It's marketed as the next wave in exercise: a bike that tones your legs - and sharpens your mind.
Hop on, do a few brain quizzes while you pedal, and the Canadian makers behind the NeuroActive Bike say you will soon be less forgetful - and at a lower risk for age-related neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.
"It's like geometry on steroids," quipped Diane Sawyer when the bike and its creator, Stephane Bergeron of Quebec City, appeared on ABC's Good Morning America earlier this month.
The bike, now available at gyms across the country, is part of a new and controversial trend in exercise known as "brain fitness."
Eager to cash in on North America's aging population, dozens of products on the market claim to delay the aging process with video games, quizzes and mental tests. The NeuroActive Bike takes it one step further by combining the cognitive tests with physical exercise, which may improve their effectiveness.
"The more you pump blood, the better your brain performs," said Dr. Bergeron, president and chief executive officer of Brain Center International.
The product combines a recumbent exercise bike with a computer. Using a cordless mouse, riders can play 22 mental fitness games from a program called NeuroActive, which is already on the market and retails for $95.
Dr. Bergeron said his company has studied the product, but he declined to share the results, which have not been published in peer-reviewed journals.
He instead referred to numerous studies that have shown the benefits of physical activity on the brain, and reports that indicate mental exercises may ward off age-related mental decline. The bike combines both those benefits, he said.
But these types of claims, along with the growing number of memory aids on the market, hold little weight with scientists such as Endel Tulving, a Toronto psychologist who has been researching memory for more than 40 years.
"I don't want to use the expression snake oil," he said, "but people are gullible and sometimes desperate, and sometimes have more money than they know what to do with."
Psychologists and other researchers have been trying to discover ways to improve memory for 100 years, he said. He's highly skeptical that companies promoting brain fitness tests have found the answer. "If there really were something out there - something real and lasting that withstands critical tests - then it would be known to the field."
Many studies have shown that people who exercise their brains are at lower risk of cognitive decline, said Robert Sutherland, a professor at the Canadian Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge. But it's still too early to determine whether those exercises lowered the risk, or whether people who enjoy mental challenges are already at lower risk of degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer's.
"There's no really solid evidence that if you do anything you can slow down or delay dementia," Dr. Sutherland said. "There's reasonable conjecture at the moment. But I would say there's no solid evidence."
Similarly, there is growing evidence from studies on humans, as well as animals, that suggest that physical activity may benefit the brain, he said. But "we don't actually know whether cardiovascular training will have a sustained effect," he said. "And we certainly don't know whether this particular product does that."
Since the bike hit the market last year, Dr. Bergeron
has been promoting it across the United States, Canada
and Europe, generating media attention from major U.S. networks. Lady of America fitness centres are putting the bikes in their gyms, as are 20 gyms in Canada. For $3,500, you can have one in your home (Dr. Bergeron says they've sold a handful to private buyers).
While scientists continue
to try to unlock the causes
and cures for dementia and other age-related illnesses, organizations such as the Alzheimer's Society of Canada encourage people to leapfrog ahead and work on their mental fitness.
But there are plenty of cost-free ways to do this, says Mary Schulz, director of information, support services and education for the Alzheimer's Society.
"Some people love games and they love all the toys, and that's fine," she said. But "you don't have to do all these fancy things."
A recently published French study found that low-tech games such as crossword puzzles have the same effect on the brain as a bestselling Nintendo game called Brain Age, which is marketed to children as a way to improve their cognitive capacity.
More low-cost strategies, available at Alzheimer.ca, include challenging your brain through games such as Scrabble, socializing through a book club and protecting your head with helmets for children and stability bars for seniors.
Even though there is no cure for Alzheimer's, those strategies may help slow the progression of the disease, she said. "You do not need to spend a lot of money."
