Tina Brigham, a 50-year-old store owner from a suburb of Washington, DC, wrestled with the puzzles while waiting for customers. "If it's a 30-minute puzzle, I try to figure it out in 12," she said. After several years, she found she could easily put together employee work schedules in her head. "A lot of stores use an electronic scheduling tool, but I have all the data in my mind," she said. "I think my brain seems sharper and more focused because of the game."
The games do seem to work. In one 2020 study, Gary Small, chair of psychiatry at Hackensack University Medical Center, found that 1,091 women and men who frequently played cards, bingo, or did crossword puzzles had sharper thinking and memory skills — equivalent to an IQ up to 5. 6 points higher — than those who rarely did. The study doesn't prove that the puzzles directly led to the higher IQs, but it does show that even people who increased their game-playing in their 70s seemed to get brain benefits within a few years.
Exactly how games sharpen memory and cognitive function is still something of a mystery. But advances in neuroimaging(神经影像学) allow researchers to study how the brain reacts to all sorts of outside stimulation. Small later included 60 women and men completing Latin squares. As the puzzles grew more difficult with fewer clues, players slowed down and made more mistakes. That's when he discovered something surprising: More regions of the brain got involved, especially in the prefrontal cortex(前额叶皮质区), an area involved with problem-solving, judgment, and memory
Small suggests that if you find yourself debating whether to spend the next 20 minutes taking a walk or playing a brain game, you should choose the walk. Physical activity can help deliver oxygen and fuel to your brain cells. "If you do one thing to help your brain, I'd say it's exercise," he says. "Getting good sleep and keep a balanced diet are also important. Brain games work best as part of a whole package of brain-healthy strategies." And remember: A little fun never hurts.
