Language in the brain is processed in the temporal lobes. These are on the sides of your brain, next to you temples.

Different areas in the temporal lobe (mostly on the left side of your brain) deal with different aspects of language. For instance, the Wernicke area is the one that allows you to understand words. The Broca area, on the other hand, is the one that allows you to produce language or articulate words.

Damage to Wernicke’s area causes Wernicke’s aphasia, a condition in which people can hear language being spoken, but cannot understand it. Damage to Broca’s area causes Broca’s aphasia, a condition in which people have trouble producing language.

Below you will find a brain exercise that targets the neurons in your language areas. Read the rest of this entry »

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…

There has been a number of great and fun takers so far…enjoy their haikus below! And Happy Thanksgiving.

- Terry says: 

New information
Synthesizing my knowledge
A forward movement

- Frank says:

Painfully easy
Significantly harder
Mental stimulus

- Mark says:

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

- Chuck says: Read the rest of this entry »

Several recent stories on brain training and SharpBrains:

1) New brain games may improve mind fitness by Kevin Kosterman (U of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Advance-Titan)

“Anytime we learn, we are training, changing, our brain,” Fernandez said. “The three key core elements for effective brain exercise are novelty, variety and constant challenge, similar to increasing the level in machines we find in gyms.”

2) “Training the Brain as possible as Training the Body”, جريدة النهار by Hanadi El Diri (Annahar, one of the most prestigious papers in the Middle East. The text is in Arabic.)

3) “Train your brain” by Mark Muckenfuss (The Press-Enterprise in Riverside and San Bernardino)

“We cannot promise to people you will only keep getting better until you are 200 years old. But I think people still underestimate how flexible the brain really is.”

The SmartBrains [sic] program combines mental exercises with a stress reduction program. Too much stress, says Fernandez, has been shown to be damaging not only to performance, but to the brain itself.
With all of the available programs for stimulating the brain, he says, it is important to shop carefully. A critical element, he says, is how clients or participants are evaluated.

“Make sure they have a credible assessment that helps you find your strengths and weaknesses and that they have programs that address (those areas),” he says. “Assessments that give you 50 (as an age-equivalent grade) and a week later you’re 32, that’s not a valuable assessment.”