Brain games - how they worked for me, participants tell L.A. Times

- Tue, 30 Oct 2007

When Bonnie Theiss, 65 retired from her library job in St Cloud, Minn., she started to spend "way too much time in front of the boob tube," she recently told the L.A. Times. Now, she commits time almost every day to doing brain exercise games on her computer, saying " I'd prefer to be learning while being entertained." And she claims it has improved her attention to details in her environment, sharpened her memory  and her response times to cues like traffic signals.

At 28, Lucas Mills may seem too young to be experiencing age-related memory problems. But the Yale law student took a year off between finishing college and starting law school and told the Times "you can notice a difference in performance especially when you go from college to the real world, where you're not as stimulated every day," he said. "With the specter of law school looming, I decided I had to do better."

So he took to computer-based brain training exercises. "It was a nice little tune up," he said.

The L.A. Times reports that brain training exercises will soon become as widely accepted as physical exercise as the means to keep in optimum mental shape and stave off the effects of age related diseases. HeadStrong Cognitive Fitness is recognised as the world's leading provider of brain training software. It was founded by neuroscientist Dr Elkhonen Goldberg, Professor of Neurology at New York University and  renowned in the field of cognitive fitness and brain training. The exercises at HeadStrong strengthen the brain's pathways associated with memory and concentration. You can join HeadStrong for as little as US$20 a month and have a neuropsychologist tailor an exercise program exclusively to you. To find out more click here.