Significant Brain Fitness Articles:
We've culled out here a collection of significant, interesting articles on
aspects of brain fitness and mental agility, and have prepared more
extensive descriptions of them for you. Some of the articles are
free, some require you to sign up for a free account (such as at NYTimes or
LATimes), and some require a payment (we try to indicate these).
If you know of an article which you think should appear here, please
suggest it to us.
Cognitive Fitness
Harvard Business Review, November 2007, pp.53-66
by Roderick Bilkey and Clint Kilts (charge for article).
That two college professors are writing an article about brain fitness for executives to
read suggests to the rest of us that there might be something worth thinking about in this
(pun intended). Here are a couple of key sentences:
"The process of neurogenesis [the creation of new neurons, now known to be possible throughout life] is profoundly affected by the way you live your life."
"...we now know there is a regimen you can follow to retain and even build mental capacity as you age."
Following the introductory material on cognitive fitness (this much available at the
website),
the authors set out a four-step program for becoming cognitively fit:
- Understand How Experience Makes the Brain Grow
- Work Hard at Play
- Search for Patterns
- Seek Novelty and Innovation
There is an extended extract from the article
here.
Like a StairMaster for the brain
Los Angeles Times, Health - Aging Well, October 15, 2007
by Melissa Healy (free article; requires login to free account)
This article surveys a selection of cognitive fitness programs, including a classroom program,
some internet programs, and several PC-based programs.
Calisthenics for the Older Mind, on the Home Computer
New York Times, Your Money - Spending, August 26, 2007
by Christine Larson (free article; click on "Skip this Ad" in upper right corner)
A variety of PC-based brain training programs have begun to appear.
This article surveys the PC-based cognitive training programs available on the market
as of August, 2007.
Lobes of Steel
New York Times, Play Magaine, August 19, 2007
by Gretchen Reynolds (free article; requires login to free account)
Neurogenesis -- the creation of neurons -- is the surprising discovery underlying the current upsurge of
scientific investigation concerning the relation between physical and mental exercise on the one hand and
brain functioning on the other.
This article describes some of the key recent discoveries establishing the occurrence of neurogenesis
in adults, and the connection of exercise with increased neurogenesis.
Long-term Effects of Cognitive Training on Everyday Functional Outcomes in Older Adults
JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association), December 20, 2006 Vol 296, No. 23 pp.2805-2815. by Sherry L. Willis, PhD; Sharon L. Tennstedt, PhD; Michael Marsiske, PhD; Karlene Ball, PhD; Jeffrey Elias, PhD; Kathy Mann Koepke, PhD; John N. Morris, PhD; George W. Rebok, PhD; Frederick W. Unverzagt, PhD; Anne M. Stoddard, ScD; Elizabeth Wright, PhD; for the ACTIVE Study Group (free article -- click on "Skip This Ad").
This is the full scientific report of a
very significant large
long-term (5 year) study of older adults which establishes that
cognitive training has significant effects on an individual's cognitive abilities.
- The study was large:2832 adults (recruited from an initial set of 5000 candidates)
entered the study in 1998-99 in Birmingham Ala, Detroit Mich, Boston Mass, Baltimore Md, Indianapolis Ind,
and and State College Pa; their average age was 73.6 years and the group was racially diverse.
- The participants were randomly divided among 4 groups, one of which was a control group.
The other three groups were devoted to memory training (verbal episodic memory), reasoning training
(inductive reasoning), and speed of processing training (visual search and identification).
- The study was also long-term: The non-control participants participated in 10 sessions
of 60-75 minute training at the start of the study. Selected subgroups participated in booster
session training (four 75-minute sessions) 11 months and 35 months after the initial training.
The final follow-up evaluation of the participants took place in 2004, 5 years after the beginning
of the study.
- The evaluators had no knowledge of what group the participant being evaluated had been assigned to.
The evaluation measures involved both self-reporting measures by the participants and external
measures of functional outcomes in daily living.
- Relative to the control group, at a stringent statistical confidence level (99%), all three types
of training were seen to maintain the effects of their training throughout the 5 year study,
and the booster training had significant effects in the reasoning and speed of processing groups.
Finally, the reasoning group reported a statistically significant (99%) effect on lowering their
difficulties with the measures of daily activities at the end of 5 years. The other two groups
also showed improvements relative to the control group, but the improvements were not deemed
statistically significant at the 99% level.