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Cross-Training Your Brain to Maintain Its Strength
Bob Edge, 82, uses a computer program that helps keep elderly minds nimble. He says it has helped gain speed in doing crossword puzzles.
(Katherine Frey - The Washington Post)
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Also contributing to the brain workout boom are state-of-the-art imaging techniques that have allowed scientists to validate a theory developed decades ago. By taking detailed pictures of brain neurons, scientists watch parts of the brain that had seemed dormant light up and assume new responsibilities in response to stimuli. Theoretically, this means brain decay can be halted or even reversed.
"The brain is constantly rewiring and recalibrating itself in response to what you do," says Henry Mahncke, who holds a PhD in neuroscience and is vice president of Posit Science, the San Francisco developer of the Brain Fitness software. "It remakes itself into a more efficient operation to do the things you ask it to do."
The trick, of course, is finding the right stimuli -- no trivial task.
Posit Science developed auditory exercises by piggybacking on years of research showing the brain's listening ability gets fuzzier with age. In an attempt to prove that its products work, the company has been funding clinical studies, including one published in a National Academy of Sciences journal last year which purported to show that healthy people over 60 who used Brain Fitness turned back their memory clocks by 10 years.
Other scientists remain skeptical, noting that most basic research in this area so far has involved animals.
"There is not a lot of empirical evidence yet," says Molly V. Wagster, chief of the neuropsychology of aging branch at the National Institute on Aging. "That is not to say these ideas don't have plausibility. We all hope this may be the case, but in humans there have not been a lot of randomized clinical trials."
A Well-Rounded Workout
The fact that the brain-fitness neuroscience remains in its infancy isn't holding back entrepreneurs, who are experimenting to develop a mental gym that will give brain cells a well-rounded workout.
The idea makes sense to George Mason's Carle, who has tested many brain-exercise products. "Much as a gym or personal trainer is better than simply walking," he says, "using training software is better than just doing crossword puzzles. With push-ups, you may get strong arms, but how about your legs? You have to train all the brain processes."
More than two years after releasing their auditory trainer, the makers of Brain Fitness are preparing to release a visual training version early next year. Glenys Dyer has been testing it and finds the visual exercises much harder.
Dyer also is working through the rival program made in Israel, MindFit, which offers 20-minute workouts in hand-eye coordination, visual and auditory short-term memory, multitasking and word recall.
In the computer room of her apartment, Dyer demonstrates a MindFit exercise that displays two square rooms on the screen, each with a ball inside ricocheting off walls of different colors. Her assignment is to match the colors of the ball and the wall before the two collide, by clicking on the wall if the colors don't match.
Her husband says MindFit and Brain Fitness each have their pluses and minuses, but that "MindFit training is more fun, while Brain Fitness is hard work."
