Cognitive Labs

Is it time to check your brain's relative 'power?' or brain age? If so, this scientifically-designed exercise can provide a numerical ranking of your speed and accuracy, closely linked to your "real" brain age rather than your calendar age. It's like the "RealAge" folks are getting around to brain quizzes.

By combining physical and cognitive fitness, it is possible to have a brain for the ages, with greater quickness and flexibility than other people who don't maintain their brains. The theory is, those who engage in mental cross-training build cognitive reserve. If you haven't taken this test, now's your chance.

Let me take the test | No wait, I really want to take it.



Everyone wants to find out. It seems like people can't resist a challenge.

Cognitive reserve has been theorized as relevant in populations as diverse as nuns and London taxi cab drivers, as well as engineers, teachers, scientists, and academics.In each case, people have inculcated large amounts of information.

Is there a connection between brain power and freedom? Amongst those in history most opposed to developing cognitive reserve, the most notorious is Hitler, who criticized mental exercise and cognitive development as a waste of time.

Labels: age, brain, brainage, cognitive, power, reserve

Cognitive Labs is highlighted by Ashoka's Changemakers' mosaic....along with Dance Dance revolution, Sim City, Second Life, Re-Mission, BrainAge, Darfur is Dying, and other breakthrough games and projects. The common thread is games that promote positive change in people's lives.

From their site:

Games are an ideal way to engage people in activities that promote healthy lifestyles and tackle their health problems head-on. Accessing these activities through games can make them more attractive and effective because games are designed to be fun, easy to access, and give players a sense of control and safety that is sometimes lacking in more traditional health services and products. The field of Games for Health is at a take-off point. We present this mosaic of solutions for Games for Health at this critical time to promote such innovative approaches that improve health.

Consider what’s in a game: A strong interactive computer or video game provides a serious challenge that players must overcome to reach a goal, usually with fun and some learning along the way. At their best, games for health create experiential scenarios that channel what players learn during the game into smarter choices outside the game. Superb graphics and clever storytelling, applied to high-stakes issues such as cancer remission and natural disaster preparedness, make games for health anything but kids’ play. Though games for health are serious, they only work when they’re fun. Sometimes, they surprise you without intending to, like the calorie-burning benefits of playing Nintendo’s Wii or Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution.

Games for health, like the best social enterprises, have tremendous potential for profit and behavior change. Additional research into games for health can only prime and improve the marketplace for the next generation of ideas and products.

This mosaic highlights some important dimensions of games for health, and we hope it inspires new ideas and new research about play that improves health.

Labels: ashoka, brainage, changemakers, dance, sim

One of the tests in Brain Age is the classic Stroop Test, rendered for the small handheld device.

Stroop tests were named of course after Stroop, way back in 1935 and his doctoral dissertation.

In this test you have to inhibit your expectation. For example, I see the word 'Yellow' but the font is green. Typically you are asked to choose whether the color/text association is correct or not.

Introducing 'speed' into the measurement makes it a more challenging brain exercise.

The Univ. of Michigan has a good discussion of Stroop, directed attention, and the effects on the brain for any budding game developers or just the curious.

Labels: brainage, stroop

Transformers Brain Gym from Cognitive Labs. Train your brain with pics from the Dreamworks/Paramount film. Bumbleebee, Optimus Prime, and more. Using the stock photos of the film from Yahoo! Movies. Could it happen with more movies? We'll see.

Labels: brain, brainage, optimus, prime, reaction time, spielberg, transformers

With the Coming of the New Year, you'll now be able to test and train your brain a little bit, or a lot.

There are several completely new exercises and, in addition, on every test there is an intensity adjuster. Start low, at 5 or 10 repetitions - and increase to 30 or 40 repetitions as you get more proficient.

This might remind you of a routine at the gym.

As you increase your ability to concentrate and focus, you'll begin to change your brain for the better. As the experts have said, regular workouts for an extended period of time are the key. But even if you can only spend a few minutes a day, with the lower rep settings you can exercise your brain in just a few minutes - with a variety of exercises that focus on different memory and attention capacities - a much more concentrated form of exercise than suggestions to "read" or do "crossworld puzzles," and 2X to 3X more effective, in less time according to a recent JAMA article, with benefits measureable many years into the future.

While they may be fun, crosswords don't have a time element. Time-definite exercise trains your brain to be quicker through enhancement of "neural conduction velocity" which is the scientific term used for "brain speed."

These changes can make your brain act younger by stimulating neural connections and if you are young, increase the potential to learn, store, and recall information. The variety and depth insures that you get a balanced exercise.

Labels: alzheimers, brain, brainage, brainspeed, learning, neural, nintendo, velocity, youth