Can we resharpen our mental tools?  According to users of “Brain Fitness” the answer is yes.  Susan L. Oppat of the Ann Arbor News brings us this interesting article on seniors engaged in a “digital rewiring” for mental acuity.

Gilbert Residence, a nonprofit senior care center in Ypsilanti, has become the first facility in Southeast Michigan to use a science-based computer program intended to help seniors rewire their brains, and tune back in to the world around them.

Unlike most mind-fitness software in an industry that raked in $225 million last year, Brain Fitness is based on medical studies that indicate that, as vision, hearing and fine motor skills worsen with age, people start getting garbled signals, which they eventually just tune out.

In addition, when people retire from work, most stop learning new skills, remembering names, figuring out how to make something work, and actively listening to the people around them.

All of that leads to a loss of what scientists call brain plasticity, its ability to change throughout life.

Five days a week, for eight weeks, four Gilbert residents have been donning headphones that come with the program. They spend an hour listening to prompts, clicking on answers. As their listening skills improve, the program ratchets up the difficulty level.

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