Health

Lobes of Steel

Your neurobics session starts now: Test-driving the new computer-based mental-training programs

By: Eric Hagerman; Photograph: Dan Forbes
Published: December 2008/January 2009   [ Updated: Dec 23, 2008 - 5:21:52 AM ]

The newest dimension of your fitness plan requires you to plant your butt in front of a computer screen and whip your brain into shape. "Most 40-year-olds are already in age-related cognitive decline," says Norman Doidge, MD, author of The Brain That Changes Itself. "Fortunately, it's almost completely reversible with brain exercises." He's referring to the phenomenon of neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to constantly rewire itself. The key, says Dr. Doidge, is finding tasks that are challenging enough. "It's a use-it-or-lose-it brain," he says. "Things like crossword puzzles are challenging at a fairly high level of abstraction, but the best programs retrain the brain almost as if it were a baby's, sharpening its most basic categories." I researched eight programs, ordered the four most scientifically sound, and flexed some mental muscle. 

Brain Fitness Program Classic (Posit Science)
The sample drill: High or Low: Click arrows corresponding to a pattern of ascending and descending chirps, which speed up or slow down with your performance. Just when you find your groove, it becomes impossible, keeping your neurons dancing at the limit.

The regimen: One hour a day, five days a week, for eight weeks

The theory: Created in 2003 by Michael Merzenich, PhD, this software package targets the auditory center of the brain. Sharpening your listening skills is fundamental to improving attention, memory, and overall cognitive function, given that so much of what we take in is aural. The better the recording, the clearer the playback.

The proof: Ninety-three percent of elderly subjects who stuck to the program boosted their memory to levels in line with people decades younger, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006.

The cost: $395 (positscience.com)

Try it if. . .: You want to improve your working memory and auditory processing.