A recently published study led by investigators at Mayo Clinic and University of Southern California looked the effects of traditional mental stimulation through classwork against mental stimulation from a brain fitness software program. The study concluded that simple mental stimulation will not bring about optimal brain fitness and that exercises that are scientifically designed are needed to drive clinically significant improvements in the brain.
The link for this article is to a PR release from a developer of brain fitness software which makes take this interpretation of the study with a grain of salt. They have an economic horse in the race. But it certainly makes sense that mental fitness means attacking learning and keeping your brain fit with many different types of weapons. When you think about it, there is a physical correlary: the training paradigm of muscle confusion.
Leave a comment