9 Best Brain Training Websites
This is a review of a recent article entitled “9 Great Brain Games and Brain Training Websites”, in VeryWellMind.
The article states: “From pen-and-paper Sudoku and crosswords to specialized brain training apps, options for brain games are plentiful. People of all ages use these games to improve mental functioning and prevent brain aging.”
It further states: “Brain training may help improve your memory, response time, and logic skills, cognitive function is complicated. If you’d like to give your brain a workout and have fun too, try these games and activities that may improve your mental focus and fitness.”
Sudoku
See my blog entitled “15 Board Games that will make you Smarter”.
Sudoku is a number placement game that relies on short-term memory. To complete a Sudoku puzzle, you have to look ahead and follow trails of consequences. This type of planning helps improve short-term memory and concentration.
Sudoku can be played online, on an app, or on paper. Look for a regular Sudoku puzzle in your newspaper, buy a book with a collection of puzzles (see Amazon.com[link – see below) or download a free app for your phone or tablet (I know that there is a free Sudoku ad on the Apple store).
You can get Sudoku from Amazon.com for $6.99, or you can get the free version of Sudoku, as stated in the VeryWellMind article, from www.websudoku.com.
Sudoku puzzles are available in varying degrees of difficulty. When you’re starting out, play the easy games until you learn the rules. If you’re playing on paper, use a pencil!
Lumosity
See my blog entitled: “See What Your Mind Can Do“. The price for the subscription service is explained there.
Lumosity is one of the most established brain training and mental fitness programs. You can sign up for a free account to play three games per day, or choose the subscription service for more offerings. Either way, you can keep track of your results and improvement.
Lumosity’s fun brain training and mental fitness games, tests, and activities are backed by science. You can play them on the website, or download the free apps for iOS, Apple and Android. Lumosity also has a meditation and mindfulness app called Lumosity Mind.
Crosswords
See my blog entitled “15 Board Games that will make you Smarter”
Crossword exercises are classic brain trainers, accessing verbal language as well as memory from many dimensions of knowledge. There are many ways to do crossword puzzles, both online and off. If you subscribe to a daily newspaper, you’ll almost always get a crossword there. Or you can pick up a book of crossword puzzles specifically suited to your skill level and interests.
You will also find many options for crossword puzzles online or via free or inexpensive apps. The AARP website offers a daily crossword.
The daily crossword is free to everyone, whether or not you’re a member of the group.
Elevate
Although the VeryWellMind article states that this is free, there is a cost of $9.99/month to subscribe for 35+ games. When I was downloading the app, I could not finish the downloading unless I subscribed for $9.99/month.
You’ll need to download an app to play Elevate‘s 35 (and counting) different brain training games, which have a strongly educational feel.
Elevate’s games center on reading, writing, speaking and math. You can customize your training to focus on whichever areas you prefer. You can track your progress to see how your skills are improving.
I personally don’t like the Elevate games because I don’t think they add anything to my brain capacity and they are difficult to play in this form because it’s hard to determine what the right answers are.
Peak Brain Workout
Peak is another app-only option (available for iOS, Android and Apple) that provides brain games to help you work on focus, memory, problem-solving, mental agility, and more cognitive functions. If you’re a competitive type of person, you might be motivated by seeing how well you perform against other users. The app is free to use, but an inexpensive subscription unlocks more features. One good feature is that you get your score and a performance evaluation at the end of each game.
Happy Neuron
Price: You must create an account and purchase a membership in order to use: $6.65/month. This is a monthly subscription fee. Although the article states that “Happy Neuron offers a free trial so you can see if you like the approach”, I was not able to find that anywhere.
Happy Neuron divides its games and activities into five critical brain areas: memory, attention, language, executive functions, and visual/spatial. Like Lumosity, it personalizes the training to fit you, tracks your progress, and the games are based on scientific research.
Happy Neuron’s simplified app version is available for Android users only.
Good thing about Happy Neuron: It has a feature called “Let’s do a bit of physiology – Do you know the essential features of brain training?”
“Increasingly, scientific evidence tells us that we can dramatically increase the probability of staying mentally and physically fit throughout our lives. Physical exercise, good nutrition, social connection with others, and mental stimulation all play important parts in insuring that our brains remain sharp and agile.”
The following section, on their website, is very helpful:
There are several physiological mechanisms to keep your brain healthy:
- Stimulated and therefore active neurons get more oxygen and nutritive elements.
- Neural stimulation multiplies the number of connections between synapses.
- Keeping your neurons active is the key to generating new ones, as well as developing them and helping them survive.
- Even in adult life, neurons can regenerate with stem cells.
Another section, called “Building your Cognitive Profile”, is also quite helpful. Here are Happy Neuron’s instructions for this section: “Complete it by playing at least 10 games in each cognitive sector. It will also help you get familiar with the coach and the games before you start the training.”
Braingle
Price: Free to play on www.braingle.com
With over 15,000 brain teasers, riddles, logic problems, optical illusions, codes and ciphers, trivia quizzes, and mind puzzles submitted and ranked by users like you, Braingle has the largest collection anywhere on the internet! It also has an online community of enthusiasts. You can even create your own puzzles to give your brain a super workout. You can even create your own puzzles to give your brain a super workout.
Queendom
Queendom has thousands of personality tests and surveys. It also has an extensive collection of “brain tools”—including logic, verbal, spatial, and math puzzles; trivia quizzes; and aptitude tests—for you to exercise and test your brain. If you’d like to save results and scores, you’ll need a free account. Some tests give you only snapshot results for free, and charge a fee for full reports.
Free to take tests. However, there is a fee if you want a copy of the report.
Tests include: emotional intelligence test, classical IQ test, verbal-linguistic intelligence test, scientifically developed tests, fun tests and quizzes, mind-stretchers, trivia quizzes.
I tried (unsuccessfully) to create an account and am still waiting for their email confirmation. That function doesn’t work from this website.
Brain Age Concentration Training
This is a brain training and mental fitness system for the Nintendo 3DS system. It includes a huge number of games to hone your concentration, memory, calculation, and other brain skills. It’s fun, portable, and challenging. Brain Age is also available for the Nintendo Wii U, but not for the Switch, Nintendo’s most up-to-date gaming system.
Cost: $29.99 for the Brain Age Concentration Training program.
In order to play the games, you must buy one of the Nintendo games ($59.99).
I hope that my review of the VeryWellMind article has been helpful to you.
Other brain games can be found under the heading “See Our Blogs”, by clicking any of the published blogs on the pages for the following categories:
“Brain Games For Children”
“Brain Games For Adults”
“Brain Games For Seniors”
“Advanced Brain Training”
“Optimal Brain Health”
This is an interesting post. These are useful ways to spend our time. And during this quarantine, a good crosswords would make our afternoon.
I like crosswords and Sudoku. But there are several mentioned here that I would like to try. Particularly “Brain Age Concentration Training” caught my attention. It will be the first one I try.
Thanks for your comments, Abel. I agree that now, during this quarantine, is a perfect time to do crossword puzzles and Sudoku. And our brains will thank us for it! Let me know how you like “Brain Age Concentration Training”.
It’s important to keep your mind sharp regularly and luckily there are a lot of activities and processes to undergo that will help achieve this and it is nice that you have shared some of them here. I’m sure that this article will be especially helpful to someone who is looking to boost their brain power
Thanks for your comments, Sean. You and I both know how important it is to keep our minds sharp. Hope my suggestions will be of some help to you.