Scientific American Mind article on games alleged to promote brain health.
Excerpt:
On the third day Kawashima surprised me. “Draw a giraffe,” he ordered. Then: “Africa.” Next, to humiliate me, he showed me a real giraffe and a real map of Africa. “Drawing objects from memory activates your prefrontal cortex!” As my scores improved, I was able to unlock new and more interesting games. Brain Age also allows multiple users; my fiancée insisted on playing, and we competed. She is a veterinarian and draws a mean giraffe. But her soft voice gave the controller trouble and slowed her on the Stroop test. “My brain age is 70!” she wailed. Unfortunately for my flagging sense of pride, that did not last long. She soon scored “younger” than I, and the brain age arms race was on.
After a week of exercises such as Low to High, Calculations×100, and Head Count, were my synapses any slicker? It is hard to say, when there is no external yardstick against which to measure progress. But one week into brain training, while taking a phone message, I found I could effortlessly hold one 10-digit number in my head and scribble down another. Maybe Kawashima is onto something