Selected Podcast

EP 1,202B - How Changes in Cannabis Research May Change our Understanding of its Impact on Medical Research Doing Notes Now

Marijuana and medical research: what may happen in medical research if marijuana is rescheduled, and why our understanding of marijuana's impact is now limited. The Biden administration recently proposed reclassifying marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to a Schedule III controlled substance, a change that acknowledges the medical benefits of the drug and would get rid of a lot of research red tape. While we currently have a basic understanding of how marijuana impacts the body and the brain, rescheduling the substance will bring more researchers to the table and make it easier to study the THC products people are currently using today.

EP 1,202B - How Changes in Cannabis Research May Change our Understanding of its Impact on Medical Research Doing Notes Now
Featuring:
Dr. Henry Mahncke

Dr. Henry W. Mahncke is a research neuroscientist, who serves as CEO of Posit Science, the leading provider of plasticity-based brain training and assessments. program BrainHQ. In 2003, Dr. Mahncke was hired as the first employee of Posit Science, to head its research efforts as VP of Research and Outcomes.  He was named CEO in 2011.Dr. Mahncke did his undergraduate work at Rice University and received his PhD from UCSF, where he studied under Dr. Michael Merzenich, the world-renowned neuroscientist, who discovered lifelong plasticity and co-invented the cochlear implant.  Dr. Merzenich would later co-found Posit Science, and recruited Dr. Mahncke to the company.After receiving his PhD, Dr. Mahncke became a consultant with the global strategy firm McKinsey & Co, where he led teams advising medical device companies and launched McKinsey’s video ame practice. 


After McKinsey, Dr. Mahncke served as a Vice Counsel on Technology to the British Government in Silicon Valley and San Francisco. 


At Posit Science, Dr. Mahncke established the company’s global scientific advisory boards and extensive research program.  That program has resulted in more than 150 published peer-reviewed articles on the efficacy of Posit Science brain exercises and assessments.  Those articles show that the exercises in its flagship online (and in app) product, BrainHQ, are the only commercially available brain exercises to broadly generalize – significantly improving standard cognitive measures (eg, attention, memory, processing speed, executive function) and generalizing to measures of real world activities (eg, driving, balance, gait, mood, confidence, everyday cognition, health outcomes and costs). Dr. Mahncke is also principal investigator on a number of government (eg, NIH, DoD) grants, and has been involved (as an investigator or consultant) with more research studies on the impact of cognitive training on older adults than probably anyone else on the planet.  To date, studies of Posit Science assessment and exercises have benefited from more than $80 million in research funding (largely through grants to independent university-based research teams).


Dr. Mahncke is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and frequently presents at conferences and symposia. He has been extensively quoted in the press and has appeared on the Today Show, CNN New Day, Inside E Street and many other television and radio programs. Dr. Mahncke's work has been featured in hundreds of studies, and he would happily comment on changes in medical research.