Research-based information on Brain Fitness and Cognitive Health, authored by Alvaro Fernandez and over 10 Expert Contributors.
How many differences can you spot?
You have seen and maybe tried that exercise or game in the Sunday paper many times: find 5 differences between the two images.
You may like it or not. You may think it is only for kids. But it is a GREAT brain exercise!
Let’s see what cognitive processes and which brain areas are involved in this exercise:
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News and Events
Exercise your brain in the Cognitive Age: The New York Times published two thought-provoking articles on brain and cognitive fitness, one of them featuring SharpBrains.
Boost your visuospatial skills and learn about your brain
-- By Dr. Pascale Michelon
Visuospatial skills are used everyday in many ways, ranging from going from one room to another in your house to solving a jigsaw puzzle and navigating in a new city. 
One specific visuospatial skill has to do with moving spatial information around in your head. It is called mental rotation.
Let’s take an example. Can you picture in your head an arrow pointing to the right? Now, turn this arrow so it points to the left. Done?
Do you want to change your brain? (for the better, we all hope!). Keep reading Dr. Pascale Michelon's blog post...
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You may have heard that the brain is plastic. As you know the brain is not made of plastic! Neuroplasticity or brain plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to CHANGE throughout life. The brain has the amazing ability to reorganize itself by forming new connections between brain cells (neurons).
In addition to genetic factors, the environment in which a person lives, as well as the actions of that person, play a role in plasticity.
Neuroplasticity occurs in the brain:
Harriet Vines, Ph.D., an experienced author and retired college professor, sends us a few fun brain exercises to train our attention and working memory (the ability to keep information current for a short period while using this information). Given them a try! They are not as easy as they may sound...
1. Say the days of the week backwards, then in alphabetical order.
2. Say the months of the year in alphabetical order. Easy? well, why don't you try doing so backwards, in reverse alphabetical order.
3. Find the sum of your date of birth, mm/dd/yyyy. Want more exercise? Do the same with friends' and relatives' date of birth.
4. Name two objects for every letter in your complete name. Work up to five objects, trying to use different items each time.
5. Wherever you are, look around and within two minutes, try to find 5 red things that will fit in your pocket, and 5 blue objects that are too big to fit.
-- Harriet Vines, Ph.D. is the Author of Age Smart-How to Age Well, Stay Fit and Be Happy, where she shares results from 15 years of consultation, workshops and lectures at Leisure World, Canyon Ranch, Independent Retirement Communities, and Adult Education Programs.
Note: if you have brain teasers, news, or articles you'd like to share, please email us at information (at) sharpbrains (dot) com. Looking forward hearing from you!
A reader (thanks Mike!) sends us this fun article, titled A matter of training, on how to train our memory. Some quotes:
“It’s a skill, not a talent. It’s something anyone could have picked up ... I’m not born with this. It’s about training and technique,” he says, explaining his unusual ability. Anant holds the Limca Record – the Indian equivalent of the Guinness Record – for memorising 75 telephone numbers, along with the names of their owners, in less than an hour. He is recognised as “the man with the most phenomenal memory in India.”
“Unfortunately, most people think that memorising is very difficult. The moment they see someone demonstrate something like this, they think it’s out of this world.”
If you want to remember something, you have to link it to something you already know. Association is the natural principal. For example, if you need directions to a place, a landmark is often used as a point of reference. And if you derive pleasure from something you do, there’s a good chance you’ll remember it. Since the brain already works in this manner, why don’t we take control of it?”
“To me, an intelligent person is someone who is able to put together more of his skills to solve a problem. Intelligence is about using strategies.”
The key concept here is that memory, as well as other cognitive skills, can be trained through Continue Reading »
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).
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. Continue Reading »
A year ago we wrote a Glossary where we defined Brain Fitness as "the general state of good, sharp, brain and mind, especially as the result of mental and physical exercise and proper nutrition" and a Brain Fitness Program as a "structured set of brain exercises, usually computer-based, designed to train specific brain areas and functions in targeted ways, and measured by brain fitness assessments."
Now, thanks to this recent article Alvaro and Lisa's Brain Vacation, we can add Brain Fitness Vacation: "A brain fitness vacation is like a regular vacation, only you attend events, do exercises, and arrange for experiences that address the aspects of good brain health: physical exercise, mental exercise, good nutrition, and stress management."
Dave Bunnell, the founder and editor of new magazine ELDR (and previously editor of PC World, PC Magazine, Upside, and many other magazines) met Dr. Goldberg and myself after our speech in SFSU last May. When he showed an interest in writing a story, and I mentioned half-jokingly that it would have to wait a few weeks since my wife and I were about to take a much needed "brain fitness vacation", he said, well, maybe that's the story!.
You can read the full article here. For the benefit of the attendants to my lectures this week, who may be looking for some additional brain exercises, here go some quotes:
• Guesstimation. Lisa asks Alvaro a question, "How many trees are there in San Francisco?" To come up with an answer, Alvaro first tries to guess how many trees, on average, there are in a city block. He then calculates approximately how many blocks there are in a square mile, followed by how many square miles there are in San Francisco, and so on.
• Number Series. Alvaro says, "Two, three," and Lisa replies, "four, six." Alvaro then says, "Six, nine," and Lisa replies, "Eight, twelve." He says,"Ten, fifteen," and the sequence goes on as long and as fast as you can keep doing it.
• Haiku. During the entire vacation, Alvaro and Lisa composed haiku for each other every morning. The rule was they couldn't write them down. They had to create them in their heads and remember them.
• Sensory training. Lisa puts a piece of chocolate into Alvaro's mouth while his eyes are closed. He lets it melt completely without chewing and without opening his eyes. Next, he puts a grape in Lisa's mouth.
• Visualizations. Alvaro and Lisa sit quietly for about 15 minutes, breathe deeply using their diaphragms, and visualize special moments from their past, such as the most beautiful view they've ever seen, or a loving personal moment.
Enjoy
Pic credit: San Pedro de Alcantara, Spain (Wikipedia)
We are glad to see that MindFit is finally making it into the popular press, at least in the UK. The program is making big news in the UK (BBC, Times, Daily Telegragh, Guardian...) because Baroness Susan Greenfield, director of the Royal Institution and a well-respected neuroscientist, is endorsing it. We evaluated it last year and
liked what we saw, based on our 10-Question Checklist. Now, remember that no program is "best", but that different programs can be more appropriate for specific people and specific goals, so read the checklist first and take a lot at other programs too if you are in the market for "brain training".
MindFit is a software-based assessment and training program for 14 cognitive skills important for healthy aging. We typically recommend it for people over 50 (up to any age, you simply need to know how to use a computer and a mouse) who want a novel and varied mental workout.
The program has Continue Reading »
First, some of my favorite blog carnivals we contributed to this week: Grand Rounds, HR, Education, Law, Carnival of the Green.
2 very interesting news pieces (the second one, including fun brain teasers):
1) With a fresh grasp on - and label for - an academic block, some slow achievers are eager to return to school (Boston Globe)
Quote: "Turns out Ellie has a problem with working memory, a term used to describe the ability to retain information from the top of a page to the bottom. Working memory comes under the umbrella of executive function, a thinking skill that refers to the tasks executives tend to excel at, such as prioritizing, organizing, and mentally shifting information around. It's a skill that develops progressively, starting in the elementary years and continuing into adulthood...If you've never heard of executive function, brace yourself. It's bursting onto the educational scene."
Comment: Great article. We covered this in detail in an essay last year: Cognitive Neuroscience and ADD/ADHD Today.
2) Want a job at Google? Try these brainteasers first (CNN)
Quote: "Seemingly random questions like these have become commonplace in Silicon Valley and other tech outposts, where companies aren't as interested in the correct answer to a tough question as they are in how a prospective employee might try to solve it. Since businesses today have to be able to react quickly to shifting market dynamics, they want more than engineers with high IQs and good college transcripts. They want people who can think on their feet."
Comment: What are those companies (Google, Microsoft, Amazon) after? Employees with good Executive Functions. You can try some of the fun teasers in the article. For more context on what those are Continue Reading »
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