This study included training in 4 techniques to improve memory: meaningfulness, organization, visualization and association. You can use these techniques to boost your memory now.

Meaningfulness

We tend to remember things that have some importance to us. It doesn’t have to be very important, like remembering the code to a secret document which will save our lives, but if there is some significance, we tend to remember. I ordinarily forget phone numbers, but 2 days after my mother moved to an assisted living, I memorized her new phone number. Interestingly, after two years I still don’t remember the number of the nursing station, but I do remember where I wrote it down.

Another example is if I asked you where you were during 9-11 or when Kennedy was shot or even when they bombed Pearl Harbor, you probably can remember.
Interestingly a certain amount of emotional involvement helps remembering. That’s why we remember 9-11. But too much can have the opposite effect. Ask someone in an office building nearby, and they may have memory lapses associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

So the trick is to create meaning. For example, if you are going to the grocery store and you want to remember to buy spaghetti sauce, you might think about a trip to Italy or to your favorite Italian restaurant or even about a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western that you enjoyed watching. If it’s not just a forgettable can of sauce, it’s more likely to make its way into your shopping cart.

Organization

You are more likely to remember things when you put them in a category. For example, you are off to get your hair cut and you need to get gas and stop off at the store to pick up some fish for dinner. Before you leave the house, think about getting food for yourself and food for your car. That way you are more likely to have remembered these things when you get home.

Often memory training includes remembering lists of objects, and the more that you do it, the more neuronal connections you can build up in your brain. Let’s say your list is: fish, chair, potatoes, hammer, sofa, screw driver, pliers, bed and apples. As an experiment I invite you to close your eyes and to try to remember this list. I think it’s a pretty overwhelming task.
Now think about furniture, food, and tools. Think about the fish, apples, and potatoes as food, the bed, sofa and chair as furniture and the screw driver, hammer and pliers as tools. Now close your eyes and see if you can remember more of the list. If you did better, it may be because of organization.

Organization is actually a way of chunking information. Instead of remembering nine distinct objects, you are remembering 3 categories with 3 pieces of information in each one.
This can work with numbers too. Instead of 358902, think of three hundred and fifty eight and nine hundred and two. I often use this when I am giving out my phone number. It makes it much easier for the listener to write down the correct digits.

Visualization

Visualization is really a way of making information more meaningful to you. For example, if you wanted that spaghetti sauce, you could do more than just remembering your favorite Italian restaurant. Visualize yourself inside the restaurant, see Luigi the star waiter bringing you a steaming plate of spaghetti covered with your favorite marinara sauce, smell the garlic and tomatoes, imagine the taste of the pasta. The more different senses you can use, the more effective the visualization will be, and the more likely you are to remember to pick up spaghetti sauce.

Let’s say you have a doctor’s appointment on Thursday morning at 10 am. Imagine yourself getting up and having breakfast. See yourself looking at the calendar and seeing that it is Thursday. Imagine getting into your car and traveling on the route that you normally take. Hear yourself listening to your favorite song on the radio. Feel yourself sitting in your car seat. See yourself pulling into the parking lot and going into your doctor’s office. As you enter the door, see the clock saying 10 am.

Association

When something is associated with something else, we are more likely to remember it. This is why random facts like proper names or telephone numbers are so hard to remember, because they are not connected to anything else. If you can make the connection, you are more likely to remember.

For example, if you want to remember Henry’s name, think of Henry the VIII, O’Henry candy bars, Henry Fonda or any other Henry that you know. I just met a Lori the other day, and she was so excited because she had another friend named Ninah. Lori happens to be my middle name, so it was very easy to remember her name.

The hardest names are the kind that you have never heard of before, the ones where you don’t have direct associations or even name recognition. In these instances you have to be more imaginative. For example, let’s say that you meet Sharika. You may remember the Shari by thinking about Shari Lewis or by associating it with sharing. Think of the “ka” as being the ending of Topeka or Eureka.

If you have that list of words with hammer, potato and couch, make a story about these objects. For example, think about putting the potato on the sofa and smashing it with the hammer. I guess I though of this aggressive image because I’m tired of senior moments and wish they would go away without me having to work on them. But I wish I had the same metabolism that I had at 20, and neither of these things are going to happen.

How Computer Programs Can Help

We have reviewed some easy things that you can do at home involving meaningfulness, categorization, visualization and association which will boost your memory IQ. But there are also specific computer “games” which will improve these abilities, particularly categorization and association, and they also help with things like processing speed, auditory processing and visual processing as well. For example, you may have to click on the object which is not an animal or click on the computer mouse when the object is not the same color at the outline. These games can get more challenging when there are distracters on the screen, time limits or even games where you have to figure out the rules. There are also computer games that that help with attention and with stress reduction. These are just some of the games that we use at the Sparks of Genius Brain Fitness Center, and in addition to games that are personalized for you, you have a coach for support and encouragement.

So whether you want to use these tips to help improve your memory at home or whether you want to check things out the Sparks of Genius Brain Fitness Center, the important thing to know is that there is a lot that you can do to strengthen your memory and your memories and to enhance your mental fitness.

I’ll leave you with a final quote from Dr. Marsiske:

If you have any concerns that you cannot learn new things later in life, put those away. If people put effort into learning new and challenging things after age 65, they can grow in performance. And they can maintain those gains.

By Ninah Kessler
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Life Coach

Family photos are put on video tape with a family member narrating. Then family members watch the video with the patient. It is an interactive experience, with the family member often stopping to ask the patient questions or to note,” my you look beautiful there.” The patient can also watch the video when family members are not visiting.

While this treatment does not restore memory, it does wonders for to combat the feelings of helplessness and depression that so often accompany Alzheimer’s. This approach was written up in The Washington Post.

I have often used photo-therapy with my mom. (Yup, I’m the one whose name she forgot.) I use a low tech approach, taking the family photos from shoe boxes and putting them into albums together. When we look at the albums together it gives us something to talk about when it’s too hard for her to make conversation without some kind of stimulus. It improves her mood, makes the visit more enjoyable for both of us, and I learn snippets of family history. (I never knew my grandmother lived on the lower east side.)

An allied approach is used by my friend Cantor Jerry Cohn. He goes into nursing homes and assisted living facilities and plays Yiddish songs. People go from nearly dead to fully delighted.

Just because there is no cure for Alzheimer’s doesn’t mean that there is no treatment. How we interact with people with this disease can make a tremendous difference in their quality of life. These are just a few high and low tech examples of how anyone can make a positive difference.

By Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach

Solomon, working in this field for13 years after years of research in immunotherapy, figured if it isn’t possible to send drugs to the brain to treat Alzheimer’s disease the normal way because the blood-brain barrier prevents drugs from moving into the brain, then send them through the nose.

In mouse trials she found that filamentous phages, a harmless bacterial virus found almost everywhere from the depths of the ocean to the lining of the stomach, can be an effective treatment against Alzheimer’s disease when carried to the brain through the nose.

The cause of Alzheimer’s is believed to be plaque formation, which causes inflammation in the brain. Professor Solomon administered small doses of these phages through the nasal passages, which have a direct and rapid route to the brain. “There they lock onto the plaques associated with Alzheimer’s and dissolve them, reducing inflammation in the brain without any side effects. The body then gets rid of the waste naturally.”

Professor Solomon and her research team treated 150 mice with the phage for 12 months and “found the mice that had exhibited the symptoms of Alzheimer’s regained their sense of smell and also showed memory and cognitive improvement. After one year of treatment, they had 80 percent fewer plaques than untreated mice. The phages were eliminated from the brain and secreted from the body in urine and feces. The researchers saw no adverse effects in the peripheral organs – the kidneys, liver, lungs, and spleen biology were all normal. The mice showed very nice recovery of their cognitive function.”

The researcher presented her findings at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Canada and believes further research is necessary but there is potential for a breakthrough.

A commercial department of Tel Aviv University is planning to commercialize this research and has licensed the technology to a startup company.

Just thought you’d like to know.
–Dr. Rohn Kessler

This interview with Dr. Art Kramer (professor of Science and Psychology at the University of Illinois) and Dr. Gary Small (UCLA Center on Aging) was about the efficacy of computer games like Mind Fit and Brain Age. The good news is that you can improve memory, cognitive speed, attention, visual-spatial skills and decision making capabilities. These skills can be retained but the jury is out as to whether they can translate to other skills or can be transferred to the “real world.”

While these games are promising, they do not take the place of the more comprehensive personal training programs that we have at Sparks of Genius www.sparksofgenius.com. We use a high tech/high touch approach with a specialized computerized program designed for you. In addition to this training, we use a multiple intelligence approach to identify your sparks of genius. We measure your success on the computer and we help you to transfer what you learn to the “real world.”

The games discussed on NPR work with minor to mild memory related concerns. Used in conjunction with diet, exercise and social interactions, they can enhance memory and cognitive functioning. Dr Kramer mused that one day we could go to our health club, do the memory and speed training skills recommended by our neurologist, do our physical work out and then go to our book club meeting.

In fact, brain fitness centers like Sparks of Genius are already in existence. At Brain Training Summer Boot Camp for 7-12 year olds, we recently integrated exercises which improve physical and mental strength, stamina, balance and flexibility. Computer games to improve memory and attention were a critical part of the program. Personal Trainers made sure each child had a sense of accomplishment.

We like and agree with what Jeffrey W. Elias, Ph. D. at the UC Davis School of Medicine and the Editor of Experimental Aging Research had to say on the NPR blog of Can Exercises Help Us Hold On To Our Memories?

“I believe, and research supports the notion, that activity fostering social or cognitive engagement, while at the same time providing a sense of reward and accomplishment, is good for the soul and the brain. It is not just the activity itself that is important, but the sense of accomplishment and reward often leading to greater willingness to engage in the activities of life. This feeling of increased “self-efficacy” can occur even when the specific effects of training are minimal.”

So can exercises help us to hold on to our memories? Our answer is yes. And yes, a sense of accomplishment is essential to ongoing success. That’s what Sparks of Genius is all about.

–Ninah Kessler, LCSW and Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

In recent weeks, three new brain training games have arrived on store shelves, each one promising to give us neural networks of steel. There’s “Hot Brain” and “Practical Intelligence Quotient 2,” both playable on Sony’s handheld PSP. And then there’s “Big Brain Academy: Wii Degree” for Nintendo’s new Wii console.

Full article here.

But do these games really work?

Like most things in life, the answer is both yes and no. New and stimulating activities, including these video and puzzle games, can help you “use it” in lieu of “losing it.” So in that regard, yes they can help.

But once you’ve played a particular game enough times so that the activity is no longer novel, it loses some of its potency. In part this is addressed by offering a variety of games and puzzles. Ultimately, though, these games are not much better than the typical fare you can play online, often for free, at least as far as brain-training is concerned.

Don’t neglect your 9 IQs

We all have those 9 IQs: spatial, verbal, math, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, kinesthetic, naturalist and spiritual. These types of games typically offer spatial, verbal and math style puzzles. That leaves two-thirds of your intelligence untapped.

If you really want to help “train your brain”, learn to play a new instrument!

Make new friends, write an article or life story, take up bird-watching, solve an old-fashioned jigsaw puzzle (or a new-fashioned 3D puzzle), play a sport, read something complicated. To train your brain, you sometimes have to STRAIN your brain. Just like a muscle, you’ve got to push your brain beyond its comfort zone and it will respond by making new connections and strengthening existing neural networks. That’s why most video games, television shows and pulp reading don’t help. Their too easy.

To train your brain, you sometimes have to STRAIN your brain.

Training executive function and attention, two vital higher-order skills, is a different story, and the Nintendo Wii doesn’t have anything to genuinely fit the bill. There are some games that we use here at Sparks of Genius in our Electronic Playground that you can use at home. You’ll find them on this page.

So work your brain hard…and if you’re a teacher or parent, then work your kids’ brains hard, too. They’ll thank you for it later (if they don’t forget)!

Good luck!
Allen Dobkin

Smoking represents a major risk factor for cancer, heart disease and stroke. These leading causes of death represent an ongoing concern for all Americans. Nonsmokers might consider taking an empathetic approach to smokers who are trying to quit, and parents might use a “tough love” approach with their children to make sure they don’t even start.

Tip 2: Follow your physician’s advice.

Your relationship with your physician is critical to your health. Remember, though, that as a consumer of health services your doctor is your employee, so establish a good working relationship based on the understanding that you are the boss of your body. We must develop a proactive attitude toward maintaining our health and take responsibility to change those aspects of our lifestyles that are minimizing our longevity potential. Our physicians can help guide this process.

Tip 3: Exercise regularly.

Exercise and physical activity continue to emerge as primary components of a healthy lifestyle at any age. Aerobic exercise, weight training and recreation are critical not just to our cardiovascular health but to our brain health, as well. Every time our heart beats, 25 percent of its output goes to our brains-quite a large market share! Clearly, maintaining efficient blood flow to our brains through regular exercise promotes health. If you don’t exercise regularly, start by walking around the block tonight and build from there.

Tip 4: Reduce the overall calories you consume daily.

We Americans tend not to under-consume anything…including food. Yet the leading factor for longevity in animals is caloric restriction. This finding has yet to be demonstrated in humans. However, provided you get your daily nutritional needs from the USDA’S food pyramid, you should pay close attention to how much you eat. Follow the advice two physicians gave me: N ever go to bed stuffed, and eat only 80 percent of what you intend to consume at every meal.

Tip 5: Socialize and have fun.

We Americans specialize in stress, with little understanding of how to have fun. We need more time to socialize, celebrate and laugh! Some of us have walls around us that keep other people away. As humans, though, we need to be engaged and to be social. Kofi Annan, the secretary general of the United Nations, once stated that every time “we lose an elder from our village, we lose a library.” If we begin to think of everyone as a library, it becomes clear that we can learn from others.

Tip 6: Develop your spirituality.

Evidence continues to emerge that prayer is a health-promoting behavior and that attendance at formalized places of worship may have more significance to our health than we understand. Meditation, yoga, relaxation procedures and prayer have neurophysiological bases. They help to alter our existing homeostasis for the better. Praying or meditating daily can help us combat the stresses of life and focus on the challenges ahead.

Tip 7: Engage in mentally stimulating activities.

“Mental stimulation” refers to the ways our brains respond to stimuli in the environment. Novel and complex stimuli are health-promoting for the brain. New learning translates to neurophysiological growth and to mental stimulation in the same way that aerobics translates to cardiovascular health. We can benefit from being challenged, from learning information and skills that we do not yet understand, and from engaging in pursuits that are initially hard for us!

Tip 8: Maintain your role and sense of purpose.

Retirement as it is presently envisioned in this country is not good for the human brain, which benefits from environments rich in novel and complex stimuli. Retirement by definition reinforces disengagement and passivity. Our nation might consider prioritizing social engagement across the lifespan-from a brain-health perspective. Although it is important to allow elders to choose more passive lifestyles, many may benefit from an understanding of the importance of actively participating in society and finding personally relevant roles and senses of purpose.

Tip 9: Seek financial stability.

Research clearly demonstrates that having some money late in life correlates with better health. Therefore, a practical tip for maintaining lifelong health is to hire a financial planner and begin a savings plan that will provide some money late in life. Financial planners do not consider themselves to be health promoters, but they are. We are never too young or too old to begin saving, and the less money we make the faster we need to get started!

Tip 10: Engage family and friends.

Developing and maintaining a social network of relationships is important from a health perspective. Our friends and family help us stay active and involved in the fabric of society. They can provide us with emotional support and can nurture trust. Our roles in life, from child to parent to grandparent, exist within the family; they provide much health and human enrichment across the lifespan. And intimacy, broadly defined, is itself a health-promoting behavior at any age.

From No Joke: Age Makes Things Less Funny :

A new psychology study at Washington University was no laughing matter: It found that older adults may have a harder time getting jokes because of an age-related decline in certain memory and reasoning abilities.

The research suggested that because older adults may have greater difficulty with cognitive flexibility, abstract reasoning and short-term memory, they also have greater difficulty with tests of humor comprehension.

How Can You Maintain the Light of Humor?

Further research is warranted, but I’ll bet that the decline in humor is directly caused by the general cognitive decline associated with age. That’s good news. It means that by working out your brain and maintaining your cognitive edge, you can keep your sense of humor. If you don’t think today’s hip young comics are funny, that probably won’t change, but you’ll be able to see hilarity from a mile away–as long as you remember where you left your coke-bottle glasses!

From Ninah Kessler’s article Improve Your Memory Now:

1. Travel to New and Exciting Places!

Engage in novel and stimulating environments. The same-old-same-old is boring for a reason! Get out there and go to new places and meet new people. Sure, you’ll forget their names, but who cares…when you meet them a second time it will seem new all over again.

2. Exercise, exercise, exercise!

The brain is very greedy, and it gobbles up most of the oxygen that we take in. This is why when the body is deprived of oxygen, one of the first symptoms is mental impairment. One of the best ways that we can get more oxygen to the brain is through rigorous activity. Check with your doctor first!

3. Computer Based Brain Training!

This is what we focus on here at Sparks of Genius – using NASA inspired technology to help children of all ages strengthen their brain functions. If you are in the South Florida area, take the free 39 Point Learning Assessment and come in to check out our Electronic Playground. If you’re too far away, then check out these programs that you can use to Train Your Brain at home. We’ve tested them and our students use them. They work!

Its our job to stay on top of the latest developments in Neuroscience and translate them from boring scientist-speak into understandable, easy-to-use methods to Train Your Brain. The Newsletter is how we share the best with our community. You’re invited to be a part of it all!

Good luck!

Allen Dobkin

How can we help the aging brain?

“My 83 year old mother is showing signs of forgetfulness” Nola asked me at a family celebration. “You’re the memory expert. Tell me the quick version, ‘Memory 101, what can we to do for her?”Nola is not alone in her concern. Most memory loss is noticed by family members. How can we help them?

I heard a story on NPR about an experiment where rabbits were either fed in cages or at feeding stations in the woods, and these stations were regularly changed. So those rabbits in the wild had to use their brains to figure out where dinner was coming from. When they autopsied their brains, the wild rabbits had many more neurons that the caged bunnies. It was as if every day our brains produce new neurons wanting to get to work. So if we use these new neurons, we can compensate for age related memory loss.

Novel and Stimulating Environments

One of the best ways that we can create new neural networks is to create novel and stimulating environments. This can be as simple as doing a mental games or as elaborate as going on a trip to China. How we do this is limited only by our imagination and our funds, which is why Dr. Paul Nussbaum suggests that having money is a good defense against memory decline. (http://www.paulnussbaum.com/ )

Dr Gary Small has some interesting insights into mental games.

http://www.aging.ucla.edu/memorybible.html. He suggests that we need to include both left brained functions and right brained functions. Left brained functions would include logical analysis, information sequencing, language, mathematics and symbol recognition. This would include crossword puzzles, scrabble, sudoku, anagrams and word scrambles Ordinary activities like making lists of pros and cons or planning out your vacation are also helpful.

Right brained functions involve spatial tasks, musical and artistic abilities, face recognition, depth perception, emotional perception and a sense of humor. This would include taking that water color class, learning to play the piano, visual brain teasers or studying yoga. Planning different routes to get to your usual destinations are also great. Instead of just taking mom to a new medical appointment, give her the Google map and let her give directions. (Of course, the success of this experiment depends both on mom’s degree of memory loss and your sense of direction.)

Exercise, Exercise, Exercise

The brain is very greedy, and it gobbles up most of the oxygen that we take in. This is why when the body is deprived of oxygen, one of the first symptoms is mental impairment.

One of the best ways that we can get more oxygen to the brain is through physical exercise, which is why it is so important to stay active to the extent that we can. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17662247/site/newsweek/) This doesn’t mean that you have to climb Mt. Everest any time soon, although if you did you would have the additional benefit of being in a new and novel environment. A thirty minute brisk walk would do it. It even helps to park farther away from Nordstrom’s at the mall. Which gets into another way to keep your brain young – have fun!

Computer Based Brain Training Exercises

I could go on and on about the other thing that you can do to decrease memory decline – eating a healthy diet, minimizing alcohol (although a glass of red wine can be good), no smoking, stress reduction, treating depression, using the new medications that are coming out to slow cognitive decline – but this is memory 101, not a doctoral thesis. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the computer based brain training exercises that we are doing at Sparks of Genius (www.SparksofGenius.com ). Using games that are specifically designed to improve different areas of mental functioning, our clients have already been able to slow down, stop and reverse mental decline, and we have just started to work with people long distance.

So Nola, that’s Memory 101. We can empower ourselves and our loved ones to decrease age related mental decline and dementia.

By Ninah Kessler, LCSW
Life Coach

“The research raises the prospect that treatments for Alzheimer’s and similar conditions might eventually not only stop patients’ mental decline, but reverse damage that has already taken place.”

-From Times Online

The research of Li-Huei Tsai indicates that damage to the brain may be interfering with Alzheimer’s patients’ ability to retrieve and use their memories.

Dr Tsai said. “This recovery of long-term memory was really the most remarkable finding. It suggests that memories are not really erased in such disorders as Alzheimer’s, but that they are rendered inaccessible and can be recovered.”

Cognitive restructuring can enhance gains brought by new medications as well as natural remedies.

The scientists discovered that enriching the environment of the mice with treadmills for exercise and colorful toys of many different textures significantly improved learning and memory, and appeared to build new connections between nerve cells in the brain.

This research supports a basic premise of Sparks of Genius, where students young and old “work out” and use the power of brain training. We believe that cognitive restructuring can enhance gains brought by new medications as well as natural remedies.

Brain training leads to increased confidence, new abilities, and lays in mental strategies to neutralize the fear of decline. The 5-4-9 formula is customized for each student. http://sparksofgenius.com/sparks.html. You’re never too old to learn.
As we build the Sparks of Genius Community, more neuroscientists and neuropsychologists are echoing our theme of brain fitness, defying labels, and moving beyond limitations set by others.

Like Dr. Merzenich, who asks “Why not fix it before it breaks?” and Dr. Paul Nussbaum (download his pdf here) we believe that intensive brain training holds the promise of actually preventing changes that lead to the onset of Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Of course, there is more to it than mental stimulation, such as exercising regularly, maintaining a sense of purpose, increasing spirituality, etc.  Check out Dr. Nussbaum’s 10 Tips here.

Incidentally, the M.I.T. scientists also got positive results giving mice a drug known as an HDAC inhibitor, which promotes nerve cell growth.

After receiving the environmental enrichment or the drug therapy, the M.I.T. mice recovered their lost memories. What would happen if they received both?

I agree with Dr. Michael Merzenich that an ideal drug would be a medication (or natural remedy) which would not only arrest cognitive decline but actually enable brain plasticity-driven rejuvenation.

Either way, many adults who “work out” at the Sparks of Genius Electronic Playground and at home can decrease, stop, or even reverse cognitive decline as they train their brain for daily successes.

– Dr. Rohn Kessler, Ed. D.

A recent New York Times article says that most biotechnology companies, large and small, are developing Alzheimer’s drugs. In the rat race to find a “cure,” these companies are investing billions of dollars to help more than five million Americans with the disease. The Times article notes this industry is “…often criticized as making pricey “me too” drugs that involve minor tweaks to competitors’ products.

Computerized cognitive training is very promising for fighting off Dementia.

Is there anything else in the works that can help adults with mild or moderate cognitive impairment that lead to dementia? Science shows computerized cognitive training is very promising.

Starting early with brain training before the disease progresses may delay onset and increase cognition Dr. Paul Nussbaum, believes that the physiological and psychological aspects of learning in childhood may act as a vaccine against Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases of the brain. Link is: http://www.paulnussbaum.com/thhc.pdf

This is based on 1) the discovery of neuroplasticity (the brain is dynamic and constantly or-organizing itself) and 2) the fact that novel, rich, complex learning environments promote healthy changes in the physical structure of the brain.
At Sparks of Genius (www.sparksofgenius.com) adults with labels like “mild cognitive impairment” train their brain for daily successes on home computers and in our office.

Alzheimer’s strikes one out of every 5 people between ages 75 and 84.

We believe that cognitive restructuring can enhance gains bought by new medications as well as natural remedies. Brain training leads to increased confidence, ability and lays in mental strategies to neutralize the fear of decline.

Is Alzheimer’s generation going to be the disease of my generation? Perhaps. Alzheimer’s strikes one out of every 5 people between ages 75 and 84. Five million is projected to be ten or fifteen million in another 40 years.

Where is “the cure” for Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases of the brain? I do not believe any “cure” will come from drugs alone; the problem is too multidimensional.

A holistic approach will work best, including exercise, mentally stimulating activities and computerized brain training. For more tips, go to (link is) http://www.paulnussbaum.com/tentips.html

To check out whether you or someone you love can benefit from cognitive restructuring and receive your FREE 39 point Learning Assessment. http://sparksofgenius.com/screens.html

Receive personal feedback from a Sparks of Genius professional today.