Julie Suhr,Tevis Cup,Video Games Benefits

“One day in retrospect the years of struggle will strike you as the most beautiful."
– Sigmund Freud

 

On November  21, this coming Thursday, Tony and I are delighted to announce that Julie  Suhr  plans on  being  our guest on “It Has Nothing to Do with Age or Gender.” Julie is a Tevis Cup legend. This icon has a 2000 mile buckle and at this point , has more  Tevis completions than anyone except her daughter Barbara White. Not only that, Julie has  ridden more than 27,000  endurance trail miles, which is more than once around the world. To find out more about her , I suggest that you watch our show and/or read her book “ Ten Feet Tall, Still.”

 

For those  of you that are concerned about developing some form of dementia in your senior years, an article found in the September 5, 2013 edition of the Wall Street Journal might interest you. A study from the University of California, San Francisco Neuroscience  Imaging Center, suggested that the older brain is somewhat plastic(brain’s ability to mold itself with apparent interconnectivity of cognitive control functions). These researchers, in their study, found that older adults improved on multitasking and sustained attention by playing a specially designed video game. Not only that, they found the effects to be long-lasting.

 

In the study, participants, age 60- 85 years practiced the game for 12 hours during a month. In this video game , the participant navigated a race car along a winding track also hitting a button on a controller whenever a green circle appeared. Guess what? These older adults were able to perform better on this game and at a higher level than untrained 20-year-olds ,improved memory and the positive effects lasted for at least six months.

 

Generally, humans are increasingly affected by distractions and have more trouble switching between tasks during the aging process. The study suggests perhaps the decline of cognitive control isn’t fixed and that the brain can improve with the right stimuli. The video game used in the study is called The NeuroRacer. A start up company is working on developing a new version of the video game in question. Currently, they need approval from the Food and Drug Administration. They hope that this type of therapy can be designed and targeted to rewire the brain, assist in treating brain disorders and  used in lieu of medication .

Time will tell about the merit of specially designed video games. This of course would be an improvement over some of the  violent video games , that are associated with developing and/or expressing aggression as well as negatively affecting emotions. I am supportive of this type of positive research and keeping our government open, so the FDA can do it’s  job.

Yesterday, Tony, Chris and I ran the Coffer Dam-Olmsted loop while Linda rode nails. Tony’s getting ready for his 50 K run. He is  doing fine.

For all, keep moving, laughing, smiling, deep breathing, bonding, and loving.