Blog Posts

IQbe Game – Push Your Brain With Patterns

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

The IQbe game isn’t like anything you’ve played before. While most CogniFit games have a certain “feel” to their level progression, this one is highly simplified in that aspect. However, don’t let that fool you. Every new spin of the cube gets harder and harder.

Let’s take a look at this game, what you can expect, and what areas of the brain are being stimulated while you play.

What is IQbe?

If you’ve ever taken an IQ test, you might have noticed that some of the questions use patterns. It was this aspect that the CogniFit team used for the game.

When you load IQbe, you’ll get a quick tutorial on how to spin the 3D cube. You’ll quickly notice that there are some sections missing. On the right, you’ll have several options. All you have to do is click the one that you feel completes the “pattern puzzle.” That’s it.

However … and yes, you saw this coming …

Things don’t stay easy for long.

Sometimes two pieces will be gone. Other times it will be a corner section and you’ll have to solve for three spaces. And, after you make your choice, you get NO indication if you made the right one or not. And this is entirely on purpose.

There are ten levels. And each level gets harder and harder (with more pattern “rules” put in place to make you think more).

Now, other games might make you feel like you have to race against the clock. However, if it comes down to having a quick solve time versus choosing the right answer, the latter is the most important. So, when it comes to IQbe, it’s 100% okay to take your time! A quick confirmation with the development team told this writer that 4+ minutes is average.

After ten rounds, you’re given a range score that tells you if you’re average or above, etc.

So, don’t let frustration get the better of you. If the patterns seem daunting, just think of how much flexing your brain is doing – and that’s fantastic!

That being said, let’s look at what you’re exercising.

Planning

You’re probably thinking about something along the lines of planning your next vacation or how you’re going to tackle your next work task. And, well, you wouldn’t be wrong.

However, when it comes to cognition, Planning is actually a vital part of our “Executive Functions” which let us choose any necessary steps to achieve a goal (as well as organize them in the right order, assign each a cognitive resource, and then create an overall plan to get all of this done.)

This ability is crucial in our everyday lives. When we have problems with Planning, we can have issues such as…

Difficulty foreseeing the consequences of our actions
Problems making decisions
Being unable to set aside the right amount of time to finish a task
Finishing something slowly or carelessly
Being unable to do more than one thing at a time
Not doing well with surprises
Low productivity in work or personal life

Even if we don’t have problems in the “Planning” department, exercising this cognitive ability will strengthen all of the underlying skills.

Spatial Perception

You take for granted that you were able to reach out and grab your phone to read this article. Or pull up your chair to the desk, etc.

However, when we interact with our environment (sometimes called “exteroceptive processes”) and then with ourselves (interoceptive processes), we are using a key brain function called Spatial Perception.

Essentially, using our eyes and our haptic system (physical touch and feelings), we have the ability to understand our environment in 3D. We can understand sizes, shapes, distances, etc. We are able to look at a map and transfer the concept into a 3-dimensional idea and compare it to the world around us.

Working Memory

A lot of people wish they could have better memory. They walk into a room and forget what they were looking for, or they meet someone and immediately forget their name. And, sometimes, it can be a bit scary when we can’t hold onto information as long as we need to.

However, there is good news … we are all limited in this department.

Yep! That’s right!

When it comes to Working Memory, any human brain can only hold so much (and for a short period of time). In fact, the entire purpose of this brain function is to hold and manipulate information for a temporary amount of time. After that, it either finds its way into long-term memory or it’s forgotten.

This function is always active and updating itself but can only store about 5-9 “elements” at a time. Like when we try to remember a phone number, the more numbers, the harder it is.

What we really need this cognitive ability for is so we can carry out present tasks – things like holding a conversation with more than one person or quickly adding up if we have enough money to pay for something. Because, after the task is over, we usually don’t need all the information that was being zipped through our brains (e.g. you don’t need to remember that your groceries yesterday cost $15.98.

Since Working Memory is part of decision making, and decision making is part of our Executive Functions (mentioned earlier), if we have problems in this department, it can seep into other areas of our life. Also, things like ADHD, dyslexia, schizophrenia, and dementia can hamper this ability too.

IQbe Conclusion

This can be a refreshingly different game if you want something outside the usual brain game choices. And, it’s important to remember that, in this case, the most important thing is the quality of the answer, not how fast you finish! Want to give it a try?

Try IQbe Here FREE!

Brain Games

Space Rescue Game – Astronauts & Asteroids, Oh My!

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Want to play something that has a nod to the retro but the modern foundation of a brain game? Look no further than Space Rescue!

In this game, you will pilot a spaceship equipped with two orbiting claws. Your main goal is to rescue the astronauts while you dodge asteroids, satellites, and other debris.

But There’s So Much More!

At lower levels, you’ll be able to control the spin of your grappling hooks. Because yes, if they get clipped, you’ll lose a life! Dodge the coming debris until you see a stranded rocketeer. Then, dive in and let your shuttle claws grab him!

And, in fine CogniFit fashion, we’ve tossed in another brain-building twist.

At the end of each level, you will have to remember what planets, stars, UFOs, or galaxies you saw when rescuing a particular astronaut.

As levels get harder the speed of your obstacles increases (to put it mildly). Also, there will be more to dodge. And, finally, you won’t have the luxury of controlling your claw arms. They will be in a constant spin – forcing you to be extra careful how you navigate the dark expanses of space.

So, let’s take a closer look at some of the brain functions you’ll be exercising while playing Space Rescue!

Contextual Memory

This kind of ability allows us to (for lack of a better term) locate the origin of a specific memory. It can be anything – a person, place, smell, emotion, etc. It’s also a part of what goes into our long-term memory. But it’s connected to so much more.

Maybe you catch a smell of pine, and it reminds you of Christmas. Then you get that warm-fuzzy feeling of past times when you watched your kids open presents. Suddenly your stomach turns with the thought of your in-laws visiting. This is what Contextual Memory does.

But have you ever heard, “you can’t always trust your memories?”

Well, it can sometimes be true. Stress, time restraints, distractions, or problems somewhere along our memory creation processes can create errors. Things like dementia or brain injury are just a couple of examples. But there are also ways to make this particular brain process strong or more efficient.

Estimation

Estimation lets us do so many things we do on a daily basis. Things like reaching to push an elevator button, or judging if there’s enough space to parallel park between two cars.

We also have subcategories:

Distance Estimation: Distance estimation is the ability to estimate the future location of an object based on its current distance, and is the ability that makes it possible for us to carry out everyday activities without bumping into people or things.

Speed Estimation: Speed estimation is the ability to estimate the future location of an object based on its current speed. This is what makes it possible to move through life and avoid obstacles and accidents.
Movement Estimation: The ability to anticipate an object’s movement.
Time Estimation: The ability to calculate the amount of time there is between two events.

In space rescue, you’ll have to use your estimation skill to know if you have enough room to pass around obstacles without getting hit.

Response Time

Also called “reaction time”, it’s the time it takes from when we see/perceive something to when we react to it.

Reaction time depends on various factors:

Perception: Seeing, hearing, or feeling a stimulus with certainty is essential to having a good reaction time.
Processing: It’s necessary to be focused and understand the incoming information/stimulus well.
Response: Motor agility is necessary in order to be able to act and complete the response time loop.

However, there can be several “obstacles” that can make reaction time harder.

“State” of the person – sleepy, too much food, age, etc.
The complexity of the Stimulus: The more complex the stimulus, the more information that has to be processed, and the longer this process will take.
Familiarity, preparation, and expectations: If you have to respond to a known stimulus that you’ve responded to before, the reaction time will be lower. The less information that you have to process, the quicker the reaction time will be.
Stimulated sensory modality: Reaction time is shorter when the stimulus that triggers the response is auditory than if it is visual because auditory stimuli require less processing. Each sensory modality has a different reaction time.

Spatial Perception

This is the ability to be aware of your relationships with the environment around you. However, it’s actually made up of two sub-processes.

Exteroceptive processes: which create representations about our space through feelings.
Interoceptive processes: which create representations about our body, like its position or orientation.

Space is what surrounds us: objects, elements, people, etc. Space also makes up part of our thinking, as it is where we join all of our experiences. In order to get proper information about the characteristics of our surroundings, we use two systems. It helps us think in two and three dimensions, which allows us to visualize objects from different angles and recognize them no matter the perspective that we see them from.

Fun Fact: The left hemisphere is in charge of developing this cognitive ability. This hemisphere is where math and spatial calculations are developed, which directly correlate to good spatial perception, spatial comprehension, and with ourselves in our environment.

Space Rescue Conclusion

So, does Space Rescue sound like something for you? When it comes to a healthy brain fitness regime, all you need is 3 times a week and 20 minutes per session. Why not give it a try?

Try SPACE RESCUE Here!

Trending

Healthy Diet Experiment – Training People’s Brains To Eat Better

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

When it comes to food, many of us might feel like we’re spoiled for choice. A single product will have countless variations to entice customers – often advertising that they’re part of a healthy diet. However, what we don’t realize is that we’re walking through a nutritional minefield.

And it’s this minefield that causes so many weight issues. Here’s where an interesting pilot study published in the journal Nutrition & Diabetes comes into play.

THE FIRST PROBLEM

Some people think that sticking to a healthy diet is a simple thing – that all it takes is a little willpower. They also claim anyone who’s overweight or obese is “just being lazy.”

But the thing is, that’s just not true.

Firstly, our primitive minds are hardwired to seek out stuff that’s high in calories or whatever is harder to find in nature. That’s why we crave salts and fats – it gave our ancestors the energy to hunt and just stay alive.

THE SECOND PROBLEM

As if that’s not hard enough to fight against in the first place, we now live in a food environment that’s chock-full of things that are just fancy variations on fat, sugar, and salt. For many people, it can form a very real addiction – and this isn’t even including things like stress-eating.

If we boil it down, the food industry created an addiction so they could sell more products.

“We don’t start out in life loving french fries and hating, for example, whole-wheat pasta,” senior author Susan Roberts, director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Energy Metabolism Laboratory, said in a statement. “This conditioning happens over time in response to eating – repeatedly – what is out there in the toxic food environment.”

Scientists know that once people are addicted to unhealthy foods, it is usually very hard to change their eating habits and get them to lose weight. They also know that high-calorie foods will activate the pleasure centers of the brain.

We crave the rush of dopamine, so we eat foods that give it to us.

THE HEALTHY DIET STUDY

The pilot study that took place in 2014 was one of the first that took a look at this connection through modern medical equipment. They wanted to see if there was indeed a neurological link – and even if it could be trained out of the brain.

The small pilot started with 13 obese men and women that fell within certain testing conditions…

Between 21 and 65 years old
Generally healthy
Have a certain high body mass index
No previous signs of claustrophobia
Employed by one of four worksites that housed the test
A doctor’s note supporting their participation in the test

After selection, part of the group would start with the program right away. The other group (the control group) would have to wait 6 months before receiving their “weight control intervention.”

So, what was the test?

The intervention group would use an adaptation of the “I” Diet by SB Roberts and BK Sargent. This particular plan puts a focus on portion control and low-glycemic foods. Protein and fiber targets were also pushed to the higher end of the recommended scales – with the idea that these “slow” burn foods would help people from being hungry during the day.

But this sounds like just a diet, right? Where’s the brain intervention part?

Well, the healthy diet wasn’t the only thing the intervention group got. They also received…

19 support meetings over 24 weeks
Individualized emails from specialized nutritionists
Specific menus for an energy reduction goal of 500–1000k cal per day
Healthy recipe ideas
A suggested timetable of evenly spaced-out meals
A list of “free” foods to curb hunger cravings

In essence, they were given a lot of positive support to help them stay on their healthy meal plans. The control group, however, would eventually get the meal plan but would have to be waitlisted for six months.

THE SCIENCE PART

Both groups went through the same tests.

All participants also got a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan before and after the six months were up. While in the machine, they were shown 40 food and 40 non-food control-image cues.

The food cues included both high- and low-calorie options. The non-food cues were images that looked similar to the food cues but were quite not food (e.g. a wallet or pencils).

The researchers focused their scans on each participant’s striatum.

This is the area that’s often associated with the brain’s dopamine-rich reward processes. So, if the support system had created any changes in the way the test subjects viewed food, it would be there.

What was the result?

They found significantly higher average amounts of activation in this area for the low-calorie food images than high-calorie foods, but only in participants who had already been through the I Diet program. The control participants showed the opposite: more activation in the striatum for high-calorie foods.

This suggests that changing what we eat eventually changes what we crave.

FINAL NOTES

However, there are a few things to keep in mind. First, the study was done in 2014 – and there have been other studies since then that have probably built on this concept. Also, technology had continued to improve so further results might have found deeper data.

“There is much more research to be done here, involving many more participants, long-term follow-up and investigating more areas of the brain,” Prof Roberts said. “But we are very encouraged that the weight-loss program appears to change what foods are tempting to people.”

Secondly, this is by no means a personal guide – simply a scientific insight on the power of the brain (for both negative and positive). The world continues to be a minefield of unhealthy choices and not everyone can get the support necessary to “change their brains.”

Also, things like gastric bypass surgery aren’t sure fixes for any weight problems.

This is because there is a percentage of people that will still gain the weight back afterward. The Boston researchers point out another important fact – that these kinds of “fixes” take away the enjoyment of food instead of making healthier food something we would crave.

Still, the results are promising.

Mindfulness

Think Before You Speak… Mindfully

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

The Whole Point of Mindfulness

Mindfulness extends further than the well-known sitting sessions. We learn to apply mindful watchfulness to our habits and behaviors. At the root of the whole deal is the power of simply paying attention – the very definition of mindfulness, so let’s pay attention to what comes out of your mouth. Let’s think before you speak.

Have you said anything stupid, hurtful, premature, or inappropriate? You have? Really? I’m shocked.

A lack of control over what comes out of your mouth can cost you your reputation.

“So much depends on reputation – Guard it with your life” Law 5 of “The 48 Laws of Power”
Robert Greene

reputation, good reputation — Awareness of reputation is needed

Unskilled at Speaking? So What?

With unskilful use of words you can get yourself fired, divorced, unfriended and… that pay raise you’ve been obsessing about, isn’t going to happen. So let us turn to the wisdom traditions to learn how our words can serve us, and not sabotage us.

Buddhism has been kind enough to actually lay out rules for speech. They call it “Right Speech” or “samma vaca” if you prefer the original Pali. It does sound cool in Pali. I shall paraphrase. Here goes:

Don’t be a stinking liar.
Avoid criticism of others.
Don’t be vulgar or rude.
Avoid stupid chat and gossip.

It almost looks too simple to be of any use, but do you actually follow these rules? Let’s take a little look

The Golden Rules of the “Think Before You Speak” Universe

Don’t be a Stinking liar

You might not have told a great big whopper recently, but just maybe a little exaggeration, a little lie by omission, or what we might call “shading the truth” for dramatic or advancement purposes. All lies. Just know that it would be better to live free from all lies. Set your mind to the task of catching yourself in the very act of lying. No need to get angry at yourself for doing it, but take note of how much you do it.

the harmful effects of telling lies — If you lie, your nose grows..

Avoid Criticism of Others

Last year, a friend of mine got a divorce. I, for some reason, allowed my mouth to spill forth whatever popped into my head and “actually, I always thought he was a jerk” came out. Two months later, they were back together and I looked like an big meanie. Its hard to live these things down.

Don’t Be Vulgar Or Rude

This one can often slip under your radar because we learn our vulgarity early in life. In fact, many an adolescent develops an impressive (in a way) vulgar vocabulary. Teen culture is full of it, and it’s easy to feel somewhat attached to the way that age felt. It’s easy to feel personally comfortable with rude language, but we are adults.

think before you speak, be mindful in your actions — Being rude and vulgar might even feel good in the short term

“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”
Corinthians (King James version)

Avoid Stupid Chat and Gossip

Many years ago, I sat at the lunch table with a group of high-ranking executives. They were comically discussing the people who “will never get anywhere in this company”. My ears pricked up, and they went on to describe what they called the “coffee machine people”. They had a point. Every time (and I do mean every time I went for a coffee) there would always be a cloud of people there, sipping coffee and talking about… anything other than work.

Harmless chat? No.

think about the effects of your words before you speak, consider the feelings of others — Gossip can be harmless, or not.

I heard them criticizing the wardrobe of one female colleague, moaning about the lack of holidays, feebly flirting and jabbering about one empty topic after another. “It’s not just the time-wasting either. Their idiot conversations tell me all I need to know” said one executive. As it happens, The gossip about the female colleague’s clothes actually ended very badly indeed. The disgruntled colleague found out about the gossip, and you can imagine the ensuing chaos.

These gossiping coffee machine lurkers were forgetting a perhaps even simpler maxim from the Christian tradition: “Speak the truth in love” Ephesians.

First, be Mindful…

Think “The Mindful Way” Before You Speak

Everything the Buddhists and Christians advise us against, forms the stuff of habitual conversation. So, If you don’t watch yourself carefully, you’ll end up doing all of it. This means that our words, our tone and our intentions must all become clear to us if we are to use our speech wisely.

think before you speak in public — Give a presentation, record it and study your own speech.

Practical Steps

Keep a written journal. Use a blank one if you like, or choose one with writing prompts. Both will teach you to choose your words carefully. It’s easy to then go back and check to see if you have let unskilful speech sneak it’s way onto the page. Once mastered the art of right speech on the written page, step up your game to the spoken word.
Work on one unskilful habit at a time. Perhaps you have a favorite four-letter word that springs from your mouth with abandon. It’s an excellent place to start. Perhaps you tend to chime in with your opinions but you know that your intentions are really to “one up” someone or to look good in the eyes of others. Start here.
Reflect nightly upon your communication. To what degree have you spoken wisely. If you are in the practice of nightly reflection on your speech, you train the brain to pay attention to your speech.
Use an accomplice. You need someone you trust to tell you when you are speaking unwisely. It’s a little like that “swear box” that stood on my parents’ kitchen table for years. It cost us a pound-per-swearword, so we learned to speak like little angels.

Let us close then with some final wisdom from one of the grandmasters of our own age:

“When something’s bothering you and you’re too damn stupid to know what to do, just keep your fool mouth shut. At least that way, you won’t make things worse.”
Bart Simpson – The Simpsons, Season 1, Episode 9.

think before you speak, try to tune out the bad noise — The console in your head: Choose the thoughts you need to express, but always remember yo have the power to turn the volume down to zero at all times.

Wellness

Kick Bad Habits & Slay Your Demons!

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

There are people all around the globe with horrible habits that they just can’t seem to shake off.

I don’t just mean obvious ones like smoking, drinking, sugar, and social media. But also habits of thought, that narrow life into simple little labels, and habits of behavior that have you shouting at loved ones and co-workers.

Also, habits of emotional reaction that pull at you to fly into a rage, to flirt with the wrong person at the wrong time, and even that most back-stabbing and venomous emotion… resentment. Habits, most especially the bad ones, are notoriously hard to kick.

Eating can be a bad habit. Kick Bad Habits — **Apple or Donut? Sometimes your brain says one thing and yet you reach for the other**

“Well, that’s just the human condition,” say many, and fair enough.

Really though, we humans are not locked in a permanent trance as if mesmerized by Dracula. Far from it; our clever little species realized a long time ago that we have free will, and so in theory, we can stop shouting, stop that feeble flirting, stop getting angry every time some ignorant driver does something idiotic, and maybe even stop thinking ourselves into life-limiting corners. These habits sure are bad, but should we decide to kick them completely, all you need to do is…

Tell yourself to just stop,

It doesn’t seem to work though, does it? You might tell yourself to stop smoking, right before reaching for yet another cigarette. It’s almost as if there were someone else pulling our strings. It’s almost like a demon, a really dim-witted one, had you in the grip of possession.

Like Being Possessed By A Demon? Seriously?

Too Dramatic? Yeah well, this thought might just be enough to free you.

Notice that I said that it was LIKE a demon (not actually a real one) tugging you this way and that, and even though a cinematically exciting possession would make for one magnificent anecdote, in fact, you are doing it to yourself by making one simple mistake; believing each and every thought that comes to you. Can we kick THIS bad habit?

Don't listen to the demon. Bad habits. — **Don’t listen… It’s all a pack of fibs**

1. Little Babies and The Birth of Identity

Cast your mind back to the day of your birth. I’m sure you remember it well. You were as close as you are ever going to be to a blank slate. Sure, you have your genetic predispositions in place, but you hadn’t yet heard any words of discouragement, any criticism, nobody had ever called you an idiot, nobody had ever abandoned you, betrayed you or humiliated you. No. You had all that coming and more.

2. From Diapers to School Uniforms… And a Few Bad Habits to Kick

The years tick by and the infant brain does its very best to handle this constant rain of sensory and emotional input. Well, just as with any experience, it gets interpreted by the brain in its earliest stage of development.

This is the age where children develop their first notions of being a separate self. Individuation is important, of course, but remember that this is a tiny child’s interpretation of their early life events – These interpretations may or may not get updated. All the time, the little one is forming conclusions about the nature of reality. Finally, you get convenient answers to questions like

How important am I? Am I safe? What is safe for me to do? What am I totally incapable of? Do people like me?

This comes with a whole bunch of “I can’t” conclusions too. All these questions, once answered, will form the basis for everything you do, think and feel. This is the basis for the person you imagine yourself to be. This identity will masquerade as you when it becomes a habit, and you need to separate the good from the bad, so it’s “kick this and keep that·. It sounds almost important.

3. The Teen Demon Lying in Wait

If the infant years are all about the most basic concept of who we are and our value, well the teenage years are the next level that springs to mind. Yet another genetic process attempts to shove you away from the loving arms of your family and dare to leap into the world.

Teens often worry so much about what their group will think of them that they do the most incredibly reckless things just for the approval of the group. So, once again, this brain will be grasping for clues about identity in this new context. These clues get fitted into your narrative and thus your self-concept.

friends jump into the ocean — Parents love answering the objection “but all my friends are doing it” with “*If your friends jumped into the ocean, would you want to do that too”* The answer to that question is frequently a big “Yes”.

4. All Grown Up, and Those Habits are All Grown In

You might think that this is all very nice, “…but I’m an adult now. No demons in sight, so don’t worry”. Maybe we don’t need to even try to stop our horrible habit of identifying with thoughts. But adult life isn’t always a walk in the park. Let us turn our conscious awareness to finding out what demons reside within us.

Once again, what I refer to as “demons” are the conclusions and limitations that we all carry around with us like luggage… right through adulthood. Most of us don’t even realize how heavy this “luggage” is. These are all behaviors, conclusions, and thoughts that “solidify” into an identity. By the time we are adults, our stories are complex and convoluted, relatively inflexible, and completely automated. Our stories are habits that might be good or bad, but are always hard to kick.

Bad habits should be walked away from — Ditch the luggage and walk calmly away

What if that identity were that of a loser, a grumpy dude, a loner, a left or right winger; obsessed to the point of fanaticism, a cold person, or a freak? . This narrative runs on automatic, controls your life and creates your self-concept. Too many times, it robs you of the joy of life.

But My Life is Like a Horror Story

That sounds bad, so who is writing your story? This is the first important mindfulness question. It sure isn’t you, and in many cases, it looks like Stephen King is the author.

Kick Bad Habits – What Am I Supposed to Do?

They (The famous “they”) say that two roads lead to wisdom: The Road of Pain is one, and The Road of Mindfulness is the other. I know I gave the game away by calling the first one “The Road of Pain”. We don’t like pain, but sometimes it is the sting of pain that can jolt us out of our demonically hypnotized state of self-limitation.

The habit of writing your own story — **If your life is a horror story, maybe you need to switch genre.**

Case Study: One who actually managed to kick the bad habit of a limiting identity,

A good friend of mine who I shall refer to as Ellen, was diagnosed with severe ADHD when in her late fifties. That is rather a late-in-life diagnosis, and it hit Ellen like a ton of bricks. She was perfectly aware that life had been a struggle for her but it had never occurred to her that a disorder had been present.

Her psychiatrist put her on the appropriate medication and, over the course of about nine or so months, her symptoms pretty much vanished. This, apart from making her life easier, also plunged her into an existential crisis. Her email to me went a little like this:

“Here’s how I would have described myself last year: A bit selfish, I’m interested in my stuff and have no tolerance for anything else, I am snappy and grumpy, I need a lot of stimulation so I get addicted easily, my mind wanders all over the place, I’m a loner, I have sleep difficulties, I can’t handle responsibility, I can’t handle conflict, I fly off the handle at the drop of a hat, I cannot sit still and can’t concentrate…”

I’m skipping a massive chunk here

“…and now. I identify with NONE of those things. It was never me in the first place. Everything, and I mean everything I had previously thought was just my quirky character, turns out to be a bunch of symptoms. So now, seriously, I don’t know who I am anymore”

Positive habits to not kick — **Some self-imposed definitions are not demons at all.**

A Bunch of Symptoms? Is That What I Am?

It might feel like that if the road of pain is your only method. Ellen went through quite the crisis, I can tell you. Pain was her teacher at first but she had the awareness to turn to the other road to wisdom. She learned to meditate and change her way from the road of pain to that of wisdom.

I ran into Ellen yesterday, and this was her take:

“From the first time I did it, I felt what they always say in the meditation books – that I am not the thoughts, but the observer of the thoughts. It feels like I am some kind of space in which those thoughts arise. I felt this for about three seconds before floating off into a memory of personal failure and humiliation. This seemed to happen all the time but thanks to my crisis (as peculiar as it sounds), I now know that thoughts are not always true. The real me is more like an open space, than anything that can be created by my storytelling mind”

And now my favorite bit of what she said, and the reason this article was born. She said:

“ADHD was like a demon whispering in my ear all my life, telling me what I could and couldn’t do, and telling me who I was. The creepiest thing of all was that the demon spoke to me in my own voice”

Begone Demon! The Power Of Awareness Compels You

But can it be done by the rest of us? Ellen described a kind of “Road To Damascus” type experience that led her to peace but by first dropping her into the depths of suffering. Can’t it be done without all that agony? Can’t we kick the habit of being ourselves without having to feel bad?

Perhaps the pain of my friend as told through the medium of a blog post is enough to have you stop believing everything the demon whispers in your ear – even if it imitates your own voice to a tee.

But, probably you have some work to do

If that little voice in your head is telling you that you can never kick the biggest bad habit of all, that of rigid conformity to the narrow limitations that have their roots in your earliest life experiences, sit in meditation and practice mindfulness at every opportunity.

Hear that inner voice that tells you who you are and realize that this is a complex cognitive process running all your life, and NOT a direct truth. Notice the context that is the real you AND the presence of an automized voice that twitters constantly.

You can call it “unhelpful habitual thought” or “false self” or you might choose the word “Demon.”

You might like this article:

Scientifically Proven Healthy Habits – Get Back On Track!

CogniFit News

CogniFit Gets Vital Soc 2 & HIPAA Certification

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

August 26, 2022: For anyone working in the upper echelons of health and information security (at least the business parts of it), the terms SOC 2 and HIPAA are easily recognizable terms. But for the rest of us, they might sound like gaming consoles or dust filtration systems (that’s HEPA by the way).

So, today we’re not only going to celebrate CogniFit’s certification of both SOC 2 and HIPPA, but we’re also going to explain the nitty gritty (in simple terms) so everyone can understand how these two certifications affect them personally when they use the site and CogniFit’s products.

What is SOC 2 & Why Is It Important?

Soc 2 stands for “System and Organization Controls” and is also sometimes called “SSAE 18.”

It’s one of the most sought-after standards for company security compliance. A certified outside company (specifically the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants) comes in and audits what they need to in order to make sure everything is safe enough and working in the right way.)

This can include anything in the “5 Trust Principles” – Security, Availability, Processing Integrity, Confidentiality, and Privacy. Some examples include:

How you run your engineering systems
HR processes like updating job descriptions
Private information is protected
How you onboard new employees
Can employees and users rely on systems to get the information they need?
Is information protected from unauthorized access?

There are obviously more points, but that would involve an entirely manual’s worth being put into the article. But, if we were to boil all of this down, getting a SOC 2 certification is having an enterprise-level gold standard in data privacy.

This means anyone (from those logging in to just play games or scientists using CogniFit’s research platform to perform tests and experiments) will know all their information is safe.

But What About HIPAA Certification?

It’s been an exciting double-feature week at CogniFit, with us also getting a glowing HIPPA certificate. However, this is another piece of paper that most people won’t know about. And the general definition is not easy to understand…

“HIPAA certification is an accreditation or documentation that demonstrates an organization has implemented an effective HIPAA compliance program and is fully compliant with all appropriate provisions of the HIPAA Rules.”

This doesn’t help much unless you’re someone in “the know.”

But if you’re not in the know, don’t worry. It’s quite easy to clear up and equally interesting.

First, it stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. It’s a US privacy law to protect medical information like patients’ records and allow for confidential communication between patients and medical professionals.

In the USA, the health industry is a maze of papers, rules, laws, loopholes, forms, training, and who knows what else. The HIPPA training program is part of this confusing process. However, don’t confuse this training with becoming something like a doctor or a nurse. It’s not the same at all. You don’t become a healthcare professional with it.

HIPPA can take on many forms. It can be an inspection with a checklist from a third-party company. It can be a training or a boot camp. There is also an Army version of this training as well.

Here are some general HIPAA certification examples that will make things even clearer:

Leaving a patient file open on your desk is a big no-no because it violates patient privacy.
Never leave your computer unlocked while you’re away from it, so people’s data stays safe.
Having NDA and making sure not to discuss sensitive data where people could overhear.
Making sure all patient information (from hardcopies to Cloud files) are safe and sound.
Is there a customer service line anyone can reach at any time if there are problems?
Do employees have regular, updated training?
Has the company/entity been around long enough and formed a positive reputation with its customers or patients?

In CogniFit’s case, Prescient Assurance was the evaluator. They are a leader in security and compliance attestation for B2B, SAAS companies worldwide.

“Prescient Assurance is a registered public accounting in the US and Canada and provides risk management and assurance services which include but is not limited to SOC 2, PCI, ISO, NIST, GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA, and CSA STAR.”

SOC 2 & HIPPA Certification Last Thoughts

Boiling things down even further, having a SOC 2 and HIPAA certification for CogniFit is another major milestone for the company. It’s yet another demonstration of the promise of trust and security for our customers.

Brain gamers can play without worry. Researcher and educators can help their patients and students with confidence. And businesses can look at CogniFit as a sound partner if they have exciting ideas for collaboration.

Trending

The Relationship Between Weight and Brain Health

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Most people are aware of the problems excess weight brings to our cardiovascular health. However, recent reports are showing that weight and brain health are also interconnected. A study on weight and brain function identified low cerebral blood flow as the main predictor of Alzheimer’s disease, with other associations to depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, and other negative mental conditions. Considering more than 72% of Americans are overweight, more people should take greater care lest their obesity leads to brain dysfunction.

How are weight and brain health-related

There is a complex relationship between weight and brain health. As mapped out by a study on diet and mental health, it’s often a two-way street between these two concerns. Stress on the brain is capable of negatively impacting physical health, leading to unhealthy eating. In turn, there would be more changes in mood attributed to the interference of fat with the synthesis of serotonin, a key brain neurotransmitter. These changing brain functions may lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, especially when coupled with childhood abuse and negative outlooks on self-image. To stop further deterioration and even encourage recovery, it’s essential to regulate actions contributing to weight gain and mental decline.

Tips to manage weight and brain health

For those struggling with losing weight and improving mental health, it’s important to consult a doctor or psychiatrist to learn about the best health interventions for you. With the support of a professional, you can take realistic steps toward handling your health issues and sustainably work for the better. Here are some tips on how you can manage your weight and brain health:

Regulating weight

With the advent of nutritional and behavioral research, more experts are able to pinpoint healthy habits that tap into safe weight loss and brain care. There are now weight loss and fitness programs that track meals, drinks, snacks, physical activities, water intake, and sleep habits, promoting healthy behaviors — which similarly keep the brain healthy. These programs are often paired with mobile applications, which makes it easier to record the different processes. Through tracking, you can be more conscious of what you consume and do, allowing you to build healthier habits over time. For example, instead of reaching for a cookie, you may be more inclined to get a fruit smoothie to manage your weight and brain health. By choosing healthier options, you also bring greater nutrition to your body.

Improving mental health

Considering the link leading to mental decline, it’s also essential that you take care of your mental health. A study regarding physical activity and brain plasticity found that physical activity is associated with better cognitive function in older adults. Certain brain regions and networks were discovered to be more sensitive to the effects of exercise, which is key in keeping brain plasticity — contributing to memory formation and learning. Furthermore, several reviewed studies identified exercise to have antidepressant effects, contributing to more weight loss and improvement of mood.

In addition to exercise, people can also try out cognitive stimulating activities. Our post on cognitive stimulation reports certain activities that stimulate the mind, training the brain to create new synapses and reorganize neural circuits. Interactive tools can engage minds and mitigate the effects of depression and mental decline, helping you regain attention, memory, and perception. These techniques and tools can overall improve cognitive and mental function, which are crucial for good brain health.

By making changes in both diet and exercise routines, you can set yourself up for success. Managing your weight and brain health can be difficult, but your health investments can reap many rewards, especially when you’re older.

Wellness

Toxic Perfectionism

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

If you consider yourself a perfectionist, there might even be a hint of pride in the label. We associate perfectionism with high flyers and super successful people, but this is only partly true.

The flip side of perfectionism is, well, toxic perfectionism; the constant sense of never having done enough. Nothing is ever good enough and, as a result, a deep lack of satisfaction will pervade your mind. The solution to this is a healthy dose of mindfulness.

Please Sir, Can I Have Some More?

Imagine walking on a treadmill. You can walk or you can run, but you will never make any progress at all because it isn’t actually going anywhere. Unless you have a stopping point, you will just keep going until you are exhausted

. Perfectionism is the same… No stopping point. The result is that you keep going, keep trying to make it better and better, and you finally grind to a halt because your energy has been completely burned out.

self compassion mindfulness — With no end in sight, where do you think you are going?

What’s Wrong with Wanting to Do Things Right?

Toxic perfectionism isn’t the desire to improve or make things right; it is the inability to be satisfied with the present moment – a major theme of mindfulness. Think about it: If you cannot accept the present moment, nothing you do will ever be good enough. You will live in a constant state of craving.

Ask any Buddhist and they will tell you that craving is the main cause of suffering. There you are on your treadmill, and you are running faster and faster, but maybe there’s a way to jump off. Maybe, you can escape. Maybe there is a way to apply self-compassion and use our mindfulness to switch off the treadmill.

We Gotta Get Out of This Place

Really, you have to find a way to balance your desires and yet NOT fall into the not-so-loving embrace of toxic perfectionism. But maybe we need to rethink what perfection really means. Here’s a great story from a coaching client I had a few years back. This imposing-looking chap was a model of self-compassion too and just seemed to radiate mindfulness. I’m talking about a really happy guy.

I call this one “The Smiling Master and the Frowning Apprentice”

He was a gardener and an expensive one. People with VERY healthy spending power contracted him to turn their gardens into works of art. This guy could take the most raggedy of gardens and transform them into the kind of place you could really spend time in. He was good.

Enter The Apprentice

So one day he decided to take on an apprentice. This young gardening aspirant was enthusiastic and completely full of energy. Well, the time came for him to work alone for a few days before his “master” (my client) turned up to peruse his work. The youthful apprentice made a huge effort to make his first solo job absolutely perfect. The master arrived and started to take in the scene.

Master “Wow, you’ve done a great job”

Apprentice “Thanks”

Master “But… not perfect”

Apprentice (suddenly stressed out) “What?”

His “What” had come out in a shrill, breathless voice. He turned to the garden to see what could possibly be at fault and found nothing at all that. There was not so much as a stray leaf.

Apprentice “Well, what can I do to make it perfect?”

The master rubbed his chin for a second and then, upon eying a neatly collected pile of autumn leaves, ran straight into it and kicked the orange leaves in all directions. The apprentice was horrified. When the master had finished his antics, he took a breath and looked at the garden that now had leaves scattered all over the place. He smiled.

Master “Now, it’s perfect”

Perfect isn’t what you think.

I’m happy to say that, for at least at one expert gardener, toxic perfectionism is no problem at all. So, true perfection might not be what we think it is. Maybe a few leaves are strewn about help to make us unique, special, and beautiful in our own little way.

Toxic perfectionism doesn't affect the leaves — How imperfect is this?

Toxic Perfectionism is Self-Judgement

The mantra of the perfectionist is “Not Good Enough”. It is a mantra that bubbles beneath the surface of conscious awareness, but it is there. It is a life sentence in the treadmill of pointless striving and non-acceptance.

Just take a look at those beautiful Persian rugs.

Those things cost a fortune, but they are most certainly NOT perfect. In fact, I had one in my room when I was a kid. It had an almost symmetrical design but one of the top corners had an obvious mistake. I pointed this out to my dad who informed me that the artists who make these wonderful things are not even trying for perfection. They know that perfection cannot be accomplished by anyone because only God is perfect.

The question they ask themselves regarding their work is not “Is it perfect?” but “Is it beautiful?”.

No toxic perfectionism here, I think.

Beautiful but Not Perfect

Nothing is ever completed and everything is impermanent, yet beauty occurs in nature. Is the Grand Canyon Perfect? Is Niagra Falls Perfect? What about Mount Everest? You won’t find a straight line in any of these places. Perfection is absent and even so, Mother Nature keeps on creating things of great beauty. Toxic perfectionism isn’t really a problem for Mother Nature.

Everest is a thing of beauty, but is it perfect?

Toxic Perfectionism and Golden Self Compassion

YOU are not perfect, and neither is anyone else. You have a few leaves and twigs strewn about, but it’s fine. It is fine, and so are you.

So the next time you sit in meditation, grant yourself compassion and understand that not every twig needs picking up and not every leaf swept away. The influence of toxic perfectionism in your life, calls for a little mindfulness.

So, learn to relax into each session of meditation and when the desire comes up to go and do something else, well that is EXACTLY the spirit of “this moment… the only moment that actually exists, is NOT good enough, and I don’t accept it”. Observe the thought, but stay where you are. Just like any plans we might have in life, there has to be an end point in sight. Good enough is a noble goal.

The Toxic Perfectionism Writing Exercise

Applying Mindfulness To Toxic Perfectionism

This present moment is always good enough. Good enough is a noble goal. Let’s explore a little. Sit down with a pad in front of you and a pen in your hand. Here are your mindfulness questions.

What are the ways in which toxic perfectionism pervades my life?
What is the effect of toxic perfectionism on my relationships?
Are my expectations reasonable or am I striving for an impossible target?
What can I do to become free of the need to be perfect?

And that’s it. You have enough writing material there to give you quite the session. Remember to be grateful and to develop the greatest self-compassion for yourself. Maybe those leaves and twigs in your garden are not so bad after all.

Brain Games

Piece Making Game – Brain Targeting Pictures

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

If you feel like a brain game with just pictures, then the Piece Making game is for you! Let’s take a look at how it works on easy and difficult levels. We will also go over what brain functions it targets and how the game related to them.

Playing Piece Making Game

With all CogniFit games, you’ll start out with a quick tutorial to give you the basics. Then, you’ll dive right in. This one comes with a short video from one of our wellness coaches too.

The basic premise is that you’ll see three, separate images on the screen. They come in the form of rectangles with a black and white graphic inside. Then, they will disappear.

But…

When they reappear, you’ll have FOUR different choices, and only one will be correct. Also, instead of separated rectangles, the graphics are now sitting side by side to form a single image. And, as levels progress, you’ll have less time to memorize what you see, and the images will sit at different distances apart.

Piece Making Answers — Piece Making – Answers

What Does Piece Making Game Target?

Recognition

“Recognition could be defined as the brain’s ability to identify stimuli, like situations, places, people, objects, etc. that you have seen before.”

Without it, we wouldn’t be able to recover stored information or compare it to new/old information that’s right in front of us. This type of memory can also be called “Recovery” and can come in different forms…

Open Memory: After looking at a list of words, you repeat them. Think of the stuff you used to do in school. Like geography answers or animal names.
Serial Memory: Having to repeat a list of words or steps from memory but in the same order. This is useful for things like recipes or instructions.
Keyword: The person gets clues to help them remember the list of words. These could be synonyms, semantic or phonological pairings, or memory triggers.

For us to have Recognition, we have to have seen the “stimuli” before. But what’s really interesting is that we can have “false” recoveries as well.

False Positive – When we think we remember something, but we’ve never actually seen it before.
False Negative – We’ve seen something before but don’t remember it.

The goal is to have more accurate reactions than false ones because we use this cognitive ability every day – for things like our jobs, studying, driving, meeting people we know, etc.

Piece Making uses images to force you to use your Recognition skills (in the second half where you have to recall what you just saw.

Visual Perception

This brain function is very unique, but something all of us take for granted. This complex process lets us understand the world around us. Without it, we would be able to comprehend things like shape, size, dimension, measurements, color, lighting, use, name, or personal relationship, etc.

Let’s say you want to get a pen to sign your name on a document. Your brain needs to see the pen, but then understand all of its characteristics so you know it’s a pen. You see the length, the material, the ink inside, the cap, etc. Then you see the pile of papers, the letter (Visual Perception also allows us to understand reading/writing language).

In the Piece Making game, you have to distinguish different shapes and black/white color patterns. This triggers your Visual Perception.

Piece Making Hard — Piece Making – Hard Levels

Visual Short-Term Memory

We’ve all heard of Short-Term Memory – STM. Well, Visual STM is just a sub-function (the visual component, obviously). And while we all wish for better memory, there is one very interesting thing about this particular kind of memory.

It’s limited … for everyone.

Yep. No matter how hard you exercise this, it’s always going to have a cap (around 5 to 9 elements). There are of course tricks and skills to make VSTM more efficient (and we could all do with brain training in this area). But it’s meant to be temporary. It’s a place for our brains to store things for two reasons.

First, we only need the data for a short while.

For example, you won’t need to remember that bananas were on sale for 50% off on January 8^th, 2019. You only need to remember that during that very moment while you were mentally doing your budget. After, you forgot it (as you should).

Second, the information you learned was vital and it needed to be moved into long-term memory. Things like birthdays, anniversaries, etc. Whatever information we need to keep, goes through other processes to stay with us for the long term.

Since it’s data we don’t need to retain (and we know that), our brains use our Short-Term Visual Memory (because of the images).

Try PIECE MAKING Here!

Piece Making Game Conclusion

Seeing a difference in brain exercises only takes three weekly sessions and 20 minutes per session. But to keep things interesting, it’s essential to have a rotation of games that not only target areas that are important to you, but that are fun yet challenging enough (that you don’t get frustrated).

Piece Making is a more calming game you might enjoy. You can also visit CogniFit.com to see other great brain games!

Brain Games

Brain Training Games: The Penguin Game

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Whether you’re combating the summer heat or nestled beside a winter fire, you’ll be quite entertained playing a free penguin game. And all while training your Spacial Perception ability!

ABOUT PENGUIN EXPLORER

Play Free Penguin Game Online — Free Penguin Game Online

These penguins give you a fun and exciting way to exercise and challenge your brain. And all you need to do is help our cute little penguins do one thing. He needs to slide his way along the grid and push all the snow away.

The aim might sound simple – moving all the white powder away. However, you must move the little guy as quickly as possible while avoiding obstacles along the way to beat the Penguin Game!

And, as the game progresses, the maps get bigger and more complex. You’ll have to keep your wits about you if you want to clear the board before time runs out.

Grab the bonus coins too before they melt away, hold on tight, here we go!

Penguin Explorer is a fun new puzzle game.

THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE PENGUIN GAME

These exciting penguin games are based on popular maze-like puzzles. But did you know they have a long history dating back over 50 years?

CogniFit’s team of designers developed this Penguin Maze Explorer as a fun twist on this popular genre and created something special. It not only challenges your special perception like typical maze games but also flexes inhibition and planning cognitive abilities.

Let’s take a look at these important cognitive abilities that our penguin games help stimulate:

Spatial Perception

Spatial perception is the ability to be aware of your relationships with the environment around you (exteroceptive processes) and with yourself (interoceptive processes).

The first process (exteroceptive) creates representations about our “space” through feelings. Second, our interoceptive processes create representations about our bodies. Such as its position or orientation.

Both of these processes are important for our everyday lives. Imagine, for example, you’re looking for your keys. You know they’re on the table, but you can’t see them. In this case, you need to use your spatial perception to try and find them.

Or take another example, such as getting dressed in the morning. Penguins don’t have to get dressed but we do. Here you need to be aware of how your clothes relate to your body (interoceptive process). For example, putting a shirt on typically goes over your head (exteroceptive process) and then your arms go through the sleeves (interoceptive process).

Finally, research shows that people with better spatial perception skills tend to have an easier time solving problems. They can also complete tasks more quickly! How fast can you complete the penguin game once it starts getting harder?

“Space” is what surrounds us: objects, elements, people, etc. It also makes up part of our thinking and “joins” all of our experiences. In order to get proper information about the characteristics of our surroundings, we use these two vital systems.

Inhibition

Inhibition is the ability to control your impulses and resist the urge to act on them. We use it all the time in our everyday lives, especially when we need to concentrate or pay attention to something.

Inhibition is one of our most used cognitive functions. It is how the brain corrects behavior. Also, this is what helps us to stay quiet when we know we shouldn’t say something. It helps us stay quiet when we are in class. Or allows us to resist road rage when someone merges into our lane without using their blinker.

When we’re bored from work, Inhibition makes us stay on track. You are in control of the penguins in the penguin game and they will go where you push them.

Trying to think of the right thing to say in a conversation? That’s your prefrontal cortex at work, inhibiting the urge to blurt out something inappropriate. Preplanning what you’re going to wear to that big meeting tomorrow? That’s inhibition too, keeping you from leaving the house wearing your pajamas!

For example, have you ever been in a meeting and had the urge to check your phone? Or maybe you’ve been at a restaurant and had the urge to get up and leave? In both cases, you needed to use inhibition to resist those urges and stay focused on what you were doing.

People with good inhibitory control skills tend to be better at self-regulation. They’re also more likely to be successful in school and in their careers. So if you want to be successful, you need to train your brain to have good inhibitory control!

Planning

This ability is a fundamental cognitive skill that forms part of our “Executive Functions”.

It’s what allows us to “think about the future”. It lets us mentally anticipate the right way to carry out a task or reach a specific goal. It’s the mental process that allows us to choose the necessary actions to reach a goal, decide the right order, assign each task to the proper cognitive resources, and establish a plan of action.

Planning is the ability to think ahead and make decisions about what you’re going to do. It’s an important cognitive ability because it allows us to set goals and achieve them.

For example, imagine you’re planning a trip. You need to decide where you’re going, when you’re leaving, how you’re getting there, and what you’re going to do when you get there. If you don’t plan ahead, your trip will likely be a disaster!

People who are good at planning tend to be more organized and efficient. They can also better handle unexpected events because they’ve already thought about what they would you want to improve your cognitive skills?

There are many ways to do so, but one of the best ways is by playing brain-improving games. Games that challenge your spatial perception, inhibitory control, and planning skills can help improve your cognitive abilities. And the best part is that you can have fun while you’re doing

Dr. Adam Gazzaley is a neurologist and cognitive scientist who has published research on planning and cognitive function along with the neurological networks associated. He is the founding director of the Neuroscience Imaging Center at UCSF, and he is also a professor there.

These studies show that good planning skills are related to better cognitive function overall. He has also found that people who are good at planning are more successful in school and in their careers.

The Doctors research shows that games that challenge your spatial perception, inhibitory control, and planning skills can help improve your cognitive abilities.

Does the Penguin Game Improve These Skills?

These penguin games are great examples of ways to improve your brain game performance while learning about your spatial perception and other cognitive skills. In the game, you need to find all of the pathways and race to get the golden coins before they disappear. This requires you to pay attention to your surroundings and use your spatial perception to try and find them.

The Penguin Game helps improve these skills by providing a fun and challenging environment that requires you to use your spatial perception, inhibitory control, and planning skills. By playing the game, you can improve your cognitive abilities while also having a great time!

HOW TO PLAY PENGUIN GAME

This Penguin Game is a deceptively simple puzzle game. Move the penguin up, down, left, or right along the paths. As he slides, he will clear snow from each tile he crosses.

But even penguins, who live in the ice and snow, have trouble stopping on the ice. Each time you move, the penguin will travel along the path until they run into a wall. So, be careful to not sent him into one of the many obstacles on the board!

Try to clear the board as quickly as possible and collect treasures along the way for bonus points!

Penguin Explorer is a great game for people of all ages. It’s a perfect way to spend some free time and it’s also good for your brain! This game can help improve your spatial perception, inhibitory control, and planning skills. Give it a try today!

CONCLUSION

Playing games like CogniFit’s Penguin Explorer stimulates a specific neural activation pattern. Repeatedly playing and consistently training this pattern helps neural circuits reorganize and recover weakened or damaged cognitive functions.

The progressive challenge of these penguin games offers a glimpse into brain training so download this free brain game on the app store and give it a shot.

Now seems like a perfect time to play this fun and exciting puzzle game! And, if you have any comments or suggestions, we would love to hear from you!

How far can you get before freezing out? Click to Play – Penguin Explorer.

Wellness

Low Self Esteem – What’s the Story?

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

There are many reasons to disregard your own thoughts; especially when they lead you into low self-esteem. Thoughts form the stories we use to define our lives and to define our worth in our own eyes. Now, we really need our stories. Humans are storytelling machines, and as I’m sure you know, some of the best stories in the world are pure fiction.

So, What’s Your Story?

Cast your gaze back over your life. You will have a cascade of memories that dance playfully in front of your eyes. Maybe some scenes jump out as key moments that were pivotal in your life, while other memories might just be fleeting trivia.

Each story is locked away in long-term memory with strong emotional activity attached to some of them. The mind assigns meaning to each scene, and each meaning forms a building block in the story you present to yourself of who you are as a person.

Your self esteem is all about these stories. If your life story tells you that you are somehow not good enough, how could you possibly have any self esteem?

I Am What I Am

A very useful brain activity is our tendency to label everything. We place things into useful categories, and we do this by lumping things together, and say that things are the same when in reality they are only… kinda the same. We do this with our very self-concept, and THIS is where you might make a mistake.

The most common mistakes are of labeling yourself as a limitation. Of course, we have all gotten into a moment or two of “I’m just not cut out for this” or “I can never do (insert some cool activity here) because I’m too weak/old/young/stupid” or indeed any of a million limitations we could place upon ourselves. Any label you place upon yourself is, almost without a doubt, a self-imposed limitation. If that is the case, we had better be mindful of each and every one of the labels we have created for ourselves. Could low self esteem be a story too?

Ah yes, I remember it well.

Many would object, saying that their labels MUST be true and real in every way. They think this because the memory they have of whatever deed they use to justify their limiting self-belief is brought to mind with crystal clarity. The funny thing is, the human memory is pretty far from reliable.

If you were to imagine the memory as being like a video camera that stores events exactly as they happened, then you would be barking up the wrong tree. It isn’t like looking into a photo album. Memories, all too often, get deleted, over-emphasized, exaggerated, or even changed significantly by perfectly normal brain processes. Your own mind, in an attempt to make life easier for you, works diligently to fit memories into your self-story. If it has to make stuff up and change things around, your mind… doesn’t mind at all.

Yeah, But I REALLY am a loser.

Do you think? Well, those would be thoughts again; thoughts which, stem from conclusions and stories that maybe you came up with a long time ago. Even if they were true once, they might be pure fiction now. Even if they are not complete and total fiction, they are at least like one of those movies “based on a true story”.

When you watch one of those, despite getting a vague idea of true enough events, there’s bound to be a whole lot of personal interpretation on the part of the storyteller. Movies are packed with storyteller bias, and so are you.

So it’s all a big lie?

No, let’s not get all excited. You are still you in every way, but we would do well to be mindful of those things we say to ourselves. This applies most especially when we are talking about ourselves. Ask yourself to observe your habitual self-talk. A notebook is useful here.

You can get to know the habitual labels you slap upon yourself. You don’t even necessarily have to do anything with that thought. I mean, sure, you could go through each and every limiting thought that occurs to you. You could go through cognitive restructuring or use Stoic questioning methods… if you want. They are great techniques, but let’s take a look at something else.

the mindfulness solution to low self-esteem, mental health

Low Self Esteem – The Mindfulness Solution

The solution is going to be all about catching yourself in the very act of labeling yourself. You can catch yourself using self-talk that starts with “I can’t”, “I’m the kind of person who,” or even “That’s just not me” when presented with anything remotely outside of your comfort zone. There are many varieties of limiting labels you can catch yourself slapping upon yourself. The experience is somewhat along the lines of:

“Oh look. There I go telling myself I’m not good enough. That’s a part of my “such a loser” story”

When you notice, and catch yourself in the very act of living out a self-limiting story, there is a kind of instant enlightenment. It is a mini satori that can become more and more frequent as you yourself become more and more aware. Awareness is the antidote to habitual thought. It is the antidote to unconscious self-limitation. This awareness is what you need to cast doubt upon those memories that make your story.

An Instance of Freedom

I said right at the start, that your concept of who you are and of your value stems from your thoughts, your memories, and the story you tell about yourself. This mindful act of being open to hearing your own self-talk in your day-to-day life will give you instance after instance of freedom.

These are tiny moments, but they are a chink in the armor of that low self-esteem. In that instant, we can choose to let our story go and possibly start to write another one.

Want more useful articles? You might like this one – Positivity: 10 Tips to Change Your Negative Mindset

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CogniFit News Research & Discoveries

Interactive Television Test For Seniors Looks Promising

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

When it comes to CogniFit’s Research Platform, the only real limit is a researcher’s creativity. This was the case with Evelyn Shatil, Jaroslava Mikulecká, Francesco Bellotti, and Vladimír Bureš. They wanted to know if interactive television would help seniors’ cognitive functions.

But before we dive into the interesting details of the experiment, it’s important to know exactly what iTV is (and the other competing terms out there).

What Is Interactive Television

Let’s start with what it’s NOT. It’s not Apple iTV. Nor is it the iTV television network in the UK. These are unrelated terms and are often confused with each other.

The iTV is a kind of media coverage that adds date services to television technology. This has included on-demand content, online shopping, banking, etc. The key idea is that it’s integrated into established tech (even commercial structures) rather than the internet.

Television has always had some sort of interactivity, including:

Low – turning the TV on or off, changing channels, or turning the volume up/down
Moderate – things like movies on demand that don’t have player controls.
High – shows where viewers can change the story, real-time voting, etc.

However, it wasn’t until the 1990s that TV could finally go from low to moderate interaction. This was simply because we didn’t have the technology (specifically bandwidth) to pass huge amounts of data that the content needed. The poor copper telephone cables just couldn’t handle the workload.

And to put this in perspective, copper wire could send 200 Mbit/s. But video on-demand services would need a bandwidth 2000 times greater to give any decent quality.

Some examples of interactive television content include:

“Accidental Lovers” – viewers could send mobile text messages to the broadcast and the plot transformed on the basis of the keywords picked from the messages.
Global Television Network offers a multi-monitor interactive game for Big Brother 8 (US) “‘In The House'” which allows viewers to predict who will win each competition, who’s going home, as well as answering trivia questions and instant recall challenges throughout the live show. Viewers login to the Global website to play, with no downloads required.
Hugo Game – viewers called the production studio and were allowed to control the game character in real-time using telephone buttons by studio personnel, similar to The Price Is Right.
Clickvision Interactive Perception Panel used on news programmes in Britain, a kind of instant clap-o-meter run over the telephone.
During the 2012 Australian Open viewers used the app to suggest questions for commentator Jim Courier to ask players in post-match interviews.
Netflix specials like Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Trivia Quest, You vs The Wild, and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

The Interactive Television Experiment

The full title of the paper is “Novel television-based cognitive training improves working memory and executive function.” The idea was to see if using cognitive games within iTV formats would help older people improve their brain functions.

The team of researchers took 119 healthy older adults between the ages of 60-87 years.
Participants were randomly put into to a cognitive training group or to an active control group (in a single-blind controlled two-group design).
“Before and after” cognitive performance was assessed on well-validated tests of fluid, higher-order ability, and system usability. (Which is their fancy way of saying they tested everything before and after the experiment).
The ones in the cognitive training group completed a television-based cognitive training program.
The people in the active control group completed a TV-based program of personally benefiting activities. (Although the research paper didn’t give details about these activities).

The Experiment Results

There were large improvements observed in working memory and executive function tasks in the cognitive training but not in the control group.

However…

None of the groups showed a “statistically significant improvement” in life satisfaction scores. Meaning, they didn’t feel happier or sadder with their lives for having used the interactive materials.

Participants also reported “adequate” to “high” system usability. So, they found the systems quite easy to use.

All in all, the study shows that cognitive training delivered through an interactive television system can generate genuine cognitive benefits in users. Therefore, older adults who cannot use or afford a computer can easily use digital interactive television to benefit from advanced software applications designed to train cognition.

Baseline and post-training mean differences on the Trail Making Test

But Why iTV When Computers Are Cheap Now?

This is where we get into something a bit more cultural (but with plenty of research).

As we get older, we can easily acquire and store general and cultural knowledge (assuming there are no major brain disorders that block us). However, we also can lose the ability to “observe complex relationships and then infer or predict subsequent relationships or actions from what we witness. Even in our 40s things start to decline in this area.

And the meaning of “complex relationships” isn’t talking about interacting with people. Instead, we can use the example of computers. To a younger mind, the complicated, digital workings and outcomes seem simple, but as someone gets older, they could become harder to process. They can also become daunting.

So, the “seniors avoiding tech” stereotype does have some real-life grounding. For older generations, the television is familiar and easy to use. So, moving cognitive training over to an iTV format instead of the internet will be less intimidating. Then, they can benefit from cognitive training. They can work the parts of their brain that will help them improve diminishing abilities (even things like understanding complex relationships).

You can also see it from a psychological standpoint – that iTV could be a gentle stepping stone into the complicated world wide web.

Interactive Television Conclusion

This study shows the endless possibilities that seniors could have when it comes to media content. And not just for entertainment, but for brain improvement as well. So, if there’s someone in your life that you think could benefit, start researching the iTV options in your area (specifically ones with brain games). There are significant improvements waiting!

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For Families

Diogenes Syndrome – A Different Kind of Hoarding

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Diogenes syndrome is a term most people haven’t heard of until they have had to face it with someone in their family or friend circle. And it’s often confused with another mental illness that looks very slimier – hoarding.

Let’s look at what exactly DS is, how it happens, what can be done, and other useful information.

What Is Diogenes Syndrome

DS is a kind of behavioral disorder that usually happens when someone gets older. Other names include senile squalor syndrome, senile breakdown, Plyushkin’s syndrome, or social breakdown.

A person with DS lives with extreme self-neglect. This includes domestic squalor, social withdrawal, apathy, compulsive hoarding of garbage or animals, and a lack of shame towards their living situation and health conditions. Many of the hoarded items don’t have any sentimental value and can often be garbage.

This will often end up creating environments for rodents, insects, mold, and other dangerous things to thrive.

But what’s the difference between DS and compulsive hoarding?

Well nearly all people with DS will be hoarders but not all hoarders have DS. Also, general hoarders often hold a great deal of shame towards their living conditions. They don’t want people to see where they live, because they don’t want everyone to know what they surround themselves with. Hoarders also see every item as sentimental. They have a hard time letting anything go.

Diogenes Syndrome Problems

Because of the lack of shame and the social withdrawal (as well as the very slow onset of the disorder), most of the surrounding family and friends will have no idea what’s going on until the sufferer is deep into their self-neglect to the point of danger.

And since doctors and researchers are still having a hard time pinpointing a root cause, it’s nearly impossible to know what red flags to look for (aside from literally going into someone’s house and making sure they are okay).

Here are some research contradictions…

DS happens in both men and women
It happens to those who have lived in poverty and to those who have not
It can occur in people who have experienced past trauma or those who haven’t
People of all levels of intelligence are affected

The only thing that professionals can agree on is…

Patients have abnormal possessiveness and patterns of collection in a disordered way.
Probably damage to the prefrontal areas of the brain, which affects decision making
The self-neglect comes from a total physical collapse or mental breakdown
Emotions that come with DS include aggressiveness, stubbornness, suspicion of others, unpredictable mood swings, emotional instability, and a deformed perception of reality.
It can be linked to schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, and dementia addiction (mainly alcohol).

Managing DS

Here is where things get tricky (especially for doctors). DS patients don’t see their hoarding or self-neglect as a problem. Couple this with suspicion and aggression, and they often angrily refuse treatment.

This leaves doctors in a problematic situation since in most situations they’re not allowed to force treatments on people. But, for example, in cases where someone can’t even walk, they might have to accept help.

But that’s not all. Studies have shown that people with DS who are forced into a hospital often get worse (some dying). And if they end up in a nursing home (with many in the USA being stigmatized for poor treatment of seniors, it can end up in a place that hurts more than helps.

Even if they can get the patient into a decent nursing home, success rates show that having only one dedicated nurse and social worker will give any positive results.

The best results of all show that senior daycare is the best. People can go and socialize with others. This helps combat breakdowns and builds healthy relationships (and works against one of the major factors of DS, which is social isolation). There are also home cleaning and food delivery services.

Interesting Diogenes Syndrome Etymology

Did you know that “Diogenes” was coined by A.N.G. Clarke in the mid‑1970s. However, there was a real Diogenes of Sinope. He was an ancient Greek philosopher, a Cynic, and an ultimate minimalist, who allegedly lived in a large jar in Athens.

The funny thing is, he was the opposite of a hoarder or a social isolationist. He lived simply and would walk to Agora every day to be around people. He loved company. So the term is a bit of a misnomer.

DS End Thoughts

This syndrome can be quite scary to think of, let alone watch someone go through it.

The best thing you can do is keep a loving eye on the older members of your family. Be a strong social link. Watch out for things like falling levels of self-care (hygiene, matted hair, body odor, untrimmed nails, malnutrition, dehydration, unexplained injuries, etc).

Offer to help, and if they refuse, talk to a doctor to see if there is something you should do next.

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Brain Games

Neon Lights Game – Tricky Tracing for Coordination

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

We’re back with another exciting CogniFit brain flexer – the Neon Lights Game!

This colorful addition might seem like a breeze, but once you start moving your mouse, you’ll see just how many skills you’ll need to muster. This includes Hand-eye Coordination, Processing Speed, Spatial Perception, and Visual Short-Term Memory.

Let’s take a closer look at this game as well as how it related to each brain function.

How To Play Neon Lights Game

Starting on the easiest levels, all you need to do is move your mouse along the dotted line of the image. And to anyone who’s ever tried to draw a picture with a mouse, you’ll know it’s quite the challenge!

A bright neon light will be left in the cursor’s wake, and when you’re finished, click “CHECK” and the program will tell you how accurate your tracing was. In order to move on to the next level, you’ll need to be higher than the percentage bar at the bottom of the screen.

But…

On harder levels, there are a few twists to really push your brain. First, you’ll only have a limited number of strokes. This means you’ll have to keep your mouse going for as long as possible while maintaining precision.

Second, after some time, the dotted lines will fade away. Leaving you blind – with only your memory to rely on. Either that, or you’ll have to trace as fast as you can without sacrificing accuracy.

And that’s the Neon Lights game in a nutshell.

But what about the four brain functions that this game exercises? Let’s look at them now…

Neon Lights – Easy Level

Hand-Eye Coordination

This complex cognitive ability is exactly what it sounds like. It’s our ability to take the information that we get through our eyes and then use it with our hands. It’s something we use every single day.

It can be something as simple as eating – reaching our spoon into a bowl of soup and then into our mouth. Or it can be difficult tasks like driving – seeing all the cars around us and then moving into another lane.

Interesting Fact: Hand-eye coordination can be poor even if someone’s eyes are perfect.

As for the Neon Lights game, you have to use your eyes to gather the information on the monitor. Then, use your hands to move the mouse along the dotted line as accurately as possible to complete each level.

Processing Speed

This is one of our main cognitive functions. It’s also really important for learning or any kind of academic performance, intellectual development, reasoning, and experience.

It’s the time it takes someone to do a mental task. Or to understand and then react to something. The thing is it doesn’t relate to someone’s intelligence. Someone with poor processing speed might be highly intelligent, but they would just take a bit longer in certain tasks. It’s really all about efficiency.

In Neon Lights, especially on harder levels, you’ll have to react quickly to complete each level before the dotted lines disappear.

Neon Lights – Hard Level

Spatial Perception

Spatial perception isn’t a brain function people usually think about. However, it’s a very important one. It’s made up of two processes:

Exteroceptive: which creates representations about our space through feelings
Interoceptive: which creates representations about our body, like its position or orientation.

As you can see, it’s not just the “space” around us, but also our thoughts and feelings; our thinking. Without it, we wouldn’t be able to understand vital things like 3-dimensional space (even 2-dimensional).

A simple example would be having to get yourself to a new place. We either use directions like north or south. But location points or landmarks count too.

In the game, even if it is 2D, still works spatial perception.

Visual Short-Term Memory

Lots of people worry that their short-term memory is poor. But did you know that it’s limited for everyone?

That’s right! No matter how much you work it, there will always be a “cap” on how good it is. That being said, most of us could do with exercising this mental function a little bit.

VSTM takes information we receive and stores it for a short period of time. It’s part of our Short-Term memory and also used by our Working Memory. After a certain amount of time, the information either goes into Long-term memory, or it’s forgotten.

Things like Alzheimer’s, dyslexia, stroke, or brain trauma can affect this brain function.

When you get to higher levels of Neon Lights, the dotted lines won’t stay around forever. You’ll have to use your memory to finish tracing in the lines if you can’t finish the drawing before then.

Try NEON LIGHTS!

Neon Light Game Conclusion

This simple game packs quite a punch when it comes to brain exercise. It’s also something very different compared to many of the other CogniFit games. So, you might want to add it to your weekly collection for a bit of variety.

And remember, all you need is 3 sessions a week and 20 minutes a session to start seeing a difference!

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Wellness

Meditation for Calm – Why Your Brain Won’t Shut Up

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Not so long ago, I was on a podcast talking about mindfulness and meditation, and one of the callers came up the single most common objection to doing meditation for calm…

“When I try to meditate, I just talk to myself, replay memories, worry about something, ruminate on something someone said to me or anything. The one thing I don’t get is any peace.”

Well, when you put it like that, it hardly sounds therapeutic at all, but this is the experience of many a would-be meditator. Instead of meditation bringing you any peace, it flings you into a tornado of conflicting thoughts and feelings. You sit there trying to “clear your mind” and the moment you take your eye off the ball, you zone out and float off into some train of thought.

Then, you come back to the exercise and vow to push out all thoughts as you meditate… and you end up thinking intently about how to push out thoughts. You catch yourself lost again and attempt to get back into meditation but frustration is creeping up upon you. You finish your meditation and conclude, perfectly understandably, that you quite simply are incapable of meditation.

I am going to disagree with that last conclusion, but first, I’m going to tell you my own meditation for calm story:

A few years back, I was in a hotel room in New York. Let’s just say that this hotel was on the economical side. The air-conditioning unit in my room made a complete racket and, despite its best efforts, only blew out a tiny puff of cool-ish air. I decided to turn it off and open the window instead.

A gust of hot summer air rushed in and blew my neatly stacked pile of printed flight information all around the room. As I scrabbled around on the floor trying to collect my papers, I was suddenly struck by the fact that I could hear a cacophony of voices. The window I had opened faced onto an indoor patio. The guests in the surrounding rooms must have had the same useless air-conditioning as I did because absolutely everyone had their windows open.

The voices echoed loudly around the patio, and I actually became rather engrossed in the seeming chaos of the crossed conversations.

Some of my neighbors were stressing out about work, one was on the phone with who I assume to be her new boyfriend, one was singing (great voice I might add), and finally there was a blazing row emanating from the top floor in a language that may or may not be Russian. Amazing!

So, all of that had been going on while I was completely oblivious to the fact as I pottered around my room, lost in thought…

Oh, and with the world’s loudest air-conditioning.

When bedtime arrived, I had to close the window to keep this chaotic chorus at bay. To my disappointment, the noise was somewhat muffled, but I could still hear everything. I even put the air conditioning back on and, once again, noticed that I could still hear the voices. Why hadn’t I heard them before? I had spent hours in that room with absolutely no awareness whatever of those voices. This time, though, the voices were ever-present. It even might appear to the casual observer that it was my turning off the air unit and opening the window that caused the voices to begin. No. The voices were always there. You just never heard them before.

End of story.

Inside your head, there are dialogues and debates, storylines and arguments.

But we are normally so distracted that we are barely aware of them at all. Meditation, then, is somewhat like switching off the noisy air-conditioning and hearing the raging arguments of the neighbors…

We can make the comparison even more relevant if we imagine that the voices of the neighbors had the power to control the way you see life and the way you respond because of your habitual way of thinking… the constant babbling of the “neighbors” has a colossal impact upon the way you experience life.

If that were the case, it would be very beneficial to hear what they were saying. Indeed, we should open the window and listen very carefully. Maybe then, we can decide which of those voices we believe, and which to doubt.

And this is meditation.

Just as you would never mistake the opinions of a motley crew of hotel guests for your own, those voices popping off in your head are not necessarily your opinion either. A meditator recognizes that thoughts arise from the mechanisms of the mind, but don’t always represent the truth in any way. These thoughts, erroneous or not, can still have the power to influence your experience of life.

Some thoughts disparage us and put us down. Other thoughts tell us we cannot do something, and yet another thought might sing the song of “I’m not worthy”. It would be good to step back and simply bear witness to the thoughts as they arise. You identify with your thoughts no more than you would with the utterances of my shouty neighbors. Without wishing to beat my hotel analogy to death, when you meditate, the air conditioning is off and the window is wide open.

Back to that podcast: The caller said something like “So these voices have been in my head all this time?”

The answer was a resounding “Yes.” I told her my fantastic hotel story, and she seemed to have an “Aha” moment. Never mind trying to quiet your mind. All you have to do is pay attention, and in that precise instant, you are being mindful.

If you’re interested in meditation and mindfulness, you might like this…
What Is Mindfulness? There’s More Than One Method

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Brain Health

What is Alice in Wonderland Syndrome?

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Today we’re looking at another rare medical condition called Todd’s syndrome AKA Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS). And if you know anything about the books or movies (specifically the food parts), you can probably guess what this disorder might do to people’s minds.

Let’s take a closer look at this unusual yet fascinating condition.

What is AIWS?

It’s a neuropsychological condition that causes people to see and feel things (or themselves) as out of proportion to objects around them. Their perception of objects can be distorted to appear…

Smaller than what they really are. This is called “micropsia”
Bigger than what they are. Also called “macropsia”
Closer than their actual position. Another name is “pelopsia”
Farther away than the real position. Also called “teleopsia”

However, distortions aren’t only for what people see. Other senses can be affected too. This includes time, hearing, touch, etc. There can also be hallucinations. People might feel that parts of the body are growing, shrinking, or distorting right before the person’s eyes. In medical terms, this is called…

microsomatognosia (shrinking)
macrosomatognosia (growing)

The Discovery of Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

It was John Todd, a British consultant psychiatrist at High Royds Hospital in West Yorkshire, that first noticed something strange with his patients.

Whenever they experienced headaches, they would also experience object distortion. However, none of them had brain tumors, sight problems, or any mental illnesses that would explain the strange condition. They were also very aware that what they were seeing was incorrect.

The interesting thing is Lewis Carroll’s (author of Alice in Wonderland) diary has notes of him visiting a prominent ophthalmologist. He had been suffering from migraines that resulted in visual distortions for years. He called them “bilious headaches” that came with feeling sick and vomiting. Obviously, this was the inspiration for the “Drink Me” and “Eat Me” parts of Carroll’s books.

It’s also why Todd named the condition Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.

Causes & Symptoms of AIWS

This syndrome actually comes with over 60 symptoms – mostly because it can affect sight, touch, hearing, and sensations (as well as body perception). The most common symptoms are headaches, migraines, nausea, dizziness, and agitation.

However, some lesser common ones can include loss of coordination or limb control, memory loss, emotional instability, fever, epileptic seizures, as well as lingering touch and sound sensations.

Since AIWS is fairly rare, the causes are still a bit of a mystery. But a 2016 study narrowed the key causes down to migraines and Epstein-Barr virus infections. Other causes can include…

Brain lesions
Epilepsy
Influenza a virus
Lyme neuroborreliosis
Medication
Mycoplasma
Psychiatric conditions
Scarlet fever and tonsillopharyngitis
Stroke
Typhoid encephalopathy
Varicella-zoster virus

Diagnosis & Treatment of Alice In Wonderland Syndrome

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s no formal list of tests to know if someone has AIWS, mostly because the symptoms and causes are so wide. Generally, a patient could expect…

Electroencephalography (EEG)
MRI scans
Neurological and psychiatric consultation
Routine blood testing

Even if there is no official test procedure, doctors still need to be thorough because the only way to treat AIWS is to know the underlying cause. So, if migraines are the source, the doctor would prescribe medication and lifestyle changes. But if the reason came from epilepsy, then someone would need antiepileptics. The same goes for infections (which need antiviral medication).

However, it can also end up being a condition that can be commonly misdiagnosed.

Also, even if someone only experiences this phenomenon once and for a short period of time, they should still see a doctor.

Other Interesting Facts

AIWS is not hereditary. You can’t pass it on to your children.
Most cases are considered benign.
It’s more frequently seen in children and young adults.
The condition is diagnosed in the season 8 episode Risky Business.
The average age of the start of Alice in Wonderland syndrome is six years old.
Micropsia has also been related to Jonathan Swift’s novel Gulliver’s Travels.
Some people suggest that Carroll knew about distorted perceptions through his knowledge of hallucinogenic mushrooms.

Final AIWS Thoughts

This condition can seem rather scary, especially to young children who experience it. But with the right doctor, proper testing, and correct treatment (as well as plenty of reassurance that everything is okay), it’s very manageable, even curable.

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Brain Health

Apotemnophilia – Wanting To Lose A Limb

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Today we will be looking at a rare condition called Apotemnophilia – including why it occurs, what people do to cope, dangerous measures people can sometimes resort to, and moral dilemmas doctors are faced with.

Let’s dive in.

The Sparse History of Apotemnophilia

The term “apotemnophiliac” was first coined in 1973 by British psychiatrist Richard Schultes. It comes from the Greek base of ἀποτεμν- “apotemn-” meaning “to cut off” and -φια “-philia” meaning “love”. It’s caused by dysfunction of the right parietal lobe leading to a distorted body image.

The problem is that the disorder is so rare that there have been few reported cases since the first one by psychologist John Money in 1977. The report detailed a man who desired to have his left arm amputated because he had erotic thoughts about becoming disabled.

The combination between the original name and the first reported case has left a lingering stigma around the disorder – that all people who suffer from Apotemnophilia have a sexual desire linked to the condition. Some people do, but this is just a small percentage.

In fact, most people simply describe feeling like one or more of their limbs feels “foreign” to their bodies – like it doesn’t belong. This is why a more proper term of Bodily Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID) was later coined.

How Bad Can Apotemnophilia Get?

This condition isn’t just rare in people, there isn’t a lot of research on it either. This is because many people are too embarrassed to reach out for help. Or, they figure that a doctor would never agree to amputate a healthy limb, so they don’t bother talking to any medical professionals.

And, even if Apotemnophilia sits on the border between a physical and psychological condition, therapists don’t have a lot of case reports either. They also don’t have many tools or targeted medication to help their patients.

This can leave people who have this condition in a forlorn state. Some people might only suffer from daily anxiety (which we know can have physical repercussions as time goes by), but it can go as far as some people trying to amputate the limb themselves or thoughts of suicide.

FACT: As an extra tidbit of interesting information, there is also a condition where people are scared of those with amputations – called Apotemnophobia.

The Medical Dilemma

Here is where things get sticky for doctors. Let’s say they are faced with a patient who wants a healthy limb removed. Also, the person is well aware of all the risks and recoveries). On one hand, they have taken a moral and legal oath to do no harm. But on the other hand, does leaving the limb on put the patient in a state of possible harm? Is their right to happiness more important?

And, let’s take it a step further. In very rare cases, some people wish to be totally paralyzed (that any bodily movement feels wrong). What should be done then?

Besides this, what extra medical care can be offered?

Therapists really only have Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and anti-anxiety or anti-depressant medication to work with. That’s if they even have patients come in and admit to having this condition.

Apotemnophilia – Conclusion

As mentioned before, there’s not a lot known about this condition. But medical professionals know there are people out there that are suffering but not coming forward for help.

If you or anyone you know might have this disorder, let them know they are not alone. There are people out there that want to help. And, by stepping forward, they add their experiences to the medical pool of knowledge. This helps doctors hone better treatments, medications, or solve medical dilemmas, etc. So, others that come forward will benefit.

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Brain Games

Tennis Bowling – Two Sports, One Brain Boost

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

We’re back with another tennis game – Tennis Bowling! Now, it might sound weird, but stay with us here. The game isn’t just a blast, it will make you exercise some crucial cognitive functions.

Let’s take a closer look at how to play the game and how each brain ability is important and ties to Tennis Bowling.

How To Play Tennis Bowling

If you’ve ever played any of the other CogniFit tennis games, you’ll notice the court is very much the same. The up/down/left/right arrow keys will also control your racquet movements (which connect to the highlighted target on the other side of the court). You’ll also have a limit of 3 balls to complete each level.

But that’s where the similarities end.

On the opposite side of the court, you’ll see a stack of various objects – regular barrels, explosive barrels, coins, horizontal planks, vertical planks, etc. Your job is to knock as much of this debris out of the court as possible with a limited amount of ammunition. There is also a handy meter on the side of the screen that lets you know if you’ve cleared enough.

The fun thing is that the physics engine is impressive for such a simple game. The objects will bounce off each other and either fall back onto the court or get thrown out of bounds. They are also stacked in ways that if you hit at just the right point, you could send everything down in just one hit!

And it wouldn’t be a CogniFit game if high levels didn’t have a few difficulty mechanics thrown in! There is wind that will move your target around and you’ll have to compensate with the arrow keys. And there will eventually be a power meter that will tell you how fast/hard the ball will shoot out depending on when you hit the space bar.

So, how exactly does this game help our brains? Let’s look at the three cognitive abilities Tennis Bowling targets.

Tennis Bowling – Easy Levels

Estimation

You might not believe it, but Estimate is one of our most important cognitive abilities. And it’s not just so we can guess how heavy a bag of apples is or how fast the cars around us are going, it’s so much more important than that. Anything with speed, distance, or time needs this cognitive function.

Our brains use our past experiences to judge what’s around us and estimate whatever information we need at that moment. So, the more experience we have, the better we can estimate.

A good example is sports. No one can play any of these activities without Estimation. We need to judge how fast the ball/puck (whatever) and players are moving, how far and long it will take you to get to your destination, how heavy the ball is, as well as other factors like tiredness or pain.

There are things that can diminish Estimation – like frontal lobe damage. Patients who have suffered cranial trauma, brain tumor, aneurysm, MS, encephalitis, Korsavoff syndrome, anxiety, depression, etc. have been shown to have poor estimation abilities. Alcohol, cannabis, and other drugs may affect your ability to correctly estimate speed, time, and distance, which is one of the reasons why driving under the influence of many drugs can be dangerous or even life-threatening.

With Tennis Bowling, things like distance, the wind gauge, and speed meter all go towards Estimation.

Tennis Bowling – Hard Levels

Shifting

When something unexpected happens and you have to think on your feet, it’s Shifting that allows you to adapt your behavior to these new events. It can be something further in the future (like having to catch a different bus) or reacting immediately (like having to move in a different direction because someone walked in front of you).

Obviously Shifting is very important in problem-solving, and anyone who is strong in this cognitive ability can…

Adapt quickly to new changes
Tolerate changes well
Easily transition from one activity to another
See different points of view and recognize hidden relationships
Better tolerate errors
See things from other’s points of view and find compromises

With Tennis Bowling, you’ll have a plan on where you want to send the ball, but when the debris falls, the results won’t always be what you anticipate. This means you’ll have to change your plan play-by-play, triggering your Shifting abilities.

Try TENNIS BOWLING Here!

Spatial Perception

Spatial perception is the ability to be aware of your relationships with the environment around you and with yourself. It can also be referred to as the exteroceptive and interoceptive processes respectively. It’s one of the harder cognitive abilities to wrap our heads around, but it basically allows us to understand our environment and how we are in it based on our understanding of what’s around us and how we feel (like our visual and haptic systems).

So, we feel the sand below our feet and the breeze on our faces as well as see the waves in the distance. We’re near at beach. It’s a crude example, granted, but it’s still one that demonstrates spatial perception.

This is an important cognitive ability because we are constantly using it, even if we’re not actively aware of it. However, Spatial Perception may be affected by some developmental disorders like autism, Asperger’s, cerebral palsy, as well as others. In these cases, the problem lies in the lack of understanding of their own body. Meaning, they lack spatial perception towards their body and the difficulty interpreting it as a whole.

In Tennis Bowling, you have to think within a 3-dimensional space. But the added factor of the wind moving and debris falling in different directions, also makes you flex your Spatial perception.

Tennis Bowling – End Thoughts

There are two other tennis games in the CogniFit library – Tennis Target and Tennis Bomb. Combined with Tennis Bowling, there are some major brain functions you can exercise.

However, there’s no need to play these games together if you don’t want to. All you need to do is find any games you like and play for 20 minutes a session, 3 times a week. That’s enough to make a difference in your brain!

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For Families Wellness

Alzheimer’s Caregiving – 5 Tips to Care for Yourself

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Anyone who has seen someone with Alzheimer’s knows there’s a lot of work that goes into caring for that person. From dressing to doctor’s appointments, the list can seem daunting. But what most people might not realize is that Alzheimer’s caregiving takes an entire team. These can be professionals or just loved ones.

Another thing people might not realize is that caregivers can suffer burnout or other mental/physical problems as well. Here is a list of things that promote a healthy life for those on the other side of the fence so they can care for their loved ones better.

1. Learn To Ask For Help

This is the biggest and most important one. Some caregivers take on a Superman attitude – thinking that they can or have to do everything themselves.

But this is just not possible. Remember when we said it takes a “team?” Well, it can include anyone you want. It can be something as simple as having another person side with the Alzheimer’s or dementia patient and quietly watch television with them while you sit and have a cup of tea or go do some laundry. There are meals, transportation, legal/financial issues, regular education to keep up with patient changes, and so much more.

Remember, no one is a failure for asking for help!

2. Support Groups

This is the second biggest suggestion. There are in-person or online groups of caregivers that can share all sorts of experiences or hacks that might make your life a little easier (even ways to find donations or money to help out even more). They are also there to listen if you just need someone to talk to. Finally, they might have resources you wouldn’t have normally been able to access.

For example, if two caregivers live fairly close, they can help each other out. Things like cooking might bring joy to one caregiver while the other dislikes it. You can share the load.

Also, it’s important to remember that no one in these support groups is there to judge. They’ve all been in (or are in) your shoes.

Side Note: If support groups aren’t your thing, there are churches and other places of religious worship that people find useful or comforting.

3. Take Daily Breaks

No, you don’t have to be hardcore 24/7. It’s okay to take a breather. As long as the patient is cared for, you can step back and take care of yourself. What you do is totally up to you, but here are some ideas…

Go for a walk/get some exercise
Visit some friends
Go out with your partner or children
Get back into any hobbies you love
Meditate or practice mindfulness

4. Stay Healthy

Caregivers can have such intense tunnel vision for the other person, that they could start neglecting their own health. It’s vital to eat a healthy/balanced diet, keep active, and have regular visits to your own doctor.

And, when it comes to the mind, there are “mantras” you should have handy if you feel your brain needs some love too.

I’m doing the best I can.
Things don’t have to be perfect, it’s okay.
I can’t control everything around me.
Enjoy the happy moments because they are precious
Any negativity I get is from the illness, not from the person I care for
It’s okay to stick with what’s working now. But it’s okay to change later.
I will ask for help if I need it.

5. Keep Reading

There is a TON of information on the internet (just stick to trusted sources). Any topic you can imagine, there is an article giving advice. Things like…

Dealing with mood changes
How to handle early/mid/late stages of the disease
Activities and games you can do
How to keep patients active
Basic care like dressing and feeding
Other medical problems that could show up
Home safety tips
How to talk about Alzheimer’s with children

These topics can be found at The National Institute of Aging site. It’s absolutely amazing and offers so much education. Another one is Alzheimer’s Association.

We won’t dive into these sites because it’s a true mountain of data. But we will say there are dedicated articles for caregivers as well (to take care of themselves too).

Alzheimer’s Caregiving Conclusion

If you find yourself having to care for a family member or loved one with Alzheimer’s, it will feel not only scary but overwhelming as well. This is normal. Feeling the weight on your shoulders is normal too. But you don’t have to go through it alone. Make sure you start building your support network early on. And, to repeat what we said before, it’s okay to ask for help!

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Brain Games

Tennis Target – How Good Is Your Inhibition?

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Tennis Target is one of three tennis-theme games in CogniFit’s brain game collection. But how is it different from its counterparts?

First, its gameplay is entirely different. Also, it exercises different cognitive functions – Estimation, Inhibition, and Response time. Let’s take a closer look at each of these as well as how to play.

How to Play Tennis Target

As with all CogniFit’s tennis games, you’ll have your own side of the court.

But instead of being able to move around a 3D space, you’ll only be able to tilt the racquet up and down as well as rotate it. This is done by using the up/down/left/right arrow keys. Each time you press an arrow key the glowing target will highlight a different section of the opposite side of the court.

A ball launcher will shoot a tennis ball at you (at regular intervals) and you have to carefully time when the ball gets shot, when it hits your racquet, and when it will hit the moving targets (in this case, colorful crates).

These targets will either have a picture on the front or nothing at all. Each of the pictures has a different function…

CogniFit Logo – These are the boxes you really want to hit to progress to high/harder levels
Three Dots – These replenish your tennis balls (because you’ll only be given a limited amount)
Flame – This one will explode the adjacent boxes, making it easier to clear crates without using up valuable ammo.
Star – These will give you more points and help you progress faster

Sounds simple enough, right? Just time your hits to make contact with the boxes.

Well, it wouldn’t be a CogniFit game without higher levels being incredibly difficult.

The harder the level, the more crates you’ll have. This doesn’t only include how many are stacked on each other, but how man stacks are taking up the opposite side of the court. And, they will keep rotating (obviously faster), making it harder to hit the target. Plus, there is a gauge on the right side of the screen. You can only fire a ball when the moving gauge is in the highlighted area.

Tennis Target – Hard Levels

It won’t take long for you to see how Tennis Target is different from the other tennis games. Also, how it works specific cognitive functions. Let’s look at each one you’ll be using…

Estimation

This is a very important neuropsychological function. This is because so many of our daily activities need us to estimate things like…

Distance: Distance estimation is the ability to estimate the future location of an object based on its current distance, and is the ability that makes it possible for us to carry out everyday activities without bumping into people or things.
Speed: Speed estimation is the ability to estimate the future location of an object based on its current speed. This is what makes it possible to move through life and avoid obstacles and accidents.
Movement: The ability to anticipate an object’s movement.
Time: The ability to calculate the amount of time there is between two events.

Driving is a perfect example. Just think of having to change lanes. You have to see all the cars around you and estimate many things before you can safely move. Another good example is sports – we can’t play anything without Estimation abilities. But it can also be used in something as simple as shopping or moving around other people.

In Tennis Target, you’ll have to estimate the time it takes between the ball launch to when it will hit the moving boxes.

Try TENNIS TARGET Here!

Inhibition

This ability isn’t one that most people think of when it comes to cognitive functions. However, it’s just as important as its brothers and sisters.

Essentially, it’s our ability to control impulsive or automatic behavior. It’s also one of our Executive Functions, which contributes to anticipation, planning, and goal setting. Good Inhibition allows you to do many things…

Concentrate without getting distracted easily
Exercise control while driving
Not dwell on negative thoughts for too long
Resist bad habits or actions (like scratching a bug bite)
Have a conversation with good flow and fewer interruptions
Not losing your temper too quickly

In Tennis Target, the limited ammo (and firing gauge on harder levels) forces you to be more careful with your actions and really pushes your Inhibition.

Tennis Target – Easy Levels

Response Time

Also known as Reaction Time, this is the time that takes from when we perceive/see something to when we respond to it. It also depends on different factors…

Perception: Seeing, hearing, or feeling a stimulus with certainty is essential to having good reaction time. When the starter shoots the gun at the beginning of a race, the sound is received by the athlete’s ears.
Processing: It’s necessary to be focused and understand the information well. The runners, after hearing the gun, will be able to distinguish the sound from other background noise and know that it is time to start running.
Response: Motor agility is necessary in order to be able to act and have good response time. When the runners perceived and correctly processes the signal, they started moving their legs.

It also depends on how complex the stimulus is, how familiar it is, how aware or awake (even healthy) the person is, and which of the senses gets the information. For example, auditory information is processed faster than visual.

Tennis Target’s moving boxes and timed ball launches are key to honing good Reaction Time.

Tennis Target Conclusion

When it comes to cognitive exercises, you don’t need to dedicate as much time as you think. All you need is 3 sessions a week and 20 minutes per session. Try out this game along with Tennis Bomb and Tennis Bowling for a more complete, and fun, workout.

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Wellness

Toxic Positivity – What Is It & How To Avoid It

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

You’ve probably heard the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” And while it’s a lovely little tune, the sentiment actually describes toxic positivity perfectly. But what exactly does it mean?

It’s the idea that someone should only have positive thoughts and all negative ones (as well as stress) should be immediately pushed out. This can be from the person experiencing the emotions or from someone giving advice (usually during the worst time possible).

Some examples include:

Look on the bright side!
It could be worse!
Good vibes only!
Everything happens for a reason
Look for the silver lining.
If I can do it, so can you!
“Let Me Know If You Need Anything”
Everything will work out in the end.
Failure is not an option.
Don’t think about it, stay positive!
“What Doesn’t Kill You Only Makes You Stronger”

Why It’s Toxic Positivity

Humans feel a wide range of emotions – including negative ones. We feel stress and anxiety, anger, and grief. And believe it or not, these are important for our wellbeing.

Anger tells us there is injustice or mistreatment.
Guilt signals us we might have done something wrong.
Stress lets us know there are red flags we need to address.
Sadness shows us the importance of something we’ve lost.

Without these emotions, we can’t take the actions that are associated with them. We can’t heal or become better. Putting on a brave, happy face creates a barrier between us and the world – when really, we need someone to wrap their arms around us and offer help.

Or if someone is going through a hard time and another person offers a toxic positivity phrase, they’ve completely demeaned and minimalized what that person is going through. This can have several other damaging effects like stopping communication altogether or withdrawing from people and not dealing with their emotions.

Toxic positivity can also have deadly repercussions.

For example, if someone is in an abusive relationship and a family member says, “It could be worse, at least he provides for you. Just focus on the silver lining – you have a roof over your head. Other people have had it harder.”

This is the epitome of toxic positivity. The push to avoid all negatives encourages someone to stay in a dangerous environment.

Scientific Studies

Campbell-Sills, Barlow, Brown, and Hofmann (2006)

In their study, 60 people with anxiety or mood disorders were asked to suppress or accept their feelings while watching an emotional film.

The researchers recorded the subjects’ distress, heart rate, skin conductance level, and respiratory sinus arrhythmia before, during, and after the film. Those who had to suppress their feelings had higher heart rates after the movie.

Wood, Perunovic, and Lee (2009)

Three interrelated studies were done on people with low self-esteem. They wanted to see if positive self-statements could affect the subjects. However, the results ended up quite negative.

“Using the self-comparison theory (Talaifar & Swann, 2020) as a lens, positive self-statements may contradict an individual’s self-view, causing the individual to reject the statement or hold onto their original preconception of themselves.”

How to Be Truly Supportive

Empathy is essential to help anyone going through a hard time. Understand and acknowledge what they’re going through and offer real help (if you can). Here are some examples of better things you can say…

“Describe what you’re feeling, I’m listening.”
“I see that you’re really stressed, anything I can do?”
“Failure is a part of growth and success.”
“This is really hard, I’m thinking of you.”
“I’m here for you both good and bad.”
“Everyone’s story, abilities, and limitations are different, and that’s okay.
“I see you. I’m here for you.”
“Suffering is a part of life, you are not alone.”
“Sometimes we can draw the short straw in life. How can I support you during this hard time?”
“That sucks. I’m so sorry you’re going through this.”

Here are some more examples of things you should or should not do…

Don’t over-compliment on how someone’s lost weight. It highlights that they were overweight before and might hit their self-esteem.
Don’t only post perfect photos on social media.
Do become more comfortable with dealing with negative emotions.
Don’t make someone else’s job sound easier than yours.
Don’t one-up another person’s pain.
Don’t tell someone to just smile or laugh it off.
Do offer real help (even if it’s something small).
Don’t pretend there’s nothing wrong.
Do ask before giving physical consolation.

Toxic Positivity Conclusion

It’s a tricky thing. Many of us do this without even realizing it. And if you’ve done it in the past, use it as motivation to learn new ways to be a better, more empathetic person. It might take some time to break old, bad habits, but that’s okay!

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Mindfulness Trending Wellness

15 Benefits of Yoga – Improving Your Body and Mind

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Yoga has been with us for quite a while. And, with it, has also come a lot of studies to find out how exactly these exercises are good for us. Let’s take a closer look at the benefits of yoga and why you should start integrating it into your life as soon as possible.

1. Better Flexibility

This one comes as no surprise since the entire core of yoga is to move your body into stretching positions. But it’s not just in places like your hamstrings and hips. Places like your back and shoulders love this kind of workout.

Also, if you spend a lot of time sitting or are getting older, you might notice your flexibility suffering. Yoga can help counteract this.

2. Improves Balance

Unless you’re a dancer, expanding your balance doesn’t usually pop into people’s heads. But working on this point can help with posture and functionality. Also, having a good level of agility can help you avoid things like stumbling and falling.

“According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, falls are incredibly common among older adults in nursing facilities, and even the simplest ones can lead to an increased risk of death.”

Thankfully, there are beginner poses out there if your balance isn’t that great.

3. Back Pain Relief

Sitting wrong or holding certain postures for too long are just a couple of reasons we can end up with serious back pain. Another problem is it’s not a part of the body we often think of stretching. Yoga movements also promote blood flow, which is always fantastic for areas that are aching.

4. Ease Arthritis Symptoms

This one might come as a surprise. But anyone with arthritis knows that many exercises have a higher impact on the joints. This makes it hard or even impossible to work out (physically and mentally). And according to a Johns Hopkins review of 11 recent studies showed yoga helps with swollen and tender joints.

The next in the list of benefits of yoga ties directly to arthritis problems…

5. Builds Strength

We must engage our core and use key areas of our body to support whatever pose we’re in. This will inevitably lead to muscle building of some kind.

And when we build muscle around places like our joints, it can take some of the burdens off those areas. So, instead of the ligaments and joint taking 100% of the toll, they can have a bit of a “break.” Studies in the air force have also experimented with integrating yoga as a way to build strength.

6. Helps the Heart

If you’ve never heard of “yoga breathing” before (AKA Pranayama), it’s a fundamental part of any pose or transition. It’s deep, controlled breathing that you take from your core.

The Journal of Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine published a review of 1,400 studies that showed that the cardiovascular system had amazing boosts from proper breathing. There were also positive data that suggested the brain’s cardiorespiratory center could have better functioning.

7. Improves Bone Health

Many poses use isometric contractions. This is just a fancy way of saying you’re using 100% of that muscle area without making it longer. So, something like Plank uses the same muscles as a push-up but without the stretch. Because remember, we get stretching in other aspects of yoga.

Studies have shown that only 15 minutes a day can help with bone health and things like osteopenia or osteoporosis.

8. Better Posture & Body Awareness

Yoga will strengthen all parts of the body, including the back. And many poses force you to focus on sitting up straight. Plus when you execute each pose (with your proper breathing), you are forced to look inwards and see your body in new ways.

9. Improves Sleep

Insomnia or poor sleep hygiene can affect so many other parts of our daily lives. We need good sleep to be healthy. Studies have revealed that practicing yoga can help this because of the exercises calming nature.

Blooming Lotus Yoga gives this list as good poses for going to bed.

Cow Pose (Bitilasana)
Happy Baby (Ananda Balasana)
Legs Up the Wall (Viparita Karani)
Corpse Pose (Savasana)
Standing Half Forward Bend (Ardha Uttanasana) at the Wall
Legs on a Chair Pose
Reclining Bound Angle (Supta Baddha Konasana)
Child’s Pose (Balasana)
Reverse Pigeon Against Wall Pose (Custom Sucirandhrasana)
Supine Spinal Twist (Supta Jaṭhara Parivartānāsana)

10. Manages Stress

This is another one that comes as no surprise – since it’s one of the major reasons most people go into yoga. For one thing, any kind of physical activity is great for reducing stress. Second, many poses need a significant amount of concentration. So, instead of worrying about stressors in your life, you get a 15 to 30-minute (or more) break.

Since things like burnout, lockdowns, job loss, and decreased living quality are skyrocketing, it’s more important than ever to have something to counteract these anxiety sources.

11. Improves Mental Health

Here is where we see a wonderful snowball effect in the benefits of yoga. Since yoga makes us improve many aspects of our body and mind, it’s obvious there would be an improvement in mental health. We reduce stress, have fewer issues with our body to worry about, etc.

12. Helps Brain Functioning

Other studies have shown that doing yoga is fantastic for the brain. It targets things like motivation, executive functioning, attention, and neuroplasticity.

13. Boosts Immunity

Did you know that chronic stress is absolutely horrible for your body? This includes the immune system. We can handle normal doses of tension, but when it goes on too long, we can end up getting sick more frequently. The stress reduction aspect of yoga works directly with better immunity.

14. Promotes Better Self-Care

Better mental health, in turn, can make us want to take care of ourselves even more (in areas other than yoga). This can include things like eating better (because when we feel awful we crave comfort food, which isn’t always healthy), looking at improved skin care regimes, drinking more water, etc.

Since we set aside yoga as a time to improve our bodies, we are already learning to set aside self-care time. So, adding on another 15 minutes before or after our exercises doesn’t end up feeling like a lot.

15. Improve Self-Esteem

So, imagine you’re now feeling better about your body, and you are also taking care of your mind now too. You’re getting much-needed exercise and your stress levels are going down. There might even be a bit of weight loss in there. How could you not feel better about yourself?

This especially works if you are part of a supportive yoga community that can cheer you on when things get tough, but also recognize the strides you’ve made and how much work went into them.

Benefits of Yoga – Conclusion

Some people might have had a tough first experience in a yoga class. Or something made them not really like these kinds of exercises. However, that could have been from a poor instructor, the wrong level, or even an incorrect set of poses for your body.

Seeing all the benefits of yoga, it’s very much worth the time to look into it again.

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Brain Games

Tennis Bomb – Dodge & Hit for Brain Health

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

We’re back with another game review, and this time it’s Tennis Bomb! This colorful game isn’t just fun to play, it’s going to stimulate your Hand-eye Coordination, Response Time, and Visual Perception.

Let’s take a closer look at how you play and how each of these cognitive functions is vital to exercise.

How To Play Tennis Bomb

The premise might seem simple – just hit the corresponding tennis balls with the digital racquet. However, there’s so much more to this game than meets the eye.

First, you’ll go through a simple tutorial that explains the basics. On the other side of the court is a colored rectangle. And, using your mouse to move around your side of the court, hit the same-colored balls back into the box. So, if the rectangle is green, you only hit the green balls and avoid the rest.

However, if you miss one, you’ll lose one of your three lives/hearts. And if all three are gone, the round is over.

Tennis Bomb – Starting Level

Also, once in a while, you might see a coin or a heart head your way. The coin gives you more points and the heart will heal one of your three lives. But what about the name of the game? Where are the bombs? Well, those appear even at the lowest levels. If you accidentally make contact with one, it will crack your racquet. The second bomb will break it.

NOTE: Don’t worry about “aiming” to get the balls into the box. All you have to do is make contact and the ball will automatically go into the box.

It’s also important to remember that you don’t have to stay at the very back of your side of the court. Your racquet can move in any direction. This becomes important at higher levels. Because not only do things speed up, but you’ll also have two or three color balls to keep track of (along with avoiding bombs and grabbing hearts or coins).

Tennis Bomb and The Brain

As mentioned before, there are three cognitive functions that this game will target. Let’s take a look at each one.

Hand-Eye Coordination

We tend to think of hand-eye coordination as something for gamers or sports players. But everyone uses this on a daily basis. We use it when we write/type, unlock a door, drive, etc.

Our eyes send visual information to the brain. It then processes it and tells our hands what to do. The interesting thing is, even if someone’s eyes are great, they can still have coordination problems.

The tie-in to Tennis Bomb is simple. You have to keep an eye on the balls and then use your hands to move the mouse to the correct position.

Tennis Bomb – Hard Level

Response Time

Also called “Reaction Time”, this cognitive ability handles how long it takes for you to see something and then react to it. We use it in everything from driving to doing what is necessary during an emergency. This time can be influenced by many things, such as…

Complexity – The more complex it is, the longer it will take for your brain to process the information.
Familiarity – The more someone has dealt with the stimulus before, the lower the reaction time. The same thing goes if you’re expecting it.
State of the organism – If someone is tired, old, has eaten too much, is on drugs, etc., that can affect the time as well.
Type of Stimulation – Audio is translated faster than visual, etc.

Blindness, hearing problems, diseases like Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, ADHD, concussions, etc., all are examples of things that can negatively affect reaction times.

When you play Tennis Bomb, you need to use this ability to see the balls, bombs, coins, or hearts, and react – whether hitting or moving away.

Visual Perception

This one might sound complicated (as with all things related to the brain). However, if we boil it down, it’s not that hard to understand.

Basically, whatever we see becomes visual information our brain must process to recognize or understand. This can include size, shape, lighting, position, color, dimensions, movement, measurements, names, and even our personal relationship with the object.

Try Tennis Bomb!

Our brains do this all day and in milliseconds. We need it to recognize things like language or loved ones. However, some rely on this ability even more – like driving, creating art, security jobs, etc.

Interesting Fact – Visual agnosia is the inability to recognize learned objects, even though your sight is still intact.

In Tennis Bomb, we must use Visual Perception to know what to hit (like balls vs. coins) and what to avoid (like bombs).

Tennis Bomb Conclusion

Not all CogniFit games have the “restore lives” function. So, if you’re someone who likes more gamification or just wants the chance to stay in the level longer and advance to harder difficulties, then this is the game for you!

Also, you don’t need to play any of these games for long. A normal brain training regime only needs three sessions a week and 20 minutes per session!

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Brain Health

10 Types of Dementia – From Picks to Lewy

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

Today, we are going to look at 10 types of dementia, what comes with them, and some interesting facts maybe you had no idea about before.

Dementia is an umbrella term that’s used to describe severe changes in the brain that result in memory loss. Not only can it change someone’s ability to take care of themselves, but their entire personality can become totally different.

Types of Dementia

Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s is the most common and the one people most recognize. In fact, 60 to 80 percent of all dementia cases fall under this category. What happens is Abnormal deposits of proteins form amyloid plaques and tau tangles throughout the brain.

But it’s not just memory loss that comes with this disease. Early signs can include depression, forgetting what day or year it is, or losing things and being unable to retrace your steps to find them again.

Difficulty speaking or writing
Slow or poor judgment
Mood and personality changes
Losing track of time

Despite plenty of research, doctors still don’t have a firm handle on the disease. They know that lifestyle and genetics play a large role and that it usually comes when someone is older. There are different kinds of medications to try to treat it, but none are 100% effective. Many of them simply manage the symptoms or slow them down.

Trouble recognizing sights/sounds that were familiar before
Memory problems
Trouble speaking or understanding speech
Being confused or agitated
Changes in personality and mood
Frequently falling
Shaky hands
Impulsive behavior

Vascular Dementia

This comes from having a big stroke or the smaller “silent” ones that people don’t notice (and therefore go untreated). Basically, a clot slowed or stopped blood to a certain area of the brain. And while Alzheimer’s comes with the first signs of memory loss, the vascular version first appears as poor judgment or trouble planning, organizing, and making decisions

Trouble recognizing sights/sounds that were familiar before
Memory problems
Trouble speaking or understanding speech
Being confused or agitated
Changes in personality and mood
Frequently falling
Shaky hands

Dementia With Lewy Bodies

Another name is Lewy body dementia. It’s caused by protein deposits in nerve cells. These interrupt chemical messages in the brain and cause memory loss and disorientation.

The interesting with this one is that the patient can also have the normal symptoms of shaking or becoming lost/disoriented, but they can also suffer from hallucinations too. With cognitive decline, they can also experience…

Insomnia
Excessive daytime sleepiness
Loss of coordination
Disorganized or illogical ideas
Inability to concentrate, pay attention, or stay alert
Muscle rigidity
Reduced facial expression

Parkinson’s Disease

This is another version that more people might have heard of. People with this disease get dementia as a bioproduct about 50% to 80% of the time. It’s very similar to DLB (mentioned above) with most of the same symptoms.

The hard thing with Parkinson’s is that symptoms come on small and can go unnoticed for years before a diagnosis can be made. These can include…

anxiety
restless leg syndrome
excessive daytime sleepiness
constipation
loss of smell
reductions in sexual desire
REM sleep behavior
depression
excessive sweating

Frontotemporal Dementia

This is used to describe several types of dementia that have one thing in common: They affect the front and side parts of the brain, which are the areas that control language and behavior. Another name is Pick’s disease.

Doctors don’t know much about it, but they do know it can affect people as young as 45, hereditary, or come from a certain mutated gene. People with this dementia can have…

Sudden lack of inhibitions in personal and social situations
Movement problems, such as shakiness, balance, and spasms
Problems coming up with the right words for things
Personality and behavior changes

Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

This is the rarest condition in which proteins called “prions” cause normal proteins in the brain to fold into abnormal shapes. The damage leads to dementia symptoms that happen suddenly and quickly get worse. Only 1 in 1 million are found to have it each year.

Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome

Other names are Wernicke’s disease or Wernicke’s encephalopathy. It’s caused by the lack of thiamine (Vitamin B1) which can lead to bleeding in the lower parts of the brain. And we know what happens when the brain becomes damaged. It’s mostly seen in people who drink heavy amounts of alcohol.

It can lead to loss of muscle coordination, double vision, etc. But did you know that the first stage is Wernicke disease? And if it’s left untreated, it can form into the advanced version of Korsakoff syndrome.

Huntington’s Disease

Huntington’s is genetic – with the two versions being juvenile (quite rare) or adult-onset (usually around the 30s or 40s). The condition causes a premature breakdown of the brain’s nerve cells. Symptoms can include…

Shaking or jerking
Trouble walking or swallowing
Impulse control issues
Trouble speaking clearly
Difficult learning new things
Problems focusing on tasks

Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus

NPH causes a build of excess fluid in the brain’s ventricles. There’s meant to be fluid there, around the spine and brain, but only in a certain amount so it can properly protect these vital areas. But when the fluids build, it puts excess pressure on the brain. Damage that comes from this can lead to dementia.

About 5% of dementia cases are NPH and can come from injuries, bleeding, infections, tumors, or other surgeries.

Mixed Dementia

As the name suggests, this happens when a patient has more than one kind of dementia at the same time (yes, this can happen). The most common is Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia. Symptoms can be a combination of both diseases and can change depending on treatments, timeline, or a number of other reasons.

Types of Dementia – End Thoughts

Most people find the idea of losing control of their mind and body a very scary thing. However, with regular doctors’ visits, a healthy lifestyle, a healthy mind, and early testing, there is a lot of people can do. Also, research is never-ending and new treatments are always on the horizon.

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Wellness

Social Anxiety – It’s Not Shyness, It’s Suffering

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

When people first think of social anxiety, they might imagine someone at a party, awkwardly standing in a corner, too shy to talk to anyone. But in most cases, that’s really not what’s going on.

Today we’re going to take a closer look at a condition that affects more people than you think as well as various symptoms and other useful information.

What Is Social Anxiety?

The full term is “social anxiety disorder”, but another term is “social phobia.”

It’s an intense, persistent fear of being watched and judged by others. And when we say “persistent” it doesn’t mean for a few hours. Generally, doctors use a diagnosis standard of 6 months. However, using patient history coupled with what they’re going through at that moment, can significantly change this benchmark.

With this fear comes …

Worry or inability to do simple, daily tasks like talk on the phone, go shopping, work, etc.
Deep fear of being criticized, judged in any way or even noticed
Staying away from some or all social activities (even with good friends)
Going over past situations, thinking of “everything you did wrong”
Constant worry that you’ll do something embarrassing
Difficulty doing something when others are watching
Having low self-esteem and everything that goes with it
Difficulty making eye contact
Physical reactions like nausea, racing heart, sweating, trembling, or panic attacks
(In children) crying, tantrums, or clinging/hiding behind parents

Note: If someone is scared of doing something in front of others (e.g. public speaking), and the fear goes away after, this is usually called “performance anxiety.” It’s sometimes included under this umbrella under the label “specific anxiety disorder”.

For people who suffer from this disorder, common things like entering a room where there are other people or returning an item to a store might feel impossible. Even little things like going outside to walk a dog can feel monumental.

More Common Than You Think

It’s easy to dismiss something like this. But did you know that social phobia is now the THIRD largest mental health problem in the world? The only two things that outnumber it are alcoholism and depression.

Millions of people around the globe suffer from this disorder in one way or another. The other interesting thing is that numbers have only skyrocketed since COVID. After lockdown, people everywhere expressed problems getting back out into society.

The issue is there is still a lot of stigma around mental health. People are often uncomfortable talking about even little things. So, imagine trying to tell someone you care about that you’re having a panic attack in the middle of the supermarket because you’re terrified people are watching and judging everything you do.

Sometimes, people might not even know they are suffering from a social anxiety disorder.

Also, people going through this condition are well aware that their thoughts are unfounded. They know that no one is judging them for wearing sweatpants to the market and using the self-checkout instead of the cashier line. But this is on a logical level. Emotionally, they are breaking down inside and ready to collapse on the floor from hyperventilation.

Social Anxiety Treatments

The good news is that there are many avenues to help someone with this disorder. However, no two people are the same. This means that it might take some maneuvering and experimentation to find what really works for that person.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy – This is basically identifying negative thought patterns and changing them into neutral or positive ones. It can be done alone, with a therapist, or anyone that provides healthy support.
Support Groups – They might do group CBT or other forms of help. However, please remember that these places should never force anyone to do anything they’re not comfortable with or ready for. Meaning if the person wants to sit, just listen, and never say a word, then that’s okay.
Medication – There are far too many out there to list, and they should only be prescribed by a medical professional. But some people have found this route works well too. In general, you’ll find these meds fall under a beta blocker, anti-depressant, or anti-anxiety category.
Positive Environment – This can be a sub-topic of CBT or support groups, but it’s worth mentioning that creating a calm, positive environment can work wonders. This can include things like getting rid of toxic friends or taking away key stressors. For example, you can order food online instead of having to go outside. This lets you create an environment that helps you make easier baby steps.

Social Anxiety – End Thoughts

The key takeaway to this entire article? Social anxiety disorders might last a few months or even a lifetime, but it’s quite manageable. It’s just a matter of finding the right combination of aids that works for that person. You’re not alone and there is help out there.

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Brain Health

Alien Hand Syndrome – When Your Body Doesn’t Listen

by CogniFit

written by CogniFit

When we take a sip of water or open a door, we do these things without really thinking. We also take for granted that we can do them at all (especially without anything getting in our way).

But what if simple acts we do with our hands are taken away from us? What do you think it would be like to live with an appendage that seems to have a mind of its own? Today we’re going to look at “Alien Hand Syndrome” and the fascinating facts around it.

Alien Hand Syndrome – The “Discovery“

The first documented case appeared in 1908. German neuropsychiatrist, Kurt Goldstein published a medical case report describing a woman who had partially recovered from a stroke that had affected the left side of her body.

The patient not only described her left hand as feeling “strange” in relation to her movements, but it also seemed to move as if it had a mind of its own or was being controlled by another person. She would grab objects and not be able to let go. It would also make spontaneous movements like touching her face.

Since then, doctors have searched for more cases to study and try to dig down to the root cause of this rare neurological condition.

What Brings It On?

While there have been plenty of breakthroughs over the years, medical professionals still haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact thing that causes this syndrome. Very often, it’s a stroke that’s responsible. But it can be other things as well.

We won’t get into too much medical jargon, but as long as there is something that can damage key parts of the brain (e.g. the corpus callosum or anterior cingulate cortex, etc.), there is a small chance for this condition to appear. The evidence often comes when doctors find lesions on the affected area. There are also other culprits such as…

Surgeries to treat epilepsy
Brain tumors
Neurodegenerative diseases
Brain aneurysms
Other brain traumas

Interesting Alien Hand Syndrome Facts

While it’s usually the left (non-dominant) hand that’s affected, there have been cases of either hand or both hands taking on a “mind of their own.” And, in some exceptionally rare cases, a patient’s leg has also been affected.
All patients have reported the movements as feeling separate from their own bodies and very unintentional.
While children can be affected, most cases appear in adults.
In extremely rare cases patients have reported their hand trying to hurt them. One being choked as she was trying to sleep.
Patients often say their hand will do the opposite of what they want. For example, one person tried to light a cigarette and their alien hand snuffed it out and threw it away. Another said it would unbutton his shirt after he had just done it up. One woman said she could never keep her bra on because her other hand would always unclasp it.
While the syndrome is mostly safe, it’s the embarrassment and misunderstandings that come with it that patients have the most difficulty dealing with. For example, if their hand steals something, knocks something over, or randomly shoots up into the air.

AKA “Doctor Strangelove Syndrome”

Treatment of Alien Hand Syndrome

There is currently no treatment other than management. Some doctors have seen their patient’s symptoms lessen as their brain heals, and in some cases, disappear. More often than not, it’s about learning ways of coping with daily life while having an appendage that does whatever it wants. This has been done either through therapy or through a patient’s ingenuity.

Some examples include…

Wearing an oven mitt to dampen tactile sensations (sometimes called “muffling).
Holding a stress ball or other object. For example, one man noticed his hand always wanted to grab things, so he started holding a cane. He didn’t need one to walk, and he wouldn’t even know he was holding it most of the time, but it would solve the problem in a way he could be around people again.
Wearing medical braces or even handcuffs at night to prevent any movement altogether.
Creating a “task” for the hand to do and incorporating it during flare-ups.
The use of Botox or Benzodiazepines under a doctor’s supervision.
Using “Mirror” or Visuospatial therapy techniques.

The Doctor Strangelove Connection

While this syndrome has appeared in television and in movies (such as House and Idle Hands), the most famous one is from Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film Dr. Strangelove. The main character has alien hand syndrome and cannot stop doing inappropriate actions, mainly the Nazi salute.

This was used as a comedic relief tactic. The movie became a cult classic, and the syndrome quickly gained another manicure – the Dr. Strangelove syndrome. Some suggestions for this term to become the official name have been squashed, but the title still floats around.

End Thoughts

While the movie might have its funny moments (and from the outside, it’s a fascinating brain disorder), the reality of AHS is not funny at all. It’s, at minimum, inconvenient and more often than not very hard for people to function with.

But, as mentioned before, there are many ways to cope with it. And medicine/therapy has come a long way since 1908. If you or someone you know has this condition, living a fairly normal life is very possible with a variety of treatments.

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Newer Posts

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Here are some general HIPAA certification examples that will make things even clearer:

SOC 2 & HIPPA Certification Last Thoughts

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Applying Mindfulness To Toxic Perfectionism

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Visual Short-Term Memory

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