The specific, concentration-heavy cognitive games that boost acetylcholine, a brain-protective neurotransmitter that declines as we age. (Solitaire & Candy Crush don't help.)
Roger, thank you for mentioning tennis. I will look at the studies and, by coincidence, I started playing two years ago after a friend of mine heard me talking about wanting to add more social athletics to my regimen, apart from gym workouts, surfing and sports shooting, all which are quite individualistic. As a former squash player, I've really enjoyed tennis for its speed and full body athletic requirement, not to mention the infinite array of technique it requires. You can never exhaust the possibilities with tennis.
Paul - Very nice piece... and I think good advice for the new year!
One minor comment:
The two BrainHQ exercises used in the study were "Double Decision" (in the literature sometimes called "Useful Field of View" or "speed" training, which targets visual speed of processing and divided attention) and "Freeze Frame" (an exercise that that targets inhibitory control, at increasing speeds, and has shown a nice multiplier effect in prior studies on gains in Double Decision). The image used in your post is actually a different visual speed exercise from BrainHQ called "Eye for Detail." You should be able to grab an image of Double Decision at the bottom of this page: https://www.brainhq.com/why-brainhq/about-the-brainhq-exercises/attention/double-decision.
Tennis. Robin Williams called it "chess at ninety miles an hour." You get speed brain and cardio at once. Adds years of longevity--check the studies.
Roger, thank you for mentioning tennis. I will look at the studies and, by coincidence, I started playing two years ago after a friend of mine heard me talking about wanting to add more social athletics to my regimen, apart from gym workouts, surfing and sports shooting, all which are quite individualistic. As a former squash player, I've really enjoyed tennis for its speed and full body athletic requirement, not to mention the infinite array of technique it requires. You can never exhaust the possibilities with tennis.
Paul - Very nice piece... and I think good advice for the new year!
One minor comment:
The two BrainHQ exercises used in the study were "Double Decision" (in the literature sometimes called "Useful Field of View" or "speed" training, which targets visual speed of processing and divided attention) and "Freeze Frame" (an exercise that that targets inhibitory control, at increasing speeds, and has shown a nice multiplier effect in prior studies on gains in Double Decision). The image used in your post is actually a different visual speed exercise from BrainHQ called "Eye for Detail." You should be able to grab an image of Double Decision at the bottom of this page: https://www.brainhq.com/why-brainhq/about-the-brainhq-exercises/attention/double-decision.
Thanks for writing about this study.
All the best,
Jeff Zimman
Co-Founder, Posit Science (maker of BrainHQ)
Jeff, thanks for reading and I will check it out. BrainHQ seems to be on a roll....