NASA Video Game Brain Training for ADHD

Brain Fitness

Brain fitness has basic principles: variety and curiosity. When anything you do becomes second nature, you need to make a change. If you can do the crossword puzzle in your sleep, it's time for you to move on to a new challenge in order to get the best workout for your brain. Curiosity about the world around you, how it works and how you can understand it will keep your brain working fast and efficiently. Use the ideas below to help attain your quest for mental fitness.

1. Play Games
Brain fitness programs and games are a wonderful way to tease and challenge your brain. Suduko, crosswords and electronic games can all improve your brain's speed and memory. These games rely on logic, word skills, math and more. These games are also fun. You'll get benefit more by doing these games a little bit every day -- spend 15 minutes or so, not hours.

2. Meditation
Daily meditation is perhaps the single greatest thing you can do for your mind/body health. Meditation not only relaxes you, it gives your brain a workout. By creating a different mental state, you engage your brain in new and interesting ways while increasing your brain fitness.

3. Eat for Your Brain
Your brain needs you to eat healthy fats. Focus on fish oils from wild salmon, nuts such as walnuts, seeds such as flax seed and olive oil. Eat more of these foods and less saturated fats. Eliminate transfats completely from your diet.

4. Tell Good Stories
Stories are a way that we solidify memories, interpret events and share moments. Practice telling your stories, both new and old, so that they are interesting, compelling and fun. Some basic storytelling techniques will go a long way in keeping people's interest both in you and in what you have to say.

5. Turn Off Your Television
The average person watches more than 4 hours of television everyday. Television can stand in the way of relationships, life and more. Turn off your TV and spend more time living and exercising your mind and body.

6. Exercise Your Body To Exercise Your Brain
Physical exercise is great brain exercise too. By moving your body, your brain has to learn new muscle skills, estimate distance and practice balance. Choose a variety of exercises to challenge your brain.

7. Read Something Different
Books are portable, free from libraries and filled with infinite interesting characters, information and facts. Branch out from familiar reading topics. If you usually read history books, try a contemporary novel. Read foreign authors, the classics and random books. Not only will your brain get a workout by imagining different time periods, cultures and peoples, you will also have interesting stories to tell about your reading, what it makes you think of and the connections you draw between modern life and the words.

8. Learn a New Skill
Learning a new skill works multiple areas of the brain. Your memory comes into play, you learn new movements and you associate things differently. Reading Shakespeare, learning to cook and building an airplane out of toothpicks all will challenge your brain and give you something to think about.

9. Make Simple Changes
We love our routines. We have hobbies and pastimes that we could do for hours on end. But the more something is 'second nature,' the less our brains have to work to do it. To really help your brain stay young, challenge it. Change routes to the grocery store, use your opposite hand to open doors and eat dessert first. All this will force your brain to wake up from habits and pay attention again.

10. Train Your Brain
Brain training is becoming a trend. There are formal courses, websites and books with programs on how to train your brain to work better and faster. There is some research behind these programs, but the basic principles are memory, visualization and reasoning. Work on these three concepts everyday and your brain will be ready for anything.

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Brain Games For a Healthy Mind

Do you sometimes wonder if you're losing your mind because you keep forgetting where you left your keys, or you can't remember birthdays or appointments? Don't worry; it doesn't necessarily mean your mind is losing its ability to function. But it might mean that your brain could use a workout routine.

We all want to live long and prosperous lives, and no one wants to suffer from mental deterioration. Then why do so many people neglect their brains when they exercise? We go jogging, lift weights and spend thousands of dollars on gym memberships and fitness equipment to exercise our hearts and muscles and strengthen our bones. But what do we do for our brains? Like the heart, the brain needs exercise to keep it healthy. And you can exercise your brain by playing games.

Centenarians (people close to 100 years old) report that they preserve their cognitive function by engaging in mental activities such as crossword puzzles, bridge and intricate jigsaw puzzles.

Here's how such activities work for different parts of the brain.

Frontal lobes. The frontal lobes act as a kind of CEO for the brain. They are responsible for coordinating actions such as planning ahead and controlling impulsivity. They are also important for long-term memory--especially memories associated with emotions and smells--as well as personality and muscle control. You can continue to improve these areas of your brain by playing Eons MatchUp, Sudoku and Gutterball 3D. All of these games strengthen memory, executive function and motor skills.

Temporal lobes. These enable us to interpret what we hear--to identify sounds and understand speech. They play very important roles in understanding and expressing language. The temporal lobes are also important for naming things and recognizing faces and places. They contain a very important structure called the hippocampus, which is important for short-term memory. Word games such as the Daily Crossword, the Jumble and Scrabble build language skills that are directly connected to this part of the brain.

Parietal lobes. These help us make sense of information coming from our various senses, such as vision, smell and hearing. They also help us with spatial relations. What mental processes do you follow to piece together a jigsaw puzzle? There is your answer about how you can exercise this part of the brain. This type of mental exercise also enhances the occipital lobes that allow us to interpret what we see; these lobes operate much like the lens of a camera.

So play every day! Working these different areas of the brain can lead to improvements in all important brain functions and increase your brain's resistance to age-related memory and mental agility problems. Just as with muscle training, you are never too old to produce results and see improvement when you do these exercises. But they are truly a lot more fun!

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Teaching Your Brain New Tricks - Neuroplasticity in Brain Fitness and Recovery

Old notions that brain function inevitably declines as we age and we become less creative and sharp are being turned upside down. In fact, the brain continues to reorganize throughout life by creating new connections between brain cells, or neurons, a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. Brain fitness has become a hot new phrase. Now we can apply it to healthy aging, and recovery from illness and addiction.

Recent scientific studies have shown that that by middle-age, the functions of the left and right brain hemispheres become more integrated. Gene D. Cohen, M.D., PhD. author of The Creative Age, described it this way: the brain goes on "all-wheel dive." We can become more, not less creative in expression and solutions. In fact, when we challenge our minds, the neurons, or brain cells grow extensions that communicate with each other, forming new synapses. New ideas spring from the exchange of information between brain cells.

These findings have real implications for everyone as they age, as well as therapists and those in recovery from the disease of addiction. We know that brain pathways change as a response to alcohol abuse, because we understand what parts of the brain comprise the "reward" system. Cravings develop because repeated stimulus and response of alcohol and chemical use creates a strong habitual memory. Alcohol's affect on neurotransmitter systems causes sedation and impairs memory and learning in brain areas such as the hippocampus.

Therapies such as cognitive behavioral therapy within a holistic treatment program help change the way people think and react to stimuli, and retrain the brain pathways. Psychotherapeutic medications may also be appropriate in reducing withdrawal symptoms and cravings as the brain retrains itself. We believe in possibilities for new neural pathways being formed and even the reactivation of existing neural pathways that are inactive, or used for other functions. In fact, studies with those who had lost sight later in life found that the brain has an ability to readjust circuits to process language, and that special brain exercises could help retrain people to regain language functions in spite of deficits.

The urge for expression, for purpose and for creative solutions doesn't ebb with age, but it can be buried or subdued by difficult life circumstances or the pressures of juggling family and financial pressures. Coping often leads to the attempt to find release and relief through alcohol and chemical abuse. When the disease of addiction results, creativity and experiencing purposeful living lie in a heap with other good intentions.

In treatment, it is exciting to see how creative therapies and gentle brain games can stimulate brain activity and cognition, personal expressions, creativity and problem solving. Spirituality can be explored in new ways through expressive outlets. Creative therapies can also help control anxiety, obsessive thoughts and cravings, and be significant relapse prevention tools when incorporated in a holistic, Twelve Step program.

Brain fitness, that is, stimulating the brain's plasticity, can be enhanced with brain games and creative therapies as well as with physical exercise. In fact, technology can guide exercise. For example, the Wii exercise program is geared for various levels of fitness, and has found great success in a number of older adult education venues. It's easy and fun to use. Brain games or brain aerobics sources can easily be found on the Internet, such as brainingle.com SharpBrains.com and BrainMetrix.com New names have popped up in this explosion of brain fitness options, such as Neuroboticsê.

Then there are print versions of brain games, and there's nothing like the good old crossword puzzle, available in degrees of difficulty. A major factor in stimulating the brain is to challenge it in new or unfamiliar ways in order to solve problems. Keeping the exercise brief and fun is most successful in recovery. Brain games can tap into the brain's adaptive capacity and address some cognition problems. Learning a second language is an excellent example of training the brain to think, and may be explored in later recovery.

When engaging in brain games and brain fitness exercises, the individual increases the number of connections of brain neurons. This is encouraging, because it helps to build up a brain reserve. Dr. Pacale Michekon of Sharpbrains.com also noted that a person who continually stimulates a special area of interest, such as music, will have more brain vortex volume (the gray matter) in areas of the brain involved with music, such as motor regions. Those involved with learning abstract information stimulate changes in areas of the brain that involve memory retrieval and learning.

People who suffer from the disease of addiction lose meaningful relationships, energy, creative thought and a sense of purpose in life. Treatment can help reclaim health in a holistic sense, addressing physical, spiritual, emotional and mental aspects. Recovery truly can incorporate brain health and fitness for rejuvenation and meaning. Now we know we can be more, not less creative.

Dr. Barbara Krantz, Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director of Hanley Center, West Palm Beach, Florida, is a noted addictionologist. Hanley Center is a premiere treatment facility for the treatment of addiction. Hanley Center specializes in holistic, age and gender-specific programs based on the Twelve Step philosophy, as well as family therapy, co-dependency, education and prevention services. Hanley pioneered older adult treatment, and has developed an innovative treatment model for Baby Boomers.

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