San Francisco Chronicle, Heidi Benson, Chronicle Staff Writer,
Thursday, December 13, 2007 -- Marathon-happy Baby Boomers, those 78 million Americans born from 1946 to '64, were the first generation to make a religion of physical fitness. Now, they are investing time and money to maintain what's above their six-pack abs and rippling biceps: their brains.

"People are living longer, and they want their brains to keep up with their bodies," said Lisa Schoonerman, who is on top of the trend.

She and her life partner, Jan Zivic, have opened a "brain gym," called vibrantBrains, on Sacramento Street in San Francisco.

"Studies show that regular mental workouts are WD-40 for the brain," Schoonerman said. "It's preventative maintenance."

This is music to the rock 'n' roll-addled ears of Boomers, who are hearing that Alzheimer's disease is on the rise, largely due to increased longevity. According to a recent study by Johns Hopkins University, instances of the disease will afflict 1 in 85 people worldwide by 2050.

As they "rage against the dying of the light," Boomers are clamoring for goods and services designed to defy aging and sharpen mental skills. Top among them are brain-training computer software programs and video games, including Nintendo's "Brain Age," which has sold 10 million copies since it went on the market two years ago.

All the latest programs and more are on the menu at vibrantBrains, which Schoonerman and Zivic have created as a neighborhood resource center, with classes, lectures and author appearances, plus drop-in computer brain-training sessions.

"You can come on your own or be part of a group," Zivic said. While health insurers and retirement communities are beginning to invest in such software, the founders of vibrantBrains believe theirs is the first storefront brain gym in a commercial setting.

They offer memberships, just like a gym ($60 per month), and cite studies that show people learn best in group settings. The space is convivial, with a dozen computer stations, a retail area stocked with books and software and a sunny sitting room where tea and "smart" snacks like walnuts - rich in Omega-3 fatty acids - are in reach.

Continue reading.


ONLINE RESOURCES

-- vibrantBrains
email: info@vibrantbrains.com

-- Alzheimer's Research Forum

-- Alzheimer's Disease Education and Referral Center, National Institute on Aging, United States National Institutes of Health

-- Posit Science Corporation

-- Dr. Gary Small, UCLA Center on Aging

-- Brain Fitness for Life

-- Reclaim Your Brain

Labels: aging, boomers, brain, brain exercises, Memory

Many neuropsych tests assess a person's memory or degree of memory loss. But what is memory exactly? Rutgers University (specifically their Memory Disorders Project)puts out an excellent newsletter called Memory Loss and the Brain. Their Web site features online versions of the newsletter as well as an extended Glossary and a good list of Resources with links.The following is from the Glossary:

Memory refers to the storage, retention and recall of information including past experiences, knowledge and thoughts. Memory for specific information can vary greatly according to the individual and the individual's state of mind. It can also vary according to the content of the information itself; thus information which is novel or exciting tends to be better remembered than information which is uninteresting or ordinary. Failure of memory can normally result from failure to adequately store the memory in the first place, failure to retain the information (forgetting), and failure to retrieve the information later.

The precise biological mechanisms of memory are not fully understood, but most scientists believe that memory results from changes in connections or connection strengths between neurons in the brain.

Sensory memory refers to the fact that, after experiencing a stimulus, information about that stimulus is briefly held in memory in the exact form it was received, until it can be further processed.

Short-term memory refers to memories which last for a few minutes.
Intermediate-term or working memory is sometimes considered a synonym for short-term memory. However, memory researchers often consider this a specialized term referring for information about the current task. Thus, even though a specific phone number may occupy short-term memory, working memory contains the information that lets you remember that you are in the process of phoning the gas company to complain about a recent billing error.

Long-term memory is memory that lasts for years or longer. It contains everything we know about the world, including semantic and factual information as well as autobiographical experience.

Read it all here.

Labels: Memory, memory loss, neuropsych, Rutgers University

I've known Jack for a little more than two years now. Close to a year ago I noticed something that is good news for TBI'ers. Other friends of Jack have since noticed the same thing. Jack's memory improved during that year. In fact, I believe his condition has improved in several ways since I first met him. (In case you don't know, Jack is over 80 years old and almost 20 years out from the automobile accident that caused most of the damage to his brain.)

I know the standard line is that most improvement will happen in the first year after the TBI. This is probably true, but that doesn't mean improvement will not continue. It just might happen at a slower rate. Jack is a perfect example of this. 20 years after his injury, his memory starts improving again. (Medical science still has an awful lot to learn about the brain.)

We're not sure to what we should attribute this improvement, but I do know that Jack continually pushes his brain to do more and more. He spends a lot of time on the computer; he stays up to date on his investments; he watches health shows on tv; he listens to NPR; but most of all, he stays involved in projects that interest him -- like this Web site, and digital canopies, the homeless, public tv, TBI's for a myriad of reasons, a national Web connection for the Society of Friends, the beginning of human life and its affect on stem-cell research and abortions, the importance of caregivers and physiatrists, and the list goes on.

Jack also gets a lot of physical exercise. He's an avid tennis player, and, weather permitting, he's on the courts several times a week. In fact, he got back into tennis about a year before we noticed the memory improvement. Coincidence? Maybe. But physical exercise is good for us for a lot of reasons. And if it turns out that it helps improve brain function, we'll be that much ahead of the game if we get started now.

If you've suffered a TBI and have used brain exercises that were helpful, we'd like to hear about them. Please use the Comments option to share your successful excercises with us and other readers. That's one of the main reasons Jack started this blog, to share information with people who live with a TBI. Please help us do that. What brain excercise(s) helped you?

Note: The picture with this post is from the Alzheimers Assisted Living Blog.

Labels: brain exercises, Memory, TBI, traumatic brain injury

A group of German researchers say it can. They've found that odors reactivated new memories in people's brains while they slept. With their study showing that memories are consolidated during sleep, the researchers believe that "smells and perhaps other stiimuli can reinforce brain learning pathways."

Read the entire article.

Labels: brain function, lack of sleep, Memory, TBI