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Show Scott Jones SPECIAL TOTHE HARTFORD COURANT shows,a lack of sleep and too reading out loud may sound about as pleasant as repeating eighth grade,but it’s actually kindof fun. “Brain Age” is based on the research of segues Ryutak. thatactivities tkeoamath problems in rapid orreading out loud actually many hours spent/wasted re- stimulates blood flow to the "m 36 yearsold, but accord- [ir to “Brain Age,” I have the brain capacity of a 57year-old man. What gives? I'm blaming VHI reality viewing bad video games. WhenI first popped the cartridge into my Nintendo DS, though, I wasn't particularly excited about the latest version of “Brain Age,” which was released April 17. Come on, a “game”that features math and reading? I was evenless excited when the softwarepolitely informed me that my brain age basically qualified me for senior-citizen discounts. The term “brain age”is Nintendo's playful way of saying “IQ,” in the same waythat “Advance Wars”is Nintendo’s playful form of chess. Your “brain age”is figured via a series of simpletests. The goal is to get your brain age to matchyour real age or,betterstill, to blow enough cobwebs out of your aging synapses until you have the fresh-as-a-daisy cerebellum of a 20-year-old again. You do this by working your way through what the cartridge refers to as “Daily Training.” Daily Training con- sists of solving math problems (7x 9 anyone?), reading out loud, memorizing the order of numbered blocks and counting syllables in sentences, among other things. The moreDaily Training you do, the more exercises you unlock. You write answersdirectly on the DS touch screen. All results are stored in your personal profile and arelaid out in easy-to-read charts and graphs. Despite myinitial skepticism, and my 57-year-old brain,I kept at “Brain Age.” Like “Nintendogs,” the game is designed to be used daily for only a few minutes. Doing math problems and prefrontal cortex. The prefrontal cortex functions as control central forall the other parts of the brain. Kawashima's thinking: Stimulate the prefrontal cortex, and you're stimulating the whole brain. Naturally, this being a Nintendo game,the entire productionis put together with typical Nintendo-caliber, user-friendly silliness. ima’s pixilated head greets you every time you load up the software. He cracks jokes and doles out tips for keeping your brain in tip-top shape. After a week of embarrassingly low “Daily Training” scores, with my charts and "SCRIBBUNG 101° FOXTROT Ramee and Juliet ware deeply im love. :-) Ungertunately, Remee mistakenAy Uhowght Julietwas dand, se he Kills Bimeelf. 1-0 HOW'S PAIGE'S SHAKESPEARE NS RHYMES WITH ORANGE You CANHAE mLOFEN MIC... You CAN HAVE AN OPEN BAR. Another tas?) “ Another to bride arom! | a I love these qys Sorap much!) Theyre the best! THE BEST 111 ROCK~ ONL g graphs pretty much bottoming out, something strange happened:I started to turn things around.I saw some dramatic improvement. The math suddenly got easier for me. I began countingsyllables in sentences like a pro. Then, the moment of truth: I retested my brain age. The result: I’m proud to say that I now havethe brain of a 38-year-old. I've been using “Brain Age” for two weeks now.I actually look forward to my daily training, in a way that I never looked forward to any of my eighth-gradeclasses. Beyondstatistics, brain-age tests and prefrontal cortices, I really do feellike my head is working in waysit hasn't worked in long time. Myability to focus, concentrate and memorizeis better. My brain, . in general, just feels busier and morealive. MARY WORTH DO YOU THINK 10 RATHER NOT JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS, He mpne™( \eacetresereenwrie ) Ha » “Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!”; Nintendo DS; $20; ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) FRANK AND ERNEST gael WEITIN ERNIE, WHAT'S YOUR HEADLINE FOR err My THE — ABOUT OIL GETTING ° G ‘= HARDER TO FIND S = nw nt Vm Oellccsseo rly www.heraldextra.com/yellowpages un y3n fa 80 sane 90029 Wesoeasaneusaoarew-s Local Businesses * Phone Numbers g e 4 > BuT You CANT Have BOTH gin atonic! the | Daily Herald, Thursday, Thursday, April 20, 2006 HE ACED THE FINALS IN. A boot campfor brains nn COMICS > GAMING |