8 Virtual and Homemade Cognitive Games

The cognitive games that I will explain to you in this article will help you improve various cognitive functions such as language, memory, attention, orientation ... Your brain makes it possible for you to develop your life normally day by day. All those tasks and behaviors you do would not be possible without their help.

Try to think of any action that you can take without the help of your brain? If you can't think of any, don't worry, it doesn't exist. Well, all the information passes and comes out from the brain. From the most basic functions such as breathing, and keeping your heart beating, to solving a math problem.

People who have some type of brain injury whose brain does not function optimally, have limited functions that you may never have thought about, and that are very essential to be able to lead a normal life.

Functions such as savoring food, combing your hair, recognizing the faces of your friends and acquaintances, are cognitive functions, which having fully integrated into your brain function, you may not imagine the complexity involved in carrying them out correctly.

The brain has a wide range of possibilities, but today I will focus on explaining the cognitive part of our mind. So in this publication we are going to talk about cognition, that although it may sound like you, you may not really know what that word refers to, and what elements or functions it implies at a mental level..

Cognition is a term that refers to those mental processes that are involved in obtaining knowledge and in being able to understand things well. Cognitive functions are of a higher level, that is, they are those that we have as a developed species, and which, according to evolutionary science, went with the phylogenetic step of the species.

But cognition can deteriorate from disease, and even over the years. But calm, I have good news, cognition is also sensitive to the changes that the subject makes on it, that is, it can be trained, maintained and even improved.

Now you know what cognition is, but maybe if I explain what cognitive functions are specifically, it will be even clearer..

What are the cognitive functions?

Mental processes make the subject have an active role in their day to day. Cognitive functions can be grouped according to the purpose or function of the process. Here is a classification of cognitive functions, with which you will surely understand the concept of cognition better:

• Orientation: It is the capacity that allows us to be aware of the situation in which we find ourselves at all times. Orientation can be personal, which refers to our own history and identity, temporal or spatial. Knowing where your house is, how old you are or what your name is, are knowledge that guidance provides.
• Attention: we call attention to the ability to remain activated before a certain stimulus, to have a good information processing. It can be sustained, selective or alternating attention.
• Praxias: praxis are those skills that help us to move voluntarily. Such as writing with a pencil or sticking out your tongue.
• MemoryMemory is considered to be the ability to encode, store and retrieve information. There are several types of memory, such as semantic, episodic, and procedural.
• Visuospatial skills: it is based on the ability to represent, analyze and manipulate an object mentally. As for example knowing if a certain object will fit in a box without inserting it in it to check it.
• Gnosias: it refers to the ability to give meaning to the information we capture through the senses. That is, thanks to this function you can recognize smells, textures, flavors ?? etc.
• Executive functions: are those skills that are aimed at achieving objective objectives. They would be the following: working memory, planning, reasoning, flexibility, inhibition, decision making, time estimation, execution of double tasks or multitasking.
• Language: this helps us to communicate, and all its aspects are considered cognitive functions, such as expression, comprehension, vocabulary, naming, fluency, discrimination, repetition, writing and reading.
• Social cognition: social cognition is considered to be the set of cognitive and emotional processes that work with social information. As an example we can take the theory of mind.

What does cognition entail?

Therefore, by way of summary, and to emphasize the work that your mind must carry out in order to develop a certain function, we present what tasks cognition carries out in general:

• Cognition implies transform sensory information. That is, as your body receives information from the world around us, before that information reaches the central, that is, the brain, this information must be transformed so that the brain understands that information. For you to understand, let's say that the stimuli are in a language that the brain must translate to understand what they are trying to communicate to you.
• Cognition involves reduced sensory information: this means that the world in which we live is in constant motion, and infinity of stimuli reach us at every moment. So the brain has the ability to take only the information relevant to you, and also order it and reduce it so that the energy expenditure is not enormous. For example, think right now about the pressure exerted on your foot, the shoe you are wearing. This feeling is not new, only that your brain has classified it as not relevant, until you have given it the order to transmit that information to you. Imagine that to all the stimuli that come to us, our mind would give the same importance ??. it would be crazy!
• Cognition involves elaboration of the information:your brain has the ability to reconstruct and make a meaningful story from little information. Normally that added information makes those details that we do not remember or to which we do not have access to recompose what we do know, giving coherence to what we are trying to reconstruct.
• Cognition implies storing information and retrieval: we need a warehouse where we store all the information that we believe is important so that when we use it again we will have it accessible and available. That warehouse, dear reader, is your brain.
• Cognition involves use of information: all the above processes allow us to use the information we need at all times, and to be able to interact with the world around us in an optimal and efficient way.

8 home and virtual cognitive games

As I mentioned earlier, cognition is plastic, this means that it can be maintained and modified. Thanks to the games that I will propose below, you can make your cognitive capacity develop even more and that in the day to day this translates into an improvement in the functioning of the mind in contact with the context that surrounds you and the demands that arise from it.

In everyday life you can play some games that will help you improve your cognitive functions, these are some that can help you:

Memorize your day to day

At the end of the day before going to bed, try to remember aspects that have happened during the day, such as that you had breakfast, remember one of the news you saw in the newspaper, who was the last person you spoke to by phone.…

This exercise in addition to improving your memory, It will also improve your concentration and attention, since knowing that at the end of the day you are going to try to remember some events of the day, you will pay more attention to those tasks that you are going to perform.

Play bingo

Believe it or not, playing bingo makes you train some of your cognitive functions such as recognition, stimulus discrimination, agility and speed in searching for symbols, and motor coordination between hand, hearing and sight. Remember to exercise caution and moderation when playing, as it can become an addictive activity.

Sudoku

It is a number puzzle that surely you have ever seen. Solving the game requires patience, and concentration. With this exercise, functions such as the perception, deductive analysis, planning, coordination and working memory.

The game consists of filling in a grid of 81 squares with numbers, which in turn are subdivided into smaller 3 x 3 squares squares. The numbers used are numbers from 1 to 9, and the grid already has some numbers written on it. The rules are two:

• No figure should be repeated in the same row, column or region.
• And there is only one solution.

Find the way

When you are somewhere unknown to you, try while you are walking to pay attention to context clues, such as a sign, a sign, a certain store ... this will help you find your way back. This exercise will not only improve your memory and attention, you will also exercise your orientation ability.

On the internet we also find a large number of brain training programs, with which surely in addition to improving cognition you will have a lot of fun.

Lumosity

It is a brain training program that has more than 40 games so that you can work the areas of memory, attention, flexibility, processing speed and problem solving.

This personalized training program was created by a company dedicated to brain training and neuroscience. This program is available for computer, and for iOS .

Brain lab

It is recommended for all ages, and helps improve memory, logic, calculation and visual skills. One of the curiosities of this application is that it allows you to compete with other players around the world and share the scores on Facebook. You can buy it in the App Store or google play for free.

CogniFit

Create a training regimen tailored to your cognitive needs that will be continually adjusted according to your progress. It is a training program where various universities in the world collaborate, which allows you to carry out the training based on your abilities, and the progress you are making when using the program.

It works on cognitive areas such as Processing Speed, Reaction to change, Eye-Hand Coordination, Inhibition, Divided Attention, Response Time and planning among others. It is available on a computer from its portal and for mobiles with iOs.

Brain metrix

It is an educational website in English dedicated to brain training. On the web we can find a great diversity of games for cognitive training.

You already know that the brain is like a muscle, you have to exercise it to function properly. Keep him active and happy.

And what other cognitive games do you know??