Friday Freebie: What I'm Reading in Ten Minutes or Less: Brain Training

www.humanconnectomeproject.org

Did you ever wonder if all those claims about Lumosity and similar brain training games were true? Yeah, me too. As a matter of fact, I wrote a blog about it last month for CatholicMom.com -- one that was motivated by my free subscription to Lumosity coming to a close at the end of October.

Lumosity and its ilk make a lot of claims based on the science surrounding neuroplasticity -- the brain's ability to form new networks, and even reassign tasks to a new part of the brain when the area specific to a particular task is somehow damaged. It's pretty miraculous stuff.

But can playing a few games on your phone encourage this neuroplasticity? Seems difficult to believe.

So, I was very interested in an article I found yesterday at ScientificAmerican.com that talks about the research behind the claims -- warts and all. If you've ever thought about paying for games that promise to train your brain, it's worth a read.

I only wish this article had existed when I was researching that blog.