A Brain Game to Tease your Frontal Skills

December 10, 2010/Dr. Pascale Michelon/

The frontal lobes of the brain (in gray here) have been com­pared to an orches­tra con­duc­tor, ­influ­enc­ing, direct­ing, and mod­er­at­ing many oth­er brain func­tions. Indeed, the frontal lobes sup­port the so-called exec­u­tive func­tions: deci­sion-mak­ing, prob­lem-solv­ing, plan­ning, inhibit­ing, as well as oth­er high-lev­el func­tions (social behav­ior, emo­tion­al con­trol, work­ing mem­o­ry, etc.). Ready for an exec­u­tive workout?

The func­tions of the frontal lobes are cru­cial for work and life in gen­er­al. How can we pre­serve and enhance these func­tions? Research tells us that cog­ni­tive or brain reserve (i.e., the brain’s resilience to pathol­o­gy) can be increased by men­tal exer­cise. Men­tal exer­cise has to be chal­leng­ing (to trig­ger the for­ma­tion of new synaps­es and neu­rons) and repeat­ed (a sin­gle teas­er will not affect your cog­ni­tive reserve but it is a good start!).

Here is an exam­ple of a chal­leng­ing exer­cise stim­u­lat­ing the func­tions of the frontal lobes. This teas­er will require you to: a) solve the mys­tery of the code by under­stand­ing the pro­vid­ed clue (prob­lem-solv­ing and inhi­bi­tion), b) decide on which strat­e­gy you will use to get back to the orig­i­nal mes­sage (deci­sion-mak­ing), and c) men­tal­ly trav­el the alpha­bet (work­ing mem­o­ry). Enjoy!

Can you deci­pher this mes­sage? You can leave your answer as a com­ment below.

Clue: Each let­ter in the orig­i­nal mes­sage (except the orange Y) has been replaced by anoth­er accord­ing to this rule: “Take each let­ter and replace it by the let­ter in the alpha­bet that is 3 posi­tions after it.”

.

J   R   R  G           M   R   E:        Y R  X          G  R        K  D  Y   H

D          E  U   D   L   Q !

.

Note: Do not write down the whole alpha­bet unless you real­ly need it.

Posted in

30 Comments

  1. EmailRevealer on December 10, 2010 at 10:49

    I could­n’t do it. Do you plan to post ther answer after a few days? I’ll check back.



  2. Dr. Pascale Michelon on December 10, 2010 at 11:05

    Thanks for try­ing! Yes: We will post the answer on Monday.



  3. Phillip Lemky on December 10, 2010 at 11:57

    My guess: “Good job: You do have a brain!”

    Is it correct?



  4. Helen on December 10, 2010 at 12:12

    Phillip, That’s what I got!



  5. ryan on December 10, 2010 at 12:15

    Good Job: You do have a brain!



  6. NUK on December 10, 2010 at 4:12

    Should have said the let­ter that is 3 posi­tions BEFORE it not after it :(



  7. kate on December 10, 2010 at 4:18

    The direc­tions say 3 posi­tions after let­ter, it should state before letter.



  8. Pete on December 10, 2010 at 4:28

    No, the instruc­tions are per­fect­ly cor­rect. They pro­vide the encryp­tion scheme and prop­er­ly denote it as such. Part of the chal­lenge is to real­ize what is being stat­ed and manip­u­late it into instruc­tions on how to decrypt.



  9. frank on December 10, 2010 at 4:30

    Good job you do have a brain.



  10. Tara on December 10, 2010 at 4:32

    “Good job: You do have a brain!” 

    Actu­al­ly, the direc­tions for the code stat­ed “replace with 3 let­ters after”. There­fore, to solve the code, you have to reverse the orig­i­nal direc­tions and use the let­ter “3 let­ters before”.



  11. nancy on December 10, 2010 at 5:07

    Um…the direc­tions are cor­rect. It says to replace the actu­al let­ter with anoth­er let­ter that is 3 after it.



  12. Unknown on December 10, 2010 at 5:13

    The instruc­tions need a brain LOL! The cor­rect let­ters are BEFORE not AFTER the giv­en let­ter no mat­ter what Pete says.

    IE: The first giv­en let­ter is J…AFTER J is M; BEFORE J is G. G is the cor­rect letter.



  13. jim on December 10, 2010 at 5:14

    what we have here is a fail­ure to communicate



  14. Sean on December 10, 2010 at 5:24

    “Clue: Each let­ter in the orig­i­nal mes­sage (except the orange Y) has been replaced by anoth­er accord­ing to this rule: ‘Take each let­ter and replace it by the let­ter in the alpha­bet that is 3 posi­tions after it.’ ” This states that the rule used to code it was: Replace the G with the let­ter 3 places after it, which would be J.



  15. mike on December 10, 2010 at 5:28

    When I tried 3 let­ters beyond I knew I was wrong by the first word. The key was the word “orig­i­nal” So I went back­wards and then I PEEKED !!! It was Fun , but it did trick me at first.



  16. D. on December 10, 2010 at 6:36

    good job you do have a brain



  17. Lynn on December 10, 2010 at 7:45

    Took a while but fig­ured it out…

    “Good job you do have a brain”



  18. kfips on December 10, 2010 at 8:09

    Good Job Do You Have A Brain. Had to real­ly think about it but that’s it.



  19. kfips on December 10, 2010 at 8:10

    Sor­ry I mean good job you do have a brain.



  20. gloria on December 10, 2010 at 11:50

    Good Job
    You do have a brain

    It was easy to see that the single
    Undoubt­ed­ly, the giv­en Y was for you
    let­ter was an a
    That was key

    Not rock­et science



  21. genius on December 11, 2010 at 12:12

    “good job you do have a brain!”
    did­n’t scroll down — got it.
    good for me.



  22. Joyce on December 11, 2010 at 12:20

    Good Job: You do have a brain. 

    You have to read and under­stand the instructions;

    reminds me of a timed exam we had in High School: the instruc­tions said,“write your name in the space pro­vid­ed at the top of the page.Leave the rest of the pages blank.” There were 10 pages full of ques­tions, and a lim­it­ed time for the exam. About half the class wrote furi­ous­ly to fin­ish, and failed the exam: they just did­n’t READ!!!!



  23. Mohammed Shamim on December 11, 2010 at 4:26

    One has to read the rule in the clue care­ful­ly then only it becomes easy to decipher.

    Good Job You Do Have A Brain



  24. Lio on December 11, 2010 at 6:04

    the answer is: “good job: you have a brain”
    …took me a while to fig­ure out by recit­ing the alpha­beth back and forth while keep the right let­ters in mind…



  25. kR1pt0n1t3 on December 11, 2010 at 10:29

    The instruc­tions are per­fect­ly done. For all those ppl that dont have brain it says “The ORIGINAL MESSAGE…” you know the msg you need to find out. That msg was encod­ed with rule… “Take each let­ter and replace it by the let­ter in the alpha­bet that is 3 posi­tions after it.” So based on that you need to go back 3 let­ters to get to where you were and not go after.



About SharpBrains

SHARPBRAINS is an independent think-tank and consulting firm providing services at the frontier of applied neuroscience, health, leadership and innovation.
Book in English
SHARPBRAINS es un think-tank y consultoría independiente proporcionando servicios para la neurociencia aplicada, salud, liderazgo e innovación.
Libro en castellano

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

Newsletter

Subscribe to our e-newsletter

* indicates required

Got the book?