Posted on Tue, Jul. 08, 2008

You put your keys in the fridge and forgot Mom's birthday. No use denying: Your brain is on its way to becoming a few pounds of petrified gray matter, and there's nothing you can do to stop it.

Patty Soffer is betting otherwise. Watching her dad, 87, and mom, 79, grow increasingly what she calls ''memory-challenged,'' she spends several hours a week at Dania Beach's BrainAerobics, chasing balls around a screen with her cursor, speeding to match pictures with the first letter of their name.

My parents ''both stopped using their brains,'' said Soffer of Aventura. ``And I do not want to be in that state. Age robbed me of my butt . . . but I really like my brain power.''

A confluence of factors -- baby boomers bent on physical fitness, evolving understanding of the brain and advancements in technology -- have sparked a market of personal brain training software and services. This isn't for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other medically diagnosed memory disorders; it's more for what BrainAerobics founder Dr. Susanna Goldstein calls the ``worried-well.''

NO PROOF OF EFFECTIVENESS

No definitive research has proven the effectiveness of these digital brain fitness programs. Medical research of the past few decades, however, has demonstrated the brain can form neurological connections well into the later years of life.

Out is the prevailing thought of the 1960s that ''you can't teach an old dog new tricks,'' said Michael Marsiske, an associate professor of clinical and health psychology at the University of Florida, who studies the effect of video games on cognitive ability.

''New learning occurs at any age,'' he says. Once a patient has early signs of dementia, memory-training programs stop working, he says, but studies show that leading a lifetime of stimulating activities makes one less likely to later become demented.

Memory-conscious adults have long done crossword puzzles and read extensively to stay mentally fit, but Marsiske says these exercises have only limited benefits. ''You might improve the thing crossword puzzles emphasize . . . but that doesn't mean it transfers to anywhere else,'' he says.

New software, like the MindFit used by BrainAerobics or BrainAge, a popular video game by Nintendo, are different because they have varied tasks that exercise a breadth of mental abilities, he says.

BrainAerobics says it trains 14 cognitive skills, including awareness, planning and inhibition -- a ''cognitive fitness gym,'' Goldstein calls it. In an hour-long session, clients play computer games, stand on vibrating exercise machines and sit down for relaxation time of controlled, slow respiration.

Soffer, 53, isn't sure if she has improved her memory in the three months she has been training at the Dania Beach location -- it opened in April -- but she's more forward-thinking: ''I'm going to be . . . aware and catch anything that comes my way before it takes me down,'' Soffer says.

While Soffer is looking ahead, Amy Price sought out Boca Raton's Sparks of Genius five years ago after a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. She couldn't carry out simple tasks -- recalling a relative's phone number, cooking dishes in several steps, finding her way around shopping centers.

''It's pretty discouraging when you've been a relatively high-functioning individual,'' says Price, 54, who is studying for a second doctorate in cognitive neuroscience.

She trains for 45 minutes a day, five days a week, on programs like Smart Driver, a simulated car game that makes motorists decide when they need to pull over -- ''I wish the person who had hit me had those skills,'' she says.

She says Sparks of Genius has helped to rev up her mental ability, but, as its name suggests, it has larger goals: to identify and nurture an individual's high-potential areas. ''Merely playing the games or exercising really isn't all it is,'' says Rohn Kessler, who founded the center in 2001. Before starting Sparks of Genius, he was an adjunct professor of educational leadership at Florida Atlantic University.

Some, however, aren't convinced of the value of these digital exercises.

''There's a lot more to brain fitness than buying some computer programs,'' says Dr. Raymond Ownby, of the University of Miami Memory Disorder Center.

DUBIOUS VALUE

His program, which began last September at UM's medical school, emphasizes holistic treatment for cognitive care, incorporating exercise and healthy eating into a digital regimen. He does not dismiss the computer programs, but says spending hundreds of dollars on them when results are yet to be proven is of dubious value.

A more economical option? ''A simple walking program makes a difference and improves cognition in just a short period of time,'' he says. ``Anything that gets blood to the brain is good.''

A healthy diet also can help prevent cardiovascular disease, which restricts blood flow from the heart to the brain.

Goldstein, of BrainAerobics, says there is ''no direct evidence'' that her program improves cognition or staves off memory disorders, but says clients can undertake the program while waiting for the research to confirm or negate its value.

''The stage where brain fitness is is where physical fitness was 30 to 40 years ago, when Jane Fonda started . . . Where was the proof at that time?'' she says.

Kim Johnson, who coaches and challenges Soffer over her shoulder, doesn't doubt the program's worth.

''We have a product that gives people hope. And that is worth it all,'' she says.