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Brain games and tools at FitBrains.com stimulate the brain to maintain peak brain fitness
while having fun playing casual games

VANCOUVER, Canada – Research has shown that brain health begins to lag as early as age 25. However, the same research has shown that with regular brain fitness training, the brain can create new neural connections and pathways at any age.

In response to this research, Vancouver’s Vivity Labs has created FitBrains.com, a new online brain fitness platform that hosts fun, casual games developed by brain fitness experts, specifically designed to exercise the brain and improve the five major cognitive brain functions – memory, concentration, language, executive functions (logic and reasoning), and visual-spatial skills.

The team behind FitBrains.com – including award-winning Neuroscientist Dr. Paul Nussbaum from the University of Pittsburgh and a board of scientific advisors – has created individual brain fitness workouts for players of all ages. More than fifteen brain games can be played for free, with daily and weekly brain fitness leader boards, a Brain Health Blog with top brain fitness tips, and a 30-day brain fitness chart for players looking to track their brain games progress and develop a competitive edge. A premium section of the site offers additional features like in-depth brain tracking charts and the ability to play against family and friends.

“FitBrains.com is designed to provide something for everyone who’s looking to improve their brain fitness,” Dr. Nussbaum said. “Our online brain games and tools use scientific principles to maximize brain fitness impact while providing a fun way to spend time playing casual games online.”

Michael Cole, founder and CEO of FitBrains.com, said fun and motivation were key factors in the design of FitBrains.com.

“We want to tap into as many motivational drivers that get individuals of all ages to integrate brain fitness work-outs into their daily life as we can,” Cole said. “With FitBrains.com, we provide the highest quality brain fitness gaming experience on the web. The site fuses the right balance between science and entertainment, which is critical for mass adoption. ”

For more information about how brain games can help improve brain fitness, please visit www.fitbrains.com

Recently, Fitbrains was reviewed by Discovery Magazine

Fitbrains:Comprehensive brain fitness site featuring 10 games plus a word challenge for team play. Tests fall into five cognitive categories: memory, language, concentration, logic/reasoning, and visuospatial skills. Sports a blog and a list of scientific advisers. Boasts “Guilt Free Fun!”

What’s unique: Complex, richly illustrated and thought-out games with different levels and basic story lines. For example, in “Hidden Masterpiece” you are a painting-repair specialist who sells reconstructed works of art at auction, testing visuospatial ability and concentration.

Downsides: After a seven-day free trial expires, the site is $9.95 a month or $79.95 a year. Some games may actually be too complex and time-consuming. In “Busy Bistro” you scan ingredients and cooking instructions, then try to remember the items by filling out a virtual grocery list. That’s just for starters: One round takes almost five minutes, and there are five more courses to follow.

Bonus: Get real recipes from “Busy Bistro,” like Crab and Swiss Melts.

Summed up: Very dynamic. Feels as if you are playing a console-based game at times. You can subscribe to track your progress and meet other Fit Brainers. Suitable for the committed brain athlete.

Rating: 4.5 lobes

For everything the human brain has accomplished, it’s a little ironic that our brains don’t fully understand how they, themselves, actually work. Dr. Paul Nussbaum(FitBrains CSO) is getting closer to understanding, and his new book, “Your Brain Health Lifestyle,” is all about how to make the most of your brain. Click here for the video of Dr. Nussbaum talking about brain health on Twin Cities Live

Nutrition…

• Antioxidants clean up harmful free radicals – free radicals lead to decline in cell function
• Get antioxidants from beta-carotenes, vitamins A, C, E, and mineral selenium

Physical Activity…

• Physical activity increases blood flow to the brain – try to take 10,000 steps daily!
• Obesity can lead to brain function decline later in life
• Increased blood flow to the brain areas releases endorphins
• 25% of blood generated by each heartbeat goes to the brain!

Mental Stimulation…

• Read and write daily – try things that are novel and complex
• Developing a good language system is linked to a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s
• Do puzzles and games that are “novel and complex” – playing Scrabble every single day won’t do it, so change it up!
• Try writing with your non-dominant hand

Scientists all over the world are starting to agree that stimulating the brain can improve brain power. Numerous studies show that activities such as interactive games can help maintain key cognitive functions.

The study found that during later years, reading books, participating in computer activities, playing games and doing craft activities such as pottery or quilting led to a 30 to 50 percent decrease in the risk of developing memory loss compared to people who did not do those activities.

To read the full article

Learn more about Fit Brains

Most everyone remembers the wonderful drama Wizard of Oz in which two of the characters, the Tin Man was searching for his heart and the Scarecrow for his brain. It is interesting to consider how cultures from the beginning of civilization have perceived the human body.

Egyptians buried their royalty after removing every organ from the body but the heart. Shakespeare and others have published classic writings on the heart and the emotions associated with this organ. Indeed, our social language has concluded that the heart is the epicenter of human existence and that our fundamental and deep emotions are housed and expressed there.

Stepping back from a deliberate and conscious consideration of this belief is a cold reality that the heart is a pump that perfuses blood throughout our system. The cold truth is that the heart never deserved to be considered the epicenter of anything! We do not feel, move, or think with the heart anymore than we do with the lungs or pancreas. Amazingly, our culture is so smitten with the heart that we even express ourselves in nonsensical ways such as “I love you with all my heart,” “you broke my heart,” the Steelers played their hearts out,” “the Heartbeat of America.” We even have a holiday dedicated to the heart called Valentines’ Day in which you will observe some (typically men) walking around with red boxes shaped like a heart!

While this is a bit fun we should pause and consider a serious fact that the human brain is the system that provides our emotional, motor, and cognitive abilities. Indeed, our brain is our epicenter and it defines our existence and interaction with the world around us. True the heart is critical for pumping the blood to the brain, but love, grief, laughter, fear, hope, mobility, memory, imagination, creativity, language and so much more are outcomes of the miracle that is our brain.

A basic understanding of this fact helps us to appreciate how wrong our thinking has been since the beginning of time. Fortunately, some of this foolish thinking has actually led to sound and effective policy regarding cardiac health (did you ever notice little red hearts next to foods in your grocery stores or on the menu?). We simply need to take an objective understanding of the facts on the human brain and how important it is to our very existence and begin to apply practice and policy that promotes the health and expansion of the human brain.

Maybe the brain will get its own holiday!!

Hidden Gem Bingo is a colorful, Concentration-based brain game that takes the classic game of Bingo to the next level with challenging new layers designed to improve your focus and attention. Create a variety of “Bingo Words” by matching letters and colors on increasingly complex boards full of gems, bonus patterns, hidden jackpots, and more!

Features:

• Inspired by the widely popular game BINGO, packed with fun Bonuses and other incentives.
• Targets all areas of Concentration, increasing in challenge and complexity as the game progresses.
• Uses strategic gameplay, layered Game Boards and a wide variety of BINGO Words for increased replayability.

Hidden Gem Bingo a concentration game. Click here to play Hidden Gem Bingo!

As most of us get into middle age we might take special notice of our body’s ability to keep a few extra pounds around the waist. Most of us understand the importance of eating healthy and the disease risk associated with extra weight around the belly.

We know that a healthy diet and regular exercise are very important for maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding obesity. However, genetics also plays a role in which an important neurochemical, Dopamine, may play a critical role. Dopamine is the primary neurochemical that regulates our pleasure sensation.

Eating temporarily boosts dopamine levels, but obesity may be associated with fewer Dopamine receptors which lead to less sensation of pleasure with eating. Research now suggests that the brain regions important to Dopamine expression when eating treats such as a milkshake does not get activated in those who are obese.

Interestingly, Dopamine has been studied as a primary mechanism for addiction and impulsive behavior including eating. Attempts are underway to try and understand how Dopamine might be triggered even in obesity to reduce impulsive eating so as to reduce gaining more weight. To read more about Dopamine, click here

Brain health begins with your learning the basics of your brain and how environment influences the structure and function of your brain. It is important to understand that you have the ability to promote healthy development of your brain that can not only influence the health of your brain, but also affect aspects of your life in a positive way.

Consider the following examples of how a proactive brain health lifestyle that includes (1) physical activity, (2) mental stimulation, (3) nutrition, (4) socialization, and (5) spirituality can make a positive difference:

1. Increased communication skills with your partner and peers at work. We incur divorce and financial loss at work because of communication problems.

2. Control over the inner voice that sabotages nearly every diet plan. This is an issue of inhibition, discipline, and reward that results from thoughts and action.

3. Leadership through enhancement of empathy and accurate perception of the emotions of others. Presidents get elected with such skills and our best leaders likely have this skill.

4. Relationship building and limiting unnecessary tensions. This is a big one for family dynamics.

5. Achieving success in life by setting concrete goals and developing the mental path to meet these goals. Thoughts are electrical, chemical, and perhaps magnetic with influence over behavior and outcome.

6. Creation of a better sense of self.

7. Gaining control over inner tension, stress, and our psychophysiology that can alter our longevity and quality of life.

8. Slowing time and developing an appreciation for the here and now.

9. Understanding the enormous power and consequences of our words and messages to others, particularly children.

10. Promoting neuronal development through learning and exposure of our brains to the novel and complex such as Fit Brains www.fitbrains.com

No worry, this is not a list of leadership skills or how to become the best CEO in the world! Rather, you may not even realize you have your own “Executive System” that sits in the region of your brain known as the frontal lobe. The largest and youngest member of your cortex, the frontal lobe is a very interesting part of you. It facilitates many important and distinct skills that are used everyday. Examples of such skills include planning, organization, analytic, sequencing, multi-tasking, inhibition, creativity, attention and discrimination, fluency, emotional expression and perception, ethics and social grace, and judgment. Even your personality is the product of frontal lobe function!

We refer to the frontal lobe as the “executive system” because it serves the role of executing the multiple intentions that arrive from other parts of the brain. It is the CEO of the brain or the grand Maestro of the behavioral and cognitive symphony of the brain. Clearly, the frontal lobe—executive system is critical to your neuronal health.

Some practical tips to stimulate and exercise your executive system include the following:

1. Organize your day, organize your room (good one for the teenagers in the house!), and help to organize an event or even your child’s schedule.

2. Participate in planning a vacation, trip, or some future event.

3. Practice expressing different emotions and then perceiving emotions on the faces of others.

4. Practice stating aloud the alphabet, but alternate between letters and numbers in a logical order. Any time you can alternate between two distinct categories is a workout for your executive system.

5. Give yourself some free time to imagine and create.

6. Pay attention to ethics and decision making that involves good or poor judgment.

7. Watch how typical personality traits can change with stress, mood, and alcohol. These chemical triggers alter the frontal lobe and can also alter one’s personality for a temporary period of time.

8. Express as many words as you can in 60 seconds that begin with different letters.

9. Draw 30 small circles on the page and write words of different colors under each circle. Then color the circles with a color that is different than the word you wrote under the particular circle. Now, state aloud the color of the circle, not the written word for each of the 30 circles as fast as you can. See how many you can correctly state in 30 seconds.
10. Go to www.Fitbrains.com and play the following games to exercise your executive system:

• Wonder Juice Machine
• Sum Snap
• Travel Quest

Good luck with your workout!

Most people, including specialists, tend to focus on the human brain as a cognitive system. Discussion is typically about memory, attention, spatial skills, etc. which is interesting and important. However, the human is much more than a cognitive tool. It is our emotional, relational, motor, and creative system as well.

As we enter a brand new and exciting year (2009) we are offered an opportunity to introspect (always a good thing to do) and do two things: first we should recognize our strengths and keep expressing them. Second, we should recognize our weaknesses and try to correct them. With regard to the relational and emotional parts of our brain, 2009 can be a great year to work on these brain functions.

Kindness and forgiveness with a large dose of positivity is a great place to start. We can actually exercise these functions and brain regions by being nice, forgiving others and apologizing, and attending to the positive in all situations. While this sounds great and probably reflects the “right thing to do” it is not easy. Human nature, perhaps our DNA massaged over many years, has become resistant to such behaviors.

Maybe you can join me in 2009 by trying to do one nice thing for another and yourself every day, forgive when the situation arises and do not ever be afraid to apologize, and declare aloud a positive aspect for every situation. Your brain will be exercised in relational and emotional functions and will feel better about itself which means you will feel better about yourself!

Happy New Year!

Dr. Nussbaum