Pensioners Use Video Games To Stay Sharp In Land Of The Rising Sum
Sydney Morning Herald
Wednesday March 8, 2006
FORGET eating fish - Japanese pensioners are turning to computer games to keep their brains sharp, in a mental workout craze set to hit Australia later this year.
More than 3 million copies of a Nintendo "brain training" game developed by a neuroscientist have been sold in Japan since it went on the market last May. The speed of solving a combination of puzzles on a handheld console scores the player's "brain age". It has been credited with introducing a generation of elderly Japanese to the previously alien world of computer games, anxious to measure and combat their mental decline. Doctors at a Kyoto hospital have even made consoles available to elderly patients, saying they provide good stimulation. The originator of brain training, Professor Ryuta Kawashima, says it can help tackle senile dementia.Australian experts gave some backing to the claims. Jillian Kril, a professor of medicine at the University of Sydney, said data suggests that mental or physical activity can help protect you from dementia. "Bridge does it, so maybe Nintendo will too." Dr Anthony Hannan, a neuroscientist at the Howard Florey Institute in Melbourne, said research on mice showed stimulating mental activity could delay dementia. He warned that video games should not be confused with television - "a risk factor rather than a protective factor".But Gary Andrews, Director of the Centre for Ageing Studies at Flinders University, said: "As we get older our cognitive abilities decline. That's a reality." He said there was little evidence puzzles could stave off any more than benign memory loss. But he said: "You'll certainly get better at doing puzzles."
© 2006 Sydney Morning Herald