Do they actually work? From what I have read, Dual n Back is perhaps the only proven brain training game.
Are there other ways to sharpen and improve the mind. Does reading and doing puzzles stimulate the brain?
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Wow, it looks like no one likes your question. I’m sorry. I don’t have any hard data but I wish I did. I love playing those brain stretching games.
Nothing specific but I did ask my therapist about them. She didn’t know initially but a week or so later she had talked to colleagues and they recommended it.
Does reading fiction improve the brain?
The article that griffin1977 linked to seems to be a qualified “yes”. The qualification is that there are other things that are free that help. Great if you do them.
I think the analogy to a treadmill in your house is relevent. If you walk outside, that’s free and just as good (if not better) than the treadmill. If you walk on the treadmill when you wouldn’t have walked outside (weather, local crime, etc.) than the treadmill helps. if you have a treadmill in the corner of your basement but don’t use it, the benefits are less.
To the extent that these programs force you to exercise a mental skill that you wouldn’t normally exercise, they probably help. Other free things are just as good if not better. But they are better than not using those skills at all.
Paying for a membership on one of those sites and then not using it (like me) doesn’t help at all. :smack:
They don’t mention theorem-proving, but I find that an interesting activity that keeps my brain going. For some reason, I lack the kind of associative memory that might allow me to do crossword puzzles. My father loved them, ditto my wife and at least one child, but not me.
Does reading fiction count as a mentally challenging activity?
Depending on what you are reading, I think yes. I’ve read a fair amount of older works in English (lots of Victorian stuff, some Elizabethan, and a little Medieval/Middle English, and I think it does require you to stretch your brain, both to digest vocabulary, look for idioms or cultural references, use your imagination to picture older scenarios, and inspire you to do further research into the context of the story or the context of its authorship.
The German science show Quarks did one show about brain puzzles and brain training. Their conclusion was:
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special brain puzzles, even such as Prof. Fukushiwa, may only help the brain learn this one specific task at best, at worst, they don’t do anything. Same for sudoku or crossword puzzles.
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If you really want to train your brain, the recommended activities are: learn a new language; learn a new instrument, or at least play an instrument/ make music; do a sport or learn a new physical activity; dancing combines music and sport
A study just done by a university with older people showed that even simple walking done for one year increased things like concentration and memory in older people.
As for reading fiction: if you read good fiction that challenges you and where you learn interesting things and if you then participate in a book club (bookcrossing/ internet discussion or local) to talk about it, then you probably have more benefit than just reading those thin booklets about Jerry Cotton.
They did a study on 30 year olds some time back and found that a (too-large) part was “functionally illiterate”: although they had been able to read and write when leaving school, for the last 15 years since learning their trade, they’d just done their usual stick and not read anything beyond a tabloid and were now unable to read and properly comprehend a simple paragraph of middle level.
So use it or loose it, and the quality does matter. If you don’t feel challenged in your views and don’t learn new knowledge, it’s easy to become set in your mental process and reject things.
Thanks. So, learning a new sport is good, or is just playing sport ok? I can fell mentally shattered after a long game of tennis. It is partly a tacticians sport.
Doing any sport is good (because it increases general fitness and neuron connections). Doing a team sport where you have to interact with others is better (also for motivation). Learning any new thing, esp.a sport, is even better.
Caveats: don’t overdo sports on one day so much that you get muscle soreness or inflamed joints or tennis elbow.
And don’t learn a new sport that is not suited for you or your age: learning something that requires a lot of balance/ agility or quick reflexes with a chance of accidents is not useful. Inlineskating is a good sport because it’s smooth, but starting anew at age 70 if you’ve never done anything like before has a high risk of accidents. (A special course with a trainer and adapted curriculum can avoid that, though).
Reported. 