Is sudoko the ultimate brain exercise?

Professor Yaffle said:
That just shows that the skills you learn don't transfer to other tasks. It doesn't demonstrate that the mental exercise is no good for you. I'm pretty sure that age-related mental decline is negatively correlated with mental exercise (and physical exercise) levels.

Eg http://www.neurology.org/content/61/6/812.short

However it really doesn't seem to matter what type of mental activity you engage in.
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Ah yes, I forgot about that aspect of the OP.
 
Professor Yaffle said:
That just shows that the skills you learn don't transfer to other tasks. It doesn't demonstrate that the mental exercise is no good for you. I'm pretty sure that age-related mental decline is negatively correlated with mental exercise (and physical exercise) levels.

Eg http://www.neurology.org/content/61/6/812.short

However it really doesn't seem to matter what type of mental activity you engage in.
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So, the people who play mental games the most decline the least? But aren't the people who play games the one with the most active minds already? This is a retrospective study, not a prospective study, it does not show that playing more games has any positive effect. It does NOT show that adding crosswords and Sudoku staves off Alzheimer's or other mental decline. Commonality/causality ain't there. Not in any study quoted in this thread.
 
Ocelot said:
By what measure?

A type I diabetic friend of mine found that designing a complex network architecture was equivalent in terms of the rate his blood sugar levels lowered as moderate physical exercise.

Mental exercise burns calories just as physical exercise does so one measure of the ultimate exercise would be the one the requires the most work to accomplish. Yet it's not guaranteed that that expending more energy correlates with the greatest effect on Alzheimers.
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Hmmm .... from a diabetic's point of view the mental exercise may be of even more interest as (except when in ketosis) the brain can only use glucose as an energy source.

I've always wondered about this issue in the "knowledge society". When I'm programming or otherwise mentally engaged at my computer, the carb cravings are ridiculous.
 
NoahFence said:
I'm finding learning to read music to be a great brain exercise. I'd like to be able to read notes and rests as quick as I can the English language. Maybe give that a whirl
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As above, I think it's taking on something new that's the main benefit for retarding mental decline, rather than the nature of the project itself.
If you've been doing Sudoko for many years, taking on something completely different (like above, or learning maths you never took in school)
may result in more neurons doing the connection thing.
 
I agree that it's the newness of the task that probably helps, rather than the overall complexity. But there may be another factor to consider here, and that is whether we're dealing with a normally functioning brain or one that's been damaged.

Of course even here you'll have much disagreement, but in cases of traumatic brain injury, the task is not so much to sharpen the skills you already possess, but to recover those you've lost, in part by forming new pathways and neural connections by which old tasks can be done a new way. At least that's what I was told this spring, and though most of my recovery was probably spontaneous when the swelling went down, I don't think the mental tasks did any harm, and at least they passed some time.
 
The ultimate mental exercise is them seek-a-word puzzle things. 'Cause the words can be upside-down, AND backwards AND diagonal, ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!

And that's just crazy.
 
Bruto, Orange, let me ask for the third time- Where is the study that shows that added mental exercise has any benfit to mental accuity or staving off brain degeneration?

The only study linked in this thread is one that says that those who do mental exercise already, have less degeneration in the long term. Selection bias, anybody? Of course, those who do mental exercise have higher mental powers, or they would be playing tiddly winks instead. Commonality/causality?

Come on, show me the study of a group of average mental exercise, divided into two groups. one given Sodoku 4x daily, the other not. Years and years later, any difference in mental acuity? Altzheimers rate? Senile dementia ? Or do we end up with a vegetable, that can do Soduku by "facilitated communication"?
 
SuperchartsII said:
The most vigorous brain exercise is understanding a woman. I came up with two theories after years of tough meditation and research. Upon scientific testing neither of them work. However hints in my research point to gentle pursuit and message. Also doing the unexpected like picking up after yourself. Odd but there is a subtle hint of success.
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.
THAT, Sir, Is the ultimate brain exercise!
With the nicest reward. :)
 
Soapy Sam said:
Finding my keys presents me with as much intellectual challenge as I can handle.
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.
I've invested man-years in locating my glasses.
The keys are in the pants pocket, left side.
The glasses could be anywhere in the house.
 
Flying two r/c helicopters at the same time exercises the motor skills and the brain stuff.
 

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casebro said:
Bruto, Orange, let me ask for the third time- Where is the study that shows that added mental exercise has any benfit to mental accuity or staving off brain degeneration?

The only study linked in this thread is one that says that those who do mental exercise already, have less degeneration in the long term. Selection bias, anybody? Of course, those who do mental exercise have higher mental powers, or they would be playing tiddly winks instead. Commonality/causality?

Come on, show me the study of a group of average mental exercise, divided into two groups. one given Sodoku 4x daily, the other not. Years and years later, any difference in mental acuity? Altzheimers rate? Senile dementia ? Or do we end up with a vegetable, that can do Soduku by "facilitated communication"?
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I tend to agree with you anecdotally, My mother, for example, who has long had Alzheimer's, is more adept at word puzzles than she is at much else. There's no evidence that continuing this has helped to slow the disease, although it may have helped her to hide it for a while owing to a huge active vocabulary and verbal skill.

But I thought I also clarified that there may be a separate issue, not directly related to this (for which I admittedly have only advice, not evidence) for people whose brains are not, at the moment, in their usual or normal trim. That's anecdotal too, but I suspect there may be a good case for such mental exercise in the case of traumatic brain injury where the object is not to develop skills or prevent brain damage, but to retrain the neural pathways to restore skill temporarily gone awry.
 
I made the move from plain sudoku (which I still occasionally dabble in at the 'evil' level) to 'killer sudoku' about 3 years ago. It's so much more challenging:

Killer Sudoku Online

The guys that host that site design some fiendishly clever puzzles. If you're already an accomplished sudoku player, start off with 'hard', the then move on to the really tough weekly puzzles: extreme, outrageous, and finally, mind bending. I used to be able to only get 2/3 of the mind bending ones, but lately I'm getting almost every one. For me, though, getting the really tough ones could take 5 or 6 hours. Just throw on some good iTunes stuff and have a blast.
 
no. I've always found it to be simplistic and pointless, personally. I tried a few when a relative gave me a book of them for Christmas. They tended to be annoying sometimes in the way you drop a number now and then, but ultimately, there's no question the answer can eventually be found. Maybe it'd make a decent game if they made one that was impossible now and then and the goal is to identify it's impossibility and the reason behind it.

...actually, that'd be a neat trick to pull on an avid soduku player... create one that is impossible to solve, and not obviously so. As much as I've learned to hate this faddish game, I'm tempted to try it.
 
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Cainkane1 said:
Altheimers disease runs in my family and in my efforts to stave off this disorder I do puzzles such as crossword, word finding, cryptogram and sudoko.

I find sudoko to be the most mentally taxing. I can barely do it and it takes a lot of concentration on my part.

So is sudoko the ultimate brain exercise or is it just me?
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What gives you best kicks is also best for your brain. Keeping your brain busy helps in old age so does physical excersize. The oldest people I know are or were outdoor buffs. A neigbour did it everyday, not just outdoor stuff but physical labour like going to the woods and cutting trees then hauling it back on a cart, everyday save sundays like clockwork. So did his brother. He kept ploughing fields with a horse and didn't mind everyone else did it mechanicly. Both died short of a hunderd. A son of one of them pushing eighty and looking good, everyday outside shoveling snow and stuff. They found a way to cheat on death. Restlessness, and a sense of responsiblity a casual outdoor exercise won't give you.
 
I've been experimenting with ken-ken (this type of sudoku has lots of names, e.g. Calcudoku, Killer Sudoku...), jigsaw, killer jigsaw, and other fun variations. I also have got a classic sudoku puzzle that just happens to be 49 x 49. :) If I ever finish it, you all are throwing me a party.

Ken-ken and regular sudoku... it's hard to say which is more challenging. But they're both definitely mentally stimulating. Despite my general aversion to mathematics, I think ken-ken is very satisfying.
 
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