Wednesday, October 10, 2007
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Brain fitness software represents a promising new industry. Good programs can evaluate your current mental abilities to create a systematic, measurable set of exercises that best suits your needs. Some of these appear to be thrown together by entrepreneurs trying to capitalize on a good thing—gimmicky, hard to use, based on dubious science, and not worth the money. However, at least two programs, MindFit and Brain Fitness 2.0, are amazingly good.
Based on the research of Dr. Merzenich, Brain Fitness 2.0 takes the most novel and possibly rewarding approach. That's because it is not about doing little puzzles; instead it focuses on the brain's ability to record sound. According to Jeff Zimman, founder of Posit Science, which developed and markets Brain Fitness, the speed at which we process information declines as we age, the accuracy decreases, and our ability to retain or "record" information becomes less reliable. "You start missing information, which has pervasive effects," Zimman explains. "As children tend to talk faster than adults, many grandparents have trouble hearing their grandkids; thus, they have to frequently ask them to repeat what they say."
Brain Fitness has six exercises to improve the brain's ability to process, store, and recall speech. The program—40 one-hour exercises—focuses on listening, with the user wearing provided headphones.
The best news about Brain Fitness is a study which found that the program improved memory by an astonishing 10 years on average. The subjects—62 participants ages 60 to 87—improved their performance on program-related tasks as well as their overall memory skills, as measured with a standardized battery of neuropsychological tests. And they still showed those gains three months after completing the program.
The bad news for us Macintosh enthusiasts is that Brain Fitness requires a PC. The company says a Mac version is on the way, but there's no word when. Also, there's no downloadable version; you have to buy the CD version, and it's not cheap. A single user copy is $395. The "family version," which provides for two users, is $495. More information is available at positscience.com.
A Much Different Approach
Not so "single-minded" as Brain Fitness, MindFit is based on a variety of perception and memory skills, such as visual short-term memory, spatial perception, and response time. The program cleverly communicates back and forth from your computer to a computer at CogniFit, the Israeli publisher. Progress is constantly measured and adjustments are made to the tasks you are asked to do. The main computer even sends out encouraging emails from your "personal trainer."
The first three sessions evaluate your skill level in each area. The idea is to complete this over a three-day period—but when I tested it, I was able to do all three sessions in about an hour. The evaluation tests are fun and just challenging enough to keep you from thinking this is going to be too hard or too easy. Instructions are both written and spoken, and easy to follow.
There are 20 different exercises, each with numerous levels of difficulty. To me, none of the exercises were boring. That's a true test of this software because if it's dull, no one will use it. I especially liked the exercise involving musical instruments. First, you familiarize yourself with a sound blip associated with each of 10 instruments. Then you are asked to identify them in order, after first hearing two blips, then three, then four, etc. Following this, you identify tempos, basically short and then longer bursts of sound. Then it gets really interesting, as you have to identify both the tempos and the instruments making them.
A company-sponsored study involving 121 volunteers over the age of 50 using MindFit or a "sampling of computer games" found that the group using MindFit showed a "statistically significant improvement" in spatial short-term memory, spatial learning and focused attention. Additionally, MindFit users in the study with lower baseline cognitive performance gained more than those with normal cognition.
Like Brain Fitness, MindFit is just for PC users. The downloadable version is $129 and the CD version $139. To buy the program, learn more, or try a couple of demo exercises, go to the website at mindfit.com.
Online Alternatives
Someday there'll be online programs just as robust and effective as MindFit and Brain Fitness, but for now there are many online programs for playing mentally stimulating games, including Sudoku (sudoku.com, websudoku.com) and chess (instantchess.com, chessmaniac.com). One the best sites I have found is Brain-bashers (brainbashers.com), which has 1,000 puzzles and games.
The options for exercising your brain are vast, and the motivation obvious. All that is missing, if you are not already at it, is will power. I encourage you to get off the sofa, turn off the TV, and start pumping ions!
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