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? brain teasers job interview
- 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 Continue Reading »

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 haikus brainmost:

(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...)

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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: Continue Reading »

Here you have the twice-a-month newsletter with our most popular blog posts. Please brain fitness and health newsletterremember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, simply by submitting your email at the top of this page.

Quick, Are videogames good or bad?

That's an impossible question. Good or bad for what? What  specific games are we talking about? More importantly, what are they substituting for, given time is a limited resource?  Contributor Jeremy Adam Smith, managing director of Greater Good magazine, offers an in-depth review on the trade-offs videogames present in: Playing the Blame Game.

News Round-Up

Math Innovation in UK Schools: a recent (and unpublished) study seems to support the potential role for "Serious Games" in education. Learning and Teaching Scotland reports significant improvements in pupils' concentration and behavior, on top of math skills, after using Nintendo Brain Training game.

Alzheimer's Australia endorses Posit Science programs: this announcement brings to surface a genuine public health dilemma - do you, as an association, promote programs before they have been shown to have long-term effects on Alzheimer's progression and prevalence, or do you wait until you have "perfect" research, and then perhaps lose 10-20-30 years or useful contribution to thousands/ millions of brain's Cognitive Reserves? In our judgment, it may well be worth offering options today, as long as they are accompanied by independent measurement of the cognitive benefits.

More September News: September has brought a wealth of additional worldwide media coverage on cognitive health and brain fitness topics, including the role of schools in nurturing student's executive functions, the importance of baseline neuropsychological testing in sports, the need for gerontology as a discipline to incorporate brain research, how walking can enhance brain function, and the value of brain fitness programs for long-term care operators.

Resources for Brain Fitness Navigation

Wellness Coaching for Brain Health and Fitness: will Wellness Coaches expand their role and become "Brain coaches"? We have partnered with Sutter Health Partners, the pioneering coaching group of a major health system, to train their wellness coaches on the implications of emerging brain research for their work: focus on the 4 pillars of brain health -balanced nutrition, physical exercise, stress management and mental exercise.

Evaluation Checklist for Organizations: many healthcare and education organizations are already making purchase decisions which involve evaluating different programs that make "brain training" or "cognitive health" claims. Here we present our 10-Question SharpBrains Checklist to help organizations make informed decisions.

Evaluation Checklist for Consumers: if you are an individual interested in programs for yourself and/ or a loved one, you can use this checklist. The starting point is to recognize that no program is a "magic pill" or "general solution", but a tool to be used in the appropriate context.

Learning to Lead, and To Think

Roundtable on Human Resources and Leadership: several bloggers discuss latest news around leadership, social intelligence, applications of brain research, and more.

Helping Young and Old Fish Learn How To Think: David Foster Wallace gave a masterful commencement speech on Life and Work to the 2005 graduating  class at Kenyon College.  Worth reading, with full attention.

Brain Teasers

Seven Brain teasers for Job Interviews: A recent CNN article explains why a growing number of technnology and consulting companies use brain teasers and logic puzzles of a type called “guesstimations” during job interviews. What are they looking for? Good executive functions. Here you have a few typical questions.

Enjoy!

Today we introduce a  highly evolved version of brain teasers.

How quickly can you provide the correct answer to these 3 questions?

- 1) What is going on in these 2 pictures below?

- 2) what may explain it?

- 3) Is there some element out of place?

Ready. Set. Go! Continue Reading »

From a recent article:

Brain Training dominates '08 Euro sales (CVG Online)

- "Overall, four of the ten bestselling DS games in both countries during the first six months of 2008 were in the brain training genre."

- "According to data released by sales monitor Media Control GfK International, the DS's heavyweight status in the European console market is closely tied to the popularity of Nintendo's Brain Training series and other brain training titles."

- "The biggest demand for brain games is in Germany and Holland", the company said. More Brain Training was the bestselling title in Germany during the first six months of the year, while Brain Training topped the Dutch chart during the same period.

Fascinating. Will brain-training-induced employee-productivity-increase help turn around the looming recession? we'll track closely the performance of German and Dutch economies!

What is mental self rotation? It is the ability to imagine yourself in different locations in space and imagine your body moving in space. This is an ability that is used in different everyday activities such as navigating in an environment or reading a map.

- Ability involved: egocentric spatial transformations (yes, that is the scientific expression) or mental self rotation.

- Brain areas involved: mostly parietal lobes.

Let’s take an example. Imagine that you plan to go to a new Walgreens’ location. You wonder whether going North on Big Bend Avenue you would have to make a right or a left turn onto Forsyth Blvd to get to Walgreens. You then look at the map that your spouse has laid out on the table. It turns out that the map is upside down so your perspective is not aligned with the one shown on the map (see Figure 1 just below, Box A). How do you get the answer to your question? Continue Reading »

Here you have 4 of the most popular brain games in our blog, plus a bonus stress management tip.

Brain Teaser 1. In which direction is the bus pictured below traveling?

Schoolbus

Continue Reading »

Here you are have the twice-a-month newsletter with our 10 most popular blog posts. Please brainremember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, simply by submitting your email at the top of this page.

Our first Brain Training/ Fitness Webinar Series was a success with several hundred participants and great feedback. If you could not participate, you can still review the presentation slides by clicking Here. A key message from the series: it is exciting that our brains remain more flexible, at all ages, than was once thought possible. The implications? Every single owner of a brain can benefit from learning more about how to maintain the "It" in "Use It or Lose It." And which tools, if any, can be helpful. But, remember, there are no magic pills for cognitive health and performance.

Market News

National Neurotechnology Initiative: Neurotech leaders ask for help to support a pending bill on funding for applications of brain research.

Lumos Labs raises $3 m in venture capital:  This website provides a stimulating Continue Reading »

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:

Continue Reading »

Here you are have the twice-a-month newsletter with our 10 most popular blog posts. Please brainremember that you can subscribe to receive this Newsletter by email, simply by submitting your email at the top of this page.

A crucial topic we cover is, "How can we use emerging technologies to keep our brains healthy and productive as long as possible?"  The American Society on Aging asked Alvaro to exercise his brain...and here are his thoughts on the current state and future of the brain fitness market: Brain Health Business Grows With Research and Demand

 

Announcements

Brain Training Presentation and Seminars: We had an informative webinar this Tuesday. Click here to view the presentation and learn about upcoming events.

Continue Reading »

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