Baroness promotes computer games claimed to curb mental decline

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Alfredo Pereira Jr (group admin)

Date:

29 August 2007

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From The Sunday Times, August 26, 2007

Top scientist backs workout for the brain
Baroness promotes computer games claimed to curb mental decline

By Jonathan Leake, Science Editor

Baroness Susan Greenfield, the neuroscientist, is to launch an exercise programme for the brain that she claims is proven to reverse the mental decline associated with ageing.

Greenfield, who is also director of the Royal Institution, maintains that Britain’s baby-boomers are discovering that concentrating on physical fitness is no longer sufficient preparation for old age.

“What concerns me is preserving the brain too,” she said. “There is now good scientific evidence to show that exercising the brain can slow, delay and protect against age-related decline.”

Greenfield will launch MindFit, a PC-based software program, at the House of Lords next month, for the “worried but well” – people in their middle years who are healthy and want to stay that way.

Created by researchers in Israel and already on sale in America, it offers users inter-active puzzles and tasks that are claimed to stimulate the brain just as using a gym exercises the body’s muscles.

“There is evidence that such stimulation prompts brain cells to start branching out and form new connections with other cells,” said Greenfield.

The baroness’s decision to lend her name to MindFit and to take a significant stake in Mind-Weavers, the company promoting it, could raise eyebrows among fellow scientists. Her high profile in the media has rankled with some and she was twice snubbed by the Royal Society.

The idea that the performance of the brain can be improved by exercises or potions has a long and controversial history.

There have also been scientific battles over the claims made for dietary supplements, especially fish oils, and so-called smart drugs. The latter have been shown to cause a short-term increase in IQ but the long-term secondary effects are unknown.

Greenfield’s decision to promote MindFit, which will retail for around £70, follows the release of new scientific research apparently showing clear benefits.

In the latest research, conducted at the Sourasky Medical Centre at Tel Aviv University in Israel, 121 volunteers aged over 50 were asked to spend 30 minutes, three times a week, on the computer, over a period of two years.

Half were assigned to use MindFit and the other half played sophisticated computer games. The results, released at a recent academic conference and due for formal publication shortly, showed that while all the volunteers benefited from using computer games, the MindFit users “experienced significantly greater improvement in short-term memory, visuo-spatial learning and focused attention”.

Greenfield, who also runs an Oxford University laboratory researching the causes of degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, found out about MindFit through her extensive links with Israel and decided to bring it to Britain.

“It is clear that there is no drug on the horizon to treat Alzheimer’s or age-related mental decline so I have long been interested in seeing whether stimulating the brain might offer a way of Greenfield is launching a program designed in Israel. Kidman, left, is the new face of Nintendo, which already sells Brain Training games slowing down these changes,” she said.

Other researchers are also convinced that people can rejuvenate their brain with exercise. Ryuta Kawashima, professor of neuroscience at Tohoku University in Japan, spent 15 years investigating how mental exertion helps the brain grow.

His work became the basis of the Brain Training and More Brain Training computer games, produced by Nintendo, the console manufacturer. Nicole Kidman, the actress, fronts its latest British advertising campaign.

Nintendo itself makes no formal scientific claims for the programs but Kawashima said in a recent book: “My brain exercises increase the delivery of oxygen, blood and various amino acids to the prefrontal cortex. The result is more neurons and neural connections, which are characteristics of a healthy brain.”

Other researchers accept such ideas in principle but warn that any system claiming to boost mental ability must prove itself in clinical trials.

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