Invest in Brain Health to Drive Innovation and Prosperity | SharpBrains
In an increas?ingly knowledge-based and innovation-driven econ?omy, human brains?not finan?cial capital?are becom?ing the pri?mary dri?vers of busi?ness suc?cess.?Engaged, cre?ative cit?i?zens and work?ers?mean the dif?fer?ence between suc?cess and fail?ure at the orga?ni?za?tional and soci?etal levels.
Look?ing at the prob?lem from the per?spec?tive of brain health, there are sig?nif?i?cant issues play?ing out across a broad spec?trum: How does a per?son, an orga?ni?za?tion or even a coun?try achieve peak, opti?mal?per?for?mance? How do we trans?late neu?ro?plas?tic?ity find?ings into health?care and train?ing solu?tions? And how do we cope with injuries to the brain due to stress, aging or otherwise?
The chal?lenge and oppor?tu?nity is actu?ally stag?ger?ing, as dis?cussed in-depth dur?ing the 2012 Sharp?Brains Vir?tual Sum?mit: Opti?miz?ing Health through Neu?ro?plas?tic?ity, Inno?va?tion and Data (June 7 ? 14th, 2012).
For exam?ple, ?brain and ner?vous sys?tem dis?or?ders account for more hos?pi?tal?iza?tions, long-term care and chronic suf?fer?ing than nearly all other ill?nesses com?bined, result?ing in a global eco?nomic bur?den of greater than $2 tril?lion per year.? (Source: ?The Neu?rotech?nol?ogy Indus?try 2011 Report,??Neu?roIn?sights.)
Accord?ing to?a report?by the Cana?dian Men?tal Health Asso?ci?a?tion, each day an esti?mated 500,000 Cana?di?ans miss work due to brain health issues. This absen?teeism is esti?mated to account for 70% of all work?force dis?abil?ity costs. And the pic?ture is sim?i?lar in other advanced economies such as the US and the?UK.
Inno?va?tion eco?nom?ics, a dom?i?nant pol?icy for the 21st?cen?tury, shows con?vinc?ingly that the lion?s share of steady eco?nomic growth is deter?mined by pro?duc?tiv?ity and inno?va?tion. It is only through actions taken by work?ers, com?pa?nies, entre?pre?neurs and gov?ern?ments that an economy?s true pro?duc?tive and inno?v?a?tive power is unleashed.
So how do we build brain capital?
Enter ?cog?ni?tive reserve,? a con?cept high?lighted dur?ing the?2012 Sharp?Brains Vir?tual Sum?mit. Ideas around cog?ni?tive reserve arise from observed incon?sis?ten?cies between the extent of brain pathol?ogy and the clin?i?cal man?i?fes?ta?tions of brain changes. Two peo?ple may have the same degree of pathol?ogy but exhibit very dif?fer?ent man?i?fes?ta?tions of disease.
Many epi?demi?o?log?i?cal stud?ies point to the power of brain reserve: some peo?ple actu?ally cope bet?ter with brain dam?age. Why? Their brain net?works are more flex?i?ble, resilient and adapt?able.?Net?work the?ory?is a pow?er?ful tool for under?stand?ing the human brain in this?way.
What can we do about?it?
Fac?tors affect?ing cog?ni?tive reserve are largely envi?ron?men?tal and there?fore under our indi?vid?ual and soci?etal con?trol. We know that cer?tain life experiences?bilingualism, for example?can help build brain reserve, cre?ate more synapses and impart com?ple?men?tary anatomic changes to the?brain.
As mature adults then, are we beyond expe?ri?enc?ing mean?ing?ful brain changes??Far from?it.
Cog?ni?tive reserve is a mal?leable capac?ity. At the Sharp?Brains Sum?mit ses?sion ?How will Health incor?po?rate Brain??,?Peter White?house?pre?sented a very hope?ful mes?sage: we can actively inter?vene for bet?ter brain health?both genetic and expe?ri?en?tial com?po?nents are at play.?Edu?ca?tion, occu?pa?tion and chal?leng?ing leisure activities?almost any?thing that requires a per?son to per?form at their max?i?mum capacity?will all enhance cog?ni?tive reserve. Sharp?Brains has even pub?lished a book, hand?picked as a Best Book by AARP, and cre?ated an online course?empow?er?ing con?sumers to become their own ?brain fit?ness coaches,? taught by inno?va?tor and edu?ca?tor Alvaro Fer?nan?dez and neu?ro?sci?en?tists Alvaro Pascual-Leone and Robert Bilder.
Build?ing per?sonal brain cap?i?tal?is a con?tin?u?ous process, and each life stage event con?tributes to reserve in later life. Just think of edu?ca?tion as a com?po?nent of health: it opens the door to big changes in how we view all kinds of activ?i?ties that pro?mote brain reserve.
One size does not fit?all.
It is now evi?dent that spe?cific pro?grams of activ?ity impact spe?cific brain regions. These effects are vis?i?ble through brain imag?ing, and their qual?i?ta?tive ben?e?fits are mea?sur?able. How?ever, the effects appear to be lim?ited to tar?geted domains?play a game that improves your speed of pro?cess?ing and it will indeed improve, but it won?t nec?es?sar?ily lead to improve?ments in other cog?ni?tive capac?i?ties. Thus, com?puter games can be very pre?cise and pow?er?ful tools used for acquir?ing spe?cific skills or they can sim?ply train your brain to remem?ber lots of?facts.
Nolan Bush?nell, the founder of Atari and the co-founder of?Brain?rush?and?Anti-AgingGames.com,?spoke at length at the 2012 Sharp?Brains Sum?mit about neuro-games as fast tracks to learn?ing and main?tain?ing brain plas?tic?ity through?out life at the ses?sion ?What are con?sumer beliefs and behav?iors around brain train?ing today, and how will they evolve??
All my friends and rel?a?tives know about my pas?sion for under?stand?ing the inner work?ings of the human brain. But what most of them really like to hear about are spe?cific recipes that they can fol?low to improve their health. After all, as con?sumers we don?t care about our indi?vid?ual organs, we sim?ply want to be healthy. Our brains learn and allow us to act in the world and to accom?plish things that are impor?tant to us as individuals.
In my work at?Cog?nic?iti, a Cana?dian com?pany co-founded by Bay?crest and MaRS Dis?cov?ery Dis?trict, I?ve looked in depth at the inter?face of brain func?tion and health: How are per?sonal aggra?va?tions, caused by fail?ing mem?ory, described to fam?ily doc?tors? And what is typ?i?cally done about?them?
The cur?rent state of the brain-health inter?face is well cap?tured by this quote from one of our pilot cus?tomers: ?As I look online through these forums?Google searches as well as what my doc?tors tell me?I am sur?prised I have yet to see a firm answer.?
Mar?ket research find?ings sup?port this?point:
- 82% of the experts and pio?neers?sur?veyed?by Sharp?Brains say con?sumers should take charge of their own?brain health
- Three out of four of them see brain health as a jour?ney to max?i?mize per?sonal peak per?for?mance rather than a one-time, disease-based, solution
At Cog?nic?iti, our research and devel?op?ment efforts have been aimed at address?ing issues inher?ent to the consumer-healthcare inter?face. After all, for?get?ful?ness is tran?sient by nature and atti?tudes of dis?missal and res?ig?na?tion still prevail.
How do we iden?tify poten?tial prob?lems?early?
How do we best design a?self-administered tool?for the early iden?ti?fi?ca?tion of poten?tial prob?lems? How can we address the gap between emerg?ing sci?ence and con?sumer understanding?
Cog?nic?iti has been attack?ing the root prob?lem for con?sumers. There is still no quick, inex?pen?sive and reli?able tool that a per?son can use to indi?cate whether the cog?ni?tive changes they are expe?ri?enc?ing are nor?mal and age related or whether they are pos?si?bly indica?tive of health issues.?We believe that early assessment?along with science-based edu?ca?tion and interventions?will play an ever more?crit?i?cal role in?brain health.
For indi?vid?u?als who are expe?ri?enc?ing nor?mal, age-related cog?ni?tive changes, know?ing that their cog?ni?tive per?for?mance falls within the range expected for their age should help alle?vi?ate their anx?i?eties and reduce unnec?es?sary vis?its to health pro?fes?sion?als. For those who have health issues beyond what is expected with nor?mal aging, com?bin?ing a timely visit to the doctor?s office with a means to clearly explain spe?cific areas of cog?ni?tive dif?fi?culty will help doc?tors decide whether or not fur?ther inves?ti?ga?tion is warranted.
The idea of cog?ni?tive reserve implies that indi?vid?u?als can use a spe?cific brain net?work more effi?ciently, employ dif?fer?ent cog?ni?tive strate?gies and call upon alter?nate brain net?works to achieve bet?ter cog?ni?tive per?for?mance. Unfor?tu?nately, to date, we?ve dis?cov?ered no sin?gle direct route to this desir?able?end.
The ben?e?fits of meditation
The clos?est thing to a ?brain train?ing? sil?ver bul?let is per?haps med?i?ta?tion. A grow?ing body of research indi?cates the cor?re?la?tion between med?i?ta?tion and neu?ro?plas?tic?ity. It seems that med?i?ta?tion trans?forms both the archi?tec?ture and func?tion?ing of our brains.
At the Sharp?Brains Sum?mit ses?sion ?How will Health incor?po?rates Brain?,??Michael Pos?ner high?lighted one recent?study?show?ing that after prac?tis?ing med?i?ta?tion for a min?i?mum of 11 hours over a one-month period, increases in both nerve den?sity and myelin for?ma?tion were found to have occurred in the sub?jects? brains. This work is part of a series of pub?lished papers show?ing that med?i?ta?tion causes sig?nif?i?cant, mea?sur?able changes in phys?i?cal con?nec?tiv?ity within the atten?tional net?work of the brain, that is, the net?work of the brain involved in self-regulation and control.
Other?research?has found that med?i?ta?tion improves changes in mood and the abil?ity to man?age stress.
There is no estab?lished tem?plate for opti?mal brain health. Lifestyle fac?tors and over?all health con?di?tions can include myr?iad obstruc?tions to brain fit?ness. And yet the sci?ence is clear: Brain health is at the very foun?da?tion of our greater health and pros?per?ity. We as indi?vid?u?als and as soci?eties fail to enhance it at our peril. Events such as the 2012 Sharp?Brains Sum?mit are instru?men?tal to sur?vey emerg?ing appli?ca?tions of neu?ro?science to enhance brain health across the lifes?pan and build brain capital.
Use it or lose it, they say. Invest in it and get more of it, we may?add.
? Veronika Litin?ski, COO of Cog?nic?iti?and a Par?tic?i?pant at 2012 Sharp?Brains Vir?tual Sum?mit, pro?vides advi?sory ser?vices to entre?pre?neurs and high growth com?pa?nies, with a spe?cial focus on life sci?ences mar?kets, spe?cial?iz?ing in cor?po?rate finance and busi?ness development.
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?> Learn More about the ?2012 Sharp?Brains Vir?tual Sum?mit: Opti?miz?ing Health through Neu?ro?plas?tic?ity, Inno?va?tion and Data (June 7 ? 14th,?2012)
Source of image at top: Big?Stock?Photo.
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