Brain Fitness Australia

I commenced the Posit Science Insight visual processing program today. It has a simple layout in soothing colours and an up-to-date game ‘feel”.

Choice!

More choice is available in this program: I can choose the order of the exercises (that’s a relief after the predictability of the BFP.) This means that there is potentially greater variety and personal control which must increase motivation to keep going. Feedback, timing and individual calibration are built in (as in the BFP) and assessments can follow a recommended or free choice timeline.

The baseline assessment includes age and education level which I can’t remember being included in the Brain Fitness Program. Both of these are relevant to performance on UFOV, particularly increased age. I will explore that in a later post.

Here are my starting levels and goals set for improvement:

Visual precision(Bird Safari): Current:618ms Goal: 445ms (28% improvement) No time scale

Divided attention (Jewel Diver): Current: 4.1 items Goal: 4.7 items in 2 hours 40 mins.

Have you tired InSight yet? What do you think of the program?

Be self-aware

Finding it hard to finish your training program? Or have you bought it and not even started?

Being overwhelmed by the context in which you find yourself means something has to give.

But how did you get there in the first place?Are there things you can change?

The most important step is to become self-aware and aware of your situation. You need to know as much as you can about yourself to be able to fix things. Being aware of your own strengths and vulnerabilities and prioritising choices that are available to you is the trick. Listen to the dialogue inside your head, or at least feel the warning signals.

The Scream by Edvard Munch 1893

I actually had quite a buzz at having completed the BFP package— signed sealed and delivered, and it is my choice only if I do it again and when. The first thing I did after completion of the program was to write a list of all the things that I do, but don’t do “properly”. I am driven by the seasons in the garden, by the glut of tomatoes and fruit, by the animals, by obligations to others, by a need for an outlet for my own creativity and ideas, etc. All of which I enjoy, but at times I find overwhelming and something has to give.

One lady I spoke to said the BFP had given her time for herself. I think I need more of that.

Back to the gym this week.

Good intentions

Interestingly a small number of home purchasers that I have spoken to did not complete the program or did not even start it: it sits in the drawer. The reasons for purchasing the program were not just a matter of impulse! The intention to complete the program, is still there: there were good reasons for their purchase.

But good intentions have become overwhelmed by the context in which they find themselves: house renovation or sale, gardens to tend, elderly parents to care for, computer problems, the weather, caught up in other things (one person was getting married!), attending new courses, plus the everyday requirements of shopping , bill-paying, washing, cleaning, keeping up with hobbies and friends and sometimes ill health or falls, etc.

Resolution: spread out over time

A New Year resolution is intended to correct a bad habit, like no longer eating a favourite food or deciding to be on time for appointments. Habits are entrenched and stubborn and most resolutions end in failure. Most people look on such failure as a character issue, such as weakness or lack of “willpower”.

But you can blame it on your brain to some extent. Taking on or carelessly drifting into too many things over-taxes your “mental muscle” the brain, and either stress, failure or only half-baked outcomes are achieved all round. Like your working memory your over-taxed brain will go into overload and will fail you. The latest neuroscience research suggests that spreading resolutions or good intentions out over time is the best approach. This will reduce the load on your frontal lobes, but will involve them in conscious planning and decision-making.

So plan a space and attempt to keep it for your good intentions!

Completion of the Brain Fitness Program

The larger group of users in Australia who completed the Brain Fitness Program seemed to have had a good experience. They had gone through the exercises in a fairly easygoing way (much more easy going than me!) and had benefited from the experience: most of the “completers” intend to repeat the program if they hadn’t already done so.

How had they benefited?

How they had benefited is not clear to them, but they might say they feel a bit sharper, or started something new in their life, but as yet can’t put a name to any definite change that may have occurred. If they had learned a new skill, like dancing or using a router, or debating, they would say “yes, now I can…..” and describe some aspect of the skill and probably have something to show for it.

But benefit from the BFP experience is harder to notice, it is not about getting a skill here and there. Experientially it’s more like having had the plumber or reticulation man in to clean out the waterlines. Perhaps it is like starting an exercise program: you have always been walking around the place, keeping mobile, but after you have done some weight training you gradually feel more alert! One thinks that exercise is for the body, but it is also vital for the brain simply in terms of increased oxygen!!

Perhaps you feel nothing has happened?

Perhaps you feel nothing has happened at all? That’s probably because YOU are inside the changes that have occurred and that makes it difficult to observe it. Others may see it, but sometimes we don’t want to hear what they have to say….

Evidence of transfer of training to everyday life is also hard to come by for scientists, but based on experiments that show that stimuli from an enriched environment is conducive to good development and age is no barrier to change, then there must be many ways to improve our middle-aged or aging brain. The BFP is one possibility only, with a commitment to reducing the effects of aging …….and it is to hand when required.

Tip of the Iceberg

Tip of the Iceberg

Given the billions of nerve cells in our brain and even billions more connections between them, we need to remember that only some of what is going on inside our heads is available to consciousness. What we experience consciously in the world is ever changing but is simply the tip of the iceberg…..

When you do the Insight Program involving visual short term memory and UFOV you are primed to detect certain images at speed and at a location outside your direct focus. It demonstrates that you are “conscious” of more than you realise. For example, you are playing the game “Road Tour” and focused on the centre of the screen. Without an explicit thought like “Where is the road sign?” you can still detect it from a group of distractors.. Sometimes it is a hunch, or you feel it is a guess, but your intention has primed your brain to see more than you know you are explicitly conscious of.

I have mentioned the deep structures of the brain many times. Just for fun, take a look at this visual illusion : you can see movement where it doesn’t exist! Your deep structures are at work trying to make sense of the display….

Posit Science bends over backwards to provide feedback.

As you can see the amount of information is overwhelming if you collect it and try to figure out what it means, how one chart relates to another within the complexity of the program. On each exercise there is an introduction, a multitude of figures and histograms, transfer to everyday life suggestions, the scientific basis of the program, diagrams of the parts of the brain that are being exercised, etc., etc. I can understand why these are provided…Posit Science has a life-time of research invested in the design and implementation of the Brain Fitness Program and Cortex with Insight: they want recognition of this. (I believe they have taken out about 90 patents on the intellectual property). Rather than leave their work in academic journals, they have gone down the business track believing that the research evidence validates marketing something that can be of benefit to many people.

When we get our assessments it would be good to know more than percentage improvement in the exercise. Given three assessments, baseline, middle and final, was my improvement based on the low end of the task difficulty, or was I struggling at the higher end? Are there age norms available?

Several people that I have spoken to would like something simple and definitive, if that is possible.

But how much should we really expect from out software?

It’s not the destination….it’s the journey.

Well that’s not quite true for the BFP: for me the destination enhanced the journey, regardless: that “made it” feeling… done and dusted.

My progress through the exercises over 40 sessions gave me evidence of brain plasticity (which is an intrinsic property of the human brain), of my capacity to learn and remember: although some aspects were obviously more vulnerable than others. The “journey” provided a demanding and intensive experience and tested my patience often.

Sensory system changes

Evidence of plasticity (improvements indicated in the previous post) implies that I have engaged and developed my sensory system machinery and its many connections to other complex aspects of brain function. That is worth the journey!

Like the London cab drivers learning “the knowledge” for navigation of London streets, if you put me into an fMRI you might even see some physical change… (perhaps not!).

Practice, practice, practice

Within the context of the BFP at least, the intensity of the experience served to make me more aware.

• it enhanced attention (the spotlight).
• increased accuracy and speed of processing, particularly in the initial stages
• increased clarity (reduced neural fuzziness and noise through age or disuse),
• reduced unreliability and distraction, (clearer models for memory)
• my working memory needs greater attention

An Easy Life?

What I learned was a lot about myself. The intensity of the experience was almost like learning to play an instrument…..start off simply, paying close attention to the music notation, getting it “right”, practice practice practice and move on to something more complex. Or learning a new language….a similar approach.

It is so easy to slide into and out of less challenging situations. Merzenich’s words that “older adults just want an easy life and they don’t know how bad it is for them”, rings in my ears. It is so easy to be just busy but much harder to be mentally challenged and to “get it right”! Try learning to use a computer application like Final Cut Pro, that’s a challenge!

A walking book club

Arthur Kramer says “Without doubt we are constrained by our age, but as individuals we can influence whether we function at higher or lower ranges by engaging in or refraining from intellectual, physical, and social activities. Decline in our abilities is not fixed and we can slow its course. We have the potential for positive change, our plasticity is maintained throughout our lifetime.”

His idea was to start a walking book club: physical exercise, social/emotional connection, and an intellectual challenge all in one package! Someone should take up the idea.

Now it’s back to the real world for a less aging brain….. and a start on “INSIGHT” the visual processing and memory program by Posit Science.

The Brain Speed Test

The graph shows that auditory speed of processing declines with age. But it also shows clearly the immense variability beyond 40 years of age and particularly the 70-90 year old group!!

How do some older people manage to maintain such a spry auditory cortex? Some of these brains are functioning as well as the 20 and 30 year-olds. Pity I didn’t take this test before I started. My result was 31ms, which means I can hear adequately in noisy environments.

“The brain is a learning machine, and like all machines it needs to be continually maintained,” says Michael Merzenich, a professor emeritus at the University of California at San Francisco. “If you stop exercising the brain — and this is what often happens during retirement — then you shouldn’t be surprised when it starts to die off.”

Guess what! I have just watched Ricky Ponting, the Australian cricket captain, being interviewed on TV. He was man of the match and Australia had won the series against Pakistan in Hobart, Tasmania.

So?

In an earlier post (the Building Blocks of the BFP, December 2009) I said that I could never understand a word Ponting said because he spoke so quickly….it was just a gabble to me (and it is not my hearing that’s the problem!) Well, as he received the trophy, his speech was at breakneck speed, his interview was just as hurried, but I understood every word he said! I was astonished and even turned down the TV volume to halfway to check. But I could still follow his responses with ease….

My auditory pathways seem to have had a surprising tune-up! If I was looking for evidence of any transfer of training from the BFP to everyday experience that would be the obvious one for me. But I don’t think there is a Ph.d in this observation!

By the way cricket is only of passing interest…I prefer watching tennis at the Australian Open.

B.F.A. Editor Note: That is very exciting news, Margaret! Many people begin to notice the positive benefits from the Post Science Brain Fitness Program Classic after they have completed the sessions. As with so many things in life, they often appear when we are not looking for them (like lost keys and ladybirds).