Ini mungkin khusus untuk mereka yang manula (kepala
enam keatas) apalagi yang pernah mengalami kecelakaan
sehingga cranium retak seperti ogut 3 tahun yang lalu.
Ah, ogut mungkin perkecualian -- karena masih bisa
sing-along dengan music of the 1980s dan masih baca
inbox yang berjibun tiap hari, etc, sekalipun
peristiwa kecelakaan itu terhapus sama sekali dari
memori, terima kasih Gusti Allah. Memang ogut tidak
yakin apakah TOEFL ogut bisa diatas 600 seperti dulu,
tapi rasanya ogut tidak perlu ikut kebugaran otak
seperti diuraikan dibawah (alasan sebenarnya mana
mungkin ogut kuat membayarnya).
Salam,
RM
www.sfgate.com Return to regular view
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Calisthenics for aging brains
S.F. firm develops software to improve mental agility
- Carolyn Said, Chronicle Staff Writer
Monday, April 4, 2005
Katherine Moskwin, 71, a retired medical
transcriptionist, started noticing that her short-term
memory was shot awhile ago.
"I'd go into a room and forget what I was coming for,"
she said. "I'd be dialing the phone and stop and say
'Who am I dialing?' "
That's one reason Moskwin is trying out a new software
program from San Francisco's Posit Science Corp. that
promises to help stave off and reverse some symptoms
of aging, such as memory loss, declining vision and
hearing, and reduced motor control.
Moskwin, along with other residents of the BridgePoint
retirement community in San Francisco, has spent an
hour a day for the past three weeks playing computer
games designed to sharpen and stimulate her listening
and memory. She is about a third of the way through
the complete Brain Health Training Program, which runs
about 40 hours, usually done over eight weeks.
She already can sense a difference. "I'm very
interested in learning Spanish," said Moskwin, who
grew up speaking both Russian and English. "I notice
when I asked the Spanish-speaking caregivers here for
words, I retain them better."
Most people know that "use it or lose it" applies to
mental agility as much as to physical fitness.
Magazines are filled with tips about keeping the mind
alert by studying Japanese or taking up ballroom
dancing.
But Posit Science says its brain-training program
takes a more rigorous approach, backed by scientific
research.
Posit co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer Michael
Merzenich, a professor of neuroscience at UCSF, has
spent more than 30 years researching brain plasticity.
"The brain is just as deserving of a workout as the
body," he said in a presentation to a national
conference on aging last month. "The brain needs
progressively challenging learning that is intensive,
effortful and repetitive. "
That premise underlies Posit's approach to cognitive
calisthenics.
Posit scientists created exercises to stimulate
specific brain functions. Then its video game
designers turned them into computer games, complete
with a couple of animated coaches to give tips and
rewards like amusing pictures when players complete
tasks.
The company says one key to brain rejuvenation is that
the exercises become more difficult as players
progress so they're always working at a threshold of
intensity.
"As we age, things get 'noisier.' Information from our
senses is less reliable and processed less well," said
Posit co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Jeff
Zimman. "The systems in the brain get sluggish. We're
trying to improve the ability to accurately process
signals (such as incoming verbal information),
increase speed and stimulate the machinery to produce
key brain chemicals."
Patently superior
Posit started just 18 months ago but already has 53
issued patents, almost all for Merzenich's inventions.
(He's a member of the National Academy of Sciences
whose credits also include being on the team that
invented the cochlear implant in the late 1980s.)
Posit licensed many of them from Scientific Learning,
an Oakland company Merzenich founded in 1996 that
makes software to teach language and reading skills to
K-12 students.
Posit has raised $7.2 million in venture capital and
is seeking more funding.
The software isn't quite ready for prime time. Posit
hopes to release the first module, which is focused on
hearing, by the end of the year. Future modules will
address eyesight, problem solving and multitasking,
motor control, and balance and mobility.
Pricing will vary from less than $50 to $1,000
depending on intensity levels and other factors.
Zimman said he envisions senior residences and other
facilities buying site licenses to set up cognitive
fitness centers, or "brain gyms."
The company is not making any medical claims for its
software. Instead, it is promoting it as a tool for
healthy aging, saying its studies on test participants
have shown their memory improving as if they were 10
years younger.
Bob Zorich, 75, president of the BridgePoint resident
council, got involved in testing Posit's software
because he wanted to help "contribute some solution to
this age-old problem of senility that affects older
people."
Despite its game-like features, the software
definitely requires hard work, he said, but he's
noticed a benefit.
The auditory exercises deliberately emphasize
different word sounds "like someone has mush in their
mouth. You have to strain to hear it," he said.
The result in real life has been that he doesn't have
to strain as much to hear regular conversations
because his hearing has become sharper, said Zorich,
who spent 36 years in Chevron's finance division.
Zorich also mused out loud that he found using the
software fairly similar to playing chess because
"they're both taxing and stimulating."
That inspired a Posit executive to jump in to correct
him with the descriptions that everyone in the company
recites faithfully. "But this is the right stimuli, in
the right order, with the right timing," he said.
Charles DeCarli, professor of neurology at UC Davis
Medical School and director of the Alzheimer's Disease
Center, said his institution is testing the Posit
software with 40 patients who have mild cognitive
impairment.
Scientific approach
Twenty of them use the software. The other 20 spend
the same time doing self-selected computer activities.
The patients undergo MRIs, PET scans and
neuropsychological testing before and after the
six-week trial.
"This is one of the few things that I think is based
on very strong biological data," DeCarli said. "Mike
(Merzenich) has done a lot of work on animal
neurodevelopment, showing there is in fact
neuroplasticity. You can alter cortical development
based on the environment."
While DeCarli said it's too soon to assess whether the
software works as promised, he appreciates the
hard-core science underlying it as well as the
rigorous testing.
Posit, which has several university studies ongoing
and plans a larger academic trial this quarter, said
it hopes to publish test results in scientific
journals by the end of the year.
BridgePoint resident Yvette Kelly, 76, said she enjoys
the mental workouts.
A retired teacher, principal and school administrator,
she's used to trying to excel, and she already keeps
her brain active with poker, bridge, mah jong and
crossword puzzles.
"This is more stimulating," she said. "I really look
forward to trying to get my scores higher. It's like
being in school; you want to make the grade."
Posit Science can be reached at www.positscience.com,
(800) 514-3961.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TEST YOUR MEMORY
This informal quiz provides a snapshot of memory
performance. It is not a scientific or clinical test.
A person with normal memory performance should
remember four or five words without cueing.
More-significant memory problems should be suspected
if words are not recalled from the word choice lists.
Repeat the following five words aloud four times. You
will have to remember them later.
Carrot, purple, elephant, fork, guitar
Now take a pen or pencil and draw the face of a clock,
put in all the numbers, and set the time to read 10
minutes after 11.
Next, draw a picture of a three-dimensional cube.
Next, try to write down all the words that you
repeated out loud at the beginning of the test without
looking at the original instructions containing the
words. Write down as many of the words as you can
remember now.
If you write down fewer than five words, use the
following cues to jog your memory. Write down the word
if the cue helps you to remember.
One of the words was a vegetable
One was a color
One was an animal
One was a kitchen utensil
One was a type of instrument
If you are still having problems, choose the correct
word from the following lists.
Which word was on the original list? carrot, zucchini,
broccoli
Which word was on the original list? yellow, green,
purple
Which word was on the original list? rabbit, egret,
elephant
Which word was on the original list? plate, fork,
spoon
Which word was on the original list? piano, guitar,
flute
Source: Beth Cook, PhD, Posit Science Corp. All rights
reserved
E-mail Carolyn Said at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Page E - 1
URL:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/04/04/BUGJ9C20VS1.DTL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
©2005 San Francisco Chronicle
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