No, Drive Me Crazy is not a racing game. But the speed that some levels get to can feel like you’re behind the wheel of a Bugatti going down an icy hill while someone is screaming distracting noises in your ear.

So, what is this game, and how does its simple mechanics help Auditory perception, Contextual Memory, Inhibition, and Shifting abilities? Let’s take a closer look!

How To Play Drive Me Crazy

First, you’ll be given an auditory check. If you can hear the tone, you can go ahead to the next screen. Here, you’ll be asked to select a level (by moving the upside-down-tear drop) on the right side of the screen.

You’ll be given a quick tutorial on that level. Right after, you’ll jump into gameplay.

On lower levels, you’ll have plenty of help. The screen will either show the word left, right, up or down. Then, all you need to do is click the corresponding arrow. You will also get audio prompts. If the recording says, “up” just press the up arrow. Sounds easy, yeah? And you would be quite correct. And easy levels are always something we suggest starting with.

Because it’s on the harder levels that the game really earns its name.

At the highest difficulty, you’ll hear four directions. However, you’ll also see conflicting information. For example. The task might be to “remember the four spoken directions” but the screen will flash opposite directions, or even numbers, or completely different words.

Afterward, you’ll have to click the arrows FAST. And we mean REALLY fast. Even a couple seconds delay and the round will count as failed.

But don’t worry. There’s no rush or need to push yourself to that level any time soon, if at all. Stay at wherever level you feel is comfortable. Still, make sure it’s challenging enough to keep your brain building those neural pathways!

What Brain Functions Are Flexed During Driving Me Crazy?

1. Auditory perception

Our brain interprets so much information (stimuli) around us. One of those is auditory information.

So, when the phone rings, we know to pick it up. It also lets us know if we recognize the other person on the other end or not. Sound waves zip through the air, reach certain areas of our inner ear, and then are sent to parts of the brain to be processed.

We are also able to understand different tones, timbres, durations, and intensities. But all of these are just mere details.

• Our brains must be able to first “detect” the sound wave.
• Next, we need to be able to separate it from other competing noises around us.
• After that, we must be able to recognize it – is it your mom asking you to clean your room again or the strum of a guitar?
• Finally, our brains need to “comprehend” the meaning of the sound. A good example is the ring of a bell. To students, it’s a sign that class is over. To others, a signal to go to church.

2. Contextual Memory

Our minds have so many different kinds of memory it’s crazy! Also, each one has a very necessary place in the impressive neurological dance we exist in every moment.

Contextual Memory is part of long-term memory. But it’s not something that lets you learn and remember a new language.

Have you ever been around a smell that triggered a certain memory that made you happily nostalgic? Or is there a song that you can’t stand listening to because it’s connected to a heartbreaking memory?

This is Contextual Memory.

And as painful as it might be sometimes, it’s one of the reasons we can learn and retain things more efficiently. So, it’s a very important brain function to nurture.

3. Inhibition

Have you ever been driving, and someone cut you off? All you wanted to do was slam on your horn, scream at the top of your lungs that the driver was a “so-and-so”? And you were ready to cut him off, jump out of your car, and bonk them on the head?

First, please don’t do that.

Second, if you didn’t do that, you have excellent Inhibition. However, keeping your temper isn’t all that this brain function is essential for. This skill lets us have better control and concentration in our lives. In fact, it’s one of our “Executive Functions” – key processes (key functions that allow goal setting and planning).

People with poor Inhibition skills might have these problems:

• Can’t concentrate during school or work
• More traffic altercations
• Have more of a negative mindset
• Keeping their calm during annoyances
• Trouble having a fluid conversation

4. Shifting

It’s the wonderful process of adaptation!

Yep, “Shifting” is what gives humans the ability to change to whatever happens around us. However, it’s important to know that cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to adapt to a change, while mental shifting is the process that makes it possible to adapt to the change. (Yes, English is tricky, but it really boils down to “can” vs “do”, if that makes sense).

Not only can you adapt quickly, but you can also tolerate changes well or move from one task to another with relative ease. If you have great Shifting skills you can see from different points of view and recognize hidden relationships. It helps with achieving goals, supporting intelligence, and much more empathetic.

Drive Me Crazy Conclusion

As we can see, Drive Me Crazy takes some very important mental skills and mixes them all together. Inhibition makes you not click the buttons too fast and get wrong answers. The audio clips and words help your Contextual Memory with you link them with what you see on the screen. So, you can see how it all works?

The great thing is that building better brain function doesn’t take as much as people think. Just 3 sessions a week and 20 minutes per session and you’ll be on the road to a rocking brain! Check out this game and more at CogniFit.

Upon first glance, Twist It, might seem familiar. After all, there are a million versions online. However, the difference between those and the one CogniFit designed was that the generic ones are meant to drain your wallet or zone you out. On the other hand, Twist It was specifically created to work on key brain functions and improve them.

Let’s take a look at how the game works and how it ties into the 5 cognitive functions you’ll be exercising.

How to Play Twist It

The objective of this game is to align three or more pieces of the same kind, horizontally or vertically, by swapping one with the other. Lines of four or more will work, but the minimum is three. Also, diagonal lines or blocks of 4 will not work (only lines).

Lower levels keep it simple.

You’ll have to race against the clock to get the target number of line combos. That, in and of itself is easy and quite enjoyable.

However, as you up the game’s difficulty, more obstacles are put in your way. Some blocks will be “iced” over, and you’ll have to line them up twice to make them disappear. Also, some of the leaves and flowers will have slight differences. This will force you to step up your concentration (planning game).

You can also get special pieces by merging four or five pieces. These pieces will let you break more blocks. But, on the hardest levels, you’ll come across “diamonds.” The only way to break these is to “explode” the adjacent “boom” blocks. These are the ones with grey backgrounds.

Twist It will get you hooked fast. But you don’t have to feel guilty while playing because you’ll be nurturing the following brain functions…

Focused Attention

This is just someone’s ability to focus on certain stimuli for a given period of time. It can help us focus on study or let us know when we are thirsty. However, it can be hindered by…

• Personal Factors: We’re more likely to process a stimulus correctly when we’re awake and motivated. Rather than sad or tired, or bored.
• Environmental Factors: It’s easier to pay attention to a stimulus or target activity if there are fewer distractions. The more distractions, the harder it is to harness our Focused Attention.
• Stimulus Factors: Novelty, complexity, or duration of the stimulus. If there’s just one obvious stimulus, it will be easier

Twist It makes you focus on the images and their subtle differences in order to make a successful match.

Planning

Planning is one of our Executive Functions. It gives us the ability to think about the future – whether seconds or years. During this process, we need to think about the timeline, and what steps we need to take, and the goals we need to achieve to be successful. Some common examples can include…

• Packing a suitcase
• Going shopping
• Getting something from a high place
• Cleaning a room
• Cooking a meal
• Organizing a day out with friends

People with poor Planning abilities have trouble making decisions or foreseeing consequences. They might have problems knowing how long it will take to do something. There will also be indications of low productivity, careless work habits, and difficulty dealing with unexpected situations. They also take much longer to adapt to change.

The planning aspect of this CogniFit game is clear – but presented in a fun way so the player feels no pressure while improving this Executive Function.

Visual Perception

Perception is being able to interpret the information that your different senses receive from your surroundings. Light waves reach our eyes and the brain processes them in different ways so we can understand them.

To get an idea of the complexity of this cognitive function, try to think about your brain when you look at a soccer ball. What are the factors that you should identify?

• Lighting and contrast: You can see the lines that are more or less illuminated, and have a parameter that is different than the rest of the objects around and behind it.
• Size: It’s a circular object with a circumference of about 27 inches.
• Shape: It’s round.
• Position It’s about 10 feet from me, to my right. I could easily touch it.
• Color: It’s white with black pentagons. If the light went away suddenly, we would still know that it is black and white.
• Dimensions: It’s three-dimensional, which means that it’s a sphere.
• Movement: It’s not moving now, but is susceptible to movement.
• Units: There is one, and it’s different from the ground.
• Use: It’s used to play soccer. It is kicked with the foot
• Personal relationship with the object: I like the one that you use at soccer practice.
• Name: It’s a soccer ball. This last process is called “naming”.

Since there are many variations of the flowers and leaves in Twist It, you’ll heavily rely on your Perception Skill.

Visual Scanning

Visual scanning is the ability to efficiently, quickly, and actively look for information relevant to your environment. It’s what makes it possible to find what you’re looking for using just your vision. Visual scanning is an important skill for daily life, and makes it possible to efficiently carry out a number of different tasks.

Width of Field of View

Field of View is what the eye sees when you look at a static point, both straight ahead and around you (periphery). Field of vision makes it possible to perceive your daily environment. In general, the normal limits are:

• Nasal portion: The space that is between the field of view towards the nose. The normal limit in this field of view is 60º (horizontal axis).
• Temporal portion: The space between field of vision towards the ear. The normal limit in this part is 100º (horizontal axis)
• Superior portion: Space between the center of field of vision and up. The normal limit for this field of vision is 60º (vertical axis).
• Inferior portion: Space from the center of field of vision and down. The normal limit for this field of view is 75º (vertical axis).

So, other games of this nature work with a small screen. CogniFit uses a larger screen of images to expand your Field of View. You exercise this aspect of your brain function passively while playing!

Twist It Conclusion

This game is definitely something to add to your weekly regime. And did you know that to build better brain function, all you need is 3 sessions a week and 20 minutes per session? Why not give it a try?

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?

There are brain games that are a real challenge. Then there are others that are a bit more relaxing. That doesn’t mean that the latter doesn’t flex your brain in a big way!

This is why CogniFit’s Color Frenzy is a fantastic game to add to your weekly repertoire. Despite its name, it won’t put your heart in a frenzy! Let’s take a look at how the game works and the four brain functions you’ll be improving while you play.

How to Play Color Frenzy

The starting screen lets you choose what level of difficulty. Our suggestion? Try a few rounds on lower levels to get a feeling for how things work.

The premise itself is simple, you’ll have a number of squares of the same color. Eg. purple. But one of the squares will be slightly darker or lighter than the others. All you have to do is click that square. As the levels get harder there will be more subtle shade/tint variations to make you concentrate even more.

At the hardest levels, things take a twist. Blocks will be grouped with differed hues but you’ll have to estimate which group is the largest/smallest etc.

But what about the brain functions you use? Here are the four you will exercise and how they are important in your life….

Color Frenzy & Estimation

You’ll probably hear throughout many articles that (whatever) brain function “is the most important” blah blah. But in the case of Estimation, it’s one deserves very much to be in the category. Why?

It’s something that we rely on for nearly everything we do. Do you want to open a door to get to the next room? You have to estimate the space between you, your hand, and the doorknob before you can even get to the eye-hand coordination part. And if you like sports, they would be impossible to play without this essential function.

But, it’s also broken down into “micro-strategies”…

• 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.

Everything from driving to making on-the-fly judgments need this brain function.

Focused Attention

Simply put, it’s just someone’s ability to detect and pay attention to something (stimulus) for a given amount of time. This can include survival reactions like knowing when we need to drink something.

This brain function depends on three things…

• Personal Factors: Level of activation, motivation, emotion, or sensory modality that processes the stimulus. We’re more likely to process a stimulus correctly when we’re awake and motivated, rather than sad or tired, or if the stimulus is boring
• Environmental Factors: It’s easier to pay attention to a stimulus or target activity if there are few environmental distractions, and it becomes more difficult to concentrate with more frequent or intense distractions.
• Stimulus Factors: Novelty, complexity, duration, or salience of the stimulus. If there is only one single, simple, obvious stimulus, it will be easier to detect it.

This skill is important in things like driving, academics, and in your job.

Processing Speed

Processing speed is one of the main elements of the cognitive process, which is why it is one of the most important skills in learning, academic performance, intellectual development, reasoning, and experience.

Think of a computer. While there are many parts that help it run fast, the CPU is vital for speed. It’s the same for our brains and processing speed. It’s the time you take to do a mental task. It’s how long you take to receive information and react to it.

But it’s important to keep in mind that this has nothing to do with intelligence! It just means it might take longer to do things – like complete a task in 1 hour that would normally take 30 minutes.

Visual Perception

Being able to read this text seems like a simple process. We look at the letters and are able to make sense of the words. It seems simple, but it’s actually an extremely complex process that uses a number of brain structures specialized in visual perception and the different sub-components of vision.

This ability to interpret information depends on your particular cognitive processes and prior knowledge. Visual perception could be defined as the ability to interpret the information that our eyes receive. But we also have to understand things like…

• Lighting and contrast: You can see the lines that are more or less illuminated, and have a parameter that is different than the rest of the objects around and behind it.
• Size: it’s a circular object with a circumference of about 27 inches.
• Shape: it’s round.
• Position: It’s about 10 feet from me, to my right. I could easily touch it.
• Color: It’s white with black pentagons. If the light went away suddenly, we would still know that it is black and white.
• Dimensions: It’s three-dimensional, which means that it’s a sphere.
• Movement: it’s not moving now, but is susceptible to movement.
• Units: there is one, and it’s different from the ground.
• Use: it’s used to play soccer. It is kicked with the foot
• Personal relationship with the object: it’s like the one that you use at soccer practice.
• Name: it’s a soccer ball. This last process is called naming.
  

You’ve seen those games in arcades, fairs, or on television? The long ramps with the tiny cylinders at the end – and the impossible high-point one right in the middle.

Well, our amazing creative team at CogniFit has made another brain-exercising game that’s going to flex your Auditory perception, Estimation, Hand-eye Coordination, and Naming functions – all within the idea of those Skee-ball games.

Let’s take a closer look at how you play as well as each brain process you’ll build and how they’re important.

How to Play Marble Race

After a quick audio check, you’ll find yourself on the instruction level screen. Here, you’ll get some tips as well as the option to choose what level of difficulty to start on.

Now, it might be tempting to jump to the end. But, trust us, it’s always a good idea to start at lower levels to get a feel for how things work. Then you can work your way up.

In front of you will be Skee-ball holes. In the upper left corner, there will be a blank section. And in the right corner, there will be a row with four colored marbles. Yours is the one at the very top. The others are your “competitors” – and this is your Marble Race.

• Listen to the sound at the beginning of each round.
• At lower levels, you’ll also get an image to help you.
• Next, select the ball that has the first letter of the word associated with that sound. 
• Click it with the mouse and then try to toss it towards one of the holes.
• The higher value, the more points you get, and the faster your marble moves along the track.

As levels get harder, there will be more challenges…

• More background noise to distract you
• No pictures to help you out
• More Skee balls with letters to choose from
• More holes with lower values  

But don’t worry. You can stay at any level you want for as long as you want! The point is to exercise key brain functions and nurture those neural networks! Let’s look at what processes Marble Race helps…

Auditory Perception

When you hear an elevator ding, signaling you’ve reached your floor. Or, you hear a beep or vibrating pulse on your phone telling you there’s a new message. These may seem like simple things.

But in fact, it’s a long string of complicated processes that happens. And honestly, one that would make anyone appreciate the beauty of our brains.

First, the sound wave reaches our inner ears where it activates certain cells. Then, this information travels through different parts of our neural network. Once it reaches the auditory cortex in the temporal lobes, the data can be “worked with.” But how?

It needs to analyze the tone, timbre, intensity, and duration of the sound wave. For example, a quick horn honk vs a long one.

Estimation

Estimation is one of our most important neuropsychological functions, as many of our daily activities depend on our ability to estimate speed, distance, or time. Estimation could be thought of as the mental process that allows us to predict or create a response when there is no other solution.

• Distance Estimation helps us not bump into people
• Speed Estimation allows us to drive without accidents
• Movement Estimation is what allows people to play sports
• Time Estimation lets us calculate the time between two events

In Marble Race, you exercise your Estimation skills by trying to throw the ball in the higher-point holes.

Hand-eye Coordination

This brain function is needed for nearly everything we do. It’s our brain’s ability to link our eyes and our hands together. When we write, play sports, type on a keyboard, put a key in a lock, shake hands with someone, etc. One very important one is while driving.

What most people don’t realize is that having poor vision or motor skills on their own isn’t what affects hand-eye coordination. It’s when we have to use them together is when problems occur.

Naming

Naming is our ability to refer to an object, person, place, concept, or idea by its proper name. To name an object, you need access to your internal dictionary, find the specific word that you’re looking for, and say it out loud. This is done in three systems.

• Phase 1 (the semantic system): Recovering information about the object that you want to name. For example, if you see an old classmate on the street, you identify that he was a classmate, that he was in your x class, and that he was friends with John, Tim, and Bill.
• Phase 2 (phonological lexical system): Recovering the best word for the object or idea. Using the same example, your old classmate’s name was Jeff, which would make it the most appropriate name to call him. This is the key process in Naming.
• Phase 3 (phoneme storage): Recovering each of the phonemes that make up the chosen word. For example, Jeff would be “/j/, /e/, /f/”.

These three phases are independent, which means that one of them can be altered without affecting the others. As such, the ability to remember a specific word is unrelated to the information that you have about the object that you want to name.

Naming helps us in many ways – taking tests, meeting friends, doing word games, or even following orders.

Marble Race Conclusion

This game is another great addition to CogniFit’s ever-growing portfolio of brain exercises. All you need is 20 minutes a day, 3 times a week! So, why not integrate Marble Race and see if you like it?

CogniFit’s Find Your Pet Brain Game – Click on areas of the screen until you hear the bark or meow of your fur baby. Sounds simple, right? But did you know that while playing this game, you’re exercising the following brain functions: Auditory Perception, Focused Attention, Inhibition, Spatial Perception, Visual Scanning.

Let’s take a closer look.

Find Your Pet Breakdown

After an audio check, you’ll find yourself on the main game page. Here, you can choose the level of difficulty. As with all game, it’s a good idea to try out the lower levels first to get a feel for what’s going on.

Once in the game, you find yourself in various landscapes with things like trees, people, vehicles, buildings etc.  Simply move your mouse to push the magnifying glass around the screen. Click on any part of the landscape and you’ll hear a sound.

It could be the wind blowing, leaves rustling, birds chirping, horns honking, etc. But if it’s not the sound of your pet, move on and click other parts of the screen until you find the little guy.

The thing is, on the surface, it seems easy. But it can be quite tricky. And the harder the level, the more noise distractions and a greater number of obstacles there will be. This means the more concentration and patience you’ll have to muster.

But what parts of the brain does Find Your Pet help with? Here’s a rundown…

Auditory Perception

Let’s say the phone rings. You pick it up and it’s your friend on the other end. What you’ve just done might seem like a very simple thing. However, a flurry of brain activity happened in mere milliseconds.

First, the audio waves reach your ears and then activate certain cells in the inner ear. The information is then sent to areas of the brain where it can distinguish things like timbre, tone, intensity, and duration of what you just heard.

But that’s not all that must happen in Auditory Perception.

First, we must be able to “detect” the sound. For example, some waves might be too quiet or far away for us to hear. Next, we need to “discriminate.” This means we need to pick out the sound from all the other noise clutter around us. Then, our brains need to “recognize” what we are hearing. Is it a guitar or someone talking? Finally, we need to be able to understand the sound’s meaning. For example, the ring of a bell at school tells us that class is over.

A lot of people link Auditory Perception problems with deafness. But that’s not all.

• There’s “amusia” – where people can’t recognize music.
• Musical hallucination – where people hear music that isn’t there.
• Tinnitus – a constant ringing in one’s ears
• And so much more.

Focused Attention

In short, Focused Attention means someone is able to concentrate on one thing for however long is needed. This can include being aware of driving conditions, to internal signals of know when it’s time to have a drink.

Types of attention include…

• Arousal: How alert we are, whether we are tired or full of energy.
• Focalized Attention: The ability to focus our attention on a stimulus.
• Sustained Attention: The ability to focus on that stimulus or activity over a long period of time.
• Selective Attention: How well we can focus when there are distractions around us.
• Alternating Attention: If we can change focus between different tasks.
• Divided Attention: How well we can pay attention to two things at once.

We all know that things like ADD, ADHA, schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s Disease, or strokes can cause attention disorders. However, things like severe lack of sleep or anxiety disorders can cause all kinds of problems with focus.

Inhibition

Have you ever been driving, and someone cut you off? Did you immediately pound on your horn and start yelling in a fit of rage? Or did you try to remain calm and focus on road safety?

Inhibition is one of our brain’s “executive functions” that helps us controls impulsive behavior and react with reason and attention instead.

Those with poor Inhibition have poor attention spans, hyperactivity, and forms of uncontrollable behavior.

Spatial Perception

This brain function basically allows us to use internal and external abilities to be aware of our surroundings. Without it, we would have a hard time walking upstairs or even turning a doorknob. It’s a particularly important function to have in order to be a safe driver.

Visual Scanning

If you like playing sports, you need to be able to scan the field quickly to know what to do next. Or, maybe you’re in a hurry in the supermarket. You need to grab the things on your list as fast as possible. Things like this are possible because of the brain’s ability to Visually Scan.

But in order to do this, our minds have to go through a certain process…

• Selective and Focused Attention: You need to be aware of whatever “stimulus” in order to find it. Selective attention, however, is the ability to pay attention to a single stimulus when there are distractions around you.
• Visual Perception: This makes it possible to distinguish, identify, and interpret shapes, colors, and lights. This is when you make sense of the information that you receive from your eyes.
• Recognition: Comparing the visual information you receive to determine whether you have prior experience with this info.
• Visual Scanning: Looking through all or part of your field of view to try to compare what you’re seeing to what you’re looking for. You will stop looking as soon as you recognize the information that you’re searching for.

The sequence of Visual Scanning is a delicate dance of brain processes. If even one is altered or damaged, it can be hard or even impossible to find what you’re looking for.

Find Your Pet Conclusion

Find Your Pet seems simple on the surface. But after seeing all the brain functions you exercise while playing, we now see that is a rather robust game. And one worth adding to your weekly brain game plan!