NDC: Stay Sharp Mental Fitness Center

Brain science has shown that YOU CAN STAY SHARP as you age. Although some degree of cognitive decline may be unavoidable, the exploding neuroscience of brain aging is revealing a new road map - showing how to stay mentally fit as you age.

The research is also increasingly clear in showing that mental fitness protects you from the effects of age related cognitive decline and from the effects of Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia.

Based on this growing body of brain science, we have developed a program to help you stay sharp as you age and to protect against the effects of Alzheimer's Disease and other memory disorders of aging. We call it The Stay Sharp Mental Fitness Center, an affiliated company of the NeuroDevelopment Center.

At the Stay Sharp Mental Fitness Center, we are devoted to helping you maintain your mental fitness as you age. Our staff professionals comb the cutting edge of the neuroscience of aging to uncover new knowledge and techniques to help you get sharp and stay sharp. Everyday, new studies are published that point the way forward. We find them and translate the complexities of advanced brain science into practical approaches you can use to stay sharp.

WHY STAY SHARP?

REDUCE AGE RELATED COGNITIVE DECLINE

For many, brain aging does lead to a decline in function: problems with attention and remembering new information, slower thinking, reduced problem solving. But this does not have to happen to you.

Experts from the pinnacle of neuroscience are very clear: by making planned use of the brain's amazing ability to reshape itself, which neuroscience calls neuroplasticity, you can get sharp and stay sharp as you age. Take for example, Michael Merzenich, world renowned neuroscientist from the University of California San Francisco, who is interviewed in the UCSF Science Cafe in a story entitled Why Old Brains Never Die:

"The good new is that the brain is plastic until you die. That means you can count on it staying vibrant and alert if you stoke its electric engine with novelty and challenge. The goal is to drive our aging and less efficient brains in a positive and corrective direction...Don't rest on your laurels. Quit complaining and buck up."

GAIN PROTECTION AND RESILIENCE IN THE FACE OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE AND DEMENTIA

Scientific research is increasingly showing that by taking active steps to maintain your mental fitness as you age, you gain protection from the severe effects of brain pathology such as Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of dementia. It is believed that by staying mentally active, you develop what scientists call a cognitive reserve that allows you to function normally even if your brain is showing the physical signs of a brain disorder.

For example, one project studied a select group of subjects who had remained especially mentally active as they aged. The brains of these individuals showed all of the physical signs of Alzheimer's Disease. But because of their mental fitness, they did not show the mental symptoms of the disease. In fact, they scored better than 80% of individuals who did NOT have Alzheimer's Disease. Mental fitness protected them from the ravages of the disease, even though it was unquestionably present in their brains.

WE TRACK AND EVALUATE THE SCIENCE SO YOU CAN STAY SHARP

The neuroscience of aging has not yet identified exactly what kinds of activities and experiences result in the mental fitness that protects you from dementia. Still, a consensus is emerging that mental fitness in general results in the development of a cognitive reserve that protects against decline in mental function due to aging and due to Alzheimer's Disease.

As new research emerges detailing what type of mental exercise is most helpful, you can count on the the professional staff at the Stay Sharp Mental Fitness Center to carefully monitor and evaluate this research and then work with you to effectively build this type of activity into your mental fitness workout.

The Stay Sharp Mental Fitness Center brings you science you can use to get sharp and stay sharp.

ALZHEIMER"S RESEARCH

The NeuroDevelopment Center is collaborating with The Brown University Department of Psychology in a study of EEG guided brain training or EEG biofeedback as an intervention for Alzheimer's Disease. Dr. Laurence Hirshberg, NeuroDevelopment Center Director, serves as a consultant for the study.

The grant was awarded by The Alzheimer's Association to study principal investgator Dr. Elena Festa Martino. It is a three-year grant to investigate the use of neurofeedback training as a novel behavioral treatment for patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, patients will be provided with real-time feedback on their brainwave activity (measured using electrodes on the scalp) in order to modify those attributes of brain activity that have been found to be disrupted in MCI and AD.

Participants will undergo cognitive assessments both before and after participating in multiple sessions of neurofeedback training. Findings from this project should not only provide information about the potential of this novel intervention to both delay the progressive deterioration and make real improvements in patients' current cognitive functioning, but should also provide a better understanding of the relationship between changes in neurocognitive function and the underlying brain activity associated with aging and the progression from MCI to AD.

Both healthy elderly individuals and patients diagnosed with either MCI or early-stage AD (between the ages of 55 and 80) are needed for this study. Participants will be compensated for their time. For more information, please contact Dr. Festa Martino in the Memory Lab at the Department of Psychology, Brown University, by email memory_lab@brown.edu or by phone at 401-863-3347.