I read two articles in one
day about brain games to improve driving capabilities, which is telling us that
brain fitness exercises have become big business. The articles are primarily aimed at seniors
because it is believed that as people age, the capacity to grasp and act on
what the eyes see slows down considerably. (W. Mossberg, The Wall Street
Journal) and R. Seven ( Seattle
Brain fitness computer
programs are pushing the idea that they can hone your cognitive skills by
training the brain to think and react faster.
PositScience (positscience.com) has designed a computer game that
exercises the brain systems involved with divided attention and useful fields
of vision. The focus is on training the
brain to think and react faster by creating a series of exercises.
Both authors tested the
software and agreed that the premise was pretty sound, but were not willing to
endorse because it takes constant practice rather than just a test drive to
know how effective the product would be. These endorsements, of course, would have to
come from the scientists doing the testing or from consumers interested enough
to try them. However, they both could
see the merits, thought the games were fun and challenging, and it made sense
that anything that could help you notice and track things you see accurately
could not be a bad thing.
Driving safely and
exercising the brain are topics that have been under scrutiny and of great
interest to seniors for years and will continue to be so as we strive for
functional independence.
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