Brain Fitness Blog Carnival #1

By Alvaro Fernandez | January 19, 2007 |

Wel­come to the inau­gur­al edi­tion of the Brain Fit­ness Blog Car­ni­val. The tim­ing could­n’t be bet­ter  you have prob­a­bly seen the fea­tured CBS News/TIME Series on Brain Neu­ro­plas­tic­i­ty. Thanks to the over 40 peo­ple who sub­mit­ted posts. We have had to select the posts we enjoyed the most to help facil­i­tate an engag­ing and informed…

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How do I know if computer-based brain fitness programs work?

By Caroline Latham | January 15, 2007 |

How do I know if com­put­er-based brain fit­ness pro­grams work? Research the prod­uct and the names involved with the prod­uct to see what has been published.Look for arti­cles in high cal­iber, peer-reviewed journals.Ask for referrals.Assessments done before you begin and then after your train­ing allow you to track your performance.Observe your­self.… Just as you cross-train in your phys­i­cal fit­ness rou­tine (mix­ing car­dio with strength train­ing and flex­i­bil­i­ty) to get a bal­anced work­out, you need to cross-train your men­tal fit­ness to exer­cise your brain through motor coor­di­na­tion, emo­tion­al under­stand­ing, mem­o­ry, focus and atten­tion, sen­so­ry process­es, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, lan­guage skills, and men­tal visualization.Furthermore, how can you gauge your improve­ment if you don’t have a way to mea­sure it?

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I already do crosswords and sudoku. Do I need anything else?

By Caroline Latham | January 8, 2007 |

Do I need any­thing else?Key Points: Recre­ation­al activ­i­ties like cross­word puz­zles, sudoku, bridge, chess, pok­er, etc. are all good for you and bet­ter than doing nothing.BUT, recre­ation­al activ­i­ties are lim­it­ed in their range of men­tal cross-train­ing as well as dif­fi­cult to con­trol for both chal­lenge and novelty.Answer:Do some­thing.… The pro­grams also adapt to your per­for­mance to keep on chal­leng­ing you over time.Physical exer­cise and good nutri­tion will sup­port your com­mit­ment to brain health.

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The Hermann Grid Visual Illusion

By Caroline Latham | December 24, 2006 |

While there are real­ly only two col­ors in the grid, the high con­trast black and white areas fool the eyes into per­ceiv­ing a gray cir­cle at each inter­sec­tion. The illu­sion results from reti­nal cells adjust­ing the bright­ness of an image by adjust­ing the inten­si­ty of the light sig­nal in many small sec­tions, which allows you to see a wide range of both bright and dark details in the same image, unlike a com­put­er mon­i­tor or TV screen that has one bright­ness set­ting for the entire image.

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Are those 2 rows perfectly parallel?

By SharpBrains | December 6, 2006 |

What do you think? Yes or No? Try again. And try again…until you real­ize those two rows are indeed per­fect­ly par­al­lel.   More brain teas­er games: Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illu­sions Brain Teasers for each Cog­ni­tive Abil­i­ty More Mind Teasers and Games for Adults of any Age

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Brain Training and “Brain-ism” in Japan

By Alvaro Fernandez | December 4, 2006 |

Today we are trav­el­ing to Japan. Go Hira­no is a ser­i­al Japan­ese entre­pre­neur who has been explor­ing neu­ro­­science-based oppor­tu­ni­ties in Japan, hav­ing recent­ly cre­at­ed the com­pa­ny NeuWell (neu­ro­science for well­ness). ———————- Key take-aways: — Peo­ple in Japan devour any prod­uct with brain-relat­ed claims — But there has been a recent back­lash against chil­dren videogames, so…

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