There are hundreds, perhaps even thousands of mental exercise games available online that are touted as being brain games. Some are offered as free online brain games and others are sold as commercial brain games. The big question is, how do you know if playing any of these mental exercise games will actually improve your brain fitness? How do you know if one form of mental exercise or brain game is better for you than another? The answer to these questions depends on whether the particular mental exercise and or brain game contains the three primary characteristics Neuroscientists say are necessary.
Mental Exercise Should Contain These Primary Characteristics
Any form of mental exercise or brain game should contain the following three primary characteristics in order for it to be of maximum benefit to our brain according to Neuroscientists.
- Novelty
- Variety
- Challenge
These three characteristics will depend greatly of course on who we are and what we do. A mental exercise such as a crossword puzzle might be something new and challenging for one person, but not for another. The same can be said about a video game, free brain games or a commercial brain game. In addition, a particular mental exercise or brain game, over time, will lose its benefit if it loses its novelty or no longer is a challenge for you.
So when evaluating and or comparing any mental exercise or brain game, these three primary characteristics should be used as general guidelines.
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Challenging your mind in new ways strengthens underlying brain performance because mental fitness, like physical fitness, has been proven to get better with exercise.
I’m the CEO of Posit Science and one of the things I’ve learned from talking with many consumers is that people want to know if a specific brain training program works. We’ve partnered with researchers from institutions like the Mayo Clinic, University of Southern California, Johns Hopkins, and dozens of others to test the real-world impact from brain training with our software exercises. Over 30 studies have now been published in peer-reviewed journals showing Posit Science’s technology can have a range of benefits from improved memory to lowered health care costs in healthy aging adults.
[...] I wrote about these 3 primary characteristics in a previous post titled, “What Makes Mental Exercise Beneficial, or NOT?” [...]
I love it that you mention “challenge”. I’ve often read of people who say their games are “fun”. Yes, fun is important (or let’s face it, you’re more likely to quit and continue it) but too much fun generally means the games are not working!
Andre “Brain Fitness Coach” Auerbach´s last blog ..Brain Killing Food: What You Eat Can Deteriorate Brain Function