Brain Training and Ageism

About Brent Green

About Brent Green
This blog is about Baby Boomers and our impact on business, society, and culture, today and in the future. Here I explore many themes relevant to those of us on a thoughtful journey to reinvent the future of aging. I am a consultant and author of six books, including "Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers: Perceptions, Principles, Practices, Predictions." I present workshops and give keynote speeches about the intersection of the Boomer generation, business, aging, and societal transformations. My company, Brent Green & Associates, Inc., is an internationally award-winning firm specializing in building brands and forming successful commercial relationships with Boomers through the unique power of generational marketing. Marketing to Boomers I welcome your comments and questions here. This blog is a continuing conversation that began in June 2005, and I'll appreciate hearing from you.

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Kim Walker
Kim Walker is a respected veteran of the communications industry in Asia Pacific, with 30 years of business and marketing leadership experience in Australia, Hong Kong, Tokyo and New York. His newest venture is SILVER, the only marketing and business consultancy focused on the 50+ market in Asia Pacific. He has been a business trends and market identifier who had launched three pioneer-status businesses to exploit opportunities unveiled by his observations.
Hiroyuki Murata
Hiroyuki Murata (Hiro) is a well-known expert on the 50+ market and an opinion leader on aging issues in Japan and internationally. Among his noteworthy accomplishments, Murata introduced Curves, the world’s largest fitness chain for women, to Japan and helped make it a successful business. He is also responsible for bringing the first college-linked retirement community to Japan, which opened in Kobe in August 2008. Hiro is the author of several books, including "The Business of Aging: 10 Successful Strategies for a Diverse Market" and "Seven Paradigm Shifts in Thinking about the Business of Aging." They have been described as “must read books” by more than 30 leading publications including Nikkei, Nikkei Business, Yomiuri, and Japan Industry News. His most recent book, "Retirement Moratorium: What Will the Not-Retired Boomers Change?" was published in August 2007 by Nikkei Publishing. Hiro serves as President of The Social Development Research Center, Tokyo, a think-tank overseen by METI (Ministry of Economy, Technology, and Industry) as well as Board members and Advisors to various Japanese private companies. He also serves as a Visiting Professor of Kansai University and as a member of Advisory Boards of The World Demographic Association (Switzerland) and ThirdAge, Inc. (U.S.).

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December 27, 2006

Brain Training and Ageism

Although brain training software or websites offer many exciting possibilities for a rapidly aging country, we nevertheless need to be watchful for the signposts of ageism. Sometimes marketing for these products implies that a youthful brain is qualitatively better than an aging brain. Not only is this ageist, it's untrue. Some of the nation's most respected pundits about aging -- Dr. Bill Thomas, Dr. Gene Cohen and the late Betty Friedan -- all provide convincing evidence and arguments in favor of the positive influences of normal aging on cognitive functions. Once upon a time we called it wisdom. Let's not forget this as Boomers begin to explore brain fitness. Let's not denigrate aging brains with technology "facelifts" for the mind. Brain training can serve a very positive role in improving short-term memory and for life enhancement, but not for alleged pathology mitigation. Please take a look at my prior post for more background on this important topic.

Posted at 10:35 PM in Health & Fitness | Permalink

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