Degenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease, Sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease , among others affect more than 45 million people worldwide. These diseases often strike older adults and are characterized by progressive deterioration of nerve cells. Even though a key to these diseases lays in our genes , there is a lot of evidence, based on scientific studies , proving that they can be altered or even prevented with lifestyle, dietary choices. and … Video Gaming ?!
Have You ever seen on of these DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION gaming machines ? It looks like these things can have a largely positive impact on our brain cells after all !
Exergaming : Combining smart technologies, exercise, and cognitive stimulation
One of the best practices to stay mentally fit is to challenge Your brain on a daily basis. Yeah I mean even solving a puzzle has been shown to have a positive impact on lowering the tempo of brain’s cell aging. Latest hot topic in neuroscience is the Exergaming , “Combining smart technologies, exercise, and cognitive stimulation. “
Nintendo’s WII FIIT , has sold by over 21 million copies allover the Globe . It can be a fun way to practice Your balance and coordination . THere is an a study made on Australian aged care residents ” The effects of playing Nintendo Wii on depression, sense of belonging and social support “. It claims as well that a video game Training enhances Visuospatial Working Memory and Episodic Memory in Older Adults.
Playing Tetris can Make You Smarter !!
Who havn’t played Tetris ? I mean seriously is there a single person unfamiliar with falling blocks ? There is an interesting Study on cognitive functions in people playing Nintendo Games : “Tetris” and “Brain Age” . Each of the groups where given a task of practicing one of the games for 15 minutes each day for 4 weeks after 4 weeks. After that period of time there was a noticible increase in both groups , in their brains performance in the areas of executive functions, working memory, and processing speed !!!
Logically thinking this should apply to any game that requires to involve our problem solving skills , or at least most of them.
We are social animals , a large part of our cognitive performance comes from the interactions with other people. I’ve stopped playing video games after loosing 4 years of my life playing Diablo II LOD . Being a Battlenet DON took a large chunk of my life , even now I’m even scared of installing it on my Macbook, and the temptation’s always there . However , there is a purchuse I’ve made that hit two birds with one stone , Nintendo WII . Growing up as a a part of POKEMON and DBZ generation, I just couldn’t resist the power of sounds and colours beaming from the screen. I belive i may have played all of the POKEMON titles that exist or at least most of them . So i bought By the Age of 28 i bought another Nintnedo and decided to socialise with other people by playing Sega Tennis. You obviously don’t burn as much calories as the if you were playing the real game , but what it means that I’m more willing to spend time with some of my old friends whose company i enjoy but who don’t neceserly belong to the fitness lifestyle . As You can imagine not all of our friends like doing 100k rides or 10km runs , but conversation with some of them can be highly emotionally and intellectually stimulating, so it turned out to be a perfect compromise in order not to completely remove them of my life.
I just invited my grandma for the saturday dinner and she has no idea what’s waiting for her .
I don’t want to sound biased , but upon writing the article I’ve gone thru quite a lot of studies on and video gaming and brain functions and it clearly looks like Nintendo Games simply trump anything in the department of cognitive functions . Japanese People Right ? … !
Brain Training Smartphone Applications
It’s been debated wether these apps actually work , there is recent a study that goes for a YES .
It’s proven that brain training games can enhance visuospatial working memory and episodic memory in older adults
My Favorite one of them all has got to be the PEAK BRAIN on Android. I’ve been using it for a couple of years now. It was one of my go to test , when using certain noortropics or sub halogenic LSD doses , yeah we’ll talk about it later. Peak Brain Is a a platform where You can compere Yourself with other people within different age groups or occupations , it’s quite satisfying to see your scores being higher than 99% of fellow musicians … #BURNED! Being Good at anything can give a you a boost of confidence so don’t bother to feel ashamed of even the smallest achievements, as any single natural ejection of serotonin to brain will prolong your brain functions.
There is quite a few studies proving that violent action games can actually cause more damage than help.
to summarise
Me as a Nintendo Fanboy , I am Happy to inform You that a moderate amount of playing Video games to improve your cognitive functions . I think I’ll go and play some WII now.. .