Brain teasers can help tease out how your brain works

Brain teasers are games or puzzles that challenge the brain or teach people something about how their brains work. Though brain teasers are different from brain-training games in that they aren’t designed to progressively strengthen specific cognitive functions, Alvaro Fernandez, chief executive of SharpBrains, says they can still be good for your mind because they bring novelty, variety and challenge to your day.

Here are some links to a few games that might tease your brain:

The Stroop Test measures “the interference effect,� or the way that conflicting information can interfere with the brain’s performance. Psychologists use this test in clinical settings to evaluate attention, mental flexibility and processing speed:

https://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/10/05/brain-exercise-the-stroop-test/

This classic experiment on “inattentional blindness� shows that we may not perceive something if our attention is focused elsewhere:

https://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/09/28/attention-and-working-memory/

Sometimes experience can work against you. Take this pattern recognition test to find out how:

https://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/09/10/brain-exercise-brain-teaser/

The Tower of Hanoi is an ancient mathematical puzzle that challenges the brain’s executive planning skills. Psychologists use this puzzle to assess a patient’s ability to solve problems:

https://www.sharpbrains.com/blog/2006/10/08/exercise-brain-planning-puzzle/

— Lily Dayton

ALSO:

How brains are wired to handle stress

Fighting diseases with genetic therapy

Neuroscience mapping brain connections