The Playful Brain: The Surprising Science of How Puzzles Improve Your Mind

This is your brain on puzzles...A leading neuroscientist and a noted puzzle designer team up to reveal how solving puzzles improves your brain function.

It's no secret that puzzles are fun to solve. But when Dr. Richard Restak, a respected neuroscientist, discovered new research that proved puzzles could actually help the brain improve itself, he wondered: Could puzzles help arrest mental deterioration? And do different types of puzzles enhance different parts of the brain?

As Restak was investigating the benefits of puzzles, Scott Kim, a world-renowned puzzle developer, also became fascinated by the potential for puzzles to keep the brain nimble. Now these two experts at the top of their fields have collaborated on an engaging and informative book that gives readers the chance to work puzzles while learning how to boost their brain. For example, readers will find out:

?How to solve puzzles for maximum brain improvement.

?The benefits of trial and error on your brain.

?The different kinds of memory you use to solve puzzles.

?The pitfalls that interfere with memory and how to avoid them.

Kim's puzzles and Restak's illuminating prose combine to make The Playful Brain a lively book of popular science that will sharpen anyone's thinking and memory skills.

Richard Restak, M.D., is an award-winning neuroscientist and bestselling author. He lives and practices in Washington, D.C.
Scott Kim is a game designer whose puzzles have appeared in Scientific American and Games magazines, and many computer games. He lives in California.