You may have already seen that our Teasers section contains not only our selection of Top 50 Brain Teasers and Games, but also a regularly updated page with latest Games for the Brain.

Below you have the brain games and teasers we have added in 2008 so far. Ready?
- October 2008: Top Brainy Haikus. Yours?.

- September 2008: What is going on with these pictures?.

- September 2008: 7 Brainteasers for Job Interviews.

- August 2008: Can you use mental self rotation to read a map?.

- August 2008: Spot the Differences! how many are there?.

- July 2008 Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you to everyone who has written so many fun haikus over the summer (following the post Top 25 Brain and Mind Haikus. Yours?). These are the 10 I have enjoyed the most:

(Also, Can you write a haiku describing anything crossing your mind now? Remember 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 below for extra points…)

—–
Top 10 Brainy Haikus – enjoy!

- Amit:

Love, college, career.
A new world of transitions.
Will I survive? Yes.

- Kathy:

My release technique,
Forgive, forget, love all,
Meditate on that!

- Alan:

Through the microscope,
slice of brain stains pink and blue,
the wonder of thought.

- Justin:

Justin the genieus
Must spell check the word genius
to post this Haiku

- Tim: Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last few days we have seen an engaging conversation going on. In a couple of posts, representatives from Posit Science brain fitness gym have left comments that have prompted me to ask a series of detailed questions. I will present those questions in a post, so they are easier to find.

Eric, Henry: please address these questions, so we all contribute to helping consumers and institutions navigate through this emerging landscape of “brain fitness gyms” and separate what is real today from what is promising and may be real tomorrow. Read the rest of this entry »

Just came across this very stimulating and fun Traveler IQ interactive game…enjoy!

 

Link: Traveler IQ Challenge

Note: at the bottom of the page you can select a variety of challenges (flags of the world, UNESCO sites, North America…) My favourite: Photos of the World.

The holidays are approaching and you can expect many software and game developers to advertise their products aggressively, trying to get you buy their “brain training” products for you or as a gift for a loved one.

The good news is that there are more and more tools we can use to keep mentally stimulated and even train and improve specific cognitive abilities (like processing speed, short-term memory…). You may be reading about Nintendo Brain Age, Posit Science, Fast ForWord, MindFit, Lumosity, Happy Neuron, MyBrainTrainer, emWave, StressEraser and more. And, of course, there are also non-technology based interventions.

The bad news is that it is difficult to separate marketing from scientific claims, and to understand which one, if any, may be a good complement to other healthy lifestyle choices.

To help you navigate this process, we are publishing the SharpBrains Checklist below, based on dozens of interviews with scientists, experts and consumers:

10 Questions to Choose the Right Brain Fitness Program for You (and a brief explanation of why each question is important)

* 1. Are there scientists, ideally neuropsychologists, and a scientific advisory board Read the rest of this entry »

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.

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?.

Attention

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?.

Memory

11. Easy one…draw the face of a penny, please. Read the rest of this entry »

Unless you have been living in a cave, you have read by now multiple articles about the brain training and brain exercise craze: sudoku, Nintendo BrainAge, multiple online games, software like MindFit and Posit Science…

If you are looking for some fun mental stimulation now, here you have our selection of Brain Teasers.

Now, how do you know which of the new programs can help you more, or whether you need any of them? which ones are simply entertaining Games vs. which ones look like “Games” but are really Training, improving, specific cognitive and emotional skills? Well, that’s why we are publishing the SharpBrains Checklist below, to help you navigate through the overwhelming and conflicting media reports and company announcements.

We have spent over 18 months interviewing scientists and reviewing available Brain Fitness and Exercise Programs worldwide, and want to share with you, right now, the research-based criteria we use to evaluate them.

10 Questions to Choose the Right Brain Fitness Program for You (and a brief explanation of why each question is important)

* 1. Are there scientists, ideally neuropsychologists, and a scientific advisory board behind the program?

(Neuropsychologists specialize in measuring and understanding human cognition and brain structure and function.)

* 2. Are there published, peer-reviewed scientific papers in PubMed written by those scientists? How many?

(Pubmed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes millions of citations science journals. If a scientist has not published a paper that appears in that database, he or she cannot make scientific claims.)

* 3. What are the specific benefits claimed for using this program? Read the rest of this entry »

Good WebMD 4-page article on Brain Fitness programs for seniors. Check Keeping Your Brain Fit for Life:Software companies are offering new programs that promise to keep your brain sharp as you get older.

Some quotes:

- “The notion of brain fitness has even invaded popular culture. In April, Nintendo released Brain Age, a Japanese-inspired, handheld video game to help users’ minds stay active. While the game is marketed for all ages, the buyers — now numbering more than 655,000 in the U.S. — have mainly been older people, Nintendo of America spokeswoman Amber McCollom writes in an email.”

- “Players take a nonscientific test that calculates a “brain age” for the purposes of the game. Read the rest of this entry »