If you’re like me, you might think that video games are just for kids. But according to Richard Restak, MD, video games can improve the brain at any age. In fact, certain types of games have even been shown to increase IQ in older adults. Richard Restak is the Clinical Professor of Neurology at George Washington Hospital University and author of Think Smart: A Neuroscientist’s Prescription for Improving Your Brain’s Performance. Watch below to learn how video games can change the brain.   Click here to sign up. It’s fascinating to hear how these games could make us sharper and…

If you’re a Gold Subscriber, I wanted to take a moment to give you an extra note of thanks. Yes, I realize that when you register for a Gold Subscription, you receive the transcripts, audio and video recordings, special bonus webinars, and even possible CE/CME credits. But when you get a Gold Subscription, you’re doing more than just buying the webinars. You’re supporting our series. It’s the Gold Subscribers who make it possible for us to keep going – to broadcast these cutting-edge webinars free of charge to practitioners throughout the world, many of them from very poor countries. And…

Why should you care that this series reached 13,298 practitioners in 72 countries? Because brain science, when artfully applied, can make a difference – it can truly heal people’s lives. And when someone’s brain changes, they respond with fewer fear-based reactions. Just that alone can plant the seeds of change across families, communities, and even nations (more on that tomorrow. . . I’ll send you an email about something really cool). But that isn’t all that brain science can do . . . We created this video to share the highlights of this year’s series. I hope you’ll take a…

Many of us have thought so for a long time but science is finally backing up our observations with cold, hard studies. Let’s take depression. Anhedonia – or the loss of pleasure or reward, is one of the hallmarks of depression. For years, scholars have debated the cause of anhedonia. Is it a reduced ability to feel pleasure or is it more of an inability to sustain pleasure over a long time? To look at this issue, University of Wisconsin researcher Richard J. Davidson, PhD and his laboratory took functional magnetic resonance images (fMRI) of 27 depressed individuals and 19…

We can’t control the brain we’re born with, but we can control the brain we end up with. And according to Sharon Begley, there are two forces that shape our brain throughout life. Sharon Begley is the Senior Health & Science Correspondent at Reuters and co-author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain with Richard Davidson, PhD. Watch below as she talks about these two forces. Click here to sign up. As Sharon said, that’s neuroplasticity! We’ll get into a whole lot more about ways to change the brain in our interview with Sharon. You can watch the entire interview…

We’ve all heard about the chicken or egg dilemma, but let me ask you this – when talking about depression and stroke together … what comes first? Depression or stroke? In a study published in the October 2011 volume of Stroke, depression is correlated with increased risk of stroke in females. Researchers led by Kathryn Rexrode, MD followed 80,574 women who were part of the Nurses’ Health Study. These women were 54 to 79 years old and without a prior history of stroke. They assessed depressive symptoms multiple times with a Mental Health Index. Anti-depressant use was reported every two…