Now that they're turning 60, the earliest of the Baby Boomers are being told their brains no longer operate the way they used to, and they're getting worried.
Or not. It's hard to tell.
But if they're not, there's no shortage of marketers who would like to assure them that it's an unavoidable part of life … and they just happen to have the software to fix it.
"Brain training" has become the neologism used to describe a series of computer-based mental gymnastics its makers claim will inhibit brain rot, and can cover everything from memory lapses, loss of cognitive functions after a stroke or even holding off Alzheimer's disease.
The jury's still out on the validity of such claims, although everyone agrees that if you don't exercise your brain, you're circling the drain. But at least it's fun to play games, and these exercises are certainly not harmful.
Becoming mentally fit involves a series of what we once called games, puzzles, brain-teasers and time-wasters, and are now supposed to regard as essential survival tools. Two prominent examples of turning fun into therapy have been produced by Japanese game-maker Nintendo, called Brain Age 2 for its Nintendo DS platform, and Lumosity, a Web-based application program from Lumos Labs, a cognitive neuroscience company based in San Francisco. Both claim splendid intellectual pedigrees: Nintendo developed its Brain Age games from a wildly popular book called Train Your Brain: 60 Days to a Better Brain, by a Japanese neuroscientist called Kawashima Ryuta; Lumosity was created by Stanford neuroscience graduate, a game designer and a former president of a private equity investment fund, with eight neuroscientists or bioengineers on its advisory board.
Brain Age 2, like the original, features Kawashima's face, which appears as a Max-Headroom type of floating head proffering encouragement, advice and instructions for each game. Kawashima's premise is that the brain stops developing at the age of 20, after which it begins its unstoppable slide to senility, an alarming thing to consider for people 21 and older. It features games involving simple math operations, a musical test involving a virtual piano, a word-scramble game, a Tetris-style game and Sudoku puzzles. Flex your neurons daily with these, and Nintendo promises results.
Like golf, the low scores indicate a younger "brain age." Players can get younger, so to speak, as they continue playing.
The original Brain Age was released in 2005, and was such a success Nintendo went back to the drawing board for the sequel, just released ($19.95 Cdn.). The games involve a stylus to write on the Nintendo DS touch screen, or speech —there's a microphone that understands the answers (beware: bellowing "Rock! Paper! Scissors!" can prove awkward on public transit).
The point of these exercises is to show how quickly the player completed a round, as measured by concepts such as "walking speed," "Bicycle," "Train" and "Jet."
The matter of speed in answering questions is troublesome. Years of watching game shows on TV suggest that the person with the fastest answer is the smartest (Jeopardy) and anyone who delays must be either stupid or an indecisive twit who deserves to be humiliated ("Is that your final answer?" "Deal or no deal?"). Few game makers, on TV and elsewhere, create games based on nuanced answers and complex reasoning; they're much harder to program.
Players store their record in the game's database for 365 days, after which they are kicked off the game, presumably launched back into the world with all neurons firing.
Lumosity, launched in late July, is a subscription-based system that one wag called "a mental health club." A series of Flash-based exercises, it more resembles some of the stuff sold as recreation, not as therapy. At least the games are original, a refreshing change from all those exercises you've seen before (Nintendo's Brain Age 2 includes several exercises you can play elsewhere, including Rock, Paper, Scissors and Sudoku).
