Health News

February 28, 2006

Japan has a new hot video game that is about to hit the US. This new "brain" that includes word and math problems has the title: Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day.

Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo Co., read a book by Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima which explained how to keep the mind sharp. Kawashima, Iwata and Nintendo programmers collaborated on the videogame.

The scientist, Ryuta Kawashima, invited a team of Nintendo programmers to his lab. For five months, they attached electrodes to the heads of test subjects, who played with a prototype puzzle game. Then they used Dr. Kawashima's brain-imaging technique to determine which drills stimulated the mind the most.

The resulting game, played on a hand-held machine, is Brain Age. Simpler than most other videogames, Brain Age flashes questions on one screen, while the player writes answers on the other. The player is peppered with a series of timed drills, allowing the game to measure the user's "brain age."

Most users find they are much "older." But by working through the mental exercises players can bring down their brain age and chart their progress over time. Nintendo, citing Dr. Kawashima's research, claims that playing Brain Age improves the memory and helps stave off the mental effects of aging.

The version of the game that will go on sale in the U.S. on April 17 will include counting, memory and reading drills, as well as Sudoku, a Japanese number puzzle that has recently become popular in the U.S. and Europe. Another brain-exercising quiz game will come out in May.