Is 'brain training' slowing aging?

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Is there hope for your hippocampus, a new lease for your temporal lobe?

Science is not sure yet, but across the country, brain health programs are springing up, offering the possibility of a cognitive fountain of youth.

From "brain gyms" on the Internet to "brain-healthy" foods and activities at assisted living centers, the programs are aimed at Baby Boomers anxious about entering their golden years and at their parents trying to stave off memory loss or dementia.

"This is going to be one of the hottest topics in the next five years — it's going to be huge," said Nancy Ceridwyn, co-director of special projects For the American Society on Aging. "The challenge we have is it's going to be a lot like the anti-aging industry: How much science is there behind this?"

Dozens of studies are under way. Organizations like the AARP are offering brain health tips. And the Alzheimer's Association conducts hundreds of Maintain Your Brain workshops, many at corporations like Apple Computer and Lockheed Aircraft.

At least two health insurers are pushing brain health. MetLife is giving prospective clients a 61-page book it commissioned called "Love Your Brain." Humana will provide, free or deeply discounted, $495 worth of brain fitness software to some 4 million older customers, and offers "brain fitness camps" with the software at computer stores and community colleges.

There are Web sites like HappyNeuron.com, which offers subscribers cranial calisthenics, and MyBrainTrainer.com, marketed to anyone who "ever wished you could be a little quicker, a little sharper mentally."

And Nintendo's Brain Age, a video game aimed at Baby Boomers and their elders, features simple math, syllable-counting, word memory activities and the quick reading aloud of passages from the likes of Poe and Dickens, which "gives your prefrontal cortex a workout," the instructions say.

"I just felt that, hey, this is something I ought to do," said Roy Gustafson, 85, who tried Brain Age at a Nintendo promotion at his Redmond, Wash., retirement community. When he quickly got top scores (his "brain age" was low 20s), he decided to quit while ahead. But almost daily, he plays the Sudoku games in the handheld device, saying, "It keeps me alert."

Whether the hopes for brain health programs are realistic is still largely unknown, scientists say.