What is the Best Brain Exercise?

Contributed by: Dennis Fortier, President, Medical Care Corporation
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What is the best brain exercise?

This is a question that remains unanswered by current science.  However, one could easily be confused by the competing claims in the growing market of "brain training" programs and exercises.  Importantly, as we describe in this blog from time to time, conversing and socializing both constitute excellent work-outs for the brain involving multiple realms of cognition.

The online version of the Daily Mail ran a story today that referred to an un-cited research study making this same point.  According to the story, researchers in Zurich had performed a review of the published literature on the benefits of brain training and intellectual activities specifically designed to improve cognitive function.  They found that, in many studies, subjects who performed the activity under review performed no better than subjects who were instructed to have a conversation.

I remain optimistic that we will identify brief, pleasurable activities that exercise the brain and improve its function.  However, to date, the best advice is probably to stay socially and intellectually engaged across a wide range of circumstances and topics.

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