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Boost your visuospatial skills and learn about your brain
-- By Dr. Pascale Michelon

 

Visuospatial skills are used everyday in many ways, ranging from going from one room to another in your house to solving a jigsaw puzzle and navigating in a new city.

 

One specific visuospatial skill has to do with moving spatial information around in your head. It is called mental rotation. 

Let’s take an example. Can you picture in your head an arrow pointing to the right? Now, turn this arrow so it points to the left. Done? 

You have just performed a mental rotation! People use this ability when they read maps, use tools, play chess, arrange furniture, drive in traffic, etc. 

Mental rotation relies mostly on the parietal areas of your brain (orange section in the brain image above). 

 

Here is a brain exercise to stimulate your mental rotation skill. 

For each number, decide whether it is a normal or reversed number (see example below).

 

 

Note: NO FLIPS allowed!

 

 

 

 

Answers

Row 1: normal, reversed, normal

Row 2: normal, normal, reversed

Row 3: normal, reversed, reversed

 

--- This article was written by Pascale Michelon, Ph. D., for SharpBrains.com. Copyright 2008. Dr. Michelon has a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology and has worked as a Research Scientist at Washington University in Saint Louis, in the Psychology Department. She conducted several research projects to understand how the brain makes use of visual information and memorizes facts. She is now an Adjunct Faculty at Washington University, and teaches Memory Workshops in numerous retirement communities in the St Louis area.

 

For more exercises, check out our Brain Teasers section.

brain, Brain exercises, brain teaser, jigsaw puzzle, Memory Workshops, mental rotation, mind teasers, parietal lobe, Pascale Michelon, Visuospatial skills

Posit Science Corporation announced today, at the annual International Long Term Care Insurance Conference, the launch of a new program called  InSight(TM) for visual processing training.

We have not yet had the chance to analyze the program, but several pertinent open questions posed by Alvaro last month to Posit Science representatives (see Posit Science Brain Fitness Program 2.0: Open Questions) haven't yet been addressed. Specifically:

- "It is public information that Posit Science has been working on a visual processing program for over a year. And this acquisition (of separate company Visual Awareness, Inc) just happened. So the obvious questions are a) how are you going to integrate 2 different products and approaches, b) and in such a short timeframe, by March?"

- "In fact, more research will be needed to show the efficacy of whatever you launch in March, which is not the same that has been used in the ACTIVE and other trials (since that program was not fully automated)."

- "May I suggest, to you and all other developers, that we need to see more solid controls? watching some educational DVDs is not the best high-quality control that will allow you to claim your cognitive training has been shown to be better than other cognitive training products, simply that cognitive training itself works."

We will keep you updated.

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Are you seeing all the articles about Brain Fitness in the popular press and wondering, “What is this all about?”, “Can someone help me navigate through all the programs out there?”, “Does this trend present an opportunity or a threat to my company?”. As the leading source of information and education on Brain Fitness, we have [...]

Please enjoy this brain teaser compliments of puzzle master Wes Carroll. He found this one in the Mensa publication Number Puzzles for Math Geniuses by Harold Gale.The Empty TriangleQuestion:Which figure should be placed in the empty triangle?This puzzle works your executive functions in your frontal lobes by using your pattern recognition, hypothesis testing, and logic.Click here to read the Answer and Solution.

There is a great article on some findings from The Brain Fitness in Older Adults (B-fit) study posted at Psych Central: Fitness Training for the Brain.Here are a few key points:As we age, we experience changes in how we perceive the information that our eyes and ears gather from the environment.... This can lead to difficulties in blocking out distracting sights and sounds while still maintaining focus on important information.Early results from a Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center study appear to affirm cognitive benefits as attention training allowed older adults to block out distractions and improve concentration.

Here are a few blog carnivals we recommend checking out: Of course, our own Brain Fitness June Blog CarnivalEncephalon #25 - The Neuroscience and Psychology Blog Carnival.Success and Abundance Mindset Carnival.Total Mind and Body Fitness Blog Carnival #2.Living by Design Blog Carnival No.10.These carnivals have pulled together some top articles on everything from science to life skills to fun things. So, enjoy your reading!

Wes Carroll found this one in the Mensa publication Number Puzzles for Math Geniuses by Harold Gale.Tipping the Scales.Question:The top two scales are in perfect balance.How many diamonds will be needed to balance the bottom set?This puzzle works your executive functions in your frontal lobes by using your pattern recognition, hypothesis testing, and logic.Click here to get the Answer.

We were very happy to discover that Scientific American Mind has highlighted SharpBrains in their June/July 2007 issue!If you are here due to that issue, we'd like to welcome you and show you around a bit. You might enjoy: Our Neuroscience Interview Series in which we interview some of the leading neuroscientists in brain fitness, including: Dr. Elkhonon Goldberg on Brain Fitness Programs and Cognitive Training, Cognitive Simulations for Basketball Game-Intelligence: Interview with Prof. Daniel Gopher, Working Memory Training and RoboMemo: Interview with Dr. Torkel Klingberg, Memory training and attention deficits: interview with Notre Dame's Bradley Gibson, and an upcoming interview with Yaakov Stern, the leading researcher behind the Cognitive Reserve theory

(These are not trick questions) Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons.... Can you name at least half of them?Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "S."Click here for the answers.

A new version of emWave® PC Stress Relief System (formerly Freeze-Framer) has been released with a new name, new games, new features, new interactive coach, and all new content.New features and enhancements include: Categorized content sections with over 100 pages of reference information including Health and Well-Being, Health Professional, Sports Performance, Workplace Performance, and Testing and Learning.The Coherence Coach™ teaches stress reduction and trains you to find "The Zone".Emotion Visualizer™ displays colorful images which change as you change your emotional state.

A fun article from the BBC highlights some of the latest entries to the 2.5 billion-word database of words in the Collins English Dictionary, 9th edition.We were of course biased and happy to see "brainfood" as a newly minted word. According to Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, they define "brain food"...any food that is considered to aid intelligence, memory, or creativity; by extension, any intellectual sustenance.We'd like to add SharpBrains to the list of brain foods!

We all know chronic stress is bad for our heart, our weight, and our mood, but how about our memory?Interestingly, acute stress can help you focus and remember things more vividly.Chronic stress, on the other hand, reduces your ability to focus and can specifically damage cells in the hippocampus, a brain structure critical to encoding short term memory.When is stress chronic? When you feel out of control of your life. You may feel irritable or anxious. While every individual varies in their response the type and quantity of stress, there are some things you can do to feel more in control of your environment. This sense of empowerment can lower your stress, and as a result, help your memory.

Here is some recommended reading among the recent carnivals:The Personal Development CarnivalCarnival of Creative GrowthCarnival of Depression, Bipolar Disorder, and Mental Health JourneysBrain BloggingCarnival of MathematicsCarnival of Leadership GrowthCarnival of HealingSuccess Stories, Doing What they LoveDoing it Differently Blog CarnivalEnjoy!

Here is new brain teaser from puzzle master Wes Carroll.He found this one in the Mensa publication Number Puzzles for Math Geniuses by Harold Gale.Question:Start at the corner number and collect another four numbers by following the paths shown.Add the five numbers together.What is the lowest number you can score?Click to read the Solution and Explanation

Dr. David Rabiner's Attention Research Update drew my attention to a recent spate of research articles on the potential of omega-3 fatty acid dietary supplementation to help treat ADD/ADHD. Stimulant medication for children with ADD/ADHD has been the predominant treatment for years. Thus far, it has been quite successful, but we have yet to see the long term effects of chronic medication. Given that, it is worth at least investigating alternative therapies that can be used either in place of or in conjunction with traditional pharmaceutical and behavioral treatment. As one of the four pillars of brain health, nutrition has a significant impact on both physical structures in the body and behavior. Nutritional research though is often difficult to conduct. It is unethical to withhold essential nutrients from people and nutrients work synergistically, which makes it difficult to discern the effect of one nutrient versus another.

I was sent links to a free online crossword puzzle game and sudoko. While we often talk about the excellent computer-based brain fitness programs available, puzzles can still be good mental exercise ... they are just not a complete workout for your whole brain. Word games like crossword puzzles and SCRABBLE® exercise your lexical recall (memory for words that name things), attention, memory, and pattern recognition. They can help maintain your vocabulary and avoid the frustrating tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon that all of us experience from time to time. Sudoko is not a mathematics game in that you don't actually manipulate the numbers as mathematical entities, but it is a pattern recognition game using symbols (numbers). A very legitimate reason to play casual games is that games can be social and fun - which is good for reducing stress.The drawbacks to puzzles and games is that they are hard to calibrate to ensure increasing challenge, and they generally only exercise a limited number of brain functions.

What a busy week, last one. We will be writing during the week about some of the SharpBrains events that occured.  The May/June Issue of Stanford Magazine brings a very nice section titled Just One Question, where a number of Stanford alumni answer the question "What do people in your profession know that you wish everyone knew?" Some [...]

When you divide 12 by 5, the remainder is 2; it's what's left over after you have removed all the 5's from the 12.  When you raise 4 to the fifth power (that is, 4^5), you multiply four by itself five times: 4x4x4x4x4, which equals 1,024. What is the remainder when you divide 100^100 by 11?

Some good links today: 1) Keep Your Brain Nimble as You Age MSNBC - May 13, 2007 "If using your computer as a mental gym sounds good to you, SharpBrains.com's Fernandez suggests asking a few questions first to determine a product's..." 2) Great blog by Stanford Business School's Jackson library, including an announcement of an upcoming lecture there by [...]

If you missed Part 1, also written by puzzle master Wes Carroll, you can start there and then come back here to Part 2. Concentric Shapes: The Unkindest Cut of All, Part 2 of 2.Difficulty: HARDER Type: MATH (Spatial)Question:Imagine a square within a circle within a square.The circle just grazes each square at exactly four points.Find the ratio of the area of the larger square to the smaller.In this puzzle you are working out many of the same skills as in Part I: spatial visualization (occipital lobes), memory (temporal lobes), logic (frontal lobes), planning (frontal lobes), and hypothesis generation (frontal lobes).Click to read the Solution and Explanation.