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• The Elastic Brain

In order to hone your mental functioning you must "use it or lose it".  Much like physical fitness, brain functioning sharply decreases after age 50 unless you give your brain challenges.  There are lots of games you can play and puzzles and crosswords you can do but there is little research to back up claims of cognitive improvement for most things out there.

It seems that those of us who wish to keep our brains youthful need to check out the research and look at programs specifically designed for brain training.  It takes variety and working at least 5 days a week for about a month before you can affect substantial improvement in brain functioning.  It takes a focused program to achieve real gains.

Joan and Steve Hayes are brain training consultants who can help you set up the kind of systems that you can afford and will use.  We have played multiple types of games and can share with you what we have learned.  Here is where we are at today.  We will be constantly looking at new things available and share with you what we discover.  Til then, here is our suggestion for those serious about mental improvement who can afford to spend from $150.00 to $395.00 for improving their brain's "plasticity" or ability to re-form and rework neural pathways to make improvements in cognition.

The Posit Science Program

This is the best tool we have found so far for brain training.  Posit has the research behind it that documents the thousands of users that have gone from a 70 or 80 brain age to functioning better by as much as ten years!  We are half way into this program and are already seeing improved memory and perception along with a noticeable improvement in a sense of well-being.

The three brain chemicals this program stimulates are acetylcholine - needed for efficient learning; dopamine - necessary for mood elevation, motor skills; and norepinephrine - necessary for reacting to stimuli.

This program is hard work for an hour a day but the results are well worth the effort.  It is more expensive than other programs and it was developed by neuroscientists specifically to stimulate all three of the above brain chemicals necessary for improving memory and mental functioning.

We are authorized dealers for the program and can advise you on computer requirements and bring you what you need to get started.  We can set up a demo disk for your group so people can try the program before making a commitment to using it.

Nintendo Programs

You can purchase a Nintendo hand held "DS" game unit that has dual screens.  There are lots of fun games available that will help with brain training.  "Brain Age" and "Big Brain Academy" come to mind along with the wonderful mini-games in "Super Mario Brothers".  We can help you establish a plan that uses a series of varied games that will help with memory, reaction time, and concentration.  None of these will compare to the Posit Science Program but they are cheaper and portable.  We feel this system might be more helpful after the Posit Science Program as a kind of continuing challenge to the brain to deal with a variety of novel situations.  We have lots of experience with the Nintendo games and hand held units.

We would like to point out that Nintendo systems are designed to be entertaining and fun for children.  They may be hard for the elderly to see during the day.  They may be hard to work if you have arthritis in your hands.  The screens are rather small.  Try before you buy!  We can bring you a game system to try and we can sell you a system and software to use.  Please contact us for details, discussion,  etc.

email : joanhayes@whidbey.com