Dear Voornaam,

I am absolutely delighted to share the news that Dr. Michael Merzenich—my co-founder at Posit Science and the scientific force behind BrainHQ—has won the prestigious Kavli Prize in Neuroscience for his groundbreaking work in discovering lifelong brain plasticity and applying its principles to improve the human condition. You can read more about it here.

Kavli Prize winners receive the award from the King of Norway at the same venue as the Nobel Peace Prize, and Americans are typically congratulated by the President in the Oval Office. Recipients are chosen by leading international scientific organizations and this is one of the top honors in neuroscience. It is a well-earned recognition of the importance of the work Dr. Merzenich has spent his life pursuing.

I share this news because I hope it helps reinforce the trust you have in BrainHQ—and the difference we are trying to make in the human condition.

Jeff Zimman, Co-founder
Posit Science

What Led to Muhammad Ali’s Parkinson’s Disease?
Muhammad Ali––who lived with Parkinson’s disease since his diagnosis in 1984––died on Friday, June 3, at the age of 74. Experts debate whether repeated head trauma during his boxing career led to his early onset of Parkinson’s. Neurologists can’t say for sure, but many say that head trauma increases the risk. Read more about the controversy.

Groundbreaking New Study Shows How Blast Exposure Affects the Brain
For many years, people have known that wartime exposure to blasts can affect the brain. Called “shell shock” a hundred years ago, it’s now typically thought of as a type of traumatic brain injury. But scientists weren’t sure what, exactly, a blast did to the brain. Now, a new study that looked at the autopsied brains of eight soldiers shows that blast exposure creates scarring in certain areas of the brain, usually where two different types of matter intersect (such as between gray and white matter). Learn more about the implications of this finding.

Stem Cell Experiment Helps Stroke Patient Walk
A promising yet small-scale study conducted by researchers at Stanford saw seven out of 18 stroke patients walk again after surgeons drilled holes directly into their brains and injected stem cells that were harvested from the bone marrow of adult donors. This is an encouraging start, but there’s a lot more work to be done. Find out more about this research.

The Brain as a Multisensory Processor
Researchers out of Bielefeld University and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics wanted to understand how humans combine visual and auditory information. Their findings, published in Nature Communications, are noteworthy because they mayopen new clinical perspectives for neurological syndromes that are associated with multisensory impairments. Learn more

Can Online Illusions Be Dangerous to Your Health?
Akiyoshi Kitaoka, a psychology professor of visual perception and visual illusion at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, warns that the illusions he creates and shares online can be dangerous for some viewers. Why? In short, it’s because sometimes our brains can’t handle the information it gets from our eyes. Read this article to find out more, and to check out some of Kitaoka’s illusions. But if you start getting dizzy, cover your eyes with your hand and look away from the screen!

Book of the Month:
Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon's Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart
By Jim Doty
Neurosurgeon Jim Doty is the director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University. In Into the Magic Shop (named for a transformative experience he had as a boy), Doty shares his own story of moving past his successful-but-unhappy life by changing both his brain and his heart, and gives scientific and practical guidance for doing the same yourself. Learn more and buy on Amazon.