Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!

Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training - How Old Is Your Brain? (Japanese東北大学 未来 科学 技術 共同 研究 センター 川島 隆太 教授 監修 脳 を 鍛える 大人 のDSトレーニング, Tohoku daigaku mirai Kagaku Kenkyu Senta Kawashima Ryuta gijutsu Kyodo kyōju kanshu: Noh o kitaeru otona no DS torēningu, dt: " Prof. Ryuta Kawashima from the center to joint research on technologies of the future Tohoku University: Train your brain with the DS training for Adults ) is a video game company Nintendo for the Nintendo DS portable game console. On 29 June 2007, a second part was published with the title Dr Kawashima: More Brain Training - How Old Is Your Brain?.

Goal is the training of the brain; the game is designed to be played only a few minutes daily. The player has to fulfill tasks such as mental arithmetic, counting, fast reading or syllable counting.

Unlike other DS titles, the console is held upright, like an open book. The control via DTMF is necessary at any time: Depending on the task, the touchscreen or the microphone can be used for input.

The game is the first, Nintendo in Europe under the label Touch! Generations marketed. This series will also appeal to older or inexperienced video game player and this win as for video games in general and for the Nintendo DS in particular. As an advertising testimonial in Germany has performed internationally Nicole Kidman, Jörg Pilawa on. For individual seminars Nintendo won the German memory athlete Christiane Stenger 2007 also.

Structure of the Game

Training

The tasks of the training program were designed for daily practice. They consist of a combination of cognitive and motor, language or haptic elements to stimulate different areas of the brain.

If at least one task is fulfilled from the training in one day, you have a (virtual) stamp gets on his calendar in the game, with three fulfilling tasks of these increases. Also, with more punches gradually released after new tasks and functions.

The individual tasks are:

• Convert 20: The player has 20 simple mental arithmetic problems solved as quickly as possible by writing the result on the touch screen of the Nintendo DS.
• Convert 100: How " Computing 20", but with 100 tasks.
• Read: The player has to read as quickly as possible the beginning of a classic text. In this case, the time until the exercise is complete, recorded and calculated to how many syllables he has made in one second. The microphone of the DS comes in this task but not used, so you can also read in silence.
• Note: Some numbers are displayed for a second, after that you have their position in ascending size tap on the touch screen. A correct answer will still begin a round in which crop up more boxes. If you answer incorrectly, it will be less.
• Syllables: The player must count the syllables and write some sentences.
• Home: people leave and enter a house; the player must count and indicate how many people are at the end in the house.
• Magic Triangle: This adds or subtracts one figures that stand in a row, and expects the results in the row below continue to ultimately obtain the overall result.
• Time: Two clocks with different times are shown. The player must calculate the time difference between two clocks and write on the touch screen.
• According Computing: Fifty simple arithmetic, the result of which the player must speak into the microphone of the Nintendo DS.

Age test

In addition, a aging test can be performed. Three different tasks from a special selection are successively solved and determines the " mental age " at the end. In this " the younger, the better": The best value are 20 years, the worst 80 in the game is recommended to perform the aging test every now and then to check the results of the training.

The first task of the aging test is usually a Stroop test, in which the player faces such as blue with "wrong " colored color words. If the environment of use a microphone is not allowed, another test is used.

Graphic

The game module stores the individual results of each test for up to four people. Thanks to a statistical function, the development of test results represent a number of months in the form of line graphs.

Sudoku

In addition, the game ( in the European and American version ) puzzles of various difficulty levels. At special kiosks, which can be found at select retailers, new tasks can be downloaded wirelessly.

Dr. Kawashima 's Brain Jogging

June 29, 2007

After the great success of the game, the second part was published on 29 June 2007 under the title Dr Kawashima: More Brain Training - How Old Is Your Brain? (東北大学 未来 科学 技術 共同 研究 センター 川島 隆太 教授 監修 もっと 脳 を 鍛える 大人 のDSトレーニング, Tohoku daigaku mirai Kagaku Kenkyu Senta Kawashima Ryuta gijutsu Kyodo kyōju kanshu: Motto nō o kitaeru otona no DS torēningu German: " Professor Ryuta Kawashima from the center to joint research on technologies of the future Tohoku University: Train your brain with more DS training for Adults ").

The title builds on its predecessor. The individual tasks are:

• Arithmetic operators: The player must write to the screen twenty appropriate to the computing tasks arithmetic operators.
• Piano Player: A song is replayed according to the specification of the player on a virtual piano.
• Word Pictures: The player must recognize and write words by placing letter chains.
• Coin counters: The player must spend a predetermined amount change.
• Listener: There are spoken more words simultaneously and the player must recognize and write on the touch screen this.
• Plus Chain: The player has to charge duties, but which are immediately overwritten.
• Date calculator: The following questions about the date.
• Rank Counter: The player must keep the rank of a male when running race in mind.
• Watches Turn: The time of twisted analog clocks and digital clocks must be written down.
• Counter height: The height of stacks must be written down.

Additionally, there is the game " Germ Buster ", which will serve to relax the prefrontal cortex. It is similar to many parts of the game Dr. Mario.

Scientific background

The game is based on the theories of the Japanese brain researcher Ryuta Kawashima. He recognized through extensive research in recent years that the performance of the brain decreases more and more with age. Regular exercise this process is to be counteracted.

Kawashima found that for simple ( arithmetic ) tasks the brain shows a high activity, while it is low in difficult tasks. Memory tests showed an increase of 20 to 30 percent in the comparison of memory before the fast arithmetic or reading aloud with it. Tests at a school in Scotland were apparently so promising that students are encouraged to play for 20 minutes Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training before class. The activity of the frontal lobe increased after regular math and reading also in dementia patients.

The effect of brain training tasks is controversial. It is considered unsecured, how much you can transfer acquired cognitive performance improvements to real requirements, whether or not rather a strong learning effect only in use with the medium and the context in which the tasks are processed, takes place. Even very similar cognitive demands and tasks in a real or other context are thus manage not necessarily faster and more efficient. Other neurologists, however, represented the statement that a reserve in the brain created by the training, which leads to memory problems make themselves felt only much later.