Published Study Shows Brain Exercises Improve Memory and Attention - And People Notice

/PRNewswire/ -- Study results to be published in the April 4, 2009 edition of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society are the first to show definitively that computerized brain exercises can improve memory and attention in older adults. An advance copy of the breakthrough study led by researchers from the University of Southern California and the Mayo Clinic has been released online.

A total of 487 healthy adults over the age of 65 participated in the randomized controlled trial, called the IMPACT Study. Half were assigned to a group that trained on a brain fitness software program for a total of 40 hours over the course of 8 weeks. The other half spent an equal amount of time learning from educational lectures on the computer followed by quizzes.

The study found that participants who trained on the software, The Brain Fitness Program(TM) from Posit Science(R), more than doubled their processing speed, with an average increase of 131%. They also saw gains on standard measures of memory and attention of 10 years, on average. These changes were big enough that participants reported significant improvements in every day activities (such as remembering names or understanding conversations in noisy restaurants). The gains of the brain exercise group were clinically significant; the gains of the lecture group were significantly smaller and not clinically significant.

The Brain Fitness Program was developed by a global team of neuroscientists for Posit Science. It consists of six exercises done on a computer. The product is based on the science of brain plasticity - the ability of the brain to change and form new pathways in response to the right stimulation delivered in the right way.

Marlene Allen, aged 75, of Mill Valley, California participated in the brain exercise half of the study. "Now I don't have to write down shopping lists. I remember what I need at the store," Ms. Allen said. "And I almost never walk into a room and forget why anymore."

While some earlier studies have shown older adults get better at exercises that they practice, this study goes two steps further. The improvements at the exercises resulted in gains in standard measures of memory and attention and people noticed improvements in their every day activities.

"The changes we saw in the experimental group were remarkable - and significantly larger than the gains in the control group," said Liz Zelinski, PhD, a principal investigator for the study from the University of Southern California. "From a researcher's point of view, this was very impressive because people got better at the tasks trained, those improvements generalized to standardized measures of memory and people noticed improvements in their lives. What this means is that cognitive decline is no longer an inevitable part of aging. Doing properly designed cognitive activities can enhance our abilities as we age."

"We saw gains of 4% in memory scores in the brain exercise group," said Glenn Smith, PhD, the study's principal investigator from the Mayo Clinic. "That may not sound like much, but it is about what an older person normally loses in a 10 year period. The lectures group saw about a 2% gain, which may sound like they did half as well; however, we look at memory on a curve, not a straight line, and a 2% gain is not something you are apt to notice in your life."

"This study has profound personal and public implications for aging baby boomers and their parents," said Joe Coughlin, PhD, Director of the AgeLab at the Massachusetts Institute Technology. "This means boomers may now have tools for a future that is not their grandfather's old age. It also impacts most aspects of independent living - from aging-in-place to transportation to all the great and little things that we call life. This is big news for aging and for all of us."

The IMPACT study is the largest study ever of a brain fitness program that is available to the public and the first published in a medical journal to show improvements in memory and attention.

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Comupter love...

Reading the article I've posted below on being able to interact more with computers sparked this ramble...

Every day the future gets closer and closer, faster and faster. If you think back in history it is like time was just meandering along, things were being invented but at a slow pace. Things sped up with the advent of better communication. Things sped up as we became more civilized. You can't invent when you're hunkered down waiting for the next bomb or band of marauders.

Now hardly a second goes by where someone isn't coming up with an innovation that completely changes our world and future. I know there are some who fight it tooth and nail, and there are some who embrace it whole heartedly.

Me? There's good and there's bad in almost everything. Bad people will twist anything to serve themselves at the expense of others. Good people do their darnedest to keep on the right track but sometimes make mistakes. I believe in the basic goodness of most people and I remain optimistic about our future. I love these innovations and discoveries. I get a kick out of reading what's on the horizon.

On the flip side, I am concerned about a future where everyone is interacting with computers instead of each other. Computers are replacing televisions as the working parent's babysitter. Neither is good, although at least with computers there is some interaction with others, unlike TV.

I dislike television. But I'll save that for another ramble.

Wave to the PC! It's paying attention
LAS VEGAS - Nintendo Corp.'s Wii game console is a breakout hit in large part because users control the play by waving around a motion-sensing wireless controller. Many new gadgets are taking the idea of such an intuitive interface several steps further. Soon, you may be able to control computers, television sets, even cell phones with hand gestures alone.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_hi_te/gadget_show_touch_and_wave

Team Works to Defend Digital Battlefield in Europe

RJ - Just thought this was so very interesting! We didn't have a place for it on the Fayette Front Page so I thought I'd share it in my blog. Happy New Year (not that this article has anything to do with ringing in the new year... it speaks more to the new world we live in).

By Kristopher Joseph
Special to American Forces Press Service

MANNHEIM, Germany, Dec. 31, 2007 - In 1983, with the Cold War still going strong, a movie called "War Games" depicted an eccentric computer hacker named David Lightman, played by Matthew Broderick. With dogged determination to play a military-generated "game" -- Global Thermonuclear War -- David managed to hack into the North American Aerospace Defense Command computer system and almost caused an actual nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

The Army's 5th Signal Command has created a cyber-threat intelligence cell to detect, monitor and combat malicious digital infiltrations on military computer networks. Photo by Sgt. Michael Taylor, USA
(Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.

"War Games" represented the tensions and anxieties of the ever-looming nuclear threat during the Cold War nuclear arms race. The global war on terrorism has replaced many threats of the Cold War. Many believe that in today's "information age" there are real David Lightmans who pose a cyber threat to military networks that could cause the loss of innocent lives unless something is done about them.

"We are taking a proactive approach to stop these 'hacktivists' from attacking our systems," said Robert Hembrook, deputy chief of intelligence for United States Army Europe's 5th Signal Command here.

For the first time in the European military theater, a cyber-threat intelligence cell has been created for the specific purpose of detecting, monitoring and combating malicious digital infiltrations on military computer networks, Hembrook said.

Cyber defense is implemented at the Department of Defense level and already was under way in the halls of U.S. European Command, in Stuttgart, but a fully developed and funded European theater-level cyber cell now is active within 5th Signal Command, Hembrook said.

The cell consists of three experienced intelligence and computer experts whose jobs are to observe potentially harmful data passing from the Internet into friendly networks, identify patterns of attacks, analyze data, and advise the operators of the network so that they can take preventative action to ensure the safety and security of all systems in the European footprint.

"The fact is that there are people currently trying to break into our systems in an effort to obtain data or plant viruses that put servicemembers and their missions at risk," one of the cyber cell members said. "We simply cannot be vulnerable in this area."

The military, along with most other organizations, relies more and more on the speed and capabilities of computer-based technology to give it an edge on the battlefield. This reliance also allows an extra avenue of attack for the enemy. "This cyber cell marks a change of approach in the intel world," a team member said. "We are already experts on predicting physical attacks from the enemy, but we never had a dedicated staff to predict and prevent virtual attacks at a theater level."

Besides combating threats from the outside, the cell is also involved with helping its military users prevent "digital fratricide" from the inside. For work and morale purposes, DoD policy allows users filtered, monitored access to the World Wide Web on government computers. According to a cell member, this is to obtain business-related information and to visit non-work related sites as long as casual browsing does not affect getting missions accomplished.

"It's a delicate relationship of balancing functionality and security," a cell member said. "We know that many users can't do their job without computers and the Internet, so we look for ways to help protect them."

"Users need to know that Internet access is a privilege and not a right," one cyber cell member said.

The cell has taken another proactive step by leaving their offices and actively engaging and informing commanders and military communities of their findings as well as stressing the importance and relevance of the cyber battlefield.

Another cell member said that the team's audience is the leadership in theater because they are the ones who can affect changes in how members of the DoD deal with and fight these cyber threats.

"We have had nothing but positive feedback from commanders," one cell member said. "They are taking our reports seriously, and more and more they are seeing that, if our data or systems get compromised or abused, threats to our systems can affect not only those sitting behind a desk, but also those on the front lines."

Since the 5th Signal Cyber Cell has shared its results to the intelligence community, other military organizations are asking how they too can have a cyber cell to find their own digital landmines, team officials said.

"This (cyber cell) is unprecedented at this level," a cell member said. "I saw the need for this when I worked at the DoD level. Members of the cell believe that network-defensive measures should be implemented at all levels in the military because a computer's role is becoming just as vital as an M-16 rifle in terms of winning today's wars.

"As much as the military trains its own on weapon safety, so we should be training them on computer and network safety," the cell member said. "That is where informing the leadership and giving them briefings becomes so vital."

In a 2006 interview for Defense Systems magazine, Tom Reardon, chief of the Intelligence Division for Network Enterprise Technology Command at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., had this to say about the level of importance computer networks play in military operations: "Network-centric operations are how we prosecute war and sustain the warfighter. If an enemy can degrade or destroy that capability, the tide of the battle could easily be turned in their favor. Worse yet, if the enemy succeeds in denying our network-centric capability, our forces may not be able to deploy; we couldn't show up to seize or defend terrain or support an ally."

Today, the 5th Signal Cyber Threat Intelligence Cell team members are the U.S. Army Europe warfighters in virtual trenches making sure the digital frontlines are defended.

"From an intel point of view, we've gone from 'patch the leaks' to 'build a better boat,'" Hembrook said.

(Kristopher Joseph is a public affairs specialist and editor of 5th Signal Command's biannual Echo magazine.)