Brain Age

MacGyver's sister got our kids a Nintendo DS (Dual Screen) for Christmas last year. (Truly a generous aunt. Thanks again!) They were thrilled to receive such a wonderful toy. They have a ton of games in their newfangled toy now. The games range from simple ones to really complicated ones.

RD managed to convince me to try one of their games. The game is called BRAIN AGE. Inspired by the work of prominent Japanese neuroscientist Dr. Ryuta Kawashima, the Brain Age games feature activities designed to help stimulate your brain and give it the work out it needs. The theory is that if your body needs a work out to keep fit, so does your mind.

For this particular game, the optimum score (brain age) is 20.

The first game I tried was one where the names of colors were flashed on the screen, BLUE YELLOW RED BLACK. But as you can see, the color of the words do not match the name of the color. The instructions were to say the COLOR of the words.

I called out the correct color but the DS would not understand what I'd said. In the end, the DS declared that I had a brain age in the 80's. HE was the one that was deaf and I was the one with the brain age in the 80's?!! The nerve!!

So RD recommended I select the DS options "I can't speak." In that mode, the choice of games are different. Questions are answered by using the stylus and tapping or drawing or writing the answers on the screen.

I tried one of the "I can't speak" games called Calculations x 20. The game flashes twenty math questions, one at a time, which one is supposed to answer. Of course the faster one solves the questions, the better for him. Errors are counted as 5 second penalties each. I thought I would do better in this game since it wouldn't involve the DS deciphering what I'd said. To my dismay, when I wrote "2" in reply to "2 + 0," the DS took it as a "12" and marked me wrong. Good grief! Not only is this thing deaf, but it is also blind. Alas, my brain age improved to 60-something.

Another challenge is Head Count. At the onset, they show a certain number of people. Then a house comes down and covers them. As the game progresses, people are shown leaving and entering the house. In the end, it will ask how many people are in the house. Though it is a matter of addition and subtraction, it gets confusing when people are leaving and entering the house at the same time. I've gotten most of the answers in this section correct, but have never managed to get all of them right. There comes a point where I say, "Arrgghhh!! I don't know anymore!" For some amazing reason, RD seems to find this challenge easy. ARRGGHHH!!

There are simpler challenges such as counting how many syllables there are in a sentence, reading a short essay, or connecting A-1-B-2 ... all the way to L-12-M-13.


One of the harder ones for me is Low to High. (This is another one of those which RD considers as EASY. So what else is new?) Numbers are displayed on screen and when they disappear, you are supposed to tap the boxes on the screen in such a way to display the numbers in ascending order. Sure, the game is easy when there are only five or six numbers displayed on screen. But when there are seven, eight or nine numbers flashed, (sadly) my short-term memory fails me. I think my high score was obtained when RD and MyGirl were coaching me in the sidelines.

Somehow it is truly amazing how the kids are able to hurdle these Brain Age challenges. I have managed to beat RD in some of the training programs like the syllable count and calculations. I have an Engineering degree, for crying out loud, I think I should AT LEAST be able to beat him in math. But by and large, I have to hand it to him. He rules.

However, since he loves me so much (and perhaps he enjoys the competition), RD gave me yet another suggestion. He recommended I go through training before I take the Brain Age Check. What a humbling experience.

True enough, last weekend, after going through two days of training, I managed to get my brain age up to 22. Of course RD's brain age at that time was 21 (with an unrecorded brain age of 20). For now, I've slipped down to 31.

I have gotten hooked to the game, primarily because I refuse to have the DS conclude that my brain has gone dull. Plus, because it is so much fun to see RD gloat over his high scores.

In retrospect, I can understand RD's elation over being branded with a brain age of 20. He's 10. However, I cannot quite get myself to celebrate when the DS gives me a brain age of 22 when I know for a fact that I am much smarter now than when I was 22. Perhaps they didn't figure on parents getting any airtime on the DS to play games.

(Note : Today, 07 April 2008, I have managed to get a Brain Age of 20. As such, I shall relinquish all DS airtime back to the children.)