Ryuta Kawashima and his Brain Age thingy

[Dark Jaguar]

Well, I heard about something interesting, but very suspicious to me.

http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20060323.html

It's a brain training program for a Nintendo DS game system. Supposedly, you are able to make a brain funtion like it is "younger" using mental excercizes. I am doubtful, but I'm looking into this guy to see what sort of work he does.

 

[MWare]

I know next to nothing about how the brain works, however I think the term brain-age is a guaranteed misnomer. I don't believe age is even among the top factors that determine the brain's abilities to perform logic (which it seems is what the device is doing). Having said that, I believe there have been studies in regards to Parkinson's Disease that seem to indicate that degenerative brain diseases like Parkinson's are less pronounced in individuals who perform regular mental activities (e.g. a weekly game of chess). I think I could probably find the study if someone was interested. I believe it was fairly recent (last year or so).

 

[Dark Jaguar]

Brain Age is the name of the program. However, looking into this guy on Google has netted some interesting things about him. I'm still looking stuff up, but he doens't seem like a quack. Further, you're right, they have shown that regular mental excercises help one do... brain things... gooder...

 

[MWare]

I'm an avid video gamer. I was reading up about the GDC (Game developers conference) and this game was one of Nintendo's examples of ways it is trying to increase its marketability amongst demographics that are not traditionally video gamers. Reading through the entire text of the Nintendo presentation it is clear, as Dark Jaguar implies, that there is nothing woo about this and no claims are being made about aging or any new breakthroughs in understanding the human brain. At the conclusion, the speaker makes the point that video games should be about one thing: fun.

Move along...nothing more to see here