Brain gym merzenich1/13/2024 ![]() By the time they reach age 85 nearly half of Americans will suffer from dementia. Merzenich's company, Posit Science, has begun selling the Brain Gym computer program and the potential market is huge. "Absolutely," he says, "in fact, very strong positive improvements in basic faculties can be achieved at any age." Merzenich says scientists are learning to harness the brain's plasticity and encouraging healthy parts of the brain to take on jobs they don't usually do.Īccording to Merzenich, learning new cognitive skills can be achieved at any age. He adds, "This can have an incredible impact, not just from the point of view of the quality of life of older people but sustaining people with vitality, with vigor." When asked if the Brain Gym served as a fountain of youth, Merzenich, who developed the program and founded the company Posit Science, says, "Well, this is a part of a solution." ![]() So it's really nice for me to have her back as far as she is, and she's, I'd say, she's about 90 percent now." And I'm just coming back now and it came back through this experience."Įrnie adds, "I'm not a doctor, but there's just no question in my mind of what it's helped both of us. They became testers for the "Brain Gym," a computer program designed to exercise the part of the brain used for memory.īetty explains that when searching for the right words to say, "I couldn't get them out. But when Ernie learned their care facility would be a test site for a memory enhancement program, he signed up both of them. "The tough part of it was to watch her and know that she was thinking, but it didn't come out," Ernie says.įor millions of Americans memory loss has seemed an unavoidable part of aging. He says that while physically present, Betty's mental capabilities betrayed her. "She'll talk about something and look for a word, and she'd look at me and wait for me to tell her what the word was," Ernie explains. But recently, Ernie watched, and worried, as his wife's memory failed her. She's just been wonderful," Laura remarks, adding that Harper can also dress herself, something she was unable to do in the past.Įrnie and Betty Radez have been married for more than 60 years. "She's able to pick up toys, you know, put them in bags, carry heavy bags across the room. For the first time in her life, she can throw a ball, and feed herself with a fork. Though Taub says Harper will never be totally cured, she now has about 70 percent normal use of her arm. "Nevertheless you get a very substantial treatment effect without any side effects." ![]() "There are no drugs and no surgery involved," Taub says. Edward Taub at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. While Brain Age advertises that it can "train your brain in minutes a day," the Brain Fitness Program, marketed by Merzenich's Posit Science Corp., is a computer-based set of exercises that a user must sit down with an hour a day for eight weeks.CI therapy was designed by Dr. ![]() Meanwhile, at The Hallmark retirement community in Chicago, 16 residents just completed a complex memory training program developed by neuroscientist Michael Merzenich of the University of California at San Francisco. either, but a product called Brain Age, a mind challenger targeted at one of the fastest-growing segments of the game market: people over 40 worried about losing their mental edge. Nintendo was hosting a video game competition to determine the "Coolest Grandparent," and the aging gamers in the store were competing for a Nintendo DS handheld game player. The elders, gathered on a recent Saturday, weren't there to spoil the kids, however. The giant Nintendo store in Manhattan was swarming with silver-haired citizens and their grandchildren.
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