DS Helps the elderly

I'm re-printing a very cool report here. I found it at THIS WEBSITE. I have the game they're talking about, but it's in Japanese... it comes out in America on April 17th.
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Video games for the elderly: an answer to dementia or a marketing tool?

Nintendo product proves addictive to over-45s anxious to ward-off effects of old age

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Tuesday March 7, 2006
The Guardian

Forget the idea that being good at computer games is a sign of a misspent youth. If millions of Japanese are to be believed, it is the secret to a happy and healthy old age as millions of them take up brain training, the country's latest computer game craze that is due to arrive in Britain by the summer.

Designed by a prominent neuroscientist, Brain Training for Adults, a package of cerebral workouts aimed at the over-45s by the Japanese game console and software maker Nintendo, is said to improve mental agility and even slow the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Players have to complete puzzles as quickly and accurately as possible, including reading literary classics aloud, doing simple arithmetic, drawing, and responding rapidly to deceptively easy teasers using voice-recognition software. The player's "brain age" is then determined. A physically fit, yet cerebrally past-it 30-year-old might be told after his first few attempts that his brain is into its 50s; a retired woman could, over time, end up with a brain age 20 years her junior.

The challenge, to reduce one's brain age, is proving addictive among Japan's baby boomers, many of whom say their only contact with game consoles was limited to bemused glances over the shoulders of grandchildren.

Targeting grey gamers is proving a smart move by Nintendo as software makers try to wean themselves off the shrinking teen market. About 20% of Japan's 127 million people are 65 and older, and the number is expected to rise to almost 30% by 2025. More than 3.3m of the games have been sold in Japan since they went on sale in May, with the second package in the series selling 500,000 units in the first week.

The first in the English-language series of games, Brain Age, is due for its US release on April 17, followed by Big Brain Academy in May. The games are expected to go on sale in Europe in June.

In Britain, Nintendo is reportedly gearing up for a £2m advertising campaign that will include adverts in Saga magazine, and promotions through Mensa. The game is expected to feature all of the exercises popular in Japan, as well as the sudoku number puzzle.

The game's success has taken even its maker by surprise. Soaring demand is behind Nintendo's struggle to produce enough of its new dual-screen DS game consoles. A new batch is not expected in shops for two weeks.

Brain Age (known in Japan as Brain Training) was part-developed by Ryuta Kawashima, a 46-year-old professor of neuroscience at Tohoku University, who has spent years studying the possible cerebral benefits of solving straightforward mathematical and other problems. His series of No o Kotaeru (brain training) books, first published in 2003, quickly became bestsellers, and were followed by a glut of TV shows and board games all extolling the supposed virtues of regular mental workouts.

Some commentators say that Japan's elderly people have seized on the fun and easy-to-use consoles to confront fears that without mental, as well as physical, well-being, they can expect to spend their twilight years miserable and lonely. "The idea of training the brain gives us hope," Rika Kayama, a psychiatrist, told the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. "I think many of us are overly frightened of getting old, or even refuse to admit it."

Prof Kawashima says he has proof that a few minutes every day spent exercising a particular part of the brain brings improvements. During research he captured images of various brain functions and found the organ functions better when confronted with simple calculations than when multi-tasking during a conventional computer game.

In his learning therapy experiments, he claims to have seen marked improvements in people with dementia who are set simple mental tasks that require them to use the prefrontal cortex to restore brain function. "In future, those with Alzheimer's disease may not have to take drugs to delay the symptoms if they keep up with the learning therapy," he said during a recent interview.

Brain Age-equipped consoles are even available in waiting rooms and wards of several hospitals, including Uchida hospital in Kyoto, which runs a memory loss clinic for people with dementia. "The game won't cure dementia, but it's a good form of stimulation, especially for old people living alone," Takeshi Kihara, a neuropsychiatrist at the hospital, told the Associated Press.

Some researchers are sceptical. "There's not a single study that they can rely on showing this," said Torkel Klingberg, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. His research has shown that training "working memory" - like remembering phone numbers for a short time - can bring benefits. But he added: "That doesn't mean every kind of cognitive activity improves the brain in some kind of general way."

Another problem is whether the training helps with other tasks. "You might get better at sudoku, but you don't get better at much else," said Guy Claxton, a learning expert at Bristol University. "This has kind of been swept under the carpet by people who sell intelligence-improving devices."

Exercise your mind ...

Mozart, sudoku, chess, a good book, a walk, a good sleep - all are claimed to help turn your brain from jumble to genius, but which ones work?

Memory tasks
Torkel Klingberg and his team at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm gave 50 children five weeks training on either easy or hard "working memory" tasks - such as memorising phone numbers for short periods. Only the tough training brought a general improvement in attention and problem solving. But the training has to be intensive and prolonged, he said.

Routine change
Some researchers suggest tricking your brain with a new routine improves cognitive abilities, for example by brushing your teeth with the "wrong" hand or by taking a different route to work. There's no evidence this actually works. "Is it enough of a challenge to give you a training effect? That's a totally open question," said Prof Klingberg.

Playing the violin
One study of nearly 500 Americans aged over 75 found playing a musical instrument, reading, board games and dancing were associated with a reduced risk of dementia. The study recorded each subject's activities over five years and associated their leisure time with whether they developed Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. Only regular, intensive activities were beneficial.

Exercise
A stint in the gym can boost your brain as well as biceps. Studies suggest walking for half an hour three times a week boosts mental abilities such as abstract reasoning by 15%.

Mozart
One famous study suggested Mozart boosts mental abilities - even rats find their way around a maze faster. But not all follow-up studies have replicated the effect. It seems the benefit, if there is one, is due to the relaxing and stimulating effects of music. People who feel better perform better in mental tasks.