"We are now able to understand how we can stimulate brain areas which will result in improving our cognitive abilities."
WATCH LIFESPAN LEARNING
Ground-breaking evidence that young children can improve their verbal intelligence in just 20 days using an interactive, music- based cognitive training program has exciting implications for people of all ages.
The study – conducted at York University and led by Dr. Sylvain Moreno, who is now the lead scientist at Baycrest's Centre for Brain Fitness – involved several Canadian scientists who specialize in learning, memory and language in children and was published in Psychological Science in October 2011.
The cognitive benefit was striking and consistent in 90 per cent of the children who took the four-week learning program and was additionally confirmed by brain imaging data that indicated brain changes had taken place related to the training.
"Our data have confirmed a rapid transfer of cogni- tive benefits in young children after only 20 days of training. The strength of this effect in almost all of the children was remarkable," says Dr. Moreno, a world expert on neuroeducation.
"We are now able to understand how we can stimu- late brain areas which will result in improving our cognitive abilities," Dr. Moreno explains. "I think we can eventually deliver the same kind of training and benefits to people throughout the lifespan."
In June, Dr. Moreno was officially granted $5 million in funding from the government of Canada and the Ontario Brain Institute to develop and test cognitive games for children. The aim is to find novel means of strengthening cognitive functions throughout the lifespan.
FIRST TO USE CLOUD COMPUTING Baycrest launched the first health-care sector use of cloud services to share many kinds of non-confidential workflow and data forms. Baycrest partnered with global software giant, Microsoft, and its partner company, Orangutech, to develop the cloud that allows health-care organizations to save time and resources.
2011/12 Baycrest and Baycrest Foundation Annual Report
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