Is It repetition That Makes Strong Connection??

When playing with a child, signing a song, or reading a book together, you might frequently hear, "Do it again!!" We all have probably heard this request. 

Connections in your brain

This repetition is exactly what the developing brain needs. When experiences are repeated, the brain creates strong pathways of connections based on those experiences. The brain then retains those connections. 

If an experience doesn't happen frequently the brain eliminates connections made from those experiences. As explained it in our earlier blog as well the brain adapts to the environment it is exposed to. The "use it or loose it" process explains how this adaptation takes place. The brain adapts skills needed for survival and success for the world in which it lives. 

As a result, for healthy brain development and helping a child thrive, positive environments and experiences are needed.  Shirsa program for kids includes an activity which helps you to develop new connection among your young ones.

- Team Shirsa

How Do I know Which Exercises To Use In Shirsa?

Think about what you most want to improve: your Memory, Attention, Brain Speed, Critical thinking, and Problem solving. 

Shirsa Exercises

Start with the exercises in that category. Please note, however, that the exercises are complementary, and working in one category will likely enhance benefits in another domain. 

We often recommend that people begin with Brain Speed, since increasing the speed with which the brain can work with information is the foundation for all other cognitive skills.


- Sukhada Desai

Why should I exercise my brain speed?

When it comes to brain speed, every millisecond counts. How quickly your brain can process events around you determines how effectively you can react to and remember those events.

But with age (and certain cognitive conditions), the brain slows down. This slowing is minute, but can have major effects. When you’re driving, for example, a few milliseconds is all it might take to turn a near miss into a bad crash.

Brain speed affects memory, too. A slower brain is a “fuzzier” brain it has trouble creating and storing clear pictures of what you see, hear, and otherwise sense. That affects your ability to remember clearly later.

- Team Shirsa

"Puzzles for you brain!"

Children love to play. It’s how they learn.  Creating block towers teaches spatial reasoning and motor skills.  Playing Crazy Eights and Monopoly help develop logical reasoning abilities.  Adults need to play too but don’t seem to get enough of it.  Our brains are stimulated by the unique challenges and problems that games and brain teasers offer.

Research is finally demonstrating that our brains do better in the long term if they are exposed to novel activities including brain teasers, brain games and logic puzzles.  Publishers seem to get that point too, that it’s always a good time for a puzzle.

So what are the benefits of brain teasers? 

•    Boosts brain activity
•    Provides emotional satisfaction and sense of accomplishment
•    Enhances memory and processing speed
•    Helps slow the decline and reduce the risk for dementia
•    Improves concentration
•    Reduces boredom

Remember that variety is important to maximize the benefit you get from working logic puzzles. Just don't focus on crosswords or Sudoku.  Instead change up your brain workout by trying a variety of brain teasers.  Even if you can’t solve a puzzle your brain will still receive an excellent and much-needed workout.

- Team Shirsa

Use it or lose it!!

You want your retired life should be like this as shown in the picture? , think again! A recent paper with the title “Mental Retirement” is currently suggesting that early retirement may lead to quicker memory decline.
According to study conducted by  Laura L. Carstensen from Stanford University, suggests that work actually provides an important component of the environment that keeps people functioning optimally.” The analysis of the data which was collected for the study suggested people may have to engage in stimulating activities to preserve memory and reasoning skills after their retirement.

The study which was published by economists Susann Rohwedder and Robert J. Willis in The Journal of Economic Perspectives supports the “use it or lose it” theory, further they also supports the idea that cognitively stimulating activities may delay cognitive aging. 

It was started about 20 years ago by the National Institute on Aging on a sample of 22,000 Americans who were submitted to memory tests every two years. Several European then started their own national studies and are being followed by countries such as Japan and Corea, using similar proceedings in order to obtain comparable data. It was found that “the longer people in a country keep working, the better, as a group and also lives healthy, think healthy!!!

- Team Shirsa

Good news for Music lovers!!!

New research published in Neuropsychology shows that kids who take music lessons get a brain boost that lasts even into old age.

Researchers looked at a group of older adults between ages 60 and 83, and compared them based on how much experience they had playing music. Those who knew music or had practiced an instrument performed better on a variety of cognitive tests.
The head researcher Dr. Brenda Hanna-Pladdy mentioned that because music practice can be “a challenging cognitive exercise” it may help in “making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging.” She added, “Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older.”
So thanks  mom-dad,  now I know that, all that torturous practice might help me keep my marbles as I age!

- Team Shirsa

Brain Training with Crossword Puzzles?

There has been a lot of debate over the years about whether or not working crossword puzzles can prevent Alzheimer’s Disease. 

It’s all a little confusing. Here’s the scoop: Crossword puzzles are great as a cognitive workout, but they cannot prevent Alzheimer’s Disease. Unfortunately, nothing can prevent a person from developing AD. However, doing brain stimulating activities that incorporate novelty, variety and complexity can help build your cognitive reserve and reduce the effects of dementia and AD. Anyways, crossword puzzles are still a great way to sharpen your cognitive skills.

Four Ways Crossword Puzzles Benefit Your Brain

1.     Enhance vocabulary  

2.     Strengthen word recall and memory

3.     Stimulate problem solving skills

4.     Improve focus and attention

If solving crossword puzzles is part of your routine, try changing it up a little. Variety and novelty are crucial components of cognitive reserve. Look for other word puzzles like acrostics or try a book with multiple kinds of word challenges.

If you get stuck, look up the information. Use the internet or reference guides to get info on a clue rather than looking at the answers. You are more likely to remember the information for future puzzles if you search for that information rather than just looking at the answer key.

- Team Shirsa