The brain can be trained just like any body part. Instead of lifting weights or doing wind sprints or crunches, a brain workout involves performing mental tasks on a computer, such as matching symbols, quickly typing words using a short prefix as a trigger or playing games that challenge response times or memory.
Brain training, or neurobics as some people like to call it, has been gaining more and more visibility lately through myriad products and services that have been introduced into the marketplace in recent years. Search it on Google and you’ll instantly get more than 1 million hits. Ranging in prices from less than $20 to $500 or more for certain technologies and computer programs, brain training means big business for some companies.
Bilder said there is already evidence that brain training, especially for those who train in excess of 50 cumulative hours, can produce results. "We’ve discovered over the past few decades that what people have known about muscles in the body may also be much truer for the brain than anyone had really suspected. Brain cells do replicate, and they do a lot of remodeling after they get into their final positions — much more than was ever thought possible." Even training one’s brain for a few hours can produce some changes to how fluid flows within the brain, he said.
Photo: Dr. Bob Bilder (front) and Brain Gym trainers April Thames (from left), Kendra Knudsen, Justin Miller and Michelle Reinlieb are shown at a workout station.
This article originally appeared at UCLA Today
