Brain Fitness Australia

Among the experts, there is a clear consensus that the potential increase in numbers of people suffering from dementia in Australia is something to worry about.

DEMENTIA – THE MAJOR DISEASE OF THIS CENTURY

• New report predicts over 1.1 million Australians with dementia by 2050
• By 2020 there will be 75,000 baby boomers with dementia
• Dementia is on track to become the largest source of health and aged
care spending.

This is not a controversial matter.

Is it inevitable? Is it preventable? Can dementia be delayed?

Which approach to take in terms of the current aging population is controversial, however… even if you accept the science, then what to do about it is a very difficult political issue. It’s an issue where the risks and benefits are very long term. And in politics, the urgent always trumps the important.

Take precautionary action

Age changes can be serious and the risk associated with them can be substantial. Precautionary action is called for.

Choosing to maintain a healthy lifestyle is fully justified as an insurance policy against the worst case scenario and action should be based on that worst case scenario; the high risk end of the probability of dementia for an increasingly aging population. In the end it’s a cost benefit analysis and really a concern to try to avoid the worst case if possible.

In my view there is no doubt whatsoever that everyone should be making an effort now (at 30, 40 50 or 60 and onwards ) to reduce their chances of the adverse effects of aging. The younger the better. The scientific evidence shows that aged brains can carry the evidence of dementia, but there is sufficient ‘cognitive reserve’ to have prevented manifestation of the disease.

To be on the positive side, all the things we ought to be doing, and enjoy doing and which we could benefit from, are things that will be a step towards the target of reducing the occurrence of dementia. But even without that motive, they are things we should be doing anyway. Unfortunately, as Michael Merzenich says, “many older people simply want an easy life..”

In the brain it is the challenge to the nerve cells and their plasticity that is important. One way to be certain of continued enrichment is to stimulate and maintain curiosity throughout a lifetime.

My son is a pilot, consequentially I am very interested in his regular check and training sessions. By law, throughout their career, pilots in all airlines have to undergo pretty rigorous real-time training runs, check flights etc. When my son goes to Melbourne to perform on the “SIM” (that is short for “simulator”), he sits in the simulated cockpit of an aeroplane and his supervisor “throws everything at him”!!!! This is “pilotese” for engines failing or on fire, instruments crashing, weather etc.

The reason for the simulation training is to expand on the real-world aircraft training, teach cockpit resource management and simulate emergencies that are impossible to safely duplicate in the air. Not only does he speed up his responses which are critical for real-time decision-making, high-demand tasks, he also learns to keep his emotions in check (the dead calm of pilots). He also has regular medical check-ups. What else would we, as passengers expect of our pilots? They must be ready and cognitively capable of dealing with all possible emergencies.

A Parallel?

Can you see the parallel I am suggesting? By working on your own brain fitness and thinking about what pilots have to do

• about keeping in training, life-long learning
• about managing resources,
• about a healthy brain.
• about optimising your performance ,

your situation can be no different in principle from the everyday expectations we have of our pilots.

Simulation on your computer

By working on your computer on brain fitness you are increasing brain plasticity and other resources like increased attention and an expanding “useful field of view” (UFOV). That should stand you in good stead in real time when you are driving. Although we can’t exactly simulate emergencies in the real-world there is clear evidence that training with computer simulation can transfer to aspects of real world experience.

By working on scientifically validated computerised brain fitness exercises and looking after your health and fitness, you are managing your resources in order to keep sharp (at whatever age), to be active and at the best you can be-in-the-real-world now and for the future….just like our pilots.

“What research has shown over the last 15-20 years is that cognition, or what we call thinking and performance, is really a set of skills that we can train systematically. And that computer-based cognitive trainers or “cognitive simulations” are the most effective and efficient way to do so.”
Professor Daniel Gopher, Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Human Factors Engineering, Israel’s Institute of Science.

UFOV assessment. Click to enlarge

I more than met my UFOV training goal this time! The Road Tour assessment showed a 70% improvement over my starting level.

Yippee! I can see a wider circle when looking at a supermarket shelf now, apparently. But what’s the point in a supermarket? It will give me 15 choices of pasta sauce or baked beans in a row to choose from as opposed to 10 previously! Think of all the extra small print to be read to see if it is Australian made, imported or contains flavourings…..

Can you decide which to buy from the multibrands?

To solve this new dilemma try “How We Decide” by Jonah Lehrer, a great read. He had a problem choosing cereals and wrote this book.

“Explaining decision-making on the scale of neurons makes for a challenging task, but Lehrer handles it with confidence and grace. As an introduction to the cognitive struggle between the brain’s “executive” rational centers and its more intuitive regions, “How We Decide” succeeds with great panache.
- New York Times

Well! This was a surprise!

My first activity for the day’s training on Insight was programmed in as an assessment on Master Gardener (visual memory). I took the assessment and failed miserably- achieving only 9% improvement on the baseline and not reaching the set goal…..

So I sighed deeply (it was memory again….)….

I continued with the remainder of my training session and gradually warmed up as I did Road Tour, Jewel Diver and the Sweeps.

After my 40 minutes training, I thought I should try my assessment again and see what happened. (If at first you don’t succeed try, try again!)

My improvement went from 9% to 62% in 40 minutes!! (see chart) I surpassed my goal by miles! How is this possible? Perhaps I actually have acquired these long plastic brain extensions I was asking for from the UFOV (unidentified flying object V)…click my earlier post here.

SO IF YOU WANT A GOOD ASSESSMENT DON’T DO IT AS YOUR FIRST ACTIVITY! GET SOME PRACTICE IN AND THEN DO IT…

Anyone else had such varied assessments? Or even an assessment you want to share?

Jewel Diver results

I improved by 18% on this exercise. I knew my performance was very varied. Some days I could handle 6 hidden jewels in correct order, other times I went right back to 2!! As well as tracking in memory in increased field of view you are working on maximising points by remembering to collect a 2 or 3 jewel group of the same colour etc. Working memory is my nemesis….

• The Goal

My goal was 4.69 items- a 15% improvement. This is equivalent to tracking 4.7 people in a crowded place.

• My achievement and new goal
  

  My assessments so far

My achievement was 4.83 items, meaning I had surpassed my goal! My new goal In Jewel diver is 5.2 items, an improvement of 28% over my starting level.

I’ve had my first assessment on Bird Safari! I have been following the provided order of exercises, so the assessment was delivered to me at the appropriate time.

I felt sometimes that I was never going to be able to detect the target bird. But the program design is pretty nifty:

• Training visual acuity: the birds were remarkably alike.

• Training Divided Attention and UFOV: the distance between the focal centre and the birds lengthened

• Training figure/ground discrimination: a bird had to be picked out from backgrounds that became more complex

• Training complex visual discrimination: The number of birds (distractors) increased
• Training speed recognition

However, my Personal-Trainer-at-my-Elbow (calibration) slowed the speed of presentation considerably while I caught up (see above picture).

Northern Harrier

Sometimes I surprised myself by “knowing”…..the amazing brain again! When you get to complex backgrounds to make discrimination harder, I found that that when the Northern Harrier was silhouetted against a white sky, (which was not complex at all) I couldn’t detect the elusive creature ( that is not what I called it in the heat of the moment!). I think the light background made it look much darker. Nice birds though!

What kind of experience are you having with the Bird Safari exercise?

My assessment results

I improved by 54%. (see chart) this is interpreted to mean that I can stop a car 26.8 ft earlier than when I started the Insight program. My new goals have been set for me. (click to enlarge picture)

Current level: track the movement of 6 jewels