Mar 19 2009
Brain Training for Memory Improvement
A couple of days ago I read an article about Dr. Torkel Klingberg of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute who has developed a Memory Boosting program that has been proven effective through clinical trials. The program is now winning support from U.S. clinicians as a treatment for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and for promoting recovery from damage caused by a stroke.
Dr. Klingberg’s software program is also being promoted as a general tool for improving our memories even if we don’t have any special memory problems; however, the program is expensive, at least by my standards, at $1500 to $2000, for a five-week course.
There is an on-line program that runs about $6 a month called Lumosity, and I would like to think that brain-training software shouldn’t have to cost a fortune in order to be effective. Lumosity, by the way, does offer a 7-day free trial. I haven’t yet decided on spending money for brain training.
I am at that age, now 62, where I DO find myself forgetting what I came into a room to do, and frequently struggle to remember a name or word that hasn’t been used in a while. I eventually do recall the information, but I DON’T like the memory “delays,” which remind me that I am aging and sometimes I probably get overly concerned about it.
I think we tend remember what is most important to us, regardless of our age, and oftentimes that does not coincide with what other people think is important, as in “Dad, how could you FORGET that!?”
I am including links to the Klingberg lab and to his brain-training software.
