Hey brain! Nintendo ds...

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Weekend Beat: Hey, brain! Drop down and gimme twenty!
03/04/2006By KATSURA ISHIBASHI, Staff Writer
"Your brain is 59 years old," said the message on the screen of my game console. It came as quite a shock, given that I'm a writer in my 30s.
"It's been a long day and you're exhausted," I told myself. "Your brain's probably tired, too." But such excuses offered little comfort. Fortunately, though, the verdict doesn't amount to a death sentence for my little gray cells. Apparently, it's possible to get your brain up to speed again. Here's hoping.
The software that judged the age of my brain was "No o Kitaeru Otona no DS Training" (DS for adult brain training), a 2,800-yen game produced by Nintendo Co. for its DS console.
The game has been such a hit that production of the 15,000-yen DS can't keep up with demand, and the console has been in short supply since the beginning of the year. The game and its sequel have together sold more than 3.3 million units since May last year, while the DS platforms have sold over six million units.
And demand is growing. On Thursday, the company released DS Lite, a compact version of the console, priced at 16,800 yen.
In April, Nintendo of America will market its English language edition, "Brain Age."
The software features a variety of tasks to train your brain: simple arithmetic, drawing, memorizing words, writing on the LCD screen with a stylus, reading literary classics aloud and stating the color of letters shown on the screen--the latter not being as easy as it sounds because the word "red," say, might be displayed in blue. You speak into the built-in microphone and the voice recognition program does its work.
According to the proportion of correct answers you give and the time it takes you to complete the tasks, the software tells you how old your brain appears to be, based on data taken from hundreds of people ranging in age from their 20s to their 70s. The quicker you answer, the younger your brain is supposed to be. But, with people so used to having computers do all their work for them, there must be many cases in which those who try the game are shocked to find the software concluding their brain is older than it really is.
Nintendo is not the only one reaping the benefits of the recent interest in "brain training." Segatoys Corp. has also gotten in on the act with "No-ryoku Torena" (Brain force trainer, 5,250 yen), which went on sale last March. More than 80 percent of purchasers of the software are in their 40s or older.
First indications that a craze for exercising the mind was on the way came in 2003, when a series of "No o Kitaeru" (Brain training) books hit the shelves. The five-title best-selling series features simple calculations and reading materials.
These drills as well as Nintendo's game software were produced under the supervision of Ryuta Kawashima, professor of neuroscience at Tohoku University's New Industry Creation Hatchery Center in Sendai.
Kawashima's first "No o Kitaeru" books to go on sale were a set of two volumes titled "No o Kitaeru Otona no Doriru" (Drills for adult brain training) from Kumon Publishing Co., an affiliate of Kumon Institute of Education Co., one featuring math and the other reading. Kumon's initial target readership was women in their 40s and 50s who used to work but had become full-time mothers. The company expected these women to be thirsty for learning. But the books turned out to be a huge hit among both men and women from their teens to their 90s. As of last month, sales of the books were being forecast to exceed 1.2 million and 1.3 million copies, respectively.
TV quiz shows emphasizing brain training have also become popular, as have brain training board games.
Nintendo released its brain training software in May 2005, and it sold rapidly. The increase in software sales created greater demand for DS platforms. Yasuhiro Minakawa, Nintendo's public relations group manager, says DS production has been unable to keep pace with demand since last Christmas. "We never imagined the software would turn out to be such a huge hit," he says.
In fact, Minakawa says, the game company developed the DS with the aim of simplifying console operations, which had generally become extremely complicated because of the introduction of three-dimensional graphic images. Nintendo believed that was preventing many potential users from playing video games.
"We should produce games that everyone in the family can enjoy," says Minakawa. "That's our role as a game maker, and it's our policy as well." Thanks to the brain-training software, even user demographics have changed. Now, more users over 30 are engaged in playing the software with the DS platform.
Psychiatrist and social commentator Rika Kayama sees a subconcious desire--or fear--among the aging population behind the brain-training boom. "The idea of training the brain gives us hope that we can make it better ... I think many of us are overly frightened of getting old, or refuse to even admit it. In this country, youth seems to be valued in every aspect of life. In this regard, the DS software gets to the point very effectively."
Behind the huge commercial success of the brain-training software also lie advances in research on the human brain. For Kawashima of Tohoku University, his contribution to the DS's popularity is simply a spin-off from his pursuit of exploring the mechanisms of and the relationship between the mind and the brain.
"When I was a child, I was scared of dying. I used to think, 'If I could put my brain into a computer, I'd be able to live forever,'" the 46-year-old professor said in a recent interview.
Since then, he has always been interested in the mechanisms of the human mind. While studying at Tohoku University, he also conducted research on apes' brains at Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute. After receiving his medical degree, he was still struggling to get to grips with the mechanisms of the human brain and mind. His breakthrough came when he studied in Sweden for two years from 1991 under a Danish researcher who had succeeded in getting images of brain function with the then-latest technology, Positron CT.
After returning to Japan, Kawashima set about working with Positron CT, which by then had been introduced to Tohoku University, the first institution in Japan to acquire the technology. He captured images of the functions of various areas of the brain involved in different activities and tasks, such as thinking, exercising and memorizing. This process is what is now called "brain imaging."
Through a series of experiments, Kawashima found the brain works more actively when an individual is engaged in simple calculations than when the person is playing computer games. The more you work on simple calculations, the more various parts of the brain get activated.
"Then I came up with the idea of developing a computer game that activates the brain by using various data from the experiments," the professor says.
Kawashima also discovered reading books aloud is an effective way to activate the brain regardless of the subject's age.
The professor eventually became interested in enlightening children about the human brain and encouraging them to train their brains with calculations and reading. He wrote a book for kids in 2001. However, he ultimately decided to focus on adults, believing this would be an effective way to convey his message to children.
"I thought that if I could write books on brain science that were interesting enough to attract adults, I could motivate kids to get interested in studying by seeing their parents studying (or doing drills) at home," he says. That's when he came up with the idea for the first brain-training book published by Kumon.
Working in conjunction with Kumon Institute of Education, Kawashima has also developed "learning therapy," a form of treatment based on the results of experiments conducted with the help of dementia sufferers. It aims at improving the condition of such people from a new perspective by using exercises to restore functions of the brain controlled by the prefrontal cortex, instead of substituting the lost functions by relying on other areas of the brain.
A test group showed apparent improvement in faltering cognitive functions. Some elderly subjects who had lost the ability to show facial expressions began to smile again, while others regained the ability to walk, Kawashima says. Last year, Kumon Learning Therapy Co. was founded to spread the treatment method.
Tokyo's Shinagawa Ward is one of a handful of municipalities that have embarked on programs to help slow the onset of dementia and Alzheimer's disease through this form of therapy. At its "Iki-Iki No no Kenko Kyoshitsu" (Health club for active brains), more than 100 elderly people train their brains once a week with simple math questions and reading materials. During the rest of the week, they undertake assignments at home.
The program encourages participants to do a light brain workout of 10 to 15 minutes a day, thus getting them into the habit of exercising their brains. Program helpers then give the elderly feedback on their achievements, which in turn gives the participants a sense of satisfaction.
"In the future, those with Alzheimer's disease may not have to take drugs to delay the symptoms if they keep up with the learning therapy," Kawashima says. As for the therapy, it doesn't matter whether they work on written drills or use game consoles, he says. The effect would be the same.
"But just doing it in a leisurely fashion won't do," he cautions. "The important thing is to have a purpose in your life."
For me, being told I had the brain of a 59-year-old was motivation enough. After using the DS for about a week, I've managed to improve my cognitive level to that of a 42-year-old. There's hope for me and my brain yet.
(IHT/Asahi: March 4,2006)