Brain Training for Kids

Children can learn and re-shape their brains faster than anyone else. Not surprisingly, we’ve found that teenagers who train with the Lumosity brain games improve dramatically. There is also increasing support for the idea that training can help address the cognitive symptoms of ADHD.

Dr. Robert Myers describes some activities that can help a child deal with ADHD in his article,5 Simple Concentration Building Techniques for Kids with ADHD:

“As a child psychologist and the father of a son with ADHD, I developed a host of exercises that help ADHD kids improve their concentration. The key is presenting them as games that are actually fun for parents and children to do together.

…For older children and adolescents, check out the cognitive exercises provided by Lumosity.”

One of his recommendations is to practice relaxation and positive imagery. For example,

“ADHD kids can “imagine” that they’re paying attention in class or able to handle teasing, and this can in turn change their behavior at school.”

I believe that regular physical exercise can also help children (or adults) control ADHD. Instead of rushing into stimulant prescriptions, perhaps it’s worth trying some of these fun and harmless behavioral interventions.

Brain Games for Your Site

You can embed mini-versions of Lumosity tests with our new Brain Game Gadgets. An example is below. If you want to have Path Finder on your blog or website, click “Embed” from the widget and follow the instructions.

Path Finder is based on the classic test of executive function, Trail Making, Part B. You can also try a larger version of Path Finder in the Warm Ups section of Lumosity. The average time to complete this version is 34 seconds (the typical time to complete the smaller version above is shorter).

Brain Game News from the Weekend

A few good articles about brain training that featured Lumosity were published in the last couple days:

NY Times: Exercise Your Brain, or Else You’ll…Uh…, by Katie Hafner.

Yahoo! Tech: Brain Game Can Boost IQ…, by Christopher Null.

BC Gaming: Game Review: Lumosity, by Alexandria Jackson.

Intelligence and your perfect sense of pace

Think you’ve got rhythm? Well, now there’s a reason beyond musicianship and dance-floor bravado to claim an accurate sense of the beat:

Good rhythm is correlated with general intelligence.

Fredrik Ullen and a team of researchers in Sweden found that people who most accurately tap out a beat also do the best on intelligence tests. They suggest that the brain’s sense of timing might underlie higher intellectual functions. The paper was published this week in the Journal of Neuroscience.

From the press release on physorg:

“It’s interesting as the task didn’t involve any kind of problem solving,” says Fredrik Ullén at Karolinska Institutet, who led the study with Guy Madison at Umeå University. “Irregularity of timing probably arises at a more fundamental biological level owing to a kind of noise in brain activity.”

According to Fredrik Ullén, the results suggest that the rhythmic accuracy in brain activity observable when the person just maintains a steady beat is also important to the problem-solving capacity that is measured with intelligence tests.

“We know that accuracy at millisecond level in neuronal activity is critical to information processing and learning processes,” he says.

They also found differences in the anatomy of the prefrontal cortex – a part of your brain involved in many complex cognitive tasks. The subjects with good rhythmic accuracy and intelligence had more white matter volume in the prefrontal cortex.

As is common with an interesting result, this study prompts many new questions:

Does this correlation arise out of a difference in noisiness at the neuronal level, as the release suggests? Or do keeping time and intelligence both arise from higher level cognitive processes, like attention and working memory?

Can intelligence be altered by improving rhythm? Is Ringo Starr actually the smartest in the band?

More white matter in the prefrontal cortex implies more myelin, which aids in fast and reliable communication between neurons. Does the additional myelination improve communication between neurons to the point that rhythm and intelligence are both enhanced?

Memory impairment in those over 70

A study released recently by Duke Medical Center declares a depressing prognosis for those of us reaching the golden years. The study found that more than 1 out 3 people over the age of 70 have some degree of memory loss. While some of this group had Alzheimer’s, the majority had a degree of memory loss that was disruptive but not clinical.

The article does offer some hope:

“…notes Richard Suzman, Ph.D., director of the NIA’s Behavioral and Social Research Program. ‘Research is now beginning to suggest that interventions – such as controlling hypertension and diabetes or perhaps cognitive training – might help maintain or improve mental abilities with age. As such interventions are tested and widely applied, we should be able to track their impact through this type of research.’”

Our new brain health blog

As you can see, we’ve got a new and improved design for the Brain Health blog (thanks Josh and Dave). Let us know if you find changes you do or do not like, or if there’s anything that doesn’t seem to be working properly.

Brain Food – Fruit for Thought

More evidence that you should eat fruit. Cornell’s Chang Y. Lee found that the antioxidants in fruit prevented neurons from dying when exposed to oxidative stress.

“Our results suggest that fresh apples, banana and orange in our daily diet along with other fruits may protect neuron cells against oxidative stress-induced neurotoxicity and may play an important role in reducing the risk of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease,” Lee concluded.

Brain performance enhancer: Caffeine

Chris Chatham at Developing Intelligence published a great guide to getting the most cognitive benefit out of caffeine. We’ve mentioned before that caffeine can improve memory and reaction time and that coffee might be protective against dementia. But we haven’t yet gotten into the implementation – what’s the best way to consume caffeine for sustained cognitive performance? Chris outlines the approach indicated by empirical research in Caffeine: A User’s Guide to Getting Optimally Wired.

One of his stronger points is the value of small and frequent doses of caffeine rather than a venti chug to start the day. Caffeine reaches the brain quickly, and then your system begins to gradually remove it, so you may be best off having about a quarter-cup each hour over the course of the time you want to be alert.

Keep in mind that there are cardiovascular risks to too much caffeine use, and that it is an addictive drug. That said, Lumos Labs averages about 3 cups/day – close to the US average of 3.1/day – and we show no signs of slowing down.