Best of both hemispheres - Lumosity in the news
July 16th 2009 23:09
From: the New Zealan Herald
BRAINS ARE EVERYWHERE
Kiwis spend millions on physical fitness. And a lot is said about the importance to your career of staying fit.
Plenty of people have the education and knowledge to succeed, but for mental and psychological reasons fail. But who thinks of exercising the grey matter between their ears to improve their performance at work?
Processes in the brain such as planning, working memory, scheduling and multi-tasking can be improved with mental fitness. The right exercises can open up neural pathways. About 90 per cent of what is known about the brain has been discovered in the past 20 years. So concepts such as mind training are relatively new.
Mental fitness is not new. Top sports people use psychologists and other professionals to develop their mental fitness.
Older people have been doing crosswords for years to keep their brains active. There are many more products available these days - ranging from Nintendo's Brain Age software to various online sites such as e-mindfitness.com and Lumosity.com that have exercises to train your brain.
The brain fitness market is booming worldwide with websites, video games, and books trying to grab people's attention. Some experts are sceptical. But many of the millions of people who use these tools aren't. Some say that like a violin player, practice makes perfect. At Lumosity.com, for example, there are memory games, speed games and problem-solving games. The website claims its users have reported:
Clearer and quicker thinking.
Improved memory for names, numbers, directions, etc.
Increased alertness and awareness.
Elevated mood.
Better concentration at work or while driving.
But brain training isn't just for the elderly. Brain function begins to erode from about age 30.
The advantage with these websites and programs over doing a crossword is they are designed to target various different mental processes, rather than benefiting mental fitness as a byproduct of having fun.
Some jobs require more mental fitness than others. A lawyer is an obvious example where being in top mental fitness pays off. Long-haul pilots may have tedious jobs that don't require a lot of thinking for most of the time - but mental fitness is vital for the crunch decisions they must make in worst-case scenarios.
Mental fitness isn't just about getting your brain to work faster or to improve memory. It's about using a far greater proportion of your brain.
Lawyer Jennie Vickers, of Zeopard Law, jokes that she used to be a "half-wit". What she actually means is that she used only the left side of the brain.
link to the article on Lumosity
So, readers, I guess it's up to YOU!
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Photography Tips
MS Paint Art
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