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Brain Power Games | Memory Loss | Brain Map

Brain-training software and games are hot, and some neuroscientists are taking notice.

Corporations are taking notice, too, as companies from Microsoft to Nintendo develop software, videogames and online tools to challenge brains of every age. The games include progressive challenges -- such as Stroop Effect trainers that challenge users to read the color of the letters of a word on the screen, rather than the word the letters spell; Soduko and other math-based games; and even Tetris in Nintendo's suite of brain games.

Fighting 'Senior Moments'

Bruce Friedman, 57, said he and his friends started noticing their first "senior moments" in their 40s. They made silly driving mistakes or couldn't remember why they'd gone to the kitchen -- momentary memory lapses were becoming a part of daily life.

So, when Josh Reynolds, the developer of software called Think Fast, got in touch with him a few years ago to take his brain-exercise tools from CDs for PCs to the web, Friedman was excited.

"The whole idea is that, with time and with playing every day, you're going to see improvement. It's not just improvement making you a better videogame player, but everyday activities," Friedman said.

In 2002, Think Fast was reinvented as MyBrainTrainer.com, which offers games that promise to increase brain power and quicken reflexes.

The site's 12,000 current members play unlimited games for $9.95 for a four-month subscription, and the site keeps track of their scores and lets them compete against friends or compare their results against other people of their age group, job type or continent.

MyBrainTrainer.com is hardly novel. There is Brain Age, a game Nintendo offers for its DS handheld system, as well as BrainBuilder.com and Happy-Neuron.com. Not to mention software such as Brain Fitness Program 2.0 for adults and endless Sylvan-style tutorials and test prep trainers for children of every age.

Keeping Brains Young

Given his own "senior moments," Friedman said he thought he was building a site for his contemporaries who were trying to ward off dementia. Indeed, that is where much of the marketing for these programs focuses. But Friedman's stats show that his top demographic is people ages 30 to 39, followed by 20- to 29-year-olds.

"We're picking up these people that played videogames as kids," Friedman said. "(Some are) looking for an edge career-wise."

That same set is also buying the games for their children. At Nebraska Furniture Mart in Omaha, product specialist Lindsay Webb said she can't keep the $20 Brain Age games on the shelves for more than a week, and that's after parents invest in the $129 Nintendo DS. Many of the parents played Tetris as teenagers in the 1990s, and Webb said they come back in the store to tell her how they're constantly sneaking a few games in on their child's DS while he or she is at school.

Nintendo's 2006 annual corporate report showed that the company sold 5.1 million of its brain games in Japan alone. Through the end of 2006, Brain Age sold more than 1.1 million units in the United States and finished as the No. 6 selling game for all platforms. Big Brain Academy sold nearly 730,000 through the end of 2006, according to a Nintendo spokesman.

The DS interface includes voice recognition and a stylus for writing. The brain training games aren't available on Nintendo's other platforms, but more such games are in the works.

The Nintendo spokesman said the company also started with the idea of attracting oldsters to gaming, but then decided to make a game that could be fun for everyone.

Do Brains Really Develop?

But will schoolwork or job skills actually improve with regular use of these games? The jury is still out, but there are plenty of brain experts who are excited about the genre.

New research shows that there may be a lot of plasticity in the older brain, which means you can teach an old dog new tricks.

Michael Friedlander, the chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said there is ample evidence that brain matter is constantly developing. He said soldiers returning from Iraq with traumatic brain injuries have shown that large parts of the brain can begin to recover with proper training and care.

He said that, while no firm research shows that the phenomenon applies to a healthy brain, there's no reason not to believe brain training can work.

"Certain parts of the brain can be brought online to help in other operations. Functional imaging shows that playing a piano or learning Braille -- (something that requires) intense practice and focus -- can change patterns in brain, and it can be seen on brain scans," Friedlander said.

Marian C. Diamond, a researcher at the University of California-Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, wrote "Magic Trees of the Mind," which found that brains that keep being taught and stimulated can grow and flex, just like a muscle. The book was reviewed by Aging Today.

"As you get older and you keep your brain engaged and stay active, you increase the odds of having a better functioning brain," said University of Nebraska-Omaha educator Andrea M. Zardetto-Smith. "(Researchers see it when older people do) puzzles, play with grandkids (or play) card games."

So, even though the business of brain training has gone high-tech, researchers said, brainy exercises like pinochle or crossword puzzles also count in the race to beef up neurons.

Yearly Screening

As for warding off dementia or Alzheimer's disease, it is too early to make that case.

"There's no guarantee this will keep you from getting Alzheimer's," Friedlander said, "On the other hand, it won't hurt."

Still, Friedman said he thinks there may be enough evidence to take his MyBrainTrainer.com into a clinical setting by year's end. He's working with doctors to apply his games as part of annual physical exams to track patients' mental progression over the years.

"(It) would be a screening to identify people whose information processing, or memory, is beginning to suffer -- provide objective evidence of senior moments, and which patients may need further evaluation by a specialist," he said.

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