Protocol for a Brain Training Program

PROTOCOL FOR A BRAIN TRAINING PROGRAM

Disclaimer: The information contained in this protocol is not
intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical
advice, it is provided for educational purposes only. Nothing
contained in this procedure is intended to be used for medical
diagnosis or treatment. I do not endorse any product or
company, and expressly disclaims liability for any product,
manufacturer, distributor, service or service provider
mentioned.
Acknowledgements: This workshop is based on The
SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness written by Alvaro Fernandez,
Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg and Pascale Michelon PhD, Soft-Wired
written by Dr. Michael Merzenich PhD, and BrainHQ by Posit
Science. This presentation is my interpretation of these three
sources and it is not sponsor by SharpBrains, Dr. Michael
Merzenich, and BrainHQ by Posit Science.
Disclosure: At present I am cooperating with BrainHQ as bhq
admin. I had a royalty from the sales of Como invertir en su
cerebro. The royalty expired 12/31/15.

Part I.
An Analogy. The Earth, the Brain and Vacation Traveling

Part I (cont.)
The Neuron the Brain’s Basic unit

Part II
Basic Terms
Cognitive Abilities (or Brain functions), Neuroplasticity, Neurogenesis,
Neuroimaging, Cognitive Reserve (or Brain Reserve), and the Scientific
Method.

Part II
Basic Terms
Cognitive Abilities (or Brain functions): Brain-
based skills we need to carry out any task. They
have more to do with the mechanisms of how
we learn, remember, and pay attention rather
than with any actual knowledge.
Neuroplasticity: The brain’s ability to
reorganize itself throughout life.
Neurogenesis: The process by which neurons
continue to develop throughout our lives.

Part II (cont.)
Basic Terms
Neuroimaging: Techniques that either directly or
indirectly image the structure, function, or physiology of
the brain. Recent techniques (such as fMRI) have enabled
researchers to understand better the living human brain.
Cognitive Reserve (or Brain Reserve): Theory that
addresses the fact that individuals vary considerably in the
severity of cognitive aging and clinical dementia. Mental
stimulation, education and occupational level are believed
to be major active components of building a cognitive
reserve that can help resist the effects of brain disease on
cognition.

Part II (cont.)
Basic Terms
The Scientific Method
This method is the instrument that scientists have to test their assumptions. These postulations
come from the observation of a particular phenomenon. Based on these suppositions the scientist
formulates a hypothesis. Next designs a group of experiments to proof that hypothesis. After
submitting the results of the experiments to statistical analysis the scientist might reach the
conclusion that the hypothesis was correct or incorrect. But from the beginning the scientist has to
accept that the hypothesis is falsifiable. In other words that the hypothesis could be wrong and that
some other scientist could proof it incorrect. Otherwise is not science. It’s dogma.

Part III
Why brain fitness matters

Part IV
The 4 Pillars of Brain Maintenance

Part IV
The 4 Pillars of Brain
Maintenance
Old tools build this marvel

Part IV The Four Pillars of Brain Maintenance
We need new implements to develop our brain

Part IV
The 4 Pillars of Brain
Maintenance
Physical Exercise.
Nutrition.
Stress Management: exercise, relax,
socialize, empower, and biofeedback.
Metal stimulation: building a Brain
Cognitive Reserve. Brain training exercises
with novelty, variety, and challenge.

Part V
Cognitive Biases and Randomized Control Trial (RCT)

Part V
Cognitive Biases and
Randomized Control Trial (RCT)
The Exposure effect: This is the tendency
to like things merely because they are
familiar. For instance, having heard for
decades that crossword puzzles or
blueberries are the most important things
to promote brain health may make them
seem more convincing than they are. It
can perhaps be explained by the fact that
it takes less work for our brains to process
things that are familiar.

Part V (cont.)
Cognitive Biases and Randomized Control
Trial (RCT)
Confirmation bias: This is the tendency to favor information that
confirms one's preconceptions, beliefs, or hypotheses. For instance,
having always believed that videogames are responsible for violent
behaviors may lead a person to generally only notice, and therefore
remember, news reports suggesting that videogames are bad for the
brain. A more subtle example that we have witnessed often: A person
reads a book not to figure out what else he or she could be doing but
simply to find reinforcement for whatever it is that person already
believes and does, while ignoring the rest.

Part V (cont.)
Recency bias: This is the tendency to
overvalue and remember more vividly
information that was encountered more
recently. For instance, having read a news
story yesterday may lead you to lend it
more credence than the one you read last
week – even if it was actually of worse
quality. Imagine the combined impact of
this natural bias with the barrage of daily
news about brain health.

Part V (cont.)
Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT): A
research study in which participants
are randomly assigned to a test and a
control/placebo groups. A RCT
provides the most compelling
evidence that the treatment or
intervention tested has a causal effect
on human health or behavior.

Part VI
Computerized Brain Training Programs

Part VI (cont.)
Computerized Brain Training Programs
Definition
“We define brain training software as fully-automated applications designed to assess and
enhance cognitive abilities. Adaptive software-based programs present the user with
various tools to exercise different brain structures and cognitive skills by continually
responding to performance and increasing difficulty level incrementally.” [1]

Part VII
SHARPBRAINS’ CHECKLIST FOR EVALUATING BRAIN FITNESS CLAIMS
1. Are there credible, university-based scientists (ideally neuropsychologists or cognitive neuroscientists) in the company’s scientific advisory board?
2. Are there peer-reviewed, scientific papers that have been published in mainstream scientific and professional journals that analyze the effects of the
specific product? How many? With what population of users?
3. Does the program tell me which specific brain function(s) I am exercising? What are the specific benefits claimed for using this program?
4. Is there an independent assessment to measure my progress?
5. Is it a structured program with guidance on how many hours per week and days per week to use it?
6. Do the exercises vary and teach me something new?
7. Does the program challenge and motivate me, or does it feel like it would become easy once I learned it?
8. Does the program fit my personal goals?
9. Does the program fit my lifestyle?
10. Am I ready and willing to do the program, or would it be too stressful?

Part VIII
It’s vacation time
Let’s visit the six continents
• Attention
• Brain Speed
• Memory
• People Skills
• Intelligence
• Navigation

ATTENTION
The act or power of carefully thinking about, listening to, or
watching someone or something. Notice, interest, or awareness.

Double Decision
Double Decision uses a uniquely proven
technology to extend useful field of view.
This technology, called UFOV®, has been
used in numerous studies (including
the ACTIVE study), where it has usually
been referred to as “speed training.”
These studies show many benefits to
training with UFOV, including faster visual
processing, an expanded useful field of
view, safer driving, and much more.

Target Tracker
Target Tracker is designed to
challenge your brain to build
divided attention by requiring you
to track several items moving
around your screen at the same
time.

Divided Attention
Divided Attention challenges your brain to
focus in on and react to particular
details—matching colors, shapes, and/or
fill patterns—while at the same time
dismissing competing information. It
repeatedly shows two shapes on screen,
asking you to press the left arrow key
when the two meet certain criteria. For
example, it might ask you to press the left
arrow key when the two shapes are the
same color, but the right arrow key when
they aren’t.

Mixed Signals
• Mixed Signals challenges your brain to home in on certain
information, while ignoring competing information. It does
so by requiring you to listen to a number, letter, color, or
other piece of information while looking at a set of
numbers, symbols, letters, words, or other information. If
what you hear matches what you see in a particular way,
you hit the space bar. If not, you don’t. For example, you
might see “aaiaa” on screen, and be required to hit the
space bar if what you hear matches the middle letter, in
this case, “i.” If you hear “a” or another letter, you don’t
hit the space bar. This type of training, where what you
see and hear sometimes compete and you must control
your attention very quickly, is called a Stroop task.

Freeze Frame targets both tonic and phasic alertness. It requires the brain to maintain a
“relaxed and ready” state of alertness over increasingly longer delay periods. In the
exercise, your brain is required to discriminate between target images and distractor
images. When you see a distractor—something that is not the target—you press the space
bar. When you see a target, you have to “freeze,” or prevent yourself from pressing the
space bar.
Examples Freeze Frame

BRAIN SPEED
The rate at which a human can take in a bit of new information,
reach some judgment on it and then formulate a response.

Hawk Eye challenges your visual precision by asking you to locate specific
birds in your peripheral vision, even when they appear on screen for a very
short time. At first, the birds are fairly distinct, appear close together, and
are presented on a simple background.
Examples Hawk Eye

Visual Sweeps
Visual Sweeps. You watch two spatial
frequency sweeps (movements of bars)
and determine whether each one swept
inward or outward. It might not be
obvious, but when broken down to its
most basic parts, everything in our visual
world is constructed of the basic visual
information—color, luminance,
orientation, spatial frequency—contained
in these sweeps. If we can help our brains
effortlessly identify these sweeps at very
rapid speeds, we’ll improve visual acuity
overall.

Sound Sweeps
Sound Sweeps. You have to listen
to frequency sweeps—sounds
that begin low and rise upward or
begin high and fall downward—
and identify whether they go up
(“weep”) or down (“woop”).

Eye for Detail
Eye for Detail is designed to exercise your
ability to make saccades quickly, and to
notice subtle details with each one. In Eye
for Detail, a series of 3 to 5 images briefly
appear one at a time in different positions
on the screen. Of the pictures, some
match precisely, while others are similar
but not the same. Your job is to identify
where the identical images appeared. As
you improve, the images flash by more
quickly.

Fine Tuning
Fine Tuning. The goal of Fine
Tuning is to give your neurons
exercise turning on and off at
appropriate times, so they can
clearly perceive, transmit, and
represent each consonant sound
when they are used in
combination with a vowel sound.

MEMORY
The process in which information is encoded, stored, and
retrieved.

To-Do List Training
To-Do List Training. In To-Do List
Training, your brain hears a set of
instructions, then uses its
memory of those instructions to
follow them in order. The
instructions get longer and more
complex over time at the task,
making greater demands of your
working memory systems.

Memory Grid
Memory Grid. In Memory Grid your
job is to match cards representing
syllables together. But why, you might
wonder, did our scientists pick those
particular syllables to match? And
why do they sound a little unusual?
It’s because Memory Grid doesn’t just
challenge your brain to match more
and more syllables. It is also designed
to target memory by sharpening
auditory processing.

Scene Crasher
Scene Crasher is designed to challenge
your ability to hold the details of a scene
in your working memory. In scientific
terms, it’s a “delayed-recognition span”
exercise. In the exercise, you’ll see several
items (such as sheep or keys) flash on
screen. After they disappear, they
reappear—but with one additional item.
Your task is to remember the scene from
the first flash well enough to spot what
changed when it reappears.

Rhythm Recall
Rhythm Recall. In the exercise, you hear a
brief melody. You also see a
representation of the timing of the notes.
Then you are challenged to repeat the
timing sequence by pressing your
keyboard buttons. (Although you hear a
melody it isn’t a factor in the task; it’s the
rhythm of the notes you are asked to
repeat.) Responding correctly requires
that your brain translate what you hear
and see into a clear mental model, then in
turn translate that into precise action.

Syllable Stacks
Syllable Stacks is a “serial memory-span”
exercise. It sharpens working memory by
requiring the brain to remember more and
more pieces of information, even as those
pieces of information get more similar (so
easier for your brain to confuse). In
Syllable Stacks, you listen to a series of
syllables and then repeat them in order.
The exercise changes in these ways over
time to add an extra challenge for your
brain.

Hear, Hear
Hear, Hear. In Hear, Hear
you are asked to remember
a target sound and
determine whether a set of
similar sounds presented
contain the target.

Mind's Eye. In Mind’s Eye, you are asked to remember a target
image and determine whether a set of similar images presented
contain the target image.
Examples Mind's Eye

PEOPLE SKILLS
According to the Portland Business Journal, people skills are described as:
understanding ourselves and moderating our responses. Talking effectively and
empathizing accurately. Building relationships of trust, respect and productive
interactions.

Recognition
Recognition. To recognize faces, the brain
follows a visual stream. It starts with basic
visual information (which you can exercise
in many of our other exercises, such as
Visual Sweeps). It ends in the “fusiform
face area,” a part of the brain that many
scientists believe is dedicated to facial
recognition. Recognition is designed to
exercise the fusiform face area. It does so
by quickly showing a face, then asking you
to identify who you saw from a selection
of faces.

In the Know
In the Know exercises your memory for
auditory details like these. It builds on
other BrainHQ listening exercises such
as Memory Grid, Syllable Stacks, and To-
Do List Training by extending memory
demands to the common, real-world
scenario of the complex conversational
narrative. The listener must sharply focus
on increasingly more difficult and elusive
details of longer and longer narratives, and
record them accurately in memory across
relatively long spans of time.

Face to Face
Face to Face. In Face to Face, a face
shows briefly on screen. You decide
what expression you think it shows.
Then you see a set of faces and
choose the one showing the same
expression as the first face you saw.
For instance, if you think the first
person looked angry, you find the
person who looks angry in the second
set and choose him or her.

Face Facts
Face Facts is designed to challenge
your ability to remember names,
faces, and facts about other people.
The exercise gets harder in two ways:
As you improve, the number of
people you are introduced to
increases. In later levels, the names
and facts are more similar, making it
harder to keep them straight.

INTELLIGENCE
Intelligence has been defined in many different ways including one's capacity
for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self-awareness, communication,
learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem
solving.

Card Shark
Card Shark. In the Card Shark exercise, you
will be presented with playing cards that
are added one at a time to a sequence.
Once presented, the card is turned over.
Your task is to decide if the current card
matches the card presented a specific
number of steps back in the
sequence. For example, in the first level,
you will decide if the current card matches
the one presented just before it. In later
levels, you will decide if the current card
matches one presented further back in the
sequence.

Juggle Factor
Juggle Factor. In Juggle Factor, you are
presented with a sequence of numbers
that are placed within moving circles. Your
task is to reconstruct the sequence in the
right order and in the right locations. The
number of items in the sequence grows as
you improve at the task. As you progress
through training, the moving object
trajectories become more complex and
the speed increases.

Auditory Ace
Auditory Ace. In Auditory Ace you will be
presented with auditory information about
playing cards. The information is presented one
card at a time. Your task is to decide if the
current card information matches the card
information presented a specific number of
steps back in the sequence. For example, in the
first level you will decide if the current card
information matches the card information
presented just before it. In later levels you will
decide if the current card information matches
the information presented further back in the
sequence.

Mind Bender. In the exercise you’ll be presented with two rules. For example, the rule might be “If
you see two digits, select the higher number. If you see two number words, select the lower
number.” You will then see two digits (such as “6” and “10”) or two number words (such as “seven”
and “one”). As quickly as possible, you must choose the correct answer based on the rules. After you
make your selection or after the response window lapses, you will see another pair of digits or
number words.
Mind Bender Samples mind bending rules

NAVIGATION
The process or activity of accurately ascertaining one's
position and planning and following a route.

Right Turn
Right Turn. In the exercise, two
images are placed side by side. One
of the images is rotated relative to
the other. Your task is to decide if the
images are the same or if they are
mirror images of each other. This
requires you to rotate the images in
your mind so you can quickly
compare them to one another and
make a decision.

True North
True North is a brain training exercise that
helps you practice holding this kind of
information in your head as you follow
increasingly complex instructions while
simultaneously keeping track of ever-
changing cardinal directions. This kind of
mental mapping is not just useful when
you are literally following directions and
trying to get from point A to point B. It
also helps improve your memory for multi-
tasking and can boost your short-term
memory skills in other situations.

Mental Map
Mental Map. In Mental Map you
have to remember the relative
location of objects in a grid and
then reconstruct the grid from
memory after it has been rotated,
flipped, or translated (moved up,
down, right, or left).

Optic Flow
Optic Flow requires you to make rapid visual
discriminations in the center of your gaze while
staying alert to potential hazards in the
periphery. The task takes place in different
navigation conditions including simulations of
rain, fog, and night. In Optic Flow, you'll see a
target shape on a sign. Vehicles and various
roadside objects will approach at different
speeds, and your task is to select the one with
the shape that matches the target. At any point
a hazard (tires, armadillos, birds, etc.) might
enter the scene and you will need to click the
spacebar if it is on a path to hit your vehicle. As
you identify the correct shape and avoid
hazards, the action will move faster and faster.

Credits
• File: Nicolas P. Rougier's rendering of the human brain.png. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• File: The Earth seen from Apollo 17. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• File: Human Brain Lateral view. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• File: Complete neuron cell diagram en.svg. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• File: Connectome.jpg. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
• File:The Human Connectome.png. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
• File: Budapest Reference Connectome.png. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• File: SharpBrains.com Trajectoria Salud Cerebral_web
• File: Cave 3 is the largest and the most well-maintained cave out of the four rock-cut caves in Badami, Karnataka, India. This cave is dedicated to
God Vishnu. This is a view of the "Verandah". Sandip Dey, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publishes it under the following license: This file
is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• File: Software-tools.jpg Created: 22 March 2016. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.

Credits (cont.)
• File: Brain Fitness by Jeremy McCarthy on April 25, 2011 in- See more at: http://psychologyofwellbeing.com/201104/exercise-and-the-
brain.html/brain-fitness#sthash.hqu1bcuC.dpuf
• File: This image is a work of an employee of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, taken or made as part of that person's
official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
• File: Wiki Wordplay solution.png. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• File: Wii Games Summer 2010 - Mario's Kid Zone (4975313325).jpg. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• File: Most recent and most controversial land speculation in Hawaii centers on this area near Kamuela - NARA - 554169.jpg Wikimedia Commons
• File: The art of life is the perspective we need to see beauty, our focus shall always be on the side of the explorer! Enjoy the discoveries ahead! )
(4731493155).jpg. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository.
• [1] http://sharpbrains.com/resources/3-brain-training-vs-mental-activity/brief-history-of-brain-training-soft ware/
• File: Randomized control trial of reading program. JPG From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
• File: Little girl with dog Wellcome L0041340.jpg. From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository
• File: All visual aids, pictures, images and explanations of Computerized Brain Training Programs are from BrainHQ Posit Science.

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