BrainBlog

From today's Philadelphia Inquirer : Mental gymnastics to maintain the brain Boomers try games and gadgets to ease minds about aging By Lini S. Kadaba Inquirer Staff Writer [snip] As more baby boomers enter their 60s and others witness their elderly parents descend into senility, say experts, they're chasing after cognitive fitness with the same vigor they've had while pursuing wrinkle-free skin and erectile function. By holding out the promise of sharper, longer-lasting brain cells, a plethora of gadgets, classes and computer games has captured the attention of forever-youngs - despite thin scientific proof that any of this will keep their minds humming. Nintendo's popular Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day (1.3 million copies sold, according to the NPD Group) is more about fun than an assessment of mental acuity. But others - such as MindFit from Cognifit Ltd. and Brain Fitness, with object identifications, geometric puzzles and list recitations - have s...