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Brain Fitness Resources

INFORMATION ON BRAIN FITNESS:

  • Sharp Brains: An excellent compendium of news and information about brain fitness.
  • Posit Science’s Brain Fitness Channel: The company that developed the Brain Fitness Program. More information about the program and resources on brain fitness and brain training.
  • Cogmed: Web site for Cogmed, another computer-based training program that targets working memory.
  • On Line Brain Games Blog: An ongoing blog about online brain games and how they can be used.

SLEEP:

  • The National Sleep Foundation pages on sleep and older adults. Basic information on why you may not be sleeping and well and what to do about it.
  • Worried to Death: A blog focused on anxiety disorders that includes some discussions of cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.

COMPLETE BRAIN FITNESS TRAINING PROGRAMS:

  • Lumosity: A very user friendly program delivered over the Internet. Only costs a small monthly fee for regular use, and it’s updated frequently so that you won’t run out of training activities.
  • Posit Brain Fitness Program: One of the best known brain training programs. It requires a software purchase and you should have some basic computer skills, including the ability to use a mouse.
  • CogniFit: A scientifically-based brain fitness program delivered over the Internet. Similar to Lumosity, and also requires mouse and keyboard skills.
  • Dakim Brain Fitness: The Dakim Brain Fitness Program. It’s an excellent training program that asks users to interact with a computer by way of a touch screen, so that typing and mouse skills aren’t needed.
  • Cogmed: A brain training program that focuses on working memory training for young persons with ADHD but which now has been used with older adults.

DUAL N-BACK TRAINING PROGRAMS:

  • Brain Workshop: Free downloadable software for dual n-back training.  Read more about dual n-back training in my post about it here.
  • Soak Your Head: Free dual n-back software for Windows.  Read more about dual n-back training in my post about it here.

BRAIN TRAINING PROGRAMS THAT ARE FREE OR LOW COST:

  • Matica Brain Training: A site that features multiple brain games that can be played for free. Registration required. Tried games that will help you develop faster reaction times and better motor coordination while doing something quickly.
  • Samgine: Another website with free brain games. Commercially supported, so that you may have to sit through a video commercial to get to a game. Try the 60-second quiz for a speeded task that requires mental flexibility.
  • Play with Your Brain: Another site with a number of interesting and possibly useful brain games.  Ad supported. Try BallDodge for a challenge requiring speed and visual search.

OTHER BRAIN FITNESS BLOGS:

  • My Brain Fitness: A retired psychologist in Western Australia reports on her work with the Posit Brain Fitness Program.
  • The Tangled Neuron: Mona Johnson’s reports on memory loss and  Alzheimer’s research.

Brain Fitness

Brain Training Study Off the Ground!

computer with apple for teacher

After overcoming a number of obstacles, our study of the effects of cognitive training on fluid intelligence has finally started. We’re enrolling participants from our local Life Long Learning Program, all of whom are 50 years or older. In the study, we are comparing the effects of working memory training …

Changes in Brain Size with Aging

Picture of chimpanzee

Understanding brain aging has to be research priority. The average age of people in the US is increasing. This means that there are more older people at risk for diseases that occur as people get older, such as Alzheimer’s. In people, the size of the brain decreases as they get …

Exercise, Mitochondrial DNA, and Brain Fitness

Mouse on white background

One very influential theory of why our physical and mental functions decline with age holds that changes in our DNA accumulate over time so that out cells don’t work any more. Perhaps the most important part of our DNA exists in every cell in a special part called the mitochondia. …

The Default Mode Network and Brain Fitness

Man sleeping on grass

If brain fitness is more than just trying to avoid memory loss as you get older (and I think it is), then understanding how you think is (I think) critical. Sometimes called metacognition, this means not just thinking, but thinking about thinking. Follow that? Metacognition is the idea that we …

Mindfulness Meditation, Brain Fitness, and Gray Matter

Buddhist monk looking out over the forest

Most people know that the brain is smaller with age, at least in part due to loss of brain cells in parts of the brain related to perception, memory, and executive processes. Anything that can slow down or reverse the process should be of interest to all of us, whatever our age. …

RSS Worry and GAD Blog

  • 5 More Steps to Cope with Irritability
    This is a cross posting from my brain fitness blog. As it turns out, worry is probably bad for your brain fitness, so coping with worry not only can improve your mood but may also help improve your thinking and memory. Here the post: Irritability means letting small things that happen to all of us […]
  • Three Ways to Deal with Unconstructive Repetitive Thoughts
    Several researchers have shown that negative mood, anxiety, and distress can be associated with cognitive decline. Wilson and his colleague Patricia Boyle (both at Rush in Chicago) have shown with data from the Religious Orders Study that persons who are chronically distressed have a greater chance of cognitive decline. At the Cognitive Aging Summit (sponsor […]
  • Brain Fitness and The Mind of a Monk
    the contrast between Tibetan monks’ apparent calm, evident even on brain scans, and her own anxiety disorder. Ms. Warner says that she suffers from panic disorder, […]