Power of Imagination is More Than Just a Metaphor

[15 April 2009 - ScienceDaily] We've heard it before: "Imagine yourself passing the exam or scoring a goal and it will happen." We may roll our eyes and think that's easier said than done, but in a new study in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologists Christopher Davoli and Richard Abrams from Washington University suggest that the imagination may be more effective than we think in helping us reach our goals. More

Not Your Grandfather's Retirement ... Creative Post-Careers and New Retirement

[17 May 2009 - CBS] Aging baby boomers aren't content spending their post-career years idle and are finding new ways to retire. ... Mountain air is not enough for a generation determined to ban boredom in retirement. Martha Teichner visited Asheville, N.C., to explore how some are designing more creative retirements:
John Bauer was a high school teacher in Michigan before retiring to Asheville, and getting a part-time job as a tour guide at the Biltmore Estate. "Why do I wanna keep on teaching when I can retire financially and I can try something completely different?" he asked. Americans just aren't retiring the way they used to ... "We don't want to just sit down and vegetate," said Jim Wyatt. And you don't have to go very far from the Biltmore Estate to see how they're redesigning the whole notion. Nancy Long spent her career writing for newspapers and magazines. Now she's a volunteer docent at the Asheville Art Museum. Long and her husband, Al, were attracted to Asheville, N.C., because for a small city, it has a lot going on culturally. But the big selling point was the fact that they could live right downtown and walk everywhere, a growing trend among retirees. The Longs live in a compact loft in an old commercial building, but here's the kicker: When they retired, they actually lived in Florida … and moved away. Why? "We thought it'd be boring," Martha told Teichner. "Boring," Al agreed. Ron Manheimer, who heads the Center for Creative Retirement at the University of North Carolina in Asheville, said, "People are saying, 'Well maybe Florida isn't the place to go. "What I see is very high expectations that something special should happen in and around this time of life, and I think I see people searching for what that would be." More

Senior Workers May Avoid Dementia

[18 May 2009 - redOrbit] New research suggests that stimulating the brain by working longer into senior years could possibly prevent Alzheimer’s disease, BBC News reported. In a study comprised of 1,320 dementia patients, 382 of which were men, findings revealed that the men that continued to work late in life were able to maintain keenness of the brain enough to ward off dementia. The Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London conducted the study and published its findings in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Currently, nearly 700,000 UK citizens suffer dementia, and experts fear that number will increase to 1.7 million by 2051. The UK economy already contributes an estimated £17 billion a year for treatment. Because Dementia is triggered by a massive loss of brain cells, experts propose that developing as many connections between cells as possible by maintaining active brain functions throughout life could potentially protect against the disease. This is known as a "cognitive reserve". Valid evidence exists to support good education is correlated with less risk of dementia. However, this particular study suggests there can be a positive result with mental activity well into our senior years. More

How learning shapes successful decision making in the human brain

[13 May 2009 - Cell Press via EurekAlert!] New research significantly advances our understanding of the brain mechanisms that link learning with flexible decision making. The study, published by Cell Press in the May 14 issue of the journal Neuron, demonstrates that the brain does not just learn the structure of the physical world but, through learning, encodes rules that regulate how we interpret future sensory information. More and More

Brain's Problem-solving Function At Work When We Daydream

[11 May 2009 - Science Daily] Our brains are much more active when we daydream than previously thought. Activity in numerous brain regions increases when our minds wander, according to new research. Psychologists found that brain areas associated with complex problem-solving -- previously thought to go dormant when we daydream -- are in fact highly active during these episodes. More

Cheerful music 'can make everyone around you look happy'

[10 May 2009 - The Telegraph (UK) "Results showed that happy music 'significantly enhanced the perceived happiness of a face.' Further studies of the volunteers' brain waves revealed that the effect of the music was almost instantaneous. It took just 50 milliseconds for changes to take place - too fast to be under our conscious control." More (h/t Arts Journal)

A Single Neuron Can Change the Activity of the Whole Brain

[1 May 2009 - PhysOrg.com] The pulsing of a single neuron can switch a brain’s waves from the equivalent of a big ocean swell to ripples on a pond, according to new research from Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Yang Dan of the University of California, Berkeley. More

Demography and Lifelong Learning: New strategy needed for the over-50s

[1 May 2009 - Independent Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning, sponsored by NIACE - Report by Professor Stephen McNair] Older people need more opportunities to learn if they are to actively contribute - rather than be a cost to society - during the twenty or more years they spend in 'retirement', a new study of learning and population changes reveals. The report - commissioned by the Independent Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning, sponsored by NIACE - argues that the current narrow focus on skills for work and on younger people is inadequate to meet the challenges of demographic change.  These challenges include:

• Most people can expect to spend one third of their lives in ‘retirement'.
• There are now more people over 59 than under 16.
• 11.3 million people are over state pension age.
• Life expectancy for a 65 year old today is now 85 for men and 88 for women.

Read "Demography and Lifelong Learning" (PDF)

Genius: The Modern View

[30 April 2009 - New York Times - Opinion by David Brooks] The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It's not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it's deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft. The recent research has been conducted by people like K. Anders Ericsson, the late Benjamin Bloom and others. It's been summarized in two enjoyable new books: "The Talent Code" by Daniel Coyle; and "Talent Is Overrated" by Geoff Colvin. More

Is it time to abolish compulsory retirement?

[29 April 2009 - BBC - UK] The idea that workers should be forced to clear their desks and disappear, carriage clock under arm, on reaching the age of 65 is one that has its roots in a measure designed to reduce poverty and exploitation of older people. But now a committee of MPs fears that it may be achieving exactly the opposite, denying individuals the chance to top up inadequate retirement savings and unable to add to a meagre state pension. More

The five ages of the brain

[April 2009 - The New Scientist] Throughout life our brains undergo more changes than any other part of the body. These can be broadly divided into five stages, each profoundly affecting our abilities and behaviour. But we are not just passengers in this process, so how can we get the best out of our brains at every stage and pass the best possible organ on to the next? New Scientist investigate. More

Scientists show how a neuron gets its shape

[3 April 2009 - Rockefeller University via EurekAlert!] For the brain to work, neurons have to be connected in the right places. Now, new research shows that rather than growing like the branches of a tree -- extending outward -- certain neurons work backward from their destination, dropping anchor and stretching their dendrites behind them as they crawl away. More

Book Review: Chasing the Dance of Life

[17 March 2009 - Book Review by Connie Tyler (via Facebook)] Chasing the Dance of Life, by Cynthia Winton-Henry -- A review by Connie Tyler

Want to laugh and cry, and say, "Oh, my?"

And then, "Oh, yes, oh, yes?"

Read Cynthia Winton-Henry's new book, Chasing the Dance of Life – a faith journey.

Cynthia, co-founder of InterPlay, speaks with candor and honesty about her struggle to find a place in the world for her dancing spirituality. She says of herself, "What do you do if you hear voices or see things? ... You should shut up. However, if there are voices that prod you to quench the thirst for big human needs like Love, Justice, and Freedom, you might become a blabbermouth performance artist like me." (p. 9) Like a ballerina doing tour jette's in a china shop, Cynthia plunges into confrontation with church officials and august parishioners, while we stand with our mouths open in admiration and fear.

She starts with her struggles as a child, teenager, and college student to pull her love of dance and her spiritual inclinations together. Her joy at finding Carla DeSola, Doug Adams, Pacific School of Religion, Judith Rock, and the Sacred Dance Guild is tempered by the struggle as an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) to carry dance into the church. When, eventually, she finds she needs to renounce her ordination she doesn't just slip away from the church, she demands the right to have a ceremony of de-ordination to counter the ordination ceremony.

She wrote this memoir specifically to show why she eventually renounced her ordination, but her struggles go beyond just the struggle with this particular denomination or even with "the church" in its larger sense. She is struggling with the way of life she grew up with, finding new ways to approach people who are different, new ways to live in a material world, new ways to see our world, our life.

When subtle acts of humming birds and eagles speak to her, she dares to see them as prophecy. She analyzes marriage and comes up with new metaphors that better fit reality than the older ones that don't seem to work. She jumps dancing feet first into life and discovers, "For young or old, the universe loves a dancer." (p. 216)

And the message? She says:
Stubborn standers, beware.
Planted on twin pillars
Of righteousness
And self-righteousness
Your footing stiffens
In that precarious pose.
Resist -- you stand against.
Consist -- you stand with.
Persist -- you stand through.
Insist -- you stand in.
All stands degrade.
Want peace?
Release your footing.
Dance life's stubborn dance

(Winton-Henry, Cynthia, Chasing the Dance of Life – a faith journey, Berkeley, CA, the apocryphile press, 2009, 255 pp)

Can Fearful Memories Be Erased?

[13 March 2009 - Talk of the Nation - NPR] Scientists studying how the brain forms memories have found that by targeting brain cells expressing a certain gene in mice, they can erase a fearful memory association days after the event. Steven Kushner and colleagues describe the research in the journal Science. More

Isolating creativity in the brain - On improv, music, the brain and creativity

[5 March 2009 - The Harvard University Gazette] How -- exactly -- does improvisation happen? What's involved when a musician sits down at the piano and plays flurries of notes in a free fall, without a score, without knowing much about what will happen moment to moment? Is it possible to find the sources of a creative process? Aaron Berkowitz, a graduate student in ethnomusicology at Harvard, and Daniel Ansari, a professor in the psychology department of the University of Western Ontario, recently collaborated on an experiment designed to study brain activity during musical improvisation in order to get closer to answering these questions. The Harvard Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative awarded the collaborators a grant to look at musical improvisation in trained musicians, utilizing brain scans done with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology. Their paper, Generation of Novel Motor Sequences: The Neural Correlates of Musical Improvisation," was published in the journal NeuroImage, and received the journal's 2008 Editor's Choice Award in Systems Neuroscience. More

'Mind-reading' experiment highlights how brain records memories

[12 March 2009 - EurekAlert! / Wellcome Trust] It may be possible to "read" a person's memories just by looking at brain activity, according to research carried out by Wellcome Trust scientists. In a study published today in the journal Current Biology, they show that our memories are recorded in regular patterns, a finding which challenges current scientific thinking. Demis Hassabis and Professor Eleanor Maguire at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at UCL (University College London) have previously studied the role of a small area of the brain known as the hippocampus which is crucial for navigation, memory recall and imagining future events. Now, the researchers have shown how the hippocampus records memory. When we move around, nerve cells (neurons) known as "place cells", which are located in the hippocampus, activate to tell us where we are. Hassabis, Maguire and colleagues used an fMRI scanner, which measures changes in blood flow within the brain, to examine the activity of these places cells as a volunteer navigated around a virtual reality environment. The data were then analysed by a computer algorithm developed by Demis Hassabis. "We asked whether we could see any interesting patterns in the neural activity that could tell us what the participants were thinking, or in this case where they were," explains Professor Maguire, a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow. "Surprisingly, just by looking at the brain data we could predict exactly where they were in the virtual reality environment. In other words, we could 'read' their spatial memories." More

An Undaunted Soul

They think of me as a scholar, an intellectual, a pen-pusher.
And I am none of them.
When I write, my fingers
get covered not in ink, but in blood.
I think I am nothing more than this:
an undaunted soul.

-- Words Nikos Kazantzakis used to describe himself in 1950

On the Creative Life

"Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives ... most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the results of creativity ... when we are involved in it, we feel that we are living more fully than during the rest of life." -- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (h/t: aestheticflow)

Unemployment Rate Soars for Older Men With Limited Education

[25 February 2009 - Urban Institute] This new report examines the unemployment rate of adults age fifty-five and older by gender, industry, education level, and race/ethnicity. Highlights rising rates among older men in construction and manufacturing, those with limited education, and Latino/Hispanic men. More (PDF)

Loneliness as Harmful as Smoking - Loneliness Affects Brain

[16 February 2009 - Psych Central News] A new study finds that social isolation affects not only how people behave, but also how their brains operate. University of Chicago scientists presented their research, "Social Emotion and the Brain," at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The work is the first to use fMRI scans to study the connections between perceived social isolation (or loneliness) and activity in the brain. Combining fMRI scans with data relevant to social behavior is part of an emerging field examining brain mechanisms. Researchers found that the ventral striatum -- a region of the brain associated with rewards -- is much more activated in non-lonely people than in the lonely when they view pictures of people in pleasant settings. In contrast, the temporoparietal junction -- a region associated with taking the perspective of another person -- is much less activated among lonely than in the non-lonely when viewing pictures of people in unpleasant settings. ... John Cacioppo, one of the nation's leading scholars on loneliness, has shown that loneliness undermines health and can be as detrimental as smoking. About one in five Americans experience loneliness, he said. Decety is one of the nation's leading researchers to use fMRI scans to explore empathy. More

Mead on Diverse Unity

[12 January 2009 - Higher Awareness] "If we are to achieve a rich culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place." -- Margaret Mead

Having Happy Friends Can Make You Happy

[5 December 2008 - Harvard Medical School] If you're happy and you know it, thank your friends -- and their friends. And while you're at it, their friends' friends. But if you're sad, hold the blame. Researchers from Harvard Medical School and the University of California, San Diego, have found that "happiness" is not the result solely of a cloistered journey filled with individually tailored self-help techniques. Happiness is also a collective phenomenon that spreads through social networks like an emotional contagion. In a study that looked at the happiness of nearly 5,000 individuals over a period of 20 years, researchers found that when an individual becomes happy, the network effect can be measured up to three degrees. One person's happiness triggers a chain reaction that benefits not only their friends, but their friends' friends, and their friends' friends' friends. The effect lasts for up to one year. The flip side, interestingly, is not the case: Sadness does not spread through social networks as robustly as happiness. Happiness appears to love company more so than misery. More

The Future of Alzheimer's?

[17 November 2008 - NPR] Researchers think they've discovered precisely what damages brain cells and causes memory loss in people who have Alzheimer's disease. Brain scientists present the latest evidence at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience this week in Washington, D.C. ... There is growing evidence that small clusters of a protein called amyloid beta are what cause brain damage in Alzheimer's disease. Scientists at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., say clusters of just two or three amyloid beta protein molecules can damage synapses, the connections between brain cells. New research also shows that plaques of amyloid beta — much larger groupings made up of millions of cells — are not nearly as harmful as the small clusters. Until the past couple of years, amyloid beta plaques were considered the most likely cause of Alzheimer's brain damage. But Dennis Selkoe, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, said the new findings suggest that hypothesis is wrong. More

Active Ageing and Independent Living Services: The Role of Information and Communication Technology

[2008 - Europe] This report aims to support the research and policy development activities of DG Information Society and Media towards the European Research Area. It suggests complementary ways of approaching ageing: addressing the demographic phenomena as a serious challenge for social support systems and considering the opportunities offered by ageing societies, such as new markets for innovative applications. It then highlights the main policy areas related to ageing, where ICT-based applications could play a role, and suggests a number of research and policy challenges that need to be resolved in order to maximise the opportunities offered by ICT. More

How to Be Happy and Well

[2002 Archive - Harvard University Gazette] The world's longest continuous study of physical and mental health has come up with predictors that individuals can use to determine how well they will age. Since 1937, the study has followed 237 students at Harvard University and 332 socially disadvantaged youths from inner-city Boston through health, disease, and death. More

In 'Sweetie' and 'Dear,' a Hurt for the Elderly

[7 October 2008 - New York Times] Professionals call it elderspeak, the sweetly belittling form of address that has always rankled older people: the doctor who talks to their child rather than to them about their health; the store clerk who assumes that an older person does not know how to work a computer, or needs to be addressed slowly or in a loud voice. Then there are those who address any elderly person as "dear." "People think they're being nice," said Elvira Nagle, 83, of Dublin, Calif., "but when I hear it, it raises my hackles." Now studies are finding that the insults can have health consequences, especially if people mutely accept the attitudes behind them, said Becca Levy, an associate professor of epidemiology and psychology at Yale University, who studies the health effects of such messages on elderly people. "Those little insults can lead to more negative images of aging," Dr. Levy said. "And those who have more negative images of aging have worse functional health over time, including lower rates of survival." More

Predicting Future Happiness

[September 2008 - "Realism and Illusion in Americans' Temporal Views of Their Life Satisfaction" - PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE] Some people are naturally optimistic or pessimistic, but how accurately they predict the level of satisfaction they may attain in the future depends on a variety of factors, according to research published in PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE. In a study led by Brandeis University psychologist Margie Lachman, subjects were surveyed over a nine-year period. In the first survey, in 1995-1996, participants between the ages of 24 and 74 rated their satisfaction with life now, with life 10 years earlier, and with how life may be in another 10 years. They were asked the same questions again in 2004. Lachman and colleagues discovered that there are age-related differences in how individuals view both the past and the future; those age 65 and older rated the past and present equally satisfying but predicted that the future would be less satisfying. Those under age 65 were more optimistic about the future and believed they would be more satisfied a decade hence. "These more negative expectations from older adults may be their way of bracing for an uncertain future, a perspective that can serve a protective function in the face of losses and that can have positive consequences if life circumstances turn out to be better than expected," says Lachman. More

UK campaigners lose key stage in compulsory retirement battle

[23 September 2008 - The Guardian (UK) via Older-Learners] The compulsory retirement age in the UK is set at 65. Campaigners for
age equality today lost a key stage in their legal battle to banish the compulsory retirement age in the UK. Age Concern had gone to the European court of justice in Luxembourg to argue that compelling people to stop work at or after 65 without compensation breaches EU equality requirements. However the charity's claim was rejected by the advocate-general. Today's legal opinion is a blow to hundreds of people forced to retire against their wishes who are claiming compensation through UK employment tribunals. More

Those with disabilities should likewise create

[30 August 2008 - The Jakarta Post] At the closing session of a recent international conference on "Creative Communities and the Making of Place: Sharing Creative Experiences" at the Institute of Technology Bandung, one of the keynote speakers concluded that in the end, the focus should be on people rather than on cities. This conclusion was certainly indisputable, because a city without people is dead. It is the people in their diversity who make a place lively. As shown by the present range of enterprises in Bandung, people are continually creating new things, either as a hobby, as an expression of art, for research purposes, or as a source of income. Gradually these creative products become an industry, called the creative industry. Not only do people do this creative work for their own benefit, but the urban economy flourishes because of these thriving businesses. ... The most underestimated are the disabled. They constantly face barriers to access physical infrastructure or opportunities for self development. They have the potential to make a significant economic contribution to the city, if only the environment could be more physically and socially friendly for them. People are creative by nature and so are disabled people. By excluding them from development opportunities, the society neglects a rich resource of talented and creative people. People who meet the standard of normalcy in performing creative work, predominate the creative industries. They are the ones who are healthy, agile, not disabled and have the financial resources to start an enterprise. Nowadays, young people are very much involved in creative industries. Thinking creatively, they produce goods with an economic value. Their free spirit means allowing people to be different, which is sometimes difficult in our conformist culture. By tolerating different ideas, their creativity emerges. More

Your Health: Einstein was an image streamer

[23 August 2008 - The New Straights Times - Malaysia] THERE are basically two types of meditation and they are diametrically opposed to each other. One is passive and the other dynamic. One attempts to still the mind while the other follows the vagaries of the mind and the thoughts that go with it. Most people are familiar with passive meditation. However, the concept of dynamic meditation -- called "image streaming" by researcher and educator, Win Wenger, is less well known. As discussed last week, this is a type of medication that Einstein may have used. Except that he described it as "vague play" with "signs," "images," and other elements, both "visual" and "muscular." "This combinatory play," he wrote, "seems to be the essential feature in productive thought." Win Wenger's project of the last 25 years has been to develop techniques and mental exercises, based in part on Einstein's methods. These work in the short term and seem to develop the mind's permanent powers. The Image Streaming technique that Win Wenger developed opens the mind to a flow of symbolic imagery as potent as that of any dream. However, unlike dreaming, you can practise image streaming while wide awake. Best of all, you can do it virtually any time, anywhere. More

Skills development for a diverse older workforce

[2008 - Centre for the Economics of Education and Training - Australia] This study, Skills development for a diverse older workforce, is based on a review of what we presently know about effective skills development for older workers and presents seven new case studies of the delivery of training to a primarily older workforce. More

Labour's vision for an ageing society

[6 August 2008 - Mature Times - UK] We need to build strong communities - helping people build up new  networks of friendship and deal with infirmities through mastering new technology and new opportunities, taking advantage of better health care. More

Creativity and Social Change - U of Connecticut Offers New Creativity Community Building Course

I am excited to announce that I will be co-teaching a new course on "Creativity and Social Change" at the University of Connecticut this fall. This is the first course being offered in the new Creative Community Building Program, which has been developed with an interdisciplinary team of university and community partners. This program will offer an emphasis in Creative Community Building as part of the Center for Continuing Studies' Bachelor of General Studies degree, as well as non-credit workshops and seminars for professional development. -- Steve Dahlberg, International Centre for Creativity and Imagination

CREATIVITY AND SOCIAL CHANGE
a new 3-credit course ... 7 weeks ... fall 2008

==========================
inspiration reinvent art intuition society creativity social sculpture engage change community ideas possibilities
==========================

Do you want to ...

• Unleash and harness your creativity?
• Use your creativity to transform communities?
• Understand how our thinking and imagination shapes, forms and reinvents society?
• Improve your creative community building skills?
• Learn creative thinking strategies to apply individually, in organizations and in society?
• Explore society as a complex system of social relationships and perceptions?

IMAGINE, CONNECT AND ENGAGE: Come and explore, integrate and expand your understanding of “Creativity and Social Change”!

Complete this full-semester, three-credit undergraduate course in just seven weeks! This course (GS 3088; section 90) is offered through the Center for Continuing Studies at the University of Connecticut. Non-degree students also may register for this course on a space-available basis for personal/professional development.
Where: Bishop Center, University of Connecticut, Storrs
When: September 9 to October 23, 2008
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 6:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Who: Taught by Steven Dahlberg and Phoebe Godfrey
Info: Joanne Augustyn, 860-486-0460
www.CreativeCommunityBuilding.org

Mentoring and Befriending: A Case Study Approach

[April 2008 - MBF Strategic Development Group Report - UK] Mentoring and Befriending: A case study approach to illustrate its relevance to cohesion and cross cultural issues ... This report offers a range of examples of mentoring and befriending programmes working to strengthen local communities. It recognises that community is first and foremost about individuals, and how they interact and support each other. Through mentoring and befriending, individuals can gain understanding and respect, improve people's lives and create environments that allow all individuals to flourish. More (PDF)

Will Employers Want Aging Boomers?

[July 2008 - Urban Institute] Explores the status quo of older workers; why baby boomers are likely to work longer; and how changes in needed skills, the characteristics of older workers, and labor force growth will affect demand for older workers. Includes policy recommendations. More (PDF)

Edutainment: the benefits of arts and crafts in adult and community learning

[March 2008 - Voluntary Arts England] A collection of inspiring and informative case studies from a range of adult learners and tutors highlighting the many benefits associated with participating in the arts and crafts through adult and community learning. With a foreword from Professor John Benyon (Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester), the publication also contains results from our national survey of adult learners along with information on where to find an art or craft course in your area. Hard copies are also available. More (PDF)

Don't stop me now: Preparing for an ageing population

[July 2008 - Audit Commission] This report looks at the challenges and opportunities facing England as its population gets older. It aims to help local public services adapt to the needs of an older and more diverse society, and identifies solutions that can be implemented quickly, as well as exploring how councils should plan strategically for the wider challenges ahead. More

From he that hath not: If you are at the bottom of the heap, mental processes may keep you there

[22 May 2008 - The Economist] New drugs may help to enhance people's mental powers. But a study carried out by Pamela Smith, of Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and her colleagues suggests a less pharmacological approach can be taken, too. Their work, just published in Psychological Science, argues that simply putting someone into a weak social position impairs his cognitive function. Conversely, "empowering" him, in the dread jargon of sociology, sharpens up his mind. Dr Smith focused on those cognitive processes that help people maintain and pursue their goals in difficult and distracting situations. She suspected that a lack of social power may reduce someone's ability to keep track of information and make plans to achieve his goals. More

The end of retirement

[4 July 2008 - The Guardian (UK)]There are now 1.3 million workers of pensionable age in Britain - and the number is rising fast. With pensions in crisis and people living longer, many over-65s have no choice but to cling to their jobs or return to work. But there is a great upside to this employment revolution. More

For a Sharp Brain, Stimulation

[13 May 2008 - New York Times] AMERICANS may worry about heart disease, stroke and diabetes, but they downright dread Alzheimer’s disease, a recent survey found. For good reason. One in eight adults over 65 is affected by the disease. Those who are spared know they may end up with the burden of caring for a parent or a spouse who is affected. Even though the number of older adults with dementias is rising rapidly, only a few drugs that have been approved to treat symptoms are on the market, and they slow down the disease but do not cure it. Researchers, however, are more optimistic than ever about the potential of the aging brain, because recent evidence has challenged long-held beliefs by demonstrating that the brain can grow new nerve cells. "For a long time, we held the assumption that we’re born with all the nerve cells we’re ever going to have, and that the brain is not capable of generating new ones — that once these cells die we’re unable to replace them," said Molly V. Wagster, chief of the Neuropsychology of Aging branch of the National Institute on Aging. "Those assumptions have been challenged and put by the wayside." ... "Another thing that’s important as people get older is to maintain flexible attitudes and be willing to try new things," said K. Warner Schaie, who in 1956 started the Seattle Longitudinal Study, which follows the psychological development of participants through adulthood. "You have to expect things will shift over time and won’t be the same as when you were young. Those who manage to roll with the punches, and enjoy change rather than fighting it, tend to do well." More

Folding your arms can help your brain

[6 May 2008 - Canada.com] The mere act of folding your arms increases perseverance and activates an unconscious desire to succeed, new research shows. University students randomly assigned to sit with their arms crossed spent more time on an impossible-to-solve anagram, or word scramble, in one experiment, and came up with more correct solutions to solvable anagrams in another than those told to sit with their hands on their thighs. The study is the first to show that arm crossing affects people's thinking without them being consciously aware of it. Normally, it's thought that it's a psychological state that leads to a body movement. The study suggests it goes both ways, that a body movement also can trigger a psychological state. More

Elder Care Expo Featured Today on Twin Cities Live

[6 May 2008 - Elder Care Expos, LLC] Elder Care Expo Community Partnerships Manager Joe Groshens was a guest today on KSTP's "Twin Cities Live" TV show in St. Paul/Minneapolis. He shared highlights about what people can find at the Expo, how the Expo was inspired by his own family's story, and technology that people will find at the Expo that allows people to stay more independent. Watch the video clip online and join us May 9 and 10 at the Education Building of the Minnesota State Fairgrounds in St. Paul, Minn.

Creativity and Madness ... Quieting the Demons and Giving Art a Voice

On the topic of creativity, madness and mental illness, Tuesday's New York Times reviews two new books on this topic, including one by Marya Hornbacher, the author of the well-received book Wasted:

[29 April 2008 - New York Times] For scientists trying to parse the mystery of brain and mind, [Marya Hornbacher] is one more case of the possible link between mental illness and artistic creativity. With all our scans and neurotransmitters, we are not much closer to figuring out that relationship than was Lord Byron, who announced that poets are “all crazy” and left it at that. But effective drugs make the question more urgent now: would Virginia Woolf, medicated, have survived to write her final masterpiece, or would she have spent her extra years happily shopping? ... As for the central question of whether treating the illness impairs the creativity, Ms. Hornbacher weighs in firmly on the side of her meds, imperfect though they may be. “For me, the first sign of oncoming madness is that I’m unable to write.” Depression silences her; mania may flood her mind with glittering words, but they scatter before she can get them down. Only the prosaic morning meds (21 pills, at last count) will let her trap the words on the page. More

Memory Training Shown to Turn Up Brainpower

[29 April 2008 - New York Times] A new study has found that it may be possible to train people to be more intelligent, increasing the brainpower they had at birth. Until now, it had been widely assumed that the kind of mental ability that allows us to solve new problems without having any relevant previous experience -- what psychologists call fluid intelligence -- is innate and cannot be taught (though people can raise their grades on tests of it by practicing). But in the new study, researchers describe a method for improving this skill, along with experiments to prove it works. ... The results, published Monday in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, were striking. Although the control groups also made gains, presumably because they had practice with the fluid intelligence tests, improvement in the trained groups was substantially greater. Moreover, the longer they trained, the higher their scores were. All performers, from the weakest to the strongest, showed significant improvement. More

The Creative Power of Aging Film Premiere in Minnesota

Elder Care Expo 2008 congratulates the Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging Network, a Supporting Partner of Elder Care Expo 2008, on the coming premiere of their new film about creativity, arts and aging, based on artists and program models from Minnesota ...

[24 April 2008 - Minnesota Creative Arts and Aging Network (MnCAAN)] Check out the April 23 MinnPost article about aging and the arts, "We want more than bingo': Artists cater to seniors" by Kay Harvey. It highlights the work of MnCAAN, the National Center for Creative Aging, and two Twin Cities community arts programs for older adults.

Second, you are invited to the premiere of "The Creative Power of Aging" to view this 30-minute film featuring Minnesota artists and model arts programs for older adults:
Thursday, May 15, 2008 - 11:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. - Bloomington Center for the Arts - 1800 West Old Shakopee Road

Following the film, stay for lunch and the kickoff of a statewide campaign by MnCAAN: CREATIVITY MATTERS FOR OLDER MINNESOTANS. Discover the benefits of lifelong creative engagement. Learn about training, print and Web-based resources for organizations and groups that want to engage older adults in creative arts programs. Register by May 12 at http://www.MnCAAN.net or call 763-560-5199. $10 includes box lunch. Pre-registration required.

The film was a collaborative production with MnCAAN, Twin Cities Public Television, HealthEast, Ebenezer Foundation, and the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. This event is co-sponsored and hosted by City of Bloomington Human Services. More

Find about more about MnCAAN and the film at Elder Care Expo 2008, Booth 322.

Richard Leider Offers New Book on Purposeful Aging

[24 April 2008 - The Inventure Group] The Inventure Group is excited to announce the upcoming release of Richard Leider's newest book, Something To Live For: Find Your Way in the Second Half of Life. Co-authored by David Shapiro, the book has a June publication date. Something to Live For distills traditional wisdom and modern research to offer those now moving past 50 new ways of thinking about their lives. The book is filled with dozens of inspiring personal stories about people who, in very different ways, have found meaning, purpose and fulfillment in the second half of life. More

New Ways to Predict Mindless Mistakes

[21 April 2008 - CBS News] Study Shows Brain Activity May Be a Sign of a Mistake on the Way ... People performing monotonous tasks display abnormal brain activity before making a mistake, new research shows: Wouldn't it be nice to have a crystal ball that tells you when you're about to make a mindless mistake? New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests that may be possible in certain cases, a finding that could one day help improve workplace and employee safety. More

In a New Generation of College Students, Many Opt for the Life Examined

[6 April 2008 - New York Times] ... Once scoffed at as a luxury major, philosophy is being embraced at Rutgers and other universities by a new generation of college students who are drawing modern-day lessons from the age-old discipline as they try to make sense of their world, from the morality of the war in Iraq to the latest political scandal. The economic downturn has done little, if anything, to dampen this enthusiasm among students, who say that what they learn in class can translate into practical skills and careers. On many campuses, debate over modern issues like war and technology is emphasized over the study of classic ancient texts. ... David E. Schrader, executive director of the American Philosophical Association, a professional organization with 11,000 members, said that in an era in which people change careers frequently, philosophy makes sense. “It’s a major that helps them become quick learners and gives them strong skills in writing, analysis and critical thinking,” he said. ... Other students said that studying philosophy, with its emphasis on the big questions and alternative points of view, provided good training for looking at larger societal questions, like globalization and technology. More

Creativity and Aging White Paper Released by Americans for the Arts; Authored by Steven Dahlberg

[6 March 2008 - Americans for the Arts] Americans for the Arts has just released a white paper on creativity and aging, "Think and Be Heard: Creativity, Aging and Community Engagement" (PDF). Steven Dahlberg, head of the International Centre for Creativity and Imagination, wrote this report as a follow up to the 2007 National Arts Forum Series, which is supported by the MetLife Foundation. "Arts and aging is neither just about art, nor just about aging. Rather, it is about creativity and positive engagement -- that is, creativity as both a goal and a process for shaping the self and society. ... It is through such creative thinking and self-expression that people connect with others and shape the world. Such a work of art is a lifelong process," writes Dahlberg who is also a partner in Elder Care Expos, LLC. Please distribute and share this white paper -- and share your comments following this post.

Hate Your Job? Take a Vocation Vacation!

[10 March 2008 - National Public Radio] The Bryant Park Project -- Compared to the more loyal baby-boomer generation, today's mid- and early-career professionals are unwilling to log decade after decade with the same company. Now there's a nifty solution: A service offers curious job seekers mini-holidays in a new line of work. More