Canny Minds Blog » Brain Training

IQ Test Experts

Jenny — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:55:33 +0000

A mention for a new site IQ Test Experts which is well worth a visit, featuring an IQ Test and guidance on improving your score, more articles, and brain teasers and riddles to exercise the mind.

Try www.iqtestexperts.com

Brain Training Games such as Nintendo DS can help to reverse memory loss

Jenny — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 11:10:34 +0000

Psychologists from London Metropolitan University have unearthed more evidence that brain training games can actually help reverse memory loss in head injury victims and dementia sufferers.

Furthermore, in their study, playing computer games was almost twice as effective at improving memory as performing similar exercises with a pen and paper
They claim just 15 minutes a day spent on brain training exercises promotes the growth of new brain cells and could help those with memory problems lead more independent lives.

One group of volunteers were given handheld electronic devices and asked to play a brain training game which tested short-term memory for just 15 minutes.

The others carried out traditional word recall exercises using pen and paper.

The researchers then tested all the participants on a traditional memory recall task, and found a significant improvement in both groups. But for those who had practised on computer games, recall had improved by 60 per cent, compared with 37 per cent for those who practised on paper.

Daily Mail April 17 2010

To see the range of Nintendo DS games and consoles on Canny Minds click here

Never a cross word

Jenny — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:29:13 +0000

Doing crosswords or sudoku puzzles can help couples to make up more quickly after arguments, according to new research.
Psychologists from Harvard University said that stimulating mental activity can stop people from harbouring a grudge following a domestic row.
They discovered that emotions were better controlled by people who had more activity in the part of the brain (the lateral prefrontal cortex ) which is associated with puzzle solving.

Daily Telegraph March 11 2010

Photo Courtesy of Jessie Whittle

Running is the perfect way to train your brain

Jenny — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:49:47 +0000

Running regularly can help to boost your brain power and improve memory, claim scientists.

People who jog a couple of days every week help to stimulate their brain to grow hundreds of thousands of new brain cells, research suggests.

Neuroscientists found that the new cells appeared in a region of the brain linked to memory formation and recall.

They said the findings meant that running could improve the ability to recall memories clearly, a skill that is crucial for learning new tasks.

The study, conducted on mice and carried out by Cambridge University and the US National Institute of Ageing in Maryland, could lead to new ways of slowing down the mental deterioration many people experience as they age.

“We know exercise can be good for healthy brain function, but this work provides us with a mechanism for the effect,” said Timothy Bussey, a behavioural neuroscientist at Cambridge and the study’s senior author.

Experts are not sure why exercise stimulates the growth of cells in the brain.

They say it may be linked to higher levels of hormones released while exercising, increased blood flow or reduced levels of stress. Cortisol, a hormone linked to stress, inhibits the growth of new brain cells.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, followed two groups of mice, one of which had unlimited access to a running wheel throughout. The mice with the wheel clocked up an average of 15 miles (24km) a day, whilst those in the other group had no such opportunity to exercise.

In memory tests, the running mice scored nearly twice as high as the other group.

By Andrew Hough, the Daily Telegraph.

Image courtesy of mikebaird

Thinking Out Loud

Jenny — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:05:57 +0000

There was some interesting research reported by ‘The Journal of Research in Educational Psychology’. They claim that the key to answering difficult problems is to speak them out loud or to draw them. Therefore, when faced with difficult mathematical problems, students reportedly fared better by thinking out loud. It might make for a noisy classroom but it would make for better mathematicians. Similarly any problem was apparently more easily solved if the student was able to draw it or make some kind of pictorial representation. No more silent tube or train journeys then!