A good friend of mine, Alvaro Fernandez, and his associate Elkhonon Goldberg -- the co-founders of www.sharpbrains.com -- have just published a guide to brain fitness aptly entitled The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness. (ISBN 9780982362907) It is written for the lay reader with information of interest for scientists and professionals as well.

In it they debunk brain and brain fitness myths, discuss neuroplasticity (the ability of the brain to continuously rewire itself based on real-time input) and what can be done to modulate how our brains work, go into lifestyle choices and how they interact with the "Four Pillars of Brain Maintenance" -- nutrition, stress management, physical exercise and mental stimulation. They define the distinction between mental exercise and mental activity and why that is important for people of all ages -- children, stressed business executives or housewives and even Baby Boomers and their parents.

They then wade into the rapidly evolving (and often confusing) field of computerized brain training software and provide a checklist for how to evaluate various products on the market, what they "train," levels of scientific substantiation each has provided, who might benefit from what and even discuss whether the different products are "on-line" or require CDs or other devices to run them. They even provide their "21 Quick Picks." The target groups include those of us interested in general brain health, verbal or auditory training, tools for ADD/ADHD, autism, dyslexia, training tools for strokes or TBI (traumatic brain injury), enhancing visual information processing  for the older driver and even programs for improving performance while flying military aircraft. There is literally something for everyone!

Topics that were of particular interest to me were (1) the concept of neuroscience-driven schools where the focus is on learning "how to learn" and (2) the ability of several instructional tools that by enhancing working memory -- the ability to keep several bits of information "on-line" for simultaneous analysis -- are able to "generalize" their benefit by actually augmenting fluid intelligence (the skill set that enables one to perform better in unfamiliar or untrained scenarios), something that was previously felt to be untrainable.

While you're at it, check out their web site www.sharpbrains.com.