I’ve been obsessed with trying to train my brain in one way or another. I’ve done neurofeedback, and tried a few different brain game products. Originally my favorite was brainbuilder, because it used reverse digit span training. I played this game obsessively. An hour or more a day at times. I got my reverse digit span up to about an average of 13 before I stopped.
A lot in my life has changed since then, but what I realized recently when discussing with a friend is that I can literally trace back an enormous amount of personal changes I made to that period of time I was doing brain training. It hadn’t occurred to me at the time that it made that much of a difference, but I think it did. In fact, there’s a study that shows that merely causing people to think quickly makes them feel happier, and more self-assured.
So perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise that making an effort to speed up my brain would’ve made me happier and more productive. But nonetheless it has, and it’s made me want to go back to what I was doing. So when I heard of “Lumosity” on developing intelligence’s blog recently, I couldn’t help myself. I had to check this new brain training site out. They had a 14 day free trial, and I figured that’d be enough to get a grasp of just what it has to offer.
Things I Like
They have a free trial.
They seem to have a good staff, they’ve provided a little research (the control group was tiny though — I’d like to see more), and they have some really basic cognitive games — which I like — the stroop test.
I like the BPI or “Brain Performance Index,” which essentially allows you to compare your score to some 50,000 other runs of the same game by other people. This probably sealed the deal on getting me to try the game out — it let’s me see how I compare to other people. I’m a guy — I’ve got to get my kicks by having a cognitive pissing contest.
The games definitely seem to do something. I feel more energetic, and my head feels swollen after a good hour run or two.
Things I’d Like To See Improved
I’d like to see more research. Maybe even research for the individual games. This may be asking a bit much though, so in the absence of that…
I’d like to be able to invite friends and compare scores. I’d like to literally be able to compete. In order for me to get addicted to a game like this I either need to be really, really, really, really convinced it’s going to enhance my life by solid research… or I just need to enjoy one-upping my buddies. The BPI gets me close to that, but not close enough.
I’d like to see a game that’s similar to the brainbuilder’s reverse VERBAL digit span. Which means, in brainbuilder I had to HEAR the digits, and then TYPE them backwards. I really don’t see an equivalent to this game on there. I think it’s important, because it requires me to use my ears. Then again, I’ve not finished all 30 sessions yet so maybe just such a game exists.
Bragging Time!
Okay, so I’ve gained about 200 of their “lumosity” points, and completed 12 sessions in the last five days. I’ve played it… a lot. Honestly, it’s mostly because I’ve been a little down lately, and wanted to see if it’d get me cranking. I’m in a pretty good mood so I think it’s working!
My scores are pretty awesome… I’ve already got 3 scores that have broke the 1,000 range (the top BPI you can get is 1,250). My best one, interestingly enough, is the stroop test! Sitting at a BPI of 1,180. I want to get at least one score maxed out within the next month. That’s my goal… and yeah, I’m going to go ahead and sign-up for their brain gym.
I’d really like to see some SOLID research on the effects of memory training or any of these other “brain games” on depression, and anxiety. I have a hunch there’d be some awesome results, but I want to see some science.
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you ever do any mid to high beta neurofeedback to speed up your brainwaves?
You know, honestly, I haven’t done neurofeedback in a long time. It’s messy with all of the electrodes, and quite frankly… doing something like cognitive training through mental games like this just *makes more sense*. I can notice a tangible difference in my overall wellbeing from playing games, and notice that I feel *quicker* afterwards.
Highly recommend doing something like this or brainbuilder, in conjunction with high-doses of fish oil (1-2g of EPA per day is my dose).
It’s important to note that in elderly people they’ve rapidly shown up to 14 years difference in “cognitive age”… if someone that is 65 can pull off something amazing like that, I’m just excited to test my limits and see what a young guy like me can do.
Wow, I might give Luminosity a shot… Quick thinking definitely makes me feel more positive and energized.
BTW>>>Are you still taking fish oil?
ive used lumosity for 2 months. score 1240Bpi on all exercises. first 3 weeks i played 3-5hrs per day mostly the speed related exercises and found that these have had a good effct mostly on improved focus and speed of thought. I had plateaued on the speed exercises so after that i focused mainly on word bubbles and other exercises on the site i think these have done very little to improve my mind and stopped playing the site altogether. I have used brainbuilder intermittently over 2yrs but not much never more than a few days in a row. still when i have i feel the effects its as if ‘i feel smarter’. I have decided to give bb a real solid go over the next few months and am very curious as to what other benefits you might have felt from bb.
Yup, I’m still on the fish oil. I’m also taking rhodiola rosea and borage oil. (Borage oil fights inflammation via a related pathway as fish oil, and inflammation is responsible for depression in my mind.)
I’m really surprised you had little effect, Brainman… I definitely feel myself getting cranked from using it, in a way that’s very similar to brainbuilder. Maybe you just burned out the novelty of it and got a little habituated to it.
Did you ever break 1250 on any of the exercises? I noticed I plateaued at the ones I got to 1240 on.
yeh i reached 1240 on all exercises. Even after reaching Bpi 1240 my scores continued to rise significatnly but i still couldnt crack 1250. Especially the raindrops exercise where i score over 40000pts. hmm i wonder what the ceiling is. still continued use would probably reult in your score slowly getting better over time but 1250 well have to see. But I question how much is actually improvements to brain speed and abilities and how much will be due to training effects as in just getting better at the exercise? Still I think some long term positive effects on brain speed would be likely.
regarding inflammation that is a very possible cause see this link:
http://www.biopsychiatry.com/immunesystem/index.html
physical exercise especially running will relieve depression and enhance a broad spectrum of mental abilities
umm, i dont know why you think that the BPI limit is 1250…
Brain Areas bpi Attention 1420
Cognitive Control 1265
Memory 1114
Processing Speed 1171
i just started the free trial 2 days ago. but maybe things have changed lately, as there is a “challenge a buddy” button now. so maybe this forum is a little out of date.
I agree with the above post–you can definitely go above 1250 because my (overall) cognitive control right now is 1320, and individual game bpi is higher on some games–and my daughter has over 1500(overall) on the attention portion.
I am wondering what the ceiling is as well.
Quote from the faq:
“An extremely high BPI of 1400 means that your score in that game is better than 99% of all other users.”
The “challenge” is basically just a link to the site, so someone can try out the free trial feature–then get addicted, lol!
Retro, how old is your daughter? By the way, anonymous, the top BPI has been modified since the game first came out, I believe. (I logged back in recently, and my BPI’s had been scaled up too)
I don’t think there is a limit on how high you can score now. I just finished my free 7-day trial and here are my results:
—————————
Overall: 1545
—————————
Attention: 1662
Cognitive Control: 1518
Memory: 1518
Processing Speed: 1484
—————————
Also note, I received word from a member of Lumos Labs that 1600 is above 99.9%.
Yeah, there is no limit on how high you can go with BPI. I’ve been playing for a few days and have a cognitive control BPI of 1426
Hi I am a 61 year old female who has been tested by a nuropsych professional and was told I had a lot of ADD problems and was tested only in the 3% group of people in my age group. I started with lumosity.com a few weeks ago but I have a few health issues like Hep C so I tire easally. my biggest problem is fatigue. If I am tired my memory goes down the toilet. Plus the fact I am a LPN in an long term facility. Mostly a pill pusher and my boss is so afraid I will make a med error she will only schedule two days a week. She also keeps raising my pay which sounds nice but it still doesn’t pay my rent. When on lumosity .com I enjoy most of the games but do terrably on the spatile memory which is probably why I can’t spell worth shit and it does nothing to raise my spirits only my feelings of hopelessness I work hard and still get low scores any suggestions? Yvonne
Luminosity undoubtedly has some good products.I have had a lot of trouble with their software,however and when it is reported to them nothing is done.
On several occasions neither Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox could connect to their server.
Their game “Route To Sprout” has never worked on either my computer or my brother’s,at his home in another town.”Word Bubbles” ought to be fun and would be if they would maintain it.As it is now, though it kicks out as many perfectly good words as it allows,which has absolutely nothing to do with helping a customer assess how well they can think of words beginning with a certain prefix.For example it doesn’t allow four letter words, five letter words,six letter words, seven letter words, ect.Yesterday it told me “Friday”is an invalid word, as was “Saturn” however “Venus” was okay.For me making a list of the prefixes and them using them with a kitchen timer on any program with Spellcheck,such as Microsoft Word has been a much more satisfactory experience.If I wanted to try to beat a professional sharp I would at least go to Vegas.I don’t I want to build my vocabulary.
Too bad that they continue to advertise and then charge for features that customers cannot really use after they pay.
addendum to comment from Jill J. from 10-26-09:
As of 11-1-09 the game “Route to Sprout ” has been repaired and is in working order.
Well I was glad to read Yvonne’s comment after all the others from the geniuses. I can’t compete with those scores, mine are in a range of 700 to 1200, though find I am steadily improving with practice. I find I can only do it for about 20 minutes at a time without my score going down. It perks me up at work whenI am feeling bored or sleepy. The downside is it is addictive and sometimes my shoulders and neck ache because the games make me tense.
Check out Posit Science. Expensive but the research is really good.
You want more research? As in, empirical “evidence” from neurologists and psychologists and psychiatrists and related slow-blowers?
Lumosity is fun, and challenging, but it is about learning specific tasks — as in, you play a video game, you get better… at the video game. How does one know how the game is actually helping one’s generalized mental performance? Please design a classy experiment for me. n can be whatever you want, but I need to make sure that 1) the judges of cognitive performance are all-knowing and impartial; and that 2) the test to evaluate changes in cognitive performance can be extrapolated any better than the initial “brain-training” exercises that were under scrutiny in the first place!
How would “cognitive performance” be measured meaningfully, anyway? Is it reflected by Counting Fastur on Fingrs and Tose? Is it on the SAT? Is it found in the pot of gold at the end of your stunning digit span?
I have just started on lumosity two days ago and stumbled upon this blog while trying to find a way to see my friends BPIs. So far the site has been quite impressive. I won’t make the clearly subjective statement that I feel “mentally sharper” as that is my goal and thus I would be very bias when it came to such a conclusion. I will say that this is the first site of its kind that I have been a part of, or even heard of for that matter, and it is incredibly fun and mentally taxing. Fluffy White Kitten (I feel a bit ridiculous even typing that out) seems to be a bit upset something and severely understated the importance of consistent mental training, regardless of its context. More and more studies are coming out, seemingly daily, which add to the amount of influence environmental stimuli are thought to have on the development of the brain which, ignoring the past 100 years or so, was thought to be negligibly small at best and nothing at worst (http://www.unisci.com/stories/20021/0117021.htm). To think that these games have no effect on ones ability to process information outside of the games themselves suggests a strong bias to the belief that people are born intelligent and that those who aren’t can do no amount of work to reach the genetic masterpieces to whom all concepts come naturally.
Neurofreak: I’m not sure exactly how long it has been since you’ve last been on lumosity (though judging from your comment, it has been ~1.5 yrs), but you may want to go take a look and see some of the new things that have developed in that time. They now, reportedly, have over 1 million people subscribed and the amount of content is staggering. (At least for a first timer like myself.) Also, I was wondering exactly what type of supplements (chemically speaking, not brand) you take to give your brain all it needs to function at its highest level. I’m appreciative for any advice you can give.
To Fluffy White Kitten: I apologize if the above statement comes off too harsh. I do not mean it to be.
As far as the maximum score goes… I got a 1700 on the Problem Solving on the iphone app.
I’m not sure if the app is the same as the website. I also don’t know if I randomly got a round number, or if 1700 is the cap.
Has anyone done better?
Hi there,
I got to Luminosity when I was googling for memory improvement exercises and I was very attracted, till no, playing really makes me feel like my brain is bloating. Gr8 I think. But, I was about to join a membership option and searched for reviews and came to yours. Off history, I would like to know if you are still with luminosity and how has it improved in ur daily life, despite growing up your scores in games, has it really helped in ur daily studies / work / creativity etc? I am a freelancer and I wanna improve my creativity and my thinking skills. Kindly put a comment for me to go further. Thanks a lot. Bye.
I can confirm that 1700 is the highest possible BPI. I went from a raw score on Chalkboard challenge from about 8000 to about 13000, and my bpi did not increase over 1700 on problem solving.
@ UmmOmar
The moderator seems to be pretty busy as of late. However, I am really interested in all of what he is doing and have been trying to accelerate my own trial-error self development by learning from what has worked for him an what hasn’t. I have been having a bit of trouble contacting him as well so do not be discouraged.
I also stumbled upon this site through google searches for review of lumosity. I bought a one month renew to see how much I can do for the development and physical improvement of my brain. To make this quick in case you do not want a long drawn out explanation that is sure to follow, the site is quite incredible. I honestly believe that this is the way learning and self development should be.
We, as students and people, have been inundated with the “No pain no gain” mentality for centuries. If it isn’t difficult or you’re enjoying it too much, then you’re doing it wrong. I believe that this concept may well have been the greatest detriment to human development that has ever existed. Learning should not be the sterile study of words in a book or lecture from and “expert”. This hinders interest, concentration and thus overall retention of material. The pure hatred that the majority of the world feels toward school and learning has set the human race on the slow path to development putting us an unfathomable and incalculable number of years behind our potential.
After decades upon decades of ignorance there has been a slow and timid change in recent years toward making education interesting. Putting visually stimulating figures and explanations in text books, thus giving our minds something to link the text to. In my opinion, we are still nowhere near where we need to be, but we are taking steps that make education enjoyable for more than the select few with an unquenchable desire for information into a select few fields that interest them. This transition from bland misery to exciting interest has the potential to have the “slackers” of the world clamoring for knowledge in the same way that we do and, overall, will accelerate our development by adding soldiers to the war on ignorance. Imagine if everyone on the planet had the desire to learn in the same way as the minority does now. The results in all fields would be absolutely staggering.
Lumosity, in my opinion is one of the small steps making mental development enjoyable as well as empirical. To say that it has “transformed” my mind in under a month would be a sever overstatement, but to say that is has had little effect would be just as incorrect. More than just the games developing certain parts of you brain, it has helped me to recognize my mental inequities. I have found that my working memory was, by far, my biggest mental weakness. Lumosity has this inevitability covered. They have developed training regiments for specific areas including memory. I have completed around 10 of 20 training sessions in this program and I can say without doubt that I am able to maintain lines of thought for longer than I had previously. I will not say that this is an overnight process and that I am now brilliant as a result of it. That is far from the case, but one would be hard pressed to argue that constant mental stimulation in relatively specific areas of the brain does not lead to growth and development in that area. This is mere common sense just as it is common sense to believe that one will become stronger by exercising a particular muscle.
Please skip this paragraph if you are not interested in the science of this, but I am so I feel the need to place empirical evidence in all that I do.
Neurons, despite their length, are still just one cell. The large portion where a signal begins before traveling down the axon is known as the Soma (the cell body). The soma has small protrusions known as Dendritic Spines. The cell body, in most cases, is the post synaptic cell in a Synapse. A Synapse, put simply, is the point at which a signal is transferred from one cell to another. Dendritic Spines on the Soma have been shown to increase in size and number through increases in stimulation strength and frequency of stimulation. This effectively says that, while our neurons do not replicate, they can become more sensitive to stimulation and thus more easily activated with a given stimulus. This translates into faster thought, more accurate memory and overall stronger mental abilities.
In short Lumosity is something I would recommend to anyone with a legitimate desire to better themselves mentally and to learn about themselves. My main statement about the site is that it WILL NOT WORK for those who only play the games that they excel at. I am well aware of human nature and our desire to do things that we are good at to help our egos, but the point of this site is to balance and strengthen one’s mental abilities, not to help someone’s poor self esteem. Find what you are the worst at, and beat it into submission with every game and exercise you can find. The self-assurance will come with time and the realization that you are improving (and with some hard work there is no doubt that you will improve).
Thanks for anyone who read this.
Please comment back if there is anything you liked, disliked, agreed with or disagreed with. I am always looking for new techniques, supplements, ideas and criticism to better myself and, hopefully at some point, anyone who cares to listen.
Hi Jamie,
I am 29 year old. I started lumosity as fun and after a little experience of how active and energetic I am after two weeks, I did join fully. But, I have another issue personally. My Eye doc say that my left eye is a lazy eye. and she termed some medical names for it and said that my brain favored t right eye to teach and educate and left the left eye, and she says in this age, we cannot teach t brain to educate left eye also, God forbid, if anything happens to my right brain, I ll become legally blind and the other thing is that my children can also inherit it from me. Would like to know if there is anyway to rain the brain on this aspect. I am sure there wud be ways to do that, and it may take time also, But I am ready to deal with it. can anyone help me in this?
@ UmmOmar
To start off I want you to know that this is actually a topic that I have not studied extensively, so what I am going to suggest is, in part, speculation. These suggestions, however, I am basing off of all my other research into bettering my own mind.
First, I would like to ask you which hand you write with and if you do anything with the other hand. I would guess, with little doubt, that you are right handed and do not display much ambidexterity, as few right handed people do.
I also would like to know whether your left eye turns in or out as this will help me see which muscles (abductors vs adductors) are weakened or not being properly stimulated by the nerves connecting them.
I am not sure how familiar you are with biology, but, as I did in my last post, would like to bring up a little of it to put some legitimacy to my claims. Cranial nerves are the base root nerves which begin in the brain and branch off to connect, or innervate, the rest of the body. Humans have 12 or 13 if you count the terminal nerve which has been given the number 0. There are two cranial nerves which innervate the muscles of the eye. CN III, or the Occulomotor Nerve, innervates 5 of the 6 muscles in the eye. CN VI, or the Abducens, innervates the other muscle called the Lateral Rectus. The Lateral Rectus acts to abduct or pull the eye toward away from the center of the body. This means that, if this muscle becomes weak or the nerves innervating it are not transmitting a strong enough signal, the eye will turn in toward the body’s center.
Both the abducens and the occulomotor nerves have a direct connection to the primary motor cortex, as do all CNs with motor function.
I myself am right handed. I have recently (around 2 months) begun training my left hand with dexterity exercises and teaching myself to write with my left hand. My purpose in this is to force the activation of my right brain as I firmly believe that the highest forms of intelligence come from a strong usage and connection between the hemispheres of the brain. I have also began reteaching myself the piano for both dexterity and increases creativity thus leading to right brain stimulation and development.
My suggestion to you would be to do something that suits you, but acts in a similar way. By using your left hand to do things you would normally do with your right (brushing your teeth, writing, reaching for things, using your phone etc.) you are stimulating the right motor cortex and, by all my other brain development theories, developing it. As this is all theory, and is reliant on the nervous system being the cause of the eye turning, I, of course, cannot guarantee any results. I do, however, have trouble believing that developing that area of the brain would not help in some significant way. Strengthening of your motor cortex translates into better motor control, which comes as a result of a smaller signal being necessary to promote the same response.
I firmly believe in the incredible power or our minds and their ability to do anything. I also believe that this ability is not born with us, though some are born with much high neuronal plasticity at birth, but this is topic for another day. I believe that we can train our minds to do anything and everything, but it comes as the result of very hard work, persistence and desire to truly better one’s self. Most are not willing to put anywhere near the time or effort necessary to promote such a change.
My Exercises:
- Flip a pen (fairly light to start) over and under your fingers like I’m sure you’ve seen someone flip a coin or a poker chip over theirs
– Make sure to go forward and backwards
- If you’ve played an instrument (not including the drums) try listening to classical music (Chopin is my personal favorite haha) and use your left hand to “play” the melody of the song (the part usually played with the right hand)
– This engages the right side of your brain in both the creative and motor sense as it requires serious concentration, especially for the right handed individual
– Can be done when walking around with headphones, just try to keep it fairly low key to avoid looking slightly insane
- Begin every morning (if you choose to attempt writing with your left hand) by writing the alphabet (upper and lower case as done in kindergarten) twice
– They don’t need to, and probably shouldn’t when you first start, be twice in a row as it can become very frustrating, especially at first
- Also, as noted by NeuroFreak, there has been research to support that flicking the eyes left to right increases communication between the two hemispheres of the brain
– I believe that this would have a dual effect for you and would also act to strengthen your eye muscles
– I myself have been doing this exercise every morning, around noon and before bed
– Here is a video which will help you do this: http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2010/02/02/30-seconds-to-creativity/
These are just a few suggestions, but the best results can come from researching right brain exercises on your own. You will find many you like and many you hate. Unfortunately, as with lumosity, choose the ones that you have found you hate as they are most likely the most difficult for and will thus have the strongest impact on your goals.
Please let me know about your progress as times goes on. I truly hope that some of what I have said helps you in more than just helping your eye strength.
That was very informative Jamie, and much appreciated. I think I’ll give lumosity a try.
I just found Luminosity recently while looking through IQ, Brain quizzes, and overall ways to stimulate my mind while ohhh.. being a little competitive.
So that cognitive pissing contest doesn’t apply to just men.
I have 7 days trial and think that I would like to subscribe, but before I do that I wanted to find out if these games were really developed by professionals and are based on clinical trials and results to improve thinking, agility, quickness of thought and mind.
In this search I found this blog and the very helpful posts.
Thank you Jamie for all of your science feedback, the references you posted and exercises listed to help me continuously challenge my brain. mmmm braaaaiiinnssss.
I,regular,play,lumosity,word,bubble,,,my,,best,,score,,is,1980
I am 67 and feel really stupid. Doesn’t anyone out there have a BPI of under 900?