The Online Brain Games Blog

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.

1. Novelty
2. Variety
3. 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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There are lots of brain fitness programs and products out there that supposedly will improve your brain function. There are individual brain games to play, online brain games, brain supplements, even brain fitness gyms. It can be confusing to know which game, book, brain fitness program or software out there to choose from when trying to improve ones brain fitness.

To help us decide, lets first define what brain fitness really is..

I came across a great definition of brain fitness some time ago and it goes like this:

Brain Fitness is: 1. A state of general good health and well being of the brain 2. The ability to perform specific mental tasks and functions at normal or above skill levels.

Having this definition in hand, lets now discuss what we can do to specifically improve the state of general good health and well being of our brain.

Educator Alvaro Fernandez lists four primary things that help contribute to a state of general good brain health.  He calls them, The Four Pillars of Brain Health.

They are:

1. Mental exercise
2. Physical exercise
3. Nutrition
4. Stress management

Most people, when they think of brain fitness, think primarily of mental exercises. In fact, most brain fitness programs you find available today are focused primarily on the mental exercise aspect of brain fitness.

Mental exercise programs usually come in the form of what’s called brain games. Brain games can be found in the form of  free online brain games as well as a commercially available online and offline games.

As you can see, mental exercise (like playing free online brain games) is just one of the four pillars required for overall brain fitness. You cannot ignore the other three pillars and expect to enjoy the benefits of optimum brain health and fitness. They are called pillars for a reason – they support an overall structure. Any weakness in one of the pillars can seriously affect the stability of the structure as a whole.

We’ll be discussing each of the other four pillars of brain health and fitness more in depth in future posts.. So stay tuned!

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• Brain Health and Fitness News Links Sept 2009
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Yawning turns out to be an excellent brain exercise!

I’m reading a book called “How God Changes Your Brain: Breakthrough Findings from a Leading Neuroscientist”.  In the book, the author(s) list 8 brain exercises to help improve memory, brain fitness and overall brain health. The 5th brain exercise listed in the book is the simple act of yawning.

Here are 12 good reasons to yawn according to the author(s);

1)   Stimulates alertness and concentration

2)   Optimizes brain activity and metabolism

3)   Improves cognitive function

4)   Improve memory recall

5)   Enhances consciousness and introspection

6)   Lowers stress

7)   Relaxes every part of your body

8)   Improves voluntary muscle control

9)   Enhances athletic skills

10) Fine-tunes your sense of time

11) Increases empathy and social awareness

12) Enhances pleasure and sensuality

According to the author(s), “Yawning will relax you and bring you into a state of alertness faster than any other meditation technique I know of”.

Brain-scan studies have shown that yawning evokes a part of the brain called the precuneus. According to researchers, the precuneus appears to play a central role in consciousness, self-reflection, and improve memory retrieval, among other things.

The process of yawning also involves numerous neurochemicals including dopamine. This leads to yet other neurochemicals and areas of the brain which regulate and help improve memory, voluntary control, temperature regulation, pleasure, sensuality and relationship bonding.  It is hard to find another activity that so positively influences so many functions of the brain.

Conscious yawning takes a little practice and discipline. All you have to do to trigger a deep yawn is to fake it 6 or 7 times.

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So go ahead and try it now… yawn 6 or 7 times.

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See, don’t you feel better? I bet that last yawn was a good one too!

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For more information on how yawning helps improve our brain function, as well as to learn about the other 7 brain exercises shown to improve memory, brain fitness and overall brain health listed in the book I’m reading, click on the book link below:

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Related Posts:

• Yawning Boosts Mental Abilities and Helps Olympian Win
• How Sleep Affects Our Memory and Brain Health
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Below are a few of the best links I’ve come across over the last few months on how sleep affects our memory and brain health. I hope you find them as informative and useful as I did.

Below are the links with article summaries:

When Sleep Suffers, So Does Decisiveness – A recent study, which included 49 U.S. military cadets, looked at how sleep deprivation affected thinking abilities which rely heavily on instantaneous, gut-feeling decisions. They found that even moderate sleep deprivation can cause an immediate loss of these abilities.

Lack of sleep harms brain health – Another great link with respect to the importance of getting adequate sleep for maintaining optimum brain health and fitness.

Why ‘Sleeping on It’ Helps – A recent study concluded that for certain kinds of decisions – those that are complex and where you have some expertise – “sleeping on it” may be more helpful than spending minutes or hours of conscious thought on it. The brain makes good unconscious decisions, when we let it.

Rule #7 Sleep well, think well –  Online link to useful information on the importance of sleep with respect to brain health and fitness found in the book “Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School”.

Sleep & Nap – An excellent post detailing 14 great things we can do to help preserve, protect and enhance our gray matter. Number 5 deals specifically with sleep.

Healthy habits to improve memory – Getting enough sleep one of several healthy habits we can have in order to maintain and improve our memory.

Sleep Now, Remember Later – An excellent article which details how sleep affects our memory. Want a good memory, get enough sleep!

No sleep means no new brain cells – Wow..  A study suggests that missing out on sleep may cause the brain actually to stop producing new cells.

Have a Poor Memory? Then Try Sleeping On It – In humans, one particular study looked at memory recall with and without sleep. The study found that people who slept after learning the information performed best, successfully recalling more words than those who had not had sleep prior to being tested.

So there you have it.. A great excuse to go take a nap!

Related Posts:

• Yawning can Improve Memory, Brain Fitness and overall Brain Health
• A Simple Yoga Exercise To Build Your Brain Power
• An Apple a Day Improves Your Memory
• How to Prevent Alzheimer’s and Other Dementias
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