NEW RESEARCH SAYS PLAYING BRAIN POWER GAMES EXERCISE DOES INCREASE BRAIN POWER

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Fluid Intelligence Is Increased with Brain Games and Transfers To Other Tasks

A new study has found that improving brain power by training working memory does work. "It may be possible to train people to be more intelligent, (as by playing brain power games) increasing the brainpower they had at birth. In the new study called Improving Fluid Intelligence with Training on Working Memory, researchers describe a method for improving this skill, along with experiments to prove it works". Many games to improve brain power includes games to improve working memory. Working memory is one of the most important components of brain power.



Some games to improve brain power work specifically on working memory. Working memory can be thought of as the ability to hold and use pieces of information in our heads for a short amount of time while working on a task or solving a problem like using a phone number or following a set of directions. In many games you have to remember information like positions of game pieces. However the amount of information we can hold is limited and the information itself is very unstable - a sudden distraction and the information is lost and you have to start again from scratch.



"The key,the intelligence researchers found, was carefully structured training in working memory — the kind that allows memorization of a telephone number just long enough to dial it. This type of memory is closely related to fluid intelligence, according to background information in the article, and appears to rely on the same brain circuitry. So the researchers reasoned that improving it might lead to improvements in fluid intelligence".

Read healty medical Blog Video of Brain Power Game and the Real Brain Power Who Developed It



"They trained each in a complicated memory task, an elaborate variation on Concentration, the child’s card game. The game was set up so that as the participants succeeded, the tasks became harder, and as they failed, the tasks became easier. This assured a high level of difficulty, adjusted individually for each participant, but not so high as to destroy motivation to keep working".



"Martin Buschkuehl is a psychology researcher based at the University of Bern, Switzerland. It was assumed that fluid intelligence was immutable. Fluid intelligence measures how people adapt to new situations and solve problems they've never seen before. Fluid intelligence differs from crystallized intelligence, which takes into account skills and knowledge that have been acquired -- like vocabulary, grammar and math".

34 test subjects significantly better at answering IQ test questions after training them on a completely separate memory task

"It's not hard, for example, for students to improve their IQ scores by taking lots of IQ tests. Trouble is, learning how to take IQ tests doesn't improve the underlying smarts. The students just get better at taking tests. In practical terms, people can get better at taking tests, but in daily life, don’t have a blazingly quick new brain. And that's where Buschkuehl's research, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, claims to be groundbreaking. In a limited trial, he and his team were able to make 34 test subjects significantly better at answering IQ test questions after training them on a completely separate memory task".

Read healty medical Games to Improve Brain Power




"Why did the training work? The authors suggest several aspects of the exercise relevant to solving new problems: ignoring irrelevant items, monitoring ongoing performance, managing two tasks simultaneously and connecting related items to one another in space and time".

Memory Training Shown to Turn Up Brainpower

Forget Brain Age: Researchers Develop Software That Makes You Smarter

Improving fluid intelligence with training on working memory

YOU AS THE NEXT EINSTEIN GAMES FOR BRAIN EXERCISE MAKING YOUR BRAIN STRONGER BY PLAYING GAMES ON THE INTERNET

TRY BRAIN SPEED TEST

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Imagine you could play video games and become smarter and your brain stronger and fit. Exercise your brain and improve thinking and memory while at your computer. Interactive brain exercise and brain speed tests can be found on the Internet.Like a mental gym or exercise club. Imagine if you could have a mental workout analogous to a workout for your biceps and triceps at the gym.

healty medical Blog Why You Shouldn't Always Listen to Your Teacher




Scientists have created "mental gymnasiums", places where you can "workout" your brain. You can find brain gymnasiums on the Internet.











Scientists used to think of the brain as a one trick pony. The brain learned when you were a kid and then it was all down hill from there. No more. Just as they say the brain is constantly changing and rewiring itself the theory of brain function is changing and rewiring itself. It's called brain plasticity. Plasticity, or neuroplasticity, is the lifelong ability of the brain to reorganize neural pathways based on new experiences. Marvin Minsky wrote "the principal activities of brains are making changes in themselves".











Based on the concept of brain plasticity,the developers of these sites say that you can make your mind stronger and even forestall a mental decline with age by exercising the brain. We already know that people who stay involved, who do things, read and have strong social relations keep mentally more fit.

TRY THIS BRAIN SPEED TEST

Where are you now? Let's start by taking this test offered on the Posit website,one of the companies offering brain games. They call it a brain speed test.Try this:

BRAIN SPEED TEST




Dr. Michael Merzenich, a neuroscientist has written in his blog On The Brain."Your brain is plastic. I don’t mean made of plastic, but that your brain can change itself physically and functionally at any age. That’s a wonderful thing for each of us, because it means we can make positive changes in how our brains perform.Plasticity comes into play at the deepest levels of brain structure. In response to the right stimuli, neural connections can be rewired and refined, the brain’s gray matter can thicken, and new neurons can be produced. Scientists call this natural adaptive ability brain plasticity or neuroplasticity. Harnessing this ability can have dramatic – and sometimes life-changing – effects".




Posit is not alone in offering brain improving games.I previously wrote in healty medical Blog about an Internet based course designed to sharpen brain fitness

WHAT WOULD EINSTEIN THINK? THIS WEBSITE OFFERS COMPUTER BASED BRAIN FITNESS TRAINING SAYS IMPROVES THINKING


Read these for more about game playing to make the brain more fit.

Can Video Games Make Our Brains Smarter, Younger and Sharper?

Video Games Versus the Aging Brain

The Secret to Not Losing Your Marbles

Research from Germany: The Adult Brain is Almost as Malleable and Plastic as a Child's.

Happy Neuron

Five Tools for Improving Your Memory

EXERCISE AND THE WEEKEND ATHLETE CAUTION FOR THE HEART AGAINST SUDDEN BURSTS OF STRENUOUS EXERCISE HEART ECHOCARDIOGRAM TREADMILL GOOD IDEA

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Researchers have pointed out that people who have not been exercising regularly, weekend athletes, should avoid sudden bursts of strenuous exercise because of the possible impact on the heart. They found infrequent strenuous exercise poses a possible serious risk of a heart attack.It keeps the heart racing for a long period extending the time when problems could occur. Exercise is good but needs to be part of a coordinated gradual program for people who do not exercise regularly. Examination and testing such as an echocardiogram and treadmill test by a doctor is probably a good idea.



The researchers in 2003, said it was not only those with known heart problems who should take care. Although thousands upon thousands of people run in sporting events, races, marathons and play football, basketball and soccer, sudden cardiac problems are thankfully a relatively infrequent phenomenon. Nevertheless sudden collapse of athletes ( and weekend athletes) is a persistent phenomenon and it's not hard to do a search of Google and come up with stories about sports related medical problems.

Sudden Exercise Poses Heart Risk








Exercise is generally safe. Still as the old saying goes an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Fainting, chest pain, difficulty breathing and dizziness with exercise can all be warning signs of heart problems and warrant attention. Adults as well as parents and teenagers should take them seriously and see a doctor.It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the issues that marathoners and just plain exercisers can face. Issues like undetected underlying cardiac problems, such as cardiac hypertrophy or heart beat irregularities. Dehydration and it's reverse over hydration leading to hyponatremia, heat stress and heat stroke.




In 2002 a Honolulu marathoner collapsed after crossing the finish line. He was not sedentary, having completed marathons before, nevertheless it is instructive to read what doctors said. It is fundamentally difficult to find that one person among tens of thousands who will experience a problem with strenuos exercise. A doctor speaking about this was quoted "that running is a fundamentally healthy activity, the most popular form of aerobic exercise in the world, and will increase a sedentary person's chances of avoiding heart and other life-threatening problems "by an astronomical percentage."



"But any sedentary person planning to train for a marathon or any other tough physical challenge should get a complete physical examination first, including a treadmill stress test with an echocardiogram to record the heart's performance" Another medical doctor said he would recommend that anyone older than 40 undertaking marathon training get a stress test on a treadmill with an echocardiogram.

33 Year Old Collapses After Honolulu Marathon.

Common Heart Tests:




Electrocardiogram: Often abbreviated, as EKG
or ECG, the electrocardiogram is a test that shows
the electrical activity of the heartbeat.



Stress electrocardiography:Also called a
"stress ECG," this test is an electrocardiogram
done before and during or immediately after some
form of physical stress, usually exercise on a
treadmill.



Echocardiogram: An echocardiogram is an
ultrasound of the heart. The test uses sound
waves to shows the shape, texture and
movement of the heart's valves. The test also
shows the size of the heart chambers, muscle
thickness and how well they're working.



Holter monitor: A small, battery-powered
portable machine that records the heart’s rhythms,
usually for a 24-hour period. Small electrodes are
stuck to the chest and attached to a recorder that
stores the information. Patients go about their
activities wearing the monitor over the shoulder or
stashed in a pocket. The physician is able to
capture electrical heart tracings over a long period
of time.

CHICAGO MARATHON: WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR WHEN RUNNING OR JOGGING IN THE HEAT: BRUTAL CHICAGO MARATHON TEACHES PEOPLE EXERCISE STREET SMARTS

WHAT TO WATCH OUT FOR WHEN RUNNING OR JOGGING IN THE HEAT: BRUTAL CHICAGO MARATHON TEACHES PEOPLE EXERCISE STREET SMARTS

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Forty five thousand people signed up to race in the Chicago Marathon 2007. Only 35,000 of the masses that had converged on Chicago from the four corners of the Earth actually started. As the wail of ambulance sirens filled the air it soon became apparent that this Marathon was going to be different. A new entrant in the Marathon would throw a wrench in the works. She was Mother Nature.



The October Marathoners were confronted by a record combination of heat and humidity for which many were not well prepared.




The Chicago Tribune wrote "As athletes work harder, blood that should be sent to the skin's surface to cool through sweating is instead used to keep the muscles working, said Mark Gorelick, assistant professor in San Francisco State's Department of Kinesiology. This leads the body to sacrifice its ability to reduce its core temperature". ( A doctor at a downtown ER said he had seen a Marathon patient with a core temperature of 107 degrees).



"There are three major heat illnesses: heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heatstroke. Dehydration is the main culprit".




"HEAT CRAMPS cause sharp, stabbing pain and muscle aches, said Terry Vanden Hoek, associate professor in emergency medicine at the University of Chicago.HEAT EXHAUSTION is characterized by dizziness, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, headache and signs of confusion. When the body reaches the most severe level, HEATSTROKE, its cooling mechanism has shut down, Vanden Hoek said. The body temperature reaches 103 or 104 degrees, which can cause seizures, loss of consciousness, coma, cardiac arrest and death".

MANY CAUGHT UNPREPARED: IT FELT LIKE AUGUST BUT RUNNERS DIDN'T PREPARE FOR HEAT


Trying to make up for lost body fluids during running people can actually over drink water and dilute their blood. This can result in HYPONATREMIA (low sodium level in the blood). The concentration of sodium in the blood falls below normal levels. This is called dilutional hyponatremia. Syptoms of hyponatremia include:

headache

confusion and fatigue

stomach aches

swelling

fainting or worse

HYPONATREMIA IN ENDURANCE SPORTS

COMMENTS FROM PARTICIPANTS IN THE CHICAGO MARATHON