Nintendo is releasing Brain Age, a DS game based on the research of the Japanese neuroscientist Ryuta Kawashima. Kawashima found that if you measured the brain activity of someone who was concentrating on a single, complex task—like studying quantum theory—several parts of that person’s brain would light up. But if you asked them to answer a rapid-fire slew of tiny, simple problems—like basic math questions—her or his brain would light up everywhere.

Hence the design of Brain Age. It offers you nine different tests, some of which seem incredibly basic—like answering flash-card math questions—and others which are fiendishly tricky. At one point, the DS shows flashes a grid of numbers for one second, then hides the digits; you have to try to remember where they were located in the grid, in ascending order. After you’ve played a few rounds, the DS calculates your “brain age”: How mentally nimble you are, compared to the statistical averages of other people Kawashima measured. Age 20 is the best you can do—the apex of your mental powers, apparently—and by playing Brain Age every day, you can become mentally younger and younger.

Now, the science here is a little dubious. The idea of a discrete brain age is about as phrenologically suspect as the increasingly-disputed concept of IQ itself. Kawashima believes you improve your cognition by getting your brain to light up all over at once. But not all neuroscientists agree that this full-brain activity means you’re thinking more intelligently.

I’m quibbling, though. The truth is, scientists have long known that you can get smarter and stay smarter by engaging in daily, brain-teasing activity—and Brain Age certainly qualifies.

Wired