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Anne, MD and Harvard medical school grad, successfully gained entry to Mensa after training with Brain Fitness Pro.
“I took a Mensa home test prior to the training and didn’t pass…. Then I did the full training course, took the actual Mensa test, and got in! I’m very satisfied with the training.”
Do you have a brain training success story to share? Please let me know at martin@mindsparke.com
Novel research at UT Southwestern Medical Center hints at new hope in combating addiction and dependence. The researchers’ experiments indicate that stimulating an increase in neurogenesis (brain cell growth) might help prevent addiction, dependence, or relapse. This is fascinating in the context of intensive brain training with programs such as Brain Fitness Pro.
Parallel studies show that intensive working memory training stimulates neurogenesis. Further, my own experience and the anecdotal experiences of Mind Sparke customers indicates that the training helps improve impulse control, self esteem, and elevate mood.
Published in the Journal of Neuroscience, the UT team’s work is the first research to directly link addiction with neurogenesis in the hippocampus.
“More research will be needed to test this hypothesis, but treatments that increase adult neurogenesis may prevent addiction before it starts, which would be especially important for patients treated with potentially addictive medications,” said Dr. Amelia Eisch, senior study author and associate professor of psychiatry at UT Southwestern. “Additionally, treatments that increase adult neurogenesis during abstinence might prevent relapse.”
Dr. Eisch and her team radiated rats’ brains to stop neurogenesis in the hippocampus. In one experiment, rats accessed cocaine by pressing a lever. The rats with radiated brains took more cocaine than rats that did not receive radiation.
In a second experiment, after becoming accustomed to taking cocaine the team radiated the rats, stopping neurogenesis while drugs were removed. Rats with reduced neurogenesis took more time to realize that the lever would no longer dispense cocaine.
“The nonirradiated rats didn’t like the cocaine as much and learned faster to not press the formerly drug-associated lever,” Dr. Eisch said. “In the context of this experiment, decreased neurogenesis fueled the process of addiction, instead of the cocaine changing the brain.”
Dr. Eisch plans to study other drugs of abuse, using imaging technology to study addiction and hippocampal neurogenesis in humans.
“If we can create and implement therapies that prevent addiction from happening in the first place, we can improve the length and quality of life for millions of drug abusers, and all those affected by an abuser’s behavior,” she said.
After 18 days of double dose brain training (one session of regular dual n-back combined with one session of “nines”) I’m still amazed at the effect on my scores. Apart from a general dramatic increase in sustained focus (even managing to stay at n=11 for four rounds yesterday) I’ve seen another intriguing trend. On days when I do particularly well at one exercise I often don’t do well at the other. This shows itself in the chart below as the two score lines for dual n-back and “nines” zig-zag about the combined average.
Brain Training - Double Dose 18 Days
What’s more I can feel the change as I go from one exercise to the other. On some days my mind grasps and remembers the letters much better than it grasps and remembers the numbers, and vice versa. A very curious phenomenon. (It also doesn’t matter which exercise I work on first — I’ve been switching back and forth from one day to the next.)
Has this double dose training resulted in cognitive benefits? It feels as though it has. I feel more alert and “quicker.” (In November I took the Get Gamma test. Maybe I’ll retake at some point soon to see whether there has been a measurable change.)
A few days ago i broke through the n = 6 barrier with a average n back score of 6.05.
The thing that still fascinates me about this is that I’m still seeing slow continuous improvement in my scores. It hasn’t been easy or rapid but steady and pretty continuous. I have felt and seen the difference that clearer thinking can make in day to day and professional life.
It’s really remarkable to reach a max average n back greater than 6… and now i can do 5’s almost without thinking… that just freaks me out.
I’ve been keeping track of my scores in a spreadsheet which enables me to look back on my progress several different ways: number of training days vs progress, number of training sessions vs progress and calendar time vs progress. I’ve completed 303 sessions along the way over the past 9 months.
The most positive and consistent correlate seems to be number of training days with n=back progress. The graph correlating calendar days to training progress is fascinating in showing a long plateau around n=5 last summer.
Thanks to all who have posted in this blog for inspiration and motivation to keep going.
The key learning from this, for me, is that continuous if not rapid improvement in your working memory is possible whether you start out as a genius or not. Hard work can pay off just stick with it. Benefits correlated with improvement in working memory are available to all of us.
Session number: 202
Average n-back: 8.15
Duration (min.): 50
After 30 sessions of “nines” I’ve switched back to regular dual n-back for a while. This began out of curiosity but has resolved into a challenge. I wanted to see whether training with “nines” had had any impact on my ability at regular dual n-back. I’ve discovered that I’m finding regular dual n-back quite tricky after a few months away.
I started in with a 7.95, right around where I left off. On Saturday when I trained I scored well below my recent par (7.3). And today was better at 8.15.
It seems logical that transitioning back and forth between variations of dual n-back maintains the challenge of the training and helps work different aspects of working memory…
Session 202 (dual n-back)
Brain Fitness Pro working-memory training report.
This post was submitted by martin.
In an interesting story about therapy for those with spinal cord injuries, I saw this nice quote on the importance of appropriate brain training. After explaining that most patients with significant spinal cord trauma suffer more or less permanent neurological deficits, Garrett Riggs, M.D., assistant professor of neurology at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla., said:
“Nerve cells do grow, but the problem is getting them to grow from the right spot and make the right connections.”
Eloquently put. The same can be said for any brain training. It should be constructed so as to stimulate the production of new brain cells and encourage the brain to put these new nerve cells to use in a way that will benefit our cognition.
Session number: 7
Average n-back: 2.3
Duration (min.): ?
Mind blowing – Already I have noticed a marked increase in my capacity to study and retain knowledge.
I only scored 19/30 on the Mensa test at the start.
I am really enjoying this stuff -
brain training report
This post was submitted by Debbie Hamilton.
Session number: 25 (nines)
Average n-back: 7.8
Duration (min.): 40
After yesterday’s good session, today I struggled. It wasn’t until the last couple of blocks that a deeper level of focus clicked in.
I could identify two possible causes for this drop in focus today: 1. Distraction – I’m concerned about a schedule delay on the new training system, 2. Sugar intake – I ate a doughnut this morning; I’ve over time noticed that sugar intake seems to have a negative effect on focus.
Session 25 (nines)
Brain Fitness Pro working-memory training report.
This post was submitted by martin.
Earlier this year a study investigated whether the dual n-back task gets more difficult as we age. The conclusion: It does.
Taking two groups of trainees — the first ranging in age from 50–64 years, with a mean age of 55.6, and the second ranging in age from 19–28 years, with a mean age of 21.8 — the researchers compared their performance on single n-back and dual n-back tasks. (The n-back tasks used matched the Mind Sparke training — letter and grid sequences.)
At single n-back the researches found no significant difference between the two groups. However, with dual n-back they did find significant differences, with the older group doing less well at the training.
The researchers concluded that in the older group, age-related cognitive decline made the dual n-back task more challenging. I’d say this has been borne out by the experience of Mind Sparke customers. The good news is that training with Mind Sparke can head off this decline or help reverse it. The other good news is that we’re adding new exercises to the Mind Sparke training program to help people ease into the training, building up focus and processing capacity before they tackle the dual n-back training.
Session number: 2
Average n-back: 5.60
Duration (min.): 30
What are the shades of gray in this?
Brain Fitness Pro working-memory training report.
This post was submitted by Shaun Luttin.
