Sharp Brains: Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

Neuroplasticity, Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health News

Book
Market Report
Summit
Council

Oct 16, 2007

Brain Teasers and Games for the Brain: Test your Brain

By:

Frontal LobesIt is always good to stim­u­late our minds and to learn a bit about how our brains work. Here you have a selec­tion of the 50 Brain Teasers that peo­ple have enjoyed the most in our blog and speak­ing engagements.

Fun exper­i­ments on how our brains work

1. Do you think you know the col­ors?: try the Stroop Test.

2. Can you count?: Bas­ket­ball atten­tion exper­i­ment (Interactive).

3. Who is this?: A very impor­tant lit­tle guy (Interactive).

4. How is this pos­si­ble?.

5. Take the Senses Chal­lenge (Interactive).

6. Are there more brain con­nec­tions or leaves in the Ama­zon?.

Atten­tionTwo In One Task

7. How are your divided atten­tion skills? check out “Inside and Out­side” (Inter­ac­tive, from Mind­Fit).

8. Can you walk and chew gum at the same time? try “Two in One” (Inter­ac­tive, from Mind­Fit)

9. Count the Fs in this sen­tence.

10. What do you see? can you alter­nate between 2 views?.

Mem­oryPicasso Task

11. Easy one…draw the face of a penny, please.

12. Proud of your visual short-term mem­ory? Give a try at “Picasso”. (Inter­ac­tive, from Mind­Fit).

Pat­tern recog­ni­tion and planning

13. Plan­ning is not that easy: Tow­ers of Hanoi (Interactive).

14. What’s the miss­ing num­ber: Pat­tern Recog­ni­tion Brain Teaser.

15. Brain Puz­zle for the Whole Brain: The Blind Beg­gar.Sharp Brain

16. Find the miss­ing num­ber in The Empty Tri­an­gle.

17. What about Tip­ping the Scales.

18. Don’t be mis­led by this brain work­out.

19. Please find the miss­ing num­ber here.

Visual work­outs

20. Test the lim­its of your periph­eral vision with this chal­lenge (Interactive).

21. How many…: Train your Frontal and Pari­etal lobes.

22. Is a cir­cle a cir­cle?: Visual Per­cep­tion Brain Teaser.

23. Men­tal Imagery and Spa­tial Rota­tion challenge.

24. What piece fits here?.

25. Can you men­tally build this box?.

Visual Illu­sions visual illusion of paralel lines

26. The Muller-Lyer Illu­sion (Interactive).

27. Don’t try this with your part­ner, or you may fight.

28. How many col­ors do you see in The Her­mann Grid.

29. This is less obvi­ous than it may appear.

30. Is this a cir­cle or what?.

31. The lim­its of our perception-and per­fec­tion.

32. Are these 2 rows par­al­lel?.

33. What do you see.

Logic

34. Who’s the eldest?: Rea­son­ing Skills Brain Teaser.

35. Join this Party For Poly­glots.

36. Solve Dr. Nasty’s Giant Cube.

37. Which way is the bus head­ing?.

With a Cor­po­rate angle

38. Col­lec­tion of Stress Man­age­ment exer­cises. Partners

39. Some Google/ Microsoft Brain Teasers used in interviews.

40. A few guessti­ma­tions like the ones I was asked in McK­in­sey inter­views years ago.

41. More guessti­ma­tions.

42. Your last Aha! moment?.

43. Can you read these faces.

Math puz­zles

44. Choose the right Fork in the Road. Cube

45. Find the the Really, Really, Really Big Num­ber.

46. Hard: The Unkind­est Cut of All, Part 1 of 2.

47. For geniuses: Con­cen­tric Shapes or The Unkind­est Cut of All, Part 2 of 2.

Tough to categorize

48. Clin­i­cally proven Stress Man­age­ment tip.

49. Enjoy this Sun­day After­noon Quiz.

50. Can you write a haiku describ­ing your expe­ri­ence doing some of the pre­vi­ous teasers? The sim­ple rules: write 3 lines, which don’t need to rhyme, con­tain­ing 5,7, and 5 syl­la­bles. You can leave your haiku as a com­ment for extra points…

Note: every­one, includ­ing feed read­ers, THANK YOU for help­ing Digg this story. We made it to Digg’s Home Page, so more peo­ple than usual were able to stim­u­late their brains:-)

Be Socia­ble, Share!
Print This Article Print This Article Email This Post Email This Post

Categories: Brain Teasers

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

37 Responses

  1. What’s on the web? (16 October 2007) « ScienceRoll says:
    October 16, 2007 at 2:05

    […] Brain Teasers and Games for adults, with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50 (Sharp­Brains): Let’s play! […]

  2. Terry says:
    October 16, 2007 at 4:40

    Hello Mr. Fernandez,

    Your ASA Autumn Series pre­sen­ta­tion on “Teach­ing Brain
    Fit­ness in Your Com­mu­nity” was really ter­rific. It
    con­firmed lots of infor­ma­tion I already knew and
    taught me a bit as well. Very nicely orga­nized and
    clearly explained. Thank you!

    Here’s my haiku:

    New infor­ma­tion

    Syn­the­siz­ing my knowledge

    A for­ward movement

  3. Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites Of The Day For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL » Blog Archive » Take The Senses Challenge says:
    October 16, 2007 at 6:22

    […] I learned about this game from the Sharp­Brains blog today. […]

  4. carlos says:
    October 17, 2007 at 12:30

    A genial idea

  5. Chat Marchet News Digest » 50 Brain Teasers with a Neuroscience Angle says:
    October 17, 2007 at 1:35

    […] You can fol­low any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or track­back from your ownsite. […]

  6. Frank says:
    October 17, 2007 at 2:08

    Painfully easy
    Sig­nif­i­cantly harder
    Men­tal stimulus

  7. 50 Brain Teasers and Games with a Neuroscience Angle « Cogitations, Meditations, and Ruminations says:
    October 17, 2007 at 4:12

    […] http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/10/16/brain-teasers-and-games-for-adults-our-top-50 […]

  8. Chuck McKay says:
    October 17, 2007 at 5:14

    This was fun, and no, I don’t intend to haiku. Thanks for post­ing it.

  9. links for 2007-10-18 « Simply… A User says:
    October 17, 2007 at 5:36

    […] » Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50 « Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion at Sharp­Brains (tags: brain teasers games exer­cise mem­ory logic fun ** puzzles) […]

  10. links for 2007-10-18 | Funny Stuff is all around says:
    October 17, 2007 at 5:42

    […] » Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50 « Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion at Sharp­Brains (tags: Brain Games exer­cise teasers mem­ory logic fun) […]

  11. Keetsa Mattress Store - Keetsa! Blog - Eco-Friendly and Green News » Blog Archive » 50 Fun Brain Games says:
    October 17, 2007 at 5:49

    […] Over at Sharp Brains, they have a cool list of 50 brain games aimed at test­ing a vari­ety of func­tions. Some are for mem­ory, some for speed, and some for just plain wacky fun. […]

  12. Mark says:
    October 17, 2007 at 6:07

    Haiku:

    I thought I did well
    Then I reviewed my answers
    I am retarded

  13. links for 2007-10-18 « My Weblog says:
    October 17, 2007 at 9:18

    […] Brain Teasers and Games for adults, with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50 (tags: attention) […]

  14. 6 ways to write a list says:
    October 17, 2007 at 9:42

    […] How’s this for a good exam­ple. They have taken a bunch of related “niche” stuff and put it into a mean­ing­ful list.  A good prac­tice.  This is a bit more art than sci­ence because it involves know­ing what a group of peo­ple need at once.  The niche stuff could include a vari­ety of things from many dif­fer­ent parts of the web.  More often than not I would say these lists are spe­cific to an appli­ca­tion area for a spe­cific group.  Such as fic­tion writ­ers (like me*cough*). […]

  15. Smith Data Processing Services » Blog Archive » links for 2007-10-18 says:
    October 17, 2007 at 10:18

    […] » Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50 « Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion at Sharp­Brains (tags: brain teasers) […]

  16. links for 2007-10-19 « TheSurfersZone Random Access says:
    October 18, 2007 at 5:26

    […] » Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50 « Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion at Sharp­Brains (tags: brain exercise) […]

  17. Alvaro says:
    October 18, 2007 at 7:12

    Terry, Frank and Mark, great haikus!

    Chuck, yours is great too:-)

    This was fun, and no,
    I don’t intend to haiku.
    Thanks for post­ing it.

    Terry: thanks for your kind words. I am email­ing some mate­ri­als to all par­tic­i­pants tomorrow.

  18. links for 2007-10-19 « Free Hogg says:
    October 18, 2007 at 7:19

    […] Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50 Brain Fit­ness Rev­o­lu­tion at Sharp­Brains (tags: games health puzzles) […]

  19. Monday morning links serving: The October 22nd edition | [Geeks Are Sexy] Technology News says:
    October 22, 2007 at 3:20

    […] –Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: Our Top 50 It is always good to stim­u­late our minds and to learn a bit about how our brains work. Here you have a selec­tion of the 50 Brain Teasers that peo­ple have enjoyed the most in our blog and speak­ing engagements. […]

  20. What I’ve Learned So Far » Blog Archive » Here’s a brain teaser for you. says:
    October 22, 2007 at 9:34

    […] If that’s a stumper, you can go to this page of 50 dif­fer­ent brain games and find out for yourself. […]

  21. ~ At Home With Kris ~ » Blog Archive » The 95th Carnival of Homeschooling - The ABC Edition says:
    October 22, 2007 at 7:11

    […] Check out a selec­tion of brain teasers on atten­tion, mem­ory, logic. The Brain Fit­ness Blog shares Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50. […]

  22. Carnival of College Bloggers, Fourth Edition says:
    October 24, 2007 at 9:00

    […] Alvaro Fer­nan­dez presents Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: our Top 50 posted at Sharp­Brains, say­ing, “A selec­tion of brain teasers on atten­tion, mem­ory, logic…” […]

  23. Sarah Rolph says:
    October 25, 2007 at 4:54

    find­ing your teasers
    added fun to my morn­ing,
    helped wake my brain up

  24. Alvaro says:
    October 26, 2007 at 10:09

    Sarah, thanks for shar­ing such a nice haiku :-)

  25. Meryl Lumboy says:
    November 3, 2007 at 4:47

    hey! your site is really great!

  26. » Cognitive Exercise and Fitness: October Monthly Digest   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    November 3, 2007 at 6:09

    […] Top 50 Brain Teasers and Games with a neu­ro­science angle: a list of the most pop­u­lar mind games in our blog. […]

  27. La Habitacion del Duende » Frikeando says:
    November 12, 2007 at 9:22

    […] http://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2007/10/16/brain-teasers-and-games-for-adults-our-top-50/ […]

  28. Lorraine says:
    November 20, 2007 at 8:38

    teach­ing math is fun
    when you find great resources
    sharp brains is the place

  29. » Your Haiku, please?   « Brain Fitness Revolution at SharpBrains      says:
    November 21, 2007 at 10:45

    […] In our Top 50 Brain Teasers post, we con­cluded with the chal­lenge: #50. Can you write a haiku describ­ing your expe­ri­ence doing some of the pre­vi­ous teasers? The sim­ple rules: write 3 lines, which don’t need to rhyme, con­tain­ing 5,7, and 5 syl­la­bles. You can leave your haiku as a com­ment for extra points… […]

  30. Alvaro says:
    November 25, 2007 at 2:11

    Thank you to all who wrote a Haiku :-)

  31. holmz says:
    December 26, 2007 at 9:31

    Haiku:

    Fun cal­cu­la­tions?

    I can not believe it’s true.

    Calculation’s fun!

  32. Beatrice says:
    January 31, 2008 at 3:18

    Gen­eral question-does any­one know a good source for plex­ers? I’ve ordered the two books, “Plex­ers” and “More Plex­ers” but would like to find oth­ers, or web­sites with more than one page of them, if pos­si­ble. Thanks in advance!

  33. navtej kohli says:
    February 7, 2008 at 4:20

    I was search­ing for this kind of a blog for months now. Actu­ally lost the hope of find­ing one, but here I am :) Thanks for the great quizes!

  34. Alvaro says:
    February 7, 2008 at 5:54

    Navtej, thank you for find­ing us! we need read­ers :-)

    Please keep enjoy­ing it, and let us know any suggestions!

  35. Pieter says:
    June 17, 2008 at 2:58

    Great site, would like advanced riddles.

  36. Renee Blackwell says:
    November 25, 2008 at 8:14

    stretched the mind
    eyes clos­ing tightly
    comprehends

  37. Kaye says:
    March 17, 2009 at 7:07

    Loved this list! Will be tweet­ing it and sav­ing it :) I did ter­ri­ble at the col­ors but GREAT at the let­ter F :) Thanks.

Welcome to SharpBrains!

As seen in The New York Times, The Wall Street Jour­nal, CNN and more, Sharp­Brains is an inde­pen­dent mar­ket research and pub­lish­ing firm track­ing brain fit­ness and applied neu­ro­plas­tic­ity research and mar­ket­place. AARP recently named The Sharp­Brains Guide to Brain Fit­ness a Best Book on the subject.

UPCOMING ONLINE COURSE: How to Be Your Own Brain Fit­ness Coach in 2012 (March 2012).

NEWS: How to Sub­mit a Guest Post to SharpBrains.com.

Sponsored Ad

Top 30 Articles

  1. Top 50 Brain Teasers, by Sharp­Brains Team
  2. The Ten Habits of Highly Effec­tive Brains, by Alvaro Fernandez
  3. Why do You Turn Down the Radio When You’re Lost?, by Car­o­line Latham
  4. Brain Plas­tic­ity: How learn­ing changes your brain, by Pas­cale Michelon
  5. Top 10 Brain Fit­ness Future Trends, by Alvaro Fernandez
  6. 7 FAQs on Men­tal Exer­cise, by Alvaro Fernandez
  7. It is Not Only Cars That Deserve Good Main­te­nance: Brain Care 101, by Alvaro Fernandez
  8. Eval­u­a­tion Check­list for Brain Fit­ness prod­ucts and games, by Alvaro Fernandez
  9. MIT Event on Brain Games: Con­text, Trends, Ques­tions, by Alvaro Fernandez
  10. Stress Man­age­ment Work­shop for Inter­na­tional Women’s Day, by Alvaro Fernandez
  11. Mind­ful­ness and Med­i­ta­tion in Schools for Stress Man­age­ment, by Jill Sutie
  12. Stress and Neural Wreck­age: Part of the Brain Plas­tic­ity Puz­zle, by Gre­gory Kellet
  13. How can I improve my short term mem­ory?, by Car­o­line Latham
  14. Cog­ni­tive and Emo­tional Devel­op­ment Through Play, by David Elkind
  15. Judith Beck: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Per­son, by Alvaro Fernandez
  16. Easy Steps to Improve Brain Health, by Car­o­line Latham
  17. Info­graphic: State of the Mar­ket 2009, by Paul Van Slembrouck
  18. Improve Mem­ory with Sleep, Prac­tice, and Test­ing, by Bill Klemm
  19. 10 Brain Tips To Teach and Learn, by Lau­rie Bartels
  20. Dr. Elkhonon Gold­berg on Cog­ni­tive Train­ing and Brain Fit­ness, by Alvaro Fernandez
  21. Max­i­mize the Cog­ni­tive Value of Your Men­tal Work­out, by Schlomo Breznitz
  22. Brain Fit­ness Pro­gram and Neu­ro­plas­tic­ity @ PBS, by Alvaro Fernandez
  23. Mind­ful­ness Med­i­ta­tion for Adults & Teens with ADHD, by David Rabiner
  24. Can Intel­li­gence Be Trained? Mar­tin Buschkuehl shows how, by Alvaro Fernandez
  25. How Strong is the Research Sup­port for Neu­ro­feed­back in Atten­tion Deficits?, by David Rabiner
  26. Exer­cis­ing the body is exer­cis­ing the mind, by Adrian Preda
  27. Brain Evo­lu­tion and Why it is Mean­ing­ful Today to Improve Our Brain Health, by Larry McCleary
  28. Phys­i­cal Exer­cise and Brain Health, by Pas­cale Michelon
  29. Posit Sci­ence, Nin­tendo Brain Age, and Brain Train­ing Top­ics, by Alvaro Fernandez
  30. Sleep, Tetris, Mem­ory and the Brain, by Shan­non Moffet

Sponsored Ads

Enter Your Email and Sub­scribe to our free Monthly eNewslet­ter:
Join more than 40,000 Sub­scribers and stay informed and engaged.

Sponsored Ad

Engage and Discuss via

twitter_logo_header

Monthly Blog Archives