Brain Age & Brain Age2

Brain Age is an unconventional video game for the Nintendo DS designed by a Dr. Ryuta Kawashima. Dr. Kawashima, as an animated talking head, hopes to strengthen the user’s brain by exercising the Prefrontal Cortex, which is the “control tower” of the brain. After creating an account by entering your birth date, the user is tested to determine “brain age,” which represents the current state of your brain. I am 27 and my initial score was 56. Since a score of 20 is representative of a healthy brain working at its full potential, I was obviously in need of a workout.

I tried a few training exercises to warm up- some timed arithmetic questions and memorization, as well as a Stroop Test. This test is quite challenging, as you are to say the color of the word shown (eg. Yellow), but not word written (eg. Red) so you read yellow to yourself but often end up saying red instead. It’s trickier than it first seems but is still fun to do.

There are several games that become available as you complete and improve, as well as a seemingly unending supply of Sudoku puzzles at various difficulty levels. Brain Age2 has more than a dozen new exercises that supplement the original version. They are all easy to acclimate yourself to but still challenging

The touch screen and voice recognition features make the games quick and almost effortless. The only frustration I felt was due to my own mumbling or sloppy penmanship, so I advise you to speak and write clearly as they are not perfect. I soon looked forward to playing several times daily, usually while waiting for my computer start up or a commercial to end. And the user can see how their improvement by accessing the graphing the game has, as well as by the incentives revealed such as secret tricks and hidden features. Best of all, my Brain Age is now 33, so I guess that floating head is onto something.

Erin Stearns is an Associate Editor for http://yourlifeafter50.com.