CogniFit - Water Lilies: Brain Game

"Water Lilies" brain game: What is it?

To advance in brain game Water Lilies we will have to be able to memorize the order in which the different stimuli are illuminated, and retain this information mentally for a few seconds until the program asks us to reproduce the sequence. However, as the level of complexity of this mental training game increases, the cognitive demands will increase.

This game will become more difficult as the user progresses through the levels. Water Lilies is a scientific resource designed to continuously measure cognitive performance and automatically regulate the difficulty of the task, optimizing cognitive training. The brain game Water Lilies is perfect for children, adults, and seniors who want to stimulate essential cognitive abilities.

How can the brain game "Water Lilies" improve your cognitive abilities?

Brain training games like Water Lilies stimulate determined neural patterns. The repetition of this pattern through training may help create new synapses and neural circuits capable of reorganizing and recovering weakened or damaged cognitive functions.

This brain game can be played by anyone looking to test and improve their cognitive performance.

• Visual Short-Term Memory: To advance in Water Lilies we must be able to mentally retain the order and sequence in which the different stimuli appear on the screen. By doing this, we are activating and stimulating our visual short-term memory. Improving this cognitive ability is fundamental for our daily lives, as it allows us to retain a small amount of visual information (letters, figures, colors, etc.) for a short period of time. Poor performance in our visual short-term memory can hinder the ability to retain visual or written information.

• Non-verbal Memory: This mental game requires us to be able to store in our memory the information that appears on the screen and remember for a few seconds the order in which the stimuli have been illuminated and then repeat the sequence. By practicing this exercise we are activating and reinforcing the neural connections involved in our non-verbal memory. Improving this cognitive ability is fundamental for our daily lives, as it allows us to quickly code, store and retrieve different types of information when we need it (faces, figures, colors, sequences, symbols, images, melodies, etc.). Having this cognitive ability in good shape is useful for any situation that requires retaining and accessing various types of information, for example, when we remember which person has reached a queue before us in the health center or in the market.

• Planning: In order to level up in Water Lilies we will have to carry out mnemonic strategies and mentally select the necessary actions that we must take to reach our goal. By practicing this mental exercise we are activating and strengthening our planning capacity. Improving this important cognitive skill allows us to be more efficient in essential tasks for our day to day, as it allows us to decide the proper order of the tasks, assign each one the necessary cognitive resources, and establish action plan.

• Short-term memory: It will be necessary to remember the information initially shown in order to be able to locate it when requested. Keeping the information for a short period of time can help us process more complex information, like when we read a long sentence in a book: we need to remember the beginning of the sentence to make sense of it at the end.

• Working memory: As you progress it will be necessary to remember the order of the series and then repeat it in reverse. Working memory helps us to manipulate and work with the information we retain in our short-term memory. For example, it is extremely useful for making mental calculations.

• Spatial Perception: This mental game requires that we identify the exact location of each of the illuminated stimuli, and be able to mentally retain the order in which they have been appearing. By performing this exercise we are activating and strengthening important neural connections involved in our capacity for spatial perception. Improving this cognitive ability is fundamental to be more efficient in our daily lives, as it allows us to understand correctly the disposition of our environment and our relationship with it.

What happens if you don't train your cognitive abilities?

Our brains are designed to reserve resources, so when there are connections that aren't being used, the brain automatically eliminates it. If a certain cognitive skill isn't regularly trained, the brain won't give resources to that neural activation pattern, which can cause it to become weaker and weaker. This causes us to be less able when using a certain cognitive function, making us less effective in our day to day lives.