On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

“ WAR ’ S NEW WOUNDS. A shock wave of brain injuries ”
That was the headline in a Washington Post article written by Ronald Glasser, published on Sunday, April 8, 2007. It reported a rather astounding statistic that applies to veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars: About 30% of soldiers in those conflicts have been directly exposed to IED or other powerful explosions. That exposure has resulted in diffuse physical trauma to their brains. To paraphrase Mr. Glasser, detonation of any powerful explosive generates a blast wave of high pressure that spreads out at about twice the speed of sound away from the explosion, and travels with great force over hundreds of yards. The in...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - October 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Fitness Brain Trauma, Injury Cognitive impairments Source Type: blogs

Reactions to a book about an autistic boy and his mom
Last month, I recommended a book called “Strange Son”, written by a mother who struggled to communicate with, understand, and help her own autistic child. When I was looking up the URL for the book, I scanned through the reviews posted on Amazon, and was stunned by two negative reactions. One was from a reader who panned the book, stating (I’m paraphrasing) that a mother had to be pretty far out to lunch to have a son who had knowledge about lots of things that she, his mom, was absolutely unaware of. To the reviewer, this reflected unbelievable insensitivity on the part of the boy’s mother. Who, th...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - September 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Autism Origins, Treatments Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Language Development Source Type: blogs

A recommended book (for some readers)
“Strange Son”, by Portia Iversen is a personal account of a very special individual (the co-founder of Cure Autism Now; a friend of mine) struggling to understand and help her autistic son. It is NOT a book about the general science of autism or about the landscape of rehabilitative therapies applied to help autistics, because it is sharply focussed on Portia’s own journey of understanding, which necessarily describes only a small part of the complex science and treatment landscape in the world of autism. The achievement described in the book is notable: A mother with a very severely impaired child comes ...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - August 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Autism Origins, Treatments Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Language Development Source Type: blogs

My own experiences at “ brain fitness ” exercises.
I was just training in BrainHQ this morning. Because I have been working on the development of these exercises over the past several years, I’ve spent many an hour hunched over my computer “trying to get the answer right” on model training programs!! My current goal is to make brain fitness training part of my regular daily routine. I’m already pretty addicted to my daily time spent in BrainHQ, and am looking forward to these visual-skills, attention-skills and executive-skills training programs with considerable anticipation. A key is to put the necessary time for exercise onto your schedule in a ...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - July 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Fitness Brain Trauma, Injury Cognitive impairments Source Type: blogs

More, better, quicker. New middle/high school computer-based language training programs
I attended a scientific meeting a few years ago in which Bill Jenkins, the program development team leader at Scientific Learning, described a radically improved version of one of their middle- and high school-targeted language learning programs (which they call “Literacy Advanced”). They have completely re-worked the game-play aspects of these exercises. Changes resulted in very significant improvements in training efficiency. Even though the content in the exercises has been increased by 29%, these more efficient and more engaging exercises are actually completed (high-schoolers’ speech reception and re...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - June 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Autism Origins, Treatments Brain Fitness Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Language Development Posit Science Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs

Brain plasticity-based “ cognitive training ” elevates BDNF
Serum BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophin factor) has been repeatedly shown to be lower than normal in schizophrenic, bipolar and depressed patient populations. Moreover, the severity of manias or depression have been shown to be inversely correlated with serum BDNF. This key brain trophic factor plays a complicated panoply of roles in brain development, in maintaining the metabolic status and transmitter production in neuronal populations, in protecting neuron populations, and in enabling brain plasticity processes. It is specifically released as a function of cortical or subcortical nucleus activity levels. At least in the ...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - May 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Fitness Brain Trauma, Injury Cognitive impairments Posit Science Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, et alia Source Type: blogs

The price we pay
A study in an issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine focussed on autism spectrum disorders. A paper in that issue authored by a public health economist, Dr. Michael Ganz, used a rich variety of sources to determine the societal costs of autism. In today’s dollars: $3.2 million/autistic individual/lifetime. $35 BILLION overall, in direct and indirect expenses/annum. Which raises 3 simple questions in my mind. 1. Given these costs, how in the heck can we justify spending so few dollars to determine why the apparent incidence of this devastating condition is still on the rise? Discovering that cause...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - April 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Autism Origins, Treatments Brain Fitness Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Language Development Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs

A recommended book about “ neuro-plasticity ”
The Brain That Changes Itself (2007) by Normal Doidge, M.D. This interesting book chronicles some of the stories of the men and women who have ushered in the new “brain plasticity” revolution in neuroscience. As we repeatedly emphasize in this blog, the brain is no longer viewed by neuroscientists as a machine that is hard-wired early in early life, unable to adapt, and destined to “wear out” with age. This book attempts to document how scientists are unlocking the secrets of the powerful, lifelong, adaptability – or “plasticity” – of the brain, for the benefit of child and...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - March 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Autism Origins, Treatments Brain Fitness Brain Trauma, Injury Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Language Development Posit Science Reading and Dyslexia Schizophrenia, Bipolar Source Type: blogs

Studies of identical twins can provide good answers
In another entry related to the neuroscience of aging, I cited a study by Heflin et al on the significantly negative mental consequences of surviving cancer and its treatments. This “twins study” was one of a series of such experiments that have come from the University of Southern California research team of Margaret Gatz. Her group’s research is a good starting point for learning about environmental contributors to cognitive deficits and senility, because studies conducted in identical twins (she relies heavily on a large Swedish identical-twin roster) eliminate known contributions of genetics and child...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - February 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Fitness Source Type: blogs

For “ chemobrain ” et alia: think “ brain fitness training ”
If you have this personal history of cancer and chemo- or radiation-therapy, or know someone or are treating someone who has lived it, you might seriously consider enrolling (them) in a serious “brain fitness program”. That is ESPECIALLY the case if memory or other cognitive losses have been noted after either chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. Posit Science is now supporting a study that is designed to document improvements in cognitive function resulting from its “brain fitness training” strategy (see www.brainhq.com) in chemotherapy-treated breast cancer survivors. While initial findings in t...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - January 1, 2018 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Fitness Brain Trauma, Injury Chemobrain Source Type: blogs

Does exercise make kids smarter?
That’s the claim of a lead article in an issue of Newsweek many years ago. The authors cite interesting evidence from a study conducted at an outstanding brain plasticity-oriented neuroscience research institute at the University of Illinois, where investigators have found that the kids with the fittest bodies are the kids with the fittest brains. There is a growing body of evidence that has argued that physical exercise is good for your brain. University of Illinois scientist Bill Greenough conducted a landmark study that showed, more than a decade ago, that physical exercise has a direct, positive impact on enrichi...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - December 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Autism Origins, Treatments Brain Fitness Cognitive Impairment in Children Cognitive impairments Language Development Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs

Learning math on the streets
As in many places in the developing world, Mexican cities have many children on their streets and plazas, begging, or selling small trinkets of toys or whatever to whoever passes by. It is often difficult to turn these bright-eyed kids down, and by the end of the evening I can find my pockets full of little things that I have no use for — even while these street children are usually the obvious sales force for a supervising adult (usually mom). Interacting with these bright little salespeople reminds me of a study conducted on the streets in Recife, a large city of more than a million people on the northeast coast of...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - November 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Brain Fitness Childhood Learning Cognitive impairments Language Development Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs

Kids in car seats. Unintended consequences.
I’m in Queretaro, Mexico this week, visiting a world-class Neuroscience Insitute that is a part of the great Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). I am struck by the beautiful, happy children in the 17th-and 18th-Century old city center where my wife and I are staying. We’ve seen many children out in this beautiful, old city having great fun with their parents and grandparents and other kin. We’ve also seen lots of children playing together, making up their own games and fun on the spot. One great change that has occured in child-rearing in most of North America over the past several decades has been th...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - October 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Brain Fitness Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Language Development Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs

A triple whammy
This study is special because it uses an analysis of cognitive ability and senility in identical twins. By this strategy, inherited and childhood rearing factors are ruled out from contributing to measured differences. The results: You’ve had cancer. You’re twice as likely to be significantly cognitively impaired. You’re twice as likely to be senile. Like I said, a triple whammy. ONE MORE POINT: People argue about whether or not Alzheimer’s incidences are on the rise. How can they NOT be, when many factors that affect the probability and the timing of AD onset are products of modern societies? Mayb...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - September 1, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Aging and the Brain Brain Fitness Brain Trauma, Injury Chemobrain Cognitive impairments Source Type: blogs

Brain Training & Plasticity Public Outreach
Come join me this Wednesday, June 28th, on the social discussion website Reddit to talk about brain plasticity. Reddit has around 250 million users and provides a great opportunity to interact with, and educate, the public on what it means to have a plastic brain. Invite your colleagues, grad students, friends and family to publicly ask questions and revel in the brain’s amazing ability to alter its anatomical, neurochemical, and functional performance across the lifespan. The thread will become live at 9:30 am PST on Wednesday the 28th at https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/. To ask a question, please register and then search...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - June 27, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Dr. Merzenich Tags: Brain Fitness Brain Plasticity BrainHQ Posit Science Source Type: blogs