Braintraining tips and strategies

As brain training becomes ever more popular and with that increasingly competitive, everyone is looking for a quick tip or simple strategy to help improve their scores. There are lots of ways to help players become better at brain training - most of these approaches are just common sense; some are a bit more esoteric.

Not all tips and strategies work for every person or every brain training problem so the key is to find what works for you. The most important tips of all for brain training are to get 8 hours sleep, eat right and exercise. Whilst practice is key, sitting in front of a computer or pouring over a textbook for hours on end, is ultimately counterproductive. The mind and body become sluggish and studies show that excessive amounts of caffeine consumed to counter this lethargy, only exacerbate the problem when the rush fades. Occasional breaks and exercise, especially, allow the body and mind a few minutes for recuperation. Exercise releases endorphins and helps the mind, along with proper nutrition and sleep, to function properly. Endorphins have the additional benefits of making a person feel happier, brighter and more confident. All of the synapses need to be firing properly for your brain training to be working at the optimum level.

Starting with what you know is another key brain games strategy. When presented with a range of brain training problems, first choose the ones that you feel you can do. Pass over the ones you are not sure about and come back to them later. This will boost your confidence and get you into a flow of successfully solving the problems.

Remember: practice makes perfect. Repetition is key when it comes to brain training. Your brain is like a muscle, the more you use it, the better it performs as the connections between the brain cells multiply. What's more studying and practicing different problem types can really help you get on top of things. After a while you will start to recognise what sort of problem is being presented and what is the best approach to use to solve it. We offer a whole range of different puzzle and problem types for you to get practicing with.

Improving your memory is one of the most important factors in improving mental skills. There are loads of tips and strategies to help this aspect of your brain training. One technique is to associate the information you want to remember with images, other words or phrases, and even sounds. This method is referred to as mnemonics. Some brain training experts believe that patterns, often used in puzzles, maths and logic games (i.e. like our games!), can be remembered using similar methods. You can try out any number of these tips and strategies right now.

Brain training history

Brain training has become one of the buzzwords of our age, but for just how long has the idea been around? If brain training means improving the function of your brain and therefore your intelligence, then surely that is what our education and schooling is all about. But brain training as we talk about it today is more about exercising our minds outside of the classroom.

The term "brain training" really came into popular usage when Nintendo launched its first game "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!" in 2005. The games available on the handheld Nintendo DS offered a chance to sharpen mental agility, spatial perception and reflexes through a variety of touch- and voice-responsive puzzles. And this is how they were marketed. The scientific research behind the efficacy of the games, however, is currently contentious territory. Nintendo is careful to state that the games are a form of entertainment "inspired" by neuro-scientist Dr. Kawashima.

While "brain training" may be a relatively new phrase, the concept behind it is not. Mentally challenging games have been played for thousands of years. The Ancient Egyptians and Ancient Romans were keen game players and chess is said to have originated in India as early as the 6th century. Numbers puzzles became popular in the late 19th century and the first “word-cross” was published in 1913. The history of brain training really begins when people start considering these things as not just games, but ways to improve you mental agility. Links between repetitive use of certain skills and increased brain development have long been studied. One 20th century study, for example, has suggested that taxi drivers have larger posterior hippocampi, the site of the brain most commonly linked to increased spatial awareness.

If there is a link between exercising one's brain and brain function, it could be true that playing puzzle games such as those at Express Games offer quick and fun ways to improve mental agility. They focus on testing a user's memory, spatial perception and reflexes, and suggest the possibility for exercising mental pathways that tend to degrade in the case of patients suffering from Alzheimer's and dementia. Indeed in recent years there have been more and more studies in this area and whilst the case is not clear cut, there is a gathering body of evidence that brain gaming really can be good for you! Whether or not games are truly effective in increasing mental agility and delaying or diminishing the onset of dementia, the popularity of brain training style games has risen dramatically over the past few years. Aside from the original Nintendo DS game, there are a plethora of console-led brain training games as well as a host of puzzle and games online such as those on . Besides offering a fun and free way to exercise one's mental muscles, Express Games's games allow a player to pit their skills against other players for cash prizes. What could be more rewarding, indeed?

About Brain Training

Brain training games are designed to exercise different aspects of your cognitive skills with a view to improving these abilities and limiting any deterioration due to age or inactivity. They can also provide a highly enjoyable and addictive playing experience.

Nowadays brain training puzzles are found in many newspapers, magazines and online. In addition there have been a number of popular brain training titles developed for video game consoles, most notably Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training: How Old Is Your Brain title for the Nintendo DS.

Many of these games are aimed at improving memory and the speed with which a task can be done, such as solving a Sudoku puzzle. Some, such as crosswords, will expand vocabulary. Other mental skills tested include visual perception, spatial reasoning, reaction time, attention, verbal reasoning, mathematics skills, audio perception and what is called “fluid intelligence” or general problem-solving ability.

Many people report that these types of computer based training games have helped improve their thinking skills and recently a new Brain Fitness industry has begun to emerge. According to market research company, SharpBrains, this brain software market reached $225 million in revenue in the US alone. This of course doesn’t taken into account the much larger swathe of play for fun games products that are more loosely based around the brain training, brain twister and mind games concepts. Brain games and other simple knowledge based games, such as trivia quizzes, have also begun to see significant take up on mobile phones where they are well suited for short impulse play on small screens.

Historically the scientific evidence into this area has been somewhat ambiguous outside of young children and the elderly. However in 2008, a Swiss-American team reported in a leading scientific journal that a computer based brain-training method designed to improve working memory also increases scores in fluid intelligence. This is significant as it supports a central assumption of our education system i.e. that what we learn in school will be later applied in our (professional) life.

The area of the brain that has been the focus of much of this scientific work is called the "prefrontal cortex". This functions as the central command area of the brain. The prefrontal cortex determines how the knowledge stored in your brain is used in any given situation a key aspect of “human intelligence”. This means that the good functional use of the stored knowledge and the appropriate handling of a situation, depends on how well you are able to make use of the prefrontal cortex to employ stored information and manage it successfully.

The left and right sides of the human brain are divided into four areas: the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, occipital lobe, and temporal lobe. The "prefrontal cortex" comprises most of the frontal lobe and is unique to humans. Maybe that explains our unique obsession with brain training.

About brain training

One of the biggest problems aging people have is the loss of memory. But there is a simple way to rectifiy this: give your brain a regular workout. And why not do this through brain games? Studies have shown that by keeping your mind active and alert, your brain will age better. You'll not only improve your memory but also reduce the risks of getting diseases like Alzheimer’s. Besides, this type of exercise is fun, relaxing, and educational. The words "brain game" can be used to refer to a plethora of different game types: word games, knowledge puzzles and quizzes, strategy games, games of speed and quick-thinking, logic games. Some will test and improve your knowledge of a particular subject area. A maths quiz for example will stretch your numeracy skills; a crossword will improve your vocabulary and a quick round of sudoku will strengthen your powers of deduction and logic. All of these games though, will be exercising your brain and improving general memory, mental agility and strategic thinking. Playing brain games causes areas of the brain that aren’t frequently used, to come back into use. Recent studies show that about 70% of older people are worried about memory loss and Alzheimer’s. But the same studies also show that most of these people will never take any step towards improving their mental functioning. On the other hand, adults who are introduced to brain games and play every week over a 20 year period, decrease their risk of dementia by almost 10% in the first few years and by almost 63% over a longer period of time. Playing brain games is also taking a big leap forward right now. It used to be if you wanted to exercise your mind, you got out your exercise book and hid yourself away. No longer is playing brain games so dry. You can access thousands of different games online, via your mobile or PDA, or via consoles such as the DS lite, all presented in a lively and interactive format. And what's even better, if you are the competitive type you can pit your wits against another real live players online. If you beat them you can even get a real cash prize. And if you want to brag about your victory you can join in the online chat with other braingamers. So the benefits of brain games are many. You become mentally fitter, more educated, and are challenged more. You may find a special interest, and hobby, one that you can share with other people that are close to you. Think how much time you waste in front of the T.V. every night, then think what you could be doing with that time when playing brain games. In fact why not start right - right here