Brain fitness program study reveals visual memory improvement in older adults

Filed under Brain Fitness News by on July 14, 2010 at 7:30 pm {no comments}

A soon-to-be-published study coming out of UCSF is claiming to reveal a direct link between brain training through a cognitive fitness program and improved mental functioning in day to day life. This particular study targeted working visual memory – something we are using on a constant basis in our everyday lives – and found that this skill improved nearly 10% in the period following the training. From the lead researcher, Adam Gazzaley, MD, PhD, director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at UCSF :

“This confirms our understanding that the brains of older adults, like those of young people, are ‘plastic’ – the brain can change in response to focused training”
“The study shows that perceptual improvements with simple discrimination training can transfer to improved working memory in older adults, and it also shows that this increase in memory accuracy is linked to changes at the neural level.”

Brain Fitness Pilot Project

Filed under Brain Fitness News by on February 18, 2010 at 9:57 am {no comments}

New evidence towards the efficacy of brain fitness is now emerging from Australia where they just completed their Brain Fitness Pilot Program. Among their findings were:

  • Participants found improvements in their memory and were able to follow conversations better.
  • Brain has the ability to change in response to new learning.
  • Exercising the brain reduces the risk of developing dementia in later years.

The study consisted of a variety of older participants, people in their 60s, 70s and 80s who spent just two hours a week doing structured brain exercises. After an 8-week period, a majority of participants reported an improvement in their train of thought and could remember names and shopping lists better, while another 70 percent found an improvement in their hearing and their ability to follow and remember conversations.

Encouraging news for anyone worried that their mind might be slipping! Would you be willing to spend two hours a week doing brain training if it meant a healthier sharper mind? That’s just 20 minutes a day!

Happy Neuron

Filed under Brain Fitness Programs by on September 18, 2009 at 9:13 am {no comments}

Happy Neuron offers a scientifically validated, personalized brain cross-training program designed to minimize brain decline by maximizing the brain’s capacity to learn and adapt. Program effectiveness is optimized through thousands of unique hours of fun and challenging brain games and guided by a virtual personal coach.

BrainPower

Filed under Brain Ftiness Advice by on September 11, 2009 at 3:10 pm {no comments}

The human brain is the most complex object in the universe. Each one of us carries within our skulls a three-pound lump of fats and proteins with the consistency of jelly that we call a brain. Your brain contains 100 billion neurons that link to one another in a pattern more complex and unique than your fingerprint.

Your brain has the power to learn new languages, perceive beauty and remember tens of thousands of individual bits of information. The vast and incredible power of the human brain is only beginning to be understood by scientists and neurologists. Join us on a quest to learn how to make the most of your brain’s powers and abilities.

2 more memory games

Filed under Site News by on July 28, 2009 at 12:26 pm {no comments}

I just added two more memory exercises to the Memory Workout Program. Eventually, I will have 10+ games in this section, but the next 5 won’t be coming along for a little while yet. Enjoy!

Word Order – watch a sequence of words and remember the order in which they appeared

Color Match – like the classic Memory game, only you are working with colors and two different sets of tiles

Remember, with any of these memory exercises you can play them at 5 different difficulty levels depending on how much of a challenge you want. You may also adjust the speed of the games if you’d like.

Also, don’t forget about the other memory games, exercises and tests elsewhere on PlayWithYourMind.com. Check out Retroception, ReMemory, Doors of Memory, MemorEyes, Window Memory & Scheduling

Color Match

Filed under Memory Workout by on July 28, 2009 at 10:59 am {one comment}

The goal of this memory game is to match colors of the same tile from opposite sides of the board.

To make a match, click on one tile from each side to reveal their colors. If they match, they will disappear, otherwise they will flip back over and you will need to remember their color.

There are only 8 colored pieces, so on boards with more than 8 pairs there will be some colors that appear more than once.

MemorEyes

Filed under Memory Games by on February 9, 2009 at 11:30 pm {7 comments}

Retroception

Filed under Memory by on January 31, 2009 at 9:31 am {one comment}

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