Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior - Mind and body

Memory Training Course

Stephanie Frank — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:26:12 +0000

The Memory Training course provides an innovative educational program for people with mild memory concerns. Written by Linda Ercoli, PhD. and Gary Small, M.D., the course is taught by certified volunteer trainers in a fun, interactive classroom environment.

The course focuses on the four top memory challenges that people complain about:

Event detail

11 Sep 2012 - 10:00

UCLA Ueberroth Building

Phone: (310)794-0680

UCLA Longevity Center

Memory Training Course

Stephanie Frank — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:14:17 +0000

The course focuses on the four top memory challenges that people complain about:

Event detail

24 Oct 2012 - 10:00

UCLA Ueberroth Building

Phone: (310)794-0680

UCLA Longevity Center

Memory Training Course

Stephanie Frank — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:38:50 +0000

The course focuses on the four top memory challenges that people complain about:

Event detail

6 Jun 2012 - 10:00

UCLA Ueberroth Building

Phone: (310)794-0680

UCLA Longevity Center

Memory Training Course

Stephanie Frank — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:19:46 +0000

The course focuses on the four top memory challenges that people complain about:

Event detail

17 Apr 2012 - 10:00

UCLA Ueberroth Building

Phone: (310)794-0680

UCLA Longevity Center

Memory Training Course

Stephanie Frank — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:11:11 +0000

The course focuses on the four top memory challenges that people complain about:

Event detail

8 Mar 2012 - 10:00

Santa Monica 50+

Phone: (310)794-0680

UCLA Longevity Center

Sweating the small stuff: Early adversity, prior depression linked to high sensitivity to stress

Semel Web Manager — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 19:00:00 +0000

We all know people who are able to roll with life's punches, while for others, every misfortune is a jab straight to the gut. Research examining this issue has found that although most people require significant adversity to become depressed — the death of a loved one, say, or getting fired — roughly 30 percent of people with first-time depression and 60 percent of people with a history of depression develop the disorder following relatively minor misfortunes. But no one knew why. Now, a new study led by UCLA researchers suggests that people become depressed more easily following minor life stress in part because they have experienced early life adversity or prior depressive episodes, both of which may make people more sensitive to later life stress.

Author:

Mark Wheeler

Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior

Mindfulness, Neuroscience and Creativity: An Interactive Exploration.

System Admin — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 08:37:58 +0000

Join us at MARC for a special event where we bring together artists, musicians, media makers, meditators, and neuroscientists for a half day exploring the interface of mindfulness and creativity. The day will include musical performances, meditations, a discussion on the neuroscience of creativity, a digital "animeditation," Tibetan singing bowls, and personal creative expression. We will specifically examine the effects of meditation on creativity, art, and the brain.

Cost: $50

Discounts: $25 UCLA Students; $45 UCLA Staff; $40 student & seniors; $45 Fifty Plus Program & KCRW subscriber

Event detail

25 Jun 2011 - 10:00 - 13:00

Neuroscience Research Building Auditorium (NRB) at UCLA

635 Charles E Young Drive South

Los Angeles 90095

See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest

More information

Online registration

Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity

Family Commons

Bonal Samreth — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 10:33:50 +0000

The UCLA Family Commons is a new kind of wellness center that offers family coaching, parenting workshops, and classes in martial arts, mindful awareness, arts and yoga, for all ages. Our family coaches and instructors provide tools and information, practical solutions, and activities that help families raise the healthiest children possible.

At the UCLA Family Commons, families meet, share, practice, and transform their daily lives into healthy routines through workshops, coaching, and fun activities and events.

All programs and services are grounded in the latest science about parenting and healthy child development. Our methodology is based on the best research from UCLA and other institutions around the world. We continually review this research to create new programs that embody the foremost thinking about what children need to thrive. We’re here to share this information with you, so you can make the best possible choices for your family.

Overwhelmed caregivers: Try meditation

System Admin — Thu, 19 May 2011 23:51:16 +0000

Article link:

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-meditation-caregivers-20110519...

Dr. Helen Lavretsky, professor of psychiatry, and Dr. Michael Irwin, professor of psychiatry and director of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the Semel Institute, were featured in a May 20 Los Angeles Times blog about their research suggesting that meditative yoga can help improve the mental and physical health of home-based caregivers.

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology

Buddhists, neuroscientists come to a meeting of the minds

System Admin — Tue, 10 May 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Article link:

http://today.ucla.edu/portal/ut/buddhists-neuroscientists-come-203429.aspx

"Buddhism and Neuroscience: a Discussion on Attention, Mental Flexibility and Compassion" at Royce Hall on May 2, sponsored by the Center for Buddhist Studies, the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and the International Institute. The symposium brought researchers from UCLA’s Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior together with eminent Buddhist scholars for a two-hour conversation about their distinctive yet complementary understanding of compassion, creativity, mental flexibility and attention, as well as the role mindfulness meditation may play in cultivating these qualities.

Tennenbaum Center for the Biology of Creativity

Tai Chi Found to Alleviate Stress, Depression

System Admin — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Article link:

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/health/your_health&id=8074080

Research by Dr. Helen Lavretsky, professor of psychiatry at the Semel Institute and director of the UCLA Late-Life Depression, Stress, and Wellness Research Program, was featured April14 on KABC-Channel 7. She found that tai chi chih, when combined with medication, helped elderly people lower their depression and improved their memory and cognition.

Later Life Depression, Stress and Wellness Research Program

Tai chi beats back depression in the elderly, study shows

Semel Web Manager — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:25:12 +0000

The numbers are, well, depressing: More than 2 million people age 65 and older suffer from depression, including 50 percent of those living in nursing homes. The suicide rate among white men over 85 is the highest in the country — six times the national rate. And we're not getting any younger. In the next 35 years, the number of Americans over 65 will double and the number of those over 85 will triple. So the question becomes, how to help elderly depressed individuals?

Researchers at UCLA turned to a gentle, Westernized version of tai chi chih, a 2,000-year-old Chinese martial art. When they combined a weekly tai chi exercise class with a standard depression treatment for a group of depressed elderly adults, they found greater improvement in the level of depression — along with improved quality of life, better memory and cognition, and more overall energy — than among a different group in which the standard treatment was paired with a weekly health education class.

Author:

Mark Wheeler

Division of Geriatric Psychiatry

How Mindfulness Can Add to Your Well Being

System Admin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Article link:

http://www.newdimensions.org/flagship/3375/diana-winston-how-mindfulness-can-add...

Diana Winston, director of mindfulness education at the Mindful Awareness Research Center in the Semel Institute, was featured in a March 2-9 web-based New Dimensions Radio interview about the center and her book, “Fully Present.”

Mindful Awareness Research Center

Mind Body Medicine: Can What You Think and Feel Affect Your Physical Health?

System Admin — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Article link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-smalley/how-whats-in-your-mind-ef_b_772813.h...

The Oct. 27 Huffington Post posted a column by Susan Smalley, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute, on how thoughts and emotional feelings can contribute to one’s physical health and well-being, and the importance of taking into account body and mind in health promotion, disease treatment and prevention.

Mindful Awareness Research Center

Life Stress Assessment Core Laboratory

George M. Slavich, Ph.D. — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 12:07:52 +0000

The mission of the Life Stress Assessment Core Laboratory is to support and advance the conceptualization and assessment of environmental factors that influence human health and wellbeing. We offer services at several levels of support, including limited consultation (e.g., several hours), short-term support (e.g., several days), long-term support (e.g., for the duration of a project), and complete partnerships on new proposals. We have also developed several products that assist investigators in measuring life stress. These services and products are described below. Please contact us at any time if you have questions.

Scientific Consultation & Collaboration

We offer consultation and collaboration services at four levels of support for investigators who are interested in assessing life stress:

Limited Consultation: up to several hours of advice, generally in the form of one or more meetings to discuss issues of study design, data collection, and/or data analysis and interpretation
Short-term support: up to 2-3 days of services, which could include performing a life stress assessment training workshop and/or performing a limited number of life stress ratings
Long-term support: involvement in a project for its duration, which includes ongoing scientific consultation on the assessment of life stress and/or performance of all of the life stress ratings using state-of-the-art methods and our expert life stress assessment team
Partnership on new proposals: working with investigators to prepare new grant proposals, which involves assisting with study design, and developing text and a budget for assessing life stress; and, if funded, providing ongoing support and services relating to stress assessment, data analysis, and interpretation

Stress Assessment Products

We have developed several computer-based products that facilitate the accurate and reliable assessment of life stress. These products are based on gold-standard techniques for assessing stress. Let us know if we can help you find the right product for your project.

Automated Stress Assessment Program

ASAP, the Automated Stress Assessment Program, is a quick and reliable way to measure participants' exposure to recent life stress. Based on gold-standard, interview-based methodologies for assessing stress, this computer-based program systematically inquires about potential sources of stress in several domains of functioning (e.g., work, school, financial, interpersonal, etc). Biographical details about the individual and contextual information about each life stressor are collected. The information is then used to calculate the final stress ratings, which are computed automatically by the program.

Form: Terminal-Based (online version pending)
Time: ~30 minutes per participant
Cost: Variable, based on study size and support required

The Stress and Adversity Inventory

The Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) assesses participants’ cumulative exposure to acute and chronic life stress over the life course. The measure is ideal for studies that investigate biological or health outcomes that are believed to develop or change over time.

Form: Terminal-Based (online version pending)
Time: ~45-55 minutes per participant
Cost: Variable, based on study size and support required

Stress Rating Interface

The Stress Rating Interface (SRI) is a state-of-the-art way to enter and store valuable life stress data that is derived from interview-based measures of life stress. Once your stress ratings are complete, simply enter them directly into SRI. The stress information is securely stored and can be easily retrieved at any time for data analysis purposes. The system saves you time and money by eliminating the need for an additional data entry person. It also streamlines the entire data collection process, reducing opportunities for data entry problems and errors. The system can be customized on request.

Form: Terminal-Based
Time: Variable, depending on amount of data to enter
Cost: Variable, based on degree of customization required

Contact and Booking Details

George M. Slavich, Ph.D.
Director, Life Stress Assessment Core Laboratory

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology
UCLA Medical Plaza 300, Room 3156
Los Angeles, CA 90095-7076, U.S.A.

Tel: (310) 825-2576

gslavich@mednet.ucla.edu

Director:

George Slavich

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology