineers received feedback on imponderable questions such as "How much G-force can an individual undergo before blacking out?" and "What is the response of the human organism to the vacuum" from their counterparts in the SS who had access to a supply of test subjects.

Link: Society for Neuroscience Discussion

Labels: brain, cosmic, G, luftwaffe, nazi, rays, rightstuff, space

Once again, the objective mirror of science casts lights on a controversial topic. In this case, the National Academy of Sciences' latest publication is reporting that gay men and straight women share common attributes in the area of the brain responsible for emotion, anxiety, and mood.

"The observations cannot be easily attributed to perception or behavior," the researchers from Sweden's Karolinska Institute wrote. "Whether they may relate to processes laid down during the fetal or postnatal development is an open question."

Brain scans of 90 volunteers showed that the brains of heterosexual men and homosexual women were slightly asymmetric with the right hemisphere slightly larger than the left, Ivanka Savic and Pers Lindstrom wrote. The brains of gay men and heterosexual women were not.

Then they measured blood flow to the amygdala -- the area key for the "fight-or-flight" response -- and found it was wired in a similar fashion in gay men and heterosexual women. Symmetrically, the brains of heterosexual men and those of the inhabitants of the island of Lesbos, e.g., lesbians, also were similar.

Labels: brain, gay, heterosexual, karolinska, lesbos, lindstrom, savic

An autopsy was recently performed on a deceased 115 year old woman who left her body to science at age 82.

Her brain showed almost no evidence of Alzheimer's disease. The finding suggests Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are not inevitable, as had been suspected.

"Our observations suggest that, in contrast to general belief, the limits of human cognitive function may extend far beyond the range that is currently enjoyed by most individuals," said lead researcher Gert Holstege, a neuroscientist at the University Medical Center Groningen, in The Netherlands.

The results are detailed in the August issue of the journal Neurobiology of Aging.

This finding underscores the need for individuals to take proactive action to manage their cognitive fitness.

Holstege is a leader in imaging and analyzing the orgasmic brain of both men and women.

Labels: alzheimers, brain, holstege, proactive

Not one, but two Tesla tests...


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src="http://cognitivelabs.com/cognitive.js">

and Nikola Tesla...


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src="http://cognitivelabs.com/cognitive.js">

Labels: brain, energy, nikola, solar, tesla, voltage

// posted by neurofuture9:08 AM permanent link

links to this post
tags:   

  tags: take a quick memory test | games for your brain | moving pix for your brain | gamer IQ

There's a new test coming up, as well as a really interesting attention-requiring game. We'll keep you posted. Hint: the test has something to do with electricity.

Labels: babel, brain, electricity, free, power, test

Wash it down with some Hawaiian punch (fruit juicy)

Oh please, no more of these...green eggs and spam

ham, eggs, sausage, and spam,

spam, spam, spam, spam....(drumroll)

Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 07:21:22 +0800 (HKT)
From: "FROM: MR.KAI CHIN."
Address Book Add Mobile Alert
Subject: FROM: MR.KAI CHIN.


FROM: MR.KAI CHIN.
(Senior Vice President, Head of Corporate Banking Division).
Fubon Bank Limited Hong Kong. 38 Des Voeux Road Central,
Hong Kong.
Email: -kai_chin101@yahoo.com.hk

Good Day,

It is understandable that you might be a little bit apprehensive because
you do not know me but I have a lucrative business proposal of mutual
interest to share with you.

Let me start by introducing myself. I am Mr.Kai.Chin. Senior Vice
President, Head of Corporate Banking Division {Fubon Bank Ltd Hong Kong.}.
I have an obscured Business suggestion for you.

In October, 2002, my late client Ghazi Musa Hassan, Iraqi Crude oil
merchant made a numbered fixed deposit of Fifteen Million, Five Hundred
Thousand United State Dollars (US$15,500,000.00) only in my branch. Upon
maturity several notice was sent to him, even during the war (U.S and
Iraqi war), Five years ago (2003). Again after the war another
notification was sent and still no response came from him. We later found
out that Ghazi Musa Hassan, and his family had been killed during the war
in a bomb blast that hit his home at Mukaradeeb where his personal oil
well was:
http://www.iraqmemorialwall.org/iraqicasualties.html

After further investigation it was also discovered that Ghazi Musa Hassan
did not declare any next of kin in his official papers including the paper
work of his bank deposit and he also confided in me the last time he was
in my office that no one except me knew of his deposit in my bank. So,
Fifteen Million, Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars is still lying
in my bank and no one will ever come forward to claim it. What bothers me
most is that according to the laws of my country at the expiration six {6}
years the funds will revert to the ownership of the Hong Kong Government
if nobody applies to claim the funds. Against this backdrop, my suggestion
to you is that I will like you as a foreigner to stand as the next of kin
to Ghazi Musa Hassan so that you will be able to receive his funds.

MODALITIES:

I want you to know that I have had everything planned out so that we shall
come out successful. I have an attorney that will prepare the necessary
document that will back you up as the next of kin to Ghazi Musa Hassan,
all that is required from you is to provide me with your Full Names and
Address so that the attorney can commence his job. After you have been
made the next of kin, the attorney will also fill in for claims on your
behalf and secure the necessary approval and letter of probate in your
favour for the movement of the funds to an account that will be provided.
We are going to adopt a legalized method and the attorney will prepare all
the necessary documents in your favour.

There is a reward for this project and it is a task well worth
undertaking. There is no risk involved at all in this matter, I have
evaluated the risks and the only risk I have here is for you refusing to
work with me and alerting my bank. I am the only one who knows of this
situation, good fortune has blessed you with a name that has planted you
into the centre of relevance in my life. Please endeavour to observe
utmost discretion in all matters concerning this issue. Once the funds
have been transferred to your nominated bank account we shall share in the
ratio of 60% for me, 40% for you but this can be subjected to further
negotiations. I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to
what the consequences, but I know within me that nothing ventured is
nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter
of gold. Please observe this instruction religiously.

Should you be interested please send me your,

1, Full Names,
2, Private Phone Number,
3, Current Residential Address,

And I will prefer you reach me on my private email address below: and
finally after that I shall furnish you with more information's about this
operation. Your earliest response to this letter through my private email
address: (kai_chin101@yahoo.com.hk) will be appreciated.

Kind Regards,

MR. Kai Chin.

Labels: brain, spam

// posted by neurofuture10:21 PM permanent link

links to this post
tags:   

  tags: take a quick memory test | games for your brain | moving pix for your brain | gamer IQ

The executive function exercise of decision-making speed is one of the best holistic regimens for overall brain fitness: sensitive to changes in response time, choice, and also cognitive "load" placed on the frontal lobe and amygdala. The associated multi-tasking replicates a computational scenario of excess simultaneous users. Please assess a proposed new design sketch...

Labels: actionscript, brain, executive_function, Flash, skins

Carl Sagan and the Library of Alexandria: where the brain was conceived. (Cosmos is an old classic miniseries, ran on PBS in the 1980's)

Labels: brain, cosmos, sagan

I bet you didn't know that Cognitive Labs was involved in something that involved the U.S. Chess Federation. Well, now you know. It seems that chess may build cognitive skills, and rely on a tendency to strategize that is encoded genetically.

The Federation looked at BrainSpeed (tm) and decided to support it as a neuroenhancer, which came with our testing.

Myself, I like tri-dimensional chess.

More on this story later...

Labels: brain, chess, cognitivelabs.com, federation

Scientists are beginning to realize that finding Alzheimer's earlier is the key to developing a preventative strategy.

It's possible that the destructive seeds of the disease are germinated decades before recognized onset. By then, it's almost too little, too late.

For that reason, developing a proactive approach earlier may yield dividends.

If your brain's processing speed begins to slow and the pace accelerates, that could be cause for concern.

For this self-monitoring is key. Some decline is normal with aging. Rapid decline is not. You would not want to carry 100 pounds of excess weight for 30 years and then find that your life expectancy is compromised. Well, it's the same for the brain

Labels: alzheimers, brain, nytimes, onset

2007 Developments...


-Dr. James Watson, co-discoverer of the double-helix, gets decoded
and elects not to know his APOEe4 (Alzheimer's genetic risk) status - book

-Brain Training: a Nascent Industry gets more support, led at the consumer end by Nintendo which has sold 10 million copies of BrainAge

-Personal Genetic Assessment Becomes Widely Available

-"Genebook/MyDNA" Hypothetically available from deCodeme and 23and me
-friends and contacts can see each others genetic make-up
-will people select associations in the future based on the data?
-Science fictional concept from many works including the film 'Gattaca'

-Connection Between APOEe4,Cognitive Speed and Early Detection of Impairment
shown by Cognitive Labs in peer-reviewed research

-Scientists moving toward cocktail approach in treating Alzheimer's
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071127150841.htm

-Consensus on Early detection of Alzheimers is becoming increasingly vocal

-Cognitive 'Speed' a key measure of cognitive fitness, studies show speed exercises maintain brain fitness more effectively than randomly selected activities. Also, eat chocolate and have sex

-Cognitive Labs' creates first open source brain-training gadgets that can run anywhere

(successful beta complete, this may be one for 2008)

-According to New Scientist, there may be Multiple Universes in the same place, which would help to explain the problem of the 'missing mass' in astrophysics. Put a bag with a few grams of sand on a scale, yet the weight is 1 kilogram. Our present detection methods are insensitive to these hidden grains of sand.

Univ. of Arizona paper on missing mass

These Developments, in our biased opinion, will contribute towards a better year ahead - with greater life, prosperity and health for everyone.



(ankh, wedja, seneb)

Labels: 10, 2007, brain, science, Ten, Top, topten

Brain.com is number 1 on dogpile when you type in brain. Similarly it performs well on Live, Ask.com(Jeeves), Google, and Yahoo. This is totally organic and free-range,fat-free, anti-oxidant, pro-flavenoid, green tea consuming, hikes around freely, and pro-solar, as an experience. :-)

Labels: brain

control a game with your hands alone?

It may be possible according to this Israeli start-up.

Or use your brain

I recently was talked through a demo of this concept in a multiplayer online format (MMO) by a co. in Southern California.

Think about that.

Labels: brain, hands

Evel Knievel (deceased Nov. 30, 2007) jumps the Snake River (Idaho) Canyon...

prototype for daredevil action adventure genre that created the six million dollar man...

Labels: brain, evelknievel, memory, snake

Recently, a Japanese probe, SELENE, launched by JAXA, imaged the moon and the rising earth using HDTV technology, which were the 1st high-def pictures of these two celestial bodies.



Shortly, this event will become our newest brain game. Astronomy is a popular pastime in Japan-more than in the U.S.

Labels: astronomy, brain, jaxa, learning-therapy, selene

It is supposed that the brain evolved from the ganglia of the earthworm.



"Each level allows to answer specific "how" questions.
Strong coupling between the levels, no systematic approximations leading from one level to another.

Basic neuroanatomy and localization of functions.

Brain imaging techniques: MRI, fMRI, EEG, MEG, SPECT, combinations.
Lesions, diseases and injuries, controlled experiments on animals."

from this AI site

"coupling" is a key, and may refer to the arguments of an algorithm and how they inter-relate with one another.

Making sense of the sea of material is the challenge, so you can have some fundamental 'ruling' relationships and subroutines that extend as appendages.

Labels: brain, rosetta, worm

Only a few years ago, scientists believed that substances inhaled into the nostrils quickly entered the bloodstream and impacted the individual. However, it turns out that
this is not the case.

Instead, it turns out that the nasal passage is the qickest route to the brain and penetration of the the blood brain barrier, according to scientists.

Interested? Stay tuned for the full story as revealed at SRI International on October 3.

Labels: blood, bloodbrainbarrier, brain, frey, sri, sri international

1984 was an amazing year. First, it was the year in which George Orwell's dystopia was set, dominated by "newspeak" a language that reduced the ability of the average citizen to question authority with aphorisms such as 'plusgood' and 'doubleplusgood' as discourse was reduced to totalitarian simplicity.

Secondly, there was a revolt against 1984 with the release of the MacIntosh, and the celebrated destruction of IBM's new newspeak, personified by its boring corporate PC clones and rows of droning, grey-suited organization men, by the hammer throwing jogger. Researchers in the British medical journal Lancet are calling for a similar revolt in the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease. It's time to change the way doctors diagnose Alzheimer's disease, says an international panel of experts.

Despite more than two decades of scientific advances in understanding Alzheimer's disease, doctors are still stuck in 1984. That's when a U.S. National Institutes of Health working group came up with the clinical criteria for a formal diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.

It's time for radical change, argue Bruno Dubois, MD, of Salpêtrière Hospital, Paris, and 18 other leading Alzheimer's experts.

The old criteria "have now fallen behind the unprecedented growth of scientific knowledge," Dubois and colleagues write in the August issue of The Lancet Neurology.

That's true, says Norman Foster, MD, director of the Center for Alzheimer's Care, Imaging, and Research at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City. Foster's editorial accompanies the paper by Dubois and colleagues.

"We now are seeing the potential to disrupt the basic development of Alzheimer's disease with medications," Foster said. "So we want early diagnosis and early intervention. The current criteria get in the way of this."

High-Tech Alzheimer's Diagnosis

People are said to have probable Alzheimer's disease if they have two clinical signs: a memory disorder and impairment of at least one other mental function. For an Alzheimer's diagnosis, both these problems must interfere with social function or the activities of daily living.

That was a big breakthrough 25 years ago. Since then, doctors have learned that several other conditions cause the same impairments. Yet with an emphasis on earlier treatment, there's pressure on doctors to diagnose Alzheimer's disease as early as possible.

"We are caught between a rock and a hard place as clinicians," Foster says. "We cannot distinguish accurately when mild cognitive impairment represents Alzheimer's disease, when it represents some other significant illness, or when it is just a passing problem."

Dubois and colleagues propose using a new formula. To get an Alzheimer's diagnosis, a person would first have to suffer memory loss that gets worse over a six-month period. That person would also have to have at least one physical "biomarker" of Alzheimer's disease:

* An MRI scan showing shrinking of a particular part of the brain
* Abnormal proteins -- beta-amyloid or tau tangles -- in the cerebrospinal fluid
* A PET scan showing patterns of brain activity linked to Alzheimer's disease
* A genetic mutation linked to Alzheimer's disease

These are expensive, high-tech tests. All have yet to be "validated" -- that is, proven to detect Alzheimer's disease within specified limits.

Foster says the most promising of these high-tech Alzheimer's tests is already in use: genetic testing for an Alzheimer's gene. However, only a small percentage of Alzheimer's patients carry the genetic mutations known to cause Alzheimer's disease.

The next most promising of these tests, Foster says, is a PET scan for deposits of amyloid protein in the brain. Today, those deposits very likely mean Alzheimer's if a person already has symptoms. It's still unclear what these deposits mean for people who do not have symptoms.

Finally, Foster says that looking for amyloid or tau proteins in the cerebrospinal fluid holds great promise. But it's not yet clear how often these proteins predict Alzheimer's disease.

Dubois and colleagues call for intensive research aimed at validating the new criteria. Foster strongly agrees.

"Diagnosis is the foundation of effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease," he says. "When physicians and families just accept terms like 'senility' or 'dementia,' they give up the opportunity for more effective, targeted therapy."

Labels: 1984, alzheimers, brain

Cognitive Labs has passed 1 million unique visitors in 2007, earlier today! Thanks for your help. Trailing 12 months is 1.4 million, forward 12 months is 4 million to 7 million visitors, following an S-curve.

Labels: alexa, brain, coglabs, rank, uniques, visitors

I've received a couple of emails on integrating iBrain with Google Adsense, or other ad services that fit into the margin. My answer was that you can (1) easily add iBrain to your blog's margin, blogroll - or list of links, or the footer, or in the post.

Here's an example:


from recoveryissexy.com - also you can see it at the tripover.com

This is a particularly good fit for authors, which I'll explain in a future post.

(2) With regard to the technology, well I'm giving an invited talk at SRI International next week, a place where they developed the computer mouse and licensed it to xerox parc. Pick up ibrain at Brain.com or cognitivelabs/widgets

Labels: brain, iBrain widget, tripover, widgets

Aerial image of SRI (wikipedia)

Cognitive Labs' has just concluded an outstanding meeting with SRI International. They've been party to some amazing innovations including the computer mouse, which they licensed to Xerox Parc for a small sum, as well as a variety of highly interesting, speculative projects. You can read more about the scope of SRI here. The 2.1 million people who have signed up at Cognitive Labs - seems to have been somewhat impressive, and speaks to the future of extended cognitive health management.

Labels: brain, Cognitive Labs, patents, sri international, stanford

ReZoom is a site for boomers to revitalize their bodies, finances, relationships, and more. Here's their piece on the brain and memory with Dr. Gary Small; we're mentioned at the end.

Labels: brain, Cognitive Labs, finance, gary small, rezoom

Should there be a Bratz Brain test? That might be simply too commercial. Take a test

Labels: brain, bratz, htt shallow, ridiculous, test

Take a Free Brain Power Test here or on brain.com

Labels: brain, brain.com, free brain power test

Transformers Brain Gym from Cognitive Labs. Train your brain with pics from the Dreamworks/Paramount film. Bumbleebee, Optimus Prime, and more. Using the stock photos of the film from Yahoo! Movies. Could it happen with more movies? We'll see.

Labels: brain, brainage, optimus, prime, reaction time, spielberg, transformers