Brain Health Revolution Report on CBS News
No field in science is experiencing sucn explosive growth as brain science. Once thought to be fully matured by adolescence, neuroscientists now assert that brain development continues until around the mid-20s. But even that may be proven wrong.
Why should this matter to marketers -- the main readership of this blog? Because increasingly understanding how the brain works across the full lifespan is considered important to marketers -- so much so that a new subbranch of marketing called neuromarketing has cropped up.
What we are learning about the brain is radically altering our view of the mind throughout the seasons of life, especially in the final decades of life. For instance, brain scientists have now determined that the brain has a previously undetected plasticity that enables it to "rewire" itself in the latter years of life when it was formerly thought brain power inevitably waned like a battery about to expire.
Posit Science, a San Francisco startup is betting on the proposition that brain fitness is about to become big business. The company has developed a computer mediated program that field trials indicate can reverse age onset cognitive decline among 70, 80 and even 90-year-olds by an average of 10-plus years and by as much as 20 and even 30 years.
This week the lead story
on CBS News Sunday Morning was about breakthroughs in brain science that will
change how we age as well as how we treat neurological conditions. CBS
correspondent John Blackstone reported the piece, entitled Think Again: The
Human Brain. Much of the report focuses on the Posit Science Brain Fitness Program which has been shown to significantly improve
brain function in studies among people 50 and older. Participants in the studies
are interviewed, as are prominent scientists. Click
here to see the video.
David --
Good post. Posit Science is up to something huge. Be well.
--Atare
Posted by: Atare Agbamu | January 19, 2006 at 07:20 PM
Nice summary - the idea of brain fitness is already out there in the population. The other day I was blogging in a coffee shop, and the lady next to me was working a crossword puzzle. "Alzheimer's prevention," she told me. "I do one every day."
Posted by: NeuroGuy | January 20, 2006 at 11:02 PM
NeuroGuy,
Isn't it amazing how the brain has really caught on? I mean, 20 years ago brain "stuff" was for academicians and doctors. Now nearly everyone seems to want to know more about the brain and how to keep it in good shape.
DBW
Posted by: David | January 22, 2006 at 09:35 PM