3. Brain Training vs. Mental Activity

High­lights from Sec­tion 3: Brain Train­ing vs. Men­tal Activity 

• Men­tal or brain exer­cise goes beyond men­tal activ­i­ty. It is the struc­tured use of cog­ni­tive exer­cis­es or tech­niques aimed at improv­ing spe­cif­ic brain functions.
• Men­tal exer­cise (or brain train­ing) can be deliv­ered in a num­ber of ways: med­i­ta­tion, cog­ni­tive ther­a­py, cog­ni­tive training.
• Com­put­er­ized brain train­ing pro­grams can help get a com­plete men­tal workout

In this sec­tion we focus on men­tal exer­cise “ which we will call brain train­ing, to clear­ly dis­tin­guish it from men­tal activ­i­ty in gen­er­al. First we try to define what brain train­ing is.  Then we high­light the dif­fer­ent way you can get some brain train­ing. Final­ly we focus on brain train­ing soft­ware programs.

	What is mental exercise or brain training? Men­tal activ­i­ty takes place when­ev­er one is awake, rang­ing from mere­ly day dream­ing to read­ing a book or learn­ing a new lan­guage. Men­tal exer­cise or brain train­ing refers to the struc­tured use of cog­ni­tive exer­cis­es or tech­niques. Its aim is to improve spe­cif­ic brain func­tions. Keep read­ing.
	Different types of brain training Cog­ni­tive ther­a­py (CT) is based on the idea that the way peo­ple per­ceive their expe­ri­ence influ­ences their behav­iors and emo­tions. Med­i­ta­tion has been shown to improve spe­cif­ic cog­ni­tive func­tions such as atten­tion. Biofeed­back hard­ware devices mea­sure and graph­i­cal­ly dis­play var­i­ous phys­i­o­log­i­cal vari­ables such as skin con­duc­tiv­i­ty and heart rate vari­abil­i­ty, so that users can learn to self-adjust. Things are chang­ing as a vari­ety of com­mer­cial pro­grams is now mak­ing brain train­ing avail­able to the pub­lic.  Keep read­ing.
	Cognitive therapy as brain training Cog­ni­tive ther­a­py (CT) was found­ed by Dr. Aaron Beck. It is based on the idea that the way peo­ple per­ceive their expe­ri­ence influ­ences their behav­iors and emo­tions. The ther­a­pist teach­es the patient cog­ni­tive and behav­ioral skills to mod­i­fy his or her dys­func­tion­al think­ing and actions. Keep read­ing.
	Meditation as brain training You may be won­der­ing what med­i­ta­tion has to do with brain train­ing. In fact, med­i­ta­tion has been shown to improve spe­cif­ic cog­ni­tive func­tions such as atten­tion. As such it can be con­sid­ered as a brain train­ing tech­nique. Keep read­ing.
	Biofeedback as brain training Biofeed­back hard­ware devices mea­sure and graph­i­cal­ly dis­play var­i­ous phys­i­o­log­i­cal vari­ables such as skin con­duc­tiv­i­ty and heart rate vari­abil­i­ty, so that users can learn to self-adjust. It has been used for decades in med­i­cine. Recent­ly, this tech­nol­o­gy has emerged in rea­son­ably-priced appli­ca­tions for con­sumers who want to learn how to man­age stress bet­ter. Keep read­ing.
	Computerized cognitive training as brain training For many years, neu­ropsy­chol­o­gists have helped indi­vid­u­als suf­fer­ing from trau­mat­ic brain injuries relearn how to talk, walk or make deci­sions, etc.  Among oth­er tools, cog­ni­tive exer­cis­es (includ­ing com­put­er-assist­ed strate­gies) have been used to retrain abil­i­ties. Things are chang­ing as a vari­ety of com­mer­cial pro­grams is now mak­ing brain train­ing avail­able to the pub­lic. The chal­lenge is to make informed deci­sions on which tools may be appro­pri­ate for spe­cif­ic needs and goals. Keep read­ing.
	Brief history of brain training software Struc­tured sets of brain exer­cis­es designed to train spe­cif­ic brain areas and func­tions have been used by the mil­i­tary and by clin­i­cal neu­ropsy­chol­o­gists for a long time. What is hap­pen­ing now is that this approach is being repack­aged and com­mer­cial­ized for new and wider audi­ences. Keep read­ing.
	Do brain training software programs and “brain games” work? To deter­mine if some­thing works we first need to define what we mean by work. A machine to train abdom­i­nal mus­cles prob­a­bly won’t work if what we mea­sure is blood pres­sure. In the same way, a pro­gram train­ing audi­to­ry pro­cess­ing speed may not work if visu­al func­tions are mea­sured for a bet­ter under­stand­ing of cog­ni­tive abil­i­ties. Keep read­ing.
	The need for better education and standards Brain train­ing is now a house­hold expres­sion for many fam­i­lies, cour­tesy of Nin­ten­do. What is less vis­i­ble than Nin­ten­do’s suc­cess is the grow­ing num­ber of sci­ence-based com­pa­nies that aim to train spe­cif­ic cog­ni­tive skills. Posit Sci­ence has been get­ting increas­ing lev­els of atten­tion, includ­ing a PBS Spe­cial. Keep read­ing.

Keep learn­ing by read­ing more arti­cles in the Resources sec­tion, and also please con­sid­er join­ing our free month­ly Brain Fit­ness eNewsletter

This new online resource is based on the con­tent from the book The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness (May 2009, $19.95), by Alvaro Fer­nan­dez and Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg.