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Each week on Two Guys on Your Head, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke, explore different aspects of human behavior and the brain.

Can Online Brain-Trainers Really Make You Smarter?

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You can go to the gym and work out your quads, or your biceps, or your balance and isolate those muscle groups to focus improvement of those areas of function with work. 

So it's not too far of a stretch to assume if we exercise specific areas of our brains might we see improvement in functions as well, right?  Unfortunately, it’s not quite so simple.

But have so many brain-training systems like Lumosity become so popular?

On this week’s show, Dr. Art Markman and Dr. Bob Duke will demystify the process of brain function improvement and illustrate the effectiveness of brain training programs.

While you can spend all of your leisure time focused on brain exercise, in the hopes that it will make you smarter, there are many other activities that could improve your brain just as much.  In reality, all of life is brain exercise.  Playing piano, reading for leisure, or building a dog house are all great activities that develop different cognitive skills, just as well or better than playing a game on the computer.

The truth is, there are all kinds of pleasurable activities that will make you smarter, but they all require effort.  There is no improvement without effort.  The key to success in any skill development is commitment to repeated practice.  As the old saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

Rebecca McInroy is an award-winning show creator, host, and executive producer for KUT, KUTX, and KUT.ORG.
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