Neuroscientists at Columbia University Medical Center (see our previous interview with Yaakov Stern on the Cognitive Reserve) have asked for help in recruiting volunteers for an exciting clinical trial. If you are based in New York City, and between the ages of 60 and 75, please consider joining this study.

More information below:

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Use it or Lose it?

Train your Brain! Healthy adults between the ages of 60 and 75 living in NYC are invited to join a study of mental fitness training. Qualified individuals will play a scientifically-based video game in our laboratory, and will be tested to determine the effects on attention, memory, and cognitive performance.

You will earn up to $600 plus transportation costs if you complete the 3-month program.

This exciting study is being performed by the Cognitive Neuroscience Division of the Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center.

If interested, contact us today: Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a quick quiz to test your memory and thinking skills which should work out your temporal and frontal lobes. See how you do!

1. - Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.
2. - What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?
3. - Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?
4. - What fruit has its seeds on the outside?
5. - In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn’t been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?
6. - Only three words in Standard English begin with the letters “dw” and they are all common words. Name two of them.
7. - There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?
8. - Name the one vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.
9. - Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter “S.”

Click here for the answers.

Here is new brain teaser from puzzle master Wes Carroll. He found this one in the Mensa publication Number Puzzles for Math Geniuses by Harold Gale.

The Fork in the Road

Question:
Start at the center number and collect another four numbers by following the paths shown (and not going backwards). Add the five numbers together. What is the lowest number you can score?

This puzzle works your executive functions in your frontal lobes by using your planning skills, hypothesis testing, and logic.

Click here to get the Answer.

If you missed Part 1, also written by puzzle master Wes Carroll, you can start there and then come back here to Part 2.

Concentric Shapes:
The Unkindest Cut of All, Part 2 of 2

Difficulty: HARDER
Type: MATH (Spatial)

Question:
Imagine a square within a circle within a square. The circle just grazes each square at exactly four points. Find the ratio of the area of the larger square to the smaller.

In this puzzle you are working out many of the same skills as in Part I: spatial visualization (occipital lobes), memory (temporal lobes), logic (frontal lobes), planning (frontal lobes), and hypothesis generation (frontal lobes).

Click to read the Solution and Explanation.

This is a very fun link to a series of 20 timed puzzles put together by the BBC. It should take you about 10 minutes or less to complete.

The Senses Challenge

You also might enjoy their Interactive Brain which allows you to explore both the structure and function of your brain. The functions will help you learn what areas of your brain you are exercising when you do or feel certain things.

They map out for you: anger, consciousness, disgust, happiness, language understanding, movement, self awareness, smell, taste, touch, breathing, coordination, fight or flight, hearing, long-term episodic memory, sadness, self control, speech production, thirst and hunger, and vision.

Enjoy!

In honor of Mathematics Awareness Month 2007: Mathematics and the Brain, here is another mathematical brain bender from puzzle master Wes Carroll …

The Unkindest Cut of All, Part 1 of 2

Difficulty: HARD
Type: MATH (Spatial)

Question:
The area of a square is equal to the square of the length of one side. So, for example, a square with side length 3 has area (3²), or 9. What is the area of a square whose diagonal is length 5?

In this puzzle you are working out your spatial visualization (occipital lobes), memory (temporal lobes), and hypothesis generation (frontal lobes).

Click to read the Solution and Explanation.

Go on to Concentric Shapes: The Unkindest Cut of All, Part 2 of 2

Here’s a fun puzzle that a friend gave me over dinner a few days ago …

How do you cut a cake into eight equal pieces with only three cuts?
the cake in the puzzle is not necessarily the one pictured below

You have to use your mental rotation and mental imagery skills to visualize the answer for this puzzle. In doing so, you are using your visual cortex in the occipital lobes, your somatosensory cortex in your parietal lobes, and your executive functions in your frontal lobes to help create and evaluate your hypotheses.

To see how you did, click here to read the answer.

Here is another mind-bender created by Wes Carroll for the SharpBrains readers.

Presenting …
Dr. Nasty’s Giant Cube

Difficulty: HARDER
Type: HYBRID (Logic/Spatial)

Question:
The diabolical Dr. Nasty has turned his Growth Ray on a perfect cube that used to measure one foot on a side. The new larger cube has twice the surface area of the original. Find the volume of the larger cube.

Click to read Hint #1.

Click to read Hint #2.

Click to read Hint #3.

Click to read Hint #4.

Click to read the Solution and Explanation.

We are delighted to introduce you to Wes Carroll who has graciously created a few new puzzles to bend all those sharp brains out there! Keep checking back, as we will continue to release new puzzles regularly.

Wes aspires to the Renaissance ideal of excellence in multiple fields: he is the head of Do The Math private tutoring services, Puzzle Master for the Ask A Scientist lecture series, and an internationally touring performer and teacher of music. Find out more at wescarroll.com.

With no further ado, the first puzzle!

Party For Polyglots

Difficulty: MEDIUM
Type: LOGIC

Question:
Of the 100 people at a recent party, 90 spoke Spanish, 80 spoke Italian, and 75 spoke Mandarin. At least how many spoke all three languages?

Have you solved it yet? If you are working the problem, making hypotheses, testing your ideas, and coming up with a solution, you are using your frontal lobes. This is great exercise because the frontal lobes follow the “last hired, first fired” adage. They are they last areas of your brain to develop and the first to suffer the ravages of time and stress. So, keep exercising! Just like your voluntary muscles, regular brain workouts will help you keep more active neuronal circuits in your brain which helps you function better today, as well as create a protective barrier against aging.

Click to read the answer.

Let us know what you think of the puzzle and please welcome Wes!

Nice combination today, of article and brain teaser (thanks Ellen!).

1- Brain Teaser: Try this quick game and test your peripheral vision, visual short-term memory and hand-eye coordination. 

When all the numbered red squares are visible, try to get rid of them as fast as you can, in numerical order. You don’t have to click them… just touch them with the cursor. To start, click here. 

2- Article: Exercising your brain power, The News Journal, DE. ”Like your muscles, your mind needs regular workouts to remain in top shape as you age, but don’t sweat it — it can be easy and fun” 

3- If you like it, you may consider a more rigorous and personalized Brain Workout program to train 14 cognitive skills.