Wired trains its brain
by Zack Stern 
{ Dec 29th 2006 at 6:35PM }
The January issue of Wired magazine includes a few short columns about writers trying to improve their abilities; Joshua Green's story about improving his brain functions relies on Nintendo's Brain Age game, a better diet, and more sleep. His non-scientific study left him with a brain age improvement from 44 to 34 after four weeks of work.Now that Brain Age has been out for a while, do you think it has sharpened your mind? Anecdotally, we like the game, but we think it just makes us better at Brain Age.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wonderflex @ Dec 29th 2006 6:56PM
Having grown up in the wonderful age of computers, I have noticed over the years that technology left me lacking in some of the more basic areas of math - such as keeping up with memorization of the multiplication tables; but I can whole heartly thank Brain Age for giving my arithmatic skills a definte boost in speed, and accuracy. I love you Brain Age!
Tom @ Dec 29th 2006 7:32PM
Blue!.... Blue!!!.... Buh-loooooo! What's wrong with this thing?!
Chrispy @ Jan 1st 2007 6:28PM
It's all phycological imo, not to put the game down for boosting peoples confidence or anything, its a good thing. But it's nothing groundbreakingly amazing, most people only do the bits thier good at anyway, if there rubbish at maths they tend to keep away from that portion of the game if they can, people just want to feel like there being made more interlectual. Thats why this game and the others like it are aimed more at adults, children, who it would affect most are usually fed up of this sort of thing during the day to be botherd to do it in thier free time.
All the writers have done is set themselves a goal to 'be' better writers, and this game has given them means to adjust thier lifestyles to be seemingfully more healthier, which is good. But like this article says, playing the game more just gives you a better ingame rateing, nothing more.
Grey Acumen @ Dec 29th 2006 8:42PM
I've never really noticed a HUGE improvement, but I had also gone from a brain age of 69 to 20 within about a week of gameplay
I occasionally drop down to 25 or so if I'm having a bad day, but I usually stay pretty consistently at 20
Is that actually that odd? admittedly, I am actually 22, so maybe that's part of it... humm..
Silver R. Wolfe @ Dec 29th 2006 8:58PM
I don't believe that Brain Age has really sharpened my mind, even though I score a 20 on it pretty consistently and started with around a 45.
It just makes you better at Brain Age. :D
Nick Post @ Dec 29th 2006 9:04PM
Tom, it's red.
Kenny @ Dec 29th 2006 9:05PM
I heard that the reason it has a hard time with blue is all those pesky consonants and that just going 'ooo' is more effective.
bliks @ Dec 29th 2006 11:20PM
I think it did help me, i sucked at my times tables, but with this game, I have gotten faster at doing them and i no longer need to count with my fingers
moofree @ Dec 29th 2006 11:50PM
Nope, It's "brue"
Rare Hare @ Dec 30th 2006 3:58AM
I wouldn't know. I only have Big Brain Academy.
But I'm usually playing Mario Kart anyway.
Rubang @ Dec 30th 2006 4:06AM
The "bl" sound doesn't get noticed when you're too close to the microphone, so saying it louder doesn't help. You need to hold it farther away and say it softer, and it will work every time. I am the king of the stroop test.
Brian @ Dec 30th 2006 10:05AM
It has helped me with my math problems and puzzles.
sayguh @ Dec 30th 2006 11:03AM
I found this game to be really good at activating my prefrontal cortex