Does Tech, including AI, erode our cognitive abilities … or can we harness it to enhance our cognition and our lives?

Octo­ber 9, 2025  |
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Our core cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties, such as atten­tion, work­ing mem­o­ry and IQ, are shaped part­ly by genet­ics and part­ly by envi­ron­men­tal influ­ences–which include cog­ni­tive­ly demand­ing activ­i­ties as well as delib­er­ate, cog­ni­tive train­ing. The plas­tic­i­ty of these cog­ni­tive func­tions is evi­dent, for exam­ple, in the impact of edu­ca­tion: as my research group and oth­ers have shown, each…

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Entrevista sobre la neuroplasticidad, la salud cerebral y la memoria de trabajo

Octo­ber 3, 2025  |
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Genial artícu­lo y entre­vista con Álvaro Fer­nán­dez Ibáñez y sobre la neu­ro­plas­ti­ci­dad, la reser­va cog­ni­ti­va, cómo mejo­rar la aten­ción y memo­ria de trabajo/ oper­a­ti­va y muchos temas más, como la app Nuroe y su impre­sio­n­ante estu­dio con casi 600 estu­di­antes en Ale­ma­nia. ¡Esper­amos que os guste! (Sim­i­lar arti­cles in Eng­lish HERE)

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The neuroscience of high performance: How pro athletes rewire their brains and keep thriving beyond their physical prime

Sep­tem­ber 9, 2025  | Com­ments Off on The neu­ro­science of high per­for­mance: How pro ath­letes rewire their brains and keep thriv­ing beyond their phys­i­cal prime
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In a world where sports are dom­i­nat­ed by youth and speed, some ath­letes in their late 30s and even 40s are not just keep­ing up – they are thriv­ing. Novak Djokovic is still out­last­ing oppo­nents near­ly half his age on tennis’s biggest stages. LeBron James con­tin­ues to dic­tate the pace of NBA games, defend­ing centers…

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Ten tips to improve your concentration and memory–and better remember names!

Sep­tem­ber 1, 2025  | Com­ments Off on Ten tips to improve your con­cen­tra­tion and memory–and bet­ter remem­ber names!
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Con­cen­tra­tion, or atten­tion, and mem­o­ry are cru­cial cog­ni­tive skills and are direct­ly relat­ed. Many mem­o­ry com­plaints have noth­ing to do with the actu­al abil­i­ty to remem­ber things: They come from a fail­ure to focus on the task at hand. For exam­ple, when you don’t remem­ber where you parked your car. If you were in a hurry…

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Nuroe, the app to train children’s brains

August 25, 2025  | Com­ments Off on Nuroe, the app to train children’s brains
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Excel­lent arti­cle in Span­ish news­pa­per La Voz de Gali­cia, inter­view­ing our own Álvaro Fer­nán­dez about the recent study The Impact of Work­ing-Mem­o­ry Train­ing on Children’s Cog­ni­tive and Noncog­ni­tive Skills. (In Span­ish) Nuroe, la apli­cación para entre­nar el cere­bro de los niños (La Voz de Gali­cia): Este pro­gra­ma para dis­pos­i­tivos móviles está basa­do en un ensayo…

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Have you found a magic bullet for academic success, Mr. Fehr?

August 20, 2025  | Com­ments Off on Have you found a mag­ic bul­let for aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess, Mr. Fehr?
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Excel­lent arti­cle in the pres­ti­gious Ger­man news­pa­per The Frank­furter All­ge­meine, inter­view­ing infuen­tial behav­ioral econ­o­mist Ernst Fehr about his recent study The Impact of Work­ing-Mem­o­ry Train­ing on Children’s Cog­ni­tive and Noncog­ni­tive Skills. (In Ger­man, requires sub­scrip­tion) Haben Sie eine Wun­der­waffe für Schuler­folg gefun­den, Herr Fehr? (The Frank­furter All­ge­meine): Durch nur zwölf Stun­den Gedächt­nis­train­ing für Erstk­läss­er steigt…

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On Working Memory Training, the Neuroscience Renaissance, our Contest between Cognition and Uncognition, and more

August 6, 2025  |
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Wel­come to the sum­mer edi­tion of Sharp­Brains’ e‑newsletter, fea­tur­ing a cou­ple of spec­tac­u­lar arti­cles from the Finan­cial Times and The Inno­va­tor plus oth­er time­ly news and resources. 1. How train­ing the brain could boost eco­nom­ic growth (Finan­cial Times): Cog­ni­tive pow­er mat­ters obvi­ous­ly to indi­vid­u­als. It mat­ters also to soci­ety. Our human cap­i­tal is part of what…

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AI chatbots cost much less than a human therapist, and they’re available 24/7. Do they work?

July 30, 2025  | Com­ments Off on AI chat­bots cost much less than a human ther­a­pist, and they’re avail­able 24/7. Do they work?
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Recent­ly, I found myself pour­ing my heart out, not to a human, but to a chat­bot named Wysa on my phone. It nod­ded – vir­tu­al­ly – asked me how I was feel­ing and gen­tly sug­gest­ed try­ing breath­ing exer­cis­es. As a neu­ro­sci­en­tist, I couldn’t help but won­der: Was I actu­al­ly feel­ing bet­ter, or was I just…

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A promising mental strategy to ease falling asleep: The Cognitive Shuffle

July 24, 2025  | Com­ments Off on A promis­ing men­tal strat­e­gy to ease falling asleep: The Cog­ni­tive Shuffle
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In my pre­vi­ous arti­cle For a good night’s rest, com­bine gen­er­al sleep hygiene with mind­ful and cog­ni­tive tech­niques I explored how mind­ful and cog­ni­tive strate­gies can com­ple­ment healthy sleep habits. Since then, I have con­tin­ued to study the fas­ci­nat­ing process of how we tran­si­tion from wake­ful­ness into sleep and, specif­i­cal­ly, why this tran­si­tion can sometimes…

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Cinco condiciones para que el entrenamiento mental proporcione beneficios claros y duraderos

July 14, 2025  | Com­ments Off on Cin­co condi­ciones para que el entre­namien­to men­tal pro­por­cione ben­efi­cios claros y duraderos
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(In Eng­lish: Five con­di­tions for evi­­­dence-based brain train­ing to deliv­er clear, durable ben­e­fits) En nues­tra sociedad actu­al, impacta­da por la inteligen­cia arti­fi­cial, nos enfrenta­mos a una amplia gama de desafíos inter­conec­ta­dos y en con­stante cam­bio. Para abor­dar con éxi­to este entorno se requiere un cere­bro y una mente en for­ma y capaces de adap­tarse a…

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About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS Advi­sors is an inde­pen­dent think-tank and con­sult­ing firm pro­vid­ing ser­vices at the fron­tier of applied neu­ro­science, health, lead­er­ship and innovation.
Book in English
SHARPBRAINS Advi­sors es un think-tank y con­sul­toría inde­pen­di­ente pro­por­cio­nan­do ser­vi­cios para la neu­ro­cien­cia apli­ca­da, salud, lid­er­az­go e innovación.
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